COVID-19 Information

Following the new public health orders issued on Saturday, November 7 for the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions, SFU is moving back to H1 (from H2) on our COVID-19 impact scale. 

Key Changes:

• No in-person meetings, events or programs, except some essential academic meetings with approval, can proceed in-person during this time. SFU Meeting, Events and Conference Services will be following up with bookings scheduled during this time.
• Only visitors providing or assisting with a core service, with an invitation approved by a manager, are allowed on campus.
• There should be no non-essential travel until December 7.
• Effective Monday, November 9, staff, faculty and students attending campus are required to conduct a self-assessment every day before they come to campus. Please use the following link to access the assessment: https://bc.thrive.health/ - If the assessment identifies that you have possible symptoms, do not come to campus and contact your supervisor/dean/professor.
• Masks are now required to be worn in all indoor common areas on SFU campuses. Common areas include building entryways and atriums, hallways, stairwells, washrooms, study areas, coffee shops, dining halls, fitness facilities, libraries, health centres, student services areas, student residences and other high-traffic common areas where physical distancing cannot be maintained. In addition, masks are also required in classrooms and shared study, work and research spaces.

This scale includes three research types: General On-Campus, Human Participants Research (HPR) and Fieldwork. At H1, essential services like research, as well as student support and teaching are operational. Researchers are still expected to work remotely where possible. Researchers who require on-campus resources in order to perform their research are allowed access to labs or offices where an approved site safety plan is on file and displayed. The required site safety plans are based on a common set of standards defined by a cross-university working group, and are designed to comply with WorkSafeBC health and safety guidelines.

As indicated in the COVID-19 impact scale, the requirement of an approved site safety plan is expected to remain in-place for some time, including if the impact rating moves to “moderate”. 

With regard to in-person Human Participants Research (HPR) activities, while remote is still encouraged, at H1, “minimal intervention” HPR continues to be permitted. Examples of minimal intervention HPR permitted at H1 include: 1:1 interviews in an appropriate space, or small focus groups that can maintain required distancing.

All in-person HPR, on and off campus, requires a HPR safety plan approved through the Office of Research Ethics (ORE) processes. The HPR safety plan details how procedures will be modified to take participant safety into account. Detailed guidelines and processes for developing and submitting an HPR safety plan, on and off campus, are available on the ORE website. 

Fieldwork activity plans should continue to be submitted and approved through departmental and faculty processes, as they were pre-pandemic. We have  developed guidance for preparing and submitting COVID-aware templates for fieldwork activity plans. For information about conducting research that involves fieldwork, please see Research Recovery - Fieldwork & Third Party Sites.

For further information on human participants research (HPR), please check this FAQ .

For further information on fieldwork, please check this FAQ.

The SFU Recovery Framework outlines several guiding principles for learning and research continuity. These include:

• The University will protect the health and wellbeing of students, faculty and staff.
• The University will consider issues of accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion in all decisions.
• The University will consider the carbon footprint and climate change adaptation implications of all decisions.
• The University will communicate decisions and guidance as early and as broadly as possible.
• Research activity will be supported to every extent possible.
• The University will take advantage of opportunities to innovate and collaborate.

The following common principles guide on-campus research activities at this time. These guiding principles can be updated at any time, following advice from the provincial government and/or WorkSafeBC.

• Minimal intervention human participants research (HPR) is permitted with an approved safety plan outlining updated protocols and in accordance with the university ethics processes. The HPR safety plan is reviewed and approved through the Office of Research Ethics processes.
• Research personnel who can work remotely should continue to do so.
• All research personnel are advised to stay at home if they are feeling ill or experiencing respiratory illness symptoms such as fever or cough - with no exceptions.
• Research personnel returning from abroad or elsewhere in Canada need to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
• Any faculty members who wish to restore on-campus activity for their research group need to create a site safety plan to resume activities in their research space. That plan needs to be approved by their Dean or delegate (and Department Chair or School Director where appropriate).
• Plans for continuity of research activity on campus should be written with equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) considerations in mind. Deans, and the VPRI, will be available to work with research personnel to address support and accommodations concerns of both a general university-wide nature and those that are specific to the restart of any particular research program.
• Research personnel, including graduate students, who do not feel safe doing research on campus at this stage should be accommodated.
• Routine daily screening is required of research personnel who will enter the research space.
• Plans to resume research on campus are required to address safety, including:
  • The physical distancing plan for the research space.
  • The enhanced cleaning plan for the research space.
  • Any requirement for use of personal protective equipment in the research space.
  • How compliance with the plan will be monitored.
  • Training requirements for research personnel who will be using the research space.
• Faculty Deans may need to prioritize applications for return to campus. Considerations for prioritization include:
  • Any research to perform COVID-19 related research will be high priority.
  • The need to access specialized equipment or facilities that can only be found on campus.
  • Applications with clear career progress implications. For example, Deans may consider the situation for graduate students close to finishing their thesis work, or early career researchers in their prioritization.
• All research personnel returning to campus (including students) must complete required training and sign an acknowledgement that they have completed the training and understand the risks. Online training is available through SFU Canvas.
• Safety plans for research spaces must be posted publicly, outside each space. The Dean has the right to close any research space under their authority due to a failure of personnel to abide by these plans.

For general on-campus research, or where HPR research takes place in a physical space (e.g., on campus), a site safety plan is required. The site safety plan for on-campus research is reviewed and approved through faculty processes. Please access your faculty site safety plan template through the appropriate link below or connect with your Associate Dean, Research for further information on site safety plan processes and approvals for your faculty.

FAS:  https://www.sfu.ca/fas/covid19/restart.html.
FASS: https://advance.science.sfu.ca/fass/faculty-staff/access/
Science: https://advance.science.sfu.ca/science/faculty-staff/access/

All in-person HPR, on and off campus, requires an HPR safety plan approved through the Office of Research Ethics (ORE) processes. The HPR safety plan details how procedures will be modified to take participant safety into account. Detailed guidelines and processes for developing and submitting an HPR safety plan, on and off campus, are available on the ORE website. 

As research activities are approved and proceed forward, ongoing compliance and monitoring must be performed for all safety plans. Responsibilities for compliance and monitoring of safety plans is as follows:

• Compliance, monitoring checks for Human Participants Research is the responsibility of VPRI/ORE.
• Compliance, monitoring checks for labs, facilities, offices, etc. are the responsibility of departments/faculties.
• General guidance for COVID-19 Safety Plan Inspections is provided by SFU Safety & Risk Services.  

A gradual increase in the presence of researchers on campus has implications for support services, on-campus staffing and increased safety measures. While we still expect most SFU staff to work remotely during this period, exceptions will be needed in order to support research activities.

The health and safety of researchers and staff remains paramount. Supervisors, including faculty deans, will consider issues of accessibility and equity when determining what staff are needed to do work in-person and what additional health and safety protocols and accommodations will be put in place in each work space.

Effective Monday, November 9, staff, faculty and students attending campus are required to conduct a self-assessment every day before they come to campus. Please use the following link to access the assessment: https://bc.thrive.health/ - If the assessment identifies that you have possible symptoms, do not come to campus and contact your supervisor/dean/professor.

It is expected that SFU community members and visitors wear non-medical masks in all indoor common areas on our campuses. Common areas include building entryways and atriums, hallways, stairwells, washrooms, study areas, coffee shops, dining halls, libraries and other high-traffic common areas where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

Support services normally provided by SFU’s Environmental Health & Safety Department (EHS) will be limited at this time, including spill and incident response assistance. Consideration should be given to postponing all higher risk activities and experiments. Please refer to EHS for further updates.

Science Stores and Receiving has resumed normal hours of operation and staffing levels to support SFU research activities. A calendar booking system is set up to access Stores and Receiving areas.

The Science Technical Centre is currently staffed on a 50% rotation with normal hours of operation. To access the facility please contact staff using (scst-electronics@sfu.ca) for the electronics shop or (scst-machine@sfu.ca) for the machine shop to discuss your relevant needs (equipment repair, plexiglass shield install, etc.) and set up an appointment to visit.

Please refer to IT Services for resources to assist you with working remotely.

The Government of Canada recently released a suite of tools and information for researchers on protecting their research data and intellectual property from theft or misuse. The “Safeguarding Your Research” portal will help researchers self-evaluate and take actions to mitigate the risks of theft or misuse of knowledge and results associated with research, partnerships and international travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of such tools; there have been repeated efforts to gain illegal access to Canadian research on a COVID-19 vaccine.

Universities Canada and the U15 have also developed practical tools to help researchers consider security risks that can be associated with international research partnerships and travel.

• 4D Labs: Currently running operations with skeleton on-site staff. Protocols are to screen users and maximize social distancing in equipment operation.
• Big Data Hub (BDH): The BDH has moved operations completely online. Those with offices or labs in the facility will still be able to access, subject to social distancing requirements.
• Imagetech Lab: The Imagetech lab at Surrey Memorial Hospital has shut down on-site operations, but staff are accessible and working remotely. All non-clinical essential research within Fraser Health has been shut down.
• eBrain Lab: On-site operations have been shut down, and staff are working remotely.

While remote is still encouraged at H1, “minimal intervention” Human Participant Research (HPR) continues to be permitted. Examples of minimal intervention HPR permitted at H1 include 1:1 interviews in an appropriate space, or small focus groups that can maintain required distancing.

All in-person HPR, on and off campus, requires a HPR safety plan approved through the Office of Research Ethics (ORE) processes. The HPR safety plan details how procedures will be modified to take participant safety into account. Detailed guidelines and processes for developing and submitting an HPR safety plan, on and off campus, are available on the ORE website.

Where HPR research takes place in a physical space (e.g., on campus), a site safety plan for the space will also be required in order to satisfy the ethics approval process. The site safety plan for on-campus research is reviewed and approved through faculty processes. Please connect with your Associate Dean, Research for further information on site safety plan processes and approvals for your faculty.

For information about conducting research that involves fieldwork, please see Research Recovery - Fieldwork & Third Party Sites.

SFU’s Animal Care Services (ACS) has a crisis management plan to mitigate specific issues pertaining to the current COVID-19 situation. As an essential service, ACS anticipates being able to maintain current animal colonies with designated staff in ACS facilities. Please refer to the ACS webpage for specific updates to services.

The federal Tri-Agency funding bodies are looking at a number of issues relating to grant applications and funding and providing updates on an ongoing basis. We encourage you to visit the Funding Opportunities Database for major external funding deadlines and to check funding agency websites such as NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR for the latest updates. 

The federal Tri-Agency funding bodies previously communicated that they will consider the costs associated with canceled and postponed travel events paid through agency funds as allowable project expenses, provided they align with agency policies. Please see their announcement for more details. For funds from other sources, be sure to check with the appropriate funding agency/sponsor regarding eligibility. The current Government of Canada Official Global Advisory is to avoid non-essential travel outside of Canada until further notice. Please refer to CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC websites regularly for updates.

At this time, SSHRC and NSERC have officially recognized that agency-funded research delayed on account COVID-19 may be eligible for extensions.

If you have a SSHRC or NSERC Grant that ends February 1, 2020 through to March 31, 2021 that is being delayed due to COVID-19 related issues, regardless of whether it has been previously extended, Research Services is authorized to directly approve extension requests for up to 12 months. Please note that Grant Amendment Forms do not need to be completed for extension requests that meet this criteria.

For researchers with active NSERC Discovery Grants: please note that NSERC has announced that all active Discovery Grants can elect to receive a one-year extension with funds at their current funding level. This includes grants from the recent 2020 competition. The announcement is now featured on the NSERC website and is included in the NSERC program information in relation to COVID 19 webpage.  Frequently Asked Questions are also posted and will be updated as details become available. 

CIHR is providing an automatic one-year extension to the authority-to-use-funds date for all active grants. This will give researchers an additional full year to use any residual funds not yet spent to compensate for disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please note that the CIHR extensions are automatic and that no action is required from primary investigators or SFU.

If you wish to have your grant extended because of delays caused by COVID-19, please email your grant information and a brief justification of the delays to Research Services ors@sfu.ca.

Faculty supervisors are expected to maintain existing contracts for grant-funded personnel to the end of their current term. This includes Research Assistants (RA). If an RA cannot perform their duties due to illness, self-isolation requirements, or inability to work remotely, NSERC announced on March 17 that their salaries can continue to be paid from grant funds. We are expecting similar announcements from other federal funders.

Please refer to CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC websites regularly for updates. Please visit the Government of Canada website for the latest updates on travel restrictions, exemptions and advice.

Following the new public health orders issued on Saturday, November 7 for the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health regions, SFU is moving back to H1 (from H2) on our COVID-19 impact scale. Under H1 there should be no non-essential travel outside of Vancouver and Fraser Health regions from now until November 23.

In partnership with Mitacs, SFU International has launched a program to support new and developing international research collaborations called the “SFU-Mitacs Globalink Award" program. This program supports Canadian-based research collaborations between Canada and select partner countries. These funds are intended to support travel in 2021/22. While the University does not permit non-essential travel at this time, SFU is partnering with Mitacs on this call in hopes that travel may be able to resume in the fall of 2021. Applicants should consider these uncertainties as they pursue this opportunity and SFU will work with Mitacs to request extensions on successful proposals should travel in Fall 2021 continue to not be permitted. More information can be found on the Funding and Awards Opportunities Database.

Research opportunities related to the investigation and mitigation of COVID-19 continue to arise on short notice.

We expect that similar announcements will continue to emerge. Please consult the Funding Opportunities Database Bulletins and its regularly-updated list of opportunities related to COVID-19 research for the most current information.

For application development support on programs related to COVID-19 research, please contact ISA at isa@sfu.ca. For any other questions, please contact the Office of Research Services at ors@sfu.ca.

The SFU community can find information and resources related to the university’s response to COVID-19 at https://www.sfu.ca/covid19. The information is updated as frequently as possible.