Research Active Vol 08 Issue 3 May 2014

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Research Active The Newsletter of University of Kent Research Services, Vol 8, Issue 3, May 2014

THE REF IS DEAD The University submitted to REF2014 in November last year (RA, Vol 8, Issue 2). A huge amount of effort and time was spent in preparing the submission, and it would be tempting to forget about the REF until the end of the decade.

However, as we await the outcome, we need to start preparing for the next REF, and begin thinking about what it may look like.

Estimated Timescales It is expected that the next REF will take place in 2020 with similar consequent deadlines.  Staffing: census date: 31st October 2019  Outputs: Jan 2014 – Dec 2019 (6 year period, 4 outputs expected)  Impact Template: Jan 2014 – Jul 2019 (3+ pages – impact strategy)  Impact Case Studies: Jan 2014 – Jul 2019 (based on research at Kent Jan 1999-Dec 2019)  Doctorates: awards 2014/152018/19 (5 years)  Research Income: 2014/15 – 2018/19 (5 years)  Environment Template: Jan 2014 – Jul 2019 (7+ pages – plan, staffing, resources, academic impact)  Submission Deadline: Friday 29th November 2019

Possible Developments stringency of evidence needed for impact case studies will be higher;  The number of case studies needed may be higher;  Open Access will be a requirement. 100% of the submitted outputs (journal articles and confer The

Indeed Scientometrics and Altmetrics may also have a role to play.

Preparations Research Services is already talking to Heads of Schools and Directors of Research about how best to prepare for REF2020, including nominating a REF Coordinator, how to identify and record impact, and support for staff in preparing and publishing strong outputs. We will continue to keep you informed as preparations develop.

For more on the likely parameters of the next REF, contact Simon Kerridge s.r.kerridge@kent.ac.uk

INSIDE THIS EDITION ence proceedings) published from 2016 onwards will need to have been Open Access from the point of acceptance. 3 month leeway is expected, and there may be ten categories of exceptions;  Equality may become more important, and possibly a requirement;  Some UOAs may place a greater reliance on metrics. For example Main Panel A, and perhaps some of B could use bibliometrics as a proxy for research output quality.

Public Engagement (Research) Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships KTP ESRC Early Warning New Starters Funding Opportunity Alerts Update on H2020 Changes to OA Fund Researcher Development Working Group Overview of Funding New Awards Grant Focus: ‘Grasp’ Choice Cuts from the Blog

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LONG LIVE THE REF ResearchActive is edited by Phil Ward. Contact him for more information or clarification on any of the items in this edition. In addition, 1 for the latest from the world of research funding, go to fundermental.blogspot.com, or Twitter @frootle

Public Engagement with Research Building on the successful launch of the University's Public Engagement with Research (PER) Strategy last year (RA, Vol 7 Issue 3), the University has established a PER Network, and launched a PER Fund.

PER Network Hosted by Patricia Debney (English), Bob Newport (Physical Sciences) and Lynne Bennett, the Network met in April and discussed the challenges inherent in delivering a successful PER event, including the issue of finding time to take it on. Patricia and Bob talked about their experiences of public engagement, highlighting what worked for them, as well as outlining some of the pitfalls.

Those attending discussed possible support for PER, including:  training in evaluating PER events;  an online forum for staff to share experiences and ask questions;  more information about the different kinds of PER activity happening across the University;

Marie Curie Fellows Many researchers do not realise that European fellowship funding is available to all, regardless of nationality or discipline. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellowships (MSCA) provide funding for ‘mobility’, to allow researchers to move within the EU, to spend time outside the EU building

KTP Research Services works closely with its sister service, Kent Innovation and Enterprise (KIE), which handles business engagement, commercialisation and consultancy.

A key source of funding that KIE deals with is Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). These enable academics to lead collaborations with innovative organisations which require up-to-date research-based

 external

networks that could promote events in the local area.

PER Fund Eight awards were made from the new PER Fund following a call for proposals in March (see panel, right).

The awards will support activities that engage the public with research going on at the University.

Prof John Baldock, PVC Research and Enterprise, chaired the panel that selected the awards. ‘The range and quality of the proposals was most impressive,’ he said. ‘These projects demonstrate the stimulating, innovative and outward-looking work being undertaken by many at the University. I hope their success prompts many more to engage with PER.’ To comment on or discuss PER at Kent, get in touch with Lynne Bennett (l.bennett282@kent.ac.uk) knowledge or skills, or for non-EU researchers to come to Europe.

Kent has been very successful with MSCA, winning 12 Fellowships recently, including 5 last year. Under the new Framework Programme (Horizon 2020—see article on p4) some changes have been made to MSCA schemes.

Now is the time to find out more about the new set up: what is available, what the assessment expertise to succeed.

To help facilitate this, a graduate or postgraduate (known as an Associate) is employed to work within the business, supported by the academics. KTP projects lasts between 6 and 36 months.

KTPs are a great way of enabling academics to demonstrate impact and develop business relevant teaching and research. Many of Kent’s 13 most recently completed KTP projects were used in the last REF: 2 KTPs were used as specific case studies, 2 were mentioned in a 2

PER Fund Awards 2014 Amanda Bates (CHSS): Spreading the Word: Engaging the Public in Health Research Simon Black (SAC): Barbary Lions, Elsa’s Lion Skin & the Search for Extinct Animals in the Attic Lindsey Cameron (Psychology): Social Butterflies and Busy Bees: Your Child’s Psychology Dirk Froebrich (SPS): HOYSCAPS: Hunting Outbursts from Young Stars with the Centre for Astrophysics & Planetary Science Eddy Hogg (SSPSSR): Volunteer Fundraisers, Knowledge Exchange and Collaborative Research Ray Laurence (SECL): Roman Museum: Poetry & Artefacts David Roesner (Arts): Guitar Heroes in Education? A Public Event around the Creative Potential of Music Based Video Games Trude Sundberg (SSPSSR): Statistics: The Key to Understanding the World criteria are, and what you need to do to get ready for the next deadline on 11 September.

To discuss a possible fellowship for yourself, or externals whom Kent could host, contact:  Sciences: Helen Leech (h.leech@kent.ac.uk)  Social Sciences: Brian Lingley (b.lingley@kent.ac.uk)  Humanities: Lynne Bennett (l.bennett-282@kent.ac.uk) generic case study, and 6 were referenced in an impact statement.

Part funded by the Research Councils and led by the Technology Strategy Board, (TSB), KTPs have a impressive success rate of 89%, and a return to School of £36,000 (based on a two year project). As such, they offer an attractive opportunity for follow on funding.

For more info on KTPs contact Charlotte Bury/Clare Witcher on 01227 827376, or email enterprise@kent.ac.uk.

ESRC ADVANCED WARNING! It’s barely spring, but it’s already time to start planning for those summer, autumn, and winter funding schemes. The following is based on previous call information, so may be subject to change: Scheme

What is it?

When is the call?

For more info on any of these schemes contact Brian Lingley, (b.lingley@kent.ac.uk) x 4427.

Things to start thinking about NOW

Future Research Leaders

This is for Early Career Researchers within 4 years of being awarded their PhD. Up to £250k for a three year project

End July – End Sept

As well as a strong research project you need to think about two elements:  impact: engagement with a broad range of non-academic practitioners, policy makers or user groups is key; if you don’t have these NAMED contacts already, you should start cultivating and developing them.  researcher development: think about a programme for your development. Is there a world-class research group that you could spend some time with to develop your career? Do you need specific skills training?

Open Research Area (ORA)

Funding for projects with partners from two of: France, Germany, Netherlands and USA. Up to £600k for UK partner.

SeptDec

Do you have contacts in those countries that you could develop an international research project with?

Transformative Research

Research that involves pioneering theoretical and methodological innovation. Call will probably encourage novel developments of social science enquiry, and support research activity that entails an element of risk. Up to £200k for up to 18 months.

OctJan

Do you have a transformative idea? Who do you need to work with, both inside and outside the Social Sciences, to produce an exciting and innovative research proposal?

Research Seminars

Up to £30k for seminars for groups of researchers, postgraduate students and nonacademic users from different organisations.

DecJan

You may already have university collaborators, but do you have a network of non-academic partners who might be interested in your field?

Can you get agreement in principal for speakers and other contributors to workshops?

WELCOME! Six academics have joined Kent since January. Join with us in welcoming them to Kent, and take a moment to find out about their research interests.

Dr Daniel Alai (SMSAS): a lecturer in actuarial science, Daniel has worked for insurance companies such as Sun Life and Manulife, as well as for KPMG and TillinghastTowers Perrin.

Dr Lucy Barnes (PolIR): the political

economy of inequality and redistribution; the politics of taxation and fiscal policy; political causes and consequences of the `Great Recession'.

Mr Lee Kenny (Journalism): background in newspaper and magazine journalism and has worked as a reporter in Birmingham, New Zealand and China.

Dr Mike Thomas (SSPSSR): the intersections between public policy and personal life, the gaps between policy intentions and outcomes, and the distinctions between legal and 3

social equality as seen through a lens of everyday social interaction.

Dr Manuel Toledo-Ascencion (Economics): Macroeconomics with a particular focus on labour markets and business cycle fluctuations Dr Mikkel Zangenberg (SECL): Danish and European modern literatures, 1700-2000; the work of Beckett and Joyce; literary theory, cultural theory and philosophy; poetics and aesthetics; modern European and global warfare.

Changes to Open Access Fund In April last year the University was given £59k by the Research Councils (RCUK) to offset the cost of making outputs from their funded projects open access.

The University put in place a procedure to manage this (RA, Vol 7 Issue 3). It stated that the fund was only available to RCUK award holders, and only if Green Open Access (OA) wasn’t available.

As a result the Fund is relatively undersubscribed. In March the Board for Research and Enterprise agreed to make the fund available to high quality nonRCUK outputs (3* or 4*). This would also increase citation rates, which have been an issue for the University in recent league tables.

Such a policy change would need substantial additional investment, and Research Services is currently discussing these costs with Finance. Once these have been agreed, all academic staff will be informed of the new procedure for applying to the Fund.

Research Services is planning to make FUNDING more use of the University’s subALERTS scription to Research Professional (RP), the most comprehensive database of funding opportunities available to those in the UK. Rather than blanket people with In May 2013 the University won the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award (RA, Vol 7 Issue 3).

The Researcher Development Working Group (RDWG) was set up following this with a remit to safeguard the support for researchers at the University, and ensure that they have the necessary help in developing their careers.

The Group is comprised of representatives from across the three faculties, as well as support services, and its work is informed by the

Update on Horizon 2020 First Deadlines Kent submitted a number of ERC Starting Grant and Societal Challenges proposals to the first H2020 calls last month. The initial results are expected later this year. There will be further deadlines throughout the year and during 2015 (see panel below for a link to timetable for these).

Success Rates Due to the dearth of calls during the final year of FP7, it is expected that H2020 calls will be heavily oversubscribed. However, this was not true of the first ERC Starting Grant call: numbers actually went down from 3329 last year to 3272 this year. With a budget increase of €85m this year, the success rate should therefore increase slightly.

Participant Portal The revamped Research Participant Portal experienced some teething problems, especially on submission dates. This is perhaps inevitable given the large number of applica-

tions, so make sure to submit well before the deadline in order to avoid these problems.

New ERC Resubmission Rules Revised eligibility criteria for unsuccessful proposals were announced in the ERC Work Programme 2014.  Principal Investigators whose proposals were evaluated as category C in 2013 are not eligible to apply in 2014;  Those evaluated as category C in 2014 are not eligible to apply in 2015 and 2016;  Those evaluated as category B in 2014 are not eligible to apply in 2015.

Deadlines for Consolidator Grants and Advanced Grants are 20th of May and 21st October respectively.

For a list of 2014/15 calls go to the R esearch Services websit e (http://bit.ly/KentEUCalls), or talk to the European Research Funding Officer, Conny Jumel (k.jumel@kent.ac.uk)

generic funding emails, we will be showing staff how RP can be used to tailor alerts to their discipline or sub-discipline, as well as the type of funding they’re interested in (such as fellowships), and what timeframe.

RP also offers ‘intelligence’ behind the headlines: what works for certain funders, success rates, and what is in the pipeline .

We are hoping to link the RP login with the University one, making it even easier to use, and will be providing further training in the Autumn. In the meantime there is a quick start guide enclosed in this edition of Research Active.

Researcher Development Working Group

is mapping the current provision of support for researchers both internally and externally, By so doing, it is hoped that any gaps or overlaps will be rectified, that support will be more clearly signposted, and that both researchers, mentors and managers will be aware of the framework that exists to support the career development of researchers.

findings from the 2013 Survey of Researchers at Kent which addressed recruitment, induction, training and career development. It is analysing contract researcher demographics, and in particular differences that exist in, say, gender and contract length between the schools.

In consultation with the Group, HR 4

Contact Phil Ward for more detail (p.ward@kent.ac.uk)

For links to current provision go to: http://bit.ly/KentRDWG, or contact Steve Richards in HR (s.richards@kent.ac.uk)

An Overview of Research Funding, Jan-Mar 2014 Two interesting statistics to note this term: firstly, almost a third of the awards have come from the EC (including FP7, Interreg, ERC and COST); and secondly, almost half of the awards, in terms of value, have gone to the Social Sciences.

This is due in no small part to Dr Tracy Kivell’s ERC Award; you can read more about it on page 5.

Elsewhere, special mention should be made to Prof Mark Smales, who won three BBSRC awards, and to the success in History of projects relating to the anniversary of the First World War.

Humanities 9%

Social Sciences 49% Sciences 42%

Total Award Value by Faculty

Largest Individual Awards (titles of projects listed overleaf) Humanities: Prof Mark Connelly (History) £210,868 from AHRC

NIHR 4%

Other (<1%) 7%

EC 30%

Leverhulme 7%

EPSRC 8%

Sciences: Prof Mark Smales (CMP) £654,400 from the BBSRC

World Doping Agency AHRC 2% 4%

ESRC 9% Dept of Health 10%

Award Value

9 8

7 6 5

4

Social Sciences: Dr Tracy Kivell (SAC) £998,249 from the ERC

BBSRC 19%

3 2 1 0

Award Number (>1award)

5

FULL LIST OF AWARDS: 1 Jan—31 March 2014 Below are awards for more than £1000 made last Term. They do not include extensions or supplements.

HUMANITIES Architecture Prof Marialena Nikolopoulou (right): Street Mobility and Accessibility (EPSRC, £9,830); and Capturing the Lived Experience of Food Bank Clients and Volunteers.(University of Leeds, £23,952).

Arts Dr David Roesner: Guitar Heroes in Music Education?

(AHRC, £1,683) Clio Barnard: Screenwriting Fellowship (Wellcome, £30,000) Dr Helen Brooks (with Connelly, below): Gateway to the First World War (AHRC, £12,134) English Dr Jennie Batchelor: The Lady’s Magazine (1770-1818): Understanding the Emergence of a Genre (Leverhulme, £185,147) European Cultures and Languages Dr Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij: Epistemic Consequentialism: Problems and Prospects (British Academy, £9,160) Dr Julien Murzi: Evidence (Mind, £1,087) Dr Ian Cooper: Kurze Rede, Langer Sinn: The 19th Century German Short Prose Narrative (Von Humboldt Foundation, £3,626) History Dr Stefan Goebel: Ypres: CityBattlefield-Site of Memory, 19142014 (BA, £8,999) Dr Timothy Bowman: World War One at Home (AHRC, £12,175) Prof Mark Connelly (with Brooks, above): Gateways to the First World War (AHRC, £210,868)

SCIENCES Centre for Molecular Processing Prof Mark Smales: INNOVATE (Investigating Novel Valuable Biotherapeutics and Expression Systems) (BBSRC, £343,941); Bioprocessing Network (B B SR C , £654,400); and Expression of Recombinant Target Antigens for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Surrogate Organisms (BBSRC, £116,608) Pharmacy Andrea Manfrin: Collaboration with Italian Pharmacy Association (Federazione degli Ordini dei Farmacisti Italiani, £67,404) Biosciences Dr Wei-Feng Xue: Engineering Sensor Parts to Enable a Synthetic Biology Approach for Bacterial Detection of Greenhouse Gases (BBSRC, £7,300) Dr Alessia Buscaino: Synthetic Heterochromatin in the Fungal Pathogen Candida Albicans (Royal S o c i e t y £11,860) Dr Anastasios Tsaousis: Developing Naegleria Gruberi as a Model System for Investigating the Metabolic Functions of Microbial Eukaryotes (Royal Society, £14,900) Dr Campbell Gourlay: Managing FungalMediated Early Voice Prosthesis Failure in Kent Total Laryngectomy Patients (Kent Cancer Trust, £5,000)

6

Engineering and Digital Arts Dr Huiling Zhu: Cellular Network Based Device-to-Device Wireless Communications (CODEC) (EC, £220,940) Dr Gareth Howells et al: Empowerment of Disabled People through Ethics in Care and Technology (EDECT) (Interreg, £29,131) Dr Benito Sanz-Izquierdo: Development of Novel Electromagnetic Structures Using 3d Printing Techniques (Royal Society, £14,954) Dr Chao Wang: Integrated Microwave Photonics Signal Processor for High-Speed Signal Characterisation (Royal Academy of Engineering, £7,940); Dr Jiangzhou Wang: Present and Future Wireless Mobile Communications in Singapore (Royal Academy of Engineering, £3,000) Dr John Batchelor (with Holder, below): Sustainable Digital Fabrication of Low Energy Pervasive Wireless Sensors (EPSRC, £224,834) Prof Sarah Spurgeon: Development of Non-Linear Control Systems for Minor Loops (Rolls Royce, £31,500) Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science Dr Fabrizio Leisen: Bayesian Computational Methods with Bootstrap Techniques (Royal Society, £5,000); and Flexible Bayesian Non-Parametric Priors (EC, £82,118) Dr Ana Soares Loureiro (left): Semiclassical Polynomial Sequences and beyond: Connections to Painleve Equations and Applications to Random Matrix Theory (Royal Society, £2,790) Dr Ian Wood: Kent Spectral Theory Meeting (London Mathematical Society, £7,000) Physical Sciences Dr Simon Holder (with Batchelor, above): Sustainable Digital Fabrication of Low Energy Pervasive Wireless Sensors (EPSRC, £216,745)

Dr Emma McCabe: Synthesis and Characterisation of New Semiconductors: Complex Oxychalcogenides (Royal Society, £12,204) Dr Mark Price: Synthesis of LiquidFilled Microparticles as Icy Cosmic Dust Analogues (SLIMPICODA) (EC, £247,313) Dr Barry Blight: Research Fund (Royal Society of Chemistry, £4,000) Dr Jorge Quintanilla Tizon: PhD Studentship (STFC, £33,000) Sport and Exercise Sciences Dr John Dickinson: (right): The Long-Term Effect of Long Acting Beta-2 Agonists (World Doping Agency, £97,266) SOCIAL SCIENCES Kent Law School Prof Judy Fudge: Labour Rights, Human Rights and Citizenship in a Globalised World: Unions, Women and Migrant Workers (Nantes Institute for Advanced Study, £29,636) Anthropology and Conservation Dr Dimitrios Theodossopoulos: Household Survival in Crisis: Austerity and Relatedness in Greece and Portugal (ESRC, £280,339) Dr Matthew Struebig: Tolerating Tigers: Do Local Beliefs Offset Human-Carnivore Conflicts?

(Leverhulme, £226,392) Dr Tracy Kivell: GRASP: The Evolution of the Human Hand (ERC, £998,249) Prof Roy Ellen: Demography, Kinship and Ritual Reproduction: Nuaulu Cultural Resilience in the ‘New Indonesia’ (British Academy, £9,942) Dr Bob Smith: Trends and Gaps in Protection of the World’s Biodiversity (Birdlife International, £1,667) Dr Jim Groombridge: European Network on Invasive Parakeets (ParrotNet): Understanding Invasion Dynamics and Predicting Risks to

Agriculture and Society (COST, £79,179) Politics and International Relations Dr Anne Hammerstad: Migration, Communal Conflict and Regional Relations: a View from India’s North Eastern Margins (British Academy, £5,413) Dr Neophytos Loizides: A Theoretical Study of Recruitment by the Greek Cypriot Organisation EOKA (EC, £2,588) Psychology Prof Theresa Gannon: Development of a Risk Assessment Tool for Mentally Disordered Firesetters (Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership, £27,422) Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research Jeremy Kendall and Nadia Brookes: The Impact of the Third Sector on Socio-Economic Development in Europe (EC, £119,713) Prof Frank Furedi: Sociological History of ‘The Problem Reader’ (British Academy, £8,336) Dr Karen Jones: Personal Health Budgets Evaluation: Additional Analysis (NHS, £12,082) Prof Peter Taylor-Gooby: Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES) (ESRC, £19,041) Dr Peter Langdon: Psychological Assessment and Treatment of Offenders with Intellectual and Other Developmental Disabilities (NIHR, £246,465) Prof Sarah Vickerstaff: Uncertain Futures: Managing Late-Career Transitions and Extending Working Life (ESRC, £246,651) Prof Stephen Peckham: Policy Research Unit in Commissioning and Healthcare System (PRUComm) (Dept of Health, £601,438) Peter McGill: Survey of Learning Disability Providers in Surrey (Surrey County Council, £5,000) 7

GRANT FOCUS ‘GRASP: the Evolution of the Human Hand’ The unique manipulative abilities of the human hand have fascinated scientists since the time of Darwin.

However, we know little about how these abilities evolved because we have lacked both the necessary fossil human evidence and the appropriate methods to investigate if, when and how our early ancestors used their hands for locomotion (climbing) and manipulation (tooluse).

Dr Tracy Kivell (SAC) has secured a Starting Grant of almost £1m from the European Research Council to look at this. She will lead an interdisciplinary team including members from UCL, Vienna University of Technology, George Washington University, and the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

The GRASP project will use novel morphological, experimental and biomechanical methods to investigate different locomotor and manipulative behaviours in humans and other apes, and will use this knowledge to reconstruct hand use in Australopithecus sediba, the most complete early (c2m years old) hominim skeleton, discovered in Malapa, South Africa.

Further info and links for the project are available here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sac/resea rch/projects/tk_graspevolution. html

CHOICE CUTS FROM THE BLOG For the latest news and rumours from the world of research funding, log on to http://fundermental.blogspot.com ESRC Seeks New CEO 13 March 2013 The ESRC is recruiting its new Chief Executive. Essential criteria are: an ability to command respect through personal achievement and standing in the field; an ability to provide sound management and strong leadership of a complex body with efficiency and probity; excellent communication skills; and an ability to foster links with numerous and diverse stakeholders.

Given these, Fundermentals has six potential candidates for the ESRC: Candidate 1: Worzel Gummage. Strong track record in commanding respect (amongst crows) whilst standing in a field.

Demonstrates sound management and strong leadership (of turnips), and control over complex body (that has the ability to shift between mannequin and human) is admirable.

Candidate 2: Adolf Hitler: Somewhat brutal, but his ability to command respect is undeniable.

Strong leadership and excellent communication too: sounds like the complete package. Fostering links is - ah - a bit of an Achille's heel. Tends to make friends one day and invade them the next.

Candidate 3: Joan of Arc. Dead white female. Which makes a change, and will do wonders for ESRC's Athena SWAN credentials.

Commands respect, especially amongst Catholics. Strong leadership. Excellent communication skills (with God). Once again, fostering links is a bit dodgy. Excellent if you're French. Not if you’re English. Which could be a problem.

Candidate 4: Cat in the Hat. Excellent communication skills, and commands absolute respect amongst under fives. His ability to

do tricks and balance things is useful when securing the research budget. Can make excellent links with Thing One and Thing Two. Somewhat chaotic, however, and could end very nastily.

Candiate 5: Zeus. No problem commanding respect. However, communication skills leave something to be desired; I mean, does he have to keep using thunderbolts? It's a bit rudimentary, isn't it? Hasn't he heard of email?

Worse still, we could open ourselves up to so many paternity suits and sex scandals. All those partners! All those children!

Candidate 6: Nick Clegg. Oh come on. Be serious.

Captain Bloctopus 20 January 2014

sode ('Oops! We have recently learnt that there has been some confusion around the new collaboration platform') is a bit - um - uninvolving. I don't think it will catch on.

Things aren't helped by the winning name: 'Hub'. You're never going to get bums on seats with a name like that. A blue octopus should have a name like - I don't know - Bloctopus, or something.

Maybe Captain Bloctopus.

They're promising a series of roadshows for the new character. I do hope Captain Bloctopus himself will make an appearance, along with his arch enemies the Robotrons and Laptopics. It's the only way they're going to win over the kidz. And do, please, drop that 'Hub' nonsense.

It's been a busy month for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). As if running the research budget of the NHS wasn't enough, they've spent January holding a fabulous CBeebies-style 'name the cartoon character' competition.

The cartoon character in question is the somewhat prosaic NIHR Collaboration Platform. Looking at the website, it appears to be a blue octopus pinned down by laptops and robots. Nothing much happens. To be honest, it makes the Teletubbies look like Scorsese. Even the opening epi-

Captain Bloctopus with the ‘Robotrons’ and ‘Laptopics’

Lookalike Corner Regular readers of Research Active will have mourned the recent death of Naked Gun and Airplane actor Leslie Nielsen. Well, mourn no more: his spirit lives on in the candidate for the AHRC's Chairmanship, Drummond 'D&B' Bone.

Yes, I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

8

Bone

Nielsen