Category Archives: News
REF 2021 Consultation: Summary of Responses
Today the four UK funding bodies published a summary of the responses to the ‘Consultation on the second Research Excellence Framework (REF)’. This document summarises our analysis of the 388 formal responses we received, which informed our initial decisions which are set out in a separate document (REF 2017/01). The consultation, published in December 2016, set out proposals for implementing the recommendations of Lord Stern’s review of the REF: ‘Building on success and learning from experience’.
Summary of consultation responses: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/year/2017/ref201702/
Enter the new UBDC cycling Data Challenge to win great prizes!
Download the data, develop your ideas and pitch your innovations to an expert judging panel to win our exciting new cycling Data Challenge and take home the £1,000 voucher prize >>> http://ubdc.ac.uk/data-challenge-2017
The benefits of cycling as a mode of transport are well documented – including saving money, improving health and a cleaner environment for all.
We’re challenging you – whether you’re an academic, in business, involved in a charity, a startup or a data enthusiast – to use Strava Metro data to develop innovative solutions to answer the question, how do we get more people cycling?
How the challenge works:
We’ll provide you with the data and the rest is up to you! Your entry could take the form of a tool, an app, a visualisation, a linked dataset, or a new piece of software to clearly demonstrate your ideas. Following the first round of judging, selected finalists will be invited to pitch their innovations to the judging panel and an audience of event attendees at a Demo Day.
Prizes:
. £1,000 of Amazon gift vouchers for the winner/s
. £500 of Amazon gift vouchers for the runner/s up
. £500 of Amazon gift vouchers for the People’s Choice Prize
All finalists will also have their travel expenses paid to attend the Demo Day.
Entries close at midnight (BST) on 1 October.
To find out more, download the data and enter visit: http://ubdc.ac.uk/data-challenge-2017
REF 2021 – Initital Decisions Published by HEFCE
Hefce have now released their initital decisions in relation to the next REF. For further information please see the Yammer Research Support Group (use your University login and password details – https://www.yammer.com)
Access to the full publication from HEFCE:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/year/2017/ref201701/
New Yammer Research Support Group
All staff have access to Yammer… Kind of like facebook for work… In order to give Researcher’s at our University a dedicated space for interaction, helpful files, presentations, links etc, a Research Support group has been created, including information on the REF and RDM. Feel free to join & access these resources! (https://www.yammer.com (log in with your Uni username and password)).
New Visiting Professor – Learning & Library Services
We are delighted to announce that Professor Susannah Quinsee, Professor of Learning Development and Director of Learning Enhancement and Development; City University of London will be joining us as the new visiting professor for Library and Learning Services.
Susannah leads the Learning Enhancement and Development Directorate which encompasses educational development and technology enhanced learning activity; academic skills, dyslexia and disability support, and student counselling and mental health services for the City University of London.
Susannah was Chair of the Heads of E-Learning Forum (HeLF) Steering Group from 2007-2011 and as a founder member of HeLF still remains on the HeLF Steering Group.
Susannah has worked as a lecturer and in academic support roles at a number of other higher education institutions in the UK as well as leading on large scale institutional change projects.
In 2011, Susannah became a National Teaching Fellow. She has considerable experience in the areas of online learning, student support, implementing learning and teaching strategies and project management in relation to higher education. Susannah’s current research focuses on leadership and change management in relation to learning development, developing communities of practice in higher education and engaging staff in new learning and teaching methodologies, particularly using technology.
Susannah will provide academic leadership and mentoring to LLS staff engaged in research activity and will play an active role in the research life of the department.
IT issues – Library Database A-Z down
We are aware that there is a problem with the A – Z List of Library databases today (3 June) . IT Services staff have been notified and the server has been rebooted. We are waiting to see if the list comes back up.
A workaround in the meantime is to Google the name of the database that you want to access, along with ‘login’, and you will usually get a hit with a link to the database login screen. Look for the ‘UK Federation’ login option and then you should be able to login with your UoN login.
Whilst this isn’t ideal, it should keep you going for now.
New EMDoc Logo Winner from UoN!
The East Midlands Doctoral Network (EMDoc), a collaboration of nine universities in the East Midlands, launched a competition to design a new logo with a winning prize of £450. The competition was open to all Postgraduate Research Students in the EMDoc network. We had three research students from the University of Northampton participating in the competition among students from other universities in EMDoc. The winner was our PhD student Julius Azasoo from the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology. Julius successfully designed an attractive and creative logo and won a prize of £450 which will be awarded to Julius at the EMDoc annual conference for PGR students.
New Academic Librarians Blog
A new blog has recently been launched by the Academic Librarians to provide staff with up-to-date news and information from the library world. The blog also contains training information and other developments from the team as well as links to relevant resources, including the latest Aspire step-by-step guide. If you want to be informed, check out the new Academic Librarians Blog.
A warm welcome to our new PGR Intern, Leila Benseddik.
The Graduate School are delighted to announce that we have recruited our new PGR Intern, Leila Benseddik – congratulations and welcome to Leila, who started working with us yesterday, Tuesday 25th April.
Leila is a PhD student in English and Creative Writing in the Faculty of Education and Humanities and she will be working with us 2.5 days a week for 9 months. Our part-time, paid internship post, administrated through Unitemps, will be a rolling internship, providing a current research student with skills transferable to a research career. Leila will be working here in Top Lodge, supporting The Graduate School’s many development activities and providing administrative support for workshops and events. Leila will develop skills in supporting researchers, whilst at the same time, as a PGR student herself, be able to offer valuable input into the programme. She will also be heavily involved in the organisation of this year’s Graduate School PGR Conference, which will be held on June 20th.
If you would like to contact Leila then you can contact her on her Graduate School work email Leila.Benseddik2@northampton.ac.uk.
