Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2025-41

Announcement

Office of Research Open House

and

Faculty Research Advisory (FRAB) Board Meeting

October 28, 2025; 2.00 PM – 3.30 PM; Agile Strategy Lab

(Light refreshments will be served.)

RSVP: Please register here for the OR Open House by October 21, 20025
 

The mission of the Office of Research is to facilitate and enhance the NJIT research, innovation and entrepreneurship enterprise towards maximizing research impact for faculty and student success.

The Office of Research (OR) invites all faculty and research staff to meet with the research office staff to discuss support services to NJIT community engaged in the research, innovation and entrepreneurship (RIE) enterprise, and current research funding trends, challenges and opportunities.

The research office will host an open house on October 28 from 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm during which the senior vice provost for research will provide an overview of current strategic plan initiatives designed to enhance the NJIT collaborative research and innovation enterprise and OR staff from all of the units within the research office will be available to discuss the services they provide, listen to faculty feedback and answer your questions and queries. 

OR Open House Agenda

2:00 PM - 2:20 PM:    The NJIT Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Enterprise

Atam Dhawan, Senior Vice Provost for Research

2:20 PM - 3:30 PM:    Conversation Stations: Representatives from each unit within the office of research will be available to discuss specific issues with attendees.

• Pre-award Services (Jesus Novoa, senior director, and Theresa Walton, assistant director)
• Post-award Management (Mariel Diaz, executive director, and Brenda Garcia, assistant director)
• Research Compliance (Robert Rasmussen, director of export controls, and Raju Tamot, assistant director for research compliance)
• Intellectual Property and Tech Transfer (Sherie Dodson, associate director)
• Office of Research Leadership (Shawn Chester, associate vice provost, and Eric Hetherington, associate vice provost)

Please join us for an open discussion and information session on research and innovation funding, services and related topics.

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Research Grants and Contracts Impact and Management Guidance During General Government Shutdown

As the federal government continues under a budgetary shutdown, it is impacting all federal funding agencies. If you receive any concerning information from a sponsor during this time, please contact the Office of Research at srard@njit.edu. 

The White House has posted the Updated Contingency Plan. Federal agencies have posted their own procedures during a shutdown.  Here are some of the department and agency plans that have already been released:

• Department of Defense (now War)
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Department of Education
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of Labor
• Department of Justice

During a shutdown, there will be delays in communication from agency staff regarding all typical interactions (e.g., prior approvals and re-budgeting requests).  Payments to NJIT from the federal government will be delayed, but there is no indication that funding will be reduced so your research work should continue as normal.  Additional guidance will be provided as a shutdown continues. 

Proposals

Proposal submissions should continue as normal unless additional guidance is provided, but a long shutdown will impact an agency's peer review process as federal staff will be furloughed.  Some agencies will accept automated proposals during the shutdown, but you should check the sponsor’s website to be sure. 

Most electronic submission systems should be up and accepting proposals and it is unlikely that proposal deadlines will be extended.  Agencies are only likely to extend proposal deadlines if they shutdown their electronic submission system. Currently, NJIT is not aware of any planned system shutdowns at this time. More information will be shared when it becomes available. 

Streamlyne will be functional and continue to support transmission of applications. Proposals will not be processed by federal employees until the government returns to normal business operations are restored.  Please proceed with your submissions as normal. 

New Awards

NJIT will not receive any new federal grants during a shutdown.  Non-competing continuations will not be issued until the government reopens.  If your grant period is ending and you have not received your renewal, you should work to redistribute salary compensation to institutional or non-federal sources as of the end of the project period until the government reopens.

Since no new awards will be issued during the shutdown, spending on awards anticipated or those expected to receive continuing or incremental funding not yet authorized or received are at significantly high risk and advanced funding should be considered with great care

Current Awards

Work on previously authorized grants from federal sponsors should continue unless you or NJIT receives a stop work order or any related notification from the federal agency.  PIs, departments, and colleges will be informed as soon as such a notice is received. 

If your active projects with obligated funding requires prior approval to make changes in budget or any other changes that do not fall within the scope of NJIT's authority as authorized by your award, these changes may not take effect until after approval by the federal agency when the federal government reopens. 

Please submit all award reports on time as they are due.  If you are using an online agency reporting system and the system will not allow you to submit the report, please email srard@njit.edu with a copy of your report and a brief explanation of the problems you faced in your attempted submission. The Office of Research will email the report to the sponsor and note the day and time of your attempted submission.  You should then be able to submit the report as usual once the shutdown ends.

If you have any questions or need additional clarification, please send an email to srard@njit.edu.

IMPORTANT: Continued Institutional Guidelines on Impact of Changes in Federal Policies on Research Grants and Contracts

If you receive any notification including any specific stop order, termination, budget change on indirect costs rate on your award/proposal, or request to sign any attestation from any funding agency, please forward the notification with any attachment to me immediately at dhawan@njit.edu and copy Eric Hetherington at erich@njit.edu. 

Please do not sign any document sent to you regarding any attestation on the federal research grants. 

We will continue to carefully review at the institutional level with the provost and general counsel offices to advise and follow up. The Office for Research and the Office of General Counsel will review the request and respond with instructions for you to follow.

Please visit our website periodically for updates.

NSF: NSF National Innovation Corps Teams (NSF National I-Corps (TM) Teams) program; Accelerating Research Translation (ART)

NIH: Forecast: Bioengineering Research, Innovation and Technology Education (BRITE) Program (R25); BRAIN Initiative: Theories, Models and Methods for Analysis of Complex Data from the Brain (R01); NIDCD Clinical Research Center Grant (P50)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Biological Technologies; Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2026

Department of Energy: Magnetic Acceleration Generating New Innovations and Tactical Outcomes (MAGNITO)

NASA: ROSES 2025: B.4 Space Weather Science Application Research-to-Operations-to-Research

AI export control bill passes Senate as NDAA amendment: On Thursday, the Senate voted 77-20 to pass the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which included an amendment setting export controls for artificial intelligence-tailored semiconductor chips.  Initially introduced by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., as a separate bill, the Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence Act of 2025 mandates that major chip manufacturers exporting their products from America prioritize U.S.-based customers in their sales. The goal of the bill is to ensure the U.S. can lead in AI system development and deployment by avoiding supply constraints.  Included in the manager’s package of noncontroversial amendments to the fiscal year 2026 NDAA, the GAIN Act stipulates that chip manufacturers working to sell their products abroad will also be required to fulfill all outstanding U.S.-based orders, not offer an advantageous price abroad and not sell to competing countries.  “The GAIN AI Act is simply an American first amendment to the NDAA defense bill,” Banks said on Steve Bannon’s podcast in September. “It’s very simple: it says you can't export American-made chips to China or other adversarial countries if there is a backlog or demand for those chips in the United States first.” More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Congressional commission to deliver national biotechnology research recommendations: The congressional working group on the national security ramifications of biotechnology is angling to publish and deliver new policy recommendations to the Trump administration “in short order,” that will suggest how the U.S. can optimize its biotechnology research and development ecosystem. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who chairs the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, spoke on Wednesday during a With Honor event about the role biotechnology plays as a threat and asset to the U.S. national security posture. Young said that, following the group's recent report that spotlighted 49 biotech policy recommendations, he asked fellow commission members to work with other expert stakeholders to create a separate series white papers outlining what a stronger U.S. biotech research landscape needs. More information is posted on the NextGov website.