SeNSS Director's Bulletin - June 2023

Dear SeNSS Community,

 

Summer is here and brings great news!

 

Competitions

We are delighted to announce that SeNSS has awarded 36 studentship awards for the October 2023 start, as well as six Post-Doctoral Fellowship awards. For the first time, SeNSS has been able to support 10 collaborative studentships thanks to the generous contribution of our partners. We look forward to welcoming the 2023/24 cohort in October!

 

Equally, we are thrilled to announce that at least 28 SeNSS-funded students have thus far been awarded their PhDs.

 

This year has seen the last round of student recruitment under the current SeNSS DTP ESRC Grant, and our focus is now solely on supporting all SeNSS throughout their research journey. We are also awaiting the outcome of the commissioning process for the two new DTPs that will emerge from SeNSS DTP.

 

Post-Doctoral Fellowship competition outcome:

 

  • Jamie Moffatt - Royal Holloway, University of London - Psychology

  • Valeriia Vinogradova - Royal Holloway, University of London - Psychology

  • Sophie Liggins - University of Essex - Linguistics

  • Kate Lewis Hood - Royal Holloway, University of London - Human Geography

  • Laura Cuch Grases - Goldsmiths, University of London - Sociology

  • Peter Matthews - University of Kent - Science, Sustainability, and Technology Studies

 

Summer Research Experience Placements: A success story

We are pleased to announce that 3 of our Summer 2022 placement students have secured 1+3 SeNSS scholarships and will be embarking on their PhD journey next October. Daniela Hardikerova (Business and Management Pathway, University of Kent), Carolina Marques (Business and Management Pathway, University of East Anglia), and Jade Weale (Education Pathway, University of East Anglia) are all examples of the highly successful Summer Research Experience Placements pilot funded by the ESRC. Congratulations to Daniela, Carolina, and Jade!

 

We have finished the recruitment round for this year’s Summer Research Experience Placements and two more undergraduate students will be working on research placements with established PhD supervisors. It has been another competitive year in terms of recruitment efforts with over 25 applications submitted for the 2 projects.

 

Adele Chapman (Sociology, University of Essex) will be working with Dr Sergio Lo Iacono on a project entitled, “Understanding public support for science-based policies” and Holly Summers (Psychology, University of East Anglia) will be working with Dr Meghana Kamble on a project entitled, “Relational patterns and parent-child interaction in refugee or displaced families where the child has a developmental disability”. Congratulations to Adele and Holly!

 

Annual Summer Conference

As you know, this year’s annual SeNSS Summer Conference will be held from 12-14 July at the University of Sussex. This year’s theme was selected by our students and is Migration, Refugeehood, and Justice, and highlights of the programme include:

·         The keynote address by Professor Albena Azmanova (University of Kent Brussels School of International Studies, Political and Social Science);

·         Roundtable interdisciplinary discussion on migration and refugees followed by deep dived sessions;

·         Training sessions to equip our students for working both inside and outside academia; and,

·         Thesis and poster research presentations.

 

There be plenty of opportunity to socialise, with an evening event organised by the Student Committee.

 

Sentio journal

The student editors of the SeNSS student-led Sentio journal are very busy working on producing Issue 5, the theme of which is “Past, Present, Future”. This issue will be launched during the final day of the SeNSS Summer Conference.

 

Stipend increase!

UKRI has announced that it will increase the minimum stipend for 2023/24 by 5.4% to £18,622 p.a. for those students registered at a non-London based university, and to £20,622 p.a. for those registered at City, Goldsmiths, Roehampton, or Royal Holloway.

 

In addition, the ESRC has confirmed its tuition fee payments will increase by 2.5% to £4,712 per year. Just a reminder that this money is paid directly by SeNSS to your home university and that, whilst you are in your funded period, you should never be asked to pay tuition fees. It has been agreed with all partner institutions that any difference in fees listed by your university and the amount the ESRC pays will be waived by your university.

 

For the stipend increase and other news related to UKRI action plans, please go to the UKRI website.

 

Office hours are back!

We are delighted to advise that Felicity is reinstating her SeNSS Manager’s office hour on every Wednesday afternoon between 2pm and 3pm, commencing Wednesday 7 June 2023. The Zoom link for this meeting is https://essex-university.zoom.us/j/94210967297. Just a reminder that you are welcome to bring any and all studentship queries to this meeting if you feel it is easier to discuss these “in-person” rather than via email.

 

Change in leadership

Finally, I will be stepping down on 31 August 2023 to pursue new academic endeavours. A new SeNSS Director will take over in September 2023. Prof. Rob Johns is from the Department of Government at the University of Essex. He is a leading psephologist, a Principal Investigator of the 2021 Scottish Election Survey, an experienced PhD supervisor, and PDF mentor. Prof. Johns had also served as Pathway Chair for Politics and International Relations.

I would like to thank the whole core team, but especially the Manager (Dr Felicity Szesnat) and the Deputy Director (Prof. Fragkiskos Filippaios) for all their hard work and support in challenging circumstances and wish the best of luck to the core team and the new leadership of SeNSS DTP.

 

SeNSS Consortium