USM COVID Research & Innovation Task Force Launches Web Site

As USM Responds to Pandemic, New Online Resources Will Foster Collaboration

Baltimore, Md. (May 6, 2020) – The University System of Maryland (USM) COVID Research & Innovation Task Force today launched a website designed as a one-stop portal to share information on systemwide innovations and engage with policymakers, business leaders, and the entrepreneurial community to help find solutions related to the pandemic and bring them to scale.

The task force website includes an inventory of resources on USM research and innovation activities targeting solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic in four categories: Medical & Clinical; Policy & Public Health; Engineering and Physical; and Computer & Data Science.

USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman announced the formation of the task force on April 20. USM member institutions are nationally ranked resources that can help identify solutions to address the COVID-19 crisis. These resources include one of the world’s top academic medical centers, leading nursing and health programs, and renowned schools of public health, computer science, and engineering.

Businesses and organizations seeking guidance or the ability to partner with USM institutions on specific initiatives can use the website to connect with system experts. The task force hopes to engage with business and industry to exchange ideas and help the USM move its products and responses into the marketplace.

“What distinguishes the USM in this COVID-19 fight is that we can draw on the strength of this entire University System, teeming with energy, expertise, and great ideas,” Perman said. “This website will help foster the collaborations we need to advance and scale our solutions; it will help our institutions partner with one another and help agencies, companies, policymakers, and funders join us in this vital work."

The task force held its initial meeting last month, under the direction of task force chair Laurie Locascio, a vice president for research at both University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore.

“The task force members are committed to working across the System and across the state with our partners to focus efforts to address this public health crisis,” Locascio said. “The website is an important, first step in our building an accessible, prominent resource to facilitate the collaboration that will help bring about solutions.”

The USM comprises 12 institutions: Bowie State University; Coppin State University; Frostburg State University; Salisbury University; Towson University; the University of Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; the University of Maryland, College Park; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and the University of Maryland Global Campus. The USM also includes three regional centers—the Universities at Shady Grove, the University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, and the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland—at which USM universities offer upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses.

Systemwide, student enrollment exceeds 172,000. The USM and its institutions compete successfully nearly $1.5 billion in external grants and contracts annually. USM institutions and programs are among the nation's best in quality and value according to several national rankings. To learn more about the University System of Maryland, visit www.usmd.edu.

Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu