Interdisciplinary Networking

The Strategic Research Initiatives team works in close partnership with colleagues in the University’s four Colleges and University Services to connect academics across disciplines. We develop and deliver creative research initiatives that transcend College boundaries and proactively support the development of ambitious and innovative cross-disciplinary projects to address societal challenges. As part of this, we deliver workshops and networking events to catalyse and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration between academics.

Networking Events from May to August 2024

Upcoming Events

We have four thematic networking events coming up in August 2024. Details to follow shortly.

UKRI Cross-research council responsive mode Round 2 - Open networking events

21 May 2024

18 July 2024

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have now brought out the pre-announcement for Round 2 of their cross-research council responsive mode pilot scheme in 2024, offering grants from £200k - £1.2M. Between May and August 2024, the SRI team will be hosting a series of networking events to bring together the University of Glasgow research community across disciplines and ways of working. 

Ahead of this funding call opening officially in September, we are hosting two open networking events to bring together staff members of the University of Glasgow research community from different disciplines and ways of working, and particularly encourage those exploring newer collaborations to attend.

Upon registering you will be asked a few questions about your current research interests and expertise. This is to help us facilitate a couple of thematic conversations if possible we can on the day.

We strongly encourage all attendees to attend the full duration of the event in order to have the best chance of exciting conversations.

ARIA - Information and Networking session with Prof Mark Symes

05 June 2024, 10:00-12:00

ARIA is a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. An R&D funding agency backed by £800m over the next four years, ARIA aims to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs to benefit everyone in the UK, with different ARIA opportunity spaces.

Professor Mark Symes of the School of Chemistry is one of the founding Programme Directors of the the ARIA programme. ARIA programme directors will set out to develop a vision of what the future will look like through a four-stage process. They will question the status quo, bound an opportunity space worth exploring, formulate a core hypothesis to underpin a programme, and launch a programme for solicitation from the wider research and development community.

In this event, Professor Symes will briefly introduce the ARIA programme to attendees (separately ticketed, with optional zoom link).

This will be followed by a more detailed, in-person session on his own remit as Programme director, which is Professor Mark Symes' work as Programme Director is “Managing our Climate and weather through responsible engineering.” We anticipate calls coming in this area with significant funding - the minimum size of an ARIA programme is £10M, and even the seed funding, for non core projects, is up to £500k. There will be space for questions and informal networking.

This section of the event is intended to be the first step to make connections within the university who might wish to apply together when the calls are opened - the time from a call opening to the deadline is expected to be 3 weeks.

International Research Development in Scotland 

15 May 2024

The Scottish Funding Council and the University of Glasgow cordially invite you to a workshop and networking event focused on international development research in Scotland. This event brings together researchers and research professionals from Scottish HEIs and research institutes to showcase their international development research successes, facilitate knowledge sharing across institutions and funders, and identify opportunities for collaborative international development work.

Venue and Programme

Taking place at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre, the event will include:

· Scene setting on international development research in Scotland with funders and key sector stakeholders. Confirmed attendees include the Scottish Government, the Scottish Funding Council, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Wellcome, FCDO and UKRI.

· Institutional Research Briefings – A chance for each attending institution to highlight their international development research portfolios. If appropriate, we welcome information sharing on use of ISPF ODA funding to bolster activity.

· Lunchtime Poster Session – Taking place in a publicly-accessible venue, a showcase of the depth and breadth of Scotland’s international development research activity and an opportunity to create new connections between individuals and teams. Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to submit a poster.

· Break-out discussions – Interactive discussion and feedback session focused on how Scottish institutions can be collaborating more effectively on international development research.

A final agenda and additional details will be circulated to registered attendees.

This event will take place fully in-person, however the plenary sessions will be recorded and made available at a later date for those unable to attend in person.

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Please also note that filming/ photography will take place at these events for promotional purposes. The photographs and recordings made are likely to appear on our website and social media. If you would prefer not to be photographed/filmed, please let the photographer/ videographer know.

This event is part of the SpARC initiative: A new programme of activities delivered in partnership between Research Services and the ARC to encourage and support the ideation and development of new research and collaborations.

Networking Events from January to April 2024

UKRI Cross-Research Council Call 2024 Networking events 

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will be launching round 2 of their cross-research council responsive mode pilot scheme in 2024, offering grants from £200k - £1.2M. The 2023 scheme details can be found here. Ahead of this funding call, the SRI team will be hosting a series of networking events to bring together the University of Glasgow research community across disciplines and ways of working. 

In the first of these we will highlight the key details of the call, facilitate cross-disciplinary discussions to explore new inter-disciplinary ideas and host an informal networking session. 

Tuesday, 20 February 2024, 13:00-16:00 at the Researcher Development Suite in the ARCYou can secure your place here.

At this event will be also hearing from members of the Interdisciplinary Assessment College for Round 1 of this call and incorporating feedback from our 2023 events to ensure you get the most value out of this time.

At registration you will be asked a few questions about your current research interests and expertise. This will allow us to facilitate key conversations. To take full advantage we encourage you to attend the event in full.  Please note that we will close bookings at noon on the 15th February 2024.

Further events 

Follow up sessions are planned for Wednesday, 20 March 2024 - 10:00-12:00 and Thursday, 25 April 2024 - 13:00-16:00.

Please also note that filming/ photography will take place at this event for promotional purposes. The photographs and recordings made are likely to appear on our website and social media. If you would prefer not to be photographed/filmed, please let the photographer/ videographer know.

This event is part of the SpARC initiative: A new programme of activities delivered in partnership between Research Services and the ARC to encourage and support the ideation and development of new research and collaborations.

UKRI Building a Secure and Resilient World

 

SHAPE Interdisciplinary cohort 2024 - Dipping a toe in interdisciplinary waters

*Pilot cohort now complete*

Dipping a toe in interdisciplinary waters is a new pilot programme designed to support a small cohort of scholars from SHAPE disciplines to explore their interdisciplinary understanding and practice. 

 

Time commitment:

Applicants will commit to attending four in-person half-day sessions between February – March 2024: 

  • 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 21 February (workshop 1) – Studio 2, ARC
  • 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 6 March (workshop 2) – Studio 2, ARC
  • 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 20 March (interdisciplinary networking session with wider group of colleagues from across UofG) -- Researcher Development Suite, ARC
  • 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 27 March (workshop 3) – Researcher Development Suite, ARC

 

Aims and rationale:

As a research community, we are increasingly seeing funding calls that span multiple research councils and/or explicitly require interdisciplinary teams. This has been great for highlighting the importance of collaborative working, and we have made huge strides in supporting people who feel ready to come together in reaction to specific calls. This programme is aiming to answer a different question: How to support colleagues who may be “interdisciplinary-curious” to explore the concept of interdisciplinarity, before asking them to commit large amounts of time to collaborative funding bids?

 

The Dipping a toe.. programme is not about interdisciplinary bid-writing, or pitching your ideas to potential collaborators. Instead, it’s about providing time and space to think about interdisciplinarity as a concept; the different perspectives, assumptions and insecurities we bring from our “home” disciplines; our own journey in collaborating with others; and where we want to develop our skills. 

 

We want to think about the types of questions that working in our disciplines allows us to ask, and how these inform the ways in which we might contribute to, or benefit from, interdisciplinary research. As part of this work, we hope to think more deeply about how we move beyond arts, humanities and social sciences as the “poor relation” or bolt on area in interdisciplinary projects. 

 

We’ll use small group discussions and activities to explore these issues. We will ask you to share reflections and to join in activities with an open mind, but we won’t ask you to stand up and present anything in front of a group. 

 

This programme is designed to be of interest to you if…

  • You know there are opportunities for interdisciplinary research, but are uncertain about what your role might be in this sort of project;
  • You have been interested in interdisciplinary calls in the past, but lacked the confidence to put yourself forward as part of a team;
  • You sometimes feel uncertain or insecure about how others might “judge” your discipline or methods; 
  • You’re interested in exploring interdisciplinarity, but genuinely don’t know if this is something you would enjoy or be “good” at.  

 

The programme is open to all career stages post-PhD, from PDRAs to Professors. We welcome applications from those with no practical experience of interdisciplinary research, and from those with some experience who want to reflect on and deepen their practice. This programme is not aimed at researchers who already have significant experience of leading interdisciplinary work.

 

The intended outcomes include…

  • Be better able to articulate, and feel more confident in explaining, your own potential contribution to interdisciplinary projects;
  • Have a better understanding of why some aspects of interdisciplinary research may feel challenging to you, and where you are willing (or not) to invest your time and energy;
  • Better understand some of the assumptions and dynamics of interdisciplinary research, and explore potential ways of working through these;
  • Develop new connections with a small network of SHAPE researchers interested in exploring the possibilities for interdisciplinary research.

 

Participants will be expected to….

  • Commit to three half day (in person) workshops, attend a “practical” networking session, and carry out a small amount of reflection between sessions;
  • Be willing to reflect on your own experiences and actively participate in the sessions;
  • Be open to listening to others’ experiences, including where these experiences differ from your own.

 

Application process and timeline:

This is a pilot project, so spaces are limited.

Applications were handled through Inkpath.

Please note:  we strongly encourage applications from people who have limited or no involvement in funded interdisciplinary research projects. If that is you, please do apply. “Experience” here might also include being part of interdisciplinary reading groups, attending cross-college networking events, being interested in interdisciplinary calls but not pursuing for whatever reason, or simply being curious/ intimidated by the current focus on interdisciplinarity.

Infectious Diseases Thematic Networking Events 2023

In August 2023, the Strategic Research Initiatives Team hosted a Research Development Workshop to support our research community to prepare for several calls on the funding horizon linked to infectious diseases. Based on the feedback from that event, we are pleased to announce a programme of five research development workshops over November and December 2023, focussed on the questions our research community expressed the most interest in, in the formats they identified as being most useful, and with unlimited amounts of our best attempt at good coffee (we hear you and we will do our best).

Please sign up for as many of these sessions as you like (you need to register for each one separately), and there is no need for you to have attended the August event. All of these are open to every member of our research community.

 

Date/Time: 15 November 2023 from 10:00 - 12:00

Venue: Researcher Development Suite, Advanced Research Centre

Includes: Facilitated table discussions focussed on a key question and informal networking

 

Date/Time: 28 November 2023 from 09:00 - 12:00

Venue: Researcher Development Suite, Advanced Research Centre

Includes: Facilitated table discussions focussed on a key question and informal networking

 

Date/Time: 28 November 2023 from 13:00-16:00

Venue: Researcher Development Suite, Advanced Research Centre

Includes: Facilitated table discussions focussed on a key question and informal networking

 

Date/Time: 05 December 2023 from 13:00-16:00

Venue: Studio 2, Advanced Research Centre

Includes: Facilitated table discussions focussed on a key question and informal networking

 

Date/Time: 14 December 2023 from 10:00-12:00

Venue: Researcher Development Suite, Advanced Research Centre and on zoom

Includes: Insights into EU infectious disease calls from one of our researchers who sits on the panel and an overview of the support available to you from UofG teams to develop an EU funding application followed by discussions focussed on the call topic.

Note: This session is designed in response to the live EU call on the noted topic. We expect to host more sessions on specific calls as details become available. That being said, this session is open to everyone, even if they are not planning an application to this specific call.

 

All five events are part of the SpARC initiative: A programme of activities delivered in partnership between Research Services and the ARC to encourage and support the ideation and development of new research and collaborations

Interdisciplinary Networking 2023

UKRI announced a new cross-research council responsive mode pilot scheme, designed to support breakthrough or disruptive interdisciplinary ideas not routinely funded through existing UKRI responsive mode schemes.

In preparation for the launch of this pilot scheme, we convened a series of facilitated networking events to bring together academics from across the University with the aim of exploring new research ideas that could lead to interdisciplinary research collaborations.staff taking part in an interdisciplinary networking event

 

We hosted three open networking events over March and April, where we highlighted the key details of the call, facilitated cross-disciplinary discussions to explore new inter-disciplinary ideas and enabled informal networking sessions. Thereafter, we also hosted six thematic networking events on the basis of key research themes that emerged from the earlier session. 

Thematic networking events

In May, we hosted three in-person sessions to enable parallel thematic discussion and networking events on six different and deliberately broad themes. These events, held in Studio 2 in the ARC, were open to researchers, with interests in these themes, who might be considering an application to the UKRI Cross-Council Call or other funding opportunities. 

THEME

DATE and TIME

Relationships between healthy people, animals and plants

 

4th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

Datafication – big data collection, analytics, automation and application

 

4th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

Healthcare challenges – health information, misinformation, behavioural change, preventative medicine and new technologies

 

12th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

Environment & climate change

 

12th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

Resilient planet – the green industrial revolution, just energy transition

 

16th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

The Urbanising world and diverging demographics

 

16th May 2023, 10:00-12:00

 

These events have developed as part of our SpARC initiative designed to provide support for accelerating research collaboration. This is a new programme of activities delivered in partnership between Research Services and the ARC to encourage and support the ideation and development of new research and collaborations.