UW Research

April 3, 2020

Message from Vice Provost for Research Mary Lidstrom: Governor updates allowable areas of research

Dear Colleagues,

On Tuesday, March 31, the Governor’s Office released new guidance to clarify certain areas of allowable work, which includes “workers and facilities supporting essential research, development, operations and clinical trials, including biotech therapies.“ This has the effect of broadening the allowable areas of research at the UW with regard to biotech therapies. Current UW policy on human subjects research, including clinical trials, already allows for this addition and therefore remains in effect without revision.

Additionally, please note that on April 2, Governor Inslee announced an extension of the Stay Home, Stay Healthy directive to May 4, 2020.  Therefore the Governor’s guidance from March 31 will be in effect to at least that date.

Below is an addition to the allowable areas of research at UW that are considered essential:

“All areas of biological and biomedical research and of public health research, including those that may involve engineering, materials science, chemistry or physics, that can be reasonably justified as important for developing biotechnology-related therapies, defined as therapies to treat human health problems. These areas need not be directly COVID-19 related. Allowable areas of non-COVID-19 research do not include preventative approaches, such as diagnostics or vaccines, unless they are important as part of an approach to develop a therapy. Involvement of human subjects in this research remains limited to the allowable areas specified by current UW human subjects policy.”

Even with this change, in order to minimize the number of researchers coming to laboratories and research facilities, we ask that you prioritize only research that is needed for a pressing deadline. If it can be put off for a month, please wait.

All conduct of allowable research must also minimize the number of researchers in the laboratory or other facility at any one time. The concept of a “skeleton crew” should be in place, but it could be a rotating crew. In that case, scheduling is critical.

Previous guidelines for in-person work are still in effect. Employees who are sick must stay home. And in-person research in any allowable research area can ONLY be carried out if it ALSO meets the following guidelines:

  • You are able to follow the required safety standards:
    • Regularly inform personnel that if they are sick or experiencing even mild symptoms of illness, they are required to stay home
    • Social distancing of at least 6 feet
    • Frequent laboratory decontamination and disinfection procedures
    • Personal safety with appropriate personal protective equipment and frequent hand-washing
  • You have personnel willing to carry out the research safely

No research personnel may be required or pressured to come to campus or to their usual work location or go into the field, unless they are designated critical personnel and they are ALSO required to maintain critical operations. However, if critical employees are in a high-risk category or are concerned about safety, supervisors are asked to do their best to accommodate their employees without impacting critical operations. If accommodations are not possible, please contact central Human Resources for problem solving and support.

Mary Lidstrom
Vice Provost for Research