Assessing NASA's University Leadership Initiative (2021)
Chapter: Appendix A: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on ULI Projects
A
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on ULI Projects
Based on information received from the ULI program manager and the presentations made to the committee by some of the ULI awardees, it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic is having some negative impacts on funded projects.
The progress of the basic research has been significantly hampered for some of the ULI-funded projects. The pandemic has created somewhat of a slowdown, particularly for projects with significant experimental components. Most teams have limited or no access to experimental facilities on university campuses. Moreover, physical travel has been very limited due to the pandemic, necessitating that some of the teams change their originally planned collaboration mechanisms, such as conducting testing and having physical meetings at partnering institutions. The slowdown is more manageable for researchers conducting theoretical and computational work.
As a result of the pandemic, more teams are using virtual platforms such as Zoom and Webex for their regular meetings, with very limited or no physical meetings. The committee notes that if a project uses only face-to-face meetings, especially if travel is involved, then there are some people who are less likely to be able to participate—for example, people with caregiving responsibilities, those who are at institutions with high teaching loads, and people who work at companies and may have less time flexibility, including those at start-ups.
The ULI program manager indicated that NASA has been empathetic to the principal investigators, collaborators, students, and their industrial partners during the pandemic situation. Since March 2020, NASA has also been gathering information on a regular basis from the ULI awardees on the impact of the pandemic on the funded projects. Moreover, it appears that NASA is in support of the possibility of granting the teams a no-cost extension, if requested, for a length of time justified by the specific nature of the impact.
