Staff Newsletter 15 September 2023

Good morning folks! Lots of items this week as we begin the new Academic Year.

Wishing everyone a fantastic start to the first semester 💻

Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT

Coffee Morning: Change of Day

Our Department's weekly Coffee Morning in the Heartspace at 10:30 has moved from Tuesdays to Thursdays. The day of our weekly Coffee Morning changes each semester.

If you would like to help with setting up, click here to join the rota and to read the set up instructions. Any help is, as always, greatly appreciated!

We hope to see you on Thursday 21st September at 10:30 for the first Coffee Morning of the new Academic Year! ☕

First Dept Staff Monthly Meeting of the new Academic Year - Recording 🎙️

Lots of updates from Roland this month and a presentation of NSS Scores from our Director of Teaching and Learning. Click the link below to watch the recording:

Dept Staff Monthly Meeting (September) - Recording

Our next Dept Staff Monthly Meeting will be in October. If you would like to present an item at our next meeting, please email environment-pa@york.ac.uk with a brief summary of the item and an estimation of how long you will need. 

Sickness Absence reporting

A reminder that as a line manager, you must report your staff's sickness absence to environment-hr@york.ac.uk. Please visit the Sickness Absence wiki site for more information.

Please note that unfortunately reporting sickness absence on FlexiLeave doesn't actually feed through anywhere - it's fine to continue to do this to keep a log, but you still need to report the absence to environment-hr@york.ac.uk.

National Postdoc Appreciation Week

National Postdoc Appreciation Week takes place 18 - 22 September this year. The Postdoc and Research Staff Appreciation Padlet offers everyone an opportunity to leave messages of celebration for our postdocs. Feel free to post something nice!

DEG World Mental Health Day Celebration

On Wednesday 11th October, as part of our annual activities in EDC, the Department will be celebrating World Mental Health Day 2023.

Details TBC

Presentations for Lecturer in Sustainability - Thursday 21st September, 09:50 - 11:50

Roland would like to invite you to the virtual presentations for the Lecturer in Sustainability recruitment. It would be great to have as many of you there as possible.

Candidates have been asked to give a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on the topic: A 5 year vision for my teaching and research at York. There will then be five minutes for you to ask the candidates any questions about their presentation.

We will ask you to provide feedback using this feedback form.

The first presentation will start at 10:00. We ask that you join the call in advance of 10:00 to allow us to start the presentations on time. There will be a waiting room, and anyone entering after a candidate will have to wait until the next candidate slot to be admitted.

The last presentation should end at around 11:40, and we would appreciate you completing the feedback form during/after the presentations.

Here is the Zoom link for the Lecturer in Sustainability presentations.

Presentations for Lecturer in Environmental Science recruitment - Tuesday, 26 September, 9:10 – 11:00

Roland would like to invite you to the virtual presentations for the Lecturer in Environmental Science recruitment. It would be great to have as many of you there as possible.

Candidates have been asked to give a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on the topic: A 5 year vision for my teaching and research at York. There will then be five minutes for you to ask the candidates any questions about their presentation.

We will ask you to provide feedback using this feedback form.

The first presentation will start at 09:15. We ask that you join the call in advance of 09:15 to allow us to start the presentations on time. There will be a waiting room, and anyone entering after a candidate will have to wait until the next candidate slot to be admitted.

The last presentation should end at around 11:00, and we would appreciate you completing the feedback form during/after the presentations.

Here is the Zoom link for the Lecturer in Environmental Science presentations.

RGS / GeogEd Teaching & Learning events

For colleagues new to teaching geography at university:

• New to teaching geography at university, Thursday 26 October, 10:30 – 4:30 (in person at the RGS-IBG, £25) – a one-day workshop for new geography lecturers, teaching-fellows, and other early career academics teaching in geography departments post-PhD. Book here: https://www.rgs.org/events/autumn-2023/new-to-teaching-geography-at-university/

For colleagues interested in work based learning / employability:

• Work-based learning and employability in geography and related programmes (TeaS) Wednesday 15 November, 1 – 2pm – A session co-delivered by Dr Helen King (Northumbria University) and Dr Rebecca Jones (Bangor University) and is focused on helping colleagues develop and deliver work-based learning and employability initiatives for students on geography and related programmes.

"Demystifying Report + Support" session 

The Student Conduct and Respect team is running a session "Demystifying Report + Support" on Tuesday 17th October to mark Hate Crime Awareness Week.

They are hoping that this session will help people overcome some barriers to reporting by equipping them with some understanding of the Report and Support Process. 

For more information and to sign up for the event, please follow this link. 

Chris Brunt, Equality and Diversity Office

Staff Bitesize Sessions

The Return of Staff Digital Skills “Bitesize” Sessions! • October - December (Various dates) • Online

Ready to enhance your digital skills? Low on time? Join the DISC team for their online digital upskilling sessions!

Bite-sized, hour-long topics including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, mail merges, digital accessibility and more!

Visit the mini-site for all details and book your place.

• Dave Rippin gave a radio interview about a big international project that he was involved in. The UoY press release is here and the radio interview went out at 1520 on Friday 8th September on BBC Radio York (available on BBC Sounds for anyone interested).

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  Jon Pitchford (Maths & Biology) and Bryce Stewart presented their research on the Pyramids of Life and scallop potting projects to the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission at a workshop focused on marine activities.

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  York Press wrote a piece on the INTERdisciplinary Facility for IndOoR Air Quality and Health ReSearch (referred to as INTERIORS) project led by Nic Carslaw: University of York plans two identical homes for air quality research.

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  Anika Haque presented her work at the Royal Geographical Soceity annual conference earlier this month, on the pro poor climate adaptation processes in the urban periphery.

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  At the 9th international degrowth conefrence, Simon Mair presented an autoethnography of value theory drawing on his experiences in voluntary and paid work, and led a workshop on teaching degrowth in a management education setting.

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  Giovanna Massei attended International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence in Oxford and presented the talk “The other side of human wildlife conflicts – a global perspective on fertility control to manage overabundant wildlife.” She was also keynote speaker at the European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference August 28 – September 1, 2023 Florence, Italy –University of Florence and co-chaired a session and a panel discussion on wildlife fertility control. Giovanna was also invited by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria’s Reproductive Management Group (EAZA RMG) to prepare a 45-minute lecture on "Too many? Reproductive management of free-ranging animals" for the May 2023 Massive Open Online Course on Reproductive Management, and to serve as a panellist for the final webinar on the course. And finally, Giovanna designed and co-hosted and 4 hour workshop on “Challenges with fertility control in the wild “ for the The Zoo and Wildlife Health Conference, Valencia (Spain) 7-10 June 2023.

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  Dave Rippin's new NERC grant entitled 'Greenland ice marginal lake evolution as a driver of ice sheet change - how important are rising lake temperatures?' started on 1st September. Pete Tuckett has joined the Department from the University of Sheffield as the post-doc on this project, and he'll be with us for the 3-year duration of the project. Pete is located in Room ENV/326 so please pop and say hello if you're passing.

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  From Andreas Heinemeyer: Our Future Landscapes Forum has released its first position stattement around evidence of heather management on peatlands by prescribed fire. It has attracted a lot of media attention (Herald, The Scotsman, CountryLife, Yahoo Finance, Farmers Weekly, Farmers Guardian, Yorkshire Post).

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  Xun Zhou chaired and presented in a session on 'Malmquist productivity index' at the DEA45: International Conference on Data Envelopment Analysis held in Guildford, Surrey, UK, 4-6 September.

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  Felicia Liu has had a paper accepted to the London School of Economics Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre Working Paper Series, titled ‘Seasons of the Anthropocene’: Politicisation of the Haze Season in Southeast Asia'. The paper focuses on how political and corporate actors in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore deploy 'haze season' discursively to normalise the annual air pollution phenomenon caused by unsustainable practices by the palm oil and pulp and paper sectors, and justify the tolerance and non-action to taking ambitious, meaningful mitigative action. The paper is available here.

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  Ed Garrett, Fiona Hibbert and Roland Gehrels are coauthors on a paper on the magnitude and source of meltwater forcing of the 8.2ka climate event. The paper, published in Quaternary Science Advances, is led by former PhD student Graham Rush. Press release.

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  The Times wrote an article 'Water firms accused of illegal sewage release on dry days' which mentioned the relevant academics - Alistair Boxall and John Wilkinson from our department.

Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏

SAMHE: Free air quality resource for schools

Do you have links to a school/s? Please share information with them about SAMHE, a DfE supported citizen science research project on air quality in UK schools.

Schools receive a FREE indoor air quality monitor linked to an interactive Web App where teachers and pupils can view the data in a range of formats and use it in curriculum-linked activities and experiments.

Download text to email to schools, use in a newsletter or share on social media from the SAMHE media page and follow SAMHE on twitter. 

Student Survey

CSEM student Cris Sosa is using DEG as a case study for her dissertation research into understanding how a change in the core values in an organization impacts various stakeholders. As part of this it would be really helpful if you could please fill out this survey. It should only take 6 minutes, and is completely anonymous: you cannot be identified from your responses.

Online Survey about Racialised Barriers to Research Funding Access in the UK

The University of Bristol is conducting a survey exploring how Black academics in the UK experience the national research funding landscape, including the lack of equitable research funding access. UKRI is encouraging participation in order to help inform their aim to address underrepresentation of Black and Black heritage academics as awardees following a review of their portfolio.

The survey is open to Black and Black heritage academics currently employed in a UK university and working (part-time or full-time) primarily in the Natural Sciences, Medical Sciences, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, and/or Technology. Please note that PhD students are not eligible to participate.

The survey takes 15 minutes to complete. Further details and link to the survey. The deadline for responses is 30/09/2023.

The York Researcher Festival: Call for contributions and expressions of interest

The Annual York Researcher Festival will take place during the week 6-10 November 2023. The Festival provides a dedicated space and time in which we celebrate our early career researchers and facilitate opportunities to come together across disciplines - to share experiences, learn, network and develop new skills. Researchers at York should be encouraged to engage in a minimum of 10 days’ professional development pro rata per year.

Ahead of the Festival we are looking for the following types of contributions from anyone who is conducting and/or supporting research at York:

Opportunities to learn: Do you have knowledge or experience you would like to share with the research community? This could take the form of organising/facilitating a discussion or workshop, or sharing ideas/experience of being involved in different aspects of the research community. This might also include sessions relevant to professional and career development.

Opportunities to connect: Are you interested in promoting well-being and fostering social connections within the research community? This could include organising/facilitating a themed event and/or bringing people together who may have shared interests/hobbies beyond research.

If you would like to get involved, please contact bric@york.ac.uk with your ideas and to discuss it further before Friday 15 September.

National Postdoc Appreciation Week, 18-22 September 2023

National Postdoc Appreciation Week takes place 18 - 22 September this year. We'd like to ask departments to consider how they might recognise and thank their postdocs and research staff, and celebrate the valued contribution they make as part of the research and University community. This might be in the form of an email from the HoD, a mention in a departmental meeting, or social media activity during the week to highlight the great work of research staff. Previous creative ideas within the University include providing VIP guest passes through York Sport, campus coffee vouchers, research staff awards and more.

Taking inspiration from the Biology department in 2022, the BRIC team have set up a University ‘Postdoc and Research Staff Appreciation’ Padlet for staff and students to recognise individuals for their valued contribution towards research at York. To add a post click the + icon at the bottom right hand corner.

Monday 18 September, 10:30-12:00

UK NPAW 2023 - Creating connections and rediscovering joy.

Tuesday 19 September

National Postdoc Conference 2023 online and in person at Loughborough University.

Introducing single sign-on and two-factor authentication for PURE • Monday 11 September • PURE unavailable 10:00-11:00

Single sign-on and Two-factor authentication will be added to PURE on Monday 11th September. PURE will be unavailable for approximately 1 hour (10:00-11:00) while the authentication system is switched over. Many systems at the University already use the single sign-on method alongside Duo two-factor authentication.

If you have had the PURE login page bookmarked for a long time, the URL may need updating. Full details about the upcoming login changes to PURE can be found in the PURE User Guide for Single sign-on and Two-factor authentication on the York Wiki (login required).

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this interruption.

YorVoice Launch: 3-5pm, 20th September, The Treehouse, Berrick Saul building.

YorVoice is one of the new Sparks projects - an exciting new interdisciplinary initiative run by Amelia Gully, Sophie Meekings and Vince Hughes which will bring together anyone interested in the human voice from across the University. We aim to establish a supportive and collaborative research culture for voice, with regular events, shared resources, and funding for new projects (including staff buyout).

Whether you are currently undertaking foundational or applied research into the human voice, or just want to find out more, come and join us for an introduction to the project and networking over wine, non-alcoholic drinks, and nibbles.

If you’d like to attend, please fill out the sign-up form. If you can't make the launch event, but would like to hear more about the project, please complete the YorVoice Community Membership form.

For any questions please contact sparks@york.ac.uk.

PURE data - Scopus Author ID cleaning

We would like to inform you that we are in the process of cleaning Scopus Author ID data on PURE. This will be done by teams in the Library with support from the Policy, Integrity & Performance team and you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns, would like to opt out of any changes being made to your PURE profile, or would like further information please contact us by 27 September (noon) at lib-open-research@york.ac.uk. The data cleaning of Scopus Author IDs should lead to improvements in the accuracy with which outputs are matched to authors in PURE. It also enables us to set up and maintain a departmental structure on SciVal, a research intelligence platform using data from Scopus. Departments are now able to use SciVal to monitor their research outputs against their strategy. An overview report for your department on SciVal can be created by following the instruction on Bibliometrics: a Practical Guide. For more information please contact the Open Research Team (lib-open-research@york.ac.uk).

Research Support Outage - 22/09/2023

The research support team will be unavailable on Friday 22nd September. On this day, both the personal and the shared inboxes will be unmonitored. Support will resume at a reduced capacity on Monday 25th September. We apologise for any innconvience this may cause and welcome you to contact the team (environment-research@york.ac.uk) should you have any queries or concerns.

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 🙂