Staff Newsletter 23 June 2023

Good morning folks. An important update on the Kharkiv-York Partnership and lots of good news again this week 🙂

Have a fantastic weekend 🌞 

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

Next Dept Staff Meeting: Tuesday 4th July, 13:05 - 14:00

Our next all-staff department meeting will take place on Tuesday 4th July at 13:05 - 14:00, fully online. These meetings are mandatory for all DEG Staff and optional for SEI members. If you haven't received a Google calendar invite, or if you would like to add an item to the agenda, please email Chloe at environment-pa@york.ac.uk. 

Calling supervisors!

Have any of your students been working on a sustainability-related project? Environmental Sustainability at York (ESAY) is looking for student sustainability stories to share with the wider University community. This could be a dissertation, final year project or extracurricular activity that your students have completed. If you have something you would like to share please send an email to Anna Morfitt, ESAY Communications Officer via anna.morfitt@york.ac.uk.  Please ensure you have the student's permission to share the information.  The same message has also been sent to all students via our Employability newsletter.

-Angela Purdham, Industry Liaison Officer

Geospatial Commission’s new strategy (2030)

Some of you will have seen last week’s launch of the Geospatial Commission’s new strategy (2030).  UK Geospatial Strategy 2030 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). A number of themes those in your departments will be interested in e.g. EO, population movement data, land use, Living Wales, the geography of work and example of universities with interesting programmes.

There’s also a commitment to ‘By summer 2024 we will work with universities to publish best practice as a first step towards embedding geospatial into data science and geography courses’.

Colleagues are encouraged to engage directly with the Commission and also keep me looped in regarding future discussions we will have with them (so I can showcase/connect too).

-Dr Catherine Souch, Head Research & Higher Education, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London.

Summer 2023 funding: Laura Bassi Scholarship

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in Summer 2023:

Application deadline: 25 July 2023
Results: 10 August 2023

All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline.

Further details, including previous winners, and the application portal can be found here.

Graduation - Thursday 20th July 🎓

Our summer graduation ceremony will be taking place on Thursday 20th July 2023, with the ceremony starting at 13:30, followed by a central reception from 14:45 - 16:15.

We would like to host a drop-in drinks reception before the ceremony, from 11:30 - 12:30. We would like to encourage as many staff as possible to be there to support our students and show staff presence. In addition, we are asking for volunteers to support setting up, serving, and packing away the drinks for this. This will be split into two teams: a setting up team (from 10:30 - 11:45) and a clearing away team (from 11:45 - 13:00). We would like to share this work across staff in the department.

If you would like to volunteer, please use this graduation sign up sheet.

The deadline to sign up is Friday 30th June 2023.

Talk: Ask Your Teacher To Take You Outside

Date & Time: Thursday 29 June, 10:00 - 10:45

Location: Berrick Saul BS/2 Open Seating Area and via Zoom)

Why don't people always act on the issues that matter to them? Does more knowledge equal more action? Given the environmental urgencies we face, how can we enhance the way we teach about, for and in the environment to encourage pro-environmental behaviour? I found myself asking these questions during my time teaching in international schools, and embarked on a PhD, and now a postdoctoral fellowship, to find out. In this talk, I share some intriguing findings about (1) the impact of citizen science experiences on pro-environmental values, attitudes and behaviours; (2) which behaviour psychology variables most influence behaviour; (3) some complementary and conflicting student and teacher perspectives about the effectiveness of certain citizenship actions; and (4) what students need from their schools to be equipped to take action. I close with an invitation to co-create campus-wide experiential initiatives to enhance learning and engagement in and for our natural environment.

-Dr. Smriti Safaya, Postdoctoral Fellow, Environmental Sustainability Academy at York (ESAY), The University of York

Karazin Kharkiv National University Visit 

From Thursday 6th July the department will be hosting a number of academics and PhD students from Karazin Kharkiv National University in the Ukraine. This is part of the project Kharkiv-York Partnership Towards a Zero Pollution Environment in Post-War Ukraine

During July and August 8 PhD students will be involved in research projects, spread across the departments of Environment and Geography, Physics, Electronics and Technology and Chemistry, focusing on gaining hands-on experience of different research methods in areas such as ecotoxicology, environmental fate assessment, modelling, environmental analysis, green chemistry and remediation science.

Three academics from KKNU will spend the 1st week of the summer school in York,

• Hanna Titenko, the Dean of the Institute of Environmental Sciences

• Nataliia Popovych from the Department of Physical Geography and Cartography which is part of the School of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism

• Nina Polchaninova from Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology

On Monday 10th July at 10:30am they will give a seminar in ENV/105, where Hanna Titenko and Nataliia Popovych will introduce their respective departments and explain a little about their research. Nina Polchaninova will talk specifically about "Spider diversity as an indicator of natural and human-induced changes in dry grasslands of the East European Plain"

This seminar is open to all, so do please come along and meet with them.

A schedule of visits has been arranged for the academics but should you wish to meet with them please do get in touch with Linda Elvin (linda.elvin@york.ac.uk).

At the end of August we will welcome a different group academics from the KKNU. Further details of this visit will be circulated in due course.

Upcoming conference: Nature-based Solutions through Carbon and Biodiversity Credits

Dates: 27-28 July

Location: City centre campus of the University of Lincoln,

The 'First Annual Conference on Nature-based Solutions using Carbon and Biodiversity Credit Funding' (https://bccconference.lincoln.ac.uk/) will take place on the city centre campus of the University of Lincoln, UK on 27-28 July. This conference is organised by the University of Lincoln in association with the IEMA and brings together for the first time private, state and non-state sectors with mutual interests in developing carbon and biodiversity credits to achieve common objectives.  

The conference is organised on a Panel discussion format to maximise interaction between all delegates. A range of topics will be covered relating to the design, financing and implementation of terrestrial and marine biodiversity and carbon credit schemes in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Panel speakers include leading representatives from the UNDP, CIFOR-ICRAF, NatWest Bank, Verra, Glaxo Smith Kline, Plan Vivo, the Holkham and Knepp Estates alongside high profile academic and private sector researchers from the UK and overseas. Informal meeting spaces are available throughout the conference which also includes an evening drinks reception on the 27 July. This event will be of interest to researchers with interests in this rapidly growing field and afford a unique opportunity to secure valuable contacts and networks.  

All delegates are requested to register their attendance on the conference website at https://bccconference.lincoln.ac.uk/delegate-registration/  

A reduced price of GBP80 for academics is available. Please enter code CCC_U0L when registering. Further information on travel and accommodation in Lincoln is also available on the website. Please direct any queries relating to the conference to Dr Julian Clifton (jclifton@lincoln.ac.uk). 

 Click here to listen to the last message from Samarthia Thankappan, our Director for Students, for the Summer Term.

Matt Pickering and Rebecca Sutton attended the Green Impact awards and were presented with a Platinum Labs award, which was fantastic and the highest we've achieved so far. It was also lovely to see a DEG alumni, Rachel Soper, who now works for SOS-UK (Students Organising for Sustainability-UK) and oversees the Green Impact scheme across the UK, in Universities, the NHS and now rolling out into Schools. She began her Green Impact association during an internship here at the university. Congratulations to both of you!

Congratulations to Sarah Bridle who joined a panel at the Big Tent Ideas Festival in York, alongside Lord Oates, Chloe Smee from Soil Association, Young Food Foundation Ambassador Laiba Mahmood and Chief Exec of Food Foundation Anna Taylor, to discuss how we can feed ourselves and the world sustainably, securely & affordably. Sarah was also interviewed on Radio Kent about the relative costs of microwaving food vs other cooking methods ie oven cooking.

The Central Careers Department provided some hugely positive reflections on Flood Week as a great example of employability being embedded in curriculum for 13 years, which drew to a close for the final time earlier this month. With continued support from employers such as City of York council each year, students have been highly engaged with solving the real-world scenario of flooding in York, working in groups all week to deliver a bid with their proposed solutions. The skills developed during Flood Week are valuable to the experiences students can take forward in job applications and interviews, which provide key examples to support their personal and professional development as they continue their studies. You can view more information and examples of best practice case-studies of employability in the curriculum across a range of faculties. Thank you to Dean Waters and Angela Purdham/Employability Team for organising and hosting such a great week! Congratulations!

Congratulations to Sam Buckton who has contributed a blog to North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre's 'Natural History of Yorkshire in 100 Species' project. His blog describes the dock smut fungus Microbotryum parlatorei which he recently recorded at St Nicholas Fields, the first Yorkshire record for more than fifty years of this internationally rare species.

Congratulations to Anika Haque who gave a talk at the York Festival of Ideas entitled 'Slums or Formal Housing? Looking through urban women’s eyes.'

Simon Mair is leading the UK work for WISE Horizons, a Horizon Europe project focussing on post-growth economic policy. As part of this there is a WISE Horizons Network, a platform that enables those who are interested in our project to stay informed and engage with us. Please click here if you would like to join. Please do share this with anyone else who might be interested!

University Research Priming Strategic Capital funding

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

The application form and guidance notes are available online.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Internal Funding Team if you have any queries.

The deadline for applications is Friday 7 July 2023 at noon.

Support for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship Applicants

Taryn Bell will be running an information session on Wednesday 19 July, 10:30-12:00, for those interested in applying to this year's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship call. Register to attend via Zoom.

Applicants can also book 15-minute appointments with Branwen Hide, Senior European Advisor at the UK Research Office (UKRO) and Taryn Bell, the University's Fellowship Coordinator, on 27 July, from 12:00-15:00. All appointments will take place on Zoom. You'll have a chance to discuss your application, including eligibility and scope, and gain tips on how to improve your application. If you're interested, please book a slot.

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 midday 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 🙂