Research Update and Town Hall April 17

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 09:58:07 -0400
covid19

Dear Members of the UMBC Research Community,

Thanks to all of you for quickly adapting to the challenges we now face and for your thoughtful approach in adjusting to the various rules that have been put in place to keep you and the rest of the campus community safe and healthy during this difficult period.

We recognize that the changes are significantly impacting progress in research, scholarship, and creative activities conducted by students and faculty and that we must take steps to mitigate this interruption in research activity.

As you know, UMBC, in coordination with the other research institutions in the University System of Maryland, transitioned into Research Maintenance Mode on March 18. Details on this transition are available on the UMBC Research web site. As a result, almost all of our research and studio facilities are currently in hibernation mode, with important specimens stored in freezers, valuable instruments placed in suspension mode, and countless experiments delayed or canceled. A very limited number of faculty and staff are currently accessing laboratories on an occasional basis to see that key research resources are secure and expensive instrumentation is maintained.

We are preparing for a dedicated Research Town Hall for Friday, April 17, to provide updates and answer your questions. Watch out for more details on this Research Town Hall shortly.

We thank the many of you who have looked for ways to help, including those involved in a grassroots effort to collect masks and other protective equipment and donate them for use by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who are on the frontlines fighting this disease.

We are working closely with colleagues across the state and the nation – through APLU and other national organizations – to communicate with the federal agencies and explore options for supporting research, including supplements to existing awards. We are also tracking new opportunities for research directly related to COVID-19. For instance, UMB’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) has launched a new call specifically for collaborative ATIP proposals related to COVID-19 research, including prevention, control, and response efforts.

The Research Office continues to be open for business – all of our OVPR staff are well versed in working remotely. Please reach out to your departmental business manager or grants and contracts manager with any questions related to proposal preparation and submission. Please check our On-Campus Research at UMBC during COVID-19 web page for additional links.

We are in the process of establishing guiding principles and steps to re-open research labs and studio facilities when it is safe to do so. We appreciate your understanding that we will need to carefully stage the re-opening of our research and studio facilities once this is possible.

Finally, we know that a growing number of faculty and departments have set up virtual brown bag lunches and even happy hours for their lab teams and their departments. We are inspired learning about these and other efforts to keep our community of researchers, scholars, and especially graduate students, connected and engaged.

Together, we will get through this challenge. Stay healthy.

Freeman Hrabowski, President
Philip Rous, Provost
Karl V. Steiner, Vice President for Research