September 27, 2024, by Rob Ounsworth
Our commitment to a positive culture for research
Welcome to the first research update for the 2024-25 academic year. I hope you enjoyed a restful summer break.
I am delivering this update with my fellow member of University Executive Board, Professor Katherine Linehan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for People and Culture. Katherine is the strategic lead for People and Culture and is committed to making our university a welcoming, inclusive and supportive place to work and study. Developing a positive environment and culture for research, where our people feel valued and supported to achieve their potential, is essential to our mission to deliver exceptional research that makes a real difference to people’s lives.
Katherine and I are working together to drive the embedding of a positive culture for research at greater pace. Working collaboratively strengthens the RKE academic leadership team in this area and allows us to deliver excellent interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange as a strategic priority for the university and a key part of our vision for Future Nottingham. To facilitate this we recently launched the new Research and Knowledge Exchange Culture Strategy.
We are supported in this and other our other RKE priorities by an excellent leadership team of Professor Sarah Metcalfe, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, and Professor Jeanette Woolard, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Researcher Academy and Research Culture Development, together with RKE colleagues, and by working in collaboration with staff from across the university.
The next Research Excellence Framework will place greater emphasis on research environment and culture – and we passionately share UKRI’s belief that a vibrant, diverse, dynamic research culture is the cornerstone of a successful research ecosystem.
During the 2024-25 academic year – and beyond – Katherine will be leading on engagement programmes across the university to enrich the environment for all colleagues involved in the delivery of our research, so everyone feels welcome and supported at UoN.
Bespoke career support
One of the latest initiatives is bespoke career support for colleagues including researchers, technicians and professional services staff, where current professional development provision cannot meet their development requirements.
Applications are now open from colleagues:
– facing barriers due to your protected characteristics such as race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, or
– are under-represented in your professional field for reasons of neurodiversity, caring responsibilities, or socio-economic background.
We will share further news of ideas and actions that will make a difference in putting people at the heart of our research ecosystem, roll out initiatives to improve the researcher experience, and will endeavour to listen and fully engage with you on this journey.
KEF results recognise our commitment to sharing knowledge
The latest Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), published by Research England, has reaffirmed Nottingham as one of England’s leading universities for working collaboratively with industry and the public sector and the commercialisation of Intellectual Property.
KEF is a survey of how universities collaborate with external partners for the benefit of the economy and society.
These results once again demonstrate the significant role we play regionally in terms of supporting innovation and driving economic growth.
We have continued to perform well, scoring higher than peers in ‘Local Growth and Regeneration’, ‘Public and Community Engagement’, ‘Working with Business’ and ‘Working with the Public and Third Sector’. It is particularly pleasing to see growth in ‘Local Growth and Regeneration’, which is testament to our ongoing relationship and commitment to working with the East Midlands Combined County Authority.
We have done so well thanks to the wonderful efforts of colleagues at the university who deliver and support knowledge exchange. Thank you. The KEF results can only tell part of the story and are made up on the back of hundreds of projects and initiatives delivered by UoN colleagues.
This success has been underpinned by the work of university’s Intellectual Property Commercialisation Office (IPCO), which takes research ideas and discoveries and works in collaboration with academic inventors to turn them into new products and processes that benefit society and the economy. The IPCO has reviewed and revised our equity policy on spin-out companies, in response to a Government review on spin-outs and their key role in the UK’s commitment to innovation.
KEF4: discover more our impact on the economy and society
Training session: communicating your research to external stakeholders
Fresh from our KEF results, Research and Innovation is highlighting a programme of training sessions to support the university’s research community in maximising their research impact.
The next training session being run as part of the KE learning and events programme is ‘Communicating your research to external stakeholders’ and will take place on Teams on Friday 4 October 2024 from noon to 1pm.
You’ll find more about KE training, resources and support and how to develop mutually beneficial partnerships at the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Hub.
UniCore: it is vital to prepare
UniCore is launching at the end of November. It promises to be intuitive, reliable and easy to use, and by simplifying HR, finance and procurement will free up more time for what we do best – delivering exceptional research. UniCore will make our lives easier.
However, getting to grips with UniCore, like any new system, will take time.
It is critical for everyone involved in research to note: to ensure a successful launch of UniCore, a ‘cutover period’ takes place from early October to mid-November 2024. Certain processes will be paused, and some systems deactivated.
We urge you to think now about how research activity could be affected, and to plan ahead to minimise disruption.
UniCore should not be regarded as simply a ‘back end system’ – finance and HR processes are critical to all our research and knowledge exchange-related activities, for example how we:
– Purchase items critical to research
– Appoint researchers and staff
– Submit research claims
– Book travel
All these key activities will be impacted during the Unicore cutover period and we strongly encourage you to engage with communications, guidance and support throughout the process.
Key actions for researchers in advance of Unicore cutover period
Colleagues from across the university are working hard collaboratively to minimise any impact. Please refer to and bookmark our dedicated UniCore and research pages, which includes support contacts and will be refreshed with news of training and resources.
Thank you in anticipation of your patience and goodwill.
Sharing news of success
We’re delighted to share personal and funding successes of colleagues.
Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering
Engineering’s Professor of Human Factors, Sarah Sharples, who is seconded to the Department for Transport to serve as Chief Scientific Adviser, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Sarah has influenced engineering research and strategic thinking through her many roles in advising government, research councils and catapults. Moreover, she has been a leader in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across academia and engineering and at Nottingham was the first full- time Pro-Vice-Chancellor for EDI in UK academia.
World premiere at BBC Proms
Dr Elizabeth Kelly, Head of the Department of Music, was commissioned to write a piece of orchestral music that received its world premiere at the BBC Proms, which was the first time the UK’s world-leading classical music festival came to Nottingham. Dr Kelly’s nine-minute-long original score, Lace Machine Music takes inspiration from the city’s lacemaking industry.
Bringing research expertise into Parliament
Dr Helen McCabe of the School of Politics and International Relations has been appointed as the new Thematic Research lead for the Arts and Humanities in Parliament. Dr McCabe will help bridge the gap between policymakers and the research community, significantly enhancing the use of high-quality research evidence in scrutiny and debate.
European Research Council award
Dr Poonam Mehra, BBSRC Discovery Fellow in the School of Biosciences, has been awarded a highly competitive €2M grant from the European Research Council to unlock the mysteries of how plant roots sense and respond to water availability.
UKRI funding for health projects
Nottingham researchers have been awarded more than £3.5m by UKRI to investigate innovative technologies for solving medical challenges in the treatment of cancer, diabetes and lung disease.
– Professor Guru Aithal from the School of Medicine was awarded £1.2m to lead a project to develop ground-breaking technologies, snake-like robot and wireless electrical treatment to diagnose, map and treat cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer).
– Professor Morgan Alexander in the School of Pharmacy was awarded £1.2m for a project aiming to understand the body’s response to implanted devices and why they fail, focusing on glucose sensors used to manage Type 1 Diabetes.
– Professor Bindi Brook from the Centre of Mathematical Medicine and Biology, School of Mathematical Sciences was awarded £1.1m to develop validated computational models of destructive lung disease progression and a virtual platform for testing novel therapies.
Championing the next generation of dementia researchers
Experts at Nottingham will be part of a new doctoral training centre, which has won almost £3.2m funding from the Alzheimer’s Society. We will have five funded PhD studentships, with Dr Helen Miranda Knight from the School of Life Sciences and Dr Anto Praveen Rajkumar Rajamani from the School of Medicine leading the Nottingham arm of the centre.
Royal Academy of Engineering fellowships
Three academics from the Faculty of Engineering have each been awarded £625,000 Research Fellowships from the Royal Academy of Engineering:
– Peter Christopher, Assistant Professor at Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute
– Salvatore La Cavera, Nottingham Research Fellow in the Optics and Photonics Research Group
– Connor Taylor, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.
Our thanks and best wishes
Professor Tom Rodden
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange
Professor Katherine Linehan
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for People and Culture
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