Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the latest issue of the Sussex Researcher for 2019.
First of all a huge "Thank you!" to those of you who have completed the Biennial Researcher Pulse Survey in the last two weeks. We are delighted that as of the evening of Tuesday July 30th:
- 47 Researchers have completed the survey
- 9 others are are part way through
- 36 people have entered the prize draw
We are keeping the survey open over the summer, so there is still lots of time for you to participate - and remember the first 50 prize draw entrants have 2 chances to win £25 Amazon vouchers - so do it soon!
Also, something to think about as you head off on holiday, have a great time, then (possibly) get the post-holiday "blues" when it's back to the day job: Ever thought of getting a mentor? We feature the University-wide mentoring scheme in the "News - University" section of this newsletter - check it out.
Whatever you're up to this summer, have a good one, and as always do get in touch if there's anything you'd like us to do with / for you.
Best wishes,
The Research Staff Office Team (Hayley Cordingley and Alex Aghajanian)
In this Edition Workshops & Events - August: - Pause for the summer; e-feedback forms - Fellowships seminar series follow up News: Our Community: - Biennial Researcher Pulse Survey - Life Sciences Postdoc Research Symposium held in July - Research Staff gatherings University: - Mentoring at the University of Sussex Sector: - Delay to publication date of new Concordat Opportunities: - Volunteers needed for Pride STEMM Community Stand Your Research & Careers: Research: - Interview with Dr Natalie Bowling - Impacted: Podcast series about research for real change Careers: - High workload faced by early-career researchers Research Funding: - Cambridge; RAE; BA; ARUK
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Workshops & Events 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 2019/20 Research Staff Development Series programme in our next newsletter, so watch this space. Thank you to everyone that participated in the events this year, and gave us feedback as we went along. If you didn't manage to fill in a feedback form at the time, we would still value your thoughts and have created an online form to enable this - just press the button below! As always please do get in contact with any suggestions for events and workshops you would like to see - either delivered centrally for all, or for a smaller group in your area.
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ECR Fellowships seminars well received, and new Canvas area coming soon It was great seeing those of you who made it along to the initial run through of the ECR Fellowships series we held in June and July. We are really pleased that it seems to have fit the bill - some quotes from attendees include:
- “Really useful, practical, tips that make things more tangible.”
- “Clear, relevant advice appropriate to career stage.”
- “A very good introduction into fellowships.”
We are excited to let you know that the RSO are in the process of creating a "Canvas" site, and our first area will include all the materials, activities and recordings of presentations from this series. We aim to feature this in our next newsletter edition, so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, if you would like to be sent any materials please, contact us with your request and we will do our best to get them over to you as soon as possible!
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Have your say! - 2019 Biennial Researcher Pulse Survey Following on from our item in the last newsletter, the Research Staff Office have announced the launch of the Biennial Researcher Pulse Survey: tinyurl.com/researcherpulsesurvey What is it? This questionnaire combines: - Questions from the Vitae Careers in Research Online Survey (CROS) - Questions arising from issues that Research Staff / Reps have raised as being of concern - Questions about the developments and innovations we are planning in the Research Staff Office going forwards. How long does it take? We anticipate it will take 20-25 minutes of your time – but you can save it along the way and return in case you are interrupted. Why are you running it? We currently have ~400 staff employed on research-only contracts at the University. The more direct data / input we gather from you, the more we will be able to make informed, credible business cases to management – to deliver the support, effect the changes, and create the environment that you, our Research staff here at Sussex want. What’s in it for me? As well as influencing things at an institutional level, all participants are eligible to enter a prize draw the RSO are holding to say “thank you” for participating in the Survey:
- The first 50 respondents will be entered into a prize draw for two £25 Amazon vouchers
- All entrants will be entered into a prize draw for ten £10 Amazon vouchers
- If we get over 200 (unique!) respondents, we will add a further twenty £5 vouchers to the draw.
So please take part, and encourage your colleagues (on Research-only contracts) to take part too!
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Diverse research showcased at first Life Sciences Postdoc Research Symposium From the navigation of wood ants to cancer therapeutics, a diverse array of research was shared at the first Life Sciences Postdoc Research Symposium. The event, held on 4 th July, aimed to raise awareness of the varied research happening across the School and provide postdoctoral researchers with valuable networking opportunities and experience presenting their work. Dr Rosanna Barnard, a Research Fellow in Infectious Disease Modelling in the School of Life Sciences, presented her research into the spatial spread of Ebola and was a lead organiser of the event. She said: “It was great to learn about the various kinds of work being done by postdoctoral researchers within the School of Life Sciences, and I was inspired to meet and hear from colleagues across the School.” The Life Sciences Postdoc Research Symposium was organised by Rosanna Barnard, Eduard Campillo-Funollet, Monika Chugh and Desiree Villahermosa Caballero.
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Research Staff gathering - "Meet the RSO" (EngInf in July - ESW in Sept) Thanks to those of you who attended our EngInf "Meet the RSO" lunchtime event organised with the Research Staff Reps ( Husam Ramadan, Peter Overbury and Alex Dewar) on the 17th of July. We were delighted that so many of you could make it, that you said you enjoyed yourselves, and that Leonardo Garcia-Garcia has volunteered to become an additional Rep for the School :) Having spoken with the REC and RS Reps in ESW, we are aiming to do something similar with them in September. We’re keen to hear if there is appetite for more events: social, professional development opportunities or both - get in touch with us if you are interested in having something similar for your school or group!
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Would you value an objective mentor? Mentoring can be hugely beneficial for supporting you in your career. We have mentors available who have experience in a wide range of areas such as navigating change, research and publishing, handling conflict, strategic career development and work-life balance. Mentees are matched with mentors from a different School/division and all relationships are confidential. If you’d like to find out more, please email od@sussex.ac.uk or go to the mentoring pages here. We are also always looking for new mentors to join the mentoring community. Mentors find they get a huge amount out of mentoring, gaining insight into other areas of the University and sharing their support and experience with colleagues. Please call (01273 677713) or email ( s.m.o-malley@sussex.ac.uk) Sarah O’Malley for more information.
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Delay to publication date of Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers As noted in Edition 52 of this newsletter, the new version of the Concordat was due to be published at the end of June. On July 4th, Professor Julia Buckingham CBE, chair of the Concordat Strategy Group, released her latest update - it is now due for publication in September. Explaining this within the update she states:
- "The Concordat Strategy Group (CSG) has recently reviewed the feedback from a range of key stakeholder groups who were asked to preview the latest draft of the Concordat to ascertain whether they had any major concerns"
- "The balance of feedback wanted to see more aspiration, more focus on outcomes, and more obligations within each principle to give the Concordat more teeth, while still maintaining the flexibility for different types of institutions and funders."
- As we are rapidly approaching the summer break, the CSG has agreed to give more time to the CWG [Concordat Writing Group] to consider all this feedback in their next iteration and have decided to move the publication of the Concordat to September for the start of the next academic year.
We await the new publication with bated breath!
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Volunteers needed for Pride STEMM Community Stand 3-4 August The STEM Schools at Sussex – Life Sciences, Engineering and Informatics, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Psychology and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School – have provided funding for activities that promote and support LGBT+ people in STEM. The Schools are currently looking for people willing to run STEM-based activities during Pride on both Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th August. The stand will be part of the Community Village in Preston Park. Katy Petherick, Public Engagement Coordinator for the School of Life Sciences, said: “It is fantastic to see the STEMM Schools from across the University come together to celebrate LGBT+ scientists. We know how important it is to have visible role models and so we hope that by going to Pride with LGBT+ scientists we will spark LGBT+ peoples’ interest in science, and show that it is as relevant for them as anyone else.” If you would like to volunteer to help run interative STEMM on the 3rd and 4th of August, you can do so by contacting Katy Petherick ( k.petherick@sussex.ac.uk).
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Natalie Bowling, Research Fellow - "Some people can 'inhabit' other people's bodies" University of Sussex psychologist Dr Natalie Bowling recently explained the unusual phenomenon of mirror-touch synaesthesia at The Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition in London. I first came across synaesthesia, which is the triggering of one sense by another (such as hearing colours, or tasting sounds), when I was 16. I was interested in Psychology at school and was doing work experience with Jamie Ward, who was at UCL at the time and had already begun looking into synaesthesia. I thought it was amazing. It’s what led to me studying Psychology at Sussex as an undergraduate in 2006. As part of the exhibition, we will have the “rubber hand illusion”. This is where you hide someone’s real hand and you stroke it in synchrony with a rubber hand that they can see. They can start to feel as if the rubber hand is their own hand. We know that people with mirror-touch synaesthesia feel this strongly. You don’t even need to stroke their real hand in synchrony with the rubber hand for them to feel it’s theirs. They have a propensity to inhabit another person’s body, even when there is a mismatch between what they see and what they feel. Interview by Jacqui Bealing
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‘I’ll work on it over the weekend’: high workload and other pressures faced by early-career researchers *Article from nature.com Early-career researchers face many uncertainties. Their career paths are not always well defined, even when they have secured a permanent position. The part that administrative and teaching duties play, and the time researchers should devote to them, is often vague. A survey of members of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE), a pan-European network of early-career researchers, has examined several career factors, including work–life balance, tenure-track requirements and administrative workload. The aim of the survey, carried out in the first half of 2018, was to gain a better understanding of the conditions that researchers face early in their career, and the main challenges. Four main challenges were noted by respondents:
- lack of time;
- securing a permanent position;
- obtaining funding;
- and excessive administration.
The survey revealed that people often feel they should work longer than the standard working day. The YAE found that 95% of respondents report working more than 40 hours per week, and of those, 50% worked more than 50 hours, significantly more than their contracts say they should.
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Impacted: the podcast series about research for real change Impacted is a new podcast series recently launched at Sussex about research for real change. Each episode showcases researchers at the University of Sussex (UK) and considers the impact their work is having in the world. Subscribe to Impacted via iTunes | RSS
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Research Funding
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.
Do look at Research Development webpages for guidance around applications
For more information about ECR Fellowships, check out our new webpage:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/research/researchstaff/funding/fellowship-opportunities |
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Junior research fellowships
These enable researchers to spend up to four years in Cambridge undertaking postdoctoral research or scholarly work at an early stage of an academic career. Stipends are worth up to £26,879 per year and include housing allowances of up to £6,660 per annum and other fellow privileges.
Deadline for Applications: 29th August 2019
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Research fellowships and engineering for development research fellowships
These support early-career researchers in becoming future research leaders in engineering. Fellowships are worth up to £500,000 each and are tenable for five years.
Deadline for Applications: 23rd September 2019
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Postdoctoral fellowships
These support early-career researchers in the humanities or social sciences. Fellowships are tenable for three years and cover fellows’ salaries, small-scale research expenses up to £6,000, costs towards the time of a mentor, and the host institution’s estates and indirect costs.
Deadline for Applications: 16th October 2019
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Research fellowships
These support early-career non-clinical researchers beginning an independent project on Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Fellowships include a salary and up to £20,000 per year for up to three years as a contribution towards research, animal and travel costs.
Deadline for Applications: 22nd January 2020
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