eNews 7 February
eNews: Leeds Partnership Awards, Staff Festival, NSS and more.
Celebrate
Making a positive impact in student education
“To receive positive comments via the nomination forms was such an unexpected but wonderful surprise. Then to win the overall award was amazing!”
The annual Leeds Partnership Awards will once again highlight the achievements of staff and students who truly put into practice our shared commitment to work together to support all aspects of our University community. With nominations open for this year’s coveted accolades, 2023 awards recipients reveal what winning has meant to them.
Institute celebrates major societal role
“It’s amazing how far we’ve come in putting fluid dynamics on the map and emphasising its importance for the economy and society.”
High-profile guests helped celebrate the Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics’ (LIFD) fifth anniversary, highlighting how this field of research is helping develop fundamental solutions to some of the greatest global challenges.
Campus life
New student campaign | Help prevent sexual violence in our student community
We’re launching a new campaign this week to address sexual violence in our student community. The campaign is co-created with students at Leeds, and in partnership with the Harassment and Misconduct team and LUU. Access our Sexual violence education and prevention campaign toolkit for key dates, images and text you can use to share the campaign, and to book onto training to learn how to respond to disclosures.
Staff and Senior Leaders Forums | Talk to our leaders about the issues that matter most to you
Join our Interim Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Hai-Sui Yu, and the University’s leadership team for a new series of all-staff forums. Hear a short update from Hai-Sui, ask your questions and contribute to the discussion.
Water supply works completed
Work has been completed to install a new tank to boost water supply to the upper floors in the Social Sciences, Ziff and Edward Boyle Library buildings, which is expected to resolve recent issues in these areas. Regular monitoring and checks will continue. Please contact the Estates Helpdesk at eshelp@leeds.ac.uk for further information.
Staff Festival 2024 | Why your charity vote is so important
“We were thrilled to have the University supporting our mission. The funding we received provided a major boost for our work.”
With voting in full swing for the 2024 Staff Festival charity, the most recent beneficiaries from your fantastic fundraising efforts reveal just how much this support has meant to them. Discover how Homeless Street Angels and Zarach have used proceeds from the 2023 event to fund life-changing work trying to break the cycle of poverty in Leeds, offering real hope to families struggling during the cost of living crisis.
Blog | How much do you know about Lunar New Year?
From firecrackers to fireworks, discover the history behind Lunar New Year celebrations and the significance of this holiday, also known as Spring Festival and Chinese New Year, in East Asian countries.
Chinese New Year celebration
5.30-7pm, tomorrow (8 February)
Colleagues, students and guests are all welcome to join the Business Confucius Institute for an evening of interactive activities to learn about and celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Welcome the Year of the Dragon
Learn about Chinese New Year traditions and try some simple greetings in Mandarin by accessing the Business Confucius Institute Sway feature, which includes audio clips, podcasts and videos. Discuss what you learn with colleagues and students or share this resource with your networks to welcome the Year of the Dragon as a global community!
Wellbeing and support
Coming soon | New staff health, wellbeing and learning centre
Colleagues will have access to a new health, wellbeing and learning hub on campus from next month with the official relaunch of the LOGIK Centre. Discover how you can vote for its new name and register to receive details of exciting events and activities planned for launch week… and beyond!
Take part | UK Corporate Games
Colleagues are invited to get involved when the UK Corporate Games kicks off this month, supported by Sports Ambassador Alastair Brownlee and hosted in collaboration between the University and Leeds City Council.
Did you know?
Book | Free and confidential financial wellbeing sessions
Financial wellbeing sessions for colleagues are now available. In-person or online support sessions with money advice charity, Money Buddies, can be booked in advance. Sessions run from 9am to 12 noon most Wednesdays.
Digital developments
Stream videos have moved
As part of the Stream (Classic) video migration project, videos owned by a Team or SharePoint site have been moved into that corresponding Team or site. Existing links to videos will continue to work and permissions will remain the same.
Register | IT open session
9.30-11am, 21 February
Register to attend the next online IT open session to discuss how you interact with IT and put your questions to the IT Executive Leadership team. Don’t worry if you can’t attend – you can still use the registration form to submit your questions and a recording will be made available afterwards.
Tell us about our laptop service
Providing laptops and other devices is a key IT service, and we’d like your help to improve it. Tell us what you think of the laptop service, the devices provided and your suggestions for improvement in this short survey, which closes on 10 February.
Purchasing training | SIPR enhancements
New enhancements have been applied to SIPR to add additional mandatory fields, which will improve consistency and efficiency in relation to goods receipting. Changes have been made to the ‘Recipient’ field, and automatic email prompts will be issued to recipients to make sure invoices are paid on time. Online SIPR training has been updated and more information can be found on the Purchasing SharePoint site.
Students
National Student Survey (NSS) drop-in sessions
Throughout February and March
The NSS launches for final year undergraduate students at Leeds this week, and we want colleagues to help raise awareness of the survey and encourage eligible students to take part. We’ve organised NSS drop-in sessions to give colleagues more information about the NSS, together with hints and tips on how to maximise the use of our recently launched NSS staff toolkit.
Laidlaw Leadership and Research Programme
Want to help your students change the world? There’s not long left to promote the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Programme, with applications closing on 29 February. Information and communications resources can be found in the Laidlaw toolkit on SharePoint to help you share this incredible opportunity with your students.
Apprenticeships offer life-changing choices
“Apprentices are proud to be part of the University community and appreciate the professional learning environment we have here.”
To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2024, we spoke to some of the many people to have benefitted from courses offered at Leeds, including our own colleagues.
Free course to help boost graduate employment
Do you know any recent graduates looking for a job? GradSkills: Graduate Accelerator is a fully funded course that can help boost their chances, with one-to-one coaching sessions, self-directed learning and six hours of face-to-face training at a local university.
Research
Tackling crisis in care for autistic children
“This report provides hope with its evidence-based recommendations for how the system can be changed to build a better UK for children and young people with autism.”
A new report reveals a crisis in children’s autism assessment, warning that thousands of autistic children and young people are waiting months – or even years – for health and education support.
Register | Research network development programme session
2.30-3.30pm, today (7 February)
Do you want to turn your idea for an interdisciplinary research network into a reality? You could receive substantial funding. Register to attend an information session to find out more about the newly launched Horizons Institute Challenge Theme Networks development programme. Applications close on 8 March.
Leeds Creative Labs | Creative Health edition
Leeds Creative Labs: Creative Health edition is looking for academics with research interests in health to apply. The programme pairs researchers with artists to collaborate on an open-ended creative research residency. For this iteration of Labs, the Cultural Institute has partnered with the Bradford Producing hub and will be offering up to five sets of labs. Applications close on 12 February.
Have your say | Research Culture pulse survey
The latest Research Culture pulse survey closes on 15 February. This time focusing on recognising diverse research activity, your feedback will play a vital role in helping create a positive and inclusive research culture at Leeds.
Collections Research Fund
Uncover the past and shape the future with the Collections Research Fund (CRF), which offers academics from all faculties a chance to apply research methods to world-class museum collections alongside specialist curators. Applications will open after an online CRF information session on 22 February. The deadline to apply is 19 April.
Pensions
USS Pensions benefits
What you pay towards the USS Pensions scheme and what you receive is changing. Subject to certain criteria, if you’re eligible and have any period of active membership between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2024, and you don’t retire before 1 April 2024, you will receive a benefit uplift. If you haven’t built up benefits during this time, but start paying in before 1 April 2024, you’ll still receive this uplift.
Learning and development
Keep up to date with the latest learning and development opportunities from the University on our For Staff website, including:
- Information session | Fresh Steps Development Programme (Grades 2-5)
- Register | Concordat Resources and Activities on Offer event
- Springboard Development Programme for women (Grades 2-5)
- Build your Scholarship Practice
- Beginners’ guide to LinkedIn Learning
- Student panel on academic personal tutoring
- Academic personal tutoring discussion group
- Development sessions for mentors
Staff Networks
Event | Working Class Staff Network
4-5pm, 26 February
Join the Working Class Network for an online event featuring guest speaker Dr Jess Pilgrim-Brown, who will share details of her doctoral thesis exploring the experiences of working-class professional services employees at Russell Group universities. Join the Working Class Network MS Teams area to access the event invite.
Events
Software and AI – the journey from research to impact and commercialisation
8.30-10am, tomorrow (8 February)
Sign up for a breakfast event looking at how a commercial product or service can be developed from research into software and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Open to researchers working in the software and AI fields, the event in Nexus will include sessions with Northern Gritstone, the University commercialisation team and Slingshot Simulation Ltd., which took AI research from the lab to the market.
Data science at LIDA | Transport and travel
10-11am, tomorrow (8 February)
Register for the latest instalment of the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) data science mini-series, featuring 10-minute lightning talks from three data scientists about their research on Transport and Travel. Speakers are Toluwani Osabiya, Aditi Sudhakar and Lydia Wharton.
International Concert Series
9 and 14 February
The University of Leeds International Concert Series continues its 2024 season this week. Folk musician Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne takes to the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall stage from 1.05-1.55pm on 9 February. This is followed by Lucy Railton and Joseph Houston performing Morton Feldman’s ‘Patterns in a Chromatic Field’ from 6-7pm on 14 February. Tickets for both events are on a pay-as-you-feel basis.
Visiting Artist’s Talk
2-4pm, 12 February
The next Visiting Artist’s Talk welcomes Alys Williams, founding Director of VITRINE, which has galleries in London and Basel.
Data science at LIDA | Societal and environmental challenges
10-11am, 14 February
This instalment of the LIDA data science mini-series features 10-minute lightning talks from three data scientists about their research into societal and environmental challenges. Speakers are Ahmad Ammash, Preeti Sharma and Abdelrahman Ibrahim.
Register | Policing and our Climate Crisis: Reflections on the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires in Australia
12 noon to 1.30pm, 7 March
Register for a public lecture by Dr Jarrett Blaustein (Australian National University), who will explore what policing is, and what it might become, in the climate crisis.
Tell us your story
We’d like to hear about the great work you’re doing. Contact internalcomms@leeds.ac.uk to share your stories.
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Keeping up to date
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With best wishes,
The Internal Communications and Engagement team
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