Update on Federal Research Contracts and Vaccinations
In recent weeks, the University of Florida has been working to address incompatibilities between vaccine requirements in new and modified existing federal research contracts and Florida law HB 1-B, signed by the governor on Nov. 18, which prohibits public universities within the State of Florida from entering into federal contracts that contain a vaccine mandate clause.
On Dec. 7, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted a nationwide preliminary injunction against enforcement of Executive Order 14042 involving the vaccine mandate for federal contractors. This injunction temporarily releases federal contractors, such as UF, from contract requirements related to the vaccine mandate. We are currently executing new and existing federal contracts unimpeded.
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UF and Scripps Finalize Integration
The University of Florida and California-based Scripps Research have signed a definitive agreement to welcome the Florida branch of the science powerhouse into the research arm of UF’s academic health center — a step aimed at accelerating the translation of basic scientific discoveries into clinical advances that benefit human health in the state and beyond. The operational transition will begin this week.
The integration is intended to celebrate and strengthen ongoing research at Scripps Florida, which has a stellar global reputation, while leveraging opportunities to explore avenues of mutual interest and providing Scripps with a strong clinical partner. The goal? To build on the excellent scientific work taking place to more expediently unlock clinical advances that improve outcomes for patients in the state and around the world, officials from both organizations said.
“We are excited to work collaboratively with our colleagues at Scripps to rapidly take discoveries made at the bench to the bedside, where they can have the most benefit to humanity,” said David R. Nelson, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “We are looking forward to cultivating a culture of innovation that will extend from the outstanding science already underway.”
As part of the agreement, Scripps will transfer all assets associated with the 30-acre Scripps Florida campus in Jupiter, situated within Palm Beach County’s innovation corridor — property, buildings, equipment and adjacent 70-acre tract to the University of Florida. The campus, one of the top National Institutes of Health-supported research centers in the state, includes more than 40 faculty-led laboratories supported by a 500-member team dedicated to understanding an array of illnesses and seeking to generate effective treatments.
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In addition, UF and UF Health have committed to work with Scripps Florida leadership to immediately invest in the new entity by hiring additional faculty; these new recruits will come on board within the next five years and will complement the existing talented pool of scientists there, possibly expanding efforts in the artificial intelligence domain by hiring faculty focused on areas such as data science and AI. Other natural areas of collaboration with colleagues in other parts of UF Health potentially include cancer, drug discovery, immunology and infectious disease, neuroscience (including Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases, as well as autism), HIV/AIDS, and structural biology and molecular medicine.
Scripps Florida researchers are regularly heralded for their pioneering discoveries that have led to hundreds of patents and numerous spinoff companies. They are behind a robust research profile, with nearly $50 million in NIH funding and over $67 million in total research funding, which includes industry support.
As part of the arrangement, a site director and local leadership council will be appointed for the entity, which will be organized and operated independently and report to Nelson. Scripps scientists will join the UF faculty and also will retain an additional Scripps title.
“This integration between the University of Florida and Scripps Florida will create unprecedented collaboration among some of the world’s most brilliant and talented minds to address the biggest biomedical challenges we face today,” said Mori Hosseini, UF Board of Trustees chair. “Not only will this produce enormous scientific and health-related advancements for the entire world, it also will lead to tremendous economic development and further elevated national and global stature for the state of Florida.”
UF President Kent Fuchs said the stage is set for the new entity to be a significant force for progress and for the door to open to new scientific and tech collaborations with others, including other State University System institutions such as Florida Atlantic and Florida International universities.
“With our deep faculty benches at UF, UF Health and Scripps — along with our combined resources and impressive research capacity — I fully expect we will see absolutely remarkable discoveries in the years to come that will benefit the state, the nation and the world,” Fuchs said.
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Now you can listen to narrated stories from UF’s Explore research magazine.
Each professionally recorded, 10- to 15-minute episode introduces you to some of the amazing science under way at UF while you’re doing other things – like commuting to work, going for a walk or cutting the lawn.
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You can find the audio versions embedded into the online version of selected Explore stories at https://explore.research.ufl.edu or get them on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/2KQdfACc0CnceTFBKFdqbk
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Leveraging Seed Grants For Success
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Interdisciplinary projects are the cornerstone of success in today’s research environment. Toward this end, UF Research provides seed funds for collaborative projects involving faculty who may not normally engage in these high-risk, high-reward projects.
The annual Research Opportunity Seed Fund (ROSF) program has launched several such projects, and in 2020, so did the AI Catalyst fund. Here are two examples of recent success stories.
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Hassan Azad, an assistant professor of architecture, and Ian Flood, a professor from the Rinker School of Building Construction, leveraged an AI Catalyst fund grant into a new National Science Foundation team science grant with Sanjay Ranka from UF, Laurie Heller of Carnegie Mellon University and Kol Kachi of Mississippi State.
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The NSF-funded pilot will create new methods of using remote sensing technology to measure, record, and analyze the environmental noise in large scales for cities. The project integrates the socio-acoustic impacts of noise with real-time data to address community needs and adjust noise monitoring programs. This project will recognize and categorize the noise events in terms of the community’s acoustic discomfort, quantify the health impacts of environmental noise on the community, and create an automatically adjusting noise monitoring system.
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In another example, James Liao of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and UF’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience received a 2019 ROSF award for a team project involving Alberto Canestrelli from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and Kai Lorenzen, a professor of integrative fisheries science in IFAS.
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The team successfully leveraged this seed grant into an NSF award to study how swarming animals maneuver and navigate. Understanding these behaviors becomes particularly relevant since most economically and ecologically important fishes are schooling fishes that swim together in the millions and migrate hundreds of miles through turbulent ocean currents.
“My seed award was to investigate fish schooling hydrodynamics. This supported my graduate student to collect preliminary data, which was then used to obtain an NSF Physics of Living Systems grant of $540,000 over 3 years,” Liao said. “These seed awards make a difference. Thanks to all involved for making this opportunity possible!”
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Department of Energy Workshop
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Forrest Masters (left) and Thomas Hunter
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– Research Development Series –
Engaging the DOE
1-4 p.m., Thursday, January 13, 2022
Location: The Chamber in the Reitz Union
Join us for a “behind the scenes” look at the U.S. Department of Energy, one of the most complex and dynamic federal organizations and a significant funding partner. In 2020, UF researchers received nearly $18 million in DOE funding.
Forrest Masters, associate dean for research and facilities in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, and Thomas Hunter, former president of Sandia Corporation and director of Sandia National Laboratories, will:
- Explain the history, current mission, organization and culture of the DOE
- Explore its active research portfolio, current needs and future priorities
- Demystify how the DOE enterprise supports university research
The program is designed to help UF researchers develop a strategic approach to funding their research program. This includes how to effectively respond to a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and how to develop a long-term working relationship with a DOE National Laboratory.
“Most people know that DOE supports research in nuclear and fusion science; fossil fuels; electricity distribution, energy storage/efficiency; renewable energy, e.g., hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal; high-energy particle physics; advanced computing; and other areas vital to the national interest,” Masters said. “However, the department actually supports a much broader range of research, including astrophysics, advanced manufacturing, building weatherization, sustainable transportation and vehicle technologies, laser and optical science, geophysics, ecology, climate modeling, genomics, semiconductors, and much more. In fact, the DOE supports research in many of the same areas as the DOD, NIH, NSF, USDOT and other federal agencies. If those agencies can support your research, then you very likely can support the DOE mission.”
Faculty, postdocs, graduate research students, and research administrators are welcome to attend.
Register at https://www.eng.ufl.edu/engagingthedoe/registration/ |
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Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul Receives ASGSR's 2021 Founder's Award
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UF | ICBR Director and one of the Principal Investigators for the UF Space Plants Lab, Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul, was recently honored as recipient of the 2021 Founder's Award from the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research.
The prestigious award celebrated Dr. Paul's work observing stress responses and modulations of plants subjected to the novel environment of space.
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The publication, "Epigenomic Regulators Elongator Complex Subunit 2 and Methyltransferase 1 Differentially Condition the Spaceflight Response in Arabidopsis," was highlighted by Frontiers in September of this year.
"I am really honored to be recognized by ASGSR in this way," Dr. Paul remarked, "and I feel very fortunate to be able to contribute to the Society’s mission to further space exploration, and the science that makes it all possible."
This award is the highest honor given by the Society. It is made to a member of the Society for distinguished scientific contributions to and leadership in the field of gravitational research.
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