November 2018

Dear Colleagues:

I was delighted to learn about the first annual Immuno“XX”: Women in Immunology Symposium held last month. Immuno“XX” is an exciting community-building initiative organized by graduate students Tara McIntyre, Camillia Azimi, and Casey Burnett and hosted by ImmunoX. The inaugural event was a huge success, and I am glad to report that it has already secured support for 2019. More details to follow in the coming months.

I also am glad to include in this and subsequent issues a link to my colleague Barry Selick, vice chancellor for Innovation Ventures, and his team’s quarterly newsletter (November 2018). This will allow me to share updates about the success of industry partnerships (while taking it easy on your inbox).

Please read on for other highlights and items important to our research community.

Regards,
Vice Chancellor Lindsey Criswell

UCSF Research Recognized by Former Vice President Biden:

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden recently recognized UCSF research by highlighting the AliveAndKickn HEROIC Mosaic Research Community on his Cancer Initiative speaking tour. A new Open Proposals-based forum for researchers and patients with Lynch syndrome, Mosaic was one of fifty-seven groups featured at the Biden Cancer Summit held in September and one of a select few that personally met with Biden.

Save the Date! “Genomic Advances Throughout the Lifespan”:

On December 7, the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics will bring together genomics leaders from UCSF, Canada, and England at the “Genomic Advances Throughout the Lifespan Symposium.” The program organizers are Drs. Neil Risch, Aleksandar Rajkovic, and Atul Butte. The UCSF speakers are Drs. Rajkovic, Maren T. Scheuner-Purcell, and Franklin Huang joined by Drs. Willem H. Ouwehand (University of Cambridge) and Cornelius Boerkoel (University of British Columbia).

UCSF Town Hall! Accelerating Open Access Publishing at UC through Negotiations with Elsevier:

This Academic Senate and Library sponsored UCSF Town Hall on December 10 is part of a major outreach initiative to both inform and engage faculty about the ongoing UC/Elsevier negotiations. All faculty are encouraged to attend the Town Hall either in person or via livestream. The UC/Elsevier contract ends on December 31, 2018, and for the first time, UC is proposing both cost reductions and open access (OA) publishing as part of its negotiations. The event will focus on the goals of UC’s negotiations with Elsevier and address potential issues concerning access to Elsevier journal content in the event that they do not reach an agreement. Elsevier is the largest publisher of UC content (~18%), and systemwide, UC spends more than 25% of its $40 million annual journals budget subscribing to Elsevier content. Elsevier has also been collecting close to $1 million in open access fees from UC authors each year on top of UC’s subscription payments. Therefore, these negotiations are intended to help control rising costs, align UC’s payments with its institutional OA goals, and support its mission as a publicly-funded institution. Similar contract negotiations with Elsevier (e.g., in Europe) have attracted broad attention in the media and are helping to accelerate the transformation of scholarly communication to a system that is more open and sustainable.

Upcoming Events:

  • Parnassus Campus “Lightning Talks” – The Parnassus Campus “Lightning Talks” begin on November 27 as a recurring forum for researchers to hear updates on the Parnassus Rejuvenation. The format is informal, with a 5-10 minute presentation followed by an open discussion to generate ideas and answer questions.
  • Research-Related Resources (3Rs) Symposium – Are you new to research at UCSF? Do you know about all available UCSF resources? On December 3 the inaugural Research-Related Resources (3Rs) Symposium will convene, and research providers will present a day-long, deep dive into resources available to assist your research mission.
  • Mixed methods: The good, the bad and the unexpected – On December 7 join an engaging seminar and discussion about mixed methods in implementation research. Our speakers will describe their innovative research projects and address the challenges, advantages, and surprises of blending quantitative and qualitative methods.
  • Implementation Science and the Clinical Researcher – Plan ahead to attend this exciting panel discussion and networking event on December 11 focused on the intersection of clinical research and implementation science. Panelists will include: Drs. Claire Brindis and Margaret Handley.
  • Marcus Symposium 2 – You are cordially invited to join this event on January 29, which will showcase research from past Marcus Award recipients as well as foster faculty networking toward new collaborative research efforts.

Research Funding Opportunities:

Infrastructure and Operations:

  • Update! AAALAC Animal Program Site Visit – With excellent participation from the UCSF research community, preliminary feedback from the AAALAC site visit in October was highly favorable – thank you, all!
  • IRB and eProposal Update – iRIS, the online proposal and application system, was successfully updated in October. Log on to the iRIS help website IRB and eProposal tabs for step-by-step interactive tutorials and quick guides.
  • Process Improvements Implemented to Reduce Study Start-up Time – They include: 1) All sponsored-paid clinical trials will now be put through a new fast-track “CA-Lite” process whereby the study calendar and coverage analysis are done concurrently; 2) the PI approval requirement for the Medicare Coverage Analysis will be removed, reducing delays between the study team and coverage analysts; and 3) Form 700U’s will be generated when the study is ready for calendar build, allowing for positive disclosures to be worked on by the COI Committee in parallel with OCR processes.

Training and Tools:

  • New! Industry-Sponsored Clinical Trials Budget Template Available – The Office of Clinical Research has launched a new budget template for industry-sponsored clinical trials, available to teams wishing to jumpstart the budget process while coverage analysis is performed. Template sections include: Protocol Required Procedures, Study Personnel Cost, Institutional Required Fees, and Invoiceable Cost.
  • Large Grant Development Program – If your team is gearing up to prepare a large, multi-investigator proposal this fall/winter and would like some support from our Large Grant Development Program, please reach out to Program Manager Kristin Dolan.
  • Designing Individual-Level Implementation Strategies – Online course now enrolling for Winter 2019. Learn to apply widely used behavior change theories and implementation science frameworks to understand determinants of behavior, and develop targeted interventions to facilitate the uptake of evidence into practice and community health. Register by December 20.
  • Program Evaluation in Clinical and Public Health Settings – Online course now enrolling for Winter 2019. This course will familiarize participants with approaches to evaluating an evidence-informed health program or intervention implemented in a clinical or public health setting. Register by December 20.

Useful Links:

  • NIH Updates – One stop informational shop for daily NIH announcements including: continuous submission, submission/resubmission policy reminders, RPPR updates, 2018 Common Rule, Basic Sciences Studies, fixed amount awards, fellowship/research/career development applications updates, and much more . . .
  • MATLAB Access – MATLAB, the world's leading computational platform for engineering, scientific, and mathematic applications, is now available to all faculty, researchers, and students for use on personal computers and laptops.
  • Research Advisory Board – The Research Advisory Board (RAB) is charged with identifying research-related issues important to investigators and to work with the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost on improving operations that affect research. Have an issue you would like the RAB to discuss? Send an email with “RAB” in the subject line.