Research Briefing July 2015

News

Wellcome Trust makes ORCID iD mandatory

From Saturday 1 August 2015, Wellcome Trust will require researchers to provide an ORCID iD on grant applications. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities, ensuring that your work is recognized.

Nearly 1.5 million researchers across the globe have now got an ORCID ID and an increasing number of publishers, funders, HEIs and researcher information platforms are now requesting the inclusion of an ORCID iD in their workflows.

If you don't already have one, create an ORCID iD in just 30 seconds.
>>More

Research opportunities in Japan
Research Division hosted a visit from senior staff of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) London office. The JSPS presented their funding opportunities for LSE academics with a brief seminar. JSPS stated they would be more than happy to help facilitate links with Japanese research institutions if LSE researchers would like to collaborate.

Established in 1932, JSPS promotes the advancement of academic research in all disciplines from social sciences and humanities to natural sciences and engineering. It is Japan’s leading funding agency and is largely funded through annual subsidies from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports and Technology (MEXT). JSPS offers individual fellowships up to professorial level, funding for group level projects and institutional level collaborations to build international networks.
>>More

Future of the European Research Area
The European Commission organised a conference titled “A new Start for Europe: Opening up to an ERA of Innovation” in Brussels on 22-23 June 2015. At the conference, the Commissioner Carlos Moedas highlighted his three priorities: Open Science, Open Innovation, and Open to the World. Moedas also asked views on the possibility of establishing a European Innovation Council. There were a number of stakeholder institutions representing European universities, industry and civil society which provided their input and commitments to overcome the challenges that an open ERA would bring. Research Division's Aygen Kurt-Dickson attended the conference and participated in the discussion meetings about Open Science and Society. A number of comments added during the conference by participants can be found at #ERAofInnovation
>>More

ESRC Future Leaders competition
ESRC will soon announce the next round of the Future Leaders competition with a September 2015 deadline. This year the dates have been pulled back a few months compared to last year. The School would normally go through an internal selection process, however, due to having less sufficient time between the two dates this year, departments and research centres are asked to consider the candidates they are willing to host via their own grant and quality review mechanisms. Please contact your grant applications manager if you have any questions or concerns and let Research Division know as early as you can if you are planning to propose a candidate.

Research Awards team honours in ARMA awards 2015
We are honoured to announce that the work of the Research Awards team (formerly the Post-Award team) has been recognised in this year’s annual ARMA Awards with a ‘highly commended’ citation in the ‘Research Team of the Year’ category – second place in a highly competitive process. The judges rewarded the team for their exceptional focus over recent years on enhancing their services and their service levels, for the personal approach they take in supporting individual grant holders, and for the introduction of their innovative grant management training programme.

We think that the number of effusive testimonials from satisfied academic colleagues played a significant part in swinging the panel of judges – so thank you for all your positive comments. And thank you to Ginny Pavey for putting the team forward.

The team is always looking at ways of helping to make your life easier in running grants, so if you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The team receiving their certificate from ARMA's chief executive Andrew Chamberlain.

Final preparation for year end 2014/15
LSE's financial year end is fast approaching. The financial year end schedule and memo to budget holders can be found on Finance Division's web pages.

Key deadlines:

Accounts payable will stop posting invoices, expense claims and executive card transactions at 12 noon on Tuesday 4 August 2015. Research claims should be sent to Research Division by Friday 31 July 2015 in order for us to process them in time
The payroll deadline is Wednesday 5 August 2015. Submit all 2014/15 payroll information to the Pay team in Finance Division
If you have any transactions related to 2014/15 that miss the 31 July 2015 deadline let your research awards manager know
Final date to correct any errors on your accounts is Wednesday 12 August 2015. Advise your research awards manager if any adjustments are needed.

Throughout July 2015 please could you:

submit expense claims and supplier invoices in good time and on a regular basis to Research Division for payment
regularly check your research account(s) to ensure that all transactions relating to the 2014/15 financial year are complete and accurate.

If you are unable to access your account through Statements4 or Statements5 contact your research awards manager in the Research Awards team who will e-mail a statement to you.

Funding opportunities

Funding for Knowledge Exchange and Impact
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has announced further funding for knowledge exchange activity. Since 2001, HEFCE has supported the development of a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK. HEFCE’s Higher Education Innovation Fund is now in its fifth cycle (HEIF5).

HEIF5 runs from 2011 to 2016 and of the £9million the School has received, close to £5million has been invested into the Bid Fund, a competitive source of internal funding available to support knowledge exchange activities and outputs based on School research.

The total amount of funding available in this round is £700k. The recommended upper limit for bids is £75k. Projects can begin any time from 1 October 2015 but must be completed by 30 June 2016.

Contact Marie Copperwaite for further information and an application form. Deadline for applications: Monday 17 August 2015.

Fritz Thyssen Foundation: Conference Grants
These support scholarly events at national or international level, with the aim of facilitating the discussion and analysis of specific scholarly questions, as well as fostering cooperation and networking of scholars working in the same field or on interdisciplinary topics. Direct costs of organising a conference can be claimed (excluding staff costs). Deadline: Monday 31 August 2015.
>>More

JSPS Invitation Fellowships: Long Term, Short Term and Short Term S.
These provide the opportunity for researchers based outside of Japan to conduct collaborative research activities with leading research groups at Japanese universities and research institutions for single visits of between 7 days to 10 months. Eligible applicants need to be established researchers with an excellent record of research achievements. Eligible research fields are not limited. These fellowships can be awarded to the same researcher multiple times. Japanese nationals who have lived outside of Japan for at least 10 years and have been actively engaged in research there throughout this period are also eligible to apply. Fellowships must start between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017. Deadline: Friday 4 September 2015, to JSPS Tokyo via host in Japan.
>>More

JSPS Pathway to University Positions in Japan: Fellowships for Postdoctoral Researchers
These provide the opportunity for researchers based outside of Japan to conduct collaborative research activities with leading research groups at Japanese universities and research institutions. JSPS will fund the initial 12 to 24 months of the visit and the fellowship thereafter is designed to lead to full-time employment at the host institution. Eligible applicants need to be within 10 years of finishing their PhD. Eligible research fields are not limited. Fellowships must start between 1 April 2016 and 30 November 2016. Deadline: Friday 4 September 2015.
>>More

ESRC: UK in a Changing Europe Senior Fellowships
These support proposals aiming to provide evidence and analysis across the broad range of issues and policy areas affected by the UK’s position in a changing EU. Proposals may focus on the following areas: a) foreign and security policy; b) banking and financial services; c) social policies; d) the impact of EU law. ESRC anticipates supporting up to six fellows. Fellowships are worth up to £200,000 each, of which ESRC will fund 80 per cent of full economic costs and the host institution will pay the remainder. Deadline: Thursday 10 September 2015.
>>More

British Academy: Newton Fund Advanced Fellowships
The scheme aims to bring international researchers to establish and develop collaborations with the UK with the intention of transferring knowledge and research capabilities to advance economic development and social welfare of the partner country. Researchers may be working in any discipline within the social sciences and humanities. Each fellowship lasts for one to two years and provides £37,000 per year to cover research support, travel and subsistence and training costs. Deadline: Wednesday 16 September 2015.
>>More

British Academy: Newton Mobility Grants
The scheme supports international researchers based in a country covered by the Newton Fund to establish and develop collaboration with UK researchers around a specific jointly defined research project. The competition is currently open for collaborating with researchers from Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. Awards are available for one year and support travel and maintenance costs. Please refer to the scheme notes for the country from which you are applying for more details. Deadline: Wednesday 16 September 2015.
>>More

British Academy: Mid-Career Fellowships
These allow successful applicants to obtain time freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments to devote to the completion of a major piece of research within the humanities and social sciences. Fellowships are primarily for scholars who have already published works of intellectual distinction or have established a significant track record as a communicator, and who are normally no more than 15 years from the award of their doctorate. Scholars who do not have doctorates should be within 10 years of their first academic appointment. Fellowships can be held over a period of six to 12 months. Up-to-date information will be available here soon. Deadline (estimated): Wednesday 16 September 2015.

Innovate UK: Malaysia-UK Research and Innovation Bridges Competition
Innovate UK, Research Councils UK and the Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology, as part of the Newton Fund of the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, invite registrations for this competition. Projects must be collaborative, involving both UK and Malaysian participants, and must include at least one UK business, one UK research organisation, one Malaysian business and one Malaysian research organisation. Projects may be led by a business or research organisation, and should preferably involve other non-business partners. The joint industrial research aims to develop innovative products, processes or services that meet challenges existing within the following five sectors: health and wellbeing; improving environmental resilience and energy security; future cities; agritech, which should solve explicit urban food and nutrition issues; and digital, innovation and creativity. Deadline: Wednesday 30 September 2015.
>>More

Events

Academic Development Programme: Thank you for attending
Our programme has now closed for this academic year but we will return in September 2015 with a new training and events programme. Keep an eye on our website for a full list of upcoming events. For daily updates, follow us on Twitter @LSE_RD.

We’ve had a busy year of training and events delivering 41 in total. We’ve discussed funding opportunities; hosted the UK Research Office, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Research Professional to name a few. There have been some lively debates and questions, in addition, we have learned about and shared the fantastic experiences of our academic and professional services staff.

Your feedback has been very encouraging. We would like to thank all who have attended a Research Division training event this past academic year. For those who did not get the opportunity to attend, we look forward to welcoming you next academic year.

Other research-related events

Data management, data protection, and research ethics surgeries
These fortnightly drop-in sessions will continue over the summer break. Bring along any questions you have regarding:

Data protection: the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts
Funder requirements for sharing data
Intellectual Property and licencing data use and re-use
Managing safe and secure storage
Records management for data
Writing and implementing a data management plan
When and how to complete a research ethics application

Please book in advance if you can but you are also welcome to just drop in!

If you have any questions in advance email either Datalibrary@lse.ac.uk or research.ethics@lse.ac.uk.
>>More

Recent awards

Professor Elias Mossialos, LSE Health and Social Care, has been awarded funding from LSE’s Kuwait Programme to examine the causes of some of the most prevalent chronic diseases and to study the main determinants of access to, utilisation of, and satisfaction with the healthcare system in Kuwait.

Mr Philipp Rode, LSE Cities, has also received funding from LSE's Kuwait Programme for an examination of multiple aspects of how natural resources, urban form, and infrastructure affect each other and potentially lead to the establishment of divergent forms of urbanisms.

Professor Anne West, Social Policy, has received Nuffield Foundation funding to examine national government policy relating to the funding of free early education and investigate the development and implementation of the Early Years Single Funding Formula at a local level.

Dr Katerina Dalacoura, International Relations, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship to investigate contemporary Turkish conceptions of culture in international relations. The project will identify intellectuals whose work goes beyond the conventional categories of 'East/Islam' versus 'West' and investigate the possibility of alternative universalist understandings of culture.

Professor Martin Knapp, PSSRU, has received funding from Mind to undertake an economic analysis of their peer support programme and to model the health economic impact of each programme component. The project will also map patterns of referral throughout the programme, for example, how people with mental health problems get referred to peer support groups, how individuals accessing face-to-face support use online peer support and vice versa, and how participants interact with statutory services whilst receiving support.

Professor Leonard Smith, Centre for Analysis of Time Series, has been awarded European Commission Horizon2020 funding for the ECOPOTENTIAL project. Coordinated by Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, the project will create a unified framework for ecosystem studies and management of protected areas (PA). ECOPOTENTIAL focuses on internationally recognized PAs in Europe and beyond in a wide range of biogeographic regions, and it includes UNESCO, Natura2000 and LTER sites and Large Marine Ecosystems.

Dr Sumi Madhok, Gender Institute, has received a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship to conduct research on “Vernacular Rights Cultures in Southern Asia.”

Professor Ian Martin, Financial Markets Group, has been awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant to develop ways of using observable asset-price data to infer the beliefs of market participants about various quantities that are central to financial economics, and to provide a framework to help policymakers, faced with multiple different types of potential catastrophe, to decide how society’s limited resources should best be used to alleviate the risks of severe catastrophes.

Ms Joana Setzer, Grantham Research Institute, has been awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship to undertake a comparative study of climate litigation, building on the comprehensive climate legislation database developed by the Grantham Research Institute, and furthering knowledge about the role of law in climate policy.

Professor Jennifer Beecham, PSSRU, has been awarded European Commission Horizon2020 funding for the ICare project. Coordinated by Technische Universitaet Dresden, the project will establish a comprehensive model of health promotion, risk detection, disease prevention, and treatment facilitation for the most prevalent mental health problems and disorders (depression, anxiety, adjustment disorders, eating disorders/weight management and substance abuse) that assists individuals and mental health professionals in selecting and using evidence-based, online interventions.

Dr Wendy Willems, Media and Communications, has received funding from the Research Council of Norway for a project that aims to give a significant contribution to explaining, to what extent and in what ways, processes of change in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by new media.

Dr Nick Anstead, Media and Communications, has been awarded a grant from the New Venture Fund’s Media Democracy Fund. The project will examine the role that new data gathering and analysis techniques are playing in British politics, with a particular focus on the recent UK election.

Dr Tomila Lankina, International Relations, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. The project will analyse the dynamics of elite narratives, citizen mobilization and public opinion, and explore their implications for the democratic futures of Russia and Ukraine.

Professor Simon Hix, Government, has been awarded an ESRC UK in a Changing Europe Senior Fellowship to identify how often, in what policy areas, and under what conditions (e.g. coalition partners), UK ministers/officials/MEPs find themselves on the "winning side" and "losing side" in EU decision-making, and how much this has changed over the last 5-10 years.

Research Infrastructure and Investment Fund (RIIF) awards

In May 2015, the Research Development Panel (RDP) awarded three projects under the Research Infrastructure and Investment Fund:

Dr Claire Moon, Sociology, was awarded funding for an exploratory and data-collecting field trip to Mexico City to research a citizen-led forensic initiative set up in 2014 to identify the dead and disappeared in the context of the ‘war on drugs’.

Dr Ernestina Coast, LSE Health and Social Care, was awarded funding to collect formative data on induced abortion in rural Zambia.

Professor Conor Gearty, Institute of Public Affairs, was awarded funds, matched by the Association of Colleges, to fund the appointment of the former MP John Denham to analyse how English higher education policy might be reformed to both restructure the costs of study and also to respond to employers’ criticisms of graduates’ skills deficiencies in the labour market.

Findings

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.

Domestic politics drives Putin's foreign policy, says new LSE book
A major new book on Russia’s foreign policy concludes that internal political objectives of regime consolidation drive Russia’s foreign policy and that this influences its behaviour in Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Policy: Ideas, Domestic Politics and External Relations, edited by David Cadier, Fellow in International Strategy and Diplomacy at LSE, and Margot Light, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE, includes analyses from 11 renowned experts coming from around the world and writing from different viewpoints (academics, former practitioners and think tank analysts). It is the first comprehensive investigation of the kind since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis.
>>More

Being a parent – before and after a split
Dads who are actively involved in bringing up their young children are more likely in the event of a split from their partner to keep in regular contact with their child, according to new research by Professor Lucinda Platt from the Department of Social Policy.

She and her co-author, Dr Tina Haux from the University of Kent, also found that mothers who separate from their child’s father have a poorer view of their abilities as a parent than those who stay in their relationship.

These are just two of the key findings from a Nuffield Foundation research project on parenting.
>>More

Can't help falling in love? Why divorce and separation might not be that bad for your health
Middle-aged men and women who have experienced the upheaval of separation, divorce and remarriage are almost as healthy as couples in stable marriages, according to a new study involving LSE.
>>More

Primary health care should play bigger role in treating chronic kidney disease
Healthy eating, regular exercise and blood pressure and cholesterol control are among the most effective ways of managing the early stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

These are the findings of a review undertaken by researchers from LSE, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and US National Institutes of Health, recently published in Nature Reviews Nephrology.

The article analysed which interventions are most effective for CKD in the early stages. It also explored what the optimum time is to provide clinical care for patients with early-stage CKD and what model of care is most suitable for these patients.
>>More

Additional local housing has little effect on local housing markets
A new study has shown that new housebuilding has little discernible and consistent impact on local house price patterns.

The report by LSE London, entitled ‘Understanding the Local Impact of New Residential Development,’ was jointly commissioned by Barratt Developments, the largest housebuilder in the UK, and the NHBC Foundation, and addressed the question of whether a new development will always reduce prices or reduce the rate of increase in prices in the immediately surrounding area.
>>More

New study finds China's emissions likely to peak by 2025
China’s greenhouse gas emissions could peak more than five years earlier than expected, helping to avoid dangerous climate change, according to a new paper published by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at LSE.

The authors of the paper, Fergus Green and Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, find that, although President Xi Jinping has agreed publicly to reduce emissions by 2030, China’s emissions will likely begin to decline by 2025.
>>More

Read more about LSE's cutting edge research.

Top tips

LSE travel insurance and travel safety
The School's travel insurance policy covers all staff travelling on School business, defined as travel in connection with:

Research grants or contracts, or research funded wholly or partly from School funds
Attendance at conferences while representing LSE
Student recruitment
Official School representation

The policy does not cover travel by staff on sabbatical or special leave, holiday travel, or travel for private lecturing or for private consultancy work.

Travel safety is coordinated by the Health & Safety team who will assess travel risk and issue the travel cover note on a case-by-case basis. To request travel insurance email Health.And.Safety@lse.ac.uk in good time, particularly if travelling to a high risk area. They need to know:

Travel destination
Reason for travel
Travel dates

Where travel is to a sanctioned country or an area where the FCO advise "against all travel" or "essential travel only", specific approval from the insurance underwriter is needed. A risk assessment and risk mitigation will need to be in place before cover is requested.
>>More

60 second interview

Ellen Pruyne, impact website manager
The Research Impact website showcases user-friendly ‘translations’ of the REF2014 impact case studies, accompanied by relevant videos and resources. Based in Research Division, Ellen manages the website and is responsible for the on-going development of print and video content. She also works with other parts of LSE to increase the website's audiences and traffic.

Congratulations on the success of launching the Research Impact website in December 2014. Can you tell us a bit about it?
First, thank you, on behalf of the many colleagues from across the School – in departments, centres and divisions – who contributed to the website’s design, development and content, under the leadership of the Pro-director for research, Julia Black, and the Director of Communications, Adrian Thomas.

In terms of purpose, the impact website has been designed as a place to share the phenomenal research impact reported by LSE academics in their REF2014 impact case studies. We had our own academics asking if they could have access to the impact case studies, and we knew that many external audiences – especially journalists and opinion leaders, policymakers, donors, partners and potential students – would be interested in reading them.

If you’ve seen any REF impact case studies, you know that they are dense and hard to read. So we decided to ‘translate’ them into impact stories and videos that present the essential information in a more accessible and engaging way.

We also wanted the website to be state-of-the-art in its design and functionality. Two external firms, Grandad Digital and Zengenti, helped LSE to design and construct a site that is visually dynamic and colourful and that allows visitors to explore and search along multiple dimensions.

How has the website been received so far?
The website has exceeded expectations, with almost 40,000 unique visitors and 90,000 unique pageviews since its launch. Although the majority of visitors are based in the UK, about 40% are spread across continents, countries and cities. The website's success in attracting this volume and diversity of traffic is in large part due to an on-going and targeted promotion by the Communications Division on the LSE homepage and on social media.

We've also received some kudos from outside LSE, naming it as an exemplar among research impact websites.

Internally, many departments and centres have put up their own impact sections or webpages and linked to the impact website. There is a lot of cross-traffic, which has fulfilled one of the explicit intentions in the way it was designed.

How can LSE academic, research and professional staff use the website?
The website is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to explore, document or share LSE's research impact.

Staff can search by academic author; department and centre; sector; funder; geographical reach; who was influenced; and impact theme.

They can access two webpages for each impact case study. The first page is a summary of the research and research impact, which can be read online or downloaded as a pdf. In some cases a video is also available to view (embedded in the banner). The second page is a listing of relevant resources, including academic articles, evidence of impact, and rich media resources.

Did you face any particular challenges when setting up the website?
Apparently this was a new kind of project for everyone working on it, even for the IMT staff. So it was an on-going learning experience and we encountered a range of thorny challenges along the way. At times we despaired of meeting the deadline, even on the day of the launch, but I think everyone who worked on it is quite proud of the result.

What advice do you have for academic and research staff thinking about research impact?
I leave the impact advice-giving to my colleague Rachel Middlemass, the research impact manager, who works with academics and departments on creating, tracking and communicating their research impact. She can be reached at r.middlemass@lse.ac.uk.

Any queries related more specifically to the impact website can be directed to me at e.l.pruyne@lse.ac.uk.

What is next for the Research Impact website and how can people find it?
We are now adding the 40 or so impact case studies that were not submitted to the REF. We couldn't submit all of them, but the ones that didn't go in are equally impressive. LSE academics are truly doing astounding things in terms of influencing policy and practice.

We are also working on videos for the impact case studies that don't yet have them. So new content is being uploaded every month and is announced in Staff News and in this Briefing when it becomes available.

Access the Research Impact website and the impact videos.

What, or who, makes you laugh?
I'm a movie geek and find that some films never fail to make me laugh. Coming to mind are The Big Lebowski (with the amazing Jeff Bridges), Spinal Tap (especially the "These go to 11" scene), Shakespeare in Love (an amazing script) and Tootsie (the whole thing!).

Where in the world have you always wanted to go but never quite made it….…..yet?
Madagascar to see lemurs in their natural habitat, the Galapagos to see primeval wildlife, and Komodo in the Indonesian archipelago to see the famed dragons.

If you could do it all again, what alternative career would you have chosen?
I am writing a screenplay set in the world of 80s rock-n-roll and doing a lot of research on that period and profession. Being in a successful 80s rock band as a twenty-something bloke sounds like huge fun. Otherwise the career of a pampered cat would be great. (There are just the wee issues of gender, time travel and species to be overcome in taking up these alternatives 'careers'.)

Get in touch

We're breaking now for the summer so the next edition of Research Briefing is on Tuesday 6 October 2015. If you would like to feature a research story, award, or opportunity in this newsletter, contact Amanda Burgess in the Research Division by Wednesday 30 September 2015.

Research Briefing is emailed on the first Tuesday of every month throughout the academic year. Happy holidays!

Contact us
+44 (0) 20 7106 1202 I researchdivision@lse.ac.uk
Visit our website for more information and a detailed list of funding opportunities.