ORCA Updates
Summer Quarter 2021
Recent news from the Office of Research & Creative Activities (ORCA)
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A Note From Vice Chancellor Wakimoto |
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I am delighted to introduce the inaugural issue of ORCA Updates from the UCLA Office of Research & Creative Activities (ORCA). This quarterly newsletter is intended to highlight current initiatives and news from my office.
This newsletter is being published as we continue to grapple with the wide-ranging impacts of COVID. The pandemic has been an incredibly difficult time for everyone, with disruptions across all facets of life. I am particularly attuned to the range of challenges that have faced the research and creative activities community at UCLA. Despite many obstacles, the campus community has continued to demonstrate a remarkable commitment to the research and creative activities that contribute so vitally to UCLA’s mission. To the campus community, I offer my thanks for your ongoing contributions to sustaining research and creative activities at UCLA.
For more information about ORCA and the research enterprise at UCLA, please visit research.ucla.edu.
Sincerely,
Roger Wakimoto
Vice Chancellor for Research & Creative Activities
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$1.6B in Extramural Support Awarded to UCLA |
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UCLA Awarded Exceptional Level of Extramural Support
For fiscal year 2020-2021, UCLA was awarded $1.6 billion in extramural support for research and creative activities. This record-breaking amount of extramural funding is a testament to the vitality of research and creative activities at UCLA and a recognition by funders of the continued significance and value of these undertakings.
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Report of the DataX Strategy Task Force Forthcoming
It is our hope that the Report of the DataX Strategy Task Force will be released soon. The product of extensive, bottom-up consultation, this report describes a bold, transformational, and inclusive strategy for our campus. It calls for two new entities:
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The DataX Institute will focus on: advancing cutting-edge data science and its applications; understanding its ethical, social and policy implications, as well as its possibilities for enhancing creative expression; and providing leadership for DataX research and education across campus.
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The DataX Support Network will focus on building capacity in using data across campus. Network staff will be embedded in nodes, situated in Schools and Divisions units; staff members will be fluent in the language and culture of the disciplines they serve. Creating and cultivating educational opportunities for students will be a major part of the DataX initiative. Equity, diversity, and inclusion will be a centerpiece of the initiative from the beginning; our ambition is to recruit, retain, and train the nation’s most diverse community of DataX scientists, scholars, critics, and practitioners.
Because it will take time to create these new entities—and time is of the essence—the report also recommends the creation of a transitional entity, the DataX Homeworld, which will begin implementation of the report‘s recommendations in the next academic year.
Vice Chancellor Wakimoto is also delighted to announce that there will be a new internal funding opportunity in data sciences as a prelude to DataX. Details coming soon!
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Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA)
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UCLA Committed to Returning Ancestors and Their Belongings to Their Homes
UCLA is committed to the repatriation of all human ancestors and their belongings to their descendants.
Background
In pursuit of this human rights initiative, which began in 1990 with the passing of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the UCLA repatriation team has consulted with hundreds of Tribes and Indigenous communities. The work is overseen by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities. Since 1997 the UCLA team tasked with these efforts has been led by the Fowler Museum’s Senior Curator of Archaeology, Dr. Wendy Giddens Teeter.
Current Progress
To date, 99% of Native American ancestors and their belongings under the control of UCLA have been repatriated. This level of success has been possible because of a commitment to listening to the Tribes and hearing their concerns and needs in these efforts. As Wendy Teeter describes it, the work of returning ancestors and cultural heritage that should never have been removed is hard, but inspiring.
Next Steps
Efforts have recently expanded through the new UC Cultural Affiliation Policy and California NAGPRA. Soon there will be new campus and systemwide repatriation committees seated, an expanded consultation guidance, and an intensified effort to identify applicable collections and ancestral remains on campus or with faculty. The UCLA team has also been collaborating with international Indigenous communities and governments to return sensitive cultural heritage and ancestral remains.
To more effectively carry out this endeavor, the team has hired multiple new members and will continue to hire students to be trained in repatriation procedures and assist the program in pursuing this vital work.
Questions?
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Internal Funding Programs |
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ORCA Fostering Research Across Campus with Internal Funding Programs
ORCA, in collaboration with several campus units, supports a number of internal funding programs designed to foster and accelerate research at UCLA.
Among the recent programs that have been administered by ORCA are the following:
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The UCLA Chancellor's Arts Initiative: Through a partnership between the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts (CCoA) and ORCA, funding was made available to directly support faculty research and creative activities in the arts. From a robust pool of applications, twelve projects were selected for funding (For more information about the awardees, see the UCLA Newsroom story). ORCA's co-sponsorship of this funding program reflects Vice Chancellor Wakimoto's ongoing commitment to ensuring the vitality of arts and creative activities as part of UCLA's research ecosystem (For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, see the UCLA Newsroom story).
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Racial and Social Justice Seed Grants: The Institute for American Cultures (IAC) in collaboration with ORCA recently awarded the first set of seed grants through this program, which is designed to help launch and support research projects demonstrably centered on exploring the sources and consequences of racial inequities and social justice. The list of awardees is forthcoming soon.
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Transdisciplinary Research Acceleration Grants: The review process recently concluded for this seed grant program, which is intended to catalyze transdisciplinary research and creative activities by supporting early stage projects. The awardees were selected from a compelling group of applications and will be announced soon.
In addition to ORCA internal funding programs, there are many programs available from other UCLA/UC units. ORCA compiles a list of these opportunities in our internal funding portal. If you have an opportunity you would like included, please fill out our form.
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Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) |
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Professor Deanna Needell Named Executive Director of IDRE
In a BruinPost on May 4, 2021, Jim Davis (Vice Provost, Office of Advanced Research Computing) and Roger Wakimoto (Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities) shared that Professor Deanna Needell, the Dunn Family Endowed Chair in Data Theory in the Department of Mathematics, accepted the position of executive director of the Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE).
Professor Needell's research encompasses many aspects of data science, with a focus on a broad range of societal challenges. As executive director, she will leverage her expertise to work with the IDRE board to help develop systems, methods, processes, programs, and policies that address the myriad opportunities and issues that surround innovative data-driven research.
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UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center |
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Dr. Thomas Rando Named Director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center
Please join ORCA in welcoming Dr. Thomas Rando to UCLA!
Dr. Rando has been appointed as director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, effective October 1, 2021.
Dr. Rando is currently professor of neurology and neurological sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is also director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging and deputy director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Dr. Rando has been actively engaged in building and leading academic programs that promote interdisciplinary and translational research and advance the careers of faculty and trainees throughout his more than two-decade career at Stanford.
The full announcement is available in the BruinPost.
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Research Infrastructure Report |
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Infrastructure Recommendations to Facilitate UCLA's Research Excellence
When the pandemic shut down the campus, a task force released a report on Research Infrastructure. UCLA has traditionally addressed topics such as maintenance, upgrades, or new infrastructure in an opportunistic manner rather than following a master plan with an institution-wide perspective. This process can lead to short-term solutions but will be suboptimal and not cost-effective in the long term. Moreover, it could lead to a slow deterioration of our infrastructure and hamper our recruitment of the next generation of researchers. The task force was asked to examine this topic and consider issues such as safety and health concerns, develop a set of guidelines for prioritizing infrastructure upgrades, depreciation and life-cycle management issues, and research infrastructure on north campus as well as south campus.
The report provides thoughtful background information and describes the challenges that the university faces. It recommends establishing a standing research infrastructure committee and develop guidelines for the prioritization of research infrastructure upgrades. The task force also highlighted the need for procedures for upgrading research infrastructure especially for those units that do not typically generate Facilities and Administrative (F&A) reimbursement. Developing and publicizing campus guidelines for space allocation was considered a high priority.
The task force completed its charge with the delivery of the report. As a follow-up, Vice Chancellor Wakimoto recently appointed another working group that is taking the recommendations from the report and devising an implementation plan for the campus to consider.
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Post-Pandemic Visioning Report |
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Guidance for Envisioning Post-Pandemic Research and Creative Activities
Acknowledging that research in the post-pandemic university can and should change in light of the new opportunities and deep concerns that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice Chancellor Wakimoto charged a committee to consider and propose long-term measures that will enable UCLA to rebuild toward a better future. The resultant document, “Envisioning Research in the Post-Pandemic University,” was written following expansive conversations with faculty, staff, and student researchers, as well as targeted interviews with administrators. The report is both a call to thought and a call to action for all researchers and for the broader campus community.
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