To: OSU faculty and staff
From: Irem Tumer, Interim Vice Provost for Research
Date: May 1, 2020
OSU colleagues,
Oregon State University’s COVID-19 Continuity Management Team is developing several scenarios to enable a phased reopening of university teaching, research and outreach operations once Oregon Gov. Kate Brown permits a phased re-opening of Oregon. As part of the university’s planning our goal is to ramp up OSU’s research enterprise in as timely, safe and effective a manner as possible.
I have charged the new Task Force for Research Continuity and Resilience to inform this effort. The task force is led by Oregon Sea Grant Director Shelby Walker and will play an instrumental role in developing guiding principles and a framework to enable a coordinated research approach across the university.
Given the decentralized nature of OSU’s research enterprise, with research taking place in colleges as well as centers and institutes, the task force’s work to align efforts across the university will be a key part of successful collaboration to restore research activities. Task force members will reach out to university colleagues to gain insights and various perspectives to this planning. Members will work closely with associate deans for research in each college, center and institute directors, and colleagues in human resources, environmental health and safety, information technology, the Institutional Review Board, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and others.
Thank you in advance for your willingness to collaborate in a successful effort to resume research activities while providing for the health and safety of OSU community members. If you have input that you would like to contribute to the task force, please communicate with your college’s associate dean for research or your center or institute director. They will collect input and share it with the task force, which will periodically post progress and updates on its website.
Although we have all been presented with challenges, I am heartened by your continued commitment to pursue research and scholarship in creative ways while learning to teach and work remotely and accommodate life changes during these unprecedented times. Thank you also for your efforts to guide your students toward timely completion of their degrees and for leading laboratory and field staff creatively to maintain their productive engagement in grant-funded activities.
Be assured that I appreciate your commitment to OSU’s research enterprise and the extraordinary scholarship you pursue to serve Oregon, the nation and the world.
Sincerely,
Irem Y. Tumer, Ph.D., ASME Fellow
Vice President for Research, Interim