Research Continuity Update for Chairs - October 8, 2021
Dear Chairs and Directors,
This academic year, we are broadening the scope of the chairs and directors research continuity update to include not only pandemic research recovery updates, but also other matters of interest to our research community. 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.
Fall quarter
While many researchers have been on campus throughout the pandemic, it’s been wonderful to see more colleagues and students returning to our research spaces and classrooms over the past few weeks. We’re fortunate to have a highly vaccinated community, and one that takes our protocols seriously. So far, caseloads have remained low. We ask all researchers to continue to follow the university’s COVID-19 guidelines, which will continue to evolve as necessary. The most recent university policy is that all Stanford faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars will be required to be fully vaccinated and upload proof of their vaccination status on Health Check by Dec. 8, 2021, unless they have a medical or religious accommodation.The latest updates can always be found on health alerts.
New postdoc arrival policy
For those who onboard or support new postdoctoral scholars, there is new guidance to help navigate Stanford’s policies around vaccination, testing, and campus access. New postdocs must also follow relevant travel guidance, which specifies how and when they may be approved for campus access when arriving from outside of Stanford. Those requirements differ based on vaccination status and location from which travel is initiated.
New federal disclosure requirements
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) have issued new guidance for disclosing outside activities. The new guidance, which stems from recent foreign influence investigations, will affect how PIs and their teams prepare biosketches and support pages for grant and contract opportunities. More specifically, NIH has issued guidance for disclosing information about all resources available to a PI for their research program, including gift funds, in-kind support, and consulting activities, effective January 22, 2022. NIH is also implementing additional disclosure requirements for key personnel on research projects who have outside professional activities or appointments with foreign entities. More information about the new NIH requirements is available on the Research Management Group and Office of Sponsored Research websites.
NSF also recently changed some of its disclosure requirements, effective October 4, 2021. The Department of Energy is closely aligning its disclosure requirements with NSF.
We urge faculty members to begin providing the new information as soon as possible. VPDOR is developing new procedures to collect and review these agreements. Please contact VPDOR, OSR, RMG, or your department or school research administrator with any questions.
Project on sustaining research affordability
This quarter, we are also doing a deep dive into the increasing costs of performing, supporting, and subsidizing research at Stanford. Our hope is to make Stanford’s research enterprise more sustainable both for researchers and for the institution. Please stay tuned.
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 and Professor of Genetics
Serena Rao, Senior Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, Vice Provost and Dean of Research