New fund supports faculty members struggling with pandemic-related career disruptions

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to place an immense burden on families, with a disproportionate impact on women. The UCSF Faculty Resource Fund offers two levels of awards to support faculty members struggling with disruption of work-life balance or research activity funding during the pandemic.

The deadline to apply for these awards is March 9.

Read the announcement of the new funds from UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to announce a second call for applications for the Faculty Resource Fund, which is support by gifts from UCSF Foundation Board members. The goal of this fund is to support faculty who are facing challenges due to pandemic-related caregiving responsibilities. Research has shown that pandemic-related caregiving burdens are disproportionately affecting women faculty members’ productivity and exacerbating gender inequities. Our hope is that we can support interventions to allow our faculty to continue their important work and maintain their academic career progression.

We will have two levels of awards:

• For faculty with significant stressors due to pandemic-related disruption of to their home-work life balance, this fund will provide awards of approximately $500 - $5,000 to support creative solutions that allow faculty greater ease in advancing their work (such as submitting grants or papers). Examples of potential award uses include: part-time funding of a grant writer, technical writer, graphic designer, copyeditor, or statistics support.

• For faculty with pandemic-related reductions in their ability to fund their research programs, this fund will provide awards of $25,000 to apply toward solutions to sustain research productivity (e.g., support for a part-time lab technician or other research costs). These awards will benefit not only the individual faculty member, but also those they employ through their academic programs.

Please note:

• To be considered, applications must describe the pandemic-related care giving burden you are experiencing.
• Funds are not intended to provide salary support for the faculty member but may be used to support other staff.
• Applicants funded in the first round are not eligible for a second grant with the exception of K Scholars who received grants from the smaller grant category and are now eligible to apply for the larger grant.
• Depending on demand, awards may be funded at a lower level.

Please find the application and more details online. Our goal is to nimbly deploy this funding, so the application deadline for the second round of funding is March 9. Please contact [email protected] with any questions about the process.

Sincerely,

Sam Hawgood, MBBS

Chancellor

Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor