Announcements

Dear faculty colleagues, Shortly after we wrote to you on September 29, 2025 announcing the process to comply with new NIH requirements on Research Security training, the NIH rescinded the requirements. We are writing today to clarify that despite NIH’s rescission of the Research Security training requirements, all Lehigh personnel named on a proposal to the NIH are still required to complete the CITI Research Security training course prior to proposal submission. This is because...

Dear Colleagues, Beginning late on Sunday, October 5, all faculty, including adjuncts, and all staff will receive an automated message from Lehigh Integrated Research Administration (LIRA). The message will be from incoi@lehigh.edu, which is the university’s general Conflicts of Interest (COI) email. The automated emails will direct you to enter the COI module in LIRA, review the relevant policies, and either make a disclosure or confirm that you have nothing to disclose. The email will...

The National Institutes of Health expects to begin requiring the use of Common Forms for personnel documents, the Biosketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support, in November 2025. Learn more on the VPR website. To prepare for this transition, NOT-OD-25-152 has been issued. This Guide Notice informs the extramural community that NIH has launched preview versions of the NIH Common Forms within Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae ( SciENcv). Users are now able to access...

Dear Colleagues, As of 12:05am, October 1, 2025, the federal government shut down. In an effort to keep you apprised of the situation and its impact on federal funding, we are sharing links to agency-specific contingency plans, which were released shortly before the shutdown. These plans outline which activities will continue, which will pause, and associated agency staffing plans that may continue: U.S. Department of Education U.S Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Food...

Dear faculty colleagues, We wrote to you in April and again in September with details regarding research security training requirements for personnel supported by or proposing to the National Institutions of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). *Reminder* This is a reminder that beginning on October 1, 2025: All personnel named on a proposal to the NIH or the USDA must complete...

Dear Colleagues, The federal fiscal year ends this Tuesday, September 30, 2025, and there has been little progress in the last few days in passing a budget. Should Congress and the president not reach an agreement on the continuing resolution (CR) or full-year appropriations, the federal government will be shut down on October 1, 2025. If there is a shutdown, one consequence will be that the administration, distribution, and funding of federal contracts and grants...

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce that the Office of the Vice Provost for Research will be re-introducing a limited number of internal funding opportunities. We recognize how important these programs are to the research community. University Sabbatical Fellows Program We invite applicants to our third round of the University Sabbatical Fellows Program. This competitive program allows selected faculty members to extend a regularly scheduled one-semester academic leave to a two-semester leave at full...

Lehigh has officially joined the nation’s top tier of research universities as an R1 institution. This is a major milestone worth celebrating! This achievement reflects the creativity, ambition, and impact of our faculty and students, whose research is shaping discoveries, innovation, and solutions across disciplines. To mark this moment, we invite faculty to submit brief proposals to share their work on Friday, November 7 at the Lehigh Research Symposium, a day of lightning talks that...

Dear Faculty Colleagues, We are writing to share new training requirements from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These are in addition to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE) training requirements announced in April. The NIH has issued new guidance requiring institutions that receive support to implement research security training. Training must address the NIH’s requirements for the disclosure of other support to ensure...

Dear Faculty Colleagues, We are writing with updates about a few recent developments at the NIH. The NIH has issued new guidance aimed at promoting fairness and originality in the research grant application process, and limiting the number of submissions by PIs. Please review the key policy updates below, which will affect submissions to the NIH beginning on September 25, 2025: AI Use in Applications NIH emphasizes that research applications must reflect the original ideas...

Dear Colleagues, We want to provide a few updates regarding the current situation at the National Science Foundation. This information is based on intelligence from our consultants, McAllister & Quinn, and conversations with program officers. The NSF has announced five priority areas focused on artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology, nuclear energy, and translational science. Importantly, however, the agency is indicating that they “remain committed to awarding grants and funding all areas of science and...

Dear Colleagues, In light of deep uncertainty surrounding the federal research funding landscape, we are taking proactive steps to safeguard our research enterprise. As part of this effort, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research will pause our internal grant programs for the 2025–26 academic year. This difficult decision allows us to hold our limited institutional resources in reserve so that we can support investigators—working in partnership with departments and colleges—to maintain research continuity...

Dear faculty colleagues, We are writing to share new training requirements from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). The CHIPS and Science Act requires all federal agencies to adopt requirements for financial assistance recipients to complete research security training. DOE Requirement Beginning on May 1, 2025, all DOE *Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) will include a requirement for all covered individuals to complete research security training in the 12 months...

Dear Colleagues, We want to bring to your attention an important matter regarding a Foreign Assistance Review – Organizational Assessment survey. Federal agencies, including USAID, CDC, and OMB, have been contacting a variety of people at universities to complete this survey. If anyone at Lehigh receives such a request, the University—not individual researchers or departments—must complete the assessment. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the General Counsel will handle...

Dear Members of the Lehigh Community, We are pleased to announce that Lehigh has been designated an R1 research university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Lehigh is recognized among the top cohort of research universities and colleges–only 187 institutions nationwide are classified as R1. Lehigh has long been known for research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge and innovation. The Carnegie designation is a national acknowledgment that Lehigh is a high-performing...

Dear Colleagues, Late in the day on February 7, the NIH released supplemental guidance setting a "standard indirect rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant.” Indirect cost rates are negotiated on a regular cycle with the federal government and are based on extensive auditing of what it actually costs to conduct research at an institution. Indirect funds are allocated...

Dear Colleagues, We are excited to announce that two new University Research Centers (URCs) will be established in 2025: the Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies and the Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions. We are also pleased to award a planning grant to further the development of a third team, the Small Cities Lab. The Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies (CDAT), led by Vinod Namboodiri and George DuPaul, aims to transform the lives of people...

We want to provide an important update on recent federal directives affecting sponsored research activities. While the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-25-13 has been rescinded and federal payments for grants and loans have resumed, Trump Administration executive orders and agency-issued guidance remain in effect. Federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and NASA, have issued directives restricting specific activities within grants, particularly those related to diversity, equity...

Dear colleagues, As you may have seen, the White House Office of Management and Budget released a memo yesterday temporarily halting disbursement of funds and new awards until at least February 10. We recognize that this is causing significant confusion and stress for our research community. Federal agencies are also rewriting policies and Notice of Funding Opportunity announcements. We encourage you to keep working on proposals, while continuing to check in with agencies and your...

Dear Colleagues, This week brought a wave of executive orders and directives from the incoming Trump administration, several of which will impact research and the operations of federal agencies and departments that award grants and contracts. Notably, the NIH and the Department of Energy are currently under communication freezes, which include a pause on issuing new awards. The NIH has suspended study sections until February 1. We are closely monitoring developments in Washington. In general...