As students return and on-campus research restart is in phase III, the CALS Research and Extension offices are calling for faculty to submit exemption requests for new, critical off-campus research and demonstration projects planned to be initiated between August 15 – December 31, 2020.

In order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and for the safety of all involved, significantly less travel and activities on private farms, Research Stations and University Field Labs needs to occur this fall. Please ask yourself if the risk of not doing the activity is greater than the consequences of spreading COVID-19.

If you deem your activity to be of absolute critical importance, a robust justification will be required and we strongly encourage you to greatly diminish replications, and sites to the absolute bare minimum where possible. Also, all activities must maintain rigorous social distance, sanitation and disinfecting practices.

You should submit a request for each project and location. Do not combine project requests by location. Do not submit multiple locations on a single request. Submissions must be received by 9:00 am on Tuesday, August 4, 2020 and notifications will be made by the close of business Monday, August 10, 2020.

This is for new requests only. Existing exemptions with end dates that have not passed are still valid. Requests to modify personnel on existing exemptions should be directed to Laina Stensvold (llstensv@ncsu.edu).

Form for New Exemption Requests: https://forms.gle/nNVeDLHUUTT9MThS8