Announcements

Dear Colleagues, We are excited to share an update on the progress of the University Research Centers (URCs) initiative, a cornerstone of Lehigh’s strategy to grow our research prominence. Last spring, we launched the first URC, the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, and awarded planning grants to two promising teams to further develop their innovative proposals. At the same time, we announced plans for a revised call for proposals centered on the theme of...

As part of recent university-wide policy changes, researchers are reminded that all payments to research participants must comply with the University Business and Travel Expense Policy. The Office of Research Accounting must be able to determine when any given research participant receives more than $600 in compensation within a single calendar year from Lehigh. To facilitate the tracking of total payments to research participants, investigators must maintain records of payments and ask each participant if...

The IRB has recently removed the requirement for the submission of amendments for unfunded, exempt research protocols, where the proposed change to the previously approved protocol does not affect the level of risk to participants. For more information on this policy change, please review the recently updated Exempt Determination policy. Note: funded exempt protocols, as well as all expedited and full committee protocols, will still require the submission of amendments prior to researchers making any...

Subject: New NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) – Significant Changes As communicated in the May 2024 issue of Research@Lehigh, the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued the revised Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) ( NSF 24-1) that represent significant changes for NSF researchers and administrators. These new requirements are effective May 20, 2024. A complete summary of changes can be found on the NSF website. Notable pre-submission changes include...

Lehigh recently concluded negotiations with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for our facilities and administrative (F&A) rates for fiscal years 2025 through 2027. Under the agreement with ONR, which negotiates with Lehigh on behalf of all U.S. federal funding agencies, Lehigh’s new F&A rates are as follows: On-campus organized has increased from 61% to 65% On-campus instruction has increased from 55.76% to 59.73% On-campus Other Sponsored Activities rate has decreased from 44.6% to 38.39%...

On Thursday, Oct. 10th, the USDA completed an unannounced routine facility inspection of Lehigh's Animal Research Program. No issues of non-compliance were identified. This successful inspection serves to highlight the efforts of Lehigh's Animal Care and Use program to ensure that the use of animals in research remains in full compliance with institutional and federal guidelines and that all animals receive the highest level of care.

In September, Lehigh's research community was notified that it is now possible to submit NSF proposals using the system-to-system (S2S) function in LIRA. [NOTE: S2S is the submission of the proposal from LIRA electronically to grants.gov. For the NSF, proposals route from LIRA, through grants.gov and then on to research.gov.) Upon submission of the first S2S NSF proposal, ORSP discovered that the proposal isn't checked against NSF requirements until it reaches research.gov. This means the...

National Science Foundation Grantee Requirements – Progress Reporting August 2024 Executive Summary: Lehigh faculty benefit from federal funding, which comes with the responsibility to adhere to reporting requirements set forth in the terms and conditions of their awards. The NSF has begun to crack down more seriously on late reports and failing to submit timely reports can lead to significant delays in funding and processing of new proposals for the researcher(s) in question, as well...

Effective May 20, 2024 As of May 20, 2024, all NSF grant applications must include a mentoring plan for postdoctoral scholars and graduate students funded by the award. Additionally, each postdoctoral scholar or graduate student receiving significant NSF support must have an Individual Development Plan, updated annually, outlining educational goals, career exploration, and professional development. For more information, see PAPPG Chapter. II D.2.i(1). What are the requirements for Mentoring Plans? Must be submitted with the...

NIH has changed their proposal requirements which will be effective for all proposals submitted on or after January 25th, 2023. As highlighted in a recent NIH communication, we wanted to make you aware of these important changes, most notably the new NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing . LTS has developed a page to help support NIH-active faculty comply with the new requirement. This new requirement identifies the need for all proposals submitted on...