Staff Newsletter 31 May 2024
- Annabel Jackson (Deactivated)
Important Information
Purchaseย cardย payments
If you need a one-off item/serviceย purchasingย via a departmentalย purchaseย card, please email the relevant contact:
For lab/tech relatedย purchases: Dave atย dave.hay@york.ac.uk
For student relatedย purchasesย (including for PhD students): Rachel atย environment@york.ac.uk
For staff related/miscย purchases: Annabel atย environment-pa@york.ac.uk
For staff/student Amazonย purchases, please use the Amazonย purchaseย request form.
Please send proof of approval from the budget holder, as well as the work order. For allย purchasesย on a core work order over ยฃ1,000, these also need to be approved by Lucy atย environment-dhfo@york.ac.uk. Please make sure you read theย University'sย purchasingย guidanceย ahead of your request.
Other Events
Environment/Natural World events at York Festival of Ideas, 1st - 14th June
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Dr Sarah Mitchell (Head of Events and Deputy-Director, York Festival of Ideas) would like to share a selection of this year's Festival programme, which is being delivered either online or in-person. The vast majority of these are free to the public.
This year the programme includes a number of Environment/Natural Worldย events, which might be of interest to staff and/orย any partners/networks you may have
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International Peatland Science Conference, 18 - 21 Sept 2024: Registration and call for abstracts deadline TODAY!
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The Peatland Science Centre (PSC) of the University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf invites you to the International Peatland Science Conference (iPSC) from September 18-21, 2024 in Freising, Germany. We are pleased to announce that our conference website, including registration for the iPSC "Peatlands and Ecosystem Functions", is now online. We have put together a comprehensive session-program with excellent national and international participation and look forward to an important peatland-conference. Over the course of two days, scientific and practical topics related to peatlands will be discussed, and on the third day, excursions to the peatlands of Bavaria will take place. The conference provides a forum for the exchange of the latest research results, innovative approaches, and proven practices in peatland management. The call for abstracts is open untilย 31st May 2024. Registration for the conference without an abstract is possible until July 15. You can find all further information on the conference website:Peatlands and Ecosystem Functions โ iPSC Do promote the conference within your network.
Good News and Media Engagement
Following on from a recent paper in STOTEN, Ed Garrett has an article in The Conversation about saltmarsh carbon accumulation. There's also a press release about the work here.
Sarah Bridle facilitated a two day workshop in Bristol for researchers and food system stakeholders interested in applying for scoping study grants from the AFN Network to devleop project ideas around supporting the agri-food sector's transition towards a net zero UK.
On Saturday 25 May, Sam Buckton led the first excursion of the newly reformed York Naturalists group around St Nicholas Fields Local Nature Reserve. Participants included Prof Alastair Fitter, UoY alumna Jane Thomas and several current UoY PhD students, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust staff, and other local naturalists. Interesting finds from the day included the Nationally Scarce Cow Parsley Leaf Beetle Chrysolina oricalcia, a relative of the famous Tansy Beetle.
The pre-print of the paper 'Transformative action towards regenerative food systems: A large-scale case study' authored by Sam Buckton, Ioan Fazey, Suzanne Om, Sarah Bridle, Rebecca Newman and many others in the FixOurFood research programme continues to be one of the most downloaded papers on SSRN (as measured over the last 60 days).
On 22nd May, FixOurFood hosted a workshop with members of North Yorkshire Council and its wider stakeholders to explore the value of actors in the food system working together towards system transformation, and how such partnerships could be enabled by governance. The workshop was facilitated by Rebecca Newman, with Ioan Fazey, Sam Buckton and Suzanne Om as co-facilitators. Lee Eyre and Rebecca Goodman also participated.
On 23rd May, Ioan Fazey and Sam Buckton facilitated a Three Horizons conversation in an online executive forum ('Mastering Disruption in the Exponential Age', hosted by Jonah Larkin) with CEOs of tech, financial and other companies, to explore the challenge of adapting to advances in AI and what future AI-aligned companies would look like. E&G Honorary Fellow Kris Kluver also participated.
New perspectives paper - 'The urgent need for designing greener drugs', has been scheduled for publication in Nature Sustainability on 05 June 2024. Co-authors are from around the world - Professor Tomas Brodin , Professor Kathryn Arnold, Professor Alistair Boxall , Professor Bryan Brooks , Dr Daniel Cerveny , Dr Manuela Jorg , Dr Karen Kidd , Professor Klaus Kรผmmerer , Dr Unax Lertxundi , Dr Jake Martin , Dr Lauren May , Dr Erin McCallum , Dr Marcus Michelangeli , Charles Tyler , Professor Bob Wong and Professor Gorka Orive.
Research Opportunities and Updates
Enhancing Research Culture: Conversations between academia and industry
When: Friday 14th June, 11am-1pm
Where: B/T/005
The next session of ourย Enhancing Research Cultureย project is coming up onย Friday 14th June, 11am-1pm in B/T/005,ย titled Conversations between academia and industry.ย
Come along to this event to hear from our panellists who have spent significant time working in industry and have experience collaborating and working with academics. There will be plenty of opportunities toย ask questions to the panel and networkย over lunch.ย
The speakers for this session are:
Dr Richard Law, Chief Business Officer, Exscientia
Dr Radha Parmar, Science and Technology Consultant Biologics - EMEA, Twist Bioscience
Professor Jason Snape, Professor in Sustainable Healthcare and Environmental Sustainability, University of York
Professor Helen Sneddon, Professor of Sustainable Chemistry and Director of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York
Dr Katerina Steventon, Business Development Manager, Skin Centre, Hull York Medical School
Dr Hebe Bevan OBE, CEO and Founder of UtterBerry Ltd (via zoom)
ย You can find out more about our speakers on theย speaker profile document.ย
If you would like to attend please sign up via thisย google form. We can then order the right amount of lunch. Hot drinks will be provided at the start of the session, please bring your own cup.ย ย
If you are unable to attend in-person, we plan to live stream the session on the day and also have a recording to share after the session. Please indicate in the google form if your preference is to attend in-person or via live-stream.ย We will also send you a calendar invite.
There is also a new online learning resource about research impact that we want to make you aware of.ย Available to all staff,ย Research Impact: Creating Meaning and Valueย is an online, self-directed learning resource which covers the fundamentals of research impact. The course is suitable for researchers and support staff at all career stages, whether youโre new to research impact or already have some experience. It features interactive activities and examples from a breadth of research disciplines. The course has been specifically designed so you can dip in and out of the modules whenever it suits you, and is split into 5 modules which cover topics including planning for impact, engagement with stakeholders, and evaluating impact. The course will also be available to postgraduate researchers in spring 2024.ย For more information contactย impact-and-ke-training@york.ac.ukย
British Academy seeking to commission 10 discussion papers on Net Zero
The British Academy is seeking to commission up to ten discussion papers that will contribute to our Net Zero Governance policy programme. You can find the full details and terms of reference here. The deadline for proposals is 7 June 2024.
The papers will provide crucial evidence to inform the programme on how, why and when governance matters on net zero, and practical mechanisms that enable effective direction, oversight and delivery for organisations and institutions committed to delivering net zero. This can be explored through the perspective of leaders and the perspective of publics. The authors will be invited to join policy events convened by the Academy in the coming months.
Do share this opportunity among your networkย with researchers focused on the net zero agenda, especially if they are working on existing projects or emerging evidence on this topic. ย
We will be running anย open webinar on Zoom on Friday 31 May at 10:00 (BST) for anyone interested in the callย to hear a short presentation from us on the call, and space to ask questions on any aspect. If you would like to join the webinar, please email policy@thebritishacademy.ac.ukย and we will provide the Zoom link.
In September, we are also planning to convene researchers working on net zero governanceย through knowledge exchange events to support sharing existing and emerging research across SHAPE disciplines โ please let us know if you would be interested in attending by emailing policy@thebritishacademy.ac.uk
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