NOVEMBER 19, 2025

Dear colleagues, 

November brings the spirit of Thanksgiving — a time to reflect, express gratitude, and honor our histories, traditions, and sense of community. Thanksgiving time can be a kind of refuge for faculty, staff, and students alike — a time to catch up, regroup, and reconnect with those around us before making the final end-of-semester push. This year's unprecedented challenges and the ripple effects they have caused make it even more important to care for ourselves and for others. In this season of thankfulness, let's continue to support one another, assume goodwill, and work together to find solutions for the problems we face. Small acts of kindness and collaboration can make a big difference during times like these.  

Amid the fresh obstacles brought by the government shutdown during the past month, I’m grateful that there have also been many achievements to celebrate and exciting new opportunities for our research community to pursue. Along with Associate Vice President for Global Affairs, Ngozi Toffe, I recently had the pleasure of representing UConn at the U21 Global Senior Research Leader Meeting. For those who are not already familiar with U21, it is an international network of research universities that UConn has been an active member of since 2010. U21 offers its members opportunities to expand their international reach (including study abroad), engage in professional development (Early Career and Mid-Career programs), and develop new research collaborations. I encourage you to explore the U21’s website for possible opportunities available to you and your students.  

During this meeting, Ngozi and I engaged with 93 other delegates from 28 U21 partner universities, sharing ideas about how to address many collective challenges and discussing potential new collaborations. We learned that many of our current concerns are shared by our global colleagues. Like us, our international peers are working to strengthen the public’s trust and understanding of higher education and the role of science in our society. We share the common responsibility of using research to make societal progress. Discussing strategies to address these needs was a priority of the meeting. Initiatives like creating databases to show the public how research generates economic development, such as the UConn Grant Trails map, and efforts to develop and disseminate stories of research impact, such as the “Tell Your Story”, launched by our task forces last year, were deemed essential for helping the public, governments, and other stakeholders understand the impact of our work.  

We also learned that there are two important areas where we need your help:  

UConn’s current world rankings have been compromised by low participation in international surveys regarding our academic reputation and our students’ employment outcomes. The good news is we know how to significantly improve these rankings over the next several years, but we need “all paws in.” To strengthen UConn’s visibility in future rankings, QS encouraged us to broaden our contact list of employers and international partners who can provide informed perspectives on UConn’s academic and graduate reputation. 

We would appreciate your help THIS WEEK in identifying and reaching out to contacts who may be willing to participate in the survey. Specifically, we ask that you personally reach out to employers of UConn alumni and international collaborators, asking them to: 

Attached, please find an email template that can be shared with your networks. Please note: The template cannot be edited, as per QS Survey requirements. 

The question about how to capture the impact of research also arose during the U21 meeting without clear consensus. This is an important question for us at UConn to address. While external research funding, h-indices, and publication numbers are valuable, there are other measures that are important for us to capture to better understand how our research affects society. There are a variety of ways universities currently capture research impact across the world, including the United Kingdom’s Research Excellence Framework, number of legal policies / laws developed citing university research, and number of patents. We welcome your input on this important challenge by completing a quick feedback survey.  

Thank you for all you do,

Lindsay J. DiStefano, PhD, ATC, FNATA 

Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship 

UConn | UConn Health 

Professor 

Department of Kinesiology 

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery 

Department of Public Health Sciences 

  

The quarterly report of proposal and award data for FY26 Quarter 1 has been released. UConn is relatively on pace with the prior 2 years.  

Led by George Kuchel and Richard Fortinsky, a multidisciplinary team of UCH and UConn researchers recently submitted a renewal proposal for the UConn Pepper Center. The renewal continues the center’s focus on Precision Gerontology and expands the center’s cross-campus reach. 

UConn hosted a second Economic Development Forum on November 13 in Stamford.  State, municipal, University, and tech industry leaders explored how AI and quantum are transforming the workforce, requiring employees and jobseekers to be more tech savvy than ever before. 

The Korey Stringer Institute celebrated the grand opening of the National Laboratory for Occupational Heat Safety supported by Magid & MISSION. 

UConn’s entrepreneurship ranking continues to climb thanks to the outstanding efforts of our faculty, staff, and students. 

I reviewed in the last “The Abstract” how IDC distributions were changed this past summer. PIs began receiving a 5% distribution in real-time of FY26 IDC reimbursements on 9/18/25, however, they did not receive this 5% distribution between July 1-September 17. The university will disburse the 5% PI allocation of reimbursements received during this 2.5 month period in a one-time deposit to PI accounts before 1/1/26.  

We understand the uncertainty individual faculty are experiencing with the budget. Please know this is the same uncertainty the university leadership is experiencing, at a magnified level. We are all working diligently to ensure the university can maintain critical operations throughout these volatile times, including the ability to conduct research (infrastructure, services, personnel) as well as the ability to invest, grow, pivot, and respond to emergencies.  

The federal government shutdown ended last week, after the longest shutdown to date, of 45 days.  

We know many of you are anxiously awaiting funding decisions on proposals. Please try to give your Program Officers this week to get back to work before reaching out.  

Our team in DC will be on the Storrs Campus on December 8-9. They will be presenting an update on the current federal research climate on December 8 from 11 am – 12 pm at the Dodd Center. All faculty and staff are invited, as space allows. There will be no virtual option. Please RSVP to reserve your spot.   

*Reminder – please reach out to and/or copy Governmental Relations (govrel@uconn.edu) if you have an opportunity or need to meet with our federal or state delegation or staff. This is vital for ensuring that everyone is aware of these important conversations, allowing coordination/support to be offered, avoiding unnecessary redundancy, and as a courtesy to elected officials. 

Upcoming virtual stats workshops hosted by UConn’s Statistical Consulting Services. The next session, Mixed-Effects Models (Dec 15), designed to be interactive and accessible to a broad audience. Workshops will be held via MS Teams, and all materials will be provided to participants.

 

Presentation on Current Federal Funding Landscape by Actum, LLC.  

December 8 from 11 am – 12 pm at the Dodd Center.  

All faculty and staff are invited, as space allows. There will be no virtual option.  

Please RSVP to reserve your spot. 

 

The UConn Human Research Protection Program and the UConn Health Human Subjects Protection Program have launched a new Education & Outreach (E&O) Program, a collaborative, cross-campus initiative designed to support the research community. 

The E&O Program aims to support researchers with the knowledge, tools, and personalized training and education needed to navigate human subjects research regulations. It offers: 

Learn more about information and upcoming offerings here.

You can also submit a request through a new Training Request Form or reach out directly at hrp-education@uconn.edu. 

Please complete a brief survey to help guide our communications efforts.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH

 

Whetten Graduate Center
438 Whitney Road Extension, Unit 1006
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1086
research.uconn.edu