We are in Phase 2* of the Resumption of Research Phased Plan
* For principal investigators who have had a plan approved for resumption.
Email research-covid@uky.edu with questions concerning research and COVID-19 policies.
|
|
Daily Screening for Employees
This week UK did a soft rollout of daily wellness screening for employees. In recognition that employees are periodically coming to campus, even while working remotely the majority of their time, and in light of the requirement that all employees who come on campus must complete daily screening beginning August 17, UK now has an opt-in/opt-out form for daily screening: http://go.uky.edu/wellnessupdate
This is the information you will see at that link:
This form is provided for employees to temporarily opt in to or out of the requirement to complete the UK Health Corps daily screening.
Employees who will be temporarily off campus due to personal leave status or short-term remote work assignment may request an exemption for up to 30 days as long as they will not be returning to campus at all during that time.
Employees who are working fully remotely are exempt from the daily screening requirement and should enter their remote work location in the myUK Employee Self Service (ESS) portal instead. For steps on how to enter your phone number and update your work address, visit How To Update Work Locations and Phone Numbers in ESS on myUK in the Technology Help Center.
Employees who have a remote address set in myUK but are working on campus temporarily or periodically must opt into the daily screening requirement.
If you have questions about the daily COVID-19 screening requirements or about this form, please visit http://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/do-your-part/screening, email UK Health Corps at healthcorps@uky.edu, or call 859-218-SAFE (7233).
|
|
Testing for Employees
Free COVID-19 testing is now available, though not required, to UK campus employees who are working on site this fall. If you would like to be tested, please schedule at one of the five on-campus testing locations. Your invitation code is your 8-digit UK ID number.
https://scheduling.coronavirus.wildhealth.com/
After you schedule your test, you will receive a follow-up communication with instructions to register. Please note that scheduling and registering are two distinct steps. Please complete both before you arrive at a testing site.
If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, do not come to campus for this test. Instead, you should immediately contact your health care provider.
Please be aware that the consent form used during the online registration process was originally designed for student testing, but employees will be given a revised consent form to sign when they arrive at the testing site. The consent form an employee signs at the testing site will replace the online consent form for that employee.
Campus employees who live outside of Lexington may utilize this on-campus option for testing. In addition, free testing is available at sites across the state.
View employee testing FAQs and keep updated on our efforts for testing, screening and tracing at www.uky.edu/coronavirus. If you have any questions, please email healthcorps@uky.edu. |
|
Biological Safety support
The UK Environmental Health & Safety Division continues to post updated information on best practices for community protective equipment and disinfection. As students return and more building spaces are utilized, visit our resources for more information. Reopening General Spaces |
|
Project Payroll Confirmation & COVID 19
Research Financial Services is pleased to share the following update related to project payroll confirmations.
The project payroll confirmation statements for the period April – June 2020, have now been created. We recognize that this is the first quarterly reporting period that is likely to have been directly impacted by COVID 19 restrictions. As a result, the language that Principal Investigators are asked to attest to as part of the confirmation process has been updated. The original language will still be part of the attestation, however, the following has been added:
“Effective beginning Quarter 4 FY 20 (April – June) This period included a disruption in normal business due to COVID -19. Consistent with federal and university guidance, the reasonability of the work performed may include periods of low to no activity during this time.”
While it is understood that not all projects were necessarily impacted, this language will appear on each project statement, allowing for that possibility. The additional statement is intended to incorporate by reference the various levels of guidance, direction and processes implemented at the university to inform our decisions regarding continuing to pay individuals during periods of low to no activity.
Should you have any questions or concerns related to this new language, please reach out to Research Financial Services staff representatives at the following email address: ecrt.help@uky.edu. |
|
Increasing COVID-19 Human Research Protocols
The number of COVID-19 human research protocols has reached 162 submitted or approved projects. The research projects span diverse aspects of the novel coronavirus, from potential treatments to impact on daily life. Guidance on conducting/submitting COVID-19 research for IRB review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
RFA-TR-20-003 / Applications accepted on a rolling basis as of August 6, 2020
The purpose of this urgent funding opportunity announcement is to invite applications to repurpose existing therapeutic agents to treat COVID-19 sequelae and associated complications that result from SARS-CoV-2 infections. The therapeutic agent must have already completed at least a Phase I clinical trial for a different indication, and not require additional regulatory studies for the new indication prior to starting a clinical trial.
NIH Emergency Awards: RADx-rad Predicting Viral-Associated Inflammatory Disease Severity in Children with Laboratory Diagnostics and Artificial Intelligence (PreVAIL kIds)
RFA-OD-20-023 / Deadline September 30, 2020
This FOA seeks to support innovative research to develop novel, new or unique and non-traditional approaches (e.g. diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and/or biosignatures) to identify and characterize the spectrum of SARS CoV-2 associated illness, including the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and, through a prognostic algorithm, predict the longitudinal risk of disease severity after a child is exposed to and may be infected with SARS-CoV-2 to properly tailor his or her management and optimize health outcomes.
NIH Emergency Awards: Chemosensory Testing as a COVID-19 Screening Tool
RFA-OD-20-022/ Deadline September 18, 2020
The goal of this FOA is to solicit applications to enhance the utility of chemosensory testing as a COVID-19 screening tool by using objective tests to examine the onset and prognostic value of chemosensory loss and to encourage the development and/or deployment of home-based and on-site chemosensory tests.
NIH Emergency Awards: RADx-rad Wastewater Detection of SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)
RFA-OD-20-015 / Sponsor Deadline: September 15, 2020
As one of the programs within the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Radical (RADx-rad) program, this FOA will support wastewater-based testing (WBT) surveillance which can provide detailed mapping of the extent and spread of COVID-19. The purpose of this FOA is to solicit cooperative agreements both for field studies and for small business research and development projects in the field of WBT, to address topics such as: investigation and demonstration of specific approaches aiming to increase sensitivity and to inform and optimize sample collection; implementation and development of optimized approaches to extrapolate estimation of population-level data within the community; development of optimized intervention strategies, and incorporation of computational, statistical and mathematical models. |
|
|
|
|
On July 27, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act, the Senate Republican Phase IV COVID-19 package. The HEALS Act provides $15.5 billion for NIH, $4.5 billion for NASA, and $306 million for the Department of Energy Office of Science.
Specifically, for NIH, the funding includes $12.9B to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19 domestically or internationally. The bill allocates $240 million in cost-extensions to support for existing research awards. This includes resources targeting young researchers who need additional research time as postdoctoral candidates because of lost research/training due to COVID-19. This measure is currently being negotiated with the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House as Congress considers the fourth COVID-19 emergency relief package.
In April, UK Federal Relations began advocating for additional support for the federal research enterprise. We requested additional funding for research agencies to provide cost-extensions and for more fellowship and traineeship slots be supported with additional funding to assist graduate students and postdocs. As Congress continues to negotiate this package, UK will continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of the UK research enterprise.
Learn more →
|
|
|
|
|
There are three COVID-19 Unified Research Experts (CURE) Alliance teams.
PURPOSE:
- To facilitate and coordinate COVID-19 research within a given area at UK
- To align COVID-19 research in given area to funding opportunities
- To serve as a liaison both within and external to UK in area COVID-19 related research
TEAMS:
INTERNAL PILOT FUNDING:
July 13, 2020: Due to current commitments to many excellent applications, we are not accepting new applications for the UK CURE Alliance COVID Pilot Program. Availability of funds will be reevaluated in four to six weeks. Please contact Joel Thompson (joel.thompson@uky.edu) if you have any questions.
|
|
|
|
If you have general questions related to research operations during the COVID-19 pandemic or would like to report non-compliance of a laboratory or PI as it relates to the UK Resumption of Research Plan please email research-covid@uky.edu.
Below are specific contacts that provide specialized services to support our research community:
Biological Safety
Brandy Nelson, brandy.nelson@uky.edu, (859) 257-1049
Office of Sponsored Projects Administration (OSPA)
Contact your college RA or CGO, call (859) 257-9420, or visit www.research.uky.edu/office-sponsored-projects-administration
Office of Research Integrity (ORI) rs_ori@uky.edu, (859) 257-9428
Proposal Development Office (PDO) pdo@uky.edu
Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) otcinfo@uky.edu, (859) 323-1054
Office of the Attending Veterinarian
Mark Suckow, msuckow@uky.edu, (859) 257-1117 |
|
|
|
Contact Stacy Gaylor to manage your subscription
|
|
An Equal Opportunity University
|
|
|
|
|
|
|