May 11, 2020

The SIF faculty and staff have been busy implementing procedures for returning to operations, addressing safety and conduct protocols with respect to COVID-19. Thanks to the hard work of our team, our Phase 1 return to work plan has been approved. What does this mean for our SIF clients?

• The SIF will ramp up instruments beginning this week.
• No client samples will be analyzed until the instruments are operational within our QA/QC specifications.
• The SIF lab spaces will be minimally staffed to optimize physical distancing. The lab is closed to visitors.
• Any work that can be done from home will continue to be teleworked by the SIF staff. Email is still the best way to contact us.
• Staff-intensive services, including nitrate and carbonate sample preparation, will not be conducted until the UC Davis campus fully re-opens (tentative reopening date is June 1, 2020 pending local directives).

The SIF will begin accepting shipments following this protocol:

• Completed Analysis Order Form and Sample Lists must be emailed to sif@ucdavis.edu before packaging samples.
• Do not ship samples until you have a confirmation from a SIF staff or faculty.
• Perishable shipments must be shipped in an insulated cooler, with sufficient coolant and cushioning, and shipped expedited on a Monday or Tuesday to minimize delays with receipt and refrigeration.
• Ship samples with tracking (e.x. FedEx, UPS, or standard post with tracking) because sample delivery may still experience delays. The UC Davis Campus is still closed, so SIF staff have to pick up standard post from Mail Services.
• UC Davis researchers can make an appointment to drop-off samples by emailing sif@ucdavis.edu.

We thank you for your continued patience and flexibility with the turnaround time. We empathize that many of you will experience hardships with project and funding deadlines during this interim period, but we must handle requests as equitably as possible.
• Our priority is to schedule the samples that were in-house prior to the shutdown.
• We expect throughput and demand to be dynamic in the coming weeks and months. Please plan for variance in our turnaround times.
• The Analysis Order Form has a new “deadline” section at the bottom of the form. Reasonable requests will be considered when the samples are scheduled for analysis, but we cannot make any guarantees during this unsettled time.

Operational status may change at any time. We will email an announcement if there are any further changes.

All of the SIF thank you for your continued support!