Good morning all. Lots of research-related news this week 🔬
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend 😎
Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT
Top Tip 💡
📧 Writing emails to the all staff group (environment-staff-group@york.ac.uk)
Writing an email to the all staff group (environment-staff-group@york.ac.uk) ?
Please consider these few things before sending:
- Does this need to be a separate email? Messages of congratulations or updates that are not urgent should be added to the newsletter to avoid email traffic.
- Can you narrow down who you are sending the email to? Check the list of all our group email addresses to see if there's a better email to use.
- Remember to BCC group email addresses. This helps prevent email responses being sent to everyone.
Please do your bit to prevent unnecessary email traffic. Thank you 😊
Ten days (pro-rata) of annual leave permitted to be carried over to 2023/24
A reminder that HR have recently announced the following:
The University's Annual Leave Policy allows for carry over of up to five annual leave days. We appreciate that this year, for various reasons, some colleagues have found it challenging to take all of their annual leave. Therefore, for this year only, you will be able to carry forward up to ten annual leave days (pro-rated for part-time staff).
For those with an October to September holiday entitlement, you can choose to carry up to ten days into the 2023/24 leave year that commences on 1 October 2023. Any carry over should be taken by 31 December 2023.
On this occasion, carry forward can be done without seeking the authorisation of your line manager / Head of Department.
Mature trees to be cut down on York Road 🌳
Barry Volans has recently phoned in telling us about his disappointment over a plan to cut down some mature trees close to where he lives on York Road in relation to planning permission.
He wondered whether anyone in our department would be willing to get involved to help stop the felling of the trees?
Anyone who feels strongly about this news is welcome to get in touch with Barry at barry245volans@gmail.com.
Plant-Based Universities Open Letter
Claire Sheldon (English and Related Literature student and campaigner of the student-led Plant-based Universities campaign which is now active at over 50 universities in the UK) invites you to sign the recently created Plant Based Universities Open Letter. It currently stands at over 400 signatures from academics across the globe.
Plant-based Universities began in late 2021, calling on universities to transition to 100% just and sustainable plant-based catering in order to tackle the climate and nature crises. Since its inception, this student-led campaign has achieved landmark votes for fully plant-based catering transitions at 7 UK universities, in Stirling, Cambridge, London, and Birmingham, with our most recent success being the UCL Student Union committing to 60% plant-based catering by 2024-5 with 10% increases year on year thereafter until fully plant-based. We expect to grow to 100 campaigns at the beginning of the 2023-24 academic year.
We are trying to pull together many academics and notable figures, both within and without academia, to sign the above open letter endorsing the Plant Based Universities campaign. This will be used for media release and as a powerful lobbying tool for University Vice-Chancellors, Catering Managers, and Student Union Presidents across the UK. The letter will be made public on 4th September, as the 2023-24 academic year begins.
If you would like to sign this open letter, please email your name, title/s and role to info@plantbaseduniversities.org.
BES Aquatic Group Annual Meeting
The BES Aquatic Group annual meeting will be held at the University of Lancaster on September 18th & 19th.
More information on the BES Aquatic group meeting can be found here.
- Felicia Liu's new interim report "Green FinTech and Data Centres in Singapore" has been published by the Singapore Green Finance Centre. The report seeks to communicate the preliminary findings of her project investigating the 'greenness' of the emerging green fintech sector in Southeast Asia, and will be shared primarily with industry, finance, and policy stakeholders in the data centre sector in Singapore.
Tabitha Kabora gave a talk titled "The Dream of Rewilding-Archaeological Evidence for Anthropocene Futures" at the 31st International Congress for the Conservation of Biology (ICCB 2023) in July as part of the Leverhulme Centre-led symposium titled 'Rewilding for Anthropocene' chaired by Dr Hanna Pettersson.
Bryce Stewart helped with and was quoted in an article in Bloomberg UK about the after effects of Brexit on UK fisheries. In addition, research led by Bryce was featured in an article on Brexit and Fisheries in EU Today.
Sarah Bridle was interviewed for the podcast, 'Mum, Will the Planet Die Before I Do?' about the impact of food on climate change and how better food choices can bring about change.
Apichaya Englong and Rob Marchant co-authored a paper published in the journal Quaternary titled High-Resolution Multiproxy Record of Environmental Changes and Anthropogenic Activities at Unguja Ukuu, of Environmental Changes and Anthropogenic Activities at Unguja Ukuu.
Andriannah Mbandi (recent SEI PhD student), Chris Malley (SEI), Dieter Schwela, Harry Vallack, Lisa Emberson and Mike Ashmore (SEI-affiliates), have a new publication in Energy Strategy Reviews on road transport emission policies in Kenya.
Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏
Worktribe Unavailable on 04 September
Worktribe will be unavailable from the evening of Sunday 3rd September and on Monday 4th September due to the Resourcelink upgrade.
Worktribe will be made available as soon as possible after the upgrade has been completed and that it has been checked that the integrations are working.
If you have any concerns regarding this downtime, please contact Research Support (environment-research@york.ac.uk)
Tackling Climate Change with the Social Sciences Workshop
The Faculty of Social Sciences, in collaboration with the York Environmental Sustainability Institute and the Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre are hosting a workshop ' Tackling Climate Change with the Social Sciences' on Monday 25th September 2-5pm in SLB004.
This workshop will bring together researchers working in social science fields from across the University of York to meet colleagues with complementary research interests, make new connections, and share their research interests and ideas, with a view to developing research project ideas driven by social science approaches, methods, and research questions.
Please register for the event via the Eventbrite page.
Upcoming Training / Opportunities with TYPE
The York Policy Engine is launching three new initiatives aimed at enhancing internal capability to participate in York's policy landscape. Below, you'll find a list of our offerings, along with the intended target audience for each initiative, application deadline and a one-page promotional document outlining the opportunity and application process (linked in the document).
Research Evidence Synthesis Training: For Early Career Researchers: Deadline 29th August (this call is already live)
The York Policy Associate Scheme: For PhD Student: Deadline 14th September
The York Policy Academy: For All Staff, All Career Stages interested in policy engagement as part of their work: Deadline 12th October
Every initiative targets a particular path and category of staff, and our goal is to make sure each opportunity reaches all the appropriate and potentially interested candidates. You can also view the opportunities on our website.
For any queries please contact katie.heffron@york.ac.uk.
NERC Independent Research Fellowships
NERC's Independent Research Fellowships (IRF) 2023 are now open for applications. The IRF scheme is aimed at early career researchers wishing to carry out independent research in any area of NERC's remit.
This Fellowship covers 5 years FTE, funded at 80% fEC. You may apply for funding for facilities costs and cruise costs, but NERC will not fund studentships.
If you know of a researcher who might be interested in submitting an application, please advise them to contact Research Support (environment-research@york.ac.uk) as soon as possible.
Applications for the IRF must be submitted on UKRI's new Funding Service (TFS), rather than Je-S and the deadline for applications is 8 November.
We also strongly advise that ECRs are supported by a mentor throughout the application process and the fellowship itself.
For more details of the process, see the section on 'How to apply' on the IRF call webpage.
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 10:00 next Friday.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂
Good morning all, and happy Friday! Lots of Important Info this week ℹ️
Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT
Top Tip 💡
Syncing your My Timetable with your Google calendar
To ensure that all of the correct timetabled events and meetings are showing in your Google calendar, you need to check that the My Timetable programme has been synced with your Google calendar.
To do this, you need to take the following steps (which only take a couple of minutes):
- Open up My Timetable
- On the right-handside, near the top, you will see these three buttons:
- Click the one with two arrows to "Connect calendar"
- A drop down menu will appear
- Under the "University of York" bar, click the "Google calendar" option
- You will then be guided through the process to sync your My Timetable with your Google calendar
- If you have problems syncing your calendars, email Nadine Hodson at timetabling@york.ac.uk.
Ten days (pro rata) of annual leave permitted to be carried over to 2023/24
HR have just announced the following:
The University's Annual Leave Policy allows for carry over of up to five annual leave days. We appreciate that this year, for various reasons, some colleagues have found it challenging to take all of their annual leave. Therefore, for this year only, you will be able to carry forward up to ten annual leave days (pro-rated for part-time staff).
For those with an October to September holiday entitlement, you can choose to carry up to ten days into the 2023/24 leave year that commences on 1 October 2023. Any carry over should be taken by 31 December 2023.
On this occasion, carry forward can be done without seeking the authorisation of your line manager / Head of Department.
Introducing two new family friendly policies
Two new policies came into effect from 1 August 2023. These enhancements both form part of our family friendly policies initiative, bought about from the Athena Swan Action Plan.
Family Support Leave Policy
Whilst there are still four different types of parental leave (maternity, adoption, shared and paternity / partner leave) these have now been pulled together under the banner of the Family Support Leave Policy. This is to help prospective parents to find things more easily in one place.
Under the new policy:
all colleagues eligible for paternity/partner leave will now be entitled to two weeks of paid leave, instead of one.
we have removed the length of service qualification criteria in respect of the occupational pay elements for the maternity, adoption and paternity leave schemes. (Note that, due to the complexity of the statutory framework, there are different arrangements in respect of the Shared Parental Leave scheme).
In line with the University’s commitment to equality and diversity we have also revised the policy to use gender-neutral language in celebration of all individuals who are taking their journey into parenthood.
University Carers’ Fund
Juggling development and career progression opportunities with family commitments can be challenging. The University’s Athena Swan action plan flagged the need for further support in this area and as a result we are happy to announce the new University Carers’ Fund. This fund allows employees to claim back the caring costs incurred when attending work related training outside their normal working hours. Click here to find out more information.
Outbound Register of External Examiners - Deadline 22 Sept
If you are, or have recently stopped being, an external examiner on a UG or PGT degree, please complete this outbound register of external examiners by Friday 22 September.
This register includes York academics acting as External Examiners elsewhere (“outbound” external examiners). It is designed, and monitored, to ensure that nominations for new external examiners adhere to sector-wide expectations (articulated in the Quality Code for Higher Education, QAA) regarding potential conflicts of interest.
Please note that some of the columns on the Department/ School tabs are pulled through to a main register, so these should not include personal comments or sensitive information.
If you have any difficulty accessing this spreadsheet, or if you have any questions, please do contact us at examiners@york.ac.uk
Online questionnaire on behalf of MSc Student
A current Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management student is currently completing their final dissertation. The aim of this project is to utilise consumer insights to identify suggestions for furthering the sustainable transition within the fashion industry.
They would be grateful if you could spare 10 minutes to complete this online questionnaire to assist this research.
All responses are anonymous and further information is provided on the questionnaire. This form will close for responses on Monday 21st August.
BES Aquatic Group annual meeting
The BES Aquatic Group annual meeting will be held at the University of Lancaster on September 18th & 19th.
More information on the BES Aquatic group meeting can be found here.
Invitation to an Interdisciplinary Conference: Exploring Clinical Applicability in Research
Hull York Medical School/University of York Student Research Society organising committee are holding an interdisciplinary conference focused on the applicability of research to clinical practice. We invite your department to participate in this event, which is scheduled to be hosted on the 7th of October, 2023.
The main objective of this conference is to foster collaboration and exchange of knowledge between different research departments, with a specific emphasis on identifying potential areas of clinical overlap. We firmly believe that such cross-disciplinary interactions can lead to groundbreaking advancements and improve patient care. The Hull York Medical School also has funding through the national INSPIRE programme to support research activities involving medical students.
Please reach out to Sean Waddington (Year 3, Department of Psychology, York) directly at sw2885@york.ac.uk for any further information or clarifications.
Upcoming Training / Opportunities with TYPE
The York Policy Engine is launching three new initiatives aimed at enhancing internal capability to participate in York's policy landscape. Below, you'll find a list of our offerings, along with the intended target audience for each initiative, application deadline and a one-page promotional document outlining the opportunity and application process (linked in the document).
Research Evidence Synthesis Training: For Early Career Researchers: Deadline 29th August (this call is already live)
The York Policy Associate Scheme: For PhD Student: Deadline 14th September
The York Policy Academy: For All Staff, All Career Stages interested in policy engagement as part of their work: Deadline 12th October
Every initiative targets a particular path and category of staff, and our goal is to make sure each opportunity reaches all the appropriate and potentially interested candidates. You can also view the opportunities on our website.
For any queries please contact katie.heffron@york.ac.uk.
- Rob Marchant and Aida Cuni Sanchez published an edited volume of 18 papers published as a Book titled Mountains Under Pressure.
- Rob Marchant taught on a Summer school for FAO on Mountian Futures - this bought 45 young professionals from around the world to northern Italy for a month-long summer school hosted by the Univeisty of Turin and FAO.
Rob Marchant and Julia Touza-Montero co-authored a paper published in the journal of Environment, Development and Sustainability on A-Z of Cost Effective Adaptation Strategies to the Impact of Climate Change among Crop Farmers in West Africa.
Rebecca Newman and Rob Marchant co-authored a paper published in the journal Population and Environment titled A people-centred framework for exploring water, energy and food security in a small developing island.
Apichaya Englong and Rob Marchant co-authored a paper published in the journal Quaternary titled High-Resolution Multiproxy Record of Environmental Changes and Anthropogenic Activities at Unguja Ukuu, of Environmental Changes and Anthropogenic Activities at Unguja Ukuu.
The late Tobias Nyumba co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature titled Diverse values of nature for sustainability.
Research led by Bryce Stewart on the Isle of Arran Marine Protected Areas continues to feature in the media with recent articles in The National and The Ferret.
Richard Friend and Pakamas Thinphanga have been involved in Op-Ed in the Bangkok Post responding to the World Bank's Thailand Economic Monitor report on the challenges of water resources and climate change.
Lindsay Stringer was a coauthor on a paper accepted for publication in Environmental Research Letters, together with colleagues from China: Ren Z, Li C, Fu B, Wang S, Zhou W, Stringer LC. 2023. Belowground soil and vegetation components change across the aridity threshold in grasslands.
Zheng Fang (and Brett Sallach and Mark Hodson) had his first paper published last week. "Ethanol, not Water, Should Be Used as the Dispersant When Measuring Microplastic Particle Size Distribution by Laser Diffraction" was published in Science of the Total Environment. Some of you will remember Zheng presenting this work at the last Postgraduate Conference. In the paper Zheng shows that if you use water, rather than ethanol, in laser granulometers when measuring the size distribution of microplastics you can significantly over-estimate their size. You can read the paper here.
The 'Great Kingdoms of Africa' event which was recorded at York festival of Ideas 2023 has been broadcast as an episode of 'Big Ideas' on ABC radio. Daryl Stump was chair/host and John Parker (SOAS) was a speaker.
Gary Haq's research on older people and climate change was featured in The Conversation.
Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏
AFN Network+ Champions
The AFN Network+ are looking for six Champions to bring their expertise from industry, academia or the public sector (or from any point in the agri-food system) to lead a series of activities and support the mission of the AFN Network+. Champions are being appointed across six themes:
- Healthy and sustainable diets
- Land productivity
- Food security and trade
- Land use and land management
- Circular food systems
- Behaviour change
Each Champion will:
- Build an inclusive community of practice across their theme and the wider AFN project;
- Synthesise ideas and thinking from across their networks to ensure inclusive input into the scenarios and plausible futures work, and the pathways and roadmapping phases of the project;
- Map the research and innovation landscape in their own and adjacent thematic areas and crucially, identify critical knowledge and activity gaps to be addressed.
Through a series of engagement activities each of the six Champions will create a network of people committed to the drive towards achieving net zero by 2050. Champions are encouraged to look for synergies across the themes and will be expected to work together.
The appointment is for 12 months from 1 January 2024 and each Champion will receive a block grant of £60K per annum funded at 80%, with a 20% match commitment from the applicant’s host organisation.
Further details available here. Closing date for applications is 23:59 on Thursday 7 September 2023.
The Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowships scheme
The Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowships scheme will open on 1 January 2024.
Taryn Bell will be running an information session for prospective applicants in October. This session wil look to cover the aims and remit of the scheme, eligibility requirements, tips for applying as well as insights from a current Leverhulme Fellow.
Details for this session are as follows:
Date: Tuesday 3 October
Time: 10:00-11:30
Location: Online (Zoom) Register to attend via Zoom.
For additional details about the aims, remit and eligibility for this scheme, please see the Leverhulme Trust website. If you have any other questions, please email fellowships@york.ac.uk.
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 10:00 next Friday.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂
Afternoon all, I hope you're making the most of the lovely sunny weather! 🌞Fingers crossed it carries on for the weekend...
Lucy Orange - Admin Manager (on behalf of Annabel, who is on leave today)
Top Tip 💡
Updating the University's Environment & Geography website
If any member of staff has an accountability as part of their job that appears on the Environment & Geography website then that member of staff is responsible for updating the relevant page/s.
To do this simply fill out this form to update the area you are responsible for on the website. Requests will be sent through to the appropriate team either in Marketing (MRAO) or Communications, who will reply to you directly.
More information can be found on the relevant Wiki page.
Do you have an idea for a 'Top Tip' in a future newsletter?
Please do send your text/wording (written out in full as you would like it to be presented in the newsletter) across to Annabel at pa-environment@york.ac.uk and she will happily include this is in a future newsletter 
DOI Creation Service
The Library has launched a service to create DOIs for University-produced resources which are published via either the University website or White Rose Research Online repository. DOIs enable links to resources to be maintained long term and facilitate citation. The service is particularly suitable for reports and other ‘grey literature’ which are not eligible to be assigned a DOI by another organisation (e.g. a publisher). For more information and to request a DOI, please visit the DOI service web page.
BES Aquatic Group annual meeting
The BES Aquatic Group annual meeting will be held at the University of Lancaster on September 18th & 19th.
More information on the BES Aquatic group meeting can be found here.
Congratulations to Lauren Rawlins who had an extremely successful viva on Monday 7th August. Internal examiner was Jon Hill, external examiner was Chris Stokes (Durham). She has the most minor of minor corrections to make. Very well done Lauren.
Congratulations to Oliver Wilson as the University of York issued a press release about Oli's new paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology: 'UK habitats to be impacted by exposure to climate change - but some more than others'
Congratulations to Sarah Bridle and Joanne Craven who gave a presentation at Transformatons 2023, at Univeresity of Technology Sydney in July: "Food system transformation: Identifying partnerships through stakeholder assessment."
Congratulations to Christopher Lyon who has been very busy with the following:
- gave a talk in July at Transformations 2023, Univeristy of Technology Sydney, titled, "Exploring the potential multi-century or longer projections of environmental change for sustainability transformations".
- participated in a one-day workshop "The Inhuman in the Human: Laws for the Anthropocene", Latrobe University Law School, Melbourne. Dr Emille Boulot, University of Tasmania, a speaker at the workshop, intends tol visit York in November to give a seminar and meet with staff and students. Details to be announced.
- gave a talk titled "Long-term futures and rewilding in the Anthropocene" as part of a larger and well-attended University of York session chaired by DEG's Dr. Hanna Pettersson, at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Kigali, Rwanda, in July.
Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who features in a new book by Kian Mau Goh entitled Research methodology in the bioscience and biotechnology, published by Springer. Lindsay's contribution is on the importance of social science research and social science approaches.
Congratulations to Jasper Kenter and Elaine Azzopardi for their research featured on BBC York Radio.
Congratulations to Alistair Boxall who was quoted in an article in the New Scientist: 'Mass fish deaths will occur more often in rivers as UK gets hotter'.
Recruitment of three IMRY Associate Directors
IMRY are seeking to appoint three Associate Directors from across the three Faculties (Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities) to join their leadership team.
This is an internal appointment for existing members of staff on a substantive Professorial post, who will be bought out at a 0.2WTE commitment for a fixed term until August 2024, with the view to a further 2-year extension. A full job description can be found below.
Colleagues are invited to submit a full CV and a 2-page statement of intent detailing their potential contribution to IMRY and how they will engage their Faculty to support IMRY’s work.
Please email your application to imry@york.ac.uk
Deadline: 31 August 2023
Interviews will likely be held mid-September.
If you have any questions, please contact Professor Lina Gega, Director of IMRY at lina.gega@york.ac.uk.
The Biodiversity Futures Initiative
The Biodiversity Futures Initiative is a non profit academic review body designed to verify claims for biodiversity gain.
We are writing to as many individuals and organisations as possible worldwide that are involved in academic research or biodiversity conservation to ask if they or any of their contacts might be interested in the paid contract positions we are advertising on the Biodiversity Futures Initiative website.
These are all part time posts but for the Core Review Team we are looking for 5- 6 people who will have regular part time contract work offered as applications are received. This team will be involved in all the applications to ensure consistency between reviews. For the Panel of Academic Experts we are looking for 50 - 70 experts worldwide with differing specialisms in ecoregions, habitats or taxa. Individuals on this Panel will be called upon much less frequently, but will be consulted when applications for their areas of expertise are received.
The deadline for the Core Review Team applications is 31 August 2023, and for the Panel of Academic Specialists, the deadline is 30 September 2023, and we're really appreciate it if you would forward this email to any of your team or collaborators that might be interested in these part time posts.
Thanks
The Biodiversity Futures Initiative Team
Call for Early Career Researchers: training to produce a Research Evidence Synthesis paper that informs policy.
The York Policy Engine (TYPE) is offering a unique opportunity to be trained in Research Evidence Synthesis. Leading evidence synthesis experts, Professor Eric Jensen and Professor Mark Reed, will provide training in specialist evidence synthesis techniques and in the production of policy briefs, supporting application of these techniques to real world policy problems.
The opportunity includes an 8 week online programme (October - December 2023), with between 1.5 to 3 hours of training per week. Policy topics will be identified by our Y-PERN (Yorkshire and Humber Policy and Engagement Research Network) partners and wider national policy contacts, who will consider the resulting briefings in their policy development. This unique opportunity for training and publication is limited to a small number of staff at the University of York.
Please see here for more information and how to apply. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 29th August.
The WUN Research Development Fund is now open
The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is a world-leading research university network, tackling global challenges through international collaboration. The Research Development Fund provides grants of up to £10,000 to foster research collaborations among academic staff members at WUN universities.
This year, the call prioritises the following areas of research:
1. Social justice and human rights; inequality
2. Sustainable world: cities and urbanization; energy transitions; water, and food security
3. Mental health; child and maternal health; ageing
4. Responsible and ethical applications of Artificial Intelligence
Please find all guidance for the call here and don't hesitate to contact Elisha (Elisha.Witcomb@york.ac.uk), York's WUN Coordinator, who can provide advice on eligibility, preparing the application, identifying collaborators in the network, and the internal review process.
Commissioned Research Opportunity
To support the building of our evidence and case to secure a participatory approach for individual policy making and/or local decision making, Poverty2Solutions is looking to commission a distinctive, original piece of research which will Identify the value and key principles associated with adopting a participatory approach to policy making.
Poverty2Solutions are seeking expressions of interest initially, and will interview shortlisted candidates. Please note that the selection process will involve people with the expertise that comes with experiences of poverty and social security receipt.
Deadline for expression of interest is Friday 15th September. Expressions of interest can be via a PPT presentation or text document.
Selection interviews will be held week commencing 25th September.
Full details of this opportunity can be requested through the Research Support team (environment-research@york.ac.uk) If you have any questions please email: traceyherrington@thrive-teesside.org.uk
Future opportunity - Stacking of nature market credits
Defra recently published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) regarding the research requirement “Stacking of nature market credits”.
The contract is estimated to be published for open competition in mid-August.
This project will seek to provide Defra with an understanding of the empirical theory and evidence on stacking in nature markets and provide insight into the impact of different stacking models on economic, environmental, and wider social outcomes.
If you are interested in making an application to this tender, please contact research support (environment-research@york.ac.uk).
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 10:00 next Friday.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂
Afternoon folks! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer despite the somewhat rainy weather 🌧️ - at least the plants are getting a good watering! 🌿
Have a great weekend when it reaches you 😊
Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT
Top Tip 💡
Hyperlinks 🔗
Embed a link within a concise string of text instead of using its URL as the link text.
This will help a screen reader user to find the accessible link leads - otherwise their screen reader will read every single character of the URL!
✅ Example of an accessible hyperlink: For more useful tips, please visit our (work in progress) Inclusive Communication wiki pages.
❌ Example of not using a hyperlink: For more useful tips, please visit our (work in progress) Inclusive Communication wiki pages: https://wiki.york.ac.uk/display/EG/Inclusive+Communication
Everyone should use an accessible hyperlink whenever sending a link - including for the newsletter 📰
💡 Want a quick way to insert a link? Highlight the link text in your email/document and press CTRL + K, then insert the link!
Carrying Leave over on FlexiLeave 📅
You are entitled to carry over up to five working days/37 hours (pro rata) to the next leave year (October - September): Flexileave will do this automatically, so no need to request this.
Any leave that is carried over in addition to this is subject to line manager approval, plus either Roland's (non-PSS staff) or Matthew's (PSS staff) approval.
Once it has been agreed, please let Lucy know at environment-hr@york.ac.uk so she can make sure this is carried over on FlexiLeave.
MSc Survey
Chris Scarr (PG student pursuing a Masters in Sustainability) is conducting a research study on different environmental viewpoints and perceptions of climate change risk, and their relation to net-zero targets.
He is looking to get responses from anyone whose job or study has an environmental component, or who is an environmental activist.
Your input through a short survey (approximately six minutes) will be greatly appreciated and provide valuable insight.
All responses are anonymous and further information is provided on the questionnaire.
Please fill it out by clicking this link and do share with your networks.
Research into Careers Support for PGRs at UoY: Calling on all PGRs - We need your help!
Careers and Placements is carrying out a survey into how Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) approach career planning, their views on the careers and employability provision at the University of York.
Your responses will help us to develop our career provision for future PGRs and provide more tailored support.
As a thank you for your time you can enter the chance to win one of three £20 Amazon vouchers!
If you have any questions about the survey please contact Loren Sandoval at lisa500@york.ac.uk. The survey will close on August 15th.
Congratulations to Rebecca Newman whose PhD chapter has been published as a paper in Population and Environment - Rob Marchant is co-author.
ESAY have published details of a dissertation project carried out by student Emily Narey, supervised by Dr Eleanor Jew. Emily got a first for the dissertation which was titled: “An Investigation into Consumer Food Waste Behaviour at the University of York: Redistributing Food to Limit Waste and Support Community Needs." More information can be found on ESAY's webpage and social channels:
Congratulations to Josh Thurston (and Rob Mills who was involved) who has been successful in gaining a grant from the Nerc omics facility (NEOF) to make the first seasonal study of microbial communities in alpine moss and lichens at our Cairngorms research site. The grant (£30k) will cover further training for Josh (who is already quite an expert in this field!), and the analysis and bioinformatics. An excellent effort!
Congratulations to Bryce Stewart, Roland Kroger (Physics) and others: Bryce is a co-author on a new paper 'Using Combination of X-Ray 3D Tomography and FEG-SEM to Perform 3D-FIB Reconstruction in Identified Area to Investigate Effect of Mining Contamination on Scallop Shell Growth' in the journal Microscopy and Microanalysis
Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who visited Lahore College for Women University in Pakistan and the Cholistan Institute of Desert Studies. She gave a seminar on climate resilient development: insights from highlands, drylands and islands at LCWU, and met with Geography Department heads from universities across Lahore, as well as the disaster management authorities in Lahore. A newspiece about her visit is available on the YESI website. Congratulations again to Lindsay Stringer for her role as co-author in a paper published on 31st July 2023 in Nature Sustainability: Li C, Fu B, Wang S, Stringer LC, Zhou W, Ren Z, Hu M, Zhang Y, Rodriguez-Caballero E, Weber B, Maestre FT 2023. Grazing modulates climate-driven ecological thresholds in China’s drylands, Nature Sustainability.
Congratulations to Smriti Safaya who has co-authored a paper in 'Citizen Science: Theory and Practice' with the founder of the Hong Kong Jellyfish Project and a research collaborator at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The article is entitled "Motivations and Barriers to Participation in Citizen Science: The Case Study of the Hong Kong Jellyfish Project."
Congratulations to Piran White, Laura Harrison and Karen Horrocks (OHID) who gave a presentation to the Wakefield Health and Wellbeing Board on green & blue spaces and health.
Congratulations to Professor Jasper Kenter and research associate Elaine Azzopardi on their media coverage.
Congratulations to Rachel Pateman and Sarah West (SEI) who have a new publication in Citizen Science: Theory and Practice on participant diversity and pathways to impact.
Congratulations to Steve Cinderby (SEI) who has a new publication on encouraging the transfer of pro-environmental behaviours between home and the workplace.
Truzaar Dordi's new publication "New bottle or new label? Distinguishing impact investing from responsible and ethical investing", published with the Accounting and Finance Journal, asks whether the nascent field of impact investing is sufficiently distinct to necessitate yet another field of research. The short answer - though there is significant overlap in terminology, some unique characteristics of impact investing emerge. Congratulations!
Call for Early Career Researchers: training to produce a Research Evidence Synthesis paper that informs policy.
The York Policy Engine (TYPE) is offering a unique opportunity to be trained in Research Evidence Synthesis. Leading evidence synthesis experts, Professor Eric Jensen and Professor Mark Reed, will provide training in specialist evidence synthesis techniques and in the production of policy briefs, supporting application of these techniques to real world policy problems.
The opportunity includes an 8 week online programme (October - December 2023), with between 1.5 to 3 hours of training per week. Policy topics will be identified by our Y-PERN (Yorkshire and Humber Policy and Engagement Research Network) partners and wider national policy contacts, who will consider the resulting briefings in their policy development. This unique opportunity for training and publication is limited to a small number of staff at the University of York.
Please see here for more information and how to apply. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 29th August.
The WUN Research Development Fund is now open
The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is a world-leading research university network, tackling global challenges through international collaboration. The Research Development Fund provides grants of up to £10,000 to foster research collaborations among academic staff members at WUN universities.
This year, the call prioritises the following areas of research:
1. Social justice and human rights; inequality
2. Sustainable world: cities and urbanization; energy transitions; water, and food security
3. Mental health; child and maternal health; ageing
4. Responsible and ethical applications of Artificial Intelligence
Please find all guidance for the call here and don't hesitate to contact Elisha (Elisha.Witcomb@york.ac.uk), York's WUN Coordinator, who can provide advice on eligibility, preparing the application, identifying collaborators in the network, and the internal review process.
Commissioned Research Opportunity
To support the building of our evidence and case to secure a participatory approach for individual policy making and/or local decision making, Poverty2Solutions is looking to commission a distinctive, original piece of research which will Identify the value and key principles associated with adopting a participatory approach to policy making.
Poverty2Solutions are seeking expressions of interest initially, and will interview shortlisted candidates. Please note that the selection process will involve people with the expertise that comes with experiences of poverty and social security receipt.
Deadline for expression of interest is Friday 15th September. Expressions of interest can be via a PPT presentation or text document.
Selection interviews will be held week commencing 25th September.
Full details of this opportunity can be requested through the Research Support team (environment-research@york.ac.uk) If you have any questions please email: traceyherrington@thrive-teesside.org.uk
Future opportunity - Stacking of nature market credits
Defra recently published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) regarding the research requirement “Stacking of nature market credits”.
The contract is estimated to be published for open competition in mid-August.
This project will seek to provide Defra with an understanding of the empirical theory and evidence on stacking in nature markets and provide insight into the impact of different stacking models on economic, environmental, and wider social outcomes.
If you are interested in making an application to this tender, please contact research support (environment-research@york.ac.uk).
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 10:00 next Friday.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂