The Vice President for Research (VPR) and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) have provided guidance regarding ongoing research and research policy, human subjects research, and IRB procedures in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Please continually visit these two pages for helpful information that will likely be updated over the next few weeks: VPR COVID-19 webpage and IRB COVID-19 webpage.
The VPRs office is inviting questions from the research community. If you have questions, please submit them to vp-research-sr@austin.utexas.edu with the Subject line “FAQ”. They will answer you directly and share your question and answer with the community.
The VPR has also provided the following general guidance, which is helpful for ALL research teams:
- Have a communications plan in place for your group. Make sure that all group members know how to reach each other, both on campus and off.
- Have a continuity plan. Discuss with your group how you will be able to maintain research activities if some of you are ill or are working from home.
- Make sure everyone has access to resources needed for remote work.
- Make sure that your group has the software tools and network access to permit long-distance group meetings (test it!).
- Arrange work to anticipate the possibility of additional restrictions in the future.
Finally, please model and encourage appropriate mitigation strategies and social distancing practices.
We encourage you to maintain regular communication and scheduled meetings with your research teams, but where possible these should be conducted remotely via zoom, teleconferencing, etc.
I hope you all have a healthy and safe spring break.
Alex Loukas
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
