Dear Research Faculty,​​

Last Monday, Phase 3 of Reopening UH started. This phase will prepare UH for the upcoming fall semester, which will bring students back to campus on August 24. Please note that DOR will continue to work remotely. We updated our COVID-19 Phase 3 Reopening UH website and will continue to keep abreast of state and UH developments. The NIH announced a large number of new COVID-19 related funding opportunities, which I would like to bring to your attention. In addition, I provide a link to a resource that those of you who are parents/guardians of K-12 students might find useful.

Funding Opportunities

The NIH announced a number of Emergency Awards RADx-RAD to detect, trace and screen for COVID-19:

• RFA-OD-20-014 (U01): Automatic Detection and Tracing of SARS-CoV-2
• RFA-OD-20-015 (U01): RADx-rad Wastewater Detection of SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)
• RFA-OD-20-016 (R01): RADx-RAD Multimodal COVID-19 surveillance methods for high risk clustered populations
• RFA-OD-20-017 (U18): Screening for COVID-19 by Electronic-Nose Technology (SCENT)
• RFA-OD-20-018 (U18): Exosome-based Non-traditional Technologies Towards Multi-Parametric and Integrated Approaches for SARS-CoV-2
• RFA-OD-20-019 (U24): RADx-rad Data Coordination Center (DCC)
• RFA-OD-20-020 (R44): Novel Biosensing for Screening, Diagnosis and Monitoring of COVID-19 From Skin and The Oral Cavity
• RFA-OD-20-021 (STTR): Novel Biosensing for Screening, Diagnosis and Monitoring of COVID-19 From Skin and The Oral Cavity
• RFA-OD-20-022 (U01): Chemosensory Testing as a COVID-19 Screening Tool

Parenting During COVID-19

The ad hoc grassroots working group, Parenting During COVID-19, compiled a list of Educational and Tutoring Online Resources for K-12 to help UH parents support their child’s educational needs. The pdf is also available through the Additional Resources page. If you want to learn more about this working group, please contact Ann Christensen, professor and chair of the Department of English (achrist@central.uh.edu). 

Travel Restrictions

The University of Houston has updated its travel restrictions and is restricting university-sanctioned travel for business or study through December 31. Exceptions will be processed by vice presidents for domestic business-related travel.

VPR Virtual Office Hours

The next VPR Virtual Office Hours will be on Friday, August 28, at 1 p.m. (please note the time). You will be able to access the event through the Research & Innovation Teams site. I hope that you will join us in a couple of weeks.

Best regards,

Amr Elnashai, FREng  
Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer