Our Research Mission is Really Important
On July 30, 2020, an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, propelling the Perseverance rover toward a landing on Mars. Its primary mission is big and audacious - hunt for signs of ancient life on our nearest neighbor planet. On Feb. 18, the team of project scientists and engineers watched as the rover touched down safely inside the Jezero Crater.
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Among the researchers watching anxiously was UF’s own Dr. Amy Williams, an assistant professor in geological sciences whose expertise is in peeling back the history of life through whispers left behind in rocks. Most of her work at UF involves understanding life’s history here on Earth, but in this case she is leading a project to search for evidence of life on Mars, one of only 13 chosen by NASA out of more than 100 proposals. Searching for life on another planet is hard, really hard. But at UF, we do hard things because the things we do are really important.
A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the UF research enterprise to make a hard pivot toward paused laboratory activities, remote workplaces and facial masking. For the final quarter of FY2020, the UF research enterprise was, like everything else, deep within the thickets of COVID-19 and its uncertainties.
Yet despite the headwinds of the pandemic, our researchers and staff kept their focus and determination. We adjusted our pace, protecting our people but keeping the research enterprise moving forward. Despite spending the 4th quarter in an unwelcome COVID reality, the UF research enterprise finished FY2020 with a record $900 million in awards, submitting a record 5,688 proposals. We also had a record $942 million in research expenditures.
Through the first two quarters of FY2021, we have set new records in proposal submissions, and research expenditures and awards are tracking last year’s record pace. These remarkable feats are a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the faculty, staff and students who make up the UF research enterprise. At UF, we do hard things, because the things we do are important.
COVID-19 has certainly changed the way we do business within UF Research, but we have not simply reacted to the pandemic. UF Research is taking the fight to COVID-19, having initiated some 500 research projects directed at this disease and its impacts.
We are taking our expertise and know-how directly into the battle for people currently impacted by COVID, including the treatment of COVID patients using the latest breakthroughs. Recently, a treatment known as monoclonal antibody therapy was shown to be effective at keeping the most vulnerable people who contract COVID-19, such as the elderly, out of the hospital and on the road to recovery. Monoclonal antibody therapy is a difficult treatment to administer, requiring a sophisticated laboratory setup that is not accessible for people in rural communities away from the UF Health medical complex. So what did UF do about it? A team from the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute built a mobile clinical laboratory to facilitate clinical research and deliver these treatments to COVID-19 patients outside of the Gainesville area. At UF, we do hard things, because the things we do are important.
Researchers at UF continue to drive forward in all areas, deploying every available tool to address challenges and opportunities. Within the state of Florida, our agriculture industry is among the best in the world, but needs to continuously improve to remain a leader in an increasingly competitive global landscape. Researchers in IFAS are coupling the UF AI initiative with drone technology in order to give Florida farmers an edge in protecting crops from disease and realizing higher yields. Again, at UF, we do hard things, because the things we do are important.
UF Innovate continues to push UF research discoveries into the market, accelerating our economy while bringing solutions for current and future challenges. Last year UF Innovate received 390 invention disclosures, licensed 264 technologies, launched 16 startup companies and had 143 patents issued. Both of our startup incubator facilities remained at or near 100% occupancy over the past 12 months, even as the national average was well below 50% due to the pandemic. And we continue to see incubator companies succeed.
Going forward, our resolve remains, our mission is unchanged. UF Research strives to make a difference, to positively impact our state, the nation and the world by creating new knowledge, translating knowledge into relevant impact, and creating the next generation of discoverers and leaders. Within the UF research community, we will always aim to do hard things, because the things we do are remarkably important.
– David Norton
Vice President for Research
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– Jump ahead with our Table of Contents –
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UF Research Aligns COVID-19 Guidance With Campus
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Effective immediately, UF Research will adopt the UF Campus COVID-19 Guidelines found at https://coronavirus.ufl.edu/resources/health-guidance/ as the requirements for UF research activities, with the exception of certain human subject research.
The previous requirements within the Research Resumption Plan, implemented last spring at the height of the pandemic, regarding limited numbers of persons per square foot, as well as the submission of proposed activities and personnel through the Research Activity Request portal, are no longer applicable. At present, the UF Campus COVID-19 guidelines include physical distancing, face coverings, hand hygiene, and isolation if ill.
This alignment of COVID-19 safety guidance for research and non-research activities is based on the past year’s experiences managing transmission risks within UF workspace, laboratories and classrooms; the current availability of vaccines to all adults in the state of Florida; and the University’s anticipated plans for the Summer B and Fall terms. Unified guidance across the institution is intended to make it easier for all employees and students to comply with the University’s requirements and expectations.
Human subject research that requires person-to-person proximity less than that prescribed by UF Campus COVID-19 Guidelines should follow the additional PPE guidance provided by UF Health at https://bridge.ufhealth.org/response/clinical-guidance-for-patient-care/. At present, human subject research requires that research staff wear, at minimum, surgical masks and eye protection.
UF Research thanks all the members of the UF research community for their care and dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Jim O'Connell
Assistant Vice President for Commercialization,
Director of UF Innovate
Jim O'Connell is a former military helicopter pilot who "relaxes" with off-road cycling, so he appreciates the risk-taking mentality of the inventors and entrepreneurs who come to UF Innovate for advice and support.
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As assistant vice president for commercialization and director of UF Innovate, O’Connell and his team are responsible for finding and promoting products with potential within UF’s $950 million dollar research enterprise.
“My job is to find and protect intellectual property created at the university,” O’Connell said. “Then we take things with the potential for commercial success, back them and find someone in the outside world who wants to take that technology and try to make something of it.”
Some examples of companies that have emerged from UF research projects include Brammer Bio, which was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific for $1.7 billion; Axogen, a peripheral nerve regeneration and repair technology which has a market capitalization of $720 million; Pasteuria Biosciences, an agricultural biotech company, which was acquired by Syngenta, one of the world’s leading agricultural companies, in 2012 for $113 million and AavantiBio, a genetic therapy company with more than $100 million in funds. Luxturna, the first FDA approved gene therapy for a genetic disorder, was also developed in part by UF researchers.
“This is stuff that impacts the world and there's UF technology in it,” O’Connell said. “These are examples of UF technology being so important that we can get that kind of investment into a company.”
O’Connell came to the United States from Ireland when he was 3 years old and grew up in the northeast U.S. He attended college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on an ROTC scholarship.
His original plan was to become an engineer in the Air Force, serve his four-year term and then get out, however, O’Connell ended up having a 10-year career as a helicopter pilot.
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Jim O'Connell served as a helicopter pilot in the Air Force for 10 years.
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After O’Connell’s military career, he worked in the medical device industry and at two startup companies until entering academia. He also worked at the University of Michigan and the University of Miami in similar roles to his current role at UF.
To keep up with the former thrills of being a helicopter pilot, O’Connell is an avid cyclist, biking over 3,500 miles each year.
“I liked the risk involved in flying. I was pretty good at it as a helicopter pilot,” O’Connell said. “After I stopped flying, I found cycling as an outlet for some of that risk-taking and interacting with a machine.”
In addition to cycling and mountain biking as a hobby, O’Connell also competes in cyclocross competitions.
O’Connell has a vision for his involvement with the university and beyond.
“I believe UF has to play a more impactful role across the entire state of Florida, and I’m trying to figure how we can engage with other communities,” O’Connell said. “We need to do this because we are a world-class university, and that’s what world-class universities do.”
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CAS Exemptions
Did you know that you can complete the CAS exemption smart form in UFIRST concurrent with your UFIRST award set up? As a reminder, a CAS exemption request should be submitted anytime you believe you have an exceptional or unusual circumstance that would warrant the direct charging of costs to a federal award that are normally unallowable or normally treated as F&A (indirect costs). Completion of the CAS exemption form as part of award set up entry into UFIRST allows the form to route for review and approval at the same time the award is entered into UF’s financial system (myUFL).
Account codes for costs that are categorized as normally unallowable or normally treated as F&A are blocked from use on federal awards (fund code 201) in myUFL. Upon approval of a CAS exemption request, associated account codes are unblocked in myUFL. Once unblocked, these account codes are now available for use on your federal award. So do not wait, streamline your process and make things easier for those in your unit responsible for posting costs to your awards by completing these requests with your UFIRST award entry. You can learn more about the Cost Accounting Standards by visiting UF’s Costing Guidelines site. |
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Research Development Spotlight
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Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity
While the National Institutes of Health has long supported programs to improve the diversity of the scientific workforce, those efforts have not been sufficient to achieve racial equity across the biomedical research enterprise. Through a new effort called UNITE, NIH has begun to identify short-term and long-term actions to end structural racism and racial inequities throughout the biomedical research enterprise. Part of ending racial inequities in biomedical research will be to ensure NIH-supported research benefits the health of all populations, especially those whose health is negatively impacted by racism. For this reason, conducting new research into health disparities, minority health, and health equity is an important goal of UNITE.
In America, health disparities remain a persistent issue affecting racial/ethnic minority populations and other groups. These individuals have higher rates of certain diseases and death compared to the general population, despite scientific and technological discoveries that have improved the health of the U.S. population overall. The science of health disparities continues to advance; however, more research is required to improve, reduce, and ultimately, eliminate health disparities and health inequities.
As part of UNITE, the NIH Common Fund has developed the Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative to support unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in developing, disseminating, or implementing innovative and effective interventions that prevent, reduce or eliminate health disparities and health inequities.
The Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative is soliciting applications to support collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists. No preliminary data are required. Projects must clearly demonstrate, based on the strength of the logic, a compelling potential to produce a major impact in addressing health disparities and inequities.
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UF forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield in her lab on campus. (Photo by John Jernigan)
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New Explore Magazine
The Spring 2021 issue of UF’s Explore magazine is out! Learn about the important work forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield is doing to help Tulsa, Oklahoma, bring closure to a century-old racial massacre.
Other stories include how artificial intelligence is impacting Florida agriculture; what new Director Duane Mitchell has planned for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Black Voices in Research; an introduction to the Biodiversity Institute; and geologist Amy Williams’ work on the Perseverance rover mission to Mars.
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