Research Continuity Update for Chairs - December 8, 2021

Dear Chairs and Directors, 

 

As always, you are welcome and encouraged to share these updates and reminders with faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students who may find the information and links helpful. 

 

Omicron variant

Stanford is closely following updates about the new Omicron variant. While we are still learning about the variant’s severity and transmissibility, we urge all members of our research community to continue following all university protocols, including masking and testing, which have proven to be effective safeguards since the beginning of the pandemic. California has also opened booster eligibility to all individuals aged 18 and older, and we encourage you to schedule an appointment if you have not already done so. As always, you can find the most updated information about Stanford’s COVID-19 policies on Health Alerts.

 

PRISM Baker Fellowships 

In November, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs announced the new PRISM Baker fellowships. The fellowships will provide partial funding for the first-year salary of up to 10 scholars who join the university through the Postdoctoral Recruitment Initiative in Sciences and Medicine program (PRISM). PRISM is a recruitment initiative that provides support, programming, and community for postdocs when they arrive on campus for their interviews. It also encourages current graduate students, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to consider postdoctoral training at Stanford. The fellowships will support increased faculty participation in PRISM, and help Stanford attract and retain talented researchers across many fields.

 

Global Engagement Review Program 

In recent years, U.S. government concerns about undue foreign influence undermining the security and integrity of the research environment have resulted in the change, clarification, and increased enforcement of federal research compliance and disclosure rules. On advice from the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Research, the VPDoR established a Global Engagement Review Program (GERP) to provide a comprehensive review that helps members of the Stanford community to navigate the risks associated risks, which include legal or regulatory sanctions, loss of funding, improper transfer of intellectual property, unauthorized access to or compromise of Stanford’s information technology systems and infringement of Stanford’s fundamental values of academic independence, openness, and transparency. 

 

PIs, administrators, or others can request a GERP review to ensure and document that activities and agreements are following all policies and to receive advice about how to mitigate any risks, for example by clarifying the language of an agreement. Most matters are quickly assessed without requiring additional review or action. The small number of engagements that present an elevated risk may be reviewed by a GERP Staff Committee of subject matter experts. In rare cases, including when risks appear exceptionally high, an engagement may be reviewed by a GERP Faculty Committee who will provide advice and recommendations to university leadership. More information is available here or by contacting GERP Director Jessa Albertson at jalbertson@stanford.edu.

We hope that this service enables your vital international research collaborations to proceed with peace of mind and with no disruption to federal funding.

 

New visiting scholars onboarding resources

We will soon launch two new resources developed to support faculty, schools, and departments in the process of appointing and onboarding visiting scholars. 

 

The first is a new website that pulls together information and links to policies, resources, tools, and other university web pages that will be helpful in appointing and inviting visitors to campus. The website includes relevant topics organized for faculty, administrators, and visitors under separate pages. 

 

The second new resource is a set of intake forms, created to assist department administrators in gathering information from faculty hosts and from visitor candidates. The forms will provide greater transparency for faculty on individuals they are inviting for collaborations and assist in collecting the information to complete appointment and visa application processes. Several departments across campus have begun to use the intake forms, and we continue to refine them based on feedback and comments from initial users. The intake forms can be previewed through these links:

 

• Faculty PI Host/Administrator form
• Visitor Candidate Information form

 

These resources will be more formally communicated to the broader university community over the next several weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to send any feedback about either new resource to Denise Hofer at dhofer@stanford.edu.

 

The chairs and directors memo will return in January. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

 

Stay safe and be well, 

Kam, Tim, Serena 

 

Kam Moler, Vice Provost and Dean of Research; Marvin Chodorow Professor and Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics

Tim Stearns, Senior Associate Vice Provost of Research; Frank Lee and Carol Hall Professor of Biology and Professor of Genetics

Serena Rao, Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, Vice Provost and Dean of Research