What happens to research funding after June 23?

A nation at unease with itself? Britain on the eve of the EU referendum, Tuesday 14 June 2016, 16:30

After the EU Referendum – where next for social science? Thursday 30 June 2016, 17:00

ORCID offers a platform for researchers to capture their scholarly activities throughout their careers even if they change name, publish under different variations of their name, move institutions, or switch fields. This helps them get exposure and recognition for their work. Increasingly it will be a tool to link and re-use research information unambiguously across multiple systems whether that’s for funders, publishers or their university. 
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LSE double nomination for prestigious ESRC Impact Prizes

Congratulations to Sonia Livingstone and Martin Hearson, both shortlisted for ESRC's prestigious annual Celebrating Impact Prize. Prizes are awarded to ESRC-funded social science researchers who have achieved impact through outstanding research, collaborative partnerships, engagement or knowledge exchange activities, making a real difference to society or the economy.   

Overall there are five categories, with Professor Livingstone recognised in the Outstanding International Impact category and Mr Hearson in the Outstanding Early Career Impact category. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony later this month. We wish them both the very best of luck. 
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Travel at LSE

Wellcome Trust clarifies process for submitting Grant Start Certificates (GSCs) for grant awards

• Online Studies: Complete the special survey online and receive a £5 voucher.
• Video Studies: Come to the Video lab in QUE House together with a colleague, friend or acquaintance for a joint interview about videos showing people in everyday situations. Each participant receives £20. >>More

Have your say on the future of Research Briefing

•          the current format
•          what sections are useful/not so useful
•          how easy or hard it is to find what you need
•          if you think there are any gaps in the content

New brain-training tool to help people cut drinking

Professor Paul Dolan, author of the bestselling book Happiness by Design, used insights from behavioural science to create the innovative and easy-to-use tool. It uses a simple brain-training exercise, known as a ‘cognitive bias modification’ (CBM), to reduce any unconscious preference people may have for alcoholic drinks over non-alcoholic ones.
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Over ten years LSE traced the fortunes of Sheffield, Belfast, Lille, St Etienne, Leipzig, Turin, Bilbao and other cities, alongside US “rustbelt” cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. These cities were world leaders in coal, steam engines, iron, steel, textiles, tools, machines, ship-building, engineering of every kind. 
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According to the research, the over-illumination of social housing estates –  to allow for better CCTV surveillance and the prevention of anti-social behaviour and crime –  mark some spaces out as less valuable and even threatening or risky, deterring people from using and enjoying these spaces.

In contrast, in more affluent neighbourhoods or expensive designer developments, light is used as a design tool to create an aesthetically pleasurable nightscape which appears valuable, safer and more inviting.
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Taking Stock, a new report by LSE London, analyses the private rental sector and its growing importance to the UK housing mix. The authors Kath Scanlon, Christine Whitehead and Peter Williams find the sector has more than doubled in size in the past 15 years and now accounts for almost one-fifth of all dwellings. It provides an alternative to ownership for those who cannot afford to buy, or prefer not to. Traditionally providing homes for young single people, the sector now houses an increasing number of families.

Despite government initiatives to encourage institutional investment, the bulk of properties are owned by individual landlords with only one or two buy-to-let properties.
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The study, published in Health Affairs, compared cancer drug spending in nine developed countries between 2004 and 2014, showing health improvements across the board, as well as a sharp increase in the cost of drugs.
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Top tips
How to prepare for field trips in risky environments
Does your research project require field trips or involve vulnerable parties (e.g. patients, children), in difficult to reach areas (e.g. detention centres, prisons, war and conflict zones) or overseas?

The School's travel insurance policy covers all staff travelling on "School business" in connection with a research grant or contract, or research funded wholly or partly from School funds. Here’s how to prepare for travel to risky environments:

1. Consult your unit head and manager and get advice from LSE’s travel insurance officer.
2. The School’s standard travel insurance does not automatically cover every country. It may be possible to obtain insurance cover for excluded areas (at a cost) if additional risk control measures are put in place. View the School's travel policy.
3. Travel to any area that the FCO advises against travel or essential travel only will require a detailed health & safety risk assessment. The insurer also has exclusions in other areas. Check your intended destination with the Health and Safety Team at the earliest opportunity if you think exclusions may apply. Contact the Health and Safety Team on 020 7852 3677 or health.and.safety@lse.ac.uk.
4. Travel Risk Training - LSE provides two specialist travel risk training workshops for staff and postgraduate students:

• Anyone planning to travel to complex risk areas (e.g. those with poor infrastructure, civil/political unrest, or where there is a high threat of kidnapping) is expected to attend this training as part of their pre-travel planning and preparation.
• Lone female travellers, travelling to any part of the world, may find this training useful. 

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60 second interview

Sara Hagemann is Assistant Professor in LSE's European Institute. In her work, Sara draws on a mix of academic and policy experience as she has held research and policy positions in Brussels, Copenhagen and London.

Sara has published extensively on European affairs, in particular on transparency and accountability in political systems, EU policy-making processes, EU treaty matters, the role of national parliaments, and the consequences of EU enlargements.

Sara is a frequent commentator on EU affairs in both international and national media. She is the Co-Founder and General Editor of the LSE’s popular European Politics blog EUROPP.

You have recently been awarded an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grant, due to commence in September 2016 until July 2018, congratulations! Could you tell us more about this?
I very much look forward to starting the project activities for the ESRC IAA grant. The activities I have planned for the project take an outset in my research on EU politics and policy-making. I have published extensively on issues such as government negotiations and voting behaviour by the EU member states, how changing transparency rules affect decision-making in the EU institutions, and the changing relationship between national parliaments and governments in EU affairs.

The activities carried out during the fellowship will come at a crucial time for the UK and for the EU more broadly. At the time of writing, the outcome of Britain’s 'In/Out' referendum is still unknown but will have great implications for the continent as a whole, both with regards to likely ‘contagion effects’ in domestic politics in other European countries, as well as for the collective governance structures of the Union. This is happening at a time when Europe is also challenged by existential dilemmas regarding (dis)integration in the Eurozone area and while drastic steps are needed to solve the geopolitical and humanitarian challenges in South- and South-Eastern Europe. I will hence see it as its primary task to bridge academic analyses and evidence with the political reality that EU and UK decision-makers will be met with in the aftermath of the British referendum.

The fellowship will result in a number of concrete outputs including a series of publications, public events and roundtables with politicians, officials and senior experts in the field. The fellowship will in addition enable me to act as an academic expert adviser to policy practitioners in the UK and Brussels at a time where negotiations between the UK government and its European partners will enter into a crucial phase following the UK referendum. Importantly, the fellowship will also seek to inform and contribute to the public debate through public events, opinion pieces and analyses in the popular media.

How did you find the ESRC IAA application process? 
I think the application process has been very straight forward, and that I’ve had a good dialogue with the IPA Director, colleagues in the European Institute as well as the Research Division regarding my proposal.

Do you have any advice for your fellow colleagues in applying for a grant?
I find that engagement in ‘impact activities’ often lead to new research opportunities in my field of work as new empirical material often becomes available and new research questions present themselves during the process. Hence, I can only recommend combining ‘impact’ and research where possible – and to aim high in terms of whom to have an impact on. In terms of the application itself, I greatly appreciate comments and feedback from my colleagues and think it’s a good idea to share the proposal to receive suggestions ahead of submitting the application.

Your research interests include political behaviour, transparency and accountability in representative democracies, EU politics and governance, EU treaty reforms and enlargements. This has led to your involvement in editing evidence based blogs, LSE’s EUROPP and BREXITVote, to enhance public debate and understanding on European policy. Please tell us more about your involvement with these blogs.
The EUROPP and BREXITVote blogs have been a great success, and we’ve seen a tremendous interest in both of them. They both combine research-based analyses and opinion/debate pieces, and are often quoted in the media. I very much enjoy the work with the blogs, and think they are an important contribution to the LSE’s impact on public life – but I also want to emphasise that the success is very much due to the very professional work of the blog managers, who run the blogs on a daily basis!

How do you find writing for blogs and how does it compare with writing for publications?
Writing a blog piece and writing an academic paper are two entirely different things. With blogs, I often suggest to think of an article in e.g. The Economist, and to make it as catchy and precise in terms of formulations as they do. The biggest challenge with blogs is to not get into lengthy arguments or seek to cram too many points into one piece – it needs to be simple, which can be a challenge if you’re looking to cover a complex topic. I’ve written many blogs, media articles and policy briefs as I’ve worked in think-tanks and policy positions in Brussels, Copenhagen and London. But I also enjoy writing academic papers as you can get into more depth and have to pay attention to all aspects of the arguments, research design and empirical evidence. So I’m glad to be able to continue with both the academic writing and the blogs and policy papers as part of my work with the EUROPP and BrexitVote blogs and the activities for the ESRC IAA grant.

With the EU referendum approaching on Thursday 23 June, what are your thoughts/concerns on BREXIT? What advice do you have for those who are still undecided?
I’m very concerned about the implications of the Brexit vote outcome. There’s a lot of uncertainty about the consequences if Britain leaves the EU, but also about the great challenges that Europe is facing at the moment regarding economic growth and the humanitarian crisis at our borders. For those who are still undecided, I would recommend having a look at the work by the UK in a Changing Europe programme and to make sure to vote, even if you are still in doubt.

Do you have anything else you would like to share?
I’m organising the programme for the LSE’s Referendum Night on Thursday 23 June and really look forward to an impressive and stimulating evening with debates and speeches by LSE colleagues, external experts and policy-makers. Tickets are in high demand, but the whole event will be live-streaming on the LSE website.
 
What book are you currently reading and which have you enjoyed most in the past? 
Right now I’m reading ‘The reader on the 6.27’, which I really enjoy. There are too many books that have been important to me, and I cannot say that one genre or subject dominates, so I cannot list them here. But I read a lot, both fiction and academic books/publications of course.
 
If you were offered the trip of a lifetime, where would you like to go and why? 
To Patagonia, in Southern Argentina, with my husband and kids. Fortunately we’re planning to do exactly that trip next year.