Department of Psychological Sciences

Staff Research Committee

3rd March 2016

Present: Naz Derakhshan (Chair), Jacqueline Barnes, Rick Cooper, Kim Davies, Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Denis Mareschal, Naomi Adams (minutes)

Apologies: Mike Oaksford, Jonathan Smith

1. Minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

2. Matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting

Welcome to new committee members

ND, who is the new Chair of the Committee, welcomed SLF and KD to their first meeting.

Access charges for MERLiN grant applications

AR and NA have met with Neil Chamberlain-Keen in Finance to set the access charges for lab equipment in MERLiN. , ND, MS, AS and others also contributed to the process, which looked at both cost and usage to determine the rates. These are now available on pFACT and NA will ask AR to send an email to all MERLiN users remind them to add these into grant applications (they can be found under ‘equipment costs/sub element’).

3.  New research grants since November 2015

Martin Eimer / Leverhulme Trust / Neural and cognitive mechanisms of multimodal working memory. / £ 185,528
Denis Mareschal
Michael Thomas
Iroise Dumontheil / Educational Endowment Fund / UnLoCKE: Understanding Learning of Counterintuitive Concepts through Knowledge Interference Control in Sciences and Mathematics Education. / £ 998,443

4.  Requests for Funding

Gurmukh Panesar (GTA) - £490 – Brain Anatomy Course

Jessica Swainston (PhD) - £490 – Brain Anatomy Course

Emmanuel Ducrocq (PhD) - £490 – Brain Anatomy Course

These were approved by Chair’s action but it was agreed to forward all requests to the committee to discuss via email in future.

5.  Accommodation

5.1  Space issues

DM reported on the upcoming move from Bedford Square to the BMA building in Tavistock Square. There will be at least 10 (possibly 20, we need to make a case for this with Estates) additional desks available to the main department. Room 202 in the HW Building will be converted to testing space.

The progress of the Toddler Lab is currently stalled.

JB mentioned the fact that these moves are disruptive to research, and that AKS had requested that this issue be raised with the Master, which MO did in a meeting with him before Christmas. Nick Keep has requested that funds be added into the Estates decant budget to potentially cover researcher salaries on grants which require a no cost extension, and where the researchers could not carry out their duties for a period of time so need additional salary costs not provided by the funder.

6.  Impact Report

KD reported that she had met with nearly all members of staff for initial discussion on impact, and has been gathering documentation and assisting with impact statements on grant applications.. She is also thinking of arranging meetings with key stakeholders, e.g. business, government if possible. She has carried out a training session on impact for PhD students and has plans for increased use of social media and more engagement with External Relations. She will be a member of the new College Public Engagement and Impact Committee.

We will need to think about new ways of commercialising research as the Business Relations Unit is no longer in existence.

It is currently far too early to select the impact case studies for the next REF but the College REF working Group had requested a sample of possible studies.

DM reported that there is a College Impact fund (10k per unit of assessment to last until 2021) to be used to deliver impact. Applications for funding will be decided by the Chair of the College REF Steering Group, and we will have to make a case for funds rather than it being guaranteed.

7.  REF

DM reported that there may be a light touch ‘interim REF’ before 2021, although this was mooted during the last period and did not happen. We may also have to return all staff; this has not yet been decided.

8.  Open Access Compliance

RC reported that there is an Open Access Working Group working on Compliance. They are concerned that while departments are submitting publications in the monthly reports, they are not sure that they are capturing everything. NA will amend the monthly emails to request a ‘nothing this month’ response as well as positive replies.

RC said that eventually BIROn would be linked to staff college web pages.

9.  Setting up a new Centre for Research on Risk and Resilience in Psychopathology and Well-being'

ND proposed setting up a new Centre for Research on Risk and Resilience in Psychopathology and Well-being. This would include staff from several of the research groupings within the department, and possibly staff from other departments, e.g. Geography, and other institutions, e.g. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. RC clarified that the College is keen to see interdisciplinary research when setting up centres, and that they are self-sustaining. Deadlines for the applications are termly. SLF expressed an interest in joining the centre.

10.  Date of next meeting

16th June 2016