Blog from November, 2023

Good morning everyone ❄️ Our Making the Difference Award winners are listed below - a big congratulations to all the winners and nominees for this round!

And exciting information about our Departmental Festive Potluck/Moving Feast can be found below  

Please note that the deadline for sending across items for the newsletter has changed to 12:00 on Thursdays. Thank you for your cooperation

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

🎄 DEG Festive Potluck/Moving Feast! Thursday 14th December, 13:00 - 16:00 🎄 

Please join us for a couple of hours on Thursday 14th December between 13:00 and 16:00 to celebrate the festive season and eat some wonderful food! 

Find out what part of the 'menu' (drinks / starters / main courses / desserts) your floor has been allocated below  

We hope to see you all there  

The Festive Potluck / Moving Feast is BACK!  Starting on the Third Floor with Drinks, each floor has been allocated a particular part of the Feast as follows: Third Floor: SEIY and all Third Floor staff - Drinks and Nibbles Second Floor: BioArch and all Second Floor staff - Starters First floor: Research students and all First Floor staff - Main Courses Ground floor: All Ground Floor staff - Desserts We would love to see as many dishes as possible but if providing a dish/drink is an obstacle for you, please still feel free to attend - we would love to see everyone there! There will be Christmas tunes and we actively encourage Christmas jumpers/festive attire! Please note that it is super important that you place a sign/label in front of your dish/drink on the day stating the following: Who made the dish / drink  Any history / fun facts behind the dish / drink (we aim to celebrate all cultures!) Ingredients Vegan / vegetarian / gluten-free / allergens (these are typically cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, other nuts, wheat, fish, shellfish, sesame) We ask that everyone tries to be as environmentally friendly as possible by bringing along your own cups/plates etc if you can. Even if you are only able to come to a small part of the Feast, we hope to see you all there! Happy cooking/baking! 🥄

Department Staff Monthly Meeting (Nov) - Links and Recording

Thank you all for joining our last Dept Staff Monthly Meeting of the calendar year on Thursday. Nic chaired valiantly in Roland's place, and a big thank you to Smriti and Sarah for their presentations. Below are highlights, useful links and the recording from this month's meeting:

• Three winners were announced for our November round of MTD Awards - see dedicated section below.
• Smriti Safaya encouraged dept staff to get involved in the York City Nature Challenge.
• Sarah West provided an overview of the planned change for SEI to become a Research Entity.
• There was a brief discussion on the implications of the upcoming building closure.

Click here to watch the full recording of the Dept Staff Monthly Meeting (Nov).

The next meeting will be held in January. If you have an item you would like to present, please email environment-pa@york.ac.uk.

➡️ Updated Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Procedure 

A important message from Central Student and Academic Services:

The Student Welfare and Wellbeing Project Board at its meeting on 16 November 2023 agreed to change the minimum engagement levels due to the number of students being identified as requiring welfare and wellbeing support . We have also made additional changes to the Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Procedure due to feedback received from a number of departments and the Students’ Unions. The overarching Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Policy remains the same. 

The changes are:

1. The criteria for monitoring engagement has changed: the University now expects all students to engage with their course of study via at least two face-to-face on-campus contact points (on separate days) each teaching week for Semesters 1 and 2 or to engage with over 50% of all timetabled teaching sessions. 

2. We have made changes to the Taught students undertaking study off campus section to align engagement data with current processes.

3. We have made changes to the section on Postgraduate Research (PGR) Students to align with current processes. Supervision meetings for Student Visa holders should be in person.

4. We have removed the requirement for supervision meetings to take place during the revision/assessment period. We will now capture engagement with assessments and will provide further details in a future email. 

We would like to thank all staff and students for their support and engagement with the Check-In initiative during this first semester. We will be inviting feedback via a survey at the end of the semester; in the meantime, please send any comments or questions that you have to the Project Team (email: check-in-support@york.ac.uk) or directly to us.

-Dr Wayne Campbell, Academic Registrar and Tom Banham, Director of Student Administration and Academic Affairs

Student and Academic Services

🏆 Making the Difference Award Winners! 🏆

Many Congratulations to our November 2023 Making the Difference Award Winners, announced in this month's Dept Staff Meeting by Nic:

⭐Linda Elvin⭐ 

⭐Ciaran Ogilvie ⭐

⭐Jess Roberts ⭐

Congratulations to all the other 8 nominees for this round.

Click here to see the exciting presentation of the winners in the recording of the Dept Staff Monthly Meeting (Nov).

You can read more about the fantastic achievements of the winners on the Wiki  

Seminars taking place next week 

Wentworth College Fellow Recruitment Event for Staffs and Postdocs - Thursday 7th Dec.

Wentworth Graduate College is looking to recruit volunteer College and Senior College Fellows. These roles are opportunities to engage in college life at the University and shape the postgraduate community. Those involved find it rewarding, and it is a learning opportunity for those interested in how community development in higher education can support students to succeed.

We are holding a Wine & Cheese on 7th December 2023 at 5.30 PM in the SCR for any academics, staff, and postdocs (strictly no students) interested to find out more about being a College Fellow.

Click here to book your spot.

Dissertation survey

A third-year undergraduate student, Barney Lee, studying Environmental Geography, is completing his dissertation exploring the challenges in using green space to improve well-being. 

He seeks your insights for a project that is close to his heart and has far-reaching implications for our community's well-being. Green spaces, such as parks, gardens, and woodlands, are vital for our mental and physical health. However, accessing and fully benefiting from these spaces can sometimes be a challenge.

This is where your experience and perspectives become crucial. By participating in a short, 10-minute anonymous questionnaire, you can contribute to a better understanding of these challenges. Your responses could play a pivotal role in guiding future policies, enhancing green space designs, and, most importantly, improving the quality of life for individuals in our community.

To participate please click here to complete his google form.

Your input will be incredibly valuable and could genuinely make a difference in how we approach and enhance our green spaces. Thank you for considering his request.

PS. As a token of appreciation, if you're interested in the findings of his research, he would be delighted to share a summary of his dissertation. You can express your interest by emailing blockedpathsdissertation@gmail.com 

• Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

  • S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 6 Message from DfS
  • S1 Week 7 Message from DfS

Gary Haq co-authored a report from HelpAge International, "Climate Justice in an Ageing World". Ahead of COP28, the paper identifies and explores actions for policymakers and the international community to support older people through the climate crisis.

Rob Mills' Snaizeholme treeplanting and impact study was reported by various media outlets including the Darlington and Stockton Times, the BBC, BBC Sounds, Envirotec magazine and the Yorkshire Post.

Richard Friend was invited by FCDO Bangkok to present British Council funded work re. participatory processes for assessing systemic risk in food systems at the ASEAN ASSET Future of Future Foods conference, Bangkok. Richard also chaired a session on inclusion of gender and ethnic minorities in water governance as part of the Regional Seminar on Water Politics and Water Governance in the Mekong Countries, organised by Chiang Mai University. In addition, Richard had a Paper accepted in Land Use Policy - "Thailand's Policy Vacuum: Land use planning as sites of negotiation and contestation' drawing on their research under the GCRF Political Capabiities for Equitable Resilience project

Sarah Bridle took part in a workshop run by the AFN Network+ which aimed to produce a set of draft research priorities for transitioning agri-food towards net zero. The workshop included stakeholders from across the food system, NGOs and policy makers. Sarah also convened and facilitated a workshop of people working across food sustainability and climate education in the UK, to map out potential ways to improve teaching of food climate impacts in schools.

Piran White and colleague Julia Touza organised a workshop for their Connected Treescapes project with the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority on 21-22 November in Abergavenny. The National Park is developing a new strategy for managing their treescapes, and the workshop explored the potential for research being undertaken by the Connected Treescapes team to inform the direction and content of this startegy. The workshop was also attended by local partners including Monmouthshire County Council, The Woodland Trust, Stump up for Trees, Welsh Water, and Natural Resources Wales.

Laura Harrison gave a talk about research with colleagues in DEG, Health Sciences and VCSE organisations to create an evidence summary about the health benefits of Nature-Based Interventions. The event was at the iCASP confluence attended by public, private and third sector organisations working on Natural Flood Management.

Nic Carslaw featured in a piece in the Daily Express on air quality.

John Wilkinson featured on BBC Panorama.

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

2024 Keeling Curve Prize - The Global Warming Mitigation Project

The Global Warming Mitigation Project’s flagship program, the Keeling Curve Prize, awards $50,000 annually to each of 10 global projects that demonstrate the ability to reduce, replace, or remove greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and oceans. Deadlines for application is Monday, February 12, 2024 at 11:59pm IDLW (UTC−12:00). Multiple applications from the same institution are allowed, so long as each applicant has a different project or program that meets the eligibility requirements.

Categories for proposals include Carbon Sinks, Energy, Finance, Social & Cultural Pathways and Transport & Mobility. Your project may align with more than one prize category. The application form requires that you designate a primary category for your application, but also allows you to list secondary categories for consideration. However, applicants are only eligible to win in one category in any given year.

Please see the How to Apply and FAQ pages for full information and contact Helen Bradley (Social Sciences) or Sharon Godwin (Sciences) who can support applications to this funder.

Funding for Human Voice Research

YorVoice is a SPARKS-funded initiative to establish York as the world-leader in radical, interdisciplinary research into the human voice. As part of YorVoice, money is available to commission around 4 to 6 projects of around £20k each, lasting for up to 12 months (there is, however, considerable flexibility in terms of the size/ scale/ duration of the projects). Funding will be allocated via a sandpit event.

Proposals will be developed and awarded during a Sandpit event in January. The Sandpit (two half day online workshop, and one full day in-person workshop) will give researchers a chance to connect and talk with others with an interest in the human voice and explore how they might work together to make a difference in this area. From these discussions, they will develop new ideas that will need a collaborative approach bringing together different perspectives and expertise. The final stage of the sandpit will be a short pitch to present project ideas to the YorVoice steering committee at the final workshop. Funding decisions will be made on the basis of your slides and decisions communicated quickly, with projects starting as early as March 2024.

More information about the Sandpit is available on the YorVoice website or by emailing the YorVoice team (yorvoice-project@york.ac.uk).

Turing Institute PhD Enrichment Scheme Now Open

Applications for the Turing PhD Enrichment scheme are now open for entry in October 2024. These are intended for PhD students in their research phase (typically 2nd year) and allow the recipient to spend 6-9 months working with a mentor at the ATI in London and carry a small stipend. Hybrid working is also permitted. They provide fantastic networking opportunities and for collaboration. Competition is high and the ATI is interested in applications where a case can be made that the research will benefit from opportunities at the ATI. Any discipline where the data science toolkit or AI forms a component are encouraged.

The ATI is running a webinar on 1st December at 11am-12.30PM that will provide information to prospective applicants. Rules and guidance are provided in the main scheme link above.

Research Systems Downtime for Upgrade

PURE and the York Research Database (YRD) will be unavailable Wednesday 6th December 2023 (08:00 - 09:30) Upgrade of PURE to version 5.27.3. This will start at 08:00 and take between 1-2 hours.

If you have any concerns regarding this, please contact pure-support@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 12:00 next Thursday.

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 🙂

Morning all 🌳 The UoY Learning and Teaching fund scheme is now open for applications, and there's plenty of seminars and events to keep you busy

Chloe Mitchell - PA to HoD

Top Tip

Did you know that all staff can book rooms across campus? Visit our Book a room Wiki page to find out which rooms in the building and beyond are available to book and how to do it. There are also links to further room details, such as capacity, equipment and accessibility information. 

If you are having trouble finding free rooms in Semester 2, note that many rooms across the campus will currently be reserved until the teaching timetable is released in early December. Most departments have one or two rooms specifically for department staff meeting use only (such as our Boardroom ENV031). As these will never be used for teaching, they can be booked further in advance. 

Seminars taking place next week 

Save the date! DEG Festive Potluck/Moving Feast! Thursday 14th December, 13:00-16:00 🎄

• Where: Environment & Geography building
• Who: All staff/PGRs, including BioArch and SEI-Y
• What: Everyone is invited to bring in drinks and dishes from their culture/home/that they like making, to share with the rest of the department!

Further details will be circulated next week but for now this festive celebration should appear in your calendar - if not please email Annabel Jackson at environment-pa@york.ac.uk :)

Not-Just-Human Cultural Restoration: Opportunities for a Law Beyond the Human

Date / time: Monday 27 Nov 2023 / 13:00

In person venue: Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, Top floor, Berrick Saul Building, Campus West

• Click here to join the LCAB talk on Zoom
• Meeting ID: 961 6675 0675 
• Passcode: 641881

Speakers: Joshua Sterlin - McGill University / Emille Boulot - University of Tasmania

Blurb: Contemporary legal governance is built upon an ontological bifurcation that assumes a divide between nature (the beings and earth systems on which we depend and with whom we relate) and humans (our internal political sphere). The ‘environment’ is abstracted and reified from the social context, becoming passive, and without agency, becoming an object for extraction. Environmental law, built upon these foundations largely specifies “allowable harm rather than adjudicating on mutually enhancing relations” (Boulot and Sterlin 2021:1). But what if we were to have a legal system that sought to foster and govern ‘mutually enhancing relations’ between the non-human and human? What would this look like?

In response to the substantial harms caused by extractivism, there have been calls for, and increasing practices of, restoration, rewilding, and rehabilitation. It is also clear that we need to not only restore the ecosystems in which we are enmeshed, but also our own social, political, and legal systems so as to adapt them to living in a wilder world. Restoration is a practice that necessarily involves active management and engagement with the social ecologies, where practitioners acknowledge and seek to remediate past damage rather than simply forestall future damage. When practiced in a way that recognizes the place of the human within social ecologies it has the potential to ‘decenter’ the subject of environmental law, eroding the ontological bifurcation described above. As such it holds out prospects for relations which are life sustaining, which is the motivating focus of our case study for identifying associated opportunities for environmental law and governance. This presentation will set out a detailed research proposal which aims to examine restoration examples across Western states to ask what are appropriate modes of living and governing in more-than-human worlds, and what are appropriate legalities in this process?

Bios: Joshua Sterlin is a PhD candidate at McGill University in Canada, and is a member of the Leadership for the Ecozoic project. His scholarly training is in anthropology, holding an Msc in People and Environment (Anthropology) from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. His research ethnographically focuses on the growing nature-connection movement in North America, examining the means and methods in which these modern groups are attempting to ‘rewild’ not only themselves, but their cultures. He has extended this research studying the rewilding of Western cultures, and thinking animacy otherwise, by applying this lens to the genre of horror, as well as to the development of a law beyond the human. Joshua is a recipient of the Graduate Excellent Award, the Transnational Environmental Law best article prize for 2022, and a board member of Hunter-Gatherer Research. When not doing all the above, you can find him canoeing Québec’s north. You can reach him at: joshua.sterlin@mail.mcgill.ca 

Emille Boulot is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She has completed her PhD at McGill University in Canada, and is a member of the Leadership for the Ecozoic project. Emille is also an Australian lawyer and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Governance. Her research interests encompass a diverse range of topics, including environmental law and regulation, regulatory theory, interdisciplinary policy research and Indigenous legal rights. Emille is a Lionel Murphy Postgraduate scholar, a board member of the Australian Environment Review, and a research fellow with both the Earth System Governance Project and the Ecological Law and Governance Association. Along with Joshua, she is the recipient of the Transnational Environmental Law best article prize for 2022. Emille enjoys biking, hiking, and spending time at the beach with her dogs. You can reach her at: emille.boulot@utas.edu.au 

Research Coding Club - Intro to Version Control

Date / time: Wednesday 29 November / 14:00-16:00

In person venue: James College PC Room G/N/169

Online link: You can also join the Research Coding Club session online by clicking this link.

Next Wednesday, Research Coding Club will be running our perennial hands-on introduction to version control. Version control is a really useful skill for software development, whether you're writing small analysis scripts or huge HPC simulations. In this session we'll cover the basics of using git for your own projects, as well as the popular GitHub service for collaborating with others. Whether you're a complete beginner or just need a refresher, everyone is welcome!

Feel free to bring along your own laptop -- if you do, please install git beforehand. If you prefer to use a GUI, then I recommend installing Github Desktop. You might also find it useful to sign up for GitHub before the session starts.

Dr Peter Hill (he/him) - EPSRC Research Software Engineering Fellow - York Plasma Institute

Ghost Signs: Preserving faded history and public memory

Date / time: Thursday 30 November / 12:00-13:00

In person venue: ENV005 (Environment & Geography lecture theatre)

Speaker: Tyson Mitman - York St John University

The Ghost Signs Project looks at the faded signage that exists around us in York, and attempts to use it to better understand York's commercial history, how it has developed, and how these developments can inform how the life, culture, commercial values, and aesthetics of the city has shifted over time. This project has just been funded through Historic England, and is in its very early stages. This talk will discuss the inspiration for the project, the research in its current stage, and what the goals of the project are. The purpose of this is to encourage the audience to engage with the city in a new way, both ideologically and visually. The encouraged shift in perspective will hopefully inspire the audience to reimagine the city as a kind of open-air museum to itself that helps connect public space to public and personal memory, which makes the everyday experience of the city more interactive and special.

The Ghost Signs seminar will also be on Zoom, but we do encourage you to attend in person if you possibly can - it's always nice to have a good turnout for our visitors!

Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

• S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 6 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 7 Message from DfS

Tao Li has had a new paper published in Nature Communications using deep sea corals to explore glacial melt in the past: 'Enhanced subglacial discharge from Antarctica during meltwater pulse 1A.

Felicia Liu, together with Winston Chow (Singapore Management University) and Karen Lai (Durham) successfully hosted an industry-facing workshop on 20th November titled "sustainable finance for green data centres" that interrogated the role of financial institutions in stewarding a low-carbon transition of data centres, and the growing digital economy that they support. The workshop was supported by the Singapore Green Finance Centre, SG Tech, and Jones Lang LaSalle. It was well attended by over 100+ delegates representing banks, asset managers, private equity, and family offices in Singapore.

Bryce Stewart was a panel member at an event at University College London titled 'Lessons learned from developing Highly Protected Marine Areas in the UK'. The event was attended by senior members of Defra along with fisheries managers, environmental groups, other academics and students

Nic Carslaw has recently:

• been interviewed for a BBC Science in Focus article.
• launched a new policy for Indoor Air regulations to coincide with World Ventil8 Day and in conjunction with the WHO.
• been interviewed for a podcast with the RSC on indoor air quality.

Rebecca Newman has interviewed representatives from food strategy development from Lancaster, Hull, Leeds and Sheffield to understanding key factors supporting strategy implementation throughout October and November. 

The Careers Team has, so this month, met with North Yorkshire Council & Leeds City Region LEP and has plans to meet QSIpmact, Envance and Leaf Translations. If you would like to connect to any of these organisations please get in touch with the team via environment-careers@york.ac.uk

Well done everyone on your fantastic efforts and achievements 👏

See the latest UOY teaching opportunities below. I encourage all staff (T&S, ART) to apply for the funding scheme. The Department was successful last year in securing over £5,000 towards the revised fieldtrips so I can hope we can build on this success with one or more successful projects!

Adrian Gonzalez - DEG Director of Learning and Teaching

Launch of the University’s 2023-24 Learning & Teaching Fund 

The scheme will provide funding to support innovations and enhancements in learning, teaching and assessment at the UoY, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Staff can apply for grants of £1000-£10,000.

Click here to find out more about the UOY Learning and Teaching Fund criteria, thematic priorities and how to apply. The key dates are: 

• Application deadline: 8th January, 2024
• Communication of decisions: by 30th January, 2024
• Project funds must be spent: 31st July, 2024

If you have any questions or would like to discuss an idea, get in touch with the Inclusive Education Team.

Assessment and Feedback Project: invitation to staff discussion events

The University's Assessment and Feedback Project is leading work to review assessment policies and approaches across the University of York. We want to hear from staff about the assessment and feedback principles that need to guide our assessments, and invite you to join an online discussion event to contribute your views and ideas. 

The events for staff will take place on: 

• Wednesday 29th November, 1-2pm
• Thursday 30th November, 1-2pm
• Tuesday 5th December, 1-2pm

Please complete this form to indicate which of the Assessment and Feedback Project sessions you would like to attend.

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 🙂

Morning all 🌞 This week, we've got stealth tips on how to contact IT support and a free CPR course. You can't say we don't treat you

Chloe Mitchell - PA to HoD

Changes to IT Support

There are a few changes in IT Services at the moment and this is the first one.

Our phone lines are now open 9am-12pm and 2-4pm, Monday to Friday. Our email and voicemail service will be monitored when the phones are off and we will respond to any urgent queries and call you back if needed.

To help you get the support you need as soon as possible, please make sure you visit the IT Services website and search our support articles before you contact IT Support. Our support articles answer common IT queries and include lots of helpful information on many different aspects of IT.  You can also find out if there are any known issues affecting our services here.  If these sites don't answer your query you can complete the form to contact us.

Please see our guide below on the best place to get support based on your query.

• Visit the IT Services webpage and search our support articles to look for answers to common queries, find guides on how to do things and to check for scheduled downtime or issues to services. Use the form to contact us if you need further help. Available 24/7.
• Email us via itsupport@york.ac.uk if something non-urgent breaks, if you need software or have other requests. Available 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.  
• Call us on (0)1904 323838 if something urgent breaks or suddenly stops working as it should or you have another urgent query  Available between 9am-12pm and 2-4pm, Monday to Friday.
• Drop in to the JB Morrell Library for quick fixes such as help with passwords, two-factor authentication or connecting to wifi. Available 2-4pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Except for during vacation times. Subject to change depending on demand. See our IT Support page for up to date information.

We will also arrange in-person or Zoom appointments for more complex issues, Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm.

Finally, please do not send your IT issues to me or Mark Tolley directly.  Follow the instructions above. If you email IT Support, please add FAO Mark Tolley in the subject line and ITSO will triage your request to ensure you get the fastest resolution.

Dave Hay  - Departmental Technical Manager

🏆 MTD Awards - Winners to be announced in next staff meeting! 🏆

The University recognises and values the hard work, commitment and achievements of all staff. The 'Making the Difference' awards are intended to provide recognition to any member of staff whose contribution on a one-off or short-term basis has been exceptional or outstanding and is worthy of particular note.

Congratulations to all nominees below! The winner/s will be announced in our last All Staff Monthly Meeting of the year on Thursday 30th November, 11:05-12:00. If you haven't received a calendar invite for the meeting, please email Chloe Mitchell: environment-pa@york.ac.uk. 

Seminars taking place next week 

Visit from Beth Eden, CEO of QS World Merit - Next Wednesday

The Department of Environment and Geography is thrilled to host Beth Eden, CEO of QS World Merit on November 22, 2023. Beth Eden is a fifth-generation English-Canadian, leading the QS partner charity, QS ImpACT, which recognizes and supports young people for their social action towards a regenerative future. 

Beth has worked on numerous sustainability, social entrepreneurship, environmental and youth engagement-related projects with national spans in the United Kingdom, Morocco, India, Canada, and internationally for 14 years. She began her engagements as a young entrepreneur at age 13, becoming England's Young Entrepreneur of the Year through Solutions for the Planet. She was later recognized as one of Canada's 30 under 30 Sustainability Leaders with Corporate Knights and 25 under 25 Environmentalists with Starfish Canada in 2020.

Her visit will include a public "Sustainability Seminar Series" lecture at 13:05 - 14:00 at ENV/005 (see full details above). Staff and students are also welcome to register for one-on-one's with Beth on that day.

Save the date! DEG Festive Potluck/Moving Feast! Thursday 14th December, 13:00-16:00 🎄

• Where: Environment & Geography building
• Who: All staff/PGRs, including BioArch and SEI-Y
• What: Everyone is invited to bring in drinks and dishes from their culture/home/that they like making, to share with the rest of the department!

Further details will be circulated next week but for now this festive celebration should appear in your calendar - if not please email Annabel Jackson at environment-pa@york.ac.uk :)

IGDC Annual Lecture Next Tuesday - Towards Decoloniality and Justice: when the past pushes unfinished into the present

IGDC has its Annual Lecture next week with guest speaker, Professor Uma Kothari. All staff and students are welcome to attend. 

Date / time: Tuesday 28 November / 16:00-17:00

Venue: ENV005

Click here to view full details and to register a place on at the IGDC Annual Lecture.

Free CPR Course on campus on 27 Nov

We at St John's Ambulance First Aid Society are running more free CPR sessions where any university student or staff can come and learn CPR (adults, children, infants) and to use an AED.    

Sessions are run on Monday the 27th November at 1pm, 3pm, or 5pm in SLB/001. All sessions are the same and will last about 1hr 15 mins. University staff can email us at sjafirstaid@yusu.org to book onto sessions. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Catherine - YUSFAS Vice President.

Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

• S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 6 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 7 Message from DfS

Sarah Bridle presented a webinar for The Centre for Food Policy at City University as part of their Food Thinkers lecture series, titled ‘How Can We Reduce the Impacts of Food on Climate Change and vice versa’.

Bryce Stewart was a judge (for the 4th year) for the annual Marine Stewardship Council Seafood Awards and attended the awards ceremony at Fishmonger's Hall in London.

John Wilkinson was interviewed for an upcoming BBC Panorama episode concerning sewage and impacts on rivers.

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

COP28 / UK Universities Climate Network - Call for experts

York is part of the UK Universities Climate Network and they are looking to hold a record of all UK climate experts and to separately collect evidence on net zero in the run up to COP28. They are looking for experts across the climate space not just pure climate scientists.

If you would like to add yourself to the list or submit evidence on net zero, you can do so by clicking this link. 

A York Introduction to NERC Funding

Research Development Manager, Robyn Cooper Inglis, has put together a guide to NERC funding at York, which is aimed at helping researchers and those supporting them to develop research plans to understand what the various schemes offer.

A York Introduction to NERC Funding.

This guide is intended as an overview of the NERC funding opportunity landscape, and York’s university-level processes relating to them, and signposts to further guidance which can often be hard to find across multiple websites, as well as incorporating info from webinars and other funder engagement routes and highlighting recent successes. It is not intended to detail or supersede Departmental or Faculty info and processes around costing and submission of grants, or duplicate detailed information from NERC which can be accessed via links in the document.

Alan Turing Institute PhD Enrichment Scheme

The PhD Enrichment Scheme run by the Alan Turing Institute is open for applications from 15th November. These awards provide 2nd or 3rd year PhD students the opportunity to spend 6-9 months based at the Turing main office in London and enhance and further their studies. They welcome a broad range of disciplines that apply methodologies within the general data science/AI domain. A stipend is awarded. They will be competitive.

If you have further questions for follow-up, please contact Guy Harrington (guy.harrington@york.ac.uk) directly. Please also follow #turing-university-network slack channel for more events and opportunities from the ATI.

Enhancing Research Culture Fund 23/24

BRIC are pleased to announce the launch of this year’s Enhancing Research Culture Fund. This scheme offers grants to enable staff working in our research community to develop projects to enhance our research culture at York, using funding provided by Research England. A total fund of up to £200,000 is available to support initiatives as per previous years.

At this time we would like to invite applications from any members of staff within the University community who work in a research or research-related role, including technical staff and professional services staff who support research in addition to academic researchers at all stages, including postdoctoral. This document explains the funding guidance in more detail including some important changes to the fund this year, and contains a link to the short application form.

Please get in touch via bric@york.ac.uk if you have any questions about applying to this fund.

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 🙂

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

Save the date! DEG Festive Potluck/Moving Feast! Thursday 14th December, 13:45 - 17:00 🎄

Where: Environment & Geography building
Who: All staff/PGRs, including BioArch and SEI-Y
What: Everyone is invited to bring in drinks and dishes from their culture/home/that they like making, to share with the rest of the department!

Details TBC!

🏆 Making the Difference Award Nominees! 🏆

The University recognises and values the hard work, commitment and achievements of all staff. The 'Making the Difference' awards are intended to provide recognition to any member of staff whose contribution on a one-off or short-term basis has been exceptional or outstanding and is worthy of particular note.

Congratulations to all nominees! Stay tuned for the announcement of the lucky winners! 

Seminars taking place next week 

DEG Seminar - In person Date / Time: Tuesday 14th November at 12:05 Location: Hybrid (ENV005 and Zoom) - click here to join Speaker name: Olivia Mason Title: Resource politics and colonial entanglements in Jordan’s nature reserves Blurb Olivia Mason is a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at Northumbria University. Her research sits at the interface of cultural, environmental, and political geography, and explores mobility politics and resource colonialism with a focus on the Middle East. Her seminar today focuses on the consequences of a series of expeditions in the 1960s to Jordan led by UK-based ornithologists, conservationists, and biologists with the aim of establishing nature reserves. This talk begins by tracing these histories and the international trends and policies surrounding nature conservation in this time. Yet, alongside these international trends, Jordan’s nature reserves were also created in a period of (post)colonial nationalist politics and concerns over resource scarcity. In present day Jordan, these global/local relations, increasing resource scarcity, and ongoing legacies of colonialism continue to shape nature conservation. This includes the ways in which local communities are removed from these sites and their local knowledge dismissed. Nature reserves in Jordan thus demonstrate the colonial intimacies of environmentalism, how resource tensions become connected with national identity, and how communities are impacted by conservation.  Click here to watch the recording of the previous DEG Seminar entitled 'From peatlands research to peatland restoration.’ Passcode: y&nj5sFn

Sustainability Education Conversation Date / Time: Wednesday 15th November at 12:05 Location: Zoom - click here to join Speaker: Dr Smriti Safaya Title: What can I learn here, that I can learn nowhere else? Blurb The title of Smriti's talk is an adaptation from a profound question posed by Robert MacFarlane in "The Old Ways", his serpentine story about journeys and place-consciousness. Though it was posed by a travel writer a decade ago, it is THE enduring question educators can use to stimulate meaningful enquiry that sticks. Using examples from her time working with students and running professional development workshops for educators, Smriti will share some simple approaches to place-based and experiential learning that can be adapted across disciplines. She will also reveal a newly-launched community initiative to engage with biodiversity (on and off-campus), and invite opportunities for staff and student collaboration and action for sustainability. Please note that next week’s Sustainability Seminar on 22nd November will take place IN PERSON in ENV/005. Very excitingly there will also be a chance to sign up for one-on-one meetings with the speaker, Beth Eden. Details to follow next week 🙂

Tree planting for Beth Fields last week 🌳

Beth was an Environmental Geography student who had just completed her second year, when she was tragically killed during the summer break. She was an enthusiastic and committed student and popular with classmates. Beth was warm-hearted and kind, with a gift for communication. 

In her memory, Beth’s family and friends wanted to leave a lasting legacy to Beth by planting a tree in Diamond Wood on Campus East. This took place last week with both staff and Beth's family and friends attending.

💬 Click here to read Samarthia's moving speech from the morning 💬

Race Equality Events taking place in November and December

Tour of Allerton Waste Recovery Park

Friday 1st December, 09:00 - 15:00, Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Join YESI's Food, Water and Waste research theme visit to Allerton Waste Recovery Park and find out what happens to your rubbish after you throw it away. Book early as places are very limited.

Click here to register!

Invite to YESI Community Christmas Celebration

The date for the YESI Community Christmas Celebration is fast approaching, and we're thrilled to invite you to join us on Tuesday, 5 December, starting at 2:00 pm in the Berrick Saul ground floor atrium.

It’s been a jam-packed year for everyone, so how about taking a break, catching up with your amazing colleagues, and indulging in some festive nibbles and drinks?

And here's the fun part – you can deck the halls with your favourite festive attire! Dust off that Christmas jumper, those snazzy festive socks, or even a Father Christmas hat if you're feeling extra merry!

Remember, this shindig is exclusively for University of York staff and PhD students, so do let us know you're coming by registering here. Plus, don't be a Grinch – feel free to spread the joy by passing this invite along! The more, the merrier – Ho Ho Ho!

Can't wait to share some holiday cheer with you!

Warm festive wishes, The YESI Team 🎄

Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

• S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 6 Message from DfS

Last Monday (30th Oct.), the department held its first T&L away day since summer 2019. It was designed to provide an opportunity for staff to reflect on and discuss two major initiatives within the restructure; decolonising the curriculum and employability. During the morning, we were able to hear from Dr Musarrat Maisha Reza, University of Exeter who spoke about her decolonisation work in medical sciences. The activities and staff feedback will be used to refine and advance both of these initiatives (more info in due course). The day was agreat success and there is clearly an appetite to discuss DEG's T&L in an away day and draw in guest speakers to talk through best practice. Adrian Gonzalez lead on this. Huge thanks to Laura Chapman and Samarthia Thankappan on decolonisation and Angela Purdham, Felicia Liu and Jenny Pollard for their employability work.

The ‘Our World, Our Collective Future’ project, is run by the Rochdale Science Initiative and Neeli Mosque, working with 45 children from under-represented secondary schools. Sarah Bridle took part in the collaborative event which encouraged teenagers to engage with the climate emergency - the contribution made by food - and think through possible solutions. In addition, Sarah was invited to appear on a panel organised by Cambridge Global Food Security at Cambridge University discussing"How low can you go: can food production achieve net zero?". Other panellists included Dr Adam Pellegrini (Plant Sciences), Dr Emma Garnett (LEAP, Oxford University) and Sophie Attwood (World Resource Institute). Chaired by Prof. Howard Griffiths.

Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who features in a TV newspiece on deforestation and clean cooking on Nigeria's Trust TV, following her workshop with Jamie Carr, Ellie Jew, Josh Kirshner, Banki Chunwate and their collaborators at Bayero University Kano. Click here to watch the clip! Lindsay is also a coauthor on a paper from her York-Maastricht partnership project: Taillandier C, Cörvers R, Stringer LC 2023. Growing Resilient Futures: Agroforestry as a Pathway towards Climate Resilient Development for Smallholder Farmers. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 7.

Sam Buckton has had a new paper published in the journal Cecidology: Buckton SJ (2023) Putative galls of Cenopalpus spinosus (Donnadieu, 1875) (Acari: Tetanychoidea: Tenuipalpidae) on Cornelian Cherry Cornus mas L. at the Yorkshire Arboretum. Cecidology 38(2), 101-103. These galls were only recognised in Britain as recently September 2023. The Arboretum record is the first for Yorkshire, and further research by Sam suggests that the gall has been present for at least several years elsewhere in Britain but overlooked.

Sarah West produced an op-ed on the SAMHE project for Air Quality News magazine. The release of the publication coincided with World Ventil8 Day.

On 3 November, Felicia Liu gave a guest lecture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the use of media analyses in studying public perceptions, debates, and denialism of transboundary haze in Southeast Asia. Her talk was open to all undergraduate students at the faculty, and she was hosted by Associate Professor Helena Varkkey, a long-term collaborator and mentor, for a one-week visit to the Universiti Malaya

On 24 October, Ioan Fazey and Sam Buckton co-facilitated a Three Horizons workshop with Natural England at Foss House to help the organisation develop a new research agenda to support a transformation towards nature recovery in farming systems. Rebecca Newman also participated.

PhD researcher Sam Buckton is co-author on a new paper published in Journal of the British Academy, in connection with his role on the Youth Advisory Board for the University of Hull's 'Youth-led adaptation to climate change challenges in Vietnam' (YACC) project (further information here and here). The full paper citation is Jones L, Parsons KJ, Halstead F, Ngoc DN, Pham HTM, Pham D-L, Allison CR, Chew M, Bird E, Meek A, Buckton SJ, Khang LN, Williams AL, Võ TT, Lê H, Nguyễn ATQ, Hackney CR, Parsons DR (2023) Conversations on grief and hope: a collaborative autoethnographic account exploring the lifeworlds of international youth engaged with climate action. Journal of the British Academy 11(s3), 69-117. 

Lauren Rawlins' first paper from her Ph.D. has just been published in the journal: 'The Cryosphere'. It is entitled: 'Seasonal evolution of the supraglacial drainage network at Humboldt Glacier, northern Greenland, between 2016 and 2020' and can be found here.

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

Conception X programme for PGRs interested in becoming venture scientists

Are you interested in becoming a venture scientist?

Conception X helps PhD students become Venture Scientists – PhD founders who bridge the gap between academia and industry. Whether you’re already working on a startup or you’re interested in learning how to translate and commercialise your research, the programme supports you to accelerate your understanding of entrepreneurship.

Join an introductory session on 5 Dec, 12.00-13.00 (online) to learn about becoming part of Conception X Cohort 7, which will run from March to November 2024. The programme offers training sessions created specifically for STEM PGRs, access to a nationwide network of experts and funding opportunities, and the opportunity to meet fellow researchers who are exploring career pathways post-PhD.

What is Conception X?

A fully funded programme and platform that helps PhD students become Venture Scientists and commercialise their research in impactful ways. Via a 9-month programme that includes training, coaching and mentoring, PGRS are helped to launch deeptech startups based on their research, connect with leading members of the deeptech community, and become eligible for innovation grants, awards and venture capital funding.

The hour long discovery session will tell you everything you need to know about joining the programme and help you to decide if you want to apply to be part of Cohort 7. 

More information and booking

Apply to run a focused doctoral award (Centre for Doctoral Training)

The AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training pre-announcement is now live. There are two themes for this CDT: arts and humanities for creative economy and arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people and place. York can only lead on one application but can partner with as many other applications as needed. As such, there will be an internal process published soon.

The call itself goes live on November 23 and there will be a webinar on December 5.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in this call, can you please let Criag know via email to craig.m.robertson@york.ac.uk by November 22.

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 everyone 🌞 It was great to see so many of you at the first Professorial Inaugural Lecture yesterday - photos below. We hope you enjoyed it 🎓

Please note that you only have until 5pm today to nominate someone for a Making the Difference Award - click here to fill in the form!

Keep warm 🔥

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

Reminder - NEW DEG Letterhead Template 🖋️

A reminder that we have created a brand new DEG Letterhead Template! This is for all staff to use/download and attach to emails when sending letters. 

Click here to make a copy of the brand new DEG Letterhead Template.

This update is documented on the department's 'General admin support and guidance' Wiki page in the 'Updates: October 2023' box.

Please bookmark the above page/document for your reference.

Date for your diary: 8th February 2024 - Graduation 🎓

Graduation dates for February 2024 have been announced. Details for our department are as follows:

Thursday 8th February
Ceremony: 13:30
Drinks reception: 15:00 - 16:30

A Google Calendar invitation will follow shortly 🙂

LOA Webpages improved! 

Michelle would like to make all staff aware that the Student Support and Advice Team has improved the LOA webpages.

Students can now find much more specific information through the main webpage and the attached sub-pages such as the FAQs where they can read around what happens to their maintenance loan (and what to do if they have an overpayment as a result of taking an LOA) and also their tuition fee funding entitlement.

🏆 DEADLINE TODAY for Making the Difference Award nominations! 🏆

The University recognises and values the hard work, commitment and achievements of all staff. The 'Making the Difference' awards are intended to provide recognition to any member of staff whose contribution on a one-off or short-term basis has been exceptional or outstanding and is worthy of particular note. The scheme provides staff, managers and colleagues with the opportunity to nominate an individual or a team for a recognition payment worth up to £250 per person (subject to normal pay deductions, e.g. PAYE). (The university also recognises and values outstanding contribution of a sustained nature. Staff should refer to details of the 'Rewarding Excellence' scheme for information about awards of that kind.)

If you would like to nominate someone for a Making the Difference Award, please click here to fill in the form. 

Deadline for nominations: TODAY at 17:00

Seminars taking place next week 

DEG Professorial Inaugural Lecture 🎓 

Prof Lisa Emberson and Prof Rob Marchant were the first of our professors to take the stage yesterday giving their inaugural lectures in ENV/005 to a captivated audience! There was a fantastic atmosphere in the room and I for one felt very inspired. Thank you to Chloe for sending in these photos:

Thank you to all those that came to support Lisa and Rob. The next Inaugural Lecture will take place in a few weeks time before Christmas (Date TBC) - next up will be Prof Ioan Fazey and Prof Nic Carslaw 🙂

Tree planting for Beth Fields yesterday 🌳

Beth was an Environmental Geography student who had just completed her second year, when she was tragically killed during the summer break. She was an enthusiastic and committed student and popular with classmates. Beth was warm-hearted and kind, with a gift for communication. 

In her memory, Beth’s family and friends wanted to leave a lasting legacy to Beth by planting a tree in Diamond Wood on Campus East. This took place yesterday morning with both staff and Beth's family and friends attending.

Climate Fresk Workshop, Weds 6 December

Join an upcoming Climate Fresk Workshop, 6 December at 3pm-6pm in the Church Lane Building.

Climate Fresk is a 3 hour interactive workshop based on the IPCC reports. This collaborative Climate Fresk workshop will teach you the fundamental science behind climate change and empower you to take action through small group discussion, reflection on emotions and collaborative action planning. Open to students and staff across the University of York.

Click here to register your space.

Call for Speakers: DWP Link Seminar Series

The York Policy Engine is extending an open invitation to speakers who wish to participate in forthcoming sessions of the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) Link Seminar Series.

Presented by DWP in collaboration with the Universities of Leeds, Loughborough, Sheffield and York, LINK is a webinar series designed to help build richer connections between the academic, policy and analytical worlds by providing an opportunity to hear from both leading Social Scientists at the University of Leeds and other universities as well as prominent analysts, strategists and policy makers from the Department for Work and Pensions. 

We are currently seeking a speaker to lead the January 2024 session and future sessions in the coming year. If you think that your research can provide valuable insights to colleagues at LINK's partner universities and contribute to shaping policy discussions with DWP, please get in touch.

Please contact katie.heffron@york.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

RGS Geography and Education Research Group Teaching and Scholarship Forum: Work-based learning and Employability in Geography and related programmes.  

This session is focused on helping colleagues develop and deliver work-based learning and employability initiatives for students on geography and related programmes. 

Free, online, 15th November, 13:00 - 14:00. Booking via this link. 

Enterprise Workshop for Early Career Researchers

Developing Fruitful Relationships with Industry and Other Partners, 30th November 2023, 9.30 - 16:30.

We are delighted to present a free training workshop aimed at Early Career Researchers at the University of York. The session is designed to inspire participants to recognise and develop entrepreneurial opportunities. We will explore the essentials of:

• Building partnerships,
• Translating research into commercial success,
• Developing the confidence and skills to pitch ideas effectively.

Following the training ECRs will be encouraged to apply for seed funding to develop project ideas and potential partnering activities with the aim of improving the quality of interaction and the outcomes of engagement with industry and external partners.

This workshop has been funded by BBSRC as part of the Additional Funding Scheme (AFS). AFS funds are being used to stimulate new activity in the following key areas:

• Sustainable agriculture and technology
• Industrial biotechnology and bioenergy
• Mechanistic and synthetic biology for biomedicine

Sign up at this event page - Any queries please email Fiona Frame or Jenny Spear

PGR Supervisors - GTA recruitment for Semester 2

We are currently recruiting GTAs for Semester 2. If you supervise a PhD student, please could you encourage them to apply if they are interested - they have been sent all the information and recruitment form via the PhD group email, but if they need this re-sending, please ask them to email Vicky at environment-hr@york.ac.uk.

The deadline is 10th November 2023. 

Pint of Science 2024: Call for Volunteers

Are you passionate about science and public engagement? Want to help make the Pint of Science festival in York a success?

We need volunteers for speakers and organisers at the festival on 13-15th May 2024, starting in November. Get involved and help showcase the world-class science that happens in York’s universities.

Click here to register your interest.

Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan is back with her weekly audio messages for students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's messages:

• S1 Week 1 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 2 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 3 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 4 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 5 Message from DfS
• S1 Week 6 Message from DfS

The Employability team have seen great engagement in events so far this Semester including over 80 students attending a Consultancy and Infrastructure Planning lecture with almost 50 attending the workshop immediately afterwards, both of which were delivered by one of our Industry Partners, Systra. 40 students attending a CVs and Cover Letters workshop which Angela Purdham co-delivered with Lucie Stanworth, our Faculty Careers Consultant. 2 of our Placement Year returners and 1 student currently on Placement shared their experiences and top tips for the Placement Search with 50 of our students at the Placement Year information session which Angela Purdham delivered and 38 students attended a Dissertation with Placement Session with Angela and Samarthia. Please do keep encouraging students to make the most of these sessions! Jenny Pollard and Felicia Liu supported.

We have a new paper out in Geophysical Research Letters led by Oliver Andrews' PhD student Qi Zheng. In this study we use sea level to determine the strength, structure and variability of the Cape Horn Current. This is a particularly important (but understudied) current due to its role as a component of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current system.

Research Professional News published an article on our new fossil fuel funding policy to which Roland Gehrels contributed.

Eleanor Jew, Josh Kirshner, Jamie Carr and Banki Chunwate co-ran a workshop with collaborators at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria this week, before meeting with high level officials at Nigeria's Met Office and ACReSOL project, funded by the World Bank. Lindsay is cited in the Voice of Nigeria, while their Nigerian collaborator, Prof Aliyu Barau, was interviewed for the Daily Trust and both Lindsay and Aliyu Barau feature on environewsnigeria.com.

Richard Friend and Clive Lipchin have had an article published in the Conversation re. collaborative water management as building block for peace between Israel and Palestine.

Richard Friend, Kelly Redeker, Brett Sallach and James Chong have had two papers published: Sources and Magnitude of Heavy Metals in Sugarcane Plantation Soils with Different Agricultural Practices and Their Implications on Sustainable Waste-to-Foods Strategy in the Sugar–Ethanol Industry and Balancing Agriculture and Industry through Waste Utilization for Sugarcane Sustainability.

Andrew Gibson, a new Environment and Geography PhD student (supervised by Simon Mair and Chris Lyon) in the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, published a reflection on an invited seminar by Dr Felicia Liu on the LCAB blog. 

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

Leadership training programme for Environmental Researchers

Unlock your leadership potential with a new leadership training programme.

The Inclusive Leadership for Public Engagement Programme is a short training and development course run by the University of Bath's Public Engagement Unit and public engagement consultancy Gurukula. The programme aims to support you to develop your leaderships skills for public engagement in environmental research. Taking place online across 12 weeks between February 2024 to May 2024, the training course is free and is for any researcher who is working in Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research fields. Find out more and how to apply to join the course by visiting the Public Engagement Unit’s blog.

DASA funding call

A translational research call for new 'Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security' by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is open.

They are interested in funding research for translational technologies that could have a large impact on Defence or Security. The link to defence and security includes cybersecurity, communication technologies, or any technology that could be used in defence or security, but could also be used in other applications (for example 3D augmented reality displays).

The projects most suited for this award are early stage technologies that still require proof of concept work done to validate them. If you have any questions please get in touch the commercialisation team using the enquiries form.

YESI Fellows Knowledge Exchange + Discipline Hopping schemes 2023-24 now open!

YESI is delighted to launch its YESI Fellows Knowledge Exchange and Discipline Hopping schemes for 2023-2024, with investment from the University’s Environmental Sustainability at York (ESAY) initiative.

The Knowledge Exchange scheme will fund teams of researchers undertaking knowledge exchange activities with end users in the field of environmental sustainability, and aligned with one or more of the YESI themes (Environment & Health; Resilient Ecosystems; Food, Water & Waste).

Under the Discipline Hopping scheme, teams of researchers will collaborate to explore new synergies or avenues of inquiry that enhance interdisciplinary working around environmental science challenges. This funding covers collaborations across the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering and technology and medical sciences.

If you are interested in applying for either of these schemes, please read the call guidelines documents for further information. Call Guidelines - YESI Knowledge Exchange Fellows 2023-2024 Call Guidelines - YESI Discipline Hopping Fellows 2023-2024

Please contact YESI Director lindsay.stringer@york.ac.uk if you want to talk through an idea, or yesi@york.ac.uk for any queries regarding the application process.

We look forward to receiving your innovative project proposals via the google application form. Deadline: Monday 8 January 2024, 12:00 noon.

Contribute your ideas to the BBSRC Big Ideas Pipeline

Contribute to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) vision ‘to push back the frontiers of biology to deliver a healthy, prosperous and sustainable future’.

BBSRC’s ‘Bioscience Big Ideas Pipeline’ is a programme through which we engage with our broad research and innovation community to identify adventurous and exciting ideas that have the potential to be transformational.

We’re looking for ideas that will capture the imagination of researchers, the public, industry, and government. From knowledge gaps and future technologies that will impact upon fundamental research, through to challenges affecting society and the world in which we live.

Please complete the BBSRC form to contribute your ideas.

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 🙂