The University of Maryland is further limiting research on campus laboratories through April 10 in an effort to avoid person-to-person contact amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a campuswide email.
Under “Severe Research Restrictions,” which must be put into place by Wednesday, all research and experimentation that requires researchers to be in the lab are put on hold until April 10, according to an email from provost Mary Ann Rankin and research vice president Laurie Locascio. Research related to covid-19 is exempt, the email read.
There will be other “limited” exceptions to the restrictions, the email stated, but researchers must apply to be considered. They must get approval from their school’s dean, in addition to the vice president for research in order to continue in-person research. That application is still being developed, according to the email.
[Read more: RNA research at UMD could give insight on novel coronavirus]
In the email, Rankin and Locascio encouraged researchers to conduct their work remotely if possible.
They instructed graduate research assistants and faculty advisers to “place research activities in a state where they can be restarted without loss of progress” once restrictions are lifted.
“We are not alone in this imperative,” they wrote. “Most of our peers across the country are being forced to take similar measures. It is important that we at the University of Maryland do our part to ‘flatten the curve’ of this pandemic.”
