(502a) Resilience in the Face of COVID-19: Managing a User Program at the Molecular Foundry

The Molecular Foundry is a Nanoscale Science Research Center, located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in Berkeley, California, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE). The Molecular Foundry is a knowledge-based User Facility, where leading-edge resources in instrumentation, analytical capabilities, and scientific expertise in nanoscale science are made available via a peer-reviewed proposal process. Roughly 1000 researchers or “users” come to the Foundry from around the world to conduct their work each year. The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges and opportunities in conducting collaborative on site research. This presentation focuses on the operation of the user program amid the pandemic, with an emphasis on strategies for maintaining research productivity and user access. We also present an outlook on ways that gains in virtual collaboration and science during the pandemic can provide opportunities in a post-pandemic world.

The Molecular Foundry provides scientific expertise and capabilities distributed among seven facilities: Inorganic, Organic, and Biological facilities for synthesis, preparation, and assembly; Nanofabrication, for processing and integration; the National Center for Electron Microscopy and Imaging and Manipulation, for characterization; and Theory, for understanding and predicting material properties.

The Molecular Foundry maintains a highly collaborative research model. Staff scientists and technical staff at the Molecular Foundry interact with users through instrument training, consultation during experiments, support with data interpretation, and collaborative writing of journal articles. For each 12 month project, users stay in the local area for an average of three months while they work on site.

Spring 2020 Shelter-in-Place

In spring 2020, the scale and urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States became apparent, and the city of Berkeley enacted a Shelter-in-Place order effective March 17, 2020. The Molecular Foundry responded by pausing research operations on site while keeping research facilities safe and ready for reopening. This directly impacted every one of the hundreds of research projects that were active at the time, and presented a challenge to the Molecular Foundry’s commitment to safety and user access.

The Foundry staff collaborated to respond to this challenge with a holistic approach to keep science moving forward safely. All user projects received a 12-week extension, to account for this pause on work. During this period, the Foundry developed protocols for safe work on site, aligned with requirements for Berkeley Lab and applicable regional, state, and national guidelines. These included the use of face coverings, hand-washing, distancing/density control, and surface disinfection.

While maintaining a very low density of people on site, a few high-priority projects were allowed to proceed, including research on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 detection, treatment, and transmission mitigation. These early research activities served as a testing ground and model for the further expansion of access in the months to follow. Staff from across all seven facilities began to explore investment in virtual modes for training, user support, and instrument access amid the pandemic. Berkeley Lab developed new training modules for safe work on site during the COVID-19 pandemic, launched a lab density study to determine appropriate safe occupancy limits for all laboratories across the site, and developed a Health Pledge,symptom check system, and a specific COVID19 training module that was required for all on site personnel.

Summer 2020 and Beyond

The months that followed the onset of the pandemic were characterized by continual adaptation to the emerging pandemic. As of the writing of this abstract, this phase continues to evolve as vaccination campaigns are gaining momentum nationally. These are some of the strategies employed to manage the user program during this phase of the pandemic:

Communication

Communication with the user community and the staff of the Molecular Foundry was a central pillar of maintaining safe work at the Molecular Foundry. This included email messages to all users generally, frequent discussions among staff across all roles, and communication with Berkeley Laby leadership.

Shift Work to Manage Density

Upon emerging from the full shelter-in-place order, moderate numbers of researchers were allowed to work on site at the Molecular Foundry. The total number of persons accessing Berkeley Lab was managed centrally by the Laboratory, and the Molecular Foundry worked with an allotment of “slots” for site access throughout the duration of the pandemic restrictions. A three-shift model was deployed. Slots were distributed among the seven facilities, and researchers requested a slot ahead of time, subject to approval by Molecular Foundry leadership and compliance with the Health Pledge, weekly symptom check, and a specific COVID19 training requirements.

Prioritizing Research Projects

Facing limited access compared to normal operations, it was necessary to consider carefully which staff and user work could be accomplished on site. The Molecular Foundry values equity of access for users, held in balance with safety precautions. We aimed to carefully consider such factors as the potential to impact the fight against COVID-19, DOE and Berkeley Lab research priorities, inherently safe activities, experimental complexity, travel considerations, and user training.

Badged Entry for Approved Work

During the pandemic, the Molecular Foundry implemented badge-reader entry for all buildings. Coupled with weekly calendars and daily posting of all persons with prior approval to enter the buildings, this provided a layer of accountability around access to the spaces.

Regular Safety Meetings

Berkeley Lab implemented weekly virtual meetings focused on COVID-19 safe operations and other safety and space planning topics. These meetings require attendance by at least one staff representative from each of the seven facilities, and are open to all Molecular Foundry staff and users. Each facility hosted a daily safety check-in for work planning.

Carefully Considered Training

Training presented a particular challenge during the pandemic, as many users receive training on complex tasks at the Molecular Foundry, traditionally accomplished side-by-side. After several months, the Foundry formalized guidelines to consider for new user training, considering such factors as lab occupancy, the potential to develop tools to support distanced training, inherent hazards in the proposed work, and robustness of the instruments.

Development of New Remote and Virtual Training and Access

Molecular Foundry staff rallied around the call to support user access virtually. Specific responses are adapted to the needs and opportunities of each facility. A sampling of tools include: training videos, holographic augmented reality for training, audio headsets to support distancing, remote operation of select equipment, remote login for data processing, virtual presence via video conferencing during experiments, telepresence robots, and a variety of informal communication and collaboration tools.

Calls for Proposals Scope

Two of the standard calls for proposals have been fully within the pandemic. While we kept the calls open for the most exciting research across nanoscience, we balanced the practical considerations with some emphasis for these calls. We encouraged users to submit proposals that included COVID-19 research, theoretical and computational work, remote access to instruments, or data collection for remote analysis, and proposals requesting samples of materials developed at the Foundry.

Expanded Definition of Remote Users

The Molecular Foundry is one of five Nanoscience Research Centers sponsored by the DOE, and therefore shares certain reporting parameters for our user programs. Effective for FY 2020 reporting, the centers collectively adopted an expanded definition of a remote user, to recognize the increasing role of remote access for science at these knowledge-based user facilities.

Virtual Meetings and Conferences

Meetings have shifted online, supported by zoom video conferencing. This includes smaller team meetings, larger seminars spanning the Molecular Foundry, and our annual User Meeting--a nanoscale science research conference which drew 900 registrants in 2020.

Outcomes and Future Outlook

The pandemic presented challenges to maintaining a strong nanoscience research user program. Nevertheless, overall metrics reflect resilience in the face of these challenges. The User Program remains strong, serving 643 on-site and 97 remote users in FY 2020, according to formal reporting definitions, with a total of over 1500 named researchers on active projects during FY 2020. Demand for the user program remains strong, with around 225 standard proposals received during the most recent spring 2021 call for proposals, roughly two thirds our pre-COVID maximum. Research productivity as measured by journal articles has remained robust when comparing 2020 to 2019 and 2018.

The shift to increased virtual access presents opportunities to expand the geography of our user base to include more researchers outside our local area, due to reduced barriers in travel once post-pandemic travel resumes. We have seen an increase in sample-only proposals, enabling new ways of working together across institutions. We also have potential to include more people in the active experimental data collection phase, as undergraduate researchers and principal investigators increasingly log in remotely to participate in experiments that previously were completed by just one member of the research team. Furthermore, shifting our annual User Meeting online has facilitated a tripling of conference registrations, with potential to reach new communities with our science.

As we look ahead to 2022 with optimism, we hope to learn from the unique challenges presented by the pandemic. We will have new facets of this experience to manage, including a safe return to work for our users. The Molecular Foundry remains committed to advancing user science to bring solutions to the world.