Academic and Research Excellence Update
September 5, 2025

Dear colleagues,

The start of any academic year is always an exciting time as we welcome all our new and returning faculty, staff and students. As this year kicks off, we are building on strong research momentum, thanks to all of your efforts.

Your pursuit of funding and new partnerships — even while facing an uncertain and shifting funding landscape — is admirable. With your support we have been carefully navigating these challenging waters, and you will continue to have our full support to manage whatever future changes may come our way.

Beyond a year of record recognition for the accomplishments of our scholars by professional societies and learned academies, Purdue faculty have published more than 75 books this year to date — a new record! Congratulations to all of our author colleagues, and to all who are looking forward book publications in the pipeline supported by our Purdue Books Initiative, which continues apace.

As we continue to invest in your success and your pursuit of excellence in research and scholarly activities, and to create strategic advantages for Purdue during these disruptive times, we encourage you to take note of the opportunities and updates below.

We look forward to celebrating your successes over this coming academic year!

Dan DeLaurentis, Executive Vice President for Research
Chris Ruhl, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Patrick Wolfe, Provost

Purdue Research Funding and Partnerships

Despite an uncertain and shifting funding landscape, Purdue research awards are off to a strong start in the new fiscal year. This follows strong research funding and partnerships in FY2025.

While Purdue has been impacted by changes in federal funding, 97% of Purdue’s $1 billion in available research funding remains intact. Meanwhile during July, the first month of FY2026, Purdue researchers were awarded $74.9 million in research funding, a 20% increase over last year.

Most recently, since July 1, we have signed or renewed master research agreements (MRAs) with leading organizations such as BASF, Chevron, Elanco, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory and MediaTek. In total, sixty-four MRAs are active.

As noted during our public board meeting reviewing research funding results for FY2025, notable research successes during the past fiscal year include the following:

• Research expenditures reached $656 million, a 9% rise
• Research proposals reached a new record of $3.1 billion in submissions, up 5%
• Research awards totaled $570 million, down 12%
• Ten new or renewed MRAs with industry, including a landmark $250 million grant from Eli Lilly and Company.

Research Compliance Update

We continue to monitor and comply with all applicable federal and state laws and executive orders impacting research, including new ones that became effective over the summer involving foreign countries of concern as defined by the U.S. government and the state of Indiana. This not only protects you — our faculty — as you pursue your research agendas with full academic freedom but also Purdue's access as a public institution to continued federal funding.

New federal reporting requirements, laws and executive orders impact work-related travel, meaning that we have developed and put in place new guidelines to assist you — and to protect you and Purdue. In particular, travel to, paid for or sponsored by foreign countries of concern must now be reported and pre-approved, as indicated here, along with cases where you must first contact Purdue's Research Security Office.

In addition, if you are engaged in federally funded research, we remind you that you are required to complete annual research security training, available here. More information is available at our Research Security website.

Reportable Outside Activities Training, Certification, and Disclosure Is Underway

All Purdue faculty, exempt staff and graduate student employees must complete their annual training, certification and disclosure of reportable outside activities (ROA) by Sept. 30. Not only does this help protect the rights of Purdue employees to autonomy in their external relationships, but is also a critical step toward meeting Purdue's compliance with federal and state regulations.

A full definition of ROAs, which may include a variety of types of work, advice or service for a body other than Purdue, can be found in Purdue's policy on conflicts of commitment and ROAs.

PERA, our next-generation research administration platform, is where all these actions can be completed. The first step is to update your disclosure profile, which can also be accessed using OneCampus to log into PERA's new conflict of interest/conflict of commitment (COI/COC) module.

Helpful links for faculty, staff and graduate students are COI/COC training, and the PERA website. Any questions can also be directed to compliance@purdue.edu.

Faculty Workshop: Building a Center of Excellence Through Industry Partnerships

Offered by the Office of Industry Partnerships (OIP), this workshop will explore the intersection of industry partnerships, educational opportunities and research. It will also cover how collaboration drives innovation and impact.

A panel discussion, led by co-directors of the Institute for Control, Optimization and Networks (ICON) will explore how OIP can help faculty make successful connections with industry. Participants will gain insights into best practices, emerging trends and strategies to strengthen connections between academia and industry.

The workshop takes place on Sept. 23 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 279. Lunch will be provided but prior registration is required. Interested faculty can register here.

Purdue Initiatives Supporting the Pursuit of Academic and Research Excellence

A strategic set of services and investments is available to support faculty and staff members in their teaching and research efforts. These range from Purdue funding opportunities to training to assistance with administrative roadblocks. These include:

• Purdue Books Initiative. With more than 650 book projects underway at Purdue, we offer a range of central and college-level resources to help Purdue authors complete these works and find a publisher.

  Launched in 2024, this program provides robust support for authors through substantive overload payments and individualized "concierge service" support in book design, editing and production. This service is available for all types of books, including adaptations of lecture notes, training materials, case studies, dissertation-to-book conversions and new editions of existing works.

  In addition, the Purdue Publisher Webinar Series connects prospective authors with a variety of publishing houses and offers insights into the publishing process.

  Faculty, staff and students interested in publishing are encouraged to complete this brief author survey or email Cristina Farmus at cfarmus@purdue.edu for more information.

• Internal Funding Opportunities. Numerous Purdue funding programs are available including SPARK, BRIDGE, NIH-targeted funding, DoD Research Collaboration Travel Grant and Research Equipment Program.

• Grant Writing Resources. The Office of Research offers a variety of types of individualized support as well as workshops for faculty applying for funding grants. These range from self-help resources for proposal development to individualized support from a team of grant writers. To learn more, contact Sally Bond at sbond@purdue.edu.

• Grant-writing Workshops. Throughout the year, the Office of Research offers workshops on grant-writing strategies. All faculty and staff are encouraged to participate, especially those who are new to Purdue. A list of workshops and other grant writing resources is available at the Office of Research website.

• Federal Appropriation Request Process. This fall, the Office of Research is offering faculty a process to solicit federal appropriation requests. Faculty members (tenure-track/tenured, research, clinical) from all campuses are eligible to submit projects (ranging from $1 million to $20 million). Full program details are available here.

• Researcher Recognition Program. Discretionary funds for new awards. This recognition program awards $50,000 in discretionary funds to PIs of new, multi-year research awards of $5 million or more.

• IRB Open Office Hours. Chairs of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for human subjects and its associated processes hold regular office hours for researchers. Walk-in sessions are held on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Seng-Liang Wang Hall, Room 4559. More information is available online.