Dear PI Colleagues:
I know that the uncertainties around laboratory and human subject research are layered onto the already stressful uncertainties we all face during the current outbreak. You have a very difficult task before you of maintaining your research program or your research support lab in a rapidly changing environment. I want to work with you to make this possible.
This letter contains policy and information about laboratory activities on The University of Texas at Austin campus and at remote UT Austin facilities. Our aim is to implement effective social distancing and to mitigate the consequences of more significant measures, should they become necessary. We recognize that our labs are very heterogeneous. We have therefore tried to limit the mandatory policies to areas where they can work for all facilities. The other policies will rely on your expertise to implement appropriately for your situation. Please try to look at the whole memo.
Note that the statements here are in effect as of now. Policies and process will be subject to change as the situation evolves. Please consult the website listed at the end of this memo for the latest policy.
You may continue operating your labs if you adhere to this guidance and to any stricter guidance from your college, your ORU director, or your department chair. Lab PIs have the discretion to suspend operations in their labs if they feel that this is in the best interests of their group. The policies here apply if you choose to modify and continue your operations.
All PIs should be prepared for a suspension of activity on relatively short notice. Have a plan in place for your lab. How would you handle closures lasting hours, days, weeks? Think this through and take necessary steps to prepare.
As we work together to maintain our research effort, we need to keep in mind our social responsibility to play our part in reducing transmission, both among our colleagues and students and in the public at large. With careful thought and planning, we can do both.
Mandatory Policies:
- All undergraduate and graduate students have the right to decide to decline to work in the laboratory environment without fear of retaliation or retribution. Take care in your messaging not to implicitly diminish this right. You should work with those who decide to avoid the laboratory to continue to make progress toward their research and educational objectives. (Note the special section on undergraduate participation below.)
- Laboratory staff, including postdocs, also have the right to request telework accommodations from their department chairs and ORU directors, following any policies put in place by your college. They do not need to disclose underlying medical conditions or any other health information to you. Approvals will be documented by your college. If college personnel cannot handle this properly, please document the request yourself and keep records.
- All laboratories must have a sign-in, sign-out sheet on the door. Everyone entering or leaving must put a legible name, contact phone number, and a time and date of entry and exit onto this sheet. The sign-in sheet will be critical in the event of the need for contact tracing if a member of the lab tests positive for COVID-19. The sheets must therefore be archived for at least 4 weeks.
- Only UT faculty, staff, and students, and approved long-term visitors (postdocs and visiting faculty) are permitted in laboratories. Short-term visitors and persons holding Lab Visitor Access status may not enter laboratories or analytical facilities.
- All laboratory personnel should review their health status daily. They should remain at home if they have any respiratory or flu-like symptoms.
Human Subject Research
- Face-to-face human subject research that does not provide a direct benefit to the subjects must be paused, effective immediately. If you have questions about whether your study provides direct benefit, contact IRB@austin.utexas.edu. Where possible, transition in-person interactions for all studies, regardless of benefit, to remote interactions to limit potential exposure. See the human subject research FAQ for more guidance. You should consider the impact this directive may have on trainees whose academic credit and progress is dependent upon carrying out research activities and develop alternatives where possible. As the current situation eases, ORSC will work with you to make sure that your protocols are ready for re-activation.
Undergraduate Participation in Laboratory Research
- All undergraduates may request work-from-home and you may not decline that request.
- Undergraduates working in the labs as paid employees may continue to work in the lab if they desire to, if PI deems it acceptable, and if it is allowed under department/ORU/College policy.
- Undergraduates working for course credit may continue to work until they have sufficient data to receive credit. PIs are encouraged to find alternative means of continuing the projects that minimize the amount of in-person presence required. Departments, ORUs, and Colleges may put more restrictive policies in place.
- FRI labs: Work by enrolled freshman students is suspended. PIs should consult with their associate dean for research in crafting a policy for upper-class undergraduates in research roles. PIs have the right to suspend work on their own.
- REU programs: We are awaiting guidance from NSF and other REU program sponsors. In the meantime, REU PIs should work with their associate deans for research to examine possibilities for different circumstances.
Adaptations to Your Particular Context:
The basic idea is to de-densify the laboratories to reduce the likelihood of infection. We list a number of steps that may be included in your policy. Please produce a clear policy for your group and share it with your associate dean for research.
- Prioritize. Consider suspending/postponing lower priority projects to allow for distancing and depopulation of the research space. Give priority to students needing to finish a degree, hard-to-interrupt experiments and to your most important research.
- Establish modified or extended operational hours and “split shifts” among those hours, so that fewer people are in the lab at any given time.
- Remember to maintain a safe environment while practicing social distancing. Working alone in a potentially hazardous lab space is never encouraged.
- Any work that can be done outside the lab should be done outside the lab until further notice. This includes data analysis, literature search, writing thesis chapters, etc.
- Anticipate shortages of key PPE in the future, namely N95 masks and gowns, gloves and face shields. Begin limiting the number of personnel entering lab spaces that require donning of this PPE.
- Prepare a shut-down plan for your lab. How would you handle closures lasting hours, days, weeks? Think this through.
What to do if someone in your lab has strongly suspicious symptoms or tests positive:
- Look at your sign-in sheet and notify their contacts that they should self-isolate for 14 days.
- Put a quarantine notice on the door of the lab and notify your team not to enter.
- Call EHS and let them know about the quarantine. They will discuss the urgency of re-entry with you. Based on that, they will provide direct assistance and any necessary equipment/supplies to help you de-contaminate the lab.
What we are doing to resolve common issues:
- We are working through different channels to ask federal agencies to ease the rules and time limits for no-cost extensions. We will let you know if these rules change.
- We are keeping an eye out for policy changes about work-at-home rules and idle lab worker compensation, as well as on billing cancelled travel and events to grants. NIH has issued guidance on some of these points. The full guidance is posted on our website and we will produce FAQs on the key points and post them.
- The STEM stockroom in NHB will remain in operation.
- We are working with the facilities side of the University to clarify questions about the availability of lab services- cryogens and gases, shipping and receiving, etc., and building services. Please let your associate deans for research know about problems and concerns.
The situation is evolving quickly. The letter and revised versions of it will be posted on the UT Research coronavirus webpage. Please check there for updates and for responses to frequently asked questions:
If you have questions specific to your laboratory, please consult with the associate dean for research in your college. If you have questions that you think may be of general interest, and an answer is not already available on our website, please email us at vp-research-sr@austin.utexas.edu with the Subject line “FAQ”. We will have the relevant expert answer you directly and post your question and answer on our pages.
Sincerely,
