Good morning folks. Lots of good news to catch up on this week as well as a chance to participate in a research study!
Have a fantastic bank holiday weekend 🌞
Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT
👋 A warm welcome to James Alves 👋
James joined the team on Monday 15th May as a Student Support Assistant. He is based in the Student Services office.
Tobias Nyumba - In Memoriam (fundraising) 💮
We have opened a fundraising pot for the African Conservation Centre in Tobias' name. Click here to donate and leave a message.
The pot closes at midday on Friday 16th June. Many thanks for your contribution.
Rob Marchant and Roland Gehrels
Important Message regarding the Environment Finance inbox 📧
Just a heads up that Naurin will be on AL next week (w/c Tuesday 30 May) and so there will be no cover of the Environment Finance inbox as our new finance assistant (Maja Mackowska) won't be starting until the following week. Thank you for your patience.
Next Dept Staff Meeting: Wednesday 31st May - 11:05-12:00
Our next all-staff department meeting has moved to Wednesday 31st May at 11:05-12:00, fully online. These meetings are mandatory for all DEG Staff and optional for SEI members. If you haven't received a Google calendar invite, please email environment-pa@york.ac.uk.
Financial Year End 💰
A reminder that as we approach our financial year end (31st July 2023), PIs/budget holders will need to check their budgets and make sure that all purchasing and expenses are processed and received a few weeks in advance.
Please make sure you plan accordingly so as to not overload support staff at this busy time of year. Any finance related queries can be sent to environment-finance@york.ac.uk.
Please review the Finance wiki pages for guidelines, processes and policies.
Lucy Orange, Department Administration Manager
University mentoring scheme - Open to All Staff
The People and Organisational Development have launched the next round of the university mentoring scheme.
Applications are currently being accepted for new mentors and mentees. The scheme is open to all staff.
Mentee applications need to be submitted by Wednesday 31st May 2023.
Find further information and how to apply. Any queries, please contact mentoring@york.ac.uk.
🏆 PGR Conference Prize Winners 🏆
Congratulations to this year's PGR Conference Prize Winners!
- Best Poster: Pattrawut Pusingha
- Best Presentation: Zheng Fang
Masterclass talk in SBS on nature based solutions in urban environments
Tuesday, 30th May - 16:00 - 17:30. Free admission, booking not required.
The School for Business and Society is hosting Phil Henry from Genuit Group to talk about nature based solutions in urban environments next Tuesday, 30th May, as part of their Masterclass series in the School for Business and Society.
The event is both in person (in the Church Lane Building) and on Zoom. Click here for more details and to access the Zoom link.
School for Business and Society, University of York
Santander Negotiation Skills programme: now open for applications
Programme details and how to apply:
Working in collaboration with The London School of Economics and Political Science, Santander Negotiation Skills offers 125 scholarships which provide free access to an intensive online programme designed to help people develop their negotiation skills to become more influential, persuasive, and impactful in their role and throughout their careers to advance and succeed in leadership positions.
Participants will walk away with the training, tools and skills needed to be an effective negotiator having benefitted from highly interactive live sessions, immersive content designed by LSE’s leading faculty and access to a diverse network of future leaders from across the globe. Participants will also receive a certificate of competence too and all at no cost to the participants.
The programme is broken down into 6 modules which are released on a weekly basis and can be completed in participants’ own time and at their own pace to allow for flexible, structured learning accompanied by LSE´s learning facilitators. The 7-week online programme commences on the 6th September 2023 and finish on the 24th October.
Applications are open now until the 28th June 2023 and can be made here.
Director for Students - Audio Messages
Our wonderful Director for Students, Samarthia Thankappan, has been sharing an audio message each week with our students. Click the links below to listen to Samarthia's latest messages:
- DfS - Summer Week 1 Message
- DfS - Summer Week 2 Message
- DfS - Summer Week 3 Message
- DfS - Summer Week 4 Message
- DfS - Summer Week 5 Message
- DfS - Summer Week 6 Message
Congratulations to Ella Howes, who has been offered and accepted a permanent position at UNEP-WCMC. Unfortunately this does mean she will be leaving us at the start of August, but we thank her for her hard work here and wish her all the best in her exciting new opportunity.
Congratulations to Nic Carslaw and Samarthia Thankappan who have both been shortlisted for Excellent Awards 2023. Nic has been shortlisted for 'Supervisor of the Year' and also for 'PhD Supervisor of the Year'. Samarthia has been shortlisted for 'Supervisor of the Year' and also for 'Sustainability Champion of the Year'. The Excellence Awards give students the opportunity to show their appreciation to staff across the University, and thank them for their hard work. Congratulations to you both 🌝
Congratulations to Simon Mair who led a session on having more fun with less stuff for a youth group in Leeds.
Congratulations to Sohail Ahmad who has published a project report: Motivations and barriers associated with adopting domestic heat pumps in the UK, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE). The University of Glasgow issued a press release on it as well. Sohail also gave a talk on 'Local Socioeconomic Context and Neighbourhood Satisfaction in Asian Cities: Case Study in Delhi, Dhaka and Manila' to a 5-Days Short Term Course (Online) on 'Recent Research Techniques in Architecture and Planning' at the National Institute of Technology, Patna, India, 18th May 2023. Participants were postgraduate students from various Indian universities.
Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who has published a paper with colleagues in Beijing: Zhou W, Li C, Wang S, Ren Z, Stringer LC, 2023. Effects of vegetation restoration on soil properties and vegetation attributes in the arid and semi-arid regions of China. Journal of Environmental Management 343, 118186.
Congratulations to Enoch Adranyi for his first PhD paper that was recently published, and to supervisors and co-authors LIndsay Stringer and Henrice Altink. The full reference is Adranyi E, Stringer LC, Altink H 2023. The impacts of artisanal and small-scale gold mining on rural livelihood trajectories: Insights from Ghana. The Extractive Industries and Society 14, 101273.
Congratulations to Bryce Stewart who gave a speech at the launch of the new research vessel 'RV COAST Explorer' on the Isle of Arran which was attended by the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition, Mairi McAllan, plus various other politicians, journalist and dignitaries. The launch of the RV COAST Explorer was covered in the Daily Record, the Herald Scotland and on BBC Alba TV in articles quoting the research led by the University of York.
Congratulations to Josh Kirshner who was an invited participant in the "Infrastructure futures: Interdisciplinary experiences and insights" workshop, held in the Geography Department at Durham University, which included early and mid-career academics from several universities. Josh was also an invited participant in "Strategies for decolonization in global development research: The role of participatory research methods and art" workshop, with York's IGDC and the Instituto de Saúde Colectiva, Universidade Federal da Bahia - UFBA (Brazil), held at UoY last week.
Play the Climate Club game, Participate in a research study, Get a £10 amazon voucher!
Climate Club is a role playing card game that deals with various challenges that we all face in the context of sustainability and climate action. The game is played in a group of 3 to 5 players.
This research study is looking for young adult participants (18 to 25 yr olds) who will be asked to play the game, discuss it in a focus group and to answer a questionnaire.
When and Where?
Mon, May 29th, 3 to 5.15 pm @ W/N/301 Wentworth College Seminar Room
Tue, May 30th, 3 to 5.15 pm @ AEW/011 Seminar Room, Alcuin East Wing
Wed, May 31st, 3 to 5.15 pm @ LFA/204&205 Seminar Room, Harry Fairhurst Building
Thu, June 1st, 3 to 5.15 pm @ W/N/301 Wentworth College Seminar Room
How?
Participate in one of the play session by registering yourself along with your friends as a group or just by registering yourself (and we’ll pair you up with other participants).
Limited seats! Max. 5 participants per session. Registration closes on the midnight of Sunday 28th May. Scan the QR code or register by clicking on this link.
Any questions? Write to - prasad.sandbhor@york.ac.uk
Open Innovation Team PhD Placement Scheme 2024
The York Policy Engine is a service at York designed to support staff and students to engage in policy activities. They have a partnership with the Open Innovation Team (OIT), who are based in the Government Department for Education. They are a cross-government unit that specialises in helping academics and professional services staff to generate analysis and ideas for policy. They provide York with support in a number of ways, one of which is offering PhD students placements to work in their team. This is an excellent opportunity and many previous students who have been on the scheme have gone on to take up policy jobs.
Aim of the scheme: to build skills and provide students with an insight to what it’s like to work on policy and in government.
Duration: 3 months full time (placements can start from the beginning of 2024 but students will have flexibility to choose which quarter of the year they want to start)
Deadline for applications: 11:59pm 18th June 2023
Conditions for applicants: You must be studying a PhD at a UK university and be in a position to take up placement prior to any expected viva date. You will also require approval from your PhD supervisor.
Location: Placement students will be able to work remotely, with visits to the London office where OIT will cover travel expenses
More information can be found here including how to apply. And there is more info on the Frequently asked questions page.
If you have further questions please contact Katie.heffron@york.ac.uk who is the Capacity and Policy Engagement Officer in The York Policy Engine team.
Calendar of Early Career Fellowship Calls
There is now an Early Career Fellowship Calendar listing call dates for major early career fellowship schemes. You can add this to your own Google Calendar. If you'd like any additional schemes to be added to the calendar, or if you notice that any dates in the calendar are wrong, please contact fellowships@york.ac.uk.
New AHRC Grants announced
Two new AHRC Grants have been officially announced. These may be of interest to researchers who were previously considering a Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship (which closed permanently in March 2023), as well as early career researchers whose research falls under AHRC's remit: AHRC Pre-announcement: Catalyst Award - to support researchers without prior experience of leading a significant research project to accelerate their trajectory as independent researchers, to unlock their potential and build leadership and convenor experience. AHRC Pre-announcement: Curiosity Award - to fund fundamental research that leads to new research agendas, networking activity and idea generation, which enables the development of further research opportunities and new research agendas.
Both schemes open on 17 July, with a deadline of 19 October.
The Dunhill Medical Trust: Call for Multiple PhD Studentships
The Dunhill Medical Trust are offering the opportunity for research institutions to apply for funding of up to £200,000 to support cohorts of PhD students. Applications must demonstrate support for at least three studentships as part of a strategic commitment to ageing-related research Priority research themes: Improving our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of ageing and age-related disease; Targeting the social determinants of healthy life expectancy; Improving the quality of life for older people, in particular; in developing and delivering suitable living environments; addressing issues of age-related vision, hearing and oral health; Preventing, delaying or reducing future health and social care requirements, in particular, improving the ability to maintain functional independence for older adults. The Trust's strategic priorities outline their priority research themes in more detail. Deadline for applications – 21st July 2023 (5pm) More information about the call and the guidelines can be found here. Please note there is a limit of one application per institution.
To express an interest in leading an application, please get in touch with Taryn Bell or Audrey Bounaix.
- Click here for the Dept Wiki. It is in the process of being updated, but you can find a lot of useful information on it. Please email Lucy at environment-hr@york.ac.uk if you have any feedback.
- Got an item for next week's newsletter? Add them to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. You will see there are multiple tabs, so please use the one that is most relevant to the activity and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented, as it will be copied and pasted from here. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk as usual.
Let's share and celebrate all of your wonderful activities and achievements!
Thanks Team!