Dear Colleagues,
Concerns at the system, state, and federal levels about research security have motivated us to re-examine many of our processes for granting access to university resources and facilities. One of the most fundamental needs is for a central office to know who is actually on campus for anything beyond a casual visit and where and why. The Office of Research Support and Compliance (ORSC) within the VPR portfolio will be the one gathering this information for UT Austin.
I know that additional requirements are irritating and can be burdensome, but our offices have gone to considerable effort to develop a process that will maintain the confidence of our sponsors and oversight organizations while minimizing the extra effort this will impose on you.
Effective immediately, appointment of nonemployee research affiliates requires an additional level of review by the Office of Research Support and Compliance. The main purpose of this review is the needed information-gathering. In rare cases, however, it may trigger a need to address research security concerns. A request for review must be submitted and approved by ORSC before you can finalize appointments for Research Affiliate – Visiting Researcher/Scholar (A006), Research Affiliate Senior Research Fellow (A012), Research Affiliate Research Fellow (A011), and Research Affiliate Postdoctoral (A010) titles. Additionally, all nonemployee research affiliates must sign a Nonemployee Research Affiliate Agreement in addition to the traditional offer letter.
We welcome the opportunity to partner and share our resources with like-minded individuals who bring outside expertise. The University hosts hundreds of visiting researchers and scholars each year who are in temporary residence on campus to collaborate with faculty, learn research techniques, or use specialized facilities. At the same time, federal research sponsors expect that universities be fully aware of and carefully vet individuals who have access to research information to ensure adequate intellectual property protections are in place. This expectation motivates the new central review requirement. I ask that you please allow sufficient time for the approval process to occur before committing to a start date for any visitors who will be assigned one of these titles.
Detailed information and guidelines explaining the new requirements are available on the OVPR website. Please direct any questions about the approval process to Brandon Norwat, Associate Director of Science and Security, at SAS@austin.utexas.edu.
Sincerely,
