Issue 43 – Monday 12th October 2020
Contents
HeadSup
Kia ora koutou
It was so nice to catch up in 3-D with students in my 700-level course on Friday. I am amazed at the generosity of spirit our students extend to us, and the incredible effort our teaching and supervision teams have made to maintaining a quality educational outcome for our students. Don’t forget we run a Wednesday morning ‘Cookie Monster’ moment for all academic and professional staff, and post-graduate students. Put it in your diary – 10.30 am every Wednesday Level 6 common space, Building 302. Don’t be shy, come along, eat the biscuits, cheese and crackers, and re-connect.
On Friday last week the CoRE (Centre of Research Excellence) funding decisions were announced. This is a big ‘to-do’ in the New Zealand funding landscape. I am delighted to announce that Mark Dickson, Murray Ford and Emma Ryan have been funded via the new Otago-led Coastal People: Southern Skies CoRE. This is a huge achievement. I’m looking forward to seeing some exciting work come out of this collaboration. Well done all!
Good news also for our newest staff member, Ingrid Ukstins, who was appointed into Earth Sciences some months ago. Ingrid has been stuck in Iowa awaiting permission to cross our border. After much too-ing and fro-ing we finally managed to win our case for Ingrid to cross the border. I’m pleased to advise that Ingrid should clear quarantine mid-November…just in time for our staff end-of-year Party.
On other staffing matters, it’s great to welcome Liana Ball (l.ball@auckland.ac.nz) into the Academic Services Coodinator role, replacing Chris Struthers. Also, Mélanie has taken over from Giovanni in the Chair, Rangahau, role. Thank you for all your hard work Giovanni, and welcome Mélanie!
On the end-of-year party note, I’m told that Nick Lewis and family have once again offered up their abode in Northcote Point for an afternoon-evening soiree. This was an awesome venue last year and all who attended had a great time. Drinks definitely on me this year! Please keep an eye out for details and prioritise the event – we need to catch up and celebrate getting through 2020!
Some of you may remember the call for contributions to the national Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. Brendon Blue kindly coordinated our response. The summary of recommendations are out and our input has been incorporated – see Brendon’s item in this edition of p-cubed. I think it’s great that we did this and I encourage more engagement with submissions – we can and should make an impact!
All staff will have received an email from the Dean outlining our fiscal position. As a faculty, we will need to make staffing savings. The voluntary leaving scheme may be attractive to some people and, if so, I encourage you to get in touch with me or David for a preliminary and confidential conversation. There are many possible scenarios in play and I am unable to make a definitive comment on the School situation. However, I am optimistic that our ENV strategic initiatives will offset some of the impact as will the Voluntary Leaving Scheme. It’s a case of waiting to see whether our strategic initiatives are sufficient and whether there is enough slop in the faculty operation to cover our slightly off-kilter staff-student ratio while we grow ourselves out of trouble. There’s no point worrying about this until we understand the situation better – I urge you all to hold it lightly.
Lastly, I am on annual leave this week. If you have issues that need attention please get in touch with David who is Acting HoD in my absence.
Ngā mihi nui
JR
Whakawhanaungatanga-Communities
Congratulations
-To the Doctoral student (School of Environment) Fabio Machado, who have been awarded a Blue in Sports Category by The University of Auckland. He competed in both Judo and Jiu-Jitsu and won gold at the 2019 New Zealand Judo Regional North Island and bronze at the 2019 New Zealand Judo National. In Jiu-Jitsu, he won bronze at the 2019 Pan Pacific Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Australia. Here is the link to the video: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/awards-and-prizes/blues-awards/2020-blues-awards-winners.html
-To Mai Sas, who has successfully defended her PhD thesis in late September. Her work focused on Isotopic and Geochemical Records of Magmatic Processes Captured in Crystals from Rhyolites at Okataina Volcano. At the oral exam she gave an excellent overview of her work, and answered all questions with confidence. Mai is now working in the US in the Western Washington University geology department.
Biosis Previews Database
Justene McNeice would like to hear from staff about how they use the database (for research, teaching etc.) and how important it is to their work.
The Biosis Previews database subscription is up for renewal. The database covers biology, taxonomy, clinical and experimental medicine, biochemistry, biotechnology, and earth sciences. As a result of current financial challenges the Library is reviewing resources, when subscription renewals are due, to ensure we stay within our reduced Collections budget. Biosis is an expensive product at an annual cost of NZD $129,491, and usage is declining.
Please email feedback to j.mcneice@auckland.ac.nz by the end of October.
Lock your Gear!
This is a short reminder for everyone already at university and coming back to university to stay alert and protect your belongings when you are on campus. The university gets targeted from time to time by groups to steal unattended gear such as bikes or scooters! So be careful and lock your gear!
Stay well and safe!
New Zealand Geographical Society
Newsletter
Here is the October Newsletter of Geography Auckland (New Zealand Geographical Society, Auckland Branch).
Please note that we hope to hold the October Dialogues at 4.00pm to 5.30pm in the Ontology Lab:
What: “The good, the bad and the ugly of human mobility”
Who: Katarzyna Sila-Nowicka (Sila)
When: Tuesday 20th Oct– 4.00pm to 5.30pm
Where: Building 302, Room 551 (Ontology Lab) – University of Auckland Science Centre, 32 Symonds Street
Geoscience Society of New Zealand Conference
Geoscience Society of New Zealand Conference Christchurch 22nd-25th November – Early Bird Registration 21st October
The Geoscience Society of New Zealand annual conference (https://confer.eventsair.com/gsnz2020/) is still planning to go ahead face to face in Christchurch 22-25th November. Early bird registration https://confer.eventsair.com/gsnz2020/registration has been extended to 21st October and if you missed the abstract submission deadline last month in the Covid chaos there is a rapidly closing window for Aucklander’s to informally slide a late submission into the (poster) programme – please contact Alex Nichols alex.nichols@canterbury.ac.nz and ‘Claudette van der Westhuizen’ Claudette@confer.co.nz asap to see what your options are.”
Meetings, Seminars and Events
School of Environment Graduation Lunch – 2020 Spring Graduation
Dear staff and graduands,
The School of Environment Graduation Lunch has been rescheduled to Monday 2 November. Please register here by Tuesday 20 October for catering purpose.
For queries, please contact Samantha Huang
Bickie Briefings
When & Where: Every week from 10.30-11.00 am starting Thursday 15 October onwards, Level 6 common space unless otherwise advised.
Who: Everyone – all post-graduate students and staff are welcome, please come.
Why: Find out what’s happening and what’s coming up in the next week, hear about our successes, and help build our Earth Sciences Community! And eat bickies of course!!
For details, please contact David Farsky
Workshop: Recognising and responding to postgraduate students in distress
Thanks to those of you who came to the workshop. It was very heartening to see such a good turnout. We hope you were able to take something useful from it.
During the workshop we discussed the valuable role of the Science Student Support team who can help students access a range of resources from mental health services to support for learning needs and financial hardship. They have kindly prepared a document providing details of their various roles and contact details. I am attaching this, together Kimberley Farmer’s PowerPoint slides, to this email. I am also attaching the document on Support Services and contacts for dealing with distressed students.
Pleases share any feedback you have on the workshop or any suggestions at kl.gibson@auckland.ac.nz for further support or training you would find useful in this area.
R Workshop
An Introduction to R Workshop is being run on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th of November.
This will be led by Daniel Barnett, from the Statistical Consulting Centre, in the Department of Statistics.
Venue: Building 302, Level 1 – Room 190.
Time: 9am – 5pm
Schedule
Please find the approximate schedule for both days here (since this is the schedule from our previous course, it may yet be altered very slightly). Morning and afternoon tea will be provided and there are cafes handy nearby for lunch.
Payment Process
As per our previous Introductory R workshops, the cost is $300 for UoA students and staff. You can pay using your PRESS account, research grant, or other UoA account. You can also opt to use a debit/credit card (however we will have to also add GST for this type of payment and payment can only be made at the Student Resource Centre on main campus). The payment authorisation form for UoA participants paying from a UoA account is attached. The cost for non-UoA attendees is $500 + GST, please contact me for directions to the Student Resource Centre. Please use this Form to fill in payment details.
Computers
We will be using a Faculty of Science computer lab. You are also welcome to use your own laptop, however please make sure that you have downloaded R and R Studio onto your machine before the workshop (they are free to download). We will also include some instructions re how to do this in our pre-workshop information email.
Access to computers and internet
We will arrange access to the lab computers for all non-UoA participants. We will also have a guest wireless password for non-UoA participants who are bringing their own laptops. UoA staff and students will be able to access the FoS computers using their normal UoA UPI and password.
Please contact Joei Mudaliar for enquiries
2020 Early Career Researchers Video Competition
Entries are now open for the 2020 Early Career Researchers video competition, sponsored by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Royal Society Te Apārangi.
The Royal Society Te Apārangi are promoting the ‘Early Career Researcher Forum’. This is an opportunity for early career researchers to create a short 3 minute ataata video talking about their research, and for the chance to win one of five prizes.
The prizes are:
- $2000 Kaiarataki Achiever in professional video category
- $2000 Kaiarataki Achiever non-professional video category
- $2000 Te Ao Māori category
- $2000 Moana Oceania category
- $2000 People’s Choice category.
To enter, produce your own ataata video that features yourself or your team explaining your research in no more than 3 minutes.
The full competition details can be found here.
The form for entering can be found here. The deadline has been extended to 16 October 2020.
Karawhuia go for it, tuku atu upload!
Ako – Teaching and Learning
A call for nominations for the School of Environment Ako Teaching Excellence Awards
The School of Environment’s Ako Innovation Committee would like to invite nominations for the Ako Teaching Excellence Awards which celebrate and promote staff excellence in teaching and learning. The awards celebrate individual teachers or teaching teams who display, promote and/or facilitate teaching excellence in the School in 2020.
Nomination process
The Committee invites staff to nominate themselves, their teaching team and/or other staff ENV members for an Ako Teaching Excellence Award. Please feel free to nominate more than one individual or team. For each nomination, please email the staff name(s) and a 100-150 word justification for each as to why your nominee(s) should receive an award (please see the criteria below). Please email this information by 22/10/20 5pm to Roa at roa.petra.crease@auckland.ac.nz.
Criteria
We will be looking for evidence that applicants have engaged in teaching practice that exemplifies teaching excellence. Teaching practice is defined broadly from new initiatives, innovative pedagogies, and/or contribution to the community of teaching practice. While the awards encourage and reward successful teaching initiatives/contributions, they also cater for and encourage applications from teachers who are experimenting with innovative teaching, even if they did not always fully achieve a desired outcome. The awards will also consider nominees which encourage inclusive teaching and learning.
Eligibility
- Individual academic staff who engage in ENV course teaching
- Teaching Teams from ENV courses.
Please note: GTAs/TAs have a separate awards process
Prizes
1 individual/team award worth $300 for an exceptional teaching excellence
4 individual/team awards worth $150 each for teaching excellence
1 individual/team award worth $150 for inclusive teaching excellence (sponsored by the Equity Committee)
Award Notification and Presentation
Successful awardees will be notified of their award by 27/10/20 and will be presented this at the Ako Teaching Excellence Awards Event to be held in 28/10/20 at 11.30am.
New Doctoral System
The new PhD statute is now in operation. Make the move at PhD Statute Consent Form. This brings many benefits, including the use of Wahapū. Wahapū is an online system for managing doctoral candidature, including all processes post-enrolment: suspensions, extensions, annual and reviews of progress, development opportunities, supervision meetings, PRESS accounts, and much more. It will greatly simplify many of the administrative processes associated with doctoral studies, providing one place where all the information is stored.
Please let Liana know if you need any further information.
Inaugural Lecture – JC Gaillard
JC Gaillard is Professor of Geography at The University of Auckland. He is trained as a geographer with particular interest in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Asia and the Pacific. His work focuses on inclusion and power in DRR. It includes developing participatory tools for engaging minority groups in disaster risk reduction with an emphasis on ethnic and gender minorities, prisoners, children and homeless people. JC collaborates in participatory DRR trainings with local governments, NGOs and other civil society organisations.
Physics Lecture Theatre 1, Building 303
303-G20, 38 Princes Street – Auckland , 1010
Refreshments will be served in the basement foyer of building 303 (303-B00L2) from 5:30pm, prior to the lecture.
Please register on Eventbrite: https://jcgaillard.eventbrite.co.nz
Meetings, Seminars and Events
School of Environment Staff Teaching Celebration and Ako Awards
Wednesday 28th October, 11.30-1 pm, 302-551 (Ontology)
Please book your calendar to attend the School of Environment Teaching Celebration. 2020 has been a challenging year for staff, where we have had to rapidly adapt and transform our teaching as a result of COVID-19. We have had to shift rapidly to online teaching, dual delivery, blended learning etc. This event is to acknowledge your tremendous efforts in the face of these challenges and celebrate the end of a quite extraordinary teaching year!
The event will include the awarding of the annual Ako Awards which recognise teaching excellence within the School.
ENV 2020 “Celebrating our tutors” Lunch
Tuesday 3rd November, 11.30-1 pm, 302-551 (Ontology)
A message for all postgraduates, postdocs and staff. The School is running a lunch as a thank you to all GTAs and TAs in ENV. 2020 has been a tumultuous year for the University and the tremendous work of our tutors has dramatically improved our teaching programmes. We could not do it without you!
This event is to acknowledge your fantastic efforts in the face of these challenges and celebrate the end of a quite extraordinary teaching year.
Rangahau – Research
School of Environment Research Forum
The recording of the Research Forum on 24 September is now available on YouTube. For those who missed the event, please click here to watch.
Contributions to 2020 SDG Report required
From Faith Welch, Research Impact Manager ORSI:
The Planning Office is preparing the 2020 Sustainable Development Goals Report which outlines University activities that contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. You can read more about the Sustainable Development Goals here and also have a look at last year’s SDG Report 2019.
The Planning Office would like to connect with researchers whose work can be included in the 2020 report. The report and the examples are also used in submissions towards improving UoA rankings globally. More details on this can be found on the Rankings page that also hosts a submissions link.
If you would like your research to be included in the SDG report, please send a 150 word summary of your research and how it contributes to the SDGs to rankings@auckland.ac.nz or deepa.tripathi.chaturvedi@auckland.ac.nz. Planning Office would like the examples by 23rd October to give time to edit and design the report which is due mid-November.
Writer’s Diet
Helen Sword has developed a Writer’s Diet website, which can help writers transform stodgy sentences into active, energetic prose.
Helen is particularly excited about the new Writer’s Diet add-in for MS Word, which is easy to download and absolutely FREE, thanks to a philanthropic grant from the Schuler Educational Enhancement and Development (SEED) Fund at the University of Auckland. Now you can diagnose full-length Word documents from the privacy of your own desktop, identify problem paragraphs with the click of a button, and watch your results improve dynamically while you edit. And if you don’t like the diet and fitness metaphor, you can even change the theme!
To learn more about how the new Writer’s Diet add-in can help you shape up your style, you may wish to sign up for one of Helen’s free Writer’s Diet Clinics on Zoom next week (Oct 6, 7, 8) and to subscribe to her YouTube channel, where she’ll be posting a series of in-depth tutorials over the next month or two.
Research and Funding Opportunities
MBIE Endeavour Fund – 2021 Investment Round
MBIE Endeavour Fund has 2 investment mechanisms:
Smart Ideas – smaller investments intended to catalyse and rapidly test promising, innovative research ideas with high potential for benefit to New Zealand, to enable refresh and diversity in the science portfolio.
Research Programmes – larger investments intended to support ambitious, excellent, and well-defined research ideas which, collectively, have credible and high potential to positively transform New Zealand’s future in areas of future value, growth or critical need. Applications can be made under two research impact categories: 1) Protect and Add Value or 2) Transform.
Applications for either stream must:
- be designed so that the majority of benefits occur outside of the Research Organisation;
- be for research, science or technology, or related activities, the majority of which are to be undertaken in New Zealand;
- not be for research with the primary objective of health, defence or expanding knowledge outcomes
| Smart Ideas | Research Programs | |
| Funding Available | $0.4 – $1.0 million over the term of the contract | $0.5 million or more per year |
| Contract Term | 2 or 3 years | 3, 4 or 5 years |
| Registration Deadline* | 12 noon, Tues 27 Oct 2020 | 12 noon, Mon 30 Nov 2020 |
| Concept Proposal | 12 noon, Mon 16 Nov 2020 | |
| Full Proposal | 12 noon, Mon 10 May 2021
(by invitation) |
Mon 22 Feb 2021
|
* Registration is via the IMS portal, and requires a significant amount of information. Please get in touch with your RPC asap if you intend on submitting a proposal.
Essential documents can be found on the MBIE Endeavour Fund website.
Spaces are still available to attend the upcoming online Endeavour Fund Roadshows on 12, 13 and 19 October 2020. Register here.
The Research Gateway on the University of Auckland Staff Intranet has a dedicated MBIE Endeavour Fund which contains exemplars of successful Smart Ideas and Research Programmes, videos and other useful information
There are also support offerings around impact, VM, budget development – please touch base with your RPC to discuss what your needs are.
MBIE CATALYST: STRATEGIC – NZ – China Strategic Research Alliance (SRA) 2020/2021 Investment Round
New Zealand and China have agreed to support two projects through this funding round, one in each priority area of:
- Food Science; and
- Environmental Science.
A maximum of $300,000 (excluding GST) per project over three years.
To be eligible each proposal must:
- involve collaboration from a leading Chinese research organisation (your Chinese counterparts must apply for their own funding through China’s MoST).
- not submit multiple applications to this Catalyst:Strategic funding round based on the same project, where the only difference is in the duration of the proposed project or the amount of funding sought.
- have a New Zealand based Science Leader (employed by a New Zealand research organisation).
This Catalyst: Strategic funding round is a bilateral initiative funded by the New Zealand and Chinese Governments. Your Chinese counterparts must apply for their own funding through China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). Proposals which also involve world class partners from other countries will be accepted, where these demonstrate the potential for increased excellence and impact beyond what is achievable through a New Zealand and Chinese partnership alone. Proposals which involve private sector partners are also eligible.
Internal Deadlines:
REGISTRATION: 12noon, Monday 12 October 2020.
FULL PROPOSAL: 12noon, Monday 9 November 2020.
Essential documents can be found on the Catalyst: Strategic webpage
DAAD-Scholarship Program for 2021
The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has been in touch regarding the DAAD-Scholarship Program for 2021. The DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is a German government organisation that promotes the international exchange of students and academics. It is the world’s largest organisation financing academic mobility. The DAAD represents 231 German universities and higher education institutions. Here is where to go for more information:
The University Webpage for DAAD
Any enquiries about scholarships can be directed directly to the DAAD by using this email: st34@daad.de
GMCNE Call for Proposals 2020
The George Mason Centre for Natural Environment Request for Proposals 2020
| Types of Grant |
|
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| Purpose | This RfP provides an opportunity for researchers at UoA and colleagues to support students and seed projects and that enhance the aims of the George Mason Centre.
The Expert Advisory Panel will be looking to identify and foster the connection between projects that lead to thematic research and to expanded funding opportunities for research and application. This is an opportunity to extend and link your research to foster a wider capacity and capability in finding solutions to environmental problems. The underlying theme for all proposals should align with supporting a diverse range of research projects to address questions within and across different natural ecosystems that demonstrate a direct impact on issues of environmental restoration, conservation and/or sustainability Please find more in-depth information in the 2020 guidelines attached. |
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| Grant Value and Duration | A total of $750,000 is available in this round, with that sum in total spread over up to 3 years.
Successful projects will be funded from 1 January 2021 at the earliest and run for the appropriate time period from your chosen start date. |
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| Deadline | Friday 16th October 1.00pm | ||||||||||
| Submission Process | The application is submitted via an online form, you will receive a confirmation email once it is submitted. |
Any queries, please contact Amy Weir directly
New Zealand History Research Trust (the History Awards)
The New Zealand History Research Trust Fund (the History Awards) supports historians, researchers and writers working on non-fiction projects that will significantly enhance our understanding of New Zealand’s past.
Value: $12,000
Deadline: 15 October 2020
For guidelines and the application form, please visit the funders website.
Amelia Earhart Fellowship
2021 Te Pūnaha Hihiko: Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund
Fund Purpose:
- Strengthen capability, capacity, skills and networks between Māori and the science and innovation system, and
- Increase understanding of how research can contribute to the aspirations of Māori organisations and deliver benefit for Aotearoa.
Key Features:
- Proposal must be co-developed with a Māori organisation
- Proposal must include co-funding at a minimum of 10% of requested amount
- Research must support the themes and outcomes of MBIE’s Vision Mātauranga policy
- Fund includes 2 schemes: ‘connect’ and placement’ – Connect Scheme: Build new connections between Māori organisations and the science and innovation system; Placement scheme: Enhance the development of an individual(s) through placement in a Partner organisation
Grant Value:
The work programme term for both Connect and Placement schemes is up to two years.
- $150,000 (ex GST) – max funding per proposal for projects up to 1 year in length
- $250,000 (ex GST) – max funding per proposal between 1-2 years in length
Internal Deadline: 12 noon Monday 2 November 2020
For further information, including details on eligibility, please visit the MBIE website or contact your RPC
New Publications
- Seethal P. Sivarajan, Jan M. Lindsay, Shane J. Cronin & Thomas M. Wilson (2020). Farmers’ perceptions of options for pasture remediation and recovery following major tephra fall in New Zealand. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies. Volume 24, Number 2. http://trauma.massey.ac.nz/issues/2020-2/AJDTS_24_2_Sivarajan.pdf
- Tsang and Lindsay (2020) Lava flow crises in inhabited areas part I: lessons learned and research gaps related to effusive, basaltic eruptions. Journal of Applied Volcanology (2020) 9:9 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13617-020-00096-y
Please email content to Bizza for next edition of P-cubed by Friday 23rd October