From: John MacMillan, interim Vice Chancellor for Research
September 28, 2021
Dear Research Community,
As the Fall quarter opens, I share with many of you the feeling of excitement and opportunity around for the high quality research and creative works on campus and the new graduate and undergraduate students joining our community. Below, you will find information about changes in the Office of Research, updates on research related COVID policies and new initiatives in the Office of Research.
Despite the challenges of the last 18 months the research community has continued to address important scientific and societal questions, oftentimes using creative solutions to keep projects moving forward. For those who have continued working on-site, we are very appreciative of the commitment to health and wellbeing while continuing your research activities.
Changes in the Office of Research
Over the summer, the Office of Research has undergone some transformation. Vice Chancellor Scott Brandt has returned to the faculty, as a member of the Computer Science and Engineering department in BSOE. I would like to personally thank Scott for his leadership of the Office of Research for the last eight years and the critical contributions he made to the campus as we navigated the pandemic.
For those I have not had the pleasure to meet, I would like to introduce myself, as this is my first message since I have become the interim Vice Chancellor for Research. I have been at UCSC for the past five years as a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, where I have a research program that focuses on development of novel therapeutics for cancer and infectious disease. Previous to my current iVCR role I joined the Office of Research as an Associate Vice Chancellor in 2019 where I focused on research development and strategic initiatives. As an active researcher, I am hoping this perspective will help me identify opportunities for growing our efforts and enhancing research administration. I look forward to working with you all in this role and I am excited for the future of research at UCSC.
Updates to COVID Policies for Research
There has been tremendous work happening behind the scenes to prepare for the reopening of the campus and for the resumption of in-person activities. To ensure continued health and wellbeing of the campus, there are policies in place, centered around the wearing of face coverings, daily symptom checks, vaccination and testing. I encourage everybody to be familiar with these policies and discuss them with those you supervise.
As was communicated last spring, the majority of research and creative activities have now returned to normal operations. There are still two areas of research activity where additional approval processes have been required – international research travel and human subjects research.
As of October 1, 2021 we will no longer require pre-approval for international research travel or for human subjects research. However, there remain important details about both of these activities. International research travel: Although no pre-approval will be required, we recommend travelers review the Department of State Travel Advisories related to destination(s). All international travelers are required to register with the UC Travel Insurance Program, while those carrying out field work are required to fill out the EH&S Field Safety Plan and COVID-19 Research Travel Checklist.
Human subjects research: If your research includes Human subject research, we are no longer requiring any pre-approval document process to be submitted and approved before your research, but you are required to comply with all current COVID rules and regulations. Information can be found here. If you are unable to conduct your research within those guidelines for whatever reason please contact ORCA so that we can try to find an alternative solution. New Initiatives in the Office of Research This fall we are launching a number of initiatives to support research, creative scholarship and innovation on campus. A few examples include:
- A campus wide seed funding initiative to support individual investigators or collaborative teams. The program and details will be announced on October 4.
- A competition for space at our MBEST facility in Marina that will provide no-cost use of the space for 2022. This competition will be launched in November; those interested in the use of MBEST space for research can reach out to Andrea Pesce.
- Four new proposal administrators have been added to the OR team to support proposal preparation. Questions about this support can be sent to Kate Aja.
- In May, we began to use the web-based product Cayuse Human Ethics for managing human subjects research studies. Cayuse Human Ethics is an electronic protocol management platform that is cloud-based, user-friendly, and secure. Please reach out to Laverne Estanol with any questions.
- We are looking for two new Associate Vice Chancellors, one specializing in STEM and the other in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, to help with the strategic vision of research and research administration on campus. We strongly encourage those interested to reach out.
We look forward to hearing about all the great research that continues to be done on campus, and are excited to work towards opening up and getting back to full research capacity across the research enterprise.
Please reach out to me, or my executive associate, Kelly Graham with any questions or comments. The Office of Research strives to support your needs and looks forward to the future.