Impact of COVID on Center Operations
The positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on center operations, including successful strategies implemented, triage of challenges, and new opportunities emerging. Learn how virtual tools, enhanced communication, and innovative approaches benefited the center in the long run.
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Presentation Transcript
Impact of COVID on Center Operations Positives: What was done that had a positive effect on the Center? How can this be implemented to benefit the Center in the long run? Negatives: What negative impacts did you see? How were these negatives triaged? Does the triage benefit the Center in the long run? How can the triage be implemented as a standard practice? Opportunities: What new opportunities were created by the pandemic that can be exploited by the Center? May be Center specific? 1
What were the Constants? R&D was generally not impacted Kept focus on goals Continued lab meetings and inter-lab discussions Continued with Center meetings and IPAB meetings (virtually) Centers generally reported little or no loss of IPAB membership 2
Positives Positive Impact Benefit to Center in Long Run Greater use of on-line tools Higher attendance with virtual meetings Was able to cast a wider net and include greater audience. Virtual events allowed us to have succinct and specific discussions on narrower topics. Kept meetings shorter and spread out. Make meetings interesting (i.e. trivia pursuit on the center; bet you didn t know that ). Greater discipline in meetings. May be norm as travel budgets are reduced going forward. Additional time to analyze data/write papers/proposals More creativity in REU programs and other educational programs Create network of education leaders in each ERC to share best practices. Datal analytics assignments worked well in REU. Allowed broader participation at a lower cost. Would any other topics work in a remote setting ? Ethics focus may work well. Modelling/Simulations could be done virtually. More time to work on processes (i.e. on- boarding, alumni tracking, etc.) Make sure that students are included in more center activiities Hosted more short courses/technical seminars Used new online tools (i.e. Gatherly, Grapevine) and improved digital literacy Not afraid to experiment with new digital technologies. Webex is standard by industry. Spatial Chat works well (everyone liked). Initial outreach more efficient Seemed to have greater calendar availability. Fuller calendars at pandemic eases means ILOs need to be more intentional in scheduling meetings Be mindful of zero transition time between meetings. 3
Negatives Negative Impact Triages to Benefit Center in Long Run Increase in mental health issues Students requested funds for mentoring . SLC organized a seminar to help assess concerns of students Increase in stress on faculty as well (especially young faculty) Students scattered, less connected Need to keep in close contact with students and others in center to make them aware there is concerns on their well-being. NSF has some wellness funds available. Remote events like paint night with connections done remotely. Inclusion Thursday training that also addresses Conferences/Networking events cancelled Inability to connect across labs reduced one-ness of center Lost membership fees ( 2 for 1 sale ) Job reassignments & retirements with IPAB and Center staff The COVID induced changes to the membership agreement actually bought time to connect with broader team at company after primary contact layed-off Member recruitment more challenging Challenge reading the audience during annual NSF Site Visits Industry travel budget may be affected long teram ERCs may need to increase travel budgets. Focus on high contact events (i.e. conferences) Create larger events in ERC that draws greater industry partcipation 4
Opportunities Opportunity How can we exploit? Demonstrated the regulatory process can be accelerated. Greater standardization in guidelines for approval of new medical devices (need to be aware of and tap into these changes). The US (FDA) may be easier than Europe (MDDR). Acceptance that life science innovations can translate to ROI More awareness of health care disparities Job opportunities and internships seeing rebound Looking forward to roaring 20 s Take advantage of new virtual networking tools as they have become refined. Fill gap in Supply Chain No slowdown in start-up formation (gunfinh drrmd yo nr sbsilsblr) 5
