News

 
RCUK data gathering period for 2016 opens in Researchfish

Newton Fund budget increase

Mexican partners can access funding to participate in Horizon 2020 bids

Global Challenges Fund

Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) announces Digging into Data Challenge

“Since its launch, The UK in a Changing Europe initiative has established itself as the leading source of impartial analysis on the UK’s relationship with the EU. The appointment of seven more leading scholars will allow us to build on our reputation and to contribute to, and help inform, the debate on British membership in the run-up to the referendum,” Professor Menon said.

The fellows will provide evidence and analysis across a wide range of issues facing the UK and EU, such as foreign and security policy; banking and financial services; social policies; and the impact of EU law.
>>More

Workshop: Fundamentals of Grant Writing - last chance to book!
09:30 - 16:00, Friday 5 February 2016

Do you have a research idea and would like help with writing a grant proposal? This hands-on grant writing workshop will explore how to develop a research idea into a funding application, engage with collaborators and identify potential funders. Learn how to write an effective grant application with practical bid writing techniques to enable you to produce focused proposals, increase application success rates, and win new resources for you and the School.
Participants will be expected to attend all day and provide a work-in-progress proposal in advance to share and discuss as part of the exercise.

Aimed at academics and researchers relatively new to writing research proposals or who wish to refresh their grant writing skills.

Delivered by external masterclass leader, Professor John Wakeford from Missenden Centre. Only a couple of places remain so book now.


LSE’s impact in the digital world
This February, the research impact website is showcasing just some of the impact LSE academics have had in the digital world. Three new case studies have been released that demonstrate LSE-led digital advances for business, governments and consumers.


Fostering an inclusive information society
Dr Ellen Helsper helped address digital exclusion and its socio-economic disadvantages in the UK and Europe.
>>Read the impact case study
 

Helping organisations harness the power of innovative IT technologies
PA Consulting Group commissioned LSE Professor Carsten Sørensen to identify more innovative and strategic ways to use IT systems in organisations.
>>Read the impact case study
 

Designing the world’s first glasses-free 3D television
Professor Henry Wynn led a collaboration to improve the design of a key component in TVs and mobile devices.
>>Read the impact case study

 

• Send your accepted manuscript to lseresearchonline@lse.ac.uk immediately upon acceptance
• Notify us of any funding the paper has received.

Webinar: Guided walk through ReShare

• How to start the process of depositing data into ReShare
• How to describe a data collection well (i.e. which metadata to provide)
• Why providing detailed and accurate metadata is important
• How to prepare and upload your data files and documentation files
• How to decide upon the most suitable access level and licence for your data
• How your data is reviewed before publication 

News from LSE Library: space development project

• To create new study spaces to meet student demand and improve the quality and range of study spaces. 
• To enable growth in key areas of our outstanding social science collection, by moving lower use material to closed access and offsite storage, addressing the fact that we are at full capacity with our physical collections. 

New e-Recruitment System
The HR Systems Optimisation Programme has progressed significantly over the last few months. The new e-Recruitment system is currently being piloted in Library Services and, over the next few months, will be rolled out across the School in a phased approach.

Feedback from user groups who have been involved in the tender process through to the soft launch of the system has been positive. The new system is cutting-edge, intuitive and user-friendly. The self-service functionality will be welcomed by users. The use of emails will be minimised, where actions can now be completed in the system and progress on recruitment campaigns can be sought directly from user dashboards.

Key users in academic departments and divisions received training on using the new system in January 2016. Roll out of the system for the recruitment of professional services staff only is expected in mid-February 2016.

Read our interview with Neelam Talewar, Head of HR Transformation, in this month's Research Briefing.


"Addressing anxiety in the teaching room" article gathers impact
Originally published in the LSE Impact Blog in October 2015, Meena Kotecha's article on "Addressing anxiety in the teaching room: Innovative techniques to enhance mathematics and statistics education", has since been re-published by the Oxford University Press and the Royal Statistical Society. 

Meena, from LSE's Departments of Statistics and Management, was also invited by SAGE to write an article for their book section about the research methodology she developed during her four year study of mathematics anxiety. Her article “Reducing mathematics and statistics anxiety: questionnaires and case studies in practice”, SAGE Research Methods Cases, Sage Publications Ltd, was published in January 2016.

Follow Meena on Twitter @lseMeena61. 

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.

Income inequality linked to inequality of life spans for first time
High income inequality has been linked to inequality of longevity by new research from LSE and the Vienna University of Economics and Business. 

According to the research by Professors Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plümper, published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health, greater income inequality before taxes and income transfers in a country results in greater inequality in the number of years people in that country live. In contrast, the greater the re-distribution of incomes via taxes and transfers, the greater the equality in life spans.

Eric Neumayer, Professor of Environment and Development at LSE, said: “Our research gets to the heart of why income inequality matters beyond concerns about people having more or less money to buy material goods, for example. One of its consequences, namely inequality in how long people live, is profoundly disturbing.”
>>More

Public support for harsh criminal justice policy linked to social inequality
Social inequality is directly linked to public support for increasingly harsh criminal justice policy in the UK despite falling crime rates, an LSE study has found.

Research found that people’s attitudes to criminals are not just shaped by the crimes they have committed but also by their perceived low social status. Criminals are stereotyped as poor and uneducated which most people equated with being callous and untrustworthy, according to the study due to be published in an American Psychological Association journal called Psychology, Public Policy and Law.

Dr Carolyn Côté-Lussier, assistant professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, carried out the research for her PhD thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She says that this link between thinking that criminals have a low social status and feeling angry and punitive toward crime, suggests that growing social inequality and failing to address disadvantage could actually contribute to even greater public demands for harsh criminal justice policy making it difficult for governments to tackle unsustainably high prison populations.
>>More

On the contrary, high public debt countries have been more successful in sheltering their regional economies, the research concludes.

Dr Riccardo Crescenzi and Dr Davide Luca of LSE’s Geography & Environment Department and Dr Simona Milio of LSE's European Institute mapped the impact of the crisis across the 27 EU member states on key performance indicators. They then explored the potential links between pre-crisis economic factors and post-crisis economic performance that may have exacerbated or mitigated the short-term contraction of the various regional economies.
>>More

Complaints data is untapped resource for NHS improvement

---

Top tips

How to use social media at the LSE
Social media can be a great online tool to help you achieve engagement with your research project/idea as a pathway to impact in a non-academic sphere. Social media provides many exciting opportunities for LSE departments and projects to connect with students, scholars, and the public. The LSE provides staff with guidelines and tutorials for social media best practice. 
 
Amy Mollett is LSE's social media manager and is happy to give advice on social media. To book a meeting with Amy, contact a.b.mollett@lse.ac.uk or call 020 3486 2816.
Why not follow @LSE_RD and @AmybMollett.
>>More

---

60 second interview


With Neelam Talewar, Head of HR Transformation in the Human Resources Division.
 
What was your first impression of the LSE and how has your first year been?
It is clearly an organisation going through a period of transformation and it is exciting to be part of the change.
 
My first year has been busy. I have worked in academia previously and it is really good to be back. I have met many interesting and intelligent people.
 
For those who are not familiar with your role as Head of HR Transformation, could you tell us a bit about it?
I lead on the HR Systems Optimisation Programme which is designed to optimise workflow and traditional processes through the use of technology, and other HR projects designed to improve the organisation's capability in managing its people.

My role is to support the HR Division and clients with the selection, implementation and embedding of new technology and processes which will bring about real change in service delivery. It is also about supporting the HR Division in understanding and responding to the people implications of new HR technologies and processes and to analyse, design and roll-out key processes and systems that meet the changing needs of the School.
 
You are currently working on the HR Systems Optimisation Programme. What does this entail and what affect will it have for staff at the LSE?
The HR Systems Optimisation Programme is made up of a number of projects. The whole Programme will span over 3-5 years. The projects include a new e-Recruitment system, a system to manage the academic promotion and review processes, and employee and manager self service.
 
The Programme entails working with colleagues and external partners to develop and implement new ways of working which are efficient and effective. Staff will be able to engage more directly with the HR Service through the use of technology, where information will be available at the touch of a button. Managers will not only have access to better management information about their staff but they will also receive a more responsive service from the HR Division. The new ways of working will enable HR staff to focus their attention on more value- added activities, hence the School will receive an improved quality of service.
 
What have been the biggest challenges of the HR Systems Optimisation Programme so far?
A number of the biggest challenges were at the beginning of the Programme:       

• To gain a good understanding of the organisation quickly
• To ascertain what would be the appropriate changes
• To build relationships across the organisation before I did anything else 
• Making sure all stakeholders were aware of what we were trying to achieve.

If you could change one thing about the LSE, what would it be? 
That it be closer to my home! (4 hour daily commute – 2 hours each way.)
 
What 3 items would you rush to save from a fire? 
Me , myself and I!
 
If you could give your younger self some advice, what would it be?  
Rome was not built in a day.