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Has anyone's lab been closed again due to the pandemic?

S

I'm mainly asking about the situation in the UK. But if you're in another country, you can also talk about the situation in your area.
From June, many labs in universities have reopened. But recently, many areas have gone into local lockdown. I'd like to learn how the new lockdowns have affected your lab work.

I am in the same situation. I have a long term experiment running that got interrupted by the last lockdown and praying we don't shut down in the next 9 days. The gossip at my uni is that they won't close the labs unless there is a full lock down again. At the minute the labs are open but with significantly reduced capacity which is making everything take that much longer. I am also a bit annoyed that lab access is not being allocated fairly and is highly dependant on who your supervisor is. How are things at your uni?

C

I am still waiting to get lab access after the last lockdown. Lab access has always been dependent on who your supervisor is where I am, there has never been any fairness, this situation is just exacerbating existing problems.

S

Quote From rewt:
How are things at your uni?

There's also no fairness in my department...In my department, every supervisor arranges the schedule for each group member. My supervisor only cares about postdocs but sees us PhD students as non-existent. I reported the unfairness to the department, but they just told me to comply with my supervisor. F**k!

S

Quote From Cat123:
this situation is just exacerbating existing problems.

Indeed, the local lockdowns and the new national restrictions have kept the capacity in each building low, so we can't expect to go back to normal in a few months.

Quote From Cat123:
I am still waiting to get lab access after the last lockdown. Lab access has always been dependent on who your supervisor is where I am, there has never been any fairness, this situation is just exacerbating existing problems.


Have you got absolutely no access? That is not acceptable. I think you should be able to get 1 or 2 days a week access even if it is a busy lab area/ building. Otherwise you are sitting around and can't do anything and wasting precious PhD time. Though I do know some universities/deprtaments are prioritising access and I found that I had to extensively justify everything. I may have exaggerated everything to make my situation more dire and that might work.

S

Quote From rewt:
Have you got absolutely no access? That is not acceptable. I think you should be able to get 1 or 2 days a week access even if it is a busy lab area/ building. Otherwise you are sitting around and can't do anything and wasting precious PhD time. Though I do know some universities/deprtaments are prioritising access and I found that I had to extensively justify everything. I may have exaggerated everything to make my situation more dire and that might work.

No access to the lab isn't uncommon, actually. In my department, someone who doesn't need the lab got access, but someone who needs the lab has no access to the department so far. The academic and administrative staff just don't care. If you exaggerate your situation and then get access, that at least means your department listens to your needs. My department doesn't listen to students at all.

C

The lab I need to use still hasn't reopened, I expect it would have if a postdoc needed it or if another student needed it and their supervisor pushed for it to be open.

Does anyone else need access to the lab? Maybe if you can convince the other users to also ask at the same time, they might listen.

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