Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the final issue of the Sussex Researcher for this academic year. We've had a very busy year in the Research Staff Office and it was great to finish off our programme with many of you at our Careers & Enterprise Day, where we discussed careers outside academia, freelancing, and creating a commercial enterprise from academic research.
During the summer we'll be working hard to plan our initiatives and events for the next academic year, as well as taking a bit of a summer holiday, so we will be back in September with our next newsletter. Of course, as always we welcome your feedback and suggestions of how we can improve your experiences and professional development. Please drop us an email at researchstaffoffice@sussex.ac.uk and we'll try our best to incorporate your suggestions into next year's programme.
Best wishes and have a good summer,
The Research Staff Office Team (Catherine Pope and Alex Aghajanian)
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Training and Development 2018/19
At this time of year we have a break from training and development workshops and are working hard to put together the programme of events for the next academic year.
We should have more information for you about the 2018/19 Research Staff Development Series programme in our next newsletter in September as we are currently waiting for the room booking system to reopen.
Thank you to everyone that participated in the events this year and contributed to the continuing success of the programme.
As always please do get in contact with any feedback, we're happy to receive your suggestions regarding events you would like to see in the programme, email us at: researchstaffoffice@sussex.ac.uk.
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Spotlight on Dr Nikolaos Tsoureas
Research Fellow in Chemistry at the School of Life Sciences
I see myself as a molecular engineer when I make something interesting, something that’s never been done before.
Recently I’ve been working on one of the least known oxides of carbon, carbon suboxide. It was studied about three decades ago, and then people lost interest and nothing was done on it for a very long time. It turns out that it is forming in cells, and nature being a great recycler uses it to form cyclic structures that regulate ion channels in cells.
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Appraisals 2018 - Make sure you have yours!
The time of year has come around again when you should participate in an appraisal meeting. Appraisals generally take place between May and August each year, but may vary depending on your School/Department's processes.
The annual appraisal is an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the progress you have made in your research and career development over the course of the year. It is also a chance to have an open discussion with your appraiser about how you would like to develop your career over the forthcoming year and beyond.
The appraisal focusses equally on your work objectives and career development objectives and you should ensure that you make time to discuss both during your appraisal meeting.
All research staff should be appraised using the forms that are available to download at the link below.
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Changes in the Research Staff Office Team We are very sad to announce that Research Staff Officer, Dr Catherine Pope, will be leaving the Research Staff Office this month to embark on an exciting career as a freelance coach and trainer. You can find out more at www.catherinepope.com. We are sorry to see Catherine go and thank her for all her efforts during her time at Sussex and wish her every success in her future career.
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Successful showcase celebrates work of LGBT+ scientists In recognition of the first ever LGBTSTEM day (5 July 2018), a special event was held on campus to celebrate the work done by LGBT+ scientists across the University. The showcase, which will hopefully be an annual event, aimed to improve awareness and support for LGBT+ individuals in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). It saw scientists from across the University deliver a range of fascinating talks showcasing diverse research, from astronomy to Alzheimer’s disease. The showcase at the University was delivered as part of the project Out and About STEM, which was started by Dr Katy Petherick of the School of Life Sciences and is funded by a Biochemical Society Diversity in Science grant. For further information and additional resources, visit the Stonewall website.
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Call for Sussex to help create unique library to inspire future generations of scientists A University of Sussex researcher wants to encourage the next generation of scientists in her homeland by helping to create a one-of-a-kind library in Rwanda. Dr Marie-Fabrice Gasasira Uwamahoro, a research technician at the university’s world-renowned Genome Damage and Stability Centre ( GDSC), is looking to raise £4,000 in a month to create a permanent resource that hundreds of Rwandan pupils will have access to. Dr Gasasira hopes the project will help overcome one of Rwanda’s biggest obstacles in trying to rebuild its economy through science and technology – a shortage of resources. It has been agreed with the Rwandan Ministry of Education that the library will be based at a science secondary school in Nyanza, a city in southern Rwanda around 100km from the capital Kigali, with opportunities made available for other schools to come and use the library. If you would like to support the fund please visit here. You can also listen to Dr Gasasira discuss her fundraising project for a science library in an episode of BBC Sussex Drive at 5.
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Researchers create an open access database on emotional responses to multisensorial stimuli Researchers from the Sussex Computer Human Interaction (SCHI) Lab at the University of Sussex have created the world’s first open-access database on participants’ responses to visual, auditory and haptic stimuli. Participants were invited to sit comfortably in front of a computer screen with recording electrodes attached to their index and ring finger to measure the skin conductance of light electric current. They were then exposed to ten standardized sounds, ten new instrumental extracts from various compositions, ten standardized images, ten new abstract pictures and ten haptic stimuli delivered by a mid-air haptic device with their responses to each stimuli recorded. The SCHI Lab team hopes that by publishing the method for measuring the stimuli other academics around the world will help to build up the database, which could then be used for a wide range of applications leading to new developments in computer science, neuroscience, robotics and psychology.
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Opportunities
If applying for funding, remember to check funders' eligibility criteria carefully and discuss the opportunity with your host institution/department prior to preparing any applications. |
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MRC-NIH neurodegeneration partnering awards
These aim to strengthen existing partnerships or to build new ones between UK and NIH-based research groups with common interests in neurodegeneration by funding visits by UK-based researchers to NIH-based research groups. Individual grants are worth up to £15,000 each.
Deadline for Applications: 13th September 2018
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ESRC-AHRC UK-Japan SSH Connections grants
Aimed at fostering the development of long-term relationships with Japanese researchers in the fields of social sciences, arts and humanities with funding up to £50,000 per applicant for a maximum period of 18 months.
Deadline for Applications: 27th September 2018
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Postdoctoral fellowships
These enable early-career researchers to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment. Fellowships are tenable for three years.
Deadline for Applications: 17th October 2018
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