We will be holding the monthly Wednesday afternoon funding drop-in in the staff room on the ground floor of CCE1 this week from 2.30-4.00.
Questions regarding divorce, child custody, and child support all fall under the expertise of a family lawyer. This is an opportunity to ask any funding-related questions, big or small, or to get advice on funding opportunities, draft proposals and bid ideas from Emma Batey (Business and Engagement Manager), Louise Wyers (Pre-Award Co-ordinator) and me (Research Funding and Policy Manager).
The 2017 European Research Council Consolidator Grants call has been launched with a 9 Feb deadline. Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators with 7-12 years of experience since completion of their PhD and at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. Applicants must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal. These are “frontier” research grants operating on a “bottom-up” basis without predetermined themes or priorities.
This is highly competitive but also highly rewarding funding with up to €2 million available per award, covering up to 100% of the eligible direct costs of the research. If you are interested in applying, please contact your Faculty Research Funding and Policy Manager.
Emma Batey, the Faculty’s Business and Engagement Manager, and I (Research Funding and Policy Manager for B&L) will hold the monthly Wednesday afternoon funding drop-in in the staff room on the ground floor of CCE1 this week from 2.30-4.00.
This is an opportunity to ask any funding-related questions, big or small, or to get advice on funding opportunities, draft proposals and bid ideas. To book a specific time, please email me or Emma.
There has been a good amount of faculty interest in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships lately and Emma is happy to focus this session on developing KTPs, identifying deadlines, building relationships with external organisations and any other KTP-related questions but please feel free to come along to talk about other funding issues too.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is offering a three-day course called the ‘Engaging with Government Programme’. You can secure funding from the AHRC to cover the costs of the course, accommodation, travel and subsistence if you are an early career researcher working in any area of the AHRC’s subject domain who is within eight years of your PhD or six years of academic appointment.
As part of our commitments to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and HR Excellence in Research Award, two research mentoring workshops will be held on Thursday 15 September.
Effective mentoring involves not only knowledge and expertise grounded in research and organisational experience, but also the fundamental skills of effective listening and questioning and an ability to generate insight and convert that into accountable action.
This workshop is an opportunity to:
o Understand the context for research mentoring at Northumbria
o Hear from successful mentors and mentees
o Share good practice with peers and colleagues
o Work practically through some core mentoring approaches including:
o a practical model for mentoring conversations
o setting accountable actions
Whether established or new to mentoring at Northumbria you are encouraged to attend one of the workshops. This is also a good way to meet other mentors and refresh or learn new mentoring techniques. If you are still in the early stages of your research career and are interested in developing your mentoring skills, you are also welcome toattend.
Workshop Dates and Times:
Thursday 15th September 2016, 09.30 – 12.00, City Campus
Thursday 15th September 2016, 13.00 – 15.30, City Campus
A Research Mentoring Frameworkhas been developed as part of the Researcher Development Programme to ensure all research-active staff have access to mentors. As part of the framework, regular training opportunities are provided for existing mentors and those interested in developing their mentoring skills or becoming a mentor in the future.
Guest blogger, Dr Tamsin Saxton, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Northumbria University shares the insights she gained at an event designed to provide information to support academics in creating and capitalising on opportunities to work with industry. Below, she summarises the key take-home points explaining why industry collaborations are useful, possible barriers to these collaborations, and how to go about setting up and developing collaborations.
Benefits of collaborations
Academics and universities have a lot to gain from collaborating with industry, whether that be local small businesses, global enterprises, or something in between. Industry collaborations can add substantive content, innovation, and expertise to research funding applications. In some instances, industry might contribute directly to university projects, perhaps by supplying funding, or making available rich and extensive data sets. The best applied research addresses fundamental real-world problems; one of the best ways to uncover those problems can be through industrial collaborations, and successful resolution of those problems can lead to the kind of impact that may well be needed in the next REF. Industry collaborations can also enhance the student experience, such as through work experience opportunities or guest lecture invitations.
Industry also has a lot to gain from collaborations with universities. Universities can offer the best in cutting-edge research, which can be tremendously exciting to an enterprise which might be using outdated approaches, or might just not have the time and resources to dedicate to innovation. Even the largest organisations often do not have the research capacity to innovate constantly in relation to all of their activities, which is why we see universities collaborating with industries of all shapes and sizes. A university collaboration can be a mark of prestige and value to a business organisation, increasing its value and standing among its competitors, and also in the eyes of evaluators such as investors. Collaborations also provide opportunities for businesses to reflect upon their working practices.
Collaborations with businesses in the North-East of England have their own particular benefits. Compared to the rest of the UK, the North-East has the lowest number of start-up companies per capita. Accordingly, local collaborations can help improve this record, while building the regional economy and innovative capacity, and potentially tackling specific societal and economic challenges.
Barriers to collaboration
The establishment of industrial collaborations, however, entails overcoming a number of barriers. Universities do not always market their expertise well; it can be very difficult for external organisations to find out essential information: the expertise, skills and equipment available; who is available for and interested in collaborations; how to go about making and developing contacts. Universities can appear to be alien, intimidating environments; the idea of the ‘ivory tower’ can be off-putting. In addition, universities can be perceived to be expensive working partners, they have different priorities from businesses, and businesses and universities speak a different language and run on different timescales.
Exploration-Innovation – M Schmidt (CC by 2.0)
Developing successful projects
There are a number of ways to try to overcome the barriers to collaboration and develop successful projects. University Business Engagement Managers are very happy to talk to academics and provide support. They can point academics to suitable business representatives who are also keen to encourage new projects that will support businesses. Indeed, it can often be wise to involve a trusted body, such as an organisation that provides representation for a set of industries, in a project or a funding application. This body can guide academics to suitable local contacts, and explain the priorities, schedules, and needs of the particular industry in question. It’s always important to keep in mind that successful projects are only built on successful relationships with people, and so building relationships has to be paramount. Starting with a small project, such as a dissertation project, can be a good way to build trust and knowledge of different working styles and needs. Finding out what the industry needs, and offering to help, is a more effective opening gambit than striding in with a request for money, input, or project commitment. Finally, once the project is up and running, then a few things might help it proceed smoothly: have a clear plan; establish common goals and projects; and build in engagement opportunities such as workshops or seminars where you keep people up to date with the project development and particularly its successes.
The event, ‘ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Capacity Building Event’, was held on 26th April 2016, and hosted by Newcastle University (Business School). This report was written by event delegate Dr Tamsin Saxton, Senior Lecturer in Psychology (https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/s/tamsin-saxton)
Newcastle Business School and Department of Psychology are holding a joint seminar on “Enhancing Employability” on Thursday 23rd June from 13.00-16.30 at City Campus East CCE1-224c to which all interested staff are welcome.
The seminar will examine developments in the conceptualisation and theorisation of employability from empirical research. It also aims to question the established orthodoxy of employability as the acquisition and possession of capabilities which can be transferred directly into employment.
There will be presentations from diverse perspectives from across the disciplines of business, law, education and psychology. The seminar will conclude by inviting all participants to consider the way forward for collective research into employability.
We will be holding the monthly Wednesday afternoon funding drop-in in the staff room on the ground floor of CCE1 this week from 2.30-4.00. 
The 2017 European Research Council 
