SeNSS Director's Bulletin - December 2021

Dear SeNSS community,

 

Only 10 days to go until the holidays! Before we break, we have some news and updates to share with you.

 

New member of the core team!

We are delighted to welcome Sarah Pateman to the SeNSS core team! Sarah started with SeNSS on 1 November, as its Finance Administrator. Sarah comes to SeNSS from the NHS, with a wealth of financial knowledge and experience, and is already having an impact on our work. Welcome Sarah!

 

Great news: UKRI funds 13 new projects to improve Black, Asian and minority ethnic students' access to postgraduate research

Five of our universities (Reading, Goldsmiths, Surrey, City, and Essex) are involved in the new projects to improve minority ethnic students’ access to postgraduate research. Congratulations! For more information on these projects, please click here.

 

Sentio 4: New Editorial Team

We are happy to announce that our student-led journal Sentio has a new editorial team, which will edit and produce the 4th edition of Sentio. Thanks to all the students who volunteered to be part of this team, which will soon decide on the theme for this issue, and publish the call for submissions. Watch this space!

 

Managing Editors

  • Mia Wick (Reading)

  • Miruna-Daniela Ivan (Essex)

  • Georgie Rider (Essex)

  • Molly Pardoe (Goldsmiths – non-SeNSS student)

 

Section Editors

  • Articles – Patrick Whyte (UEA) and Sam Aizlewood (Kent)

  • Features – Sabrina Ahmed (Sussex) and Rhys Gazeres de Baradieux (Royal Holloway)

  • Reflections – Georgie Rider (Essex)

 

Communication Officers)

  • Patrick Whyte (UEA)

  • Sam Aizlewood (Kent)

 

Competitions

 

Collaborative studentships

We are delighted to announce that we have awarded eight SeNSS collaborative studentships this year:  

 

  • The drivers of demand for intellectual property (IP) instruments in the UK

Prof. Suma Athreye, University of Essex. In collaboration with UK IPO

 

  • Points of contact: Researching new resources and strategies for teaching and learning music notation in tactile form for blind children using the Sounds of Intent Framework of musical development

Prof. Adam Ockelford, University of Roehampton. In collaboration with The Amber Trust

 

  • How do schools prevent emerging issues with body image?

Dr Faith Orchard, University of Sussex. In collaboration with Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 

 

  • Shared book reading with young children with Down Syndrome: Working with parents to enhance parent-child interaction and child language and communication outcomes

Dr Emma Pagnamenta, University of Reading. In collaboration with Down Syndrome Education International (DSEI)

 

  • First steps to independence: Evaluating a behaviourally informed travel training programme

Dr Amrish Patel, University of East Anglia. In collaboration with: Norfolk County Council

 

  • Flower, flora, fauna: Can novel metrics of verbal fluency performance help detect individuals at risk of future cognitive decline?

Dr Claire Lancaster, University of Sussex. In collaboration with Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 

 

  • Developing a psychological model of recovery from postpartum psychosis

Dr Joanne Hidgekins, University of East Anglia. In collaboration with Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

 

  • Understanding sensorimotor optimisation of bimanual telerobotics from a human user perspective

Prof. Peter Scarfe, University of Reading. In collaboration with RACE (UK Atomic Energy Authority)

 

If you have any questions or queries regarding the application process and the contact details for each project, please go to the SeNSS website.

 

SeNSS-ARIES collaborative studentship

The joint SeNSS (ESRC) and ARIES (NERC) funded collaborative studentship has been awarded this year to:

 

  • Following the light: Using ‘brightspots’ to avoid future Amazonian fires

Dr Rachel Carmenta, University of East Anglia. In collaboration with Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alerta Antecipado de Desastres Naturais (CEMADEN)

 

If you have any questions or queries regarding the application process and the contact details for this project, please go to the SeNSS website.

 

Core team “office hours”

Since early October, the core team have been trialling offering office hours. Each core team member (bar the Director) is available on Zoom for one hour each week to answer student queries and/or deal with student concerns. It’s been a great way to solve many problems quickly, and also to get to know our students better.

 

  • Monday afternoons from 2-3pm: Abigail Shirley (Training Manager) and Prof. Fragkiskos Filippaios (Deputy Director) deal with any training queries;

  • Thursday mornings from 10-11am: Paul Newman (Co-ordinator) and Dr Felicity Szesnat (Manager) deal with all other SeNSS queries.   

 

The Zoom link for office hours, which have ended for this year but will start again in the week commencing 10 January, is https://essex-university.zoom.us/j/95768755941

 

2021/22 Studentship Competitions

 

  • Our student-led studentship competition for October 2022 entry is now open. Please visit the SeNSS website for details.

 

  • A reminder that all studentships are now fully-funded and are open both to "home" and "international" students. However, we are limited by UKRI rules to awarding 30% of the total number of studentships awarded to international students (~12 studentships p.a.).

 

  • We invite all supervisors to attend the SeNSS Supervisor Webinar Series. For further information, please click here.

 

Training Updates

We are waiting for the final few students to complete their TNAs. The TNA data analysis will inform our SeNSS-led initiatives, including the focus for the next scholar series, and our follow-up to the Decolonising Research series.

 

The UEA online series offered for SeNSS students is now open for booking and can be accessed on the SeNSS VLE on the Virtual Training Pages. This series of modules provides core skills and professional development for postgraduate researchers. Please click here to view this programme.

 

We continue our partnerships with The Brilliant Club (paid tutoring opportunities, whilst providing experience in communicating research to non-specialists), Sense about Science (training in how to engage with the media, the public and policymakers, and to get started in peer review), and SAGE Campus (online training in data literacy, research skills, data science skills and getting published).

 

If you have any questions about these or any other SeNSS matters, please get in touch with me or any member of the core team.

 

The SeNSS Core Team wishes you a great and restful time and a happy new year!

 

Ismene and the SeNSS core team

SeNSS Consortium