Dear colleagues,
Our department leadership continues to engage closely with university and health system leaders to discuss how to best support our faculty and teams impacted by the suspension of federal research funding. In addition to these efforts, our department has been advancing its own response and contingency planning which is guided by our commitment to sustaining our research mission beyond this challenging moment in time. As we learn new information and circumstances evolve each day, our response remains rooted in our shared priorities: maintaining research operations, supporting the next generation of investigators, and continuing to drive innovation at UCLA.
We also understand that this period of uncertainty can be frustrating, and it may feel like progress is not happening quickly enough. We acknowledge your concerns and while there is a lot of work happening behind the scenes, we aim to be transparent and keep you informed of the steps that we are taking each week to support our people and our research programs.
This week, we met with leadership from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA to discuss the mechanics of centralized bridge funding that will complement our department’s response. While these discussions are ongoing, the department will sustain research operations at current levels as details are worked out with the school. Starting next week, the department will be meeting first with division chiefs and then scheduling one-on-one meetings with impacted investigators to discuss the specific operational needs of their laboratories. We will use these conversations to align short term and long-term support with our contingency planning efforts should the suspension be prolonged.
Our department is prioritizing salary support for faculty, trainees and staff. As previously communicated, we are committing to maintain full salary support for our K awardees and will be working to manage the impact of loss of funding on PI salaries, with a goal of reducing the consequences of funding suspension to the greatest extent possible. The school is committed to ensuring that support of impacted trainees, such as graduate students and career development trainees will continue. We will be sending specific requests to impacted faculty ahead of scheduled meetings, and will use that information to inform our meetings and our short term and long term strategy for sustaining our research enterprise.
We strongly believe that our department will successfully overcome the challenges we are facing and emerge stronger. Our collaborative work with the school of medicine, health system, division leadership and each of you will help place our research mission on a sustainable path during this difficult period. Thank you for your patience, partnership, and dedication as we work proactively towards solutions that allow research to thrive in the department of medicine.
Sincerely,
E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD
William S. Adams Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Chair and Executive Medical Director
Department of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Health
Judith S. Currier, MD
Professor of Medicine
Executive Vice Chair for Research, Department of Medicine
Sue and Michael Steinberg Chair in Global AIDS Research
Gregory A. Brent, MD
Senior Executive Academic Vice Chair
Department of Medicine
Professor of Medicine and Physiology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
