Research Active Vol 09 Issue 3 May 2015

W IN S h th at IDE n e RE ext : F? fo p2 r

Research Active The Newsletter of University of Kent Research Services, Vol 9, Issue 3, May 2015

THE FIRST UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PRIZES Image: Matt Wilson

The winners of the University’s first Research Prizes competition were announced at a gala dinner on 27 March. Inside we celebrate the research achievements behind these inaugural awards in a special supplement (p7-10).

SPECIAL EDITION 1

Research Excellence Framework

What Next?

What HEFCE is calling the 'post2014 REF', and everyone else is calling 'REF2020' - or perhaps more crucially 'the current REF' - is underway.

Few facts are known so far - just that the HEFCE Open Access policy comes into force on the 1st April 2016 (see p13—although there may be some changes to it), and that there will be a sector-wide consultation on the REF this autumn.

This doesn't give us too much to go on. Speculation is rife, rumours abound, but based on what we've heard, we're expecting that:  There will be another REF, and it will be broadly similar to REF2014  The submission deadline will be in November 2019  The panel structure and disciplinary spread will be much the same, with possibly a very few tweaks  Outputs will still count for the greatest proportion of the result (probably no more than 65%)  Impact will be assessed again, maybe still contributing 20% of the profile, although the impact template is likely to be merged with other elements (see below).

The number of case studies needed may increase, though we expect the minimum number still to be two for the smallest submissions  The research environment will remain much the same, although maybe it will include elements relating to impact strategy and support Most uncertainty surrounds the issue of staff selectivity; will we still have to choose who to include, or will we have to include all eligible staff? Will it still be four outputs per person (barring individual circumstances), or will we just include one output for each person, and make up the required total from the

very best of the rest of our publications? For now, we'll take the conservative view, and encourage everyone to carry on publishing the highest quality outputs possible.

As soon as we know more about the shape and focus of REF2020, we will let all staff know.

Want to know more?

For more information contact Cla ir T h r owe r (x t n 7 3 50 c.thrower@kent.ac.uk) See also the Q&A article on Open Access in the REF, p13

Still taking soundings: David Sweeney, HEFCE Director of Research, is responsible for REF

Impact Database As part of the 2014 REF exercise, 6,975 impact case studies were submitted across the sector, demonstrating the impact of UK research and benefits on the economy, society, culture, policy, health, the environment and quality of life — both within the UK and overseas. The case studies provide a unique and invaluable source of information on the impact of UK research.

HEFCE has commissioned two principal projects to analyse case studies:  The REF impact case study database. A searchable tool that makes the nonconfidential case studies widely available, and will enable analysis and automated text mining.

The database provides a new usable source of evidence of the value of UK HE research which will engage and generate interest in the world beyond academia. Have a look at www.impact.ref.ac.uk to find out what other institutions are doing, and what they feel has had most impact.

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 An initial analysis of the

REF impact case studies, captured in the report: ‘The nature, scale and beneficiaries of research impact’, undertaken by Digital Science, working in conjunction with its sister company Nature Publishing Group and the policy institute at King’s College, London.

Key findings include that:  Over 80 per cent of the REF impact case studies included underpinning research that was multidisciplinary.  The impact case studies were diverse and wide-ranging, with over 60 unique ‘impact topics’ identified.  The reported research impacts stemmed from research in wide-ranging subject areas, with over 3,700 unique pathways from research to impact identified.  Research undertaken in UK higher education institutions has made a contribution to every country in the world.

An Overview of Research Funding, Jan-Mar 2015 Largest Individual Awards (titles of projects listed overleaf) Humanities: Prof Jon Williamson (SECL) £469,088 from the AHRC

For the second term running the BBSRC provides the largest single source of funding, providing almost a third of grant value, closely followed by the EC. Elsewhere there are notable grants from the EPSRC, including one held jointly between Dr Stuart Gibson (SPS) and Dr Julio Hernandez-

Castro (Computing) that questions the uniqueness of facial identity and investigates the use of computer generated face imagery in the area of cyber security.

Congratulations to all of those who were successful in securing funding this term, and good luck to all of those who are currently applying.

Social Sciences 7% Humanities 14%

Sciences: Prof Mark Smales (Biosciences) £614, 833 from the BBSRC

Social Sciences: Prof Stephen Peckham (CHSS) £67,187 from Medway County Council

Sciences 79%

Total Award Value by Faculty

Other (<2%) 12% Leverhulme 2% EPSRC 12% AHRC 14%

BBSRC 32%

EC 28%

Award Value

What’s It All About?

An insight into one of the projects funded this term, taken from the application summary.

This term: Dr Richard Misek (EDA) received £30,318 from AHRC for ‘The Audiovisual Essay: a digital methodology for film and media studies’

Scholars researching film and media traditionally publish their work in the same forms as other disciplines in the humanities notably, books and critical essays.

But developments in digital technol3

ogy afford exciting new possibilities for conducting analysis and conveying arguments about digital media by using digital media.

This grant will support a one-day public symposium on digital aesthetics presented by a group of twelve leading film and media academics, and an associated two day workshop focused on encouraging these scholars to develop their presentations into 'audiovisual essays' incorporating moving images and sound.

FULL LIST OF AWARDS: 1 Jan– 31 Mach 2015* Faculty of Humanities

Guerci

Laera

Kent School of Architecture Great houses of the Strand: the ruling élite at home in Paul Mellon Centre for Studies Tudor and Jacobean London in British Art School of Arts Playing identities, performing heritage: theatre, creolisaEuropean Commission tion, creation and the commons

£12,000

£19,187

School of European Culture and Languages Kim

Establishing common ground

British Academy

Pharmacy, Toxicology and the Incorporation of DiscipliWellcome Trust nary Power in France 1830-1852 Arts and Humanities Research Williamson Evaluating evidence in medicine Council (AHRC) Deutsches Literaturarchiv MarKunzelmann Kritsche Edition Der Korrespondenz H.C Artmanns bach Duffy

£9,961 £2,545 £469,088 £1,530

Faculty of Sciences Centre for Molecular Processing von der Haar

Gene expression accuracy as a parameter in bioprocessing applications

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Smales

Enhancing CHO by Mammalian Systems Biotechnology (eCHO Systems)

European Commission

£614,833

Robinson

ProteinFactory

European Commission

£409,409

£77,216

School of Biosciences von der Haar

Biochemical characterisation of a novel interaction between kindlin1 and the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGFR) Biochemical Society

£1,600

Garrett

Genes and Cancer 2015 conference

Cancer Research UK

£5,000

Kad

Developing and validating a new tool for simultaneous multi-channel wide-field imaging

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Toseland

A biochemical and single molecure characterisation of nuclear myosin motors

Leverhulme Trust

Tuite

Quantitative analysis of the operation and control of oxi- Biotechnology and Biological dative protein folding in the yeast Endoplasmic reticulum Sciences Research Council

£564,111

Tsaousis

Exploring the anaerobic adaptations of the mitochondri- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council on-related organelles of Blastocystis

£383,723

Goult

Developing novel stretch vectors

Biochemical Society

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£149,207 £87,000

£1,250

School of Computing Horizontal cloud security and network capabilities for Chadwick British Telecommunications accredited cloud applications and data Security policy enforcement in federated open source Chadwick Royal Academy of Engineering clouds Engineering and Physical SciHernandez Improving cyber security using realistic synthetic face ences Research Council Castro generation.

(EPSRC) Engineering and Physical SciVerifying concurrent algorithms on weak memory modences Research Council Owens els (EPSRC)

£35,000 £12,000 £29,432 £285,988

School of Engineering and Digital Arts Wang Wang Misek Wang

Visiting Professor in Mobile Communications Research and development in 5G mobile communications in China The Audiovisual Essay: a digital methodology for film and media studies Radio Resource Management in Device-to-Device based Relay Networks

Royal Academy of Engineering

£28,800

Royal Academy of Engineering

£6,000

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

£30,318

Royal Society

£3,000

School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science Dunning

South East Mathematical Physics Seminars

London Mathematical Society

£1,000

Lemmens

Denjoy-Wolff Type Theorems

London Mathematical Society

£1,000

Mountjoy

School of Physical Sciences Study of structural and relaxation dynamics of some ion British Council conducting materials

£5,900

Podoleanu Tuneable lasers for optical coherence tomography

Royal Society

Quintanilla Visit by Prof. K. Miyake (Osaka University and Toyota Tizon Physical and Chemical Research Institute) to the UK "The construction of a vertical firing accessory (a folded gun) and a novel electronic, high pressure gas, ignition Price system to be used on the Kent Light Gas Gun (LGG)" Benzophosphadiazinyl Heterocycles - PhosphorusClark centred Spin Carriers for Functional Materials Benzophosphadiazinyl Heterocycles – PhosphorusClark centred Spin-carriers for Functional Materials

Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

Gibson

Improving cyber security using realistic synthetic face generation.

£35,000 £1,600

Royal Society

£14,750

Royal Society

£15,000

Royal Society of Chemistry

£4,000

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

£125,655

Faculty of Social Sciences

Williams

Centre for the Study of Higher Education Academic Integrity: Exploring Tensions between Percep- Society for Research into Hightion and Practice in the Contemporary University er Education

£5,756

Kent Business School Hampton

Socio-economic impact of coastal tourism - Vietnam

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British Council

£22,610

Continued over

Roberts

Academic Integrity

School of Anthropology and Conservation Society for Research into Higher Education

£4,244

School of Psychology Brown Abrams Brown Kelly

Ages and Stages Questionnaire

Department of Health

Perception of and attitude towards the Syrian refugees in British Academy Turkey Asking the right questions: Increasing fairness and accuraSHL Group Limited cy of personality assessments with Compute Putting infants in control

British Academy

£5,375 £36,980 £12,000 £9,667

School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research Beecham

Unit Costs of child care 2015

Department of Education

Hogg

Side by Side: A study of Beneficiary’s Life Journeys with West Kent

West Kent Extra

Stevens

RESET

Kenward Trust

Hubbard

Con Proj – Streetlife: the shifting sociologies of the street

Sociological Review

Peckham

Medway Council public health collaboration

Medway County Council

Lee Shilling

Parenting Cultures and Risk Management in Plural NorResearch Council of Norway way Research into Teaching and Learning practical Embodied Swedish Research Council Knowledge

£16,192 £8,000 £28,608 £2,000 £67,187 £8,775 £30,290

*The list given above are for all awards of £1,000 or more. They do not include extensions or supplements

Public Engagement with Research Small Grants

The PVC R&I provided the following grants to projects that engaged the public with research. For more detail contact Lynne Bennett (details p 10)

Joe Watkins

SMSAS

Visualizing Solitons at LMS Science Fes val 2015

Gordon Lynch

SECL

Remembering Britain’s Child Migrants: Ballads of Child Migra on £2000

Mairead Enright

KLS

Launch & Dissemina on Events, Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project

Darren Griffin

Biosciences Kent Café Scien fique: Science, Law and Bioethics – Unmasked

Hannah Swi

Psychology

Developing and Expanding the Kent Adult Research Unit to Enhance Public Engagement with Research

£1700

Amanda Bates

CHSS

HEAlth Research Ma Ers (HEAR ME)

£1032

Dan Lloyd Sian Stevenson & Jayne Thompson Helen Brooks

Biosciences Lab rejects

£1831

Arts

Developing ‘Doris’

£1968

Arts

An online database of First World War Drama

£1786

Lavinia Brydon

Arts

Ray Laurence

SECL

‘Chilham on Screen – A One-Day Fes val’ £1691 Enhancing Public Engagement with Roman History - Responding £1504 to the Public Interest in Roman Animated Films 6

£1300

£2000 £1020

Image: Matt Wilson

RESEARCH PRIZES 2015

Prof Nicola Shaughnessy receives the Faculty of Humanities Prize for Research

The PVC Research and Innovation, Prof Philippe De Wilde, hosted the award ceremony for the University’s inaugural Research Prizes.

Twelve prizes were presented which highlight exceptional achievements over the past year – from publications in top ranked journals to high citation rates, significant funding awards and impact through public engagement and policy development.

The prizes were presented by Prof De Wilde during a gala dinner in Darwin Conference Centre on 27 March. Guests at the ceremony, compered by Professor of Agricultural Economics Rob Fraser, included Deans, Heads of School, nominators, the winners themselves, and a wide range of internal and external guests.

The Research Prizes scheme has generated considerable interest across the University since its launch in 2014. Forty applications 7

were received from four-fifths of thanking the selection panel for his the University’s Schools, represent- prize: ‘I cannot describe to you how ing academics and students working wonderful this news is. It means a i n B i o s c i e n c e s , P h i l o s o - lot to a junior colleague like me to phy, Drama and Psychology, among have this vote of confidence and support from my university. It gives many others.

Professor De Wilde said: ‘The me that extra boost to keep standard was extremely high, and ploughing forward and develop new reflects the diverse, exciting and contributions and impact.’ vibrant research culture across the As well as recognising research University. These prizes celebrate achievement, the ceremony was an the exceptional achievement of our opportunity for academics and othstaff and students, and the panel had ers from across the University to to make some tough choices be- get together. ‘It’s fantastic to meet and talk to colleagues outside of tween excellent departmental meetings and candidates.’ committees,’ commented one Winner of the professor.

Social Sciences Details of all the winners are Faculty Prize for given in this supplement; the Early Career 2016 competition will open for Research, Dr submissions in the Autumn Nik Rajkovic Term. For more details, contact (Kent Law Phil Ward (p.ward@kent.ac.uk, School), xtn 7748). spoke for many in Dr Caoilte Ó Ciardha, part of Prof Theresa Gannon’s research team, receiving the Faculty of Social Sciences Prize for Research

Image:s Matt Wilson

UNIVERSITY PRIZES

University Prize for Research Prof Jon Williamson SECL Jon Williamson's research is in the study of causality, probability, logics and reasoning with particular reference to their uses in the sciences and he has made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of the role of evidence across the human and natural sciences.

He has built up the Centre for Reasoning into an internationallyrecognised centre of excellence and the Reasoning Club, a hub of 22 centres and networks based in 14 countries across Europe, North and Latin America and Australasia.

In 2014, under his leadership, the Centre for Reasoning hosted the Third International Reasoning Club conference as well as a full programme of other events involving international participants.

This year Jon worked with colleagues in UCL to secure a grant of almost ÂŁ1m from the AHRC. The funding will support a project looking at the nature of appropriate evidence in medical decision making.

In 2007, Jon was awarded the Times Higher Education's UK Young Researcher of the Year award.

University Prize for Early Career Research Dr Harmonie Toros Politics and International Relations Harmonie Toros has demonstrated excellence in research in the past year with a strong list of publications and an effective strategy for research impact.

The fact that she was one of only two scholars within the School asked to submit a full REF submission is a testament to the quality of her research.

Her work has been increasingly recognized world-wide, and she is currently editor of the journal Critical Studies on Terrorism, an increasingly cited journal that has led the way in critical approaches to terrorism studies.

In addition to her many achievements, she has been asked by the ESRC to contribute to the development of a new research centre on security which demonstrates the wider recognition of her work in terrorism and security studies and its relevance to today's security dilemmas.

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University Prize for Postgraduate Research Dr Giovanni Travaglino Psychology Giovanni Travaglino's PhD focused on deviance in groups, demonstrating how deviant acts by leaders can sometimes be overlooked or forgiven, and how this phenomenon uniquely affects group leaders rather than members. The implications for corporate and public governance are highly significant.

In addition to this work, Giovanni helped the School develop its research infrastructure and undertook an independent project to develop an international network on collective action and protest which led to him organising two conferences at Kent.

He launched an open access journal and was invited to edit an issue of the Academy of Social Sciences journal 21st Century Society.

Giovanni also launched an already highly acclaimed research project on young people's collective resistance to organised crime in Italy.

FACULTY PRIZES Faculty Research Prizes Humanities Prof Nicola Shaughnessy Arts Nicola Shaughnessy was nominated for her work on the AHRC funded Imagining Autism project, the associated film documentary and a series of publications, including two books.

She is editor of a book series and director of the Centre for Cognition, Kinesthetics and Performance and the Beacon Institute.

Nicola has also developed an international network for arts and science research and practice, presented at over 20 conferences and undertaken a range of media and public engagement activities.

This work has made an important contribution to performance studies, demonstrating the value of the arts in collaborations with science.

It has pioneered innovative interdisciplinary methodologies through applications of cognitive science and performance to pursue practice based empirical enquiry, developing new paradigms for evidence and new approaches to training for postgraduate researchers as well as health and education professionals.

Sciences Prof Colin Robinson Centre for Molecular Processing In the last 12 months, Colin Robinson has been awarded substantial funding with a collective value of approximately ÂŁ6M for his world9

leading work on therapeutic proteins such as antibodies and hormones and the translation of his research into industrial application.

His filing of new IP and his publication in leading biotechnology journals demonstrates both the application and proof-of-concept of his work.

At a time when competitive grant funding and industrial support is so competitive and difficult to obtain, Colin has shown himself to be a world-leader in his area.

The benefits of his achievements are considerable and provide the platform on which the University will continue to build its reputation as a major player in the industrial biotechnology field both nationally and internationally.

Social Sciences Prof Theresa Gannon and Team Psychology This project by Theresa Gannon and the team has led to the introduction of the first ever standardised treatment programme for the common, yet costly and tragic, offence of deliberate firesetting.

The team's research is now being used across the UK and Australia in the training, assessment, and treatment practices of clinical professionals who work with adult firesetters.

As a result, enhanced specialised treatment of firesetters is being provided in secure establishments and community settings for the first time. Furthermore, the assessment and treatment programmes developed by the researchers now play a central role in the care, sentence planning, and parole decisions of firesetters in the UK. Team members include Professor Theresa Gannon, Dr Caoilte Ă&#x201C; Ciardha (Lecturer in Forensic Psy-

chology), Dr Emma Alleyne (Lecturer in Forensic Psychology), Dr Lona Lockerbie (Honorary Lecturer), Nichola Tyler (Research Associate), Helen Butler (PhD Candidate), Magali Barnoux (PhD Candidate), and Katarina Mozova (PhD Candidate).

Faculty Early Career Research Prizes Humanities Dr Helen Brooks Arts Helen Brooks' research on the theatre of both the eighteenth century and the First World War is highly valued by her colleagues and by specialists in the field for its originality, ambition, and scholarly rigour.

Her work in public engagement further indicates the esteem in which her work is held beyond the academy, and her own commitment to the wider social and educational dimension of theatre.

Helen is currently Deputy Director of Research with responsibility for Public Engagement; Humanities Rep for the E-Learning Strategy Group; and the Chair of the Digital Humanities Forum.

It is worth noting that the quality of her teaching has also been recognised with the award of a faculty teaching prize and the Best Teacher award in the Kent Union Teaching Award Scheme.

Prof Darren Griffin receives the Sciences Faculty ECR Prize on behalf of Dr Jeremy Rossman (overleaf)

Sciences Dr Jeremy Rossman Biosciences Jeremy Rossman has made a big impact on scientific understanding of the mechanism by which viruses complete membrane scission.

His insights have transformed comprehension of viral mediated membrane organisation and has uncovered a number of key molecules required for this process to occur.

He is applying his knowledge of molecular and cellular microbiology to address fundamental and long standing problems associated with membrane scission. This is evidenced by a raft of high profile papers in, for example, Cell and Nature and the award of an MRC research grant.

Jeremy's achievements, especially in the field of viral insertion, are both outstanding and original. These, and his investigations into the key steps in virus budding and uncovering basic mechanisms in membrane biology are providing an unprecedented insight into this medically important infection mechanism.

Social Sciences Dr Nikolas Rajkovic Kent Law School Nikolas Rajkovic has demonstrated exceptional achievement since joining KLS. His work on the notion of legality has led to an impressive track record for a high-level of output across the disciplines of International Law and International Relations including three articles in leading international publications and a forthcoming chapter in a landmark edited volume. An earlier monograph was reprinted in paperback by Routledge following successful hardcover sales.

Nikolas has achieved an outstanding level of external funding for both individual and collaborative research

and has significant international research affiliations for example with the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School.

He was also awarded one of the most competitive junior research fellowships in Europe, the Jean Monnet Fellowship in Global Governance.

Faculty Postgraduate Research Prizes Humanities Ada Nifosi SECL Ada Nifosi has brought exceptionally strong and diverse academic skills to her doctoral research.

She was nominated for her research project entitled 'Ancient Egyptian Amulets in the Collection of the Beaney Art Museum and Library, Canterbury'. Invited by the curators of the Beaney to examine its collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, Ada's research is truly groundbreaking and novel. The collection was previously unknown to both scholars and the wider public and her work contributes to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian amulets, textiles and other small finds.

In addition to her PhD, which she is due to complete this year, Ada has taught two highly successful modules and, since 2012, has presented research papers at and actively participated in 11 international conferences, workshops and seminars across Europe.

Sciences Emily Dennis SMSAS Butterflies are the most widely monitored insect species as changes in their populations provide a valuable indicator for changes in their wider environ-

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ment and biodiversity.

The aim of Emily Dennis' research is to develop new statistical methods for analysing national butterfly data.

During her PhD, she developed several novel statistical approaches for analysing data collected under the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Possibly the best insect data set in the world, it was not being put to optimal use. However, the method published by Emily in Methods in Ecology and Evolution is now being used in the reporting of UKBMS data and has received interest from Europe and North America.

Emily has devised further new modelling frameworks for seasonal insect data and is working with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Butterfly Conservation.

Social Sciences Igor MerheimEyre Politics and International Relations Igor Merheim-Eyre was nominated on the basis of the intellectual rigour, salience and originality of his work and his sustained and active participation in the intellectual life of his School as demonstrated though his activities in the Global Europe Centre.

His research covers a novel and considerably under-researched area of Consular Affairs and Visa Diplomacy, and their place in the changing profile of EU security discourses and foreign policy practices. His work goes beyond a conventional legal outlook on visa-related issues by undertaking a comprehensive inter-disciplinary analysis. As a result he has made some major impactrelevant contributions to policy reviews at the UK and EU levels and has presented at a number of conferences and workshops.

He currently has three publications in the pipeline and is working on a fourth.

Humanities Research Festival

Monday 8 June 2-5pm Grimond Lecture Theatre 3 The Faculty’s 6 Schools (8 REF2014 Units of Assessment) will come together to mark their achievements in research and to look into the future of research in the Faculty.

The afternoon will provide updates on Open Access, Impact, Public Engagement, and plans for substantial progress in research quality over the next 5 years.

A key theme of the break-out sessions will be interdisciplinarity with opportunities for colleagues to meet, consider ways for Schools to avoid the silo-effect (created in part by REF subject divisions), and to work with colleagues beyond their School or subject area. We hope to identify new themes of common interest (or existing synergies that could be enhanced) that might be taken forward.

This afternoon will be of use to all academics in the Faculty and is also open to PhD students.

ResearchActive is edited by Phil Ward.

Contact him for more information or clarification on any of the items in this edition.

For the latest from the world of research funding, go to fundermental.blogspot.com, or Twitter @unikentresearch.

In addition, the following RS members tweet: Carolyn Barker: @CarolynBarker1 Lynne Bennett: @kenthumres Conny Jumel: @k_jumel Simon Kerridge: @SimonRKerridge Helen Leech: @HelenLeech16 Brian Lingley: @crbrl01 Andrew Massoura: @LeadDiceBeers Phil Ward: @frootle

The Figures behind the Figures A regular look at the work of those who have won grants at Kent

Dr Heather Ferguson School of Psychology Heather Ferguson is one of only a handful of academics at the University who have been awarded a prestigious grant from the European Research Council (ERC). When she was called up to be interviewed for the last stage of the selection process, her husband and young son went with her.

‘The ERC was actually very good,’ she said. ‘They gave us a separate waiting room, and being away from the tension and pressure of waiting with the other candidates probably helped.’

It was a lucky break for Heather, and she readily admits that getting grants often involves a heavy slice of luck. But then luck is more often about how you respond to the cards that are dealt you than to any mysterious intervention. For instance, when she missed a Leverhulme deadline by a day it gave her the chance to completely overhaul her project, and it allowed her to produce a much stronger, more viable project as a result. It was funded, when the original might well have been rejected.

Heather is a cognitive psychologist.

Her research focuses on the interface between cognitive processes and social interactions, and specifically on how we understand and respond to other people’s perspectives during communication.

Her work requires the involvement

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of a large number of participants in psychological tests, using equipment such as an eye tracker. As such, funding for her is not just desirable but essential. Over the past five years she’s had five grants totalling almost £1.5m, and has had experience of applying to the British Academy, the ESRC and the Nuffield Foundation, as well as Leverhulme and the ERC. ‘I was always told that, as an early career researcher, I should start small and work up,’ she said.

‘There’s some truth in that, but you should balance that with having vision and ambition. The value of a good idea should not be underestimated, and funders are sometimes willing to back an exciting project from someone with less experience if you can make the case and reassure them with a strong and robust framework for the project.’

Most of all she’s not afraid to fail.

‘My ERC grant was my second attempt,’ she confided.

‘It’s never a waste of time to write a proposal, I’ve learnt to really enjoy the process. By thinking through a project it helps you to plan out your research, and gives structure to future proposals - or even generates ideas for other papers.’

Nevertheless, applicants need to be organised, and in the eight weeks that it took Heather to prepare her ERC application she tried to clear her commitments as much as possible. She still had some student meetings, teaching, departmental meetings and UCAS events, but she was able to manage the rest of her time to focus on the application. As both a new parent and a new ERC award holder, this organisational ability will not only be useful in the years to come, but will be crucial.

Playing in the Sand The experience of the first Eastern ARC interdisciplinary Sandpit

In the last decade sandpits have become a familiar part of the academic landscape. For those of you not familiar with the concept, they are a way for academics to get together in a hotel far from the everyday pressures and demands of their university lives, to think about their research and work with others to develop new ideas.

Earlier this month we invited Knowinnovation to run a sandpit for the new research consortium between the universities of Kent, Essex and East Anglia: Eastern ARC. It took a long time to get to this point as I had started talking to them about the possibility of such an event in October 2013.

But it was worth it. Our sandpit was spread over three days, starting at midday on the first day, and ending at midday two days later. The first 24 hours was spent scoping the terrain. The subject we had selected was Who Wants to Live to be 100? and the participants included sociologists, social workers, psychologists, bioscientists, computer scientists, sports scientists, media academics and pharmacists. All had a different take on ageing. Some understood it from a purely biological angle; others were more concerned about other things such as age discrimination, having to work later in life, engagement with technology, wellbeing, older parenthood, physical mobility, or the ethics around choices and duty.

For an afternoon and a morning we submerged ourselves in group tasks.

These included sketching out our backgrounds, talking to each other about our own fears of age, listening to invited ‘provocateurs’ giving an external stakeholder angle, and trying to imagine what the world would be like in five, ten, twenty or thirty years time.

As we went along questions and issues arose, and we wrote these on sticky notes that we put on a wall.

By lunchtime on the second day the wall was full. ‘What I want you to do now is cluster these notes,’ suggested Liz, the facilitator. ‘But I want you to do it in silence.’

It was an amazing exercise to watch, reminding me of the quiet industry and productiveness of a hive. The participants took the notes and

midnight, the groups carried on working, honing their ideas, only stopping briefly for supper.

The final day saw them polishing their ideas and giving their final pitch. With two colleagues I had the task of judging the seven projects, deciding which of them should receive a little seed-corn funding to take them further. I’ve just written emails telling all the participants of the outcome, and providing some feedback. Writing up this feedback reminded me about how exciting these projects had been, and how they had been crafted between people who hadn’t known each other 24 hours before.

The question now is how to keep this momentum going, and make

Participants ‘clustering’ research questions into themes.

made connections, piecing together seven or eight broad themes. The final exercise before lunch was to condense these clusters into two or three salient questions. We broke for lunch with a sense of having come a long, long way in a day.

The afternoon was more difficult.

We split into groups and took one of the questions, trying to fashion a viable research proposal out of it in an hour, and presenting it to the rest of the group. The results were patchy, and Liz sent us out into Greenwich park for some air and space—crucially without our mobiles. The effect was electrifying.

Returning to the room with a renewed sense of purpose and clarity of mind, the participants dropped some ideas, took up others, changed groups and started again.

From mid-afternoon to just before 12

sure the culture of interdisciplinary working is firmly embedded in our home institutions. It’s given me renewed hope that this is possible, that given the right circumstances and the right prompts academics are willing to move beyond their disciplinary confines to see what the issues are in other areas, and to explore the possibility of learning from them to create novel, exciting research.

Want to know more?

There will be two further sandpits to come: ‘Living Pathways’, will take place on 22-23 June; ‘The Past of the 21st Century City’, will take place in 2015-16, and the date will be confirmed shortly.

For more information contact Phil Ward (p.ward@kent.ac.uk, xtn 7748)

OPEN ACCESS AND THE REF There’s less than a year to go until HEFCE’s new policy on publication eligibility comes in to force. Here’s what you need to know On the 1st April 2016 the HEFCE OA policy comes into force, governing which outputs will be required to be made available as Open Access to be eligible for submission in the post-2014 REF. The main requirements of the policy are covered in the FAQ below. There’s a flowchart on the Library OA web page to help work out if the policy applies to a particular output.

What sort of outputs does the policy apply to?

A journal article or a conference proceeding with an ISSN and accepted for publication from 1st April 2016 onwards Other sorts of output do not fall within the scope of the policy.

Which version?

The author or authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscript.

Where should it be deposited?

To be eligible for submission to the REF, the final version of an output must be available in an institutional repository such as KAR, a repository shared between multiple institutions, or a subject repository such as arXiv or RePEc. When should the output be deposited?

The output must be deposited as soon after the point of acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after the date of the acceptance letter or e-mail from 13

the publisher to the author.

What if an embargo applies?

The policy allows repositories to respect embargo periods set by publications. Where a journal specifies an embargo period, authors can comply with the policy by making a ‘closed’ deposit on acceptance. For closed deposits, the article must be discoverable to anyone with an internet connection, however the full text would not become available for read and download until after the embargo period has elapsed.

Closed deposits will be admissible to the REF. The output must meet the access requirements as soon as possible and no later than one month after the end of the embargo period. The embargo period typically begins at the point of first publication (including online publication). Embargo periods should not exceed the following:  12 months for REF Main Panel A and REF Main Panel B  24 months for REF Main Panel C and REF Main Panel D What type of access is required?

The output must be presented in a form that allows anyone with internet access to search electronically within the text, read it and download it without charge, while respecting any constraints on embargo.

There is no requirement that outputs are made available under any particular licence, although HEFCE advise that

outputs licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Non-Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) licence would be a suitable minimum.

Are there any exceptions?

There are a number of exceptions to the various requirements that will be automatically allowed by the policy. These exceptions cover circumstances where deposit was not possible, or where open access to deposited material could not be achieved within the policy requirements. These exceptions will allow institutions to achieve near-total compliance, but the REF2020 will also include a mechanism for considering any other exceptional cases where an output could not otherwise meet the requirements.

What should we do before the HEFCE requirements come into force?

HEFCE gives us a strong steer to start applying the policy as soon as possible. If we can demonstrate that we have taken steps towards enabling open access for outputs outside the scope of the HEFCE REF OA definition, credit will be given in the research environment component of REF2020.

Who pays the fees?

There are no fees associated with depositing outputs in KAR, and it can automatically handle embargo periods.

Want to know more?

Contact Clair Thrower (c.thrower@kent.ac.uk, xtn 7350)

Ambition and Adventure EPSRC’s new Strategic Plan The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has recently published its strategic plan for the next five years. This is an important document, as it sets out the direction of the UK's largest, and arguably most influential, research council.

In 2010, the EPSRC caused controversy by 'reducing' research areas through their Shaping Capability directive, promoting National Importance as a primary assessment criteria and introducing Doctoral Training Centres and demand management.

Their new strategic plan confirms and develops these initiatives but with an increased emphasis on innovation and adventurous research. After the controversies of the past, the tone is very much conciliatory. Here are the key points: Innovation, Innovation, Innovation Innovation sits alongside Research as the headline statement. The Council pledges that, whilst ‘the UK is great at research...we must be equally renowned for innovation.’

As part of this, EPSRC will work more closely with Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) and the non-HE sector to leverage funding and accelerate the impact of Universitybased research.

Ambitious and adventurous research EPSRC wants to fund more adventurous research, and ‘will continue to encourage an increase in transformative research that breaks the mould. We will create, develop and sustain new and emerging areas of research.’ The plan also speaks of maximising ‘Academic Excellence’ as well as ‘Economic and Social Impact’, paving the way for a rebalancing of fundamental, curiosityled science, perhaps?

An International approach Elsewhere there is a strong emphasis on collaborative working, particularly with international partners and across disciplines. The Plan talks of building ‘relationships with selected overseas funding agencies to ensure that we exploit opportunities for international collaboration,’ and ensuring ‘connections are maintained with the best - whoever they are and wherever they are in the world.’

More Scientists Together with ‘Balancing Capability’ and ‘Accelerating Impact’, ‘Building Leadership’ forms a strategic triumvirate. This takes the form of support for established scientists, but also in training the next generation (see below) and in making the UK a place that attracts the top researchers from around the world: ‘we will increase the number of worldleading scientists and engineers working in the UK and encourage them to be more adventurous than ever before.’

Humanities Grant Writing Week 22-26 June 2015

The Faculty of Humanities will be hosting a Grant Writing Week in the week beginning 22 June. It will combine discussion time with dedicated time for writing (similar to the ‘Shut up and Write’ sessions for PGR students) and include feedback sessions on draft applications towards the end of the week. Experienced applicants and staff from Research Services will be on hand throughout the week to offer advice and support.

‘This is a really great initiative and I hope colleagues take full advantage of it,’ said Dr Simon Kirchin, Dean of Humanities. ‘It's a perfect opportunity to get that grant application written! We are planning on running similar weeks next year and aim to make them a permanent fixture of the calendar.’

What to know more?

Contact Lynne Bennett on l.bennett-282@kent.ac.uk, xtn 4799

Doctoral Training Centres are here to stay EPSRC was the first of the Research Councils to provide cohortbased funding for doctoral training, and it feels vindicated in this: ‘the government has endorsed our approach’. As such it will continue to distribute funding through this route, but ensure that ‘DTCs complement the flexible support provided through our [Doctoral Training Programmes]’ What to know more?

Contact Carolyn Barker (c.m.barker-47@kent.ac.uk, xtn 7957)

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EPSRC’s Strategic Plan 2015.

Never mind the cover design, it’s what’s inside that counts

WELCOME! 10 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 Qasim Ahmed (EDA): Compression and Combining Based on Channel Shortening and Rank Reduction Techniques for Cooperative Wireless Sensor Networks Dr Thomas Akoensi (SSPSSR): penology more broadly, organizational behaviour, legitimacy, comparative criminology, mixedmethods research and evidencebased criminal justice policy Dr Mark Batty (Computing, left): Concurrency, relaxed memory, programming language semantics, compilation and verification.

Dr Vincent Cheval (Computing): automating verification of privacy type proper-

ties related to RFID protocols, rooting protocols in ad-hoc network, electronic voting protocols, etc Dr Robert De Vries (SSPSSR): social stratification and social comparisons, cultural consumption, health inequalities, and social attitudes and stereotypes (particularly as regards welfare benefit claimants).

Dr Marek Grzes (Computing): Sequential decision making and decision theory, machine learning and optimisation, probabilistic graphical models, and applications thereof.

Prof Peter Hydon (SMSAS, above): Symmetries: difference equations, multisymplectic systems,

and discrete symmetries; Mathematical physiology with particular focus on chaotic advection and swirling flows.

Prof Ian McLoughlin (Computing): speech communications, enhancement, intelligibility, quality, hearing, Dr Thees Spreckelsen (SSPSSR, right): social research methods, survey research, social attitudes especially social identities, and sociological theory.

Dr Meng Wang (Computing): designing languages for bidirectional transformations and property-based testing.

New ESRC Chief Sets out Her Stall Prof Jane Elliott took over the helm of the Economic and Social Research Council at the beginning of October last year, when Paul Boyle became VC of Leicester.

Previously she had been Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, and has had a distinguished research career in gender and employment, healthy ageing and longitudinal research methodologies, combining qualitative and quantitative research and narrative.

Over the last few months she has been running a series of regional meetings to discuss the future direction of the ESRC. According to the Social Sciences Faculty Funding Officer, Brian Lingley, who attended the South East England event, she was refreshingly honest and open about the challenges ahead. She had been surprised

about the extent to which the ESRC’s paymasters, the Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) ‘micromanaged’ the ESRC, and the need to justify her decisions to it.

She had some concerns that, whilst higher education hadn’t yet felt the full force of austerity and all of the election manifestos had been supportive of research, there may be tough times ahead.

The Council had recently set out a one year ‘Delivery Plan’ (see the link at the end). At the meeting she did provide some further thoughts beyond the headlines in the Plan, such as:  Impact: she made the point that you can include academic as well as social and economic impact in the Pathways;  Grant Limits: the recent cut to the upper and lower limits for grants was to avoid the 15

‘disruptive’ effect of large (£1m+) grants, and the bureaucracy involved in processing many smaller ones;  Demand Management: there are no plans to introduce quotas, thought they are still monitoring this closely.  Peer Review: they are concerned about the low response rate for review requests, which have fallen from 78% to 49%.

Staff should always provide reviews, if at all possible. Responses—and quality–of Peer Review College was better, and they were considering introducing the concept of ‘Fellows of the ESRC College’.

What to know more?

Contact Brian Lingley on b.lingley@kent.ac.uk xtn 4427.

The Delivery Plan can be accessed at http://bit.ly/1de4uOQ

CHOICE CUTS FROM THE BLOG

For the latest news and rumours from the world of research funding, log on to http://fundermental.blogspot.com

AHRC Announces Emergency ‘Car Park Excavation’ Scheme 24 March 2015 The AHRC has responded to the public excitement around the discovery of Richard III under a car park in Leicester by issuing a NERC-style 'urgency' grant for anyone interested in digging up a local car park in the hope of finding a king.

'This is a very exciting time for archaeological and historical research,' gushed AHRC Director of Research, Prof Mark Llewellyn, 'as well as for anyone with a car park.

The AHRC is nothing if not responsive to the needs of the sector and the cultural drivers within society. This scheme demonstrates our commitment to impact and public engagement. And kings in carparks, of course.'

Details of the scheme are yet to be confirmed, but it is believed that the Council will offer £100k (fEC) to anyone who can present them with evidence that they have permission to use and have suitable experience of: (a) a carpark (b) a JCB (c) Debrett's 'A 'pay and display' parking ticket is not sufficient evidence of permission for use', clarified Llewellyn.

'Similarly, an entry ticket toDiggerland will not be acceptable as evidence of JCB experience.'

Some have suggested that the scheme was just further evidence of the AHRC trying to jump on whatever current bandwagon.

'Nothing could be further from the truth,' said Llewellyn. 'Now if you don't mind, I've got an important meeting with the Great British Bake Off people to see if they'd be interested in running our peer review system.'

ESRC Announces New Grant Limits 23 April 2015

I Doubleplusbellyfeel the Notion of Unobstacles 21 April 2015

Last month the ESRC announced that it would be introducing changes to the funding thresholds for its Research Grants scheme. The lower threshold was to rise to £350,000 and the upper threshold fall to £1 million at Full Economic Costs.

In a surprise move the ESRC has decided to take this further.

'We changed our minds,' admitted Head of Analysis and Marginal Tweaking at the Council, Amelia Throttleford. The changes will mean that the lower threshold will rise to £397,589, and the upper threshold will fall to £397,589.50.

The changes will be introduced retrospectively, so that any current award holders with grants outside this range will be expected to give the money back, including interest.

Throttleford rejected any notion

In March the University of Warwick published 'Warwick Tone of Voice: Full Guidelines.' Now read on.

Winston Smith entered the University’s Newspeak Committee late. The debate was in full flow.

'Does the Dean not realise that accepting the notion of obstacles is now ungood?' demanded the Registrar.

'I doubleplusbellyfeel the notion of unobstacles,' asserted the Dean.

'No one is more Whatif-ful than I.' 'Ah Winston,' said the Chair. 'Do come in. We were just discussing the plusgood new Tone of Voice Guidelines from the Ministry of Truth. Have you read them?'

'Oh yes,' said Winston. 'I agree: the Guidelines are plusgood. Doubleplusgood.'

The Dean looked sceptical. 'Oh really? So tell me Winston,' he said, 'is it better to say 'our thinking is..', or 'we think that..'?

Winston was aware of a trap. 'Our thinking is...?' he suggested.

'Unright!' screamed the Dean again. Others took up the chant.

'Unright! Unright! Unright!'

The Chair turned to Winston, not unkindly. 'Winston, you are clearly unwhatif-ful. You are in danger of ownlife thoughtcrime. You need to crimestop through retraining in goodthink. I would suggest you have some time on a joycamp.'

For more, including links to Warwick’s guidelines go to bit.ly/unobstacle.

that this would lead to game-

playing amongst applicants, 'We've anticipated that. As well as introducing these changes, we will be introducing 'Costing Stormtroopers' who will examine the budgets of all proposals, and where it's clear that costs have been over- or under-inflated, they will have the power to exterminate the applicants with extreme prejudice. It's the natural end point for the TRAC Methodology, I think.

‘It should have a very positive effect on our success rates,' concluded Throttleford.

Lookalike Corner Exciting news from BBSRC. Bargain Hunt presenter David Dickinson is the 'preferred candidate' as next Chair of the Council. We couldn't be happier. With a bobby dazzler like him at the helm, the future looks golden. Or at least orange. Any similarity to Sir Gordon Duff is entirely coincidental.

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Duff

Dickinson