Research Active The Newsletter of University of Kent Research Services, Vol 12, Issue 1, Oct 2017
‘WE NEED TO LOOK TO THE HORIZON’ Prof Karen Cox arrived at Kent in August as the University’s sixth Vice Chancellor, succeeding Dame Julia Goodfellow. Since then she’s been meeting colleagues across the University, and getting a sense of what makes Kent tick. Here she talks about coming to Kent, and what her vision is for the future of research at the University. I read your blog post, which I thought was a useful insight into your first impressions of the University. What did you know about Kent before you arrived? To be honest I didn’t know much. I knew about its health service research [Cox’s background is in nursing, and she was professor of cancer and palliative care at Nottingham before coming to Kent]. More broadly I was aware of its reputation in the social sciences, and was vaguely aware of the European dimension. But I didn’t know much more. Continued on page 2
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However, I explored further when I was approached about the position, and came to visit as a ‘mystery shopper.’ I visited both Canterbury and Medway to get a sense of the place. While you can’t get ‘under the skin’ until you join, you can tell quite a bit about a place by how it looks and feels. Does it look cared for? Is there a sense of positivity and purpose in the people? So I came down on the train, and walked up from Canterbury West to this fantastic green campus. Nottingham has a similarly green campus, and it was wonderful to feel both comforted by the familiar and excited by the unfamiliar. You had been at Nottingham 23 years. So what appealed about the move to Kent? Yes, I had been at Nottingham a long time, but within that time I’d changed roles every few years. So it always felt like I was doing a different job. However, I decided that if I was going to do this role I needed to do it elsewhere. Why? Partly it was a fresh start. If there were things I wanted to do it would be hard to do so if people know you from your previous roles, and I’d been there since I was a PhD student. But I also positively wanted this job: the people and the potential of Kent have been energising. What can Kent learn from Nottingham? Universities all have their own history and have developed in their own particular ways. I think one of the things that Nottingham has done particularly well is taking opportunities and welcoming alternative thinking. If you had a good idea it was supported and you were encouraged to pursue that. It was ambitious and had high expectations. I see some of that here, but I think
there needs to be more risk-taking. I’m not saying Nottingham got it right all the time, but it would be worth looking at our portfolio and giving some thought about investing in a few things well, fully and properly, rather than trying to keep everybody happy, and spreading everything too thin, which makes noone happy. That’s interesting. In your blog post you mentioned talking to staff and getting a sense of both the pros and cons of working here. Amongst the ‘things to address’ were ‘speed of decision making [and] the planning process.’ What do you think can be done about that? I think part of the problem is that Kent, like many universities, has ended up in a short term planning cycle, waiting for confirmation of student numbers before investing.
It’s really interesting. The issues here feel very familiar, just with a Kent flavour! So I’d say Nottingham’s been on a journey a bit longer around all of this. It’s not necessarily got it right, but it’s very interesting that Kent has the same number of schools as Nottingham does, and Nottingham is twice the size. Making the most of the structure you have, identifying synergies and overlaps, and working with them is sometimes difficult but can also lead to productive connections and collaborations. There’s a need for a sense of shared purpose - which once again comes back to the necessity of long-term vision. The idea of a long-term vision leads me onto the question of the Institutional Plan. We’re halfway through the planning cycle. Do you see its vision continuing until 2020?
I believe we need to think more about longer term plans. We need to look to the horizon. Yes, we might have to tack a little bit now and then in order to adjust our course according to recruitment or in other areas. But our course should be set for the horizon. We should look to the broader picture of what we’re trying to achieve, and then consider what is the best way to enable that to happen, and provide the necessary resources to make them happen.
Can you tell me what the Plan’s vision for this University is?
Beyond this we need to look at what currently works, what doesn’t, and what we can do about it. What works at a local level in schools, and what works centrally? We need to balance conserving a sense of identity and autonomy, with a need to act efficiently and effectively.
While it’s fine to say we want to be in the top 20 or the top 250 I think that’s more of an outcome than a vision of the kind of university we want to be. So I don’t want to rip up the Institutional Plan; rather, I want clarity about the kind of institution we are and want to be.
Such a balance will be potentially difficult at Kent, where the history of collegiality has led to a strong sense of devolution within schools. Was there more centralisation at Nottingham?
Once we’ve established that, it makes our work - and the work of everyone at the University - that much easier and more purposeful. We have a shared understanding of where we’re going.
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No, I’m afraid I can’t. I think that’s the problem. The Plan is great in that it’s saying all the things we’d want it to say around our core businesses of research and teaching and engagement. But I think what we don’t really have is a shared vision and implementation plans that support us delivering on that.
The University of Nottingham ment. And we’ve also got two sets! Those in the Plan, and those used by Council.
I ’ v e started to discuss this with the senior team, and these discussions will continue as we involve more and more people across the University. Can you say anything about the emerging vision that’s coming from those initial discussions? Executive Group plus [EG+: see explanation, p4] had a strategic meeting last week and there were some excellent conversations about the external context, as well as the strengths and challenges facing Kent. There’s some really positive thoughts around us being inclusive, international and inspirational.
In terms of research I talked in my blog post about ‘signature areas’, and Philippe [De Wilde] has been championing the ‘super centres.’ For me it’s about articulating what the global challenge we’re trying to address is, and how are we bringing together our expertise in order to address it. Part of the challenge that universities face at the moment is engaging appropriately with the public in terms of explaining what we do and how we do it. If we can talk about problems we’re trying to solve, it’s a much easier case to make.
Take the example of the new cybersecurity centre. Explaining it by saying we’re working to keep you safe on line, and are bringing these specialists together to work on the problem, helps people to understand what a university is. So recognising our key strengths and being able to explain them to those outside the University helps make the case for Kent, and helps the University community as a whole. So it’s changing the narrative as much as anything. It’s not necessarily making huge changes, though change might happen as a part of it, but it’s changing the narrative to create a vision. Absolutely! And of course universities all do the same thing. But we need to think about what is distinct about Kent. Not unique, but distinct. I think we’ve got a lot of things, from the campus-based experience, to the diversity of locations, to our international outlook, to our inclusivity. As well as looking at shaping a long-term vision for the University Plan, will you look at changing the key performance indicators (KPIs) it set out? I think there’s currently too many. 18 for research and innovation, 28 for education, and 21 for engage3
Rather than a wide range of indicators, we should think of the overall ambition. For research, for instance, we might say we want high quality research. So how do you measure that? It might be citations, it might be income. League table positions or the REF outcomes are the fallout of that. It is possible. At Nottingham we had 44 KPIs in our 2010-15 Plan; we managed to get this down to 12 in the 2015-20 Plan. Let’s think about what we actually want and concentrate on that. Let’s articulate our priorities and back them. Let’s not be foolhardy, but let’s be prepared to take some risks. Some things will work and some things won’t, but at least we’ll have tried. The University is part of the Eastern Academic Research Consortium (ARC) with Essex and East Anglia. How do you see the future of this? I’d like to see it continue, but I’d like to see a bit more ambition about the next stage and what the collaboration would be seeking to achieve. It’s had some successes, particularly recently. Should we get someone working across all three institutions who was really driving the agenda, looking for funding, looking for collaborations, looking for links with industry in all its forms? That might mean a bit of investment from the universities but it just gives it impetus rather than serendipity. It would help and encourage people to look outside the bounds of their own institutions, to build partnerships, to have impact and increase their citations. Continued on page 4
‘We Need to Look to the Horizon’ continued You’ve touched on the issue of the external environment and it does feel like it’s at its most uncertain for some time, with the HE & Research Act, the creation of UKRI and Research England, GCRF, REF2021, and the UK’s relationship with the Framework Programme after Brexit. What do you see as the main challenges, and how can Kent best place itself to make the most of them? Main challenges? All of the above. We are in incredibly uncertain, politically charged times. The whole role of universities is being questioned. So I think we have to be really clear about what are we here for, and what we do. I think we have to be conscious of the fact that funding for universities is not certain, and it’s just been announced that there will not be a fee rise for another few years. So we really have to look very carefully at what we do with the money that we have, and how we make the most of it. And finally, who is your role model, either in higher education or in the wider world? I don’t think I have a role model. I see elements that I like in the skills, achievements or attributes of other people, but no one person I’d call a role model. However, fictional role models: well, that’s different! I loved the West Wing, and my role model would be CJ Cregg from that series. If you haven’t watched it, get the boxset. It’s leadership in a box! Want to know more? For more information drop a line to the interviewer, Phil Ward (xtn7748, p.ward@kent.ac.uk) For the VC’s blog, go to http://bit.ly/KentVCblog
…but what the hell *is* EG, EG+ and Managers Forum? The VC mentioned in her interview the strategic meeting that EG+ had had. But who was involved, and what is EG, EG+ and Managers Forum? All three sit outside the formal decision making structure of the University (namely Council, Senate and the various committees of Senate, such as Research & Innovation Board), and are essentially advisory. However, although nominally so, they can be more nimble than formal committees, and are the first sounding boards for new ideas.. Executive Group compris-
es the VC, the four DVCs, the Director of Finance and Secretary to Council. EG+ comprises EG and Deans. Managers Forum comprises EG+ and Heads of School and of Professional Services. It acts as a broader communication portal to EG.
Want to know more? EG and EG+: http://bit.ly/ UniKentEG Managers Forum: http://bit.ly/ ManForKent
A 60 Second Snapshot of
Japanese Funding In June Research Services hosted a visit by Naomi Hasegawa, a Research Officer at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in Tokyo. As well as talking to people across the University about what we do, she took time to talk about the JSPS funding available to UK academics. Below she offers some insights into the funder. JSPS offers several types of fellowship programmes for overseas researchers to do research in Japan. Currently our success rates are around 30%, so it’s definitely worth thinking about if you have links or collaborators in Japan. When applying, do bear in mind the following: The research should be of benefit to both UK and Japanese researchers. Your plan should be realistic, and it should be clear that it can be completed within the designated period. Japanese language skills are not always required to conduct research in Japan as most investigators are keen for their 4
group or lab to be international and outward looking, and are therefore happy to discuss your plans in English. However, I would encourage academics to take advantage of the training offered by the Centre for English and World Languages (CEWL) at Kent, which would be a huge advantage in understanding the culture and language before you go. Do be aware that JSPS in Tokyo and that in London (or other partners) may use slightly different criteria for assessing applications. There have been times when I’ve seen Japanese research proposals declined when the overseas partner was accepted, as the JSPS Tokyo didn’t quite make the mark. Want to know more? For more information on JSPS go to http://bit.ly/JSPSweb, or drop a line to Naomi at naomihasegawa@jsps.go.jp
An Overview of Research Funding, Apr-Jul 2017 Largest Individual Awards (titles of projects listed overleaf) Humanities: Dr Ellen Swift (SECL) £272,640 from the AHRC
The big story last term was Dr Zoe Davies’ (SAC) ERC Starting Grant being announced. As can be seen from the charts below, it makes up more than a third of the Faculty’s awards, and is responsible for almost a quarter of this term’s grant total. However, it is worth noting the considerable ‘supplementary’ awards last term. Whilst we don’t
list these (as they will have been listed in a previous edition when first announced), a quick tally suggests that they total £1.4m. Particularly noteworthy is the Julien Forder (PSSRU)/Julie Beadle-Brown (Tizard) continuing Dept of Health grant which made up £1.2m of this. Congratulations to all who won awards this term, and equally our thanks to all who applied.
Humanities £469,759
Sciences: Prof Mark Smales (Biosciences) £342,550 from the BBSRC
Social Sciences
Sciences
£3,734,647
£2,243,742
Overall award value by faculty Percentage of overall award value by funder
Social Sciences: Dr Zoe Davies (SAC) £1,602,854 from the ERC
What’s It All About? An insight into one of the projects funded this term, taken from the application summary.
This term: Eerke Boiten (now at De Montfort), Edward Cartwright & Anna Stepanova (Economics), Julio Hernandez Castro & Bundi Arief (Computing) who received £347,013 from EPSRC.
The project considers the economical, psychological and social effects of ransomware. Ransomware is a new crime of extortion committed online. Malicious software gets installed through a phishing email or a drive-by download on a website. When it runs, it Encrypts the user's files, and asks a ransom for this action to be undone. Due to the subtle ways that the technological and psycho-
5 Cartwright: one of the five investigators
logical blend, it has profound economic, psychological and societal impacts on its victims, which makes its eradication all the more complicated. This project sets out to answer why ransomware is so effective as a crime and why are so many people falling victim to it. It will also look out at who the perpetrators are, how we can intervene, and how the police can be helped.
FULL LIST OF AWARDS: 1 Apr-31 July 2017* Faculty of Humanities School of Arts Smith
British Society of Aesthetics
Aesthetics Today
£2,837
School of English Nagai
Cosmopolitan Rats: Rats as Seafarers in the Age of British Royal Museums Imperialism Greenwich
£4,800
School of History Jones
Oral Health Inequalities, Oral Hygiene Cultures in England, Academy of Medical 1870-1970 Sciences
Wills
Playing Cowboys and Criminals: Videogame Depictions of British Academy the Frontier and Urban West
£49,920 £5,946
School of European Culture and Languages Kirchin
The future of normativity
Mind Association
£2,500
Marlow-Mann
Leverhulme Visiting Professorship - Vito Zagarrio
Leverhulme Trust
£18,479
Strhan
Nonreligious Childhood: Growing Up Unbelieving in Con- John Templeton temporary Britain Foundation
£108,634
Swift
Roman and Late Antique Artefacts from Egypt: understanding Society and Culture
AHRC
£272,640
Willis
The Central Lincolnshire Wolds Research Project: Hatcliffe Top and the Waithe Valley - Roman Pottery
Roman Research Trust
£2,703
Faculty of Sciences School of Biosciences/Centre for Industrial Biotechnology Fenton
Discovery of Novel Therapies for Cancers of the Head and Neck Region
Rosetrees Trust
£78,169
Gourlay
Determining the role of metabolic dysfunction in SOD1associated MND.
MND Scotland
£84,251
Griffin
Rapid reconstruction of reference chromosome-level mammalian genome assemblies
BBSRC
Griffin
Gene expression in poultry
Professor Dr Peter Surai
Ortega Roldan
In-cell structural biology: CLIC1 structure, function and drug binding inside tumour cells
Wellcome Trust
Smales
An integrated cell and protein engineering approach to generate enhanced CHO cell platforms for manufacture of BBSRC difficult to express biopharmaceuticals
£292,975
£35,000 £100,000 £342,550
School of Computing Boiten
EconoMical, PsycHologicAl and Societal Impact of RanSomEPSRC ware
£214,461
Chennu
Computational Tools for Electroencephalographic Brain Connectomics
EPSRC
£101,058
King
The Rise and Fall of COOP
GCHQ
£109,890
King
Equipment grant
GCHQ
£8,097
Thompson
Developing a DSL for Cardano SL
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Input Output HK Limited
£47,255
School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Efstratiou Guest Young Zhu
Data analytics for smart healthcare
Shearwater Systems
A Performance Assessment Framework for Mobile Biometrics Smart Surfaces for augmented indoor WiFi communications (SURFAS) v2 Advanced Mobile Communications Research and Development in China Medway School of Pharmacy
GCHQ Interreg V Channel Programme (South) Royal Academy of Engineering
Health Education North Central and East London School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
£29,963 £118,190 £175,977 £6,000
Corlett
Urgent Care Project - Emergency Care Centres
Griffin
Machine Learning in Insurance Claim Modelling
Society of Actuaries
£17,846
Morgan
Environmental modelling for moths and butterflies
Leverhulme Trust
£15,920
Soares Loureiro
14th International Conference on Orthogonal Polynomals London Mathematiand Special Functions Applications cal Society
£5,000
Wood
Mathematical and Computational Aspects of Maxwell's Equations
EPSRC
£5,046
Dickinson
School of Sports Science The effect of A2 milk on exercise performance, inflammation and severity of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) a2 Milk in athletes with EIB and asthma School of Physical Sciences
£86,714
Barker
Micro-Metagenomics: Exploring the application of microScottish Crucible fluids to viral diagnostics
Corrias
Developing new ceria based materials to address challengBritish Council es in energy and the environment
£221,279
Podoleanu
Podoleanu BRC bid led by Moorfields May 2016
NIHR
£178,529
Leverhulme Trust
£147,102
EPSRC
£132,552
Serpell
Cartwright
Hierarchical and Emergent Assembly through the Marriage of DNA and Peptides Faculty of Social Sciences School of Economics EconoMical, PsycHologicAl and Societal Impact of RanSomware
£5,470
£4,000
Kent Business School Oberoi
Machine Learning in Insurance Claim Modelling
Society of Actuaries
£5,526
Kent Law School Grabham
Reforming legal gender identity: a socio-legal evaluation
ESRC
£490,914
Kang
The Legal Materiality Network
AHRC
£35,882 Continued over
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School of Politics and International Relations
Security Sector Reform and the Stability of Post-War Peace
Ansorg
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
£73,534
School of Psychology Ponari
Where I end and you begin: the role of facial mimicry and British Academy interoception in emotion recognition
Stoeber
Development of childhood perfectionism: Early indicators Leverhulme Trust and parental factors
£9,402 £298,259
School of Anthropology and Conservation Davies
RELATE Environmental Space and the Feel-Good Factor: European Research Relating Subjective Human Wellbeing to Biodiversity Council (ERC)
Griffiths
Greater Crested Newt pilot project modelling for the Midlands
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust
Mair
Moral education in practice: Taiwanese Buddhist shortterm renunciation
British Academy
£4,169
Waldstein
Impacts of deportability and structural vulnerability on well-being among Jamaicans in the UK
British Academy
£9,958
£1,602,854 £22,014
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research Billings
National evaluation of new care models programme
Department of Health
Cottee
Freedom Project
Wellesley College
Forder
Improving the quality of care in care homes by care home NIHR staff
Jones
National evaluation of new care models programme.
Department of Health
£134,689
Jones
The influence of social care on delayed transfers of care (DTOC) among older people
NIHR
£170,759
Milne
Identifying exemplar models and support for older carers NHS and carers of people with dementia
£285,901 £25,000 £428,024
£2,466
*The list given is for all awards of £1,000 or more. They do not include extensions or supplements ERRATA: In the last edition of Research Active (Vol 11, Issue 3, June 2017), award winners in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science were listed under the School of Computing. I apologise for this oversight. For the record, they are given below.
Deano Cabrera
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science Painleve equations: analytical properties and numerical EPSRC computation
Pech
Young Researchers in Mathematics 2017
London Mathematical Society
Tapadar
Insurance Loss Coverage
Radfall Charitable Trust
£95,541 £2,242 £10,300
Ever wanted to get these lists more regularly? Or adapt the parameters to see not only who’s
BESPOKE won awards but who’s applying? Or just limit them to your school? These data are all available
STATS
in real time on the Research Services website. Just go to http://bit.ly/KentResStats and set the parameters you want, such as application/award, school, funder, and date range. 8
Public involvement e.g. patient and public, citizen science. Media, such as social media, discussions via blogs, broadcasting-led activities Exhibitions and installations in museums, galleries and alternative spaces. Education resources and programmes that connect pupils, teachers and education providers directly with research. As well as benefitting the public, the engagement can benefit your own work, informing and providing alternative, objective and unexpected insights into your findings.
A Case Study As technology continues to break new boundaries science fiction is fast becoming science fact, with huge effects on society. Disseminating, engaging and conversing with the public around advances in our knowledge and its impact on the world around us has never been so important. Here, Jill Hurst talks to Prof Darren Griffin about Café Scientifique, which helps to do this. Are designer babies a step too far for humanity? How is surrogacy and egg sharing shaping human reproduction in the 21st century? These are just two questions presented and debated at Kent’s Café Scientifique. Funded by the University’s Public Engagement with Research fund (PERF), Café Scientifique takes place in a pub, and brings together researchers and members of the public in lively debate and contemplation around genetics research, reproduction and the family. Talking about the event Darren Griffin, Professor of Genetics in Bio-
sciences, said: “Café Scientifique seeks to democratize academic research by taking it out of the domain of the expert and enabling everyone to voice an opinion. This highly popular event is just one example of how PERF is supporting innovative public engagement with research activities.’ PERF offers an exciting opportunity for University of Kent researchers to apply for grants of up to £2,000 to undertake innovative public engagement with research activities. It is open to all academics across the University. If you have an interesting and engaging project that’s based on your research, contact us (see box at the end). Proposed projects can take a variety of formats. Some past examples include: Live events e.g. festivals, discussions, talks, workshops, science cafes. Collaborative projects e.g. with the public/organisations as partners in research.
Want to know more? To find out more about Public Engagement with Research at the University, talk to Jill Hurst (peresearch@kent.ac.uk, xtn 3907). The autumn round of the Fund closed on 13 Oct, but there will be another in the spring. For an application, form and fund guidance please visit www.kent.ac.uk/publicengageme nt.
CHANGES IN RESEARCH SERVICES There are three recent or forthcoming changes taking place in Research Services. Moving On Firstly, Lynne Bennett and Sarah Godfrey will be leaving us. Lynne is taking early retirement. She is currently the Research Development Officer for the Humanities and has been with us since 2008. She was at Wellcome for a decade before that, and has been doing a parttime PhD in SECL under the supervision of Prof Ray Laurence. Sarah is moving on to be the Research Unit Administration Manager in PSSRU. She joined us in 2013 as the Research Grants and Contracts Assistant. Sarah has a background in
research project management and charity administration. Both will be sorely missed. Name Changes We’ve altered the names of three of our teams to better reflect their work: The Funding Team becomes the Resea rch Develo p men t Team, which provides training, facilitates collaborations, and works with academics to ensure that their ideas are developed into fully fledged viable proposals. The Contracts Team becomes the Grants and Contracts Team: which calculates costs, and oversees the approval and submission of grants, as well as 9
negotiating contracts. The REF Team becomes the Research Excellence Team, which is responsible for both the REF, public engagement and impact, as well as systems supporting research management, such as KRIMSON, SciVal and Vertigo Ventures. The Research Accounts Team, which deals with post-award accounts, claims, auditing and reporting, will continue under the same name.
New Website And finally we have been working on a new website, which should be ready by the end of October. Any comments on it are very welcome.
The University adopted the KRIMSON system to manage external research and innovation grants in 2014. Here the Project Manager Renata McDonnell explains the current state of play. The process of adopting KRIMSON has been complex, and I’m grateful for all of those who have helped us in developing it, using it, and providing feedback on it. As a result we have seen real achievements and benefits arising from it: it has replaced the paperbased approval system, providing
FEEDBACK Research Services is committed to providing the best support possible in an ever-changing academic environment. As part of this commitment, we are implementing a system to gather feedback on an ongoing basis to assess the support received when submitting an application to a research funder. Once you have submitted an application an email will be sent to you the following week asking you to say whether you agree or disagree with a few statements about the support provided. It should take no more than a couple of minutes to answer. Feedback can be given anonymously and will only be shared with the Research Development and Grant & Contracts Officers named with your permission. Want to know more? If you wish to discuss this, have any other feedback or suggestions about how the support provided by Research Services can be improved; please contact Andrew Massoura, Research Grants and Contracts Manager (a.n.massoura@kent.ac.uk, ext. 3256)
KRIMSON the University with a more transparent and accessible application system with reduced processing timescales. However, the software provider has not delivered in certain areas, and as a result was unable to provide some of the functionality we had originally wanted. This includes integration with KAR and the possibility of a 'mini-CV' with details of
an individual's publications and funding track record. However, we will continue to use KRIMSON as the approval system for external research and innovation grants, and will seek to further improve the functionality and usability of the system. Want to know more? To find out more about the current situation and what the future holds, contact Renata on r.mcdonnell@kent.ac.uk, xtn 3190)
WELCOME!
Nine academics have joined Kent between April and July. Join with us in welcoming them to the University, and take a moment to find out about their research interests. Dr Gerardo Abreu Pederzini (KBS): the human side of work and organizations, and in particular organizational behaviour, especially leadership. Dr Robert Barker (SPS) Dr Jan Breitsohl (KBS): The dark side of social media - (Managing) Consumer Aggression in online communities. Dr William Gee (SPS): synthetic chemistry to solve real-world forensic problems, such as developing new chemical treatments to identify latent fingermarks on porous surfaces Ms Angela Harrison (Journalism): the practice of journalism. Dr Stella Koutsikou (Pharmacy): To determine how sensory information is weighted and integrated by the central nervous system, which in turn, shapes decision-making and helps guide aspects of natural animal behaviour. Dr Julien Lange (Computing, right): the verification of concurrent and distributed programs using mathematically rigorous theories, in partic-
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ular: behavioural types and automata theory. Dr Christopher Mulligan (Biosciences): the molecular mechanisms of transport proteins; how they recognise compounds, how they harness an energy source to pump compounds across the membrane, and how they move during transport.
The Launch of the OSC The Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) formally launched last month. Its Head, Sarah Slowe, explains what it’s all about. What is it? The OSC aims to help staff with all the issues around academic publishing—such as open access and depositing articles—but also to act as a signpost to the wide range of research-related support there is across the University. Like what? Well, the Library offers help with journal subscriptions, the Kent Academic Repository and, with Research Services (RS), open access and metrics. RS helps with preparing and submitting grants, as well as the REF, impact and public engagement. Information Services helps with data management and the technical aspects of your research. Kent Innovation and Enterprise supports your commercial engagement. So what will you be doing? It’s early days, and we want to start by getting your thoughts. The overarching aim of the office is to be researcher focused, so the more feedback we have from you about the challenges you are facing, the better. We can then focus our resources in overcoming the common challenges that emerge from this feedback. And longer-term? The OSC will look at tools, new challenges & standards in scholarly communication as they emerge. This might include The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assesment (DORA), the UK Scholarly Communications Licence (UKSCL)
and a myriad other necessary but technical acronyms! We hope to assess these and adopt those that are appropriate to Kent, to act as a ‘gatekeeper’ to them and make sure academics here have all the most appropriate tools and information that helps them—and don’t hinder them– in their work. How is the Kent OSC different from that in other universities? Many institutions are looking at who manages the scholarly communication process. For some, this sits within their library or information services; for others in research services. At Kent the OSC is shared by all three! The OSC is not just about open access and open data but looking at a wider remit, beyond the traditional scholarly outputs. Are you planning any events or training for academics? Yes! We hope to get out to all schools and faculties to talk about our support, but also to get a sense of what you need. In addition, we will be taking part in Open Access week, which is happening towards the end of the month (see inset box). How can I find out more? Drop us a line with any thoughts or queries. Our details are in the box below. Want to know more? If you want to find out more contact osc@kent.ac.uk or look at http://bit.ly/KentOSCsite. To attend OA week, go to http:// bit.ly/KentOAWeek17
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Open Access Week 16-23 October OA Week is an annual international event to raise the profile of OA. This year the theme is “Open in Order to…” The OSC will be running a series of events every day between 122pm. Monday: Medway Research Room (DC105) Tuesday-Friday: A1.08, Templeman Library, Canterbury.
The sessions will include lunch and will be a chance to explore your options, as well as the effects and legalities of open access. You can also find out what support there is for OA at Kent. As part of this Chris Morrison (Copyright Support and Software Licensing Manager) and Jane Secker (Senior Lecturer in Educational Development at City, University of London) will be launching their new board game The Publishing Trap. It looks at the impact of scholarly communications choices, and explores the role of open access in research by following the lives of four researchers - from doctoral research to their academic legacies. If you would like to attend, please register via the link in the box, left.
GCRF & Newto
International ESRC GCRF Network (2016) Legal Regulation of Unacceptable Forms of Work: Global Dialogue/Local Innovation. Investigator (Co-I): Prof Judy Fudge (KLS) Partners: Dr Deirdre McCann, University of Durham, and Dr Shangeon Lee, International Labour Organization (ILO) Amount: £112,176
By now most of you will have heard about both the Global Chal undertaking research with ODA compliant—or developing– cou Some may think that such schemes aren’t relevant to them, but the diversity of subject and nation state, and that all faculties ha
Egypt AHRC Newton Preserving Egypt’s Cultural Heritage (2015) Egypt‘s Living Heritage: Community Engagement in Re-Creating the Past,. Investigator: Prof Caroline Rooney (English) Amount: £31,273
Brazil Newton Research Mobility CONFAP-UK (2014) Analyzing the Brazilian media coverage of London 2012 Paralympic Games. Production and dissemination of a media guide on how to report on disability and sport designed for Brazilian news makers. Investigator: Dr Sakis Pappous (Sports and Exercise Science) Partner: Dr. Doralice Lange de Souza, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil Newton Research Collaboration (2015) Security Policy Enforcement in Federated Open Source Clouds. Investigator: Prof David Chadwick (Computing) Partner: Dr Carlos Ferraz, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil, Amount: £12,000
Newton Research Collaboration (2015) Investigators: Prof Nathan Gomes, Prof John Batchelor, and Dr Christos Efstratiou (EDA) Partners: Dr Qasim Ahmed and Dr Luis Carlos Vieira, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Brazil, RFID moisture sensor network for landslide monitoring, Amount: £18,000
Ukraine MRC/DfID/Wellcome Global H (2015) Feasibility Study: Effectiveness of Pu tem (Programmes/Policies) in Co Population Health Crisis in Ukraine Investigators: Prof Stephen P Olena Nizalova (CHSS) Turkey Partners Dr Ganna Vakhitov Newton Advanced Fellowships: (2016) Reuniting Cyprus: The British-Cypriot Diasporas as ics Institute, Ukraine Amount: £100,590 Peace Agents. Host : Dr Neophytos Loizides (PolIR) Fellow: Dr Kuscu Bonnenfant, Middle East Technical University, Turkey Amount: £97,698 Newton Advanced Fellowships (2014) Perception of and Attitude towards the Syrian Refugees in Turkey Host: Prof Dominic Abrams (Psychology) Fellow: Dr Banu Kavakli Birdal, Istambul Kemerburgaz University, Turkey Amount: £36,980 Newton International Fellowships (2017) Turkey and Offering and Demanding Collective Apologies: A UK versus Turkey Comparison Host: Prof Ayse Uskul (Psychology) Fellow: Dr Veysel Elgin, Abant Izzet Baysal University
DRC & Nigeria British Academy GCRF Cities and Infrastruc Programme (2017) Religious urbanisation and infrastructural live African mega-cities: moral economies of deve ment in Kinshasa and Lagos. Investigator: Dr David Garbin (SSPSSR) Partners: University of York; University of ronto; University of Kinshasa, Democratic public of the Congo; University of gos, Nigeria Amount: £299,957
South Africa British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowships (2017) South Africa and Labour Migration and Labour Relations in South and Southern Africa, c.1900-2000. Host: Dr Andrew Cohen (History) Fellow: Dr Rory Pilossof, Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State Amount: £94,000
Want to know more? For more help and advice, contact your relevant Research Development Officer as follows: Humanities: Lynne Bennett (l.bennett282@kent.ac.uk, xtn 4799) Sciences: Carolyn Barker (c.m.barker47@kent.ac.uk, xtn 7957) Social Sciences: Aurelija Poviliake (a.poviliake@kent.ac.uk, xtn 4427) 12
Newton International Fellowships (2017) South Africa and Inferring protein function using novel features and advanced machine learning. Host: Dr Mark Wass (Biosciences) Fellow: Dr Mohd Shahbaaz, Department of Chemistry, Durban University of Technology Amount: £96,000
on: the story so far
China Newton Advanced Fellowships (2017) Distributed and Cooperative Massive MIMO for Future Cloud-RAN based Mobile Communication Systems Host: Prof Jiangzhou Wang (EDA) Fellow: Prof Yiqing Zhou, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Amount: £110,340
allenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund, which provide funding for untries. t Carolyn Barker maps the grants that we’ve received so far, which show ave benefitted.
Health Systems
Public Health Sysombating Severe e. Peckham and Dr
va, Kyiv Econom-
Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekhastan GCRF Collective Fund via ESRC (2017) Comprehensive Capacity-building in Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia: research integration, impact governance and sustainable communities Investigators: Prof Elena Korosteleva (PolIR) Partners: Cambridge; Belarusian State University, Belarus; Shahidi Cultural Foundation; ADA University, Azerbaijan; National University of Uzbekhastan Amount: £2,929,375
India Newton-Bhabha PhD Placement (2015) Study of structural and relaxation dynamics of some ion conducting materials Supervisor: Dr Gavin Mountjoy (SPS) Student: Mr Tanmoy Paul, India Amount: £5,900
cture
es in elop-
f Toc ReLa-
Newton Advanced Fellowships (2016) Efficient Optimization Methods for HighPerformance Shaped Beam Reflector Antennas, Distributed and Cooperative Massive MIMO for Future Cloud-RAN based Mobile Communication Systems. Host: Prof Stephen Gao (EDA) Fellow: Dr Rushan Chen, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China Amount: £110,340
Saudi Arabia UK-Gulf Institutional Links (2017) Developing new ceria based materials to address challenges in energy and the environment. Investigator: Dr Anna Corrias (SPS) Partner: Prof Andrea Falqui, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudia Arabia Amount: £104,925
Thailand GCRF Collective Fund via BBSRC (2017) Establishment of biopharmaceutical and animal vaccine production capacity in Thailand and neighbouring South East Asian countries, Growing Research Capability to Meet the Challenges Faced by Developing Countries. Investigators: Prof Colin Robinson and Prof Mark Smales (Biosciences) Partners: UCL; Imperial College London; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; National Center for Genetic Engineering Thailand and Bangkok University, Thailand Amount: £4,090,772
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Newton International Fellowships (2014) Characterisation of Fluidisation Processes through Advanced Monitoring and Computational Modelling. Host: Prof Yong Yan (EDA) Fellow: Dr Jingyuan Sun, Zhejiang Uiversity, China
Vietnam Newton Mobility Grants (2016) The Global Financial Crisis and Spillovers of US Monetary Policy: Lessons from Vietnam Investigator: Dr Roman Matousek (KBS) Partner: Dr Chau Le, Banking University HCMC, Vietnam
Malaysia Researcher Links – workshops (2016) Enhancing Environmental Resilience in Expanding Oil Palm Landscapes: Setting Research Priorities and Fostering Networking Among Researchers and Stakeholders in Malaysia Investigator: Dr Matt Struebig, (SAC) Partner: Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia, Amount:: £36,750 Institutional Links (2015) Enhancing Environmental Resilience in Expanding Oil Palm Landscapes via Improved 4Design of Riparian Re6serves, Malaysia Investigator: Dr Matt Struebig (SAC) Partner: Dr Charles Vairappan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia, Amount: £84,601
Update on the REF Last month the DVC Research and Innovation, Prof Philippe De Wilde, chaired a meeting of the REF Unit of Assessment (UOA) Coordinators. He set out his view of the forthcoming exercise and on the ‘dry run’, the Mock REF, that is currently taking place. Here he summarises the points he raised.
REF for what it is: an administrative exercise about returning data to a government agency. Some people try to ‘personalise’ it, making it all about university and personal prestige. I disagree: the REF is a data submission, very much like the ones we do all the time for HESA, HEFCE, HMRC, and so on. The REF is no different. We need to be accurate and pragmatic, and we will have a good financial return.
Perspective & Initial Thoughts REF2014 got us about £14m income per year, including RDP. This is roughly 5% of the University’s income. A bad REF could take this down to 3%, a good REF up to maybe 8%. It’s important to have this perspective. We were 17th for intensity in REF2014, and this ranking will certainly disappear if all staff have to be submitted. We risk coming about 50th in the general ranking. We need to improve this. However, we need to recognise the
Uncertainty With this in mind, we do need to prepare fully. However, nothing is fixed for the final REF. There are a number of criteria which are still to be decided by HEFCE, such as which staff to submit, and with how many outputs. Given this uncertainty, the timing of the Mock REF is not ideal, as we have had to guess some criteria. Throughout the exercise I will be keeping myself above it all, not because I feel superior, but because I want to be able to make changes
The Mock REF
after the Mock REF is finished. After the Mock REF Following the exercise, I will give feedback to Schools in January 2018. I want them to be able to take into account the outcome in their plans for 2018/19. I may also change some of our internal processes, once I’ve seen how well Research Services work with the Schools, and vice versa. After the Mock REF we will continue with our annual census in autumn 2018 and autumn 2019. Thanks Coordinating the UOA submission to the REF is no small task, and I want to finish by thanking all the coordinators for taking on this work. The University is heavily reliant on their efforts, and very grateful for them. Want to know more? For more help and advice, cont a c t B e t t y Wo e s s n e r (b.woessner@kent.ac.uk, xtn 4203)
What’s an Impact Case Study Worth? Director of Research Services Dr Simon Kerridge has been giving some thought to how much impact case studies may be worth in REF2021 In REF2014 the relative weighting of outputs, impact and environment were 65%:20%:15%. For REF2021 they will be 60%:25%:15%. So Impact gains 5% and outputs lose out by the same. Moreover, in REF2014 impact case studies were worth 80% of the total weighting (or 16% of the total); the
other 20% (or 4% overall) was for support for the broader generation of impact. In REF2021 this element will be subsumed into the Environment template. Thus, examples of Impact will now be worth the full 25%. In addition, the possibility of ‘institutional’ case studies has been postponed until after REF2021, although there will be a pilot before then. This makes the situation even simpler. Assuming, as the REF team has indicated, that there will be roughly the 14
same number of case studies, each one will be worth 56.25% more than in REF2014. This is a huge increase. Of course, the devil is in the detail, and we need to see how the distribution differs in terms of how many case studies are needed per FTE staff submitted, but we can still make some broad extrapolations. So What’s It Worth? Although the parameters of the Units of Assessment (UOAs) may
change in REF2021, the following calculations are done on the basis that they will be broadly the same. The average quality- related (QR) worth of a 4* case study in REF2014, excluding London weighting, is given below. These differ depending on UOA. The assumed figures for REF2021 are given beside these. A 3* case study was worth a quarter of 4* case study. So for example in REF2014 the QR value for UOA 16 (Architecture) was close to the average of all subject areas across England:
ranked impact case study. Taking into account the increased weighting for impact and the decrease for outputs, together with the statement from HEFCE that the overall volume of submitted research should remain about the same, this means that a 4* impact case study in Architecture in REF2021 would be worth around £77k in QR per annum (or £0.5m over the 6 or 7 years until a subsequent REF). A 4* output would be a little over £10k, meaning you would need 7.5 of them to reap the same QR value as one 4* impact case study.
A 4* Impact case study was
Conclusion
worth £50k per annum (for each of 7 years) and a 4* Output (not shown in the table) was worth around £11k. Therefore, around 4.5 Outputs were worth one equivalent
Overall the key message is that impact case studies have become even more important. A 3* Impact case Study would be worth just under £20k per
15
annum in QR for the next REF period for Architecture. A 4* Impact case study would be worth £77k per annum. Over the assumed 6 year REF period, that is an additional ~£350k. For our lowest weighted subject area (Religious Studies) the differential between a 3* and 4* impact case study is around £210k; in Physics this differential rises to £524k.
Want to know more? If you have an impact case study and would like some help and guidance please contact Betty Woessner (B.woessner@kent.ac.uk xtn 7350). For more on these initial calculations contact Simon Kerridge (s.r.kerridge@kent.ac.uk, xtn 3229)
CHOICE CUTS FROM THE BLOG For the latest news and rumours from the world of research funding, log on to http://fundermental.blogspot.com HEFCE Announces 'Confidence and Supply' Logo 1 September 2017 We were shocked to learn today that, despite all our excellent work, our submission was not chosen to represent the next REF ‘Not chosen’ shock Why would HEFCE reject such quality and craftsmanship? The answer was clear when the winner was announced by Hermione Autobahn, HEFCE's Director of Creativity and Peripherals. 'I am delighted to announce the new, post-Brexit, post-general election, confidence-and-supply logo,' gushed Ms Autobahn. 'HEFCE is entirely behind Theresa May's bold new bid to hold on to power creative collaboration with the Democratic Unionist Party, and as such we thought it only right to represent this in logoised form. The orange represents our bold new friends in the DUP, who are nothing if not impactful. The grey represents the strong and steady leadership of our charismatic Prime Minster. Together it's a winning combination. Just look at the wonderful success of our Brexit negotiations! Take heart! We're currently seeing if David Davis will lead HEFCE in its negotiations with UKRI to form Research England. He seems like just the man for the job, and will definitely lead us down a bold new vertiginous rabbit hole'.
Logo: bold, new, orange and grey.
What BBC Celebrity Can I Swap My VC for? 4 August 2017
Schrodinger’s REF 21 July 2017 Yesterday David Sweeney unveiled his initial plans for REF2021. ‘We’ve responded fully to the recommendations of the Stern Review and the feedback we received in the consultation that followed,' he said. ‘I’m delighted to say we’ve managed to create a hybrid framework which manages to accommodate all views. ‘We’ve used the excellent 4* work of Erwin Schrödinger to do accommodate all conflicting views. We’ve devised a system whereby everyone will be submitted, but at the same time there’s the option whereby no one will be. It will be completely inclusive but absolutely exclusive, a100% submission and a 0% submission. I believe these two states of being can fully coexist. ‘Similarly, we have decided that outputs must exist in an equal state of portability and nonportability. They will remain with the originating institution, but also credited to the new institution. ‘This may lead to double counting, but I doubt it. I mean, no-one questioned how many cats were in Schrodinger’s box, did they? ‘It will be both burden-free but also create considerable extra burden. At the same time. It will be bureaucratically unbureaucratic. ‘If it’s possible for Schrodinger, it’s possible for us,’ concluded Sweeney. ‘After all I head up - but also don’t head up - Research England, which both exists and doesn’t exist.’
When the Times Higher announced the results of the Vice Chancellors' salary survey 2017 in June there was outrage in some parts of academia and beyond. The salary of Bath's VC, Prof Dame Glynis Breakwell, was 'morally indefensible', wailed the Bath Chronicle, quoting the local MP Wera Hobhouse. However, the subsequent revelations about BBC pay has put it all in to perspective. Prof Dame Glynis' £451k could only buy you a Claudia Winkleman or a Matt Baker. Steve Wright wouldn't even get out of bed for that. However, it's worth noting that you could get three Darcey Bussells, or possibly one and a half Sue Barkers. Or, if you shop around, a newsroom including Gavin Esler, Justin Webb and Kirsty Wark. Hmm. Maybe she's not the bargain I thought. Well, to put things into perspective, and to offer a little light summer reading, Fundermentals is offering you a cut-out-and-keep guide to the trade in value of your VCs. It might just be worth leaving around your senior common room. Good to keep them on their toes. To find the trade in value for each university’s VC, go to http://bit.ly/TradeInMyVC
Lookalike Corner Eraserhead is to be the Chief Finance Officer of UKRI. ‘Eraserhead has much experience in caring for difficult newborns in post-apocalyptic landscapes,’ said CEO Mark Walport. ‘As such he is an ideal person for a new body in post-Brexit UK.' Any relation to Ian Kenyon of CRUK is entirely coincidental. 16
Kenyon Davies
Eraserhead Wallace