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ERC announces success rates for Starting Grants

International Health Policy Conference at LSE

Have a say in EC’s future research programme on Climate Action

The Prospects of Nuclear Energy in the UK – a historical view

 

Exposing the impact of counter-terrorism on civil societies and aid
Research led by Jude Howell has drawn global attention to the tightening links between counter-terrorism, international development aid and civil society.
>>Read the impact case study

Making EU policymaking accessible and transparent
Sara Hagemann’s website that reports on EU voting and policymaking has become a vital tool for journalists, NGOs and EU citizens. 
>>Read the impact case study  

Helping NHS patients make the optimal hospital choice
Barbara Fasolo's research team helped the government improve its online data to facilitate patient choice amongst competing hospitals.
>>Read the impact case study

LSE Research Online is a service provided by LSE Library to increase the visibility of research produced by LSE staff. It contains citations and full text, open access versions of research outputs, including journal articles, book chapters, working papers, theses, conference papers and more.
 

Dr Michael Muthukrishna, assistant professor at LSE and lead author of the research, explains: “The processes of cumulative cultural evolution allow technologies and techniques to emerge, which no single individual could create on their own –  because human brains, in isolation, aren’t actually all that smart.
>>More

CEP has analysed investment behaviour on the UK’s largest equity crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube, a market leader in its field, nearly tripling between 2014 and 2015.

According to CEP’s researchers writing in the latest issue of Centrepiece, its departmental magazine, crowdfunding “serves as a robust source of alternative entrepreneurial finance which has operated in a stable and predictable manner” in its infancy.
>>More

That is among the conclusions of a new report from LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), the first in a series of briefings analysing the economic costs and benefits of Brexit for the UK.

Authors Swati Dhingra and Thomas Sampson note that it is highly uncertain what the UK's future would look like outside the EU, which makes Brexit a leap into the unknown. The CEP researchers review the advantages and drawbacks of the most likely options. 
>>More

Over the past 8 years Dr Ruben Andersson has investigated the borders at the frontier of Europe’s migrant crisis, documenting the emerging industry of border controls, comprising private defence and security contractors, border agencies and neighbouring states’ forces. Dr Andersson uses interviews with relevant personnel working on the Spanish-African borders to describe how the border control industry is capitalising on the crisis to become both powerful and self-sustaining.
>>More

Launch of pop-up shop to stimulate public debate on egg freezing as survey reveals shift in attitudes
In response to growing public interest in egg freezing, a fictional beauty brand called Timeless will ‘pop-up’ in London’s Old Street Station this week following expert advice and research from LSE. The store will engage women with the issue of fertility and explore how social egg freezing may impact the world of work, relationships and wider society in the future.

Social egg freezing is the freezing of women’s eggs for lifestyle as opposed to medical reasons. The unique pop-up brings the medical and social issues around this sensitive subject to life through the products of a woman's beauty store, creating an imaginative and informative intervention into people’s daily lives.

The Timeless pop-up shop will be open each day this week from 8:00 to 20:00 until Friday 5 March 2016.
>>More

The study, by LSE's Dr Ellen Helsper and Dutch researcher Dr Alexander van Deursen, shows that educated people on high incomes derive the greatest benefits from using the internet.This is borne out by their ability to get better deals online, including products and holidays, use the internet more successfully to expand their social life and find romantic partners, and also become more informed politically and in general.
>>More

Read more about LSE's cutting edge research.

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Top tips

Managing your award: reporting requirements
Reporting requirements are detailed in the contract or award letter and summarised in the Project Information Report provided by the Research Awards team at the project outset. 

Your research awards manager is responsible for submitting all financial reports on your behalf, whether online or hard copy. Each project has specific reporting requirements.
 
Eight points you need to consider when reporting:
 
1.     When is the report due?
2.     Who is responsible for compiling the report?
3.     Who is responsible for submitting the report? 
4.     Does a specific reporting form need to be used?
5.     Is institutional approval required?
6.     How many copies are needed?
7.     Have you sent a copy of the report to your research awards manager?
8.     Have you deposited a copy of the final report in LSE Research Online?
 
If your reporting requirements are unclear your research awards manager can help. Notify them at the earliest opportunity if a reporting deadline cannot be met. To discuss submitting your report, contact your research awards manager. 

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60 second interview

Alessandra Marino is a grant applications manager in Research Division's Research Development team. 
 
You joined the Research Division in December 2015, how are you finding life at the LSE?
Life at the LSE is dynamic, and the academic environment is vibrant with a wide range of initiatives. The cycle of public lectures and evening events has so far provided me with unique opportunities to listen to fascinating talks from authoritative speakers, including politicians and writers. The School’s position in central London is also a great advantage and I am trying to make use of all the training and development events that both the School and the city offer.

Can you tell us what your role as a grant applications manager involves?
As a grant applications manager, my role involves identifying and promoting funding opportunities. I keep informed on funders’ priorities, available schemes and changes in the funding landscape. My main task is supporting academic colleagues during the development of their projects and the writing of grant applications. From creating a project pitch to signing the contract with the funders, I am the main point of contact and source of help for the departments and centres I work with.

How does your role at LSE compare to your previous role as a development officer at The Open University?
In my previous role, I was based in the central research division at The Open University and I was in charge of pre- and post-award support for European grants. At the LSE, although the core responsibilities are quite similar, I deal with a wider range of funders and I have the pleasure to be involved in projects to which I can closely relate, because of my academic background in sociology, postcolonial and gender studies.

If you could book any guest speaker for a LSE public event, who would you choose and why?
The guest speaker I would love to have at the LSE is Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Professor at Columbia, Spivak combines her high-profile academic work in the fields of critical theory and literature with a commitment to activism for poor and indigenous communities in India. I find her work a continuous source of inspiration.
 
Describe yourself in three words.
Determined, outspoken and with a good sense of humour.

If you were offered the trip of a lifetime, where would you like to go and why?
For me this would be literally spending a lifetime travelling. There is no part of the world I am not curious about and I am always up for an adventure.

Name three things you cannot do without.
My Kindle full of books, music and the company of a cat.