April 21, 2022, by Rob Ounsworth
Invitation: research culture workshops 16-26 May
Update from Professor Dame Jessica Corner
I am delighted to invite you to join the next stage in our ambitious project to transform research culture at the university.
Research culture workshops take place between 16 and 26 May.
Sign up for a research culture workshop
These one-hour, open discussions will explore emerging themes and findings from our research culture survey and help us plan interventions that positively influence our working environment and change how we behave.
Each workshop is open to all colleagues and will be held via Microsoft Teams.
For those yet to take part in our research culture survey, I encourage you to share your insights and experiences.
To support our workshop discussions, we will issue attendees insights into the survey findings so far. We would be grateful if you could read this before attending the meeting.
Your help in supporting the survey and the workshops will truly make a difference and help build a picture of how research is experienced and supported at Nottingham.
Please also look out for updates on further opportunities to contribute.
Preparing for REF2021 results
Results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework are published on 12 May 2022.
Colleagues who will support activity during and after REF2021 week (9-12 May) have been invited to online REF results drop-in sessions for updates on what to expect and the support on offer.
We will shortly launch a REF SharePoint site with guidance and toolkits to help colleagues to engage with our communications on their channels. Following the publication of our results, please look out for a reputational research campaign, inspired by impact case studies submitted to REF2021, which will celebrate the impact of our research on the UK and the world.
Review your e-staff profile
Academic staff are also encouraged to review their e-staff profile ahead of 12 May. REF results are an opportunity share our successes and ensuring your profile is maintained will help potential collaborators, funders and other stakeholders find consistent and up-to-date information about you, your research and publications. Guidance on maintaining your e-staff profile.
Please add publications in RIS rather than eStaffProfile. They will be pulled through to the Publications in RIS tab which also appears on your profile. Guidance on depositing research publications.
REF2021: who should we thank?
We are asking colleagues from across the university to nominate those whose contribution to delivering our REF2021 submission may otherwise go unnoticed – these could be technicians, postgraduate research students who supported research or REF-related activity; APM staff who went the extra mile or academic colleagues who took on extra admin or teaching responsibilities so impact case studies could be finalised.
We will share these contributions across our community. Please take a few minutes to nominate a colleague or team who played key role in getting our REF submission over the line.
Award for HR Excellence in Research
The university has retained the EU’s HR Excellence in Research Award, which recognises Nottingham’s implementation of the principles of the UK’s Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and demonstrates our commitment to creating a more supportive and inclusive culture and environment.
Many thanks to our Researcher Academy Faculty Leads, faculty teams and the Task and Finish group led by Dr Alex Tarr (Life Sciences and Researcher Academy Faculty Lead), who worked together to create Nottingham’s 2022-24 Concordat action plan and its local variants.
Further details:
Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
Research Integrity Week 20-24 June
We are committed to embedding a culture of research integrity and good research practice across the university. Research Integrity Week (20-24 June) underlines this commitment and researchers across our UK, China and Malaysia campuses are invited to register for online sessions on:
- An introduction to the Code of Research Conduct and Research Ethics
- good research practice and a healthy research culture
- Papers, Publications and Retractions
- Trusted Research
- Gathering Research Data Online: Ethical Considerations
- Digital Research and Libraries supporting Research Integrity
- Research Ethics and Big Data
Making an impact – book now
Online sessions at the University of Liverpool’s Making an Impact programme (9 May -10 June) are open to external audiences. These include sessions on building a culture of innovation; knowledge exchange – a funders perspective; making a cultural impact online; a panel discussion on business development and collaboration. Find out more and book
Diversity festival
The university’s second diversity festival takes place online and in person from Monday 13 June to Friday 24 June. As well as live music, dance performances and food tasting to celebrate our diverse community, bookable sessions explore inclusive leadership, the challenges of racism, and the Sphere conference on EDI change in action. Find out more
Pint of science 9-11 May
Our researchers are once again supporting the grassroots festival, Pint of Science, in pubs and other venues around Nottingham. Enjoy a drink while hearing from world-leading innovators on subjects including how art and science meet in exploring the Universe (Dr Ulrike Kuchner ) how superbacteria could help save our planet (Dr Samantha Bryan) and new treatments for blindness (Professor David Bates).
Engineers to accelerate carbon capture technology
The University of Nottingham is leading an international consortium, awarded a share of £5 million grant funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, aiming to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage.
Engineering’s Professor Colin Snape is leading studies to develop a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to the current process of amine scrubbing, which separates CO2 from natural gas, and requires a high level of energy and water consumption.
£2m concussion study
A team led by Dr Karen Mullinger of the School of Physics and Astronomy is supporting a £2m study funded by the Ministry of Defence into the long-term effects of concussion. The team will help develop novel biomarkers for mild Traumatic Brain Injury (concussion), which is a global public health problem, with 1.4 million hospital visits due to head injury annually in England and Wales. World-leading MRI facilities at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre and our revolutionary wearable brain imaging system will play key roles in the study.
Leverhulme Trust award
Dr Anna Croft (Engineering) has been awarded a £132,000 Leverhulme Trust award for modelling the behaviour of ‘Proteins in Alien Environments’.
Royal Society funding
As part of her Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, Dr Emma Chapman (Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded £170,000 by the Royal Society Research Fellows Enhanced Research Expenses scheme to develop her research project, “Constraining the Astrophysics and Cosmology of The Epoch of Reionisation”.
Walsh Weston Award 2021
Professors Tim Ledgeway and Paul McGraw (Psychology), in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Built Environment and the Universite ́ Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have been awarded the Walsh Weston Award 2021 by Light and Lighting for their paper View preference in urban environments. This cross-disciplinary research brings together psychology and architecture to investigate visual responses to urban scenes.
Future Food Director Professor David E Salt reflects
Future Food Director Professor David E Salt is retiring as the Director of the Future Food Beacon on 31 July 2022. Future Food is an exemplar of challenge-led transdisciplinary research, securing 63 external grants to date, with 31 funded projects in 32 countries, and worked with over 100 external organisations to co-design research activities across industry, civil society and government. Professor Salt reflects on these achievements here.
Thanks and best wishes
Professor Dame Jessica Corner
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange
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