As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions of research and higher learning around the world are facing a wide variety of challenges. They must endeavor to continue research and learning while ensuring the safety of everyone on their campuses. The obstacles caused by this historic event are significant. Institutions have found that InfoReady is helping them face these challenges efficiently and gracefully.
UMass Lowell has utilized InfoReady to manage pandemic-related challenges in three ways. (1) When the pandemic forced campus closings in March, the university pivoted its internal seed grant program to fund research with direct and immediate impacts related to COVID-19. Using InfoReady, UMass Lowell accomplished the call for, submission, review, and funding of seed grants all in less than three weeks. (2) As the state began to lift restrictions, the University needed to conduct rolling reviews of re-entry to campus research labs following the University's health and safety plan. InfoReady Review facilitated this process and allowed rapid, collaborative review by a team that included university Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities Management, academic administrators and research leadership. And, (3) Most recently, the university is using InfoReady to collect and evaluate requests for office and classroom re-entry.
InfoReady is used by over 150 colleges and universities worldwide to manage internal grant solicitations, competitive workflows, and review / approval processes. The platform solicits proposals, collects them, routes them for review and approval among administrators, and then collects follow-on status reports from awarded parties.
Dr. Anne Maglia, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at UMass Lowell, commented on InfoReady's role in managing challenges related to COVID-19: “InfoReady Review allowed us to call for, collect and review proposals for seed grants and campus re-entry rapidly and efficiently. This helped the university to respond to the pandemic with speed, safety, and agility. We look forward to utilizing InfoReady to evaluate additional access requests in the months ahead.”
