Staff Newsletter 18 August 2023

Good morning all, and happy Friday! Lots of Important Info this week ℹ️ 

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

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).

1. Research Evidence Synthesis Training: For Early Career Researchers: Deadline 29th August (this call is already live)

2. The York Policy Associate Scheme: For PhD Student: Deadline 14th September

3. 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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  The late Tobias Nyumba co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature titled Diverse values of nature for sustainability.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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. 

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  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. 

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  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.

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  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 🙂