Approach

In order to restart research activities in a safe and flexible manner, we implemented a multi-phased approach for the resumption of research activities from the research Ramp Down phase:

	PHASES
Category	Ramp Down	Phase 1	Phase 2A	Phase 2B	Phase 3
Effective Date	Mar 18, 2020	June 8, 2020	Sept 2, 2020	Jan 4, 2021	June 7, 2021
On campus Researcher Population	<5%	Less than approx. 33%*	Less than approx. 66%*	Less than approx. 66%*	100% new normal
Remote work	Most activity remote	All that is possible	All that is possible	All that is possible	When reasonable
“research” activities	Critical only	Critical + prioritized	Expanded	Expanded	All
Faculty / Staff / Post-docs	Essential only	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Yes
Grad/Med Students	Essential only	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Yes
COOP Students	Essential only	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Yes
Undergraduates	No	No	Non-credit bearing activities	Credit and non-credit bearing activities	Yes
Mitigation (e.g., PPE / Physical Distancing / Cleaning)	Required - Follow CDC guidelines				Required - Follow University Guidance
Approval Required	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
*the physical distancing requirements must be maintained at this level of activity and could limit the overall density

Transitioning between these phases is designed to allow safe management of population density requirements with the cumulative increase of activity. It is anticipated that changes in guidance and process may be required, given new information related to COVID19 and our own experiences.

Given the diverse range of research activities across the University, Colleges / Schools / Departments we use the following broad research categories to characterize all of these activities.

Category of Research	Description	Example
On-Campus	Activities that require access to specialized equipment, facilities Can include face to face activities	Lab-based, computational analysis, animal studies Clinical or behavioral activities that include human subjects
Field-Based	Activities that require data collection in specific locations (on-campus, off-campus) Can include face to face activities	Community based research, field specimen collection Non-Clinical, clinical, or behavioral human subjects projects occurring at external sites (i.e., nursing homes, individual homes, community centers)
Clinical - Medical	Activities that include clinical medical interventions, procedures, assessments, or treatment	Clinical trials and investigator-initiated research with human subjects, studies involving “vulnerable populations”
Clinical – Non-Medical	Activities that include non-medical clinical assessments, or treatment	Behavioral assessment of research subjects

Drexel University

Office of Research & Innovation

Approach

PHASES

Category of Research

Description

Example