This message is sent on behalf of URI’s Vice President for Research & Economic Development and URI’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

As you all know, Governor Gina Raimondo has issued a stay-at-home order that is in place until May 8, and then subject to potential renewal at that time. To comply with this order, all of our employees and students should stay home as much as possible. For our research community and mission, we are asking that only those persons who must engage in time-sensitive and essential research come to campus and access our University buildings and laboratories.

For any individuals coming into our buildings, we insist on the following health practices:

• Adherence to all CDC recommendations for interpersonal social distancing, mask use, sanitization and hygiene, including:
• Maintaining 6-foot interpersonal distances,
• Under no circumstances should groups larger than 3 individuals congregate together in any room or common area of any University building, and
• Each principal investigator (PI) must create and maintain a staffing calendar that will ensure that all trainees and staff are adhering to all CDC social distancing guidance when in any of our academic buildings.
• Review of all health guidelines available.

Time-sensitive and essential research is defined as:

• Active research intended to improve the ability to detect, diagnosis, treat or protect others from the COVID-19 virus.
• Continuation of ongoing research that, if halted, would compromise the accrued value of one or more year’s work to date, such as studies involving multi-year longitudinal data collection.
• Access to laboratories to ensure the integrity of biological samples (e.g., cell cultures), to provide required maintenance of expensive equipment, or to maintain the health, nutrition, and/or proper care of live animals and plants.
• Research projects that a principal investigator (PI) deems to be essential for near-term grant submissions.
• Active graduate student research that must be conducted at this time only for students who are scheduled to defend their dissertation/thesis during the 2020 calendar year.

The following categories of research should be temporarily suspended:

• The initiation of any new research that requires use of animal care facilities.
• Any research involving in-person human contact.
• Any research that can be halted and re-started at a later date deemed to be safe for faculty, staff, and students.

We fully expect all PI’s, other researchers, graduate students and staff to responsibly adhere to the above guidance and to exercise their best judgement in allowing access to URI research facilities. If, in the estimation of college deans, the vice president for research or provost, any lab group fails to abide by this guidance, access to University facilities will be temporarily suspended.

In the coming weeks, we will provide new guidance on how we will plan to eventually ramp back up our research and creative works on campus, at such time that the governor’s stay-at-home order is lifted.

Thank you,

Peter J. Snyder, PhD
Vice President for Research & Economic Development

Donald DeHayes, PhD
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost