Healthy Campus

Status of research at Wright State

Dear Research Community:

With the goal of protecting the health and safety of undergraduate and graduate students, staff and faculty, Wright State University would like to clarify the current status of research.

Human Subjects Research

Wright State University is placing temporary restrictions on human subject research effective Wednesday, March 18, and continuing through May 1, 2020. The university will continue to re-evaluate this timeframe and make necessary adjustments. Information regarding the temporary restrictions (and exceptions) and other guidance to assist in creating a study-specific plan, may be found at: https://www.wright.edu/coronavirus/article/investigator-guidance-for-conducting-human-subject-research-during-the-novel-coronavirus-emergency

Undergraduate Researchers

Until further notice, undergraduate students are not permitted to be on campus to carry out any research activities under any circumstances. If undergraduate students are in the process of finishing research projects such as senior or honors research, they will complete their projects remotely, focusing on analysis, writing, experimental design, and predicted results.

Graduate Student Researchers

Until further notice, no graduate students should continue coming onto campus to work in research labs. However, if there are no other means of maintaining degree progress other than being physically present in a lab, exemption requests should be communicated to the Dean of the appropriate College or School, and are subject to the approval of Interim Provost Leaman.

Research groups should make every effort to implement mechanisms and/or shift activities to conduct research remotely wherever possible (e.g., computational work, research of online resources and databases, data analysis, etc.). When it is absolutely necessary to conduct research activities on campus and in associated research facilities, additional practices should be adopted to ensure health and safety. Please see wright.edu/coronavirus/article/research-planning-during-the-novel-coronavirus-emergency.

Notifying Sponsors

If you are concerned that your funded research will be negatively affected by COVID-19 (i.e., that you will be unable to meet timelines or milestones, or produce deliverables), you may need to notify the sponsor. In many cases, questions about government- or foundation-sponsored research can be sent directly to a program officer.

Who to Contact

If you have further questions or concerns regarding your externally sponsored projects or compliance needs, please contact Research and Sponsored Programs at rsp@wright.edu. Staff will be available to assist during regular business hours. See the staff directory at: wright.edu/research/about/staff-directory.

Contingency Planning

All researchers must be prepared for the possibility of a complete shutdown of research laboratories. No new experiments should be initiated, and plans to halt work with little notice should be developed.