Newsletter March 2018
Update from Research, Innovation and Impact Services Welcome to the first edition of the Research, Innovation and Impact Services (RIIS) newsletter for 2018. I would like to take this opportunity to outline some notable staff changes that have happened in our teams. We will have some new staff joining us, including Dr Jackie Reynolds who will be starting with us as the Research Impact Manager. Dr Darren Clements has joined the Research Environment and Development Team as a Research, Development and Funding Manager on 12th February. Theresa Mott, and Sunder Sanghera have also joined the team as Research Administrators supporting the work of the Graduate School and research ethics. Sally-Anne Jordan has been confirmed as Research Services Coordinator following the formation of RIIS in November. On a less happy note we are sad to say goodbye to Naomi Arblaster from the Research Environment and Development Team, who has just been successful in obtaining a new post as Employer Partnership Development Manager, over in the Employer Partnerships Team. We are also sorry to see Isobel Walker, who left in December to take up a post at Birmingham University, and Kim Watson, who will be pursuing a freelance career, leave the Project Delivery Team. We would like to thank Naomi, Isobel and Kim for their contribution to the teams and wish them well for the future. Finally, congratulations to Cathal Rogers who was not only confirmed in post as Research Policy and Governance Manager but has also received confirmation that he has successfully completed his doctorate at Keele University. Congratulations Dr Rogers!
Erasmus International Staff Week: Employability, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Jon Fairburn of the School of Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship and Wendy Pollard of Research, Innovation and Impact Services hosted 19 delegates from 11 different countries across the European Union at an Erasmus International Staff Week in November. The delegates spent their time attending events, workshops and lectures as part of the university’s CareersFest. They spent a day with Clair Hameed and her team at Be Inspired visiting Staffordshire University startups at Spode and a new project in Hilderstone which offers equine therapy for people with eating disorders. In the afternoon they visited the Wedgewood factory and museum and indulged in afternoon tea. The delegates gave very positive feedback and enjoyed all aspects of the programme, but particularly the opportunity to attend events with students and the days out. We will be replicating the event next November as part of Connected Futures and Global Entrepreneurship Week. Wendy is currently working alongside Marc Estibeiro, Dan Hopkins, Rob Marsden of the School of Creative Arts and Engineering on an International Staff Week for Teachers of Film, Drama, Theatre and Music taking place on 19th-22nd March. They will be hosting a number of European Academic staff in creative arts who will be guest teaching, participating in workshops with students and experiencing first hand life at Staffordshire University.
Research Environment and Development Training Programme The Graduate School Training Programmes for postgraduate research (PGR) students and supervisors have so far been very successful. These events are part of a broader training programme of events that Research, Innovation and Impact Services (RIIS) are leading to support staff and enhance the growth of the institutional research environment. Below is the table of events for sessions in March, April, May and June 2018. Registration for sessions can be made via MyView or you can e-mail Cathal Rogers at Cathal.Rogers@staffs.ac.uk to register. We are keen to ensure the programme is meeting the needs of staff so if there is any area you would like to see covered please get in touch at researchservices@staffs.ac.uk. Session
Academic
Date and time
Location
PhD Internal Examiner Training
Professor Doug Burnham and Professor Karen Rodham
22/3/2018 14:00-16:00
L518, Flaxman
Clearly communicating our research findings with the public
Nicola Gratton (CAE)
28/3/2018 13:00-15:00
LT111/3, Ashley
Research networking and collaborative opportunities
Dr Vish Maheshwari (BLE)
24/4/2018 11:30-13:00
T005, Beacon
Staffordshire University PGR Conference
Professor Douglas Burnham
23/5/2018
TBC
Staffordshire University Research Conference
Professor Martin Jones
24/5/18
TBC
Research Professional: How to find reserarch funding
Research Professional support 6/6/2018 staff (Lukasz Slusarski) 12:00-13:00
T105, Beacon
Research Professional – all you need to know Every Staffordshire University academic has a Research Professional account, which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. You can log in with your university account, tailor it to your research area and establish additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Research Environment and Development team can assist you with this, if required, contant them at researchservices@staffs.ac.uk. Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to Research Professional. These can be downloaded as follows: Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up e-mail alerts (http://bit.ly/2IAPpqM). User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using Research Professional (http://bit. ly/2FQDKGQ). Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality (http://bit.ly/2pqFsUO). There is also a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of Research Professional. Access the videos at http://bit.ly/2sWIsvU. Research Professional are running workshops aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on Research Professional. These are being held in a computer lab as part of the research training programme. One took place on 10th January 2018 and the next one will be held on 6 June 2018. E-mail researchservices@staffs.ac.uk to book a place. Lukasz Slusarski, Client Services Adminstrator, at Research Professional provides an introduction to the service at http://bit.ly/2EkbNSK.
Study abroad – a student’s perspective George Morris, studying BA Hons Experimental Film Production, and Alice Briers, studying BA Hons Advertising Film and Video Production, are spending one semester, from January to June, at ERAM University Girona, Spain, with the Erasmus+ programme. There is a long established relationship between our School of Computing and Digital Technologies (Dan Hopkins) and ERAM University, but these are the first students for a couple of years to go out there. We have a student from ERAM here at Staffordshire University from ERAM at the moment. George says, ‘the course has been good, more so with meeting the other erasmus students from other countries’. To find out more about work and study abroad through Erasmus+, go to www.staffs.ac.uk/erasmus.
New project: Adoption of Sustainable Accounting Practices for Reporting A new project to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) report on their sustainability has recently started. The overall aim of the project is to provide the necessary training and tools for SMEs to adopt sustainable accounting and reporting practices in a cost-effective way. The Report-ASAP (Adoption of Sustainable Accounting Practices for Reporting) project is led by Dr Souad Moufty of the Business School and is funded under the EU ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership Programme. Dr Aisha Abuelmaati and Prof Jon Fairburn will also be working on the project. The project is being supported by Tom Ward of the Project Delivery Team in Research, Innovation and Impact Services. The project will first carry out a needs analysis in the six partner countries to establish a knowledge gap framework. This consultation has launched and the survey is available at https://report-asapproject.eu/questionnaire for SMEs to complete. The partnership will then produce a training course, and online training tool and a trainers guide. These will be supported both by the European Credit and Edcucation Training skills framework and by an achievements recognition framework. Find out more about the Report-ASAP project at https://report-asapproject.eu and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/reportasapproject. Contact Souad at souad.moufty@staffs.ac.uk.
Sem-Sem project – visit to the Centre for Alternative Technology A number of engineering lecturers from Egypt and Jordan were invited to Staffordshire University for a week-long workshop in October 2017, hosted by Dr Abdel-Hamid Soliman. The visit was part of the Sem-Sem project, a capacitybuilding project funded by the European Union, and one day was dedicated to a visit to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. The ten visitors, accompanied by four members of staff, travelled by coach to Wales on a rather damp Thursday. On arrival the first thing the visitors did was travel up the side of a hill on a water-powered funicular railway – as the staff explained, there is no shortage of water in Wales! This was the perfect introduction to an organisation which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and has been in the forefront of sustainable energy use from the start, although now it provides information on all aspects of sustainable living. After a brief introductory lecture and lunch, the visitors had a guided tour around the site, which includes biomass boilers, straw-bale buildings, compostable toilets, organic horticulture and a very up-to-date visitor centre with rammed earth walls in the lecture theatre. Despite the rather dull weather, the visitors enjoyed themselves and found the tour interesting and informative. To find out more about the Sem-Sem project, go to http://sem-sem.aast.edu or contact Abdel-Hamid at a.soliman@staffs.ac.uk.
PERFECT project learning and teaching event The Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) Fundamentals Teaching Event which took place at Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, on 15th and 16th November was a great success. Both teachers and students had a fantastic time and are very satisfied with the event and its implications. The teaching/learning event was organised by members from all five institutions of the PERFECT project consortium. Tom Ward from Research, Innovation and Impact Services at Staffordshire University was responsible for the overall organisation on location, e.g. preparing and handing out certificates, preparation of feedback sheets, organising rooms and media, and ordering hospitality.
The content and methods of the teaching activities were based on the module descriptor for the PSM fundamentals module developed in Intellectual Output 4 of the project – Curriculum Design. On the first day, Klaas Stek, Twente University (Netherlands) and Graz University of Technology (Austria), held a lecture about the core definitions and benefits and meaning of PSM for companies and networks and Steve Kelly, Edge Hill University and Staffordshire University (UK), presented on purchasing processes, specification development, stakeholder management and supplier management. Elina Karttunen, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), talked about supply market evaluation and the students conducted a negotiation exercise. The second day started with a guest lecture by Nigel Peake, the Head of Purchasing at Staffordshire University, who shared his insights into the challenges of public procurement and his personal career path. Furthermore, the trends digitalisation and sustainability were in focused on in the lecture and case study developed by Heike Schulze, Hochschule Mainz (Germany), and Laura Berger, TU Dortmund (Germany), which followed afterwards. Students developed their own ideas and recommendations applied to a practical case. All lectures were combined with small activities. Finally, all participants received a certificate of participation. The participants’ roots were very international, which meets the EU-funded project’s goals perfectly. Most of them study Accounting and Finance at postgraduate level at Staffordshire University. The students were extremely motivated and interested. They gained lots of new knowledge and enjoyed the interactive methods, as became evident in their feedback. The PERFECT team had a great time working with the group. Go to http://www.perfect.lfo.tu-dortmund.de for more information about the PERFECT project.
Research ethics The University is moving towards a new structure for ethical review. Instead of Faculty Ethics Committees there will now be a College of Ethical Reviewers. There will continue to be a University Research Ethics Committee, to oversee ethics. This will be chaired by Professor Nachi Chockalingam. There will be an ethics coordinator for each school, and a deputy: School BLE CAE CDT HSC LPF LSE
Ethics Coordinator David Williamson David Webb Elhadj Benkhelifa Peter Kevern John Cassella Roozbeh Naemi
Deputy Manjusha Hirekhan Anna Francis Polina Zioga Ed Tolhurst Kirsty Squires Naomi Ellis
New training sessions for ethics have been run by Professor Chockalingam. They were well attended, with a total of 31 members of staff attending. Administrative support for ethics will be centralised to RIIS and will be looked after by our new Research Administrators now Teresa and Sunder. If you have any questions, or if you would be interested in joining the College of Ethical Reviewers, please contact Cathal Rogers (cathal.rogers@staffs.ac.uk).
PhD studentships This year the university is offering 15 fully-funded PhD studentships to exceptional candidates in some of our strongest research areas. Over the summer we received over 300 applications for these positions. We are delighted to announce that, for most of these projects, the shortlisting and interviewing stages have been completed. Several of the new PhD students have now started their research and have joined the wider community of PhD students. The 12 students who have been appointed are listed as follows, along with their area of research and their principal supervisor. Appointed student Research Project Title Yasemin Colak Income inequality in transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe Ema Talem Evaluating the potential of public policy to jointly promote firms' exporting and innovation Alexia Rothwell Transnational firearm trafficking: Developing a Real-Time Intervention Model Daria Cherkaska Novel, cross-disciplinary approaches to the investigation of landscapes of mass violence Daniela Valued landscapes facing rapid environmental change: developing tools Jovanovska for visual quality assessment Charlotte Folkes Developing forensic strategies to address consent issues in sexual assaults Stelios Fanourakis Novel applications of ultrasound imaging to enhance the clinical management of pathologies of the foot Matthew Hill Assessment of modular stability footwear for children Patricia Darcy Natural environments and health Darel Cookson The role of social norms in reducing belief in conspiracy theories Gayathri Mechanical assessment of the plantar soft tissue as a prognostic tool for Balasubramanian predicting diabetic foot ulcers Anthony Miller The role of social identity leadership in psychophysiological responses to stress
Principal Supervisor Dr Mehtap Hisarciklilar Professor Geoff Pugh Professor David Williamson Professor Caroline Sturdy-Colls Dr Ruth Swetnam Dr Graham Williams Dr Panos Chatzistergos Professor Nachi Chockalingham Dr Chris Gidlow Dr Dan Jolley Dr Roozbeh Naemi Dr Matt Slater
We would like to warmly welcome these students and wish them the best of luck with their research projects. If you would like any further information please contact the Graduate School (graduateschool@staffs.ac.uk). Contact Research, Innovation and Impact Services at researchservices@staffs.ac.uk