Vice Chancellor for Research Jennifer Larsen, M.D., stressed that research continuity and personnel safety remain the highest priorities of the UNMC research office as the campus reacts to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We conduct research in buildings throughout the Omaha campus, as well as at our UNMC divisions across the state and in communities and other settings,” Dr. Larsen said. “As we move to distance education, this does not mean that research buildings will close, although we realize the pandemic may, at some point, disrupt some or all types of research. We will continue to assess and monitor the situation as it evolves.”
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research has established a website with information for multiple research audiences, as well as a place to submit questions if investigators have them, as research processes and information available may continue to evolve. See the blog here.
The research office will support the continuance of research for as long as possible in as many buildings as it is feasible to do so.
“Our office has been working and planning with campus leadership on how to best maintain research continuity in each unit and your unit should be discussing this with each researcher,” Dr. Larsen said.
As preventive measures, employees are reminded to:
- Stay home if sick and ask others to go home if they appear sick.
- Consider personnel shortages and how to provide back-ups at work, in the event that colleagues become sick and/or stay home with family and/or children who may be home if schools close.
- Use distance technologies for conferencing to avoid groups more than 20.
Those with questions about specific research programs and processes are invited to call Dr. Larsen or anyone in the research office, she said.