Unless your research work is closely related to the national or global COVID-19 response, you’ll likely be working from home (WFH) by now.
Globally, many institutions are now closed in an effort to keep staff, students and the wider community safe. And no one knows when labs will reopen.
This means, with weeks or even months of social distancing measures ahead of us, lab-based research teams are having to radically adjust to continue their work.
Welcome to the new norm – WFH (with/without families), social distancing, and anxiety for loved ones and for work…
The key is to success in these challenging times is to be proactive rather than reactive, and take responsibility for the things you can control despite the external challenges. Over these past weeks, I’ve been sharing actions you can take to thrive during this lockdown period whilst WFH.
In part 3 of this 4-part series on WFH, I’ll be discussing how to progress your academic work if you’re no longer able to work in the lab.
Dealing with Uncertainty
- Experiments on hold
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for researchers is the psychological readjustment of putting experimental research projects on hold.
How much warning of lab closures you were given by your institution, will have dictated how much time you had to scale-down your experimental activities and prepare for the shutdown.
Putting experiments on hold or binning hugely expensive long-term experiments is painful. And scaling back certain types of research work is challenging (for example animal work).
Keeping breeding stocks going is imperative for certain models. Take for example the fruit fly (D. melanogaster). Flies cannot be frozen down and revived at a later date. Rather they need ‘tipping’ into a new container with fresh food every few weeks to keep stocks going. Valuable stocks of unique genetic lines will need to be maintained in this way whilst labs are closed.
Animal welfare is paramount and so special permits are in place in many countries to facilitate some onsite operations deemed necessary, provided social distancing measure are observed. This means running some essential operations with skeleton staff who are willing to work in shifts.
Uncertainty however surrounds the incurred costs associated with running some of these lab activities when supported by finite funding resources. Inevitability supporting ongoing research programmes will become increasingly difficult the longer that lockdowns are in place.
- Funding
Funding can be uncertain at the best of times. But right now, it’s an enormous unknown for many researchers.
Most funders will likely offer no cost extensions under the current circumstances. But how and if salary gaps will be met, may vary between countries, institutions, and funders. Some institutions are warning they may go under without government support, and looking forward it’s difficult to anticipate just how decimated the funding landscape will become during the economic downturn.
Some funders are in a position to provide excellent support for the researchers they support (e.g. Wellcome), but others including many fundraising charities are not. A ban on fundraising events and closure of charity shops, will result in a substantial loss of funding for many charities, and may impact their ability to fund research for the foreseeable future.
- Deadlines
In the wake of reduced research productivity and limited availability of funds in the future, there is a growing realisation that deadlines that were in place a few short weeks ago, may now need to be extended:
- Tenure: Many North American universities are now offering one-year extensions to their existing tenure track programmes
- Article submissions: Requests for deadline extensions to editors will inevitably increase, given the difficulties authors face in addressing peer review comments that require further experiments
- Grant deadlines: In response to the additional challenges faced by hopeful applicants, many funding bodies are extending deadlines on open calls. And in some cases, multiple annual deadlines are being consolidated into less rounds
- Thesis submissions: Research students are often on fixed deadlines (this is certainly the case in the UK for example). Funders and institutions may need to find ways to support students who need additional lab time to generate data for their theses
There’s certainly emerging evidence of significant deadline flexibility out there. But the level of flexibility available will depend on the unique circumstances of individual researchers; based on where they work, how well they’re supported, and who pays them…
So how do researchers deal with all this uncertainty?
It’s important to bear two things in mind:
- Realise as a lab-based researcher that it’s not possible to be as productive as before, and for now this is okay: This is a pandemic, so by definition is global. Many researchers are in the same boat and are dealing with equivalent difficulties, including competitor labs. With the exception of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 work, there will be an inevitable delay imposed on many research fields right now
- Stay connected! Seek support from your team, colleagues, collaborators, and friends. Bounce ideas around to keep you and your research going (see below)
Research in Lockdown
Now that experiments are on hold, so too is a major part of being an experimental scientist; designing, performing, analysing, and planning future experiments. For now at least, the huge time investment of wet-lab experimentation is gone.
There were certainly times in my career as a lab bench scientist, where I would’ve welcomed being freed from wet lab work for a finite period of time. This would have provided an opportunity to catch up on stuff that otherwise got pushed back – not least of all for writing.
Undoubtedly, the opportunity to concentrate on writing would have been a lot more welcome under less stressful conditions as a worldwide pandemic, but nonetheless the situation does provide you with a chance to catch up with reading, writing, and revisions.
Researchers all over the world will be eagerly writing; preparing articles, reviews, book chapters, theses, grant proposals, and critiquing papers. Publishing is the most important thing you can do for a research-active academic career, so use this time wisely to boost your CV.
Aside from writing though, there are other things you can do from home to push your research forward:
- Project planning: Extensive reading and writing always provides new understanding of your own work. Use this prolonged period of experimental downtime to brainstorm new ideas and prioritise future experiments for when you do get back in the lab
- Data crunching: This is an opportunity to organise and analyse data more carefully. If you have a bioinformatics component to your work you can repeat analyses in light of new data, where relevant. Think how publicly-available datasets can support your research. Perhaps you can use data that already exists in a new way?
- Online courses: You can use this time to upskill for free. Learn or improve techniques that can benefit your research such as programming, data processing, and graphics. Many MOOCs and Coursera courses allow you to enrol online for free
- Data presentation: You may have some spare time now to create beautiful figures or graphical abstracts to explain your work, for use in future publications, posters, and talks
- Conferences: In response to recent events, many conferences are shifting their programmes online. Spring would normally be the height of conference season, so some huge events felt pressured to make a quick decision and cancel (e.g. the ACS National Meeting and Expo, March 22-26, Philadelphia). Other events scheduled for later in the year are still deciding whether to go ahead or hold an online meeting (e.g. ESA Annual Meeting, August 2-7, Salt Lake City). But other organisers have already opted for an online format (e.g. the AACR will now be holding 2 virtual annual meetings on April 27-28 and June 22-24).
Reduced attendance costs, time saving, increased inclusivity, and reduced carbon footprint, certainly means there are advantages to online conferences, but time will tell if online versions of these ‘mega’ meetings are a success or not.
In the meantime, the shift to online meetings means there’s currently an opportunity to participate in more conferences than you otherwise might not have been able to. So keep a look out for how conference organisers in your field manage the situation in the coming weeks
- Keeping in touch: Keeping in touch with your research team on a regular basis is not only good for your own sanity whilst WFH, but can provide a regular dose of motivation, alongside important discussions to move your project along:
- Presenting data
- Discussing papers
- Collective brainstorming of ideas
- Troubleshooting
- Enjoying human contact!
Online Teaching
If teaching is part of your workload, you may now be tasked with providing remote instruction to students, alongside your research activities.
You may be completely new to this, but expected to deliver quality teaching all the same. If so, Coursera offers a free course where you can learn from other lecturers who have practical experience of teaching online.
I can see some potential advantages for teaching using an online format. So it might be a good investment to put in a bit of time into learning how to do this well:
- Reduced admin: Automated processes can reduce administrative loads (e.g. online quiz tools that provide automated marking), and the development of pre-recorded material that could be reused
- Increased flexibility: Potential for teaching outside non-traditional class times that fit better around your own schedule
- Increased inclusivity: A potential to reach wider audiences and increased participation (particularly from shyer students for example)
In Summary
- Globally, research labs have closed down for everything but coronavirus work, forcing most researchers to WFH
- The situation generates uncertainty around academic work, in particular funding, deadlines for ongoing projects, and the unknown of when experiments can resume
- It is possible however to make progress whilst WFH by concentrating on activities that push your research work forward, including:
- Writing
- Project planning
- Data crunching
- Upskilling
- Improving data presentations
- Participating in virtual conferences
- Meeting regularly online with colleagues and collaborators
- If you’re expected to deliver online teaching whilst WFH, learning how to do this well may have advantages for your post-pandemic teaching practice
Next time: Career planning. Dealing with the ‘What next?’ question and how you can use this time WFH to lay the foundations for your next career move, be it in academia or beyond…
‘Til then, stay home, stay safe, stay connected and speak soon!
Vicky (BB founder)
PS: What’s the biggest challenge WFH is putting on your academic work? Hit reply or leave a comment to let me know.