From the Dean: Update on federally funded research

As I shared in last week’s College meeting, at present we have only one federally funded project that has received a stop work order, and the institution (Office of the Vice President for Research, Human Resources, Graduate School, and Mary Frances Early College of Education) has worked with the principal investigator (PI) and department head to ensure continued funding for affected individuals through the end of the fiscal year. Associate dean Scott Ardoin has met with other PIs whose grants are at high risk for a stop work order given what we know about the types of grants that have been affected thus far.

We and the University continue to carefully monitor what is happening in Washington, and we have completed a College-level risk assessment for all federally funded grants. Over the next week, we will be communicating with department heads to develop contingency plans should there be additional changes to funding. We will continue to communicate directly with affected PIs and their department heads as the situation evolves.

One piece of advice that was shared during the College meeting last week was to download any data or other resources you use in research, teaching, or service activities that live on federal websites in case content is removed from those sites (e.g., What Works Clearinghouse). In a related vein, AERA recently shared that its partners at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) have an archive tool, Data Lumos, available for crowdsourcing government data. DataLumos accepts deposits of public data resources from the community and recommendations of public data resources that ICPSR itself might add to DataLumos. Faculty, whether or not they are AERA members, are able to use this site as a resource. ICPSR also offers the option to submit data via Dropbox. If uploading, formatting in this structure will be most helpful:

• Folder: Name of the study (e.g., National Survey of Family Growth)
  • Folder: Wave (NSFG 2019)
    • Files: Any CSV, DAT, etc. (documentation and data files are both welcome)

I recognize that the uncertainty and rapidly evolving situation are stressful for all of us. Please know that the institution and College are being proactive in managing our situation and reacting quickly as we receive new information. UGA is a member of organizations such as the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and the American Council on Education that have filed briefs and lawsuits related to research funding.