Sussex Researcher School

Past RLI and Seed Fund Awards

Need some inspiration? Take a look at the previous awards made from the Researcher-Led Initiative Fund and Research Culture Seed Fund

The RLI Fund has provided postgraduate and early career researchers (PGRs and ECRs) with small grants to organise initiatives since its inception in 2012. Funding strands have varied over the years, to incorporate training and development, public engagement, mental health and wellbeing, and equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Seed Fund was introduced in 2022 to enable ECRs to pilot projects impacting Sussex's research culture, and the two Funds have been merged for 2024-25.


 

Awards made from the RLI Fund

2023-24

  • Jinjin Wang (Engineering and Informatics) - Drusillas Park Day Out: Refresh and Connect for Parent PhD Students
  • Mercy Mhindurwa and Louis Burgess (Business School) - Business School Cake Club
  • Tiffany Murphy (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Close to My Heart: PhD perspectives
  • Caroline Ackley (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Intersecting Stigmas: addressing stigma through public engagement
  • Ioannis Papadakis (Business School) - Reading Group
  • Kat Addis (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Turn Your Thesis Into a Book: Storytelling Techniques from A Screenwriter
  • Kiersten Simmons (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Improving Access to Women's Healthcare Research and Services in Under-resourced Coastal Communities in the UK
  • Nick Souter (Psychology) - WORKSHOP: How to reduce the carbon footprint of your research computing
  • Mia Cheng (Business School) - Wellbeing Research at Sussex, Second Edition
  • Phoebe Gray (Psychology) - Mind and Movement: sharing psychological research on fitness and wellbeing with the local community
  • Fezile Sibanda (Education and Social Work) - Who is Sussex for? An exploration of belonging within our university community
  • Carla Douglas González (Business School) - Doctoral Connections: Building Bonds Beyond Research
  • Jo Renaut (Life Sciences) - Programming: From Beginner to Machine Learning Coding Club
  • Aram Simonyan (Law, Politics and Sociology) - Project Management techniques for overcoming procrastination and perfectionism

2022-23

  • Ramona Saraoru (Education and Social Work) - Great knowledge, good vibes, true belonging
  • Carla Douglas Gonzalez (Business School) - 100 Words PhD Story
  • Alex Fusco (Global Studies) - Sounding the Camp
  • Saba Karim Khan (Global Studies) - Podcast the Gender Norms in South Asian storytelling
  • Karen Patterson (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Academic Networking in the 21st Century that works wll and feels right
  • Elif Demirbas (Law, Politics and Sociology) - One Day PGR and ECR Conference: Violence, Identity and Borders
  • Marianela Barrios Aquino (Global Studies) - Write your Journal Article in 12 Weeks
  • Emanuela Stagno (Business School) - Wellbeing Research at Sussex
  • Marianne Glascott (Life Sciences) - Coding Club
  • Amy Lynch and Jo Williams (Education and Social Work) - Guided writing workshop for doctoral reseachers
  • Chia-Yu Liang (Global Studies) - How we Learn to Live with Worries over and Experiences of War: Support-Learning Group Sessions for Students from War-Torn or War-Threatened Regions
  • Harry Lewis and Samwel Grima (Psychology) - Work-in-PGRess

2021-22

  • Sean Moore (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - MPS PGR Student led Conference 2022
  • Jilan Wei (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Talk on tea: Tea poems, tea rituals, tea making and tasting
  • Hanna Randall (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Neurodivergent Art Jam" sessions and exhibition
  • Merve Arslan (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Researchers' Nature Club
  • Jamie Chan (Psychology) - TEDx University of Sussex Studio
  • Catherine Donaldson (Global Studies) - "Between" the (film) trailer
  • Katharina Hendrickx (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Reimagining 'Rebecca' one-day symposium
  • Alena Roth (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "On the Use and Abuse of the Language of Evil Today: Contemporary Critical Perspectives" Philosophy and Literature conference
  • Kate Meakin, Manuela Salazar and Katharina Hendrickx (Media, Arts and Humanities) - PhD Creative Outlets(2021-22)

2020-21

  • Jamie Chan (Psychology) - TEDx University of Sussex: Together Apart
  • Kate Meakin, Manuela Salazar and Katharina Hendrickx (Media, Arts and Humanities) - PhD Creative Outlets
  • Catherine Donaldson (Global Studies) - "Between: Neither Inside Nor Out" a screenback reading
  • Gabriel Popham (Global Studies) - Portrait of a Man-Made Valley public engagement and photographic exhibition
  • Devyn Glass (Psychology), Louise Elali (Media, Arts and Humanities) and Aanchal Vij (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Goodbye to a difficult year: celebrating PGRs/PhD on a Postcard
  • Richard Thornton (Global Studies) - Feeling with Teaching: Making Pedagogy Personal video resources for doctoral tutors
  • Marusa Levstek (Psychology) - Excursions Journal 10th anniversary art exhibition

2019-20

  • Aanchal Vij (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Zoom(ing) in on Nostalgia: The Way-Back Weekender
  • Andrea Brock (Global Studies) - deCOALonise Europe! Tracing the supply chain of coal and anti-coal resistance
  • Devyn Glass (Psychology), Louise Elali (Media, Arts and Humanities) and Aanchal Vij (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Tea and Talk in the Time of Covid-19
  • Fabrizio Trovato, Hannah Wood and James van Yperen (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - MPS One-Day PGR Conference
  • Julia Jackiewicz (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - Teaching Problem Solving and Analytical Thinking Through Coding and Programming
  • Kamillia Kasbi (Life Sciences) - BAME Role Models in Science
  • Kate Meakin, Manuela Salazar and Katharina Hendrickx (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Media, Arts and Humanities PhD Creative Outlets
  • Saba Karim Khan (Global Studies) - Unsilencing Pakistan's #metoo Survivors: A Delayed Coming Out
  • Violet Wei (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Chinese Acupressure Massage for Sedentary Researchers

2018-19

  • Ali Kassem (Law, Politics and Sociology) - Research/ing the Global South: Views from Beirut on Problematics, Challenges and Prospects
  • Daire Cantillon (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Sussex Sexual Health Research Network (SHARE) Inaugural Symposium
  • Frazer Coomber (Life Sciences) - Mammal-Based Citizen Science Project Engagement
  • Jillienne Sellner (Media, Arts and Humanities) - 2 Day Symposium - The Discomfort of Praxis - Creative Practice Based Research
  • Johnbosco Nwogbo (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Podcast for Philosophical Engagement with the Public Through News Stories
  • Julia Winstone (Law, Politics and Sociology) and Abigail Rieley (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Book Proposal Design Workshop "Thesis to Monograph"
  • Katharina Hendrickx (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Female Reading Groups of Domestic Noir Novels and Local Library Collaboration
  • Madhushala Senaratne (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "The Humanitarian Storyteller" Interactive Exhibition
  • Sean Higgins (Education and Social Work) - Enhancing Global Citizenship and Lifeskills Curriculum in the UK Through Sharing Insights on Promoting Peace and Social Justice in Sierra Leone
  • Veronica Wignall and Georgia Hennessy (Life Sciences) - Planet PhD Podcast
  • Liza Weber (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Recollecting documenta Collectively
  • Natasha Maru (Institute of Development Studies) - Training Workshop in Mobile and Affective Research Methods
  • Claire Durrant (Education and Social Work) - Monthly Video Call Support Groups for PhD students
  • Kate Meakin (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Peer Support for the Doctoral MFM Community
  • Gemma Houldey (Global Studies) - Global Studies Wellbeing Workshops
  • Alexandra Kempton (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Researching Difficult Data peer support group
  • Karolina Szpyrko (Media, Arts and Humanities), Thabani Mutambasere (Global Studies) and Abigail Rieley (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Doctoral Researcher Game Night

2017-18

  • Mark Bason (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - Career Development Forum - Navigating Academia
  • Smita Yadav (Global Studies) - Conference - Global North-South Precarity: Search for Global Solidarity
  • Reese Wilkinson (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - MPS Early Careers PGR Conference
  • Eleanor Whitcroft (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Graphic Brighton - Academic Comics Conference
  • Senaratne Madhushala (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Opportunities for research: Humanitarian narratives, representational strategies, and I/NGOs
  • Edward Briggs (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Creative and Critical Practice Symposium
  • Gizem Guney (Law, Politics and Sociology) - Towards Gender Equality: Clashes in Law
  • Sara Balouch (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Non-Pharmacological Dementia Research Symposium

2016-17

  • Cecile Chevalier (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Forum for Immersive Augmented Reality Instruments
  • Jonny Lee (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Computation and Representation in Cognitive Science and Enactivism, Ecological Psychology, and Cybernetics
  • Valerie Whittington (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Jews and Quakers: on the borders of acceptability
  • Rebecca Harding (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Failure Interdisciplinary Symposium
  • Fatma Karaoglu (Mathematics and Physical Sciences) - Summer School on Finite Geometry
  • Katherine Kruger and Charlotte Terrell (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Reading and its Objects" two day conference with seminar
  • Charlotte Rae (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - Postdocs and Phd students In Neuroimaging at Sussex (POPINS) day
  • Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani (Education and Social Work) - Be/com/ing academic
  • Leanne Harris (Life Sciences) - Diversity of Career Pathways in Science symposium
  • Ronald Grau (Engineering and Infomatics) - The Postdoctoral Network: Continuing Success

2015-16

  • Allan Debelle (Life Sciences) - "Using Social Media in Academia" workshop
  • Eva Hillberg (Business School) - "Patient Activism and Digital Technology" workshop
  • Gemma Farrell (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Musedelica" Symposium
  • Joy Stacey (Media, Arts and Humanities) - MFM Doctoral Day
  • Yeyang Su (Global Studies) - 'Global Studies Thesis Writing Group'
  • Zahid Khalid (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Environmental History of South Asia Workshop and Networking Event
  • Robert Dunphy (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Phenomenology, Science, and Consciousness: The Transcendental and the Naturalistic" Graduate Conference
  • Rachael Taylor (Business School) - "Contemporary Food Issues" Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network Symposium
  • Smita Yadav (Global Studies) - Pilgrimages: Ontologies, and Subjectivities in Neoliberal Economies
  • Joe Watson (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Doctoral colloquium as part of the International Conference on Live Interfaces
  • Jackson Nash (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Critical Perspectives on ''The Transgender Tipping Point' - Half-day panel event with breakout discussion sessions
  • Chelsea Olsen and Laura Cofield (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "NGender 2016" - Activity 1: Feminist Film and Talk Series, Activity 2: Conference
  • Nicolas Farina (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - The Postdoctoral Network - a regular networking forum
  • Paul Fisher Davies (Media, Arts and Humanities) - British Consortium of Comics Scholars: Graphic Scholarship Day
  • Martin Jung (Life Sciences) - Interdisciplinary quantitative analysis group
  • Sofia Kesidou (Business School) - 21st SPRU Dphil Day
  • Paul Gilbert (Global Studies) - Workshop: "Confronting Elite Anthropology: Collaboration, Hostility and Critique"
  • Lidia Cabral (Institute of Development Studies) - "Rising Powers" Young Researchers Network Conference

2014-15

  • Shanyn Altman (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Literature and Philosophy" annual postgraduate conference (Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies)
  • Zoe Strimpel (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Cupid's digital lives: gender, dating and the internet" one-day workshop/conference
  • Rebecca Harding (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "The State of Fiction: Don DeLillo in the Twenty-First Century" interdisciplinary conference, and Colloquium Masterclass
  • Robert Dunphy (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "The Work of Phenomenology and the Work of Art" Graduate Conference in Phenomenology 2015
  • Michael Lawrence and Rachel Tavernor (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Global Humanitarianism and Media Culture" conference
  • Michael Guida (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Media, Film and Music Doctoral Day
  • Emma Doubt (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Making a Home: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Domestic Interior
  • Andrea Brock (Global Studies) - 'Critical Perspectives on the Financialisation of Nature - Theory, Politics and Practice' workshop
  • Nicola Plowman (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Symposium of British Consortium of Comics Scholars and Comics Tea Party
  • Ruth Segal (Business School) - Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network Symposium: The Diversity of Food Research
  • Ngender (group from Media, Arts and Humanities and Global Studies) - "Ngender 2015"
  • Miguel Otaola (Law, Politics and Sociology) - "Democracy and Participation in Latin America" Conference
  • Daniel Hignell and Danny Bright (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Impact in Creative Practice" Symposium
  • Jack Miller (Business School) - "21st SPRU Dphil Day: STI and (Un)certainty"
  • Marie Rogers (Psychology) - "5 Minute Thesis: Cognition in brains, animals and machines" Symposium

2013-14

  • Edward Morrow (Life Sciences) and Dr Sarah Newbury (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - "Herstmonceux Retreat" a multi-day workshop that provides a forum for diverse research groups to interact, build links and discuss research
  • Richard Elliott (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Musical Materialities in the Digital Age
  • Charlotte Morris (Law, Politics and Sociology) -Researching Sex and Intimacy in Contemporary Life: an interdisciplinary symposium
  • Treena Warren (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Sights and Frights Conference" a one-day interdisciplinary conference
  • Kourosh Kouchakpour (Education and Social Work) - 7th Annual Doctoral Research Conference
  • Aanand Venkatramanan (Business School) - "Finance Group, for Young Finance Scholars" Conference and Quantitative Finance Workshop

2012-13

  • ESW Conference Committee (Education and Social Work) - Doctoral conference
  • Sarah Newbury (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) - South Coast RNA network and conference
  • MFM Conference Committee (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Aannual Media Film Music doctoral day
  • Jon Sward (Global Studies) - Migration Researchers in the Field: A Doctoral Student Conference
  • Rose Holmes and Paul Weir (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Civilians and War, 1914-1945" a one-day postgraduate conference.
  • Laura Joyce, Anneke Newman and Rachel Wood (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Ngender" seminar series, film screening and panel discussion.
  • Cecile Chevalier (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "Mediamorphosis" symposium and exhibition.
  • Althea Rivas (Global Studies) - "Critical Debates With(in) Development: Power, Resilience and Change" a two-day conference.
  • Carina Westling (Media, Arts and Humanities)- "Inputs/Outputs" an interdisciplinary conference. Interdisciplinary approaches to causality in engagement, immersion, and presence in performance and human-computer interaction.
  • Thomas Chambers, Sufyan Abid, and Titksha Shukla (Global Studies) - South Asian Anthropologists Group (SAAG) Annual Conference.
  • Rachael Durrant and Bex White (Business School) - "Food and the Public Good" a symposium organised by the Brighton-Sussex Food Research Network (BSFRN)
  • Alexa Neale (Media, Arts and Humanities) - "The History Forum" a series of 15 workshops held over the winter
  • Khalid Ali (Brightonand Sussex Medical School) - "Women in art, science and research" a one-day conference celebrating the achievements of women in Sussex in science, art and research with a focus on an ageing environment and the interface between science and the arts.
  • Fidelma Hanrahan (Psychology) - "Creating theatre with young people on the margins" theatre performance and conference

 

Awards made from Research Culture Seed Fund

2023-24

  • Katharine Addis (Media, Arts and Humanities) - Academic storytelling: writing a book and getting it published
  • Natacha Rossi (Life Sciences) - Round table series on the publishing system in academia
  • James Knight (Engineering and Informatics )- Research Software Engineering network
  • Faiz Sheikh (Global Studies) - Supporting intra-School collaboration and participation
  • Alice Corble (Global Studies) - Scoping access-driven collaborations and support for the Black Studies @ Sussex Legacy Collection Archive
  • Christopher Brown (Mathematical and Physical Sciences) - Mathematical and Physical Sciences Post and Undergraduate Talks

2022-23

  • Fan Zhang (Engineering and Informatics) - Enhancing Interdisciplinary Research through Collaborative Training and Knowledge Exchange
  • Ioannis Papadakis (Business School) - Reading Group of the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP)
  • Charlie Rumsby (Education and Social Work) - "The Waters of Death and Life" an ethno-graphic novel
  • Melissa Lazenby (Global Studies) - 3-Day Writing Retreat
  • Jeri Damman (Education and Social Work) - Sussex University Parent Researchers: Advancing a Culture of Inclusion and Participation in Child Welfare Research
  • Mohsen Veisi (Business School) - Support for the Teaching and Learning seminar series for the Business School

2021-22

  • Kathryn Telling (Law, Politics and Sociology ) - Higher Education Researchers Networking Event
  • Melis Ece (Global Studies) - "Sowing the Seeds for Creative Collaborative Research on Contemporary Global Challenges" an interdisciplinary peer learning exchange
  • Beth Nicholls (Life Sciences) - Junior Faculty Network
  • Christina Hancock (Education and Social Work) - Creating space for research within the teaching and scholarship contracts

Sussex Researcher School

E: researcher-school@sussex.ac.uk