Blog from July, 2022

Ahoy there DEG Team! ⚓

If you're about to set sail for your seemingly endless summer break, make sure you catch up on all the latest news before you go. BA Postdocs have opened this week and Bryce is planning a webpage-editing training session.

Have a lovely weekend when it swings around 🌳

Chloe Mitchell - PA to EGLT

Expense Claims - New FAQs Page

To try to make the process of claiming expenses as simple as possible, we have created a new Expense Claims FAQs page to go with our Instructions page on our Wiki. Have a look and see what you think. If you have any feedback or would like to add any other questions to our FAQs page, please email environment-pa@york.ac.uk 👍 

Dept Coffee Mornings for Staff / PhDs

Our coffee mornings will continue to run over summer, so if you are a regular attendee and you haven't already, do stick your name down on the rota to help out one morning. At the moment, we are getting 15-25 people coming to Coffee Morning each week, which is great, but without a rota of helpers to give 10 minutes either side to the set up and clear away, they simply can't take place. If we spread the load, it benefits everyone and we can keep the weekly slot running. This article on non-promotable tasks falling regularly to women nails the issue, so let's buck the trend and not let it all fall to the ever-helpful gals in the PSS team every week! Thanks everyone ☕ The day of the week will change termly to ensure that part-time staff can attend. 

Did you know you can edit your own Dept webpages?

To be able to edit your own webpages, all you need to do is take the website training course (around 1-2 hours). People who have already done this training will tell you that it is really quite straightforward once you are in the know. Imagine how great it would be if all our pages were up to date with all of the latest information, including your own interests and activities!

If you would like to be able to keep your web pages up to date (and you haven't been trained) add your name to Bryce's webpage training spreadsheet. If we get enough people, Bryce will organise for a group training session, ideally run in the department. We also plan to increase the number of people who can approve changes to make the whole process more efficient. Thanks everyone! 

Bryce Stewart - Director of Engagement and Partnerships

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 - Call for EOIs!

The Google Form for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for this year's ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022 is now open. This year's Festival theme is 'My local area', however, as long as the event has a social science component or a relevant partner, this does not have to be the focus of your submission. The University is working closely with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, plus Sheffield Hallam to cross promote each other's events (supported by UKRI's marketing team as they welcome cross IAA collaborations) taking advantage of this year's theme to focus on our broader Yorkshire area, and to build on existing relationships we have through the White Rose Consortium and Doctoral Training Partnership. If there is scope to co-organise particular events with colleagues you already work with at these institutions, please contact Ranbir Jabanda (esrc-iaa@york.ac.uk), who can also respond to any queries.

Deadline for EOIs: 17:00 on Friday 2nd September

Congratulations to Eleanor Mawson, a former ESM MSc student, for her paper published in AGU Oceans last week. The paper was based on her MSc dissertation from 2019/20, supervised by Jon Hill. Katie Lee (former MEM MSc student, now a PhD student in the department) is also an author.

Simon Mair recently:

• gave an invited seminar at Exeter University Business School, on his recent paper "Writing our way to sustainable economies?". 
• contributed to the 2nd in-person workshop of the Management Educators Navigating Degrowth (MEND) collective, hosted by the University of Exeter, School of Sustainable Futures.

Josh Kirshner and Daryl Martin (Sociology) ran a successful workshop with academics in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law at Teesside University to discuss competing narratives of the 'just transition' in Middlesbrough/Tees Valley in the context of demographic change, immigration and social deprivation. This activity was supported by a Research Champions grant for the call, 'What Makes a Place Good to Live In?' and included a walking tour/site visit of local communities in Middlesbrough.

Roland Gehrels recently:

• commented on the recent heat wave and climate change for NationalWorld. 
• was part of a study (led by Patrick Nunn, Univ. of the Sunshine Coast, Australia), just published in Quaternary International, on "Human observations of late Quaternary coastal change: Examples from Australia, Europe and the Pacific Islands".

Aida Cuní Sanchez involved in critical Congolese peatlands study

A vast region of peatland in the heart of the Congo Basin is 15% bigger than previously thought, a new study mapping the full scale of the area has revealed. DEG's very own Aida Cuní Sanchez is the co-author of the study involving Congolese and UK researchers which shows that the peatlands in the central Congo Basin store between 26 and 32 billion tonnes of carbon – roughly equivalent to three years’ worth of global fossil fuel emissions. With only 8% of the peatland currently falling with nationally protected areas and one million hectares already scheduled to be auctioned for oil development by the DRC government next week, the researchers are calling for urgent action to protect the region. 

Dr Aida Cuni-Sanchez said: “Our study highlights not only that the Congolese peatlands are larger than previously thought, but also that only a small percentage of them lie within nationally protected areas. We have to engage with governments, logging companies, mining companies, conservation organisations and local communities, to determine how best we can find a balance between carbon storage and development goals. The plans to auction one million hectares of the peatland for oil development next week should definitely not proceed forward.”

For the study, researchers spent three years visiting scientifically unexplored swamp forests in the DRC. They discovered that the peatlands span 16.7 million hectares – equivalent to the size of England and Wales combined – with the peat up to six and a half metres deep. 

Click here to read the tropical peatlands article in full. 

Royal Society University Research Fellowships: Call now open!

This 8-year University Research Fellowship is for outstanding scientists who are in the early stages of their research career and have the potential to become leaders in their field. Please note that applicants are now asked to submit a research proposal and costs for an eight-year fellowship, rather than five years as previously.  If you're interested in applying, please contact your Research Support team (environment-research@york.ac.uk for DEG staff) as soon as possible to notify them of your intention to apply.

Application deadline: 15:00 UK - Tuesday 6 September 2022

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships: Info event for applicants

Applications to the British Academy Postdoc Fellowships are now open. This scheme, aimed at early career researchers, provides funding to cover the costs of a 36 month Fellowship in the humanities or social sciences. The purpose of this award is to enable the award holder to pursue an independent research project, towards the completion of a significant piece of publishable research. For those interested in applying, the York Research Fellowship Programme will be running a short information event for prospective applicants, providing basic details about the scheme, a short talk from a current British Academy Fellow, and the opportunity to ask questions. Please register for this event if you plan to attend, or pass on to anyone else who may be interested.

Please contact your Research Support team (environment-research@york.ac.uk for DEG staff) as soon as possible to notify them of your intention to apply to the scheme itself. 

Date / time of info event: Friday 5th August / 10:00

Location: Zoom - Register here

Water and Water Ecosystem Management EA Contract - Call for applications

The Government Environment Agency is seeking applications for a piece of work entitled: “Scoping an analytical programme of work to inform strategy for transformation of water and water ecosystem management in England, in-step with other transitions". Click here to read more about the EA opportunity and contact Laura Smith (environment-research@york.ac.uk) by 12:00 on Friday 12th August if you are interested in applying. Note the approaching deadline. 

Internal cut off for interest: 12:00 on Friday 12th August

Application deadline: 20:00 on Friday 19th August

• Got a query but not sure who to email? Click here for the full Departmental Who's Who, including email addresses. 

• Click here for our Useful Links Page with details on purchasing, Annual Leave, COVID-19 procedures amongst other things. 

Please continue to drop your items into the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. 

If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual. 

Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!

Thanks Team!

Afternoon everyone ☂️ If you missed the staff meeting this week, the link to the recording and other useful docs are below. With graduation, bursaries and awards there's also been lots to celebrate this week plus there's the chance to win a £100 voucher with one of the surveys! 

Have a great weekend 🌈

Chloe Mitchell - PA to EGLT

Owl Video Conferencing Equipment - How to book

If you are planning a hybrid meeting with more than 2-3 people joining in person together in the same room in the Environment building and others joining remotely, you may find it useful to use the Dept's Owl Video Conferencing equipment. It has a high-quality built in microphone and a 360 degree camera which rotates and splits the screen according to who is speaking. It is also very simple to use with "plug and play" technology so no awkward settings to figure out. If you would like to book the Owl for a meeting, please use the Owl booking sheet and always inform someone in Reception when you collect it. 

Email Signatures - Inserting 30th Anniversary Logo

A few people have mentioned having difficulty adding the new 30th logo to their email signature due to the size of the image. I would advise trying the below instructions, and if you are still having problems, contact central IT support services who will be able to give you a hand. 

• Click on the Settings cog in the top right of your email window
• Click on See all settings
• Scroll down to Signature
• Click the pen icon to edit your current signature or Create new if you don't have one
• Go to a recent email from me (environment-pa@york.ac.uk)
• Copy and paste my full signature text into your signature box and edit your name, details etc.
• Check the Signature defaults underneath are correct
• Scroll down and click Save Changes 
• Before you hit send on any new emails, click the pen icon and ensure your signature is selected

Richard Payne Fieldwork Bursary

Two deserving students were selected for the Richard Payne Fieldwork bursary this year. The successful applicants are:

Lydia Deacon
Supervisor: Roland Gehrels
Research Topic: Historic Coastal and sea level changes along the north Norfolk coastline. 

Claudia Milani-Santarpia Vargas
Supervisor: Ellie Jew
Research Topic: Human-Animal conflict in the masai Mara: Understanding the battle for survival in a rapidly changing climate.

Beth Fields Award

Thank you all for sending in your nominations. Of all the nominations which were very worthy of the award, two prominently stood out. The winners of this departmental prize are: Kirsten Earl and Tara Course. Both are extremely deserving of this award for their immense contributions towards building our departmental community beyond the academe.

Here's what staff and students who nominated them had to say:

Kirsten Earl

• Kirsten has been an outstanding DCC this academic year. Not only has she done the basic requirements of her job in a professional manner, but she has consistently gone above and beyond. Kirsten is a perfect example of the type of student who adds value to our dept, as well as embodying our dept core values
• Kirsten has contributed massively to the collegiality of the Department over the past year. She is one of the most helpful, friendly and enthusiastic students.  
  
• Kirsten's determination to rebuild the social environment in our dept has been admirable and the effort she has put into this has been second-to-none.  
  Kirsten can always be found around the department for a chat, usually in the Heart Space. Her enthusiasm and devotion are infectious. The department is a better place because of Kirsten and it's difficult to think of a student who embodies the Beth Fields spirit better than Kirsten.

Tara Course

• Tara has been a huge support as an ambassador to the PG open days - online and in person. She's also been a valuable student rep. Not only has she answered potential students' questions with clarity and professionalism, but she's also significantly supported to help problem solve during the online events.
• Tara is reliable, enthusiastic, professional, a great communicator and has proven herself to be able to act under pressure - all hugely valuable attributes when representing the Department.  I've heard great references from other members of staff about her work as a course rep, which can be a hugely challenging role. 

Information from Dept Staff Meeting held on 20/07/2022

Meeting recording: Please click here to watch the recording of the latest Dept Staff Meeting. 

Employability Team: Please click here to view our Employability Team slides. Angela also added: "The full set of principles will be circulated in due course and that we are actively encouraging colleagues to share any links they may have with alumni (with their permission of course) so that we can continue to support them, and they can contribute to our employability offering to support current students."

Empower Survey: Christina Van Der Feltz-Cornelis came to our staff meeting to explain more about the processes and interface of the EMPOWER app. Matthew recirculated the details of how to sign up via email after the meeting. If you have any questions relating to the EMPOWER app, please contact Christina directly: c.vanderfeltz-cornelis@york.ac.uk

VLE Transformation Project: Gareth Walker and Lou Stringer came along to explain the key changes and status of the VLE Transformation Project and here are details of how to apply to be involved in a VLE Pilot Project. 

Chill & Chat

Chill & Chat is back! Come along next Wednesday for fun crafts, refreshments, FIFA, and a free slice of pizza! 

Date / time: Wednesday 27th July, 15:00-17:00

Location: Wentworth College downstairs Common Room

Sam Hardy-Mayo (he, him, his) - Academic and Welfare Adviser - Graduate Students' Association Advice Centre

Congratulations to Simon Mair who authored a paper that was accepted for publication in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space entitled "Writing our way to sustainable economies? How academic sustainability writing engages with capitalism".

Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer for the paper she led based on IPCC work entitled Climate Resilient Development Pathways in Global Drylands which is now available online in Anthropocene Science. 

 FixOurFood has published the first of three summary reports on the results of co-creative Three Horizons processes with stakeholders in the Yorkshire food system, exploring transformation pathways towards a regenerative food system. The report, authored by Sam Buckton and overseen by Ioan Fazey, with design by Belinda Morris (University of York Management School) and input from Ulrike Ehgartner and Bob Doherty (UYMS), Katherine Denby (Department of Biology) and Ian Kendrick (H3Uni, Bounce Beyond), focuses on the transformation of Yorkshire's food economies towards a system that supports more hybrid businesses and innovative socially and environmentally oriented business models.

Along with a delegation from the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), Bryce Stewart met with the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & Islands, Mairi Gougeon, to discuss their marine conservation work around the Isle of Arran. This visit was featured in the local newspaper 'Arran Banner' with a group photo on the front page, also seen inserted to the right → 

Laura Bassi Scholarship (editorial assistance) - Summer round now open

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in Summer 2022: All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline. Further details, including previous winners, and the application portal can be found on the Laura Bassi Scholarship website. 

Application deadline: 20 August 2022
Results: 25 August 2022

Call for Survey Participants - Public opinions on ODA

My name is David Hintze. I am a third-year undergraduate student at UOY completing a research project entitled ‘Public Opinions on ODA and its Priorities.’ I aim to gain a better understanding of the public’s perceptions of the UK’s ODA by providing questionnaires to the British public. If you would like to take part, please click here to view David's survey. 

Call for Survey Participants - £100 voucher incentive!

My name is Briony Latter and I am a PhD researcher at the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) at Cardiff University. I would like to ask researchers to take part in my survey, which explores university and academic research culture and practices in the context of climate change. It is a UK wide anonymous survey with university researchers from all disciplines - people do not have to be interested in climate change or work in this subject area to take part. The survey is open to any academics in the university who have engaged in research in the last three years. The survey should take approx. 13 minutes to complete, is anonymous, and as an incentive there is the opportunity for participants to win a £100 voucher. If you would like to take part, click here to view Briony's survey. 

Call for Survey Participants - Reuse of historic buildings

My name is Yuliia Shamne and I study a Master's in Conservation of Historic Buildings at the University of York. Currently, I am working on my Dissertation: “A second life for Ruins: Approaches for adaptive reuse of Historic Buildings”, and I am seeking non-archaeology researchers to take a short survey to support my paper. The purpose is to understand people's attitudes to such an approach to demonstrate the applicability based on the community viewpoint. My methodology focuses on communal value and significance of social involvement, as it is one of the bases of a future sustainable conservation practice of historic buildings. If you would like to take part, click here to view Yuliia's survey. You should also read this consent form and this info doc before taking part. 

• Got a query but not sure who to email? Click here for the full Departmental Who's Who, including email addresses. 

• Click here for our Useful Links Page with details on purchasing, Annual Leave, COVID-19 procedures amongst other things. 

Please continue to drop your items into the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. 

If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual. 

Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!

Thanks Team!

Afternoon everyone 👋 We've got lots of headline acts under Important Information this week so take note, and there's a range of interesting topics to be covered in our Dept Staff Meeting next Wednesday.

Have a lovely weekend when it swings around 🌞

Chloe Mitchell - PA to EGLT

Reminder to Book Annual Leave 

As we are nearing the end of this academic year, please remember to book all your annual leave in FlexiLeave. We are no longer using MyView, so please do not try to log any leave in there, and make sure you have recorded all your leave days in FlexiLeave instead. 
You can find guidance to using FlexiLeave here:

• Flexileave User Documentation
• Flexileave Manager Documentation

The annual leave calendar runs from October - September, so please make sure you have taken all your leave by the end of September 2022. You can carry over a maximum of five days (or part-time equivalent) into the next leave year. You can find further guidance on the HR annual leave web pages. If you have any questions, or think anything on your FlexiLeave account is incorrect, please email Lucy at environment-hr@york.ac.uk.

Message from Matthew Badham - Department Manager

Due to the exceptionally hot weather next Monday and Tuesday the Student Services Office / Departmental Reception (ENV/001) will only be open between 8.30-12.30.  The team will then continue to work from home for the rest of the afternoon and will be available for queries via email / telephone.  Usual service will resume on Wednesday.

Message from Timetabling Services

Please note that the Autumn timetable was released to continuing students yesterday and is now viewable via  https://timetable.york.ac.uk/.  Any student queries should be directed to timetabling@york.ac.uk.

New CMS training module: Introduction to content design

A new module will soon be introduced to the Web CMS training, which will be required for any new users going forward. This module takes you through the basics of content design, covering best practice in writing, how to select and prepare images, and an introduction to accessibility in the context of the Web CMS. This new module will be available at the start of August. While not required for current users, you may find it useful to work through - it should take no more than 30 minutes to complete. If you’d like to be notified once the new module is up and running, register your interest in the CMS training and you will be contacted when it’s available.

July Graduation Ceremony - Tuesday 19th July

For those planning to attend the Environment and Geography July Graduation ceremony and reception this Tuesday 19th July the details are as follows:

• Anytime up to 12:45 - Go to Berrick Saul building to collect gown, ticket and drink voucher (if you have registered for these)
• 13:30 - Central Hall for ceremony
• 15:00 - Exhibition Centre for reception

Next Dept Staff Meeting

The next monthly Department Staff Meeting will be held this coming Wednesday 20th July, 10:05-10:55. If you missed the invite, please email Chloe Mitchell at environment-pa@york.ac.uk. Attendance at Dept Staff Meetings is mandatory for all DEG staff (not SEI) to attend so please ensure that you accept or decline, and remember to send apologies to Chloe. An SEI representative is chosen internally to attend each month, but anyone from SEI is of course welcome to attend should they wish. 

The Agenda for the meeting includes:

• Update from Employability Team (Angela Purdham / Brett Sallach)
• Update on the Empower Survey (Prof. Christina van der Feltz-Cornelis)
• Update from the VLE Transformation Team (Gareth Walker / Lou Stringer)

From Peat to Paddling - Half day conference

This half day conference comprises speakers from UCL, the Environmental Agency and Yorkshire Peat Partnership amongst others and aims to focus on the challenges and complexities of river health taking the River Wharfe as its subject. It is organised by the environmental campaigning charity, Friends of the Dales. It is FREE to attend and there is also a travel bursary of £25 for all 16-25 year olds. Click here for more info on From Peat to Paddling. 

Date / time: Saturday 24 September / 13:00-17:00

Location: The Devonshire Institute, Grassington, BD23 5AZ

Congratulations to Colin Courtney Mustaphi who has had:

• a new paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science entitled: ‘Late Pleistocene montane forest fire return interval estimates from Mount Kenya’, co authored by Stephen Rucina and Rob Marchant. 
• a new paper published in Tanzania Journal of Science entitled: ‘Charcoal Whirlwinds and Post-Fire Observations in Serengeti National Park Savannahs’, co authored by Hannah Vos, Colin Beale and Rob Marchant. 

Congratulations to Jessica Thorn who has had a new paper published in Nature Data Science entitled: ‘The African Development Corridors Database: a new tool to assess the impacts of infrastructure investments’ co authored by Diego Juffe Bignoli, Ben Mwangi, Jonathan Hobbs and Rob Marchant.

Congratulations to Jessica Omukuti who has had a new paper published in Climate Policy entitled: ‘The Green Climate Fund and its Shortcomings in Local Delivery of Adaptation Finance’, co authored by Rob Marchant and Piran White. 

Claire Hughes recently:

• ran a workshop at the Advance HE conference in Newcastle on 'Developing Academic Careers in Teaching and Scholarship: Mentoring and Managing', alongside Paul Bishop and Sally Quinn from the Psychology Department.
• was asked to present on ESAY teaching initiatives to Tim Bradhaw (CEO Russell Group) during his visit to York on 8th July. 

 Rob Marchant recently:

• ran an Ice memories exhibit at Brighton Festival with Emma Critchley
• took part in a scenario workshop looking into the futures of the Okavango Delta
• ran a session at the Sustainability Research Innovation Congress, Pretoria South Africa, exploring scenario approaches in Africa with along with Jessica Thorn, Rebecca Kariuki and Claudia Capitani
• submitted a proposal to the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship for Oliver Wilson on the 3D pollen project
• has had a new PhD researcher, Pattrawut Pusingha, who is examing: Land use change and land use futures in northern Thailand
• has had a new PhD researcher, Evans Sitati, who is examing: Land use change and conservation futures in the Maasai Mara, Kenya.

Update from Jasper Kenter: The IPBES Values Assessment has been published after 4 years of work and review of more than 13,000 sources. The assessment’s key message is that sustainability demands strong shifts in values, away from materialism, GDP growth and short-term profit and towards sustainability-aligned values anchored in equity, community and respect for nature. The message was echoed widely across international the media, including in the Guardian, BBC and Reuters. It also provides guidelines for interdisciplinary valuation of nature, covering over 50 valuation methods, and has been adopted by 139 governments across the world, including the USA, EU, India, China and Russia. The guidelines are likely to be reflected in the negotiations at December’s U.N. conference on biodiversity in Montreal. Jasper Kenter (former Reader and now Honorary Fellow) was Lead Author for Chapter 2 and contributing author for Chapters 1 and 4, and lead work on a new framework now adopted by IPBES, the Life Framework, which articulates values of nature across four basic perspectives: living from, in, with and as nature. A huge shout out to former DEG masters students, Jordan Blanchard-Lafayette, Harry Cross and James Reeves, and RA Seb O’Connor, who were recognised as Contributing Authors for Chapter 2, for their indispensable role in analysing the systematic review datasets underpinning the Life Framework, with Harry and James having screened over 7000 sources and Jordan analysing over 120 local knowledge interviews.

Call for Interview Participants - Experiences of online teaching during COVID-19

We would like to invite you to take part in an interview in the form of a guided conversation regarding your experiences of online teaching in the department during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. All outputs from the interviews will only use anonymised versions of the data. We are looking to interview academic, professional service and technical staff as well as GTAs. The interview will likely last around 30 minutes, depending on your availability,  at a time and place convenient for you (we expect most interviews to be held online). With your permission, we will audio record the interview so we can analyse it in-depth at a later date. The interview is voluntary and you have the right to withdraw without any penalty at any time.

For more information about this project, please read see the attached GDPR Privacy Notice and Consent Form. If you are interested in taking part we will send you individual copies of both of these forms.  If you would like to take part or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact the project lead, Dr Liz Hurrell: liz.hurrell@york.ac.uk 

Dr Liz Hurrell and EDI SPIG team

MPs Seek your Suggestions for New Science and Technology Inquiry

The Commons Science and Technology Committee has today launched an open call for potential topics of inquiry in the areas of science and technology. 'My Science Inquiry' invites proposals on what the Committee should investigate next and why, including what action is needed from the Government. Up to 10 individuals will then be invited to pitch their proposal to MPs on the Committee in a public session. The winning proposal will form the basis of a new inquiry by the Committee. The Committee invites written submissions of no more than 200 words. Submissions should outline the nature of the issue to be explored. It must fall within the Committee’s remit―you can find out more about the Committee and its role here. Submissions will be considered based on merit and should address: Why the Science and Technology Committee should examine this area, Why is this the right time for the Committee to examine the area; Why this area would benefit from parliamentary scrutiny; Why the Government needs to act in this area; and How Government policy in this area could be developed or improved.

Deadline: Friday 9th September

• Got a query but not sure who to email? Click here for the full Departmental Who's Who, including email addresses. 

• Click here for our Useful Links Page with details on purchasing, Annual Leave, COVID-19 procedures amongst other things. 

Please continue to drop your items into the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. 

If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual. 

Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!

Thanks Team!

Happy Friday folks! ☀️ Before you clock off for this balmy weekend ahead, have a browse of the goings on in this week's newsletter. It is bursting with Good News, research opportunities and general joy so not one to miss 👍

Enjoy the weekend 🥳

Chloe Mitchell - PA to EGLT

Request for all to work from home - Tuesday 6th December 2022

Estates have notified the Department that there will be an unavoidable power supply interruption to the Environment Building to allow for essential maintenance of the Wentworth HV substation. This will involve all power being cut to the building and therefore the building will be closed to all staff and students on the day.  The date of the closure is Tuesday 6th December 2022 (week 11). We would ask all of you to work from home for that day. Also, please ensure that you do not schedule any events which require use of the Environment Building on that day. This work forms part of the statutory HV maintenance and occurs every 6 years. Power will also be cut to all of Wentworth. Biology and the Palaeo Hub are unaffected.

We've gone cashless! - Update from DEG Finance Team

We are now a 'cashless' department in the sense that we no longer hold any petty cash.  Any miscellaneous expenses previously paid by petty cash should only happen in very exceptional circumstances and be agreed with the budget holder. Expenses would then be claimed back as a personal expense claim using the relevant receipts etc.

University Coaching Scheme - Call for coaches

The University of York Coaching Scheme is seeking both any qualified coaches who would like to join the coaching pool and also anyone without qualifications who would like to undergo training and then qualify to be a coach. They are especially looking for academics and middle/senior staff but open to others as well. Please read this Coaching Recruitment doc for further information.

Next Dept Staff Meeting

The next monthly Department Staff Meeting will be held on Wednesday 20th July, 10:05-10:55. If you missed the invite, please email Chloe Mitchell at environment-pa@york.ac.uk. Attendance at Dept Staff Meetings is mandatory for all DEG staff (not SEI) to attend so please ensure that you accept or decline, and remember to send apologies to Chloe. An SEI representative is chosen internally to attend each month, but anyone from SEI is of course welcome to attend should they wish. 

Thus far on the draft agenda we have:

• Update from Employability Team (Angela Purdham / Brett Sallach)
• Update from the VLE Transformation Team
• Update on the Empower Survey (Prof. Christina van der Feltz-Cornelis)

Emergencies, Wellbeing and Social Justice in the Anthropocene - Workshop / Recording

Climate change and biodiversity loss are framed increasingly as ‘crises’ or ‘emergencies’. Yet action on them seems far from urgent. Drawing on the knowledge and experience from Brazil and the UK, this workshop will explore the implications of ‘emergency’ framing for addressing these planetary challenges, and asks to what extent this framing is helpful in promoting sustainability and social justice. The sessions will focus on: Epistemological perspectives Empirical experiences Future scenarios Find out more about the 3 sessions and the panelists.

Location: Registration for the event itself (to be held on 13th July) has now ended, however a recording will be available on the IGDC YouTube channel a couple of days afterwards.

Risk, Uncertainty and Global Health Crises - Seminar

The 21st century has been marked by overlapping global crises, including the climate emergency, threats to food security, and several epidemic/pandemic outbreaks. These crises have long-term effects, interacting with other social, political and environmental disruptions to amplify vulnerability. In this seminar, these crises are approached as the materialization of emerging systemic risks – as phenomena stemming from modernization - which are associated with threats to human health, nature, beliefs, social institutions, economics, and cultural practices. Drawing from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, we will discuss the factors which have constituted what is considered risk and how we deal with it. We will debate the extent to which risks, and their assessment and management, contribute to defining social threats, reshaping institutional relations (between state, market, science, civil society), and re-establishing hierarchies and power relations.

Sign up for the Risk, Uncertainty and Global Health Crises seminar here

Date / time: Friday 15th July / 14:30-16:00

Location: Online   

Opportunities and Challenges in the Biofuels Sector - Workshop

This face-to-face event will provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges in the biofuels sector. It is aimed at entrepreneurs, researchers, early-stage or more-established companies.

Sign up for the Biofuels workshop here.

Date / time: Wednesday 19th October / 10:00-14:00

Location: Bioeconomy Outreach Centre at the Biorenewables Development Centre in Dunnington, York

Congratulations to Bryce Stewart who is busier than a squirrel in a barrel of nuts! In recent days and weeks:

• He has had a recent paper published on Brexit and fisheries has appeared in the media again, with stories in the Express and World News 24...and again here in the Express!
• His research on Arran was highlighted in a Guardian article about the 5 new Highly Protected Marine Areas in England
• His paper on Brexit and fisheries was covered in an article in the New European.
• He gave oral evidence to House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, along the Minister Victoria Prentis, about the UK Seafood Fund.
• He was interviewed extensively for an article in DW News: How bottom trawling hurts ocean life and speeds up climate change
• He co-authored a new paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution 'A global horizon scan of issues impacting marine and coastal biodiversity conservation' 
• His new marine conservation horizon scan paper was covered in a press release by the University and a story was published in the Independent among a number of other outlets. 

Congratulations Sarah Knight, Colin McClean and Piran White for their new green/bluespace paper! The importance of ecological quality of public green and blue spaces for subjective well-being. Landscape & Urban Planning. 

Congratulation to Alison Dyke (SEI) who has:

• received £5,500 from Woodland Trust for their "Quantifying patters in urban tree canopy cover and identifying causes of urban tree loss" project
• received £10,265 from DEFRA for their "Extension to Social and Cultural Values at Risk due to Tree Pests" project

 Congratulations to Chris West for securing internal funding from UoY for £12,000 for their project on "SCP UK Policy Engagement".

 Congratulations to Johan, Chris, Eleni, Connie, Jessica, and Frances from SEI York for the award of $80,144 from UNEP for their project on "Supporting Clean Air Science and Regional Cooperation".

Congratulations to Steve Cinderby who has received £640 funding from DEFRA for his "Communicating Flood Risk and Resilience Measures" project.

Lindsay Stringer has recently:

• given a keynote talk (online) at the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (PASET-RSIF) Conference held in Ben Guerir, Morocco. Her presentation was on Building Centres of Excellence in Africa to enhance research and innovation in climate sciences. PASET is an initiative by African governments to address fundamental gaps in skills and knowledge necessary for long-term, sustained economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, with the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund supporting PhD studentships in applied sciences, engineering and technology. Click here to learn more about PASET-RSIF.
• been interviewed for the New York Times in her role as co-chair of the T7 task force on environment and climate about expectations from the G7 meeting regarding climate commitments. Lindsay's quote is at the very end. 

Karen Parkhill and Jonathan Hook ran a highly successful workshop with key stakeholders with an expertise in encouraging pro-energy behaviours and/or assisting people in fuel poverty, to explore a grant idea (using personalised storytelling films as a form of information intervention). Funds for the workshop were provided by the Department's staff development fund. 

Xun Zhou has recently:

• presented in a session on 'Surface transportation externalities: Pollution and accidents' at the 2022 International Transportation Economics Association Annual Conference held in Toulouse, France, 13-17 June.
• presented in a session on 'DEA methods' at the 17th European Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis held in Porto, Portugal, 27-29 June.

Last Thursday, Adrian Gonzalez had a great day seeing the PGCE Geography trainees from the University of York teach a suite of sustainability lessons to Year 7 students at Archbishop Holgate School. This was the culmination of work that he has been undertaking with them since the start of the year on sustainability education in schools. The feedback from the PGCE trainees and the Year 7 students on the day was overwhelmingly positive. Huge thanks to colleagues from the Department of Education, University of York for helping make the day and the wider project such a success. The aim is to now expand this to other schools and disciplines this forthcoming AY.

Survey on Single Use Plastic on Campus - Call for respondents

Lea Michalicova, a student of Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management, is carrying out a placement dissertation project with University of York Estates which aims to understand how in a campus university context single-use plastic waste could be prevented. As part of this project, she is conducting a digital survey to investigate student and staff attitudes towards single-use plastic waste prevention on the campus. If you would like to help Lea out and do your good deed for the day, please click here to complete her single-use plastic survey. The survey takes between 5 - 8 minutes to complete and it is completely voluntary and anonymous, no personal data is collected and participants cannot be identified by their answers. Send any questions to Lea via email: lm2032@york.ac.uk

YRD (PURE Portal) Replacement Project

A project is ongoing to update the publicly accessible view of PURE data - the York Research Database (YRD), aka the PURE Portal - with a ‘like for like’ replacement from the same supplier and using the same PURE data. This is needed because the existing YRD will cease to be supported by the supplier by December 2022. Both the existing YRD interface and its replacement are supplied by Elsevier. We are working closely with them to ensure that there will be no interruption in service for existing users. Please note that PURE itself is NOT changing, just the public view of data held in PURE that is accessed via the YRD web pages. The go-live date for the new version of the YRD is Monday 1 August 2022. If you are an existing user of PURE, there are no actions required at this time, but the launch of the new version of YRD is a good opportunity to check your PURE profile data for accuracy and completeness.

New Guidance on Export Controls

Export controls are a series of measures imposed by the UK Government to regulate the movement of controlled goods, software, and technology through licenses and restrictions for reasons of national and international security. They may apply to academic research if it involves transferring certain controlled items or information to other countries, including accessing your own research while abroad. In some cases, export control legislation applies when moving items or information between individuals in the UK. The Policy, Integrity, and Performance team (PIP) has produced a guidance webpage to inform staff and postgraduate research students about UK export control legislation, and to support them in identifying whether their research or activities require compliance with control measures. Anyone with concerns about how export control legislation may apply to their research or University activities should consult the Export Controls webpage in the first instance and then contact PIP for guidance.

Call for Interview Participants - Experiences of online teaching during COVID-19

We would like to invite you to take part in an interview in the form of a guided conversation regarding your experiences of online teaching in the department during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. All outputs from the interviews will only use anonymised versions of the data. We are looking to interview academic, professional service and technical staff as well as GTAs. The interview will likely last around 30 minutes, depending on your availability,  at a time and place convenient for you (we expect most interviews to be held online). With your permission, we will audio record the interview so we can analyse it in-depth at a later date. The interview is voluntary and you have the right to withdraw without any penalty at any time.

For more information about this project, please read see the attached GDPR Privacy Notice and Consent Form. If you are interested in taking part we will send you individual copies of both of these forms.  If you would like to take part or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact the project lead, Dr Liz Hurrell: liz.hurrell@york.ac.uk 

Dr Liz Hurrell and EDI SPIG team

UK Seafood Fund - Next round opens 1st August

The Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme, part of the £100m UK Seafood Fund, will open its next round on 1 August. The UK Seafood Fund has been extended to 2025 so applicants will be able to apply for funding for two-year projects with a maximum value of £1 million (or £500,000 per year). We will also retain a separate opportunity to bid for projects up to £150k, as has been offered in both previous rounds We have also expanded our list of eligible research projects to include research on wider factors which impact fish stocks, such as offshore wind farms and climate change. For further details on the scheme, please visit the UK Seafood Fund webpage. 

FISP Team - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

• Got a query but not sure who to email? Click here for the full Departmental Who's Who, including email addresses. 

• Click here for our Useful Links Page with details on purchasing, Annual Leave, COVID-19 procedures amongst other things. 

Please continue to drop your items into the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. 

If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual. 

Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!

Thanks Team!

Afternoon one and all ☂️ There has been a colossal Good News build up so get yourself a comfy seat and the date for the next Dept Staff Meeting is out. Have a wonderful weekend when it comes around

Chloe Mitchell - PA to EGLT

Next Dept Staff Meeting

The next monthly Department Staff Meeting will be held on Wednesday 20th July, 10:05-10:55. If you missed the invite or if you have an agenda item to put forwards, please email Chloe Mitchell at environment-pa@york.ac.uk. Attendance at Dept Staff Meetings is mandatory for all DEG staff (not SEI) to attend so please ensure that you accept or decline, and remember to send apologies to Chloe. An SEI representative is chosen internally to attend each month, but anyone from SEI is of course welcome to attend should they wish. 

Booking Travel and Accommodation - Set up your Selective account now

If you need to book travel and/or accommodation for an upcoming trip, please ensure that you are registered on Selective Travel in advance. An email was sent around from Dave Hay in February with information on setting up an account, as well as instructions on what to do if you previously had a Selective account. You can find this information is also on our Wiki. If you are setting up an account, this will need to be approved to give you access (see instructions below) so please do not leave setting up your account until the last minute. 

For new users who wish to register to use the online booking tools

1. Go to: https://york.selective-travel.com/ and click on 'Login'
2. Enter your University of York login details and authenticate via Duo 2FA  
3. You will enter the Selective 'Hub'.  
4. You will be directed to complete a User Profile.  Mandatory fields are marked with an * (Name, Email Address, Date of Birth, Nationality, Department, Contact Number for emergencies).  Please tick the box to confirm all details are correct at the end and 'Save'
5. Once you've done this, please email Dave Hay (dave.hay@york.ac.uk) to request access to the online booking tool. You will not have access to the tool by default - we need to check you are authorised to book travel against a university workorder.
6. Once Dave approves that you are allowed to book travel, they will forward your request for access to business-travel@york.ac.uk 
7. The Business Travel team will grant you access to the tool and confirm this has been done.
8. You will then be able to login to the Selective Hub and click on the 'Online Booking Tool' or 'Rail' tile to make online bookings.

SEI-Y Newsletter

SEI York are launching their new bi-monthly newsletter this month to share the latest research from the SEI York centre. You can subscribe using this link: Subscribe here. If you know anyone who would be interested in this, please forward the link on.

Dept Staff Meeting (July)

Date: Wednesday 20th July

Time: 10:05-10:55

Location: Zoom (see your Google calendar for details)

Click here to watch the recording of the June meeting where the Ukraine partnership was discussed (break out sessions not recorded). 

DEG 30th Birthday Bash!

A BIG thank you to everyone who helped to organise the event and to all of you who came. It was a lovely afternoon with good weather, good music, good food and GREAT people! Thanks to Bryce for collating some snaps from the event and please do add in any more to the folder if you have some goodens. 

Collaborative Summer Writing Retreats - For PGRs

Do you have a deadline coming up or a piece of writing that’s long overdue? Or maybe some data analysis that just keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list? Alongside everything else that needs to fit in with our busy research lives, it can be hard to schedule devoted time in which to sit, think, and write. The York Graduate Research School's online retreats give you time, peace, and space to fend off procrastination and beat writer’s block. Each session will provide a friendly and constructive environment in which to meet like-minded peers, discuss challenges and work in a focused way using the established Pomodoro technique. The University of York is hosting the first session, followed by sessions held by our colleagues in other universities. For more information on Collaborative Summer Writing Retreats, go to the YGRS Blog. 

Congratulations to Dave Shaw who is newly married to Dr Sarah Wilson (see delightful photo below), and as a first step to financial security he has also just been awarded a York Open Research Award for his efforts on the open source indoor air chemistry model (INCHEM-Py).

Congratulations to Ruochan Ma who passed her Viva with 'minor minor' corrections on 9th June. A big thank you to the examiners Vincent Gauci and Kelly Redeker!

Congratulations Sarah Knight and Graham Rush, winners of the KM Stott prize for excellence in research. Sarah and Graham are the latest postgraduates to be awarded our KM Stott prize for excellence in research. This award is made every 6 months on the basis of staff nominations to particularly excellent PhD students and theses. Sarah's thesis was “Measuring the relationship between the natural environment and subjective well-being” and was described as "an excellent example of bringing together datasets from social science, health science and physical science/ecology to understand the linkages between “nature” and human well-being." with Sarah being "one of the most experienced researchers using these data combinations in the UK." Graham's thesis was "Rapid sea-level rise and climate change: lessons from the early Holocene." and showed "not only a depth of understanding in the field, but an excellent level of criticality" from a "high calibre candidate who is able to communicate with authority on his field of research." Congratulations to them both!

Congratulations to Marco Sakai who has co-authored a Policy Forum article in Science about how trade policy can support the climate agenda. 

Congratulations to Debs Sharpe who was awarded Winner of the Unsung Hero YUSU Award. Whilst Debs is officially the Teaching Lab Technician, she does a whole lot more than that, in particular fostering brilliant supportive links with our project students, both in the labs and in the field. She is a welcome face on our taught field trips also, not just for technical and first aid support, but lending a pastoral ear to students away from home who sometimes just need someone to talk to. This part of the role often gets missed but plays a big part in the student experience, so well done Debs and keep up the good work.

Congratulations to Alejandra Bouzas-Monroy whose paper has been published: Assessment of the Potential Ecotoxicological Effects of Pharmaceuticals in the World's Rivers The paper has been covered by at least 15 news outlets including Forbes, Newsweek and the New York Post.

Congratulations to Sarah Knight who has received £5,000 from ESRC for the project 'Green and Gender-just Cities: exploring the relationship between gender inequalities and urban natural environments', in collaboration with Arup Ltd.

Congratulations to Sarah Bridle for winning an APEX Award from the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, to work with Aled Jones (Anglia Ruskin Univ) on how to feed the UK amid catastrophic food system disruption. The project will investigate how UK access to food could be severely disrupted by global crises including extreme weather, political unrest, transport breakdown and cybersecurity.

Congratulations to the whole Technical Team, but Rebecca Sutton in particular, for coordinating the Green Impact work in the laboratories. We have been awarded the Gold standard in the NUS Green Impact awards for the last 12 month period. I'm sure you will agree that as a Department with sustainability at our heart, this is pretty important to us and to our students. So, once again, congratulations to Debs, Rebecca, Luke, Matt, Mike and Caroline for all of their efforts. 

Andreas Heinemeyer participated in a 2-day Uplands Management Workshop chaired by Defra minister Richard Benyon on heather-dominated peatland management and wildfire risk in the Peak District National Park with all major stakeholders. He presented findings from the Defra-initiated Peatland-ES-UK project and met two Defra ministers (R Benyon and Victoria Prentis) to discuss further evidence needs. 

Bryce Stewart co-organised and ran a hybrid workshop in DEG called "Blue foods - localism versus globalism" with colleagues from the University of Hull. In total it was attended by ~ 30 people from around the world including, academics, environmental groups, seafood processors, seafood retailers and fishing industry representatives. 

Sarah Knight was selected to attend a Belmont Forum scoping workshop titled 'Unlocking the Potential of Urban Green and Blue Spaces' on behalf of UKRI. The workshop was attended by ~40 people, and was one of three meetings aimed at bringing together members of the international research and innovation communities to explore and identify research priorities in advance of a potential Collaborative Research Action (CRA).

Chris West, Jonathan Green and Simon Croft have had a feature page published on "Supporting Swedish sustainability goals with new methods and indicators for consumption". As part of the PRINCE (policy-relevant indicators fo r national consumption and environment) project, the team has scoped out the data and methods required to develop indicators that extend beyond greenhouse gases.

A video about the scallop potting with lights paper that Bryce Stewart recently co-authored (AKA 'Scallop Disco) was featured by IFL Science on Facebook and Twitter and has been viewed over 200 hundred thousand times!

Josh Kirshner has co-authored a review article that has been accepted for publication in Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment Rahman, S., Kirshner, J., Groh, S. and Rahman, S. (In Press) entitled: A review of the energy-employment nexus in Bangladesh: Rural-urban electrification and sectoral occupation patterns. Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment 41, doi: 10.13052/spee1048-5236.4134

Bryce Stewart was invited to speak in the Houses of Parliament on World Ocean Day at an event organised by the Wildlife and Countryside Link and Surfers Against Sewage. 

Lindsay Stringer has co-authored a paper that came out recently in Nature Communications: Meeting Sustainable Development Goals via Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Nature Communications 13, 3559. The University also issued a related press release.

Josh Kirshner presented in a panel on ‘Energy colonialism: Roots, racialization, recurrent patterns,’ hosted by the colonial-postcolonial-decolonial working group at the British International Studies Association (BISA) 2022 conference - held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, June 15-17th.

Bryce Stewart was interviewed live on BBC News 24 TV about a new project aiming to map 30% of the world's seafloor by 2030.

Lauren Rawlins is undertaking an ACCE DTP placement at the University of Calgary in the Applied Geospatial Research Group (https://www.appliedgrg.ca/) for one month (June-July) with Dr Ellie Bash and Prof. Greg McDermid primarily working on UAV surveying and workflows in a number of different environments, including at Cardinal Divide, Jasper National Park and Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield.

Andreas Heinemeyer participated in a 1-day workshop in the Peak District National Park organised by the Moors for the Futures Partnership on peatland management.

Ed Garrett chaired a session on "Geological Records of Tsunamis and Other Extreme Waves" at the European Geosciences Union conference.

Alex Jardine has had a paper published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science concerning sedimentological evidence of coastal storms in Carmarthen Bay, Wales. 

From Dave Rippin's Leverhulme project, Mike Cooper has had a paper published: "Unravelling the long-term, locally-heterogenous response of Greenland glaciers observed in archival photography". The Cryosphere, 16, 2449-2470. From the same project, Will Smith (Comp Sci) has also had a paper published:"ArchivalSfM: Structure-from-motion with varying principal point".

Photo: Dave Shaw and Sarah Wilson's wedding

University Research Priming Strategic Capital funding now available

Funds are now available from the University Research Priming fund for the purchase of strategically important capital assets (e.g. equipment or non-equipment items such as large databases.) Applications are invited for assets valued between £20,000 and £200,000. Please visit the Internally-distributed funding website for more information.

Deadline for applications: Noon, Friday 8 July 2022

• Got a query but not sure who to email? Click here for the full Departmental Who's Who, including email addresses. 

• Click here for our Useful Links Page with details on purchasing, Annual Leave, COVID-19 procedures amongst other things. 

Please continue to drop your items into the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. 

If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual. 

Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!

Thanks Team!