Dean Fleischer has worked in partnership with ORED to define the procedure to request approval of essential research activity during the Stay-at-Home directive. A small number of projects have already been approved under this procedure. If you feel that your research may meet this criteria, please use the procedure below to request review.
What research will be considered for continuation:
- Any research that can be done remotely with no campus presence can continue without approval.
- Any research that involves time critical operations – keeping cell cultures alive, critical weekly maintenance of research equipment/studies, research that involves periodic data recording for very long-term studies, and research which has time-sensitive non-flexible deadlines is considered essential and will likely be approved to continue with some restrictions and oversight, but this needs to be requested per the procedure noted below.
- Research that involves extremely limited time on campus, and could result in the completion of an MS for Spring 2020 may also be approved (for instance, a student needs to conduct only four experiments over the next six weeks, and will only be in the lab for two hours each time for those four instances) may also be approved.
Procedure to request research activity approval:
Faculty member contacts Dean Fleischer via email with the following information:
- Explanation of research activity
- Why it is critical to complete during the shelter-at-home time period
- What needs to be accomplished on-campus
- What personnel will be on campus
- How often personnel will be on campus
- What precautions will be taken to protect personnel on campus from the spread of COVID-19
- What steps will be taken to disinfect the facility after each day of use
- Dean Fleischer will review the proposal and clarify any questions with the faculty member as needed
- If approved, Dean Fleischer will issue a preliminary approval and forward her endorsement to ORED who will perform an independent assessment
- Final approval granted and logged by ORED
