Research is yet another area disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Aug. 7, the Office of Research hosted a virtual Happy Hour Faculty Chat, where Floyd Wormley Jr., associate provost for research and dean of graduate studies, and LeAnn Forsberg, director of sponsored programs, share research plans for fall. Spoiler alert: While there are still restrictions on travel and limitations on lab capacity, the Office of Research has put together a full slate of virtual career, professional and grant development programs for both faculty and graduate students.
Wormley answers questions below about what to expect with research during the pandemic this fall, followed by a Happy Hour Faculty Chat recap:
The Return to Research Plan Phase 3 starts today
What are the major changes?
The only change is undergraduate students are permitted to return to the lab and participate in on-campus research activities.
What are the Phase 3 lab occupancy rules?
They do not change with Phase 3. Principal investigators will continue to coordinate activities to prevent crowding in lab space. To maintain appropriate social distancing, each PI must determine the maximum number of people who may be present in each room at the same time, depending on the size of the room. Lab personnel providing supervision should wear appropriate PPE if physical distancing cannot be maintained during supervision of undergraduate research activities.
What are the limitations on human subject research?
Researchers can interview TCU students, faculty or staff who are already on campus. Researchers should continue to utilize remote efforts — online surveys, Zoom, phone, etc. — to conduct their research with participants who are not already on campus.
Will the Aug. 28 Responsible Conduct of Research training be virtual?
Yes, this is the second time it will be virtual. The first time was back in June. The training has to be participatory — it can’t just be a webinar. It has to be live and interactive, and we’re able to do that in a virtual format. One silver lining is that our international students who haven’t been able to return to campus this fall can participate.
What are you most excited about for fall?
I’m very excited about our upcoming faculty development training, our professional and career development for our grad students, and our grant development workshops covering how to find opportunities and how to go through that process.
Is having so many opportunities for graduate students new?
This fall we have lots of stuff for grad students — dissertation bootcamp, orientation, RCR training, how to find and apply for graduate fellowships, guide to personal finance, stress management, a Halloween research social — and we’re going to be adding a lot more. It’s a significant increase in the professional and career development opportunities for our graduate students.
How are you determining what your spring programming will look like?
We are asking our faculty what sort of opportunities they would like. We’ve kept the spring open so we can fill those calendar spots with what the faculty would like to have in the areas of professional, career and grant development and so forth.
Research Aug. 7 Happy Hour Recap
|
Date/Time |
Location |
Event |
|
Aug. 28 and 1-3 p.m. |
ZOOM |
RCR Training |
|
Sept. 9 |
ZOOM |
How to Find & Apply for Graduate Fellowships |
|
Sept. 18 |
ZOOM |
Research Orientation |
|
Sept. 29 |
ZOOM |
Demystifying the Proposal Process at TCU |
|
Oct. 7 |
ZOOM |
Demonstration of the "NEW" OSP proposal routing system |
|
Oct. 16 |
ZOOM |
NSF update and PAPPG Review |
|
Oct. 27-29 |
MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW |
NIH Virtual Regional Seminar |
|
Nov. 6 |
ZOOM |
Pursuing Funding in the Humanities & Humanities-related Social Sciences |
Following are Q&As from the virtual faculty chat:
Will you be sharing these workshop dates and times soon so we can mark on our calendars?
Yes! The sessions can be found at this Research Events website. Watch your email for event information and Zoom meeting details.
Will the Zoom events be recorded and available for on-demand viewing?
Yes! The events will be recorded and will be available for TCU faculty to download and view on-demand as your schedule allows.
When is the graduate student orientation?
New Graduate Student Orientation will be via a Zoom session from noon-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13.
Will there be a reconsideration of allowing students to work away from TCU? In geology and other disciplines, this kind of shuts down many aspects of research and teaching.
At present, TCU’s travel ban remains in effect. Exceptions to this travel suspension must be approved by the appropriate vice chancellor. The policy may be reassessed if conditions regarding spread of COVID-19 significantly improves and if community participation toward sustaining a healthy environment is progressing well.
We had research shut down for students working in the field who can’t easily finish collecting data. When can students return to field research?
The time for the general resumption of off-campus activities (research and/or teaching) has not been decided. Resumption of activities will be reassessed as conditions regarding the spread and control of COVID-19 improves.
Is research activity in the DFW area considered travel?
Yes, unless the travel or destination is mission critical and has been approved. If you have travel that is necessary for research-related needs, you will have to request an exception through your dean to request approval from the appropriate vice chancellor. (The specific process for gaining this permission is forthcoming.)
Will most labs be open this coming semester for both grad and undergrads?
Graduate and undergraduate students are permitted to participate in on-campus research activities only.
Will research lab hours be limited?
No.
What is the timeline for students being able to be in research labs?
There are currently no restrictions on the timeline for students to be in research labs.
Is there any update on considerations for graduate students whose dissertation progress has been negatively impacted by the shutdowns and who may or may not need extensions? How will the stipends be managed?
Please work through your program director and associate deans of graduate studies for requests for financial and other assistance related to your graduate studies. The Office of Graduate Studies will be coordinating support through the deans’ offices.
Do you have plans for how to support faculty whose research productivity has been negatively affected by COVID-related circumstances (child care, teaching training, etc.)?
We extended funding of internal research/teaching grant awards made to those who indicated that their research was negatively impacted by COVID-19-related circumstances. We will continue to do whatever is possible with our available resources to assist our students and faculty.
Any update on IS program status?
The Research Office assessed our mission of supporting the research and creative activities of our faculty and ensuring compliance with federal requirements as we made decisions regarding the required budget cuts due to the COVID pandemic. We are happy to report that we were able to fund the awards in the IDG, RCAF and JFSRP programs, and we will be able to review the TCU IS internal grant program applications received in April. Unfortunately, we will not have the full budget available and anticipate funding a much smaller number of awards than in prior years.
What is the status of discussion on distributing indirect recovery to college, department/institute and PI?
Although the Research Office understands a return of indirect (F&A) recovery is used as an incentive for faculty at numerous institutions, TCU does not currently have an institution-wide return/distribution policy. Based on current budget limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not anticipate being able to put in place an indirect recovery policy in the near future. However, the Office of Research continues to support our researchers through a variety of outreach programs and internal support research and creative activity grant programs.
Are there any updates on the timeline for when in-person human subject research can resume?
Human subject research activities can be conducted according to guidance provided by the Office of Research.
Can we recruit faculty and staff from TCU campus for research in addition to the students?
Yes, as long as the recruitment of those individuals meets the outlined population in your IRB-approved protocol.
Is it OK to conduct research via Zoom or Teams?
That depends on the type of research being performed and if the research needs to consider any HIPAA or data safety concerns.
Are visiting scholars volunteering in the lab allowed to do research?
Currently, visitors, including visiting scholars, are not allowed on campus and therefore should not be performing research on campus.
Is there a threshold for COVID cases at which you may cancel in-person research even while classes are ongoing?
There is no threshold specific to ceasing in-person research activities that is separate from that applied to other campuswide activities.
What are the safety requirements for labs reopening?
Please see information found at Impact on TCU Research and TCU’s Phase 1 Return to Campus websites for information regarding safety requirements for lab openings.
Will labs/departments be responsible to purchase PPE such as respirators or N95 masks?
TCU requires face coverings to be worn at all times on campus, including research labs. If your lab or the nature or your research requires a higher level of PPE, such as an N95, you will need to coordinate with your lab supervisor, chair or dean to secure that PPE. Some PPE will be provided by the institution, and labs/departments will be responsible for the purchase of additional PPE for teaching/research labs.
Responsible Conduct of Research Training
TCU requires RCR training for any student (graduate and undergraduate) paid from grant funds and all postdoctoral fellows/associates*.
Ph.D. students of Harris College receive RCR training through their required eight-week ethics course embedded in the college’s Ph.D. degree plan and, therefore, are exempt from being required to attend the Office of Research training.
Principal investigators/lead researchers are responsible for ensuring that their research team is properly trained. If you are a principal investigator/lead researcher and you have anyone on your research team who is required to take this training, please provide such person with the following announcement:
The fall session of Responsible Conduct of Research (“RCR”) is scheduled for 7-9 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, via Zoom. You are required to attend this training.
The training will focus on ethical issues in research and be divided into two sessions:
· The first session will be a presentation from Associate Provost for Research Floyd Wormley, Ph.D., on important RCR topics, including Conflict of Interest, Research Misconduct, Data Management and Authorship and Human and Animal Subjects research.
· The second session will offer an interactive case study on research misconduct and provide an overview of the various research committees.
Please register by sending an email from your TCU email address to research@tcu.edu.
*NIH and NSF have specific RCR training requirements that may go beyond the minimum requirements set by TCU. If your research and/or scholarly activity is federally funded and you are unsure of the RCR training requirements for your personnel, please contact Research Compliance at research@tcu.edu or (817) 257-5070.