Issue 114 – Monday 4 December 2023
Contents
HeadsUp
Kia ora tātou – I struggle with languages. Two years of Latin at high school was a drag and my yield from three years of high school French not much better. I got 51% in School Certificate. Still, a pass is a pass and it did prove enough to get by in Menton when my love of NZ literature drew me to where Katherine Mansfield based herself to write.
This year I have struggled on with te reo. I’m still a C- student, I reckon, but the nuances one gains are rich. Like tatou rather than koutou. Hence I begin with tātou to acknowledge all of us, myself included (instead of koutou, being all of you out there). Tātou fits with my style of being Head. We’re all in it together.
And isn’t kia ora great? Both a greeting and an imperative to be healthy rolled into one. It’s a fitting exhortation to begin this, the last Heads-up for 2023. An urging to be well over the summer – to be healthy in all you do as we begin the diaspora that is the kiwi summer. May your research and writing time be productive…and may your time away or at home on Leave be restful and restorative. If anyone ventures across to Waiheke do be in touch. I’d love to say kia ora and have a yarn on the beach. Just no talk including acronyms like ADPR, CFT, TD, WTR allowed, however….!
And, speaking of Waiheke, please diary Friday 9th February for an all-staff PD day. In lieu of a staff meeting starting our year, we are covering the cost of the ferry for a day or learning, reflection and R&R. And, yes, I will complete a field activity plan!
In the last fortnight we’ve had a number of significant end-of-year events. First, the afternoon end of year party at the Bowling Club down the hill. Thanks to our Group Services team for organising such an enjoyable and participatory event. There seems a consensus on returning next year.
Second, we had a professorial inaugural; I had the pleasure of introducing Mark Dickson and seeing a number of our graduates in attendance. Do get along to Kevin Simon’s on Tuesday 5th December.
Third we had the Faculty end of year gathering at which two from our School received awards: Michael Groom for Sustained Professional Staff Excellence (jointly nominated by me and the Heads of Psychology and Chemical Sciences) and Neville Hudson – for Special Achievement in the Faculty of Science for Migration of UoA’s Geological Collection into the Vernon software platform. Hearty congratulations to Michael and Neville!
Till then, I simply offer thanks. First to the Group Services Team who serve us so well – Patricia, Michael G, Anna and Iliane most directly. To all in the Technical Services team. Then to Tom and George in their role as Deputy Heads, and Kevin, Karen and Michael R (Discipline Heads) and George (again), Sila and Joe (platform leads). And all other committee chairs….
We have got through the year well. A few disruptions with weather events earlier (acknowledging those whose home lives were severely disrupted) but mostly it’s been just the ongoing turbulence of institutional change. Thanks to you all – ENV is a School of great people to work with. Lastly, I need to thank Kassie my elderly dog for patience for all the home-based days and weekends I’ve spent more time on the laptop than she would prefer…..
Have an excellent break everyone. We’ll start p-cubed again in late January and if you need to be in touch between now and then, I’m on deck till 21st Dec. Then my auto-reply will tell you who is the contact if I am away.
A Merry Christmas and Happy and safe start to 2014.
Robin Kearns.
General Announcements
FY23/24 End of Year Break – Access to Science Buildings
End of year is almost upon us, it is time to plan ahead and consider whether you will need special access during the closure period.
The University is closed from Friday 22nd December 2023 reopening Wednesday 3rd January 2024.
2023-2024 holiday dates 2023 end of year closedown – The University of Auckland
| Christmas Eve University closedown | Friday 22 December |
| Christmas public holidays | Monday 25 December (Christmas Day)
Tuesday 26 December (Boxing Day) |
| Post-Christmas University closedown | Wednesday 27 December
Thursday 28 December Friday 29 December |
| New Year public holidays | Monday 1 January (New Year’s Day)
Tuesday 2 January (Day after New Year’s Day) |
| University reopens | Wednesday 3 January |
During closure periods
Access will only be granted to what are deemed essential activities that will have a lasting and profound effect on research activities or equipment if not tended to
Examples:
- Animal care, plant care
- Topping up cryogenic liquid / liquid nitrogen to equipment that cannot be shut down
- Clinical space, tending to long term experimental work with regular monitoring requirements, etc…
Access during closure periods needs to be well justified and must include a safety management plan appropriate to the nature and level of risk of the activity.
Additional guidance on after-hours access can be found by clicking (Essential Service Workers).
Timelines
1. From Friday 1st December
(in-house communications to appropriate personnel)
2. No later than Wednesday 13th
*all completed forms submitted to the FoS Facilites Team
*late applications will not be accepted.
3. Access control process received signed forms and send to Security team
Whakawhanaungatanga – Communities
Staff and post-grad missing maps session! Tuesday 12th at 1500 L6 breakout space.
Come and map to help around the world. No experience required. Just bring yourself and your laptop (plus a mouse if you have one).
Postgraduate research symposium and research awards
The School of Environment postgraduate research symposium was held on 16th November.
We heard about a wide range of interesting research our students are doing – the incentive of prize money made for some excellent talks and posters! Thank you to everyone who contributed.
The symposium was followed by the annual research awards ceremony organised by the Rangahau Committee. Research successes were celebrated and awards were presented.
A big congratulations to the following school award winners for 2023.
School awards
Martin Joe – Hiroki Ogawa School Citizenship Award
Dr James Muirhead – Early Career Research Award
Jack Barrett – Engagement with Indigenous Values and Knowledge Awards
Anataia van Leeuwen – Engagement with Indigenous Values and Knowledge Awards
Assoc Prof Martin Brook – Research Communications Awards
| PhD thesis awards
Dr André Bellvé – ENVSCI Dr Jeff Lang – EARTHSCI Dr Juan Astaburuaga – GEOG |
Postgraduate student paper awards
Charline Dalinghaus – ENVSCI Kate Cocker –EARTHSCI Jimmy Yang –EARTHSCI Angus Dowell – GEOG |
| Masters thesis awards
Hannah Sussex –ENVSCI Ema Nersezova –EARTHSCI Chao Han – GEOG Kenzi Yee -GEOG |
Honours/30 pt Masters awards
Dominique Hills – ENVSCI Natasha Ngadi –EARTHSCI Ellie Buttle – GEOG Tai Wright – GEOG |
School visits are happening!
‘Missing Maps’ with Tom Dowling at Mt Albert Grammar School, November 2023
Staff and post-grad students… Do you have a connection with an Auckland high school? Are you keen to visit in 2024 to talk with senior classes about what we offer at the SoE? The outreach committee has a presentation you can use/alter as you see fit, support as needed and merchandise to give away. (Post-grad students will receive a gift card to say thanks.) Interested? Contact Rachael Boswell (r.boswell@auckland.ac.nz) for help organising a visit.
Kia ora koutou, we are Scientific, a student-run and student-published magazine.
Volume 3 Edition 5 is open for submissions, and our end-of-year edition is perfect for those who’ve wanted to write but have been busy during the academic year. We are reachable anywhere you can think of (email or slide into our DMs on socials to ask us questions), we can’t wait to hear from you! Submissions are due December 10. Submit your abstract here: https://forms.gle/HQyDxsx9ZdsDi2ry8
FUNDS FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH HAPORI MAORI
School of Environment has a small budget for enabling engagement with Maori, particularly through koha or contributions that may be needed to initiate research relationships. In disbursing that putea, priority is given to academic staff working on behalf of groups of staff or students, pre/consultation activities for ethics approval and collaborations that are not readily funded through other mechanisms. As it is desirable to utilise the budget before the end of the academic year, however, all well-reasoned proposals will be considered. If interested, email a brief, one paragraph description of a proposed activity and a budget for how funds will be utilised to Brad (b.coombes@auckland.ac.nz). Although there are no prescribed maxima or minima for these grants, the limited scope of the overall budget will likely preclude grants in excess of $1000. Applicants should also be mindful of UoA guidelines or policies for gifting and koha.
Post Graduate Wellbeing ….. where to go
If you are currently coordinating a PG course, could you please post the inforgraphic slide to your Canvas course page so students will know the resources that are available throughout the University.
3k writing grant available for students
Funds are available to support students writing up their thesis as publication(s). Each grant is worth $3000 (120 hours at 25$ all included). There is no deadline to apply. Applications are evaluated as they come by members of Rangahau (2 weeks turn over max.), until we use all the funds available.
Do you have a good candidate in mind? Please complete this form and submit to katarzyna.sila-nowicka@auckalnd.ac.nz .
Rangahau – Research
Funding for Research Retreats
The Rangahau Committee has a small amount of funding set aside to sponsor Research retreats (e.g grant writing workshops, paper writing). This can be up to 2k per team, with a minimum 2 SoE participants.
If you have an idea that you would like considered, please submit a short paragraph explaining the intention and benefits of the retreat to katarzyna.sila-nowicka@auckland.ac.nz.
Proposal development support
The Rangahau Committee has a small fund set aside to help with proposal development (e.g. writing support, support to scope proposals etc). If you have an idea that fits within this scope please get in touch with Kelly Kilpin to discuss further.
Funding
Funding Calls
Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships
The first details of the new Aotearoa New Zealand Tāwhia te Mana Research Fellowships, developed as part of the Te Ara Paerangi – Future Pathways reform have been released. These new schemes replace the Rutherford Discovery, Rutherford Foundation and James Cook Fellowships, which will no longer be offered from 2024.
These fellowships will support early, mid, and senior researchers. For further details, please see MBIE’s web page which details eligibility, duration and value.
Funding calls will be publicised via P-cubed once they become available so please keep an eye on this space.
| Spencer Foundation – Research Grants on Education: Large | |
| This fund aims to support education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education. The research concept is “field-initiated” with the grant designed to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. | |
| Value/Duration: | Deadline: |
| · Value: between USD125,000 and USD500,000 (circa NZD200,000 -NZD800,000), depending on the funding tier selected.
· Duration: up to a maximum duration of 60 months |
· External Deadline for Intent to Apply: 5pm, Wednesday 24 January 2024.
· Internal Deadline for Full Stage: 5pm, Tuesday 20 February 2024. |
| Further Information (funding call, guidelines, website):
If you are interested, please notify your FIRST (Kelly, Alex, or Sophie) of your intent to apply for this scheme to receive important information and updates in relation to this fund. |
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| Marsden Fund 2024 | |
| The Marsden Fund aims to invest in excellent, investigator-led research aimed at generating new knowledge, with long-term benefit to New Zealand.
Three types of awards are offered: • Fast-Start: for emerging researchers to give an impetus to their careers by promoting them as sole Principal Investigators (PI) in their own research programme. • Standard: for established and emerging researchers. • Council Award: for projects that are interdisciplinary in nature, with larger teams. |
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| Value/Duration: | Internal Deadline: |
| All grants are for a maximum of three years and are GST exclusive.
· Fast-Start: up to $120K p.a. · Standard: up to $220-$320K p.a. (varies by panel) · Council Award: up to $1M p.a. |
· Fast-Start and Standard EOIs: 9 am, Monday 12 February 2024
· Marsden Council FULL proposals: 9am, Monday 12 February 2024. |
| To get registered to the portal, please email the following information to the Funds Advisor Team via submissions@auckland.ac.nz : title, full name, email address, faculty, department and type of Marsden Grant (Standard, Fast-Start, Council)
*It is strongly recommended that the interested PIs contact the funds advisor team ASAP to get access to the funder’s webpage to start working on the draft. |
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| Further Information (funding call, guidelines, website):
· Website · Guidelines (Fast-Start, Standard) If you are interested, please notify your FIRST (Kelly, Alex, or Sophie) of your intent to apply for this scheme to receive important information and updates in relation to this fund. |
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| MBIE 2024 Endeavour Fund (Smart Ideas) | |
| This fund aims to catalyse and rapidly tests promising, innovative research ideas with high potential for benefit to New Zealand, to refresh and enable diversity in the science portfolio.
For the 2024 investment round, the Science Board will aim to fund at least 49 Smart Ideas proposals. |
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| Value/Duration: | Internal Deadline: |
| · Total funding pool: $18 million
· Value: $0.4 – $1 million over the term of the contract · Duration: 2 or 3 years |
· Registration: 12noon, Monday, 6 November 2023
· Concept Proposal: 12noon, Monday, 13 November 2023 · Full Proposal: TBD (selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal) |
| Pītau (MBIE’s New Portal) Launch
The 2024 Endeavour Fund round will be run through Pītau, which is replacing IMS. Invite codes for Pītau will be sent out to current users in IMS, during the week starting 6 November, using the email address attached to their IMS account. If you do not currently have an IMS account but, will be applying for the 2024 Endeavour Fund round, please contact the UniServices Funds Advisor Team at (submissions@auckland.ac.nz) or the research support team to get an account created in advance. |
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| Further Information:
· Website If you are interested, please notify your FIRST (Kelly, Alex or Sophie) of your intent to apply for this scheme to receive important information and updates in relation to this fund. |
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| MBIE 2024 Endeavour Fund (Research Programmes) | |
| This fund aims to support ambitious, excellent and well-defined research ideas which have credible and high potential to positively transform New Zealand’s future in areas of future value, growth, or critical need.
For the 2024 investment round, the Science Board will aim to fund at least 19 Research Programmes proposals. |
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| Value/Duration: | Internal Deadline |
| · Total funding pool: $39 million
· Value: $0.5 million or more per year · Duration: 3, 4 or 5 years |
· Registration: 12noon, Monday, 27 November 2023
· Full Proposal: 12 noon, Monday, 26 February 2024 |
| Pītau (MBIE’s New Portal) Launch
The 2024 Endeavour Fund round will be run through Pītau, which is replacing IMS. Invite codes for Pītau will be sent out to current users in IMS, during the week starting 6 November, using the email address attached to their IMS account. If you do not currently have an IMS account but, will be applying for the 2024 Endeavour Fund round, please contact the UniServices Funds Advisor Team at (submissions@auckland.ac.nz) or the research support team to get an account created in advance. |
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| Further Information:
· Website If you are interested, please notify your FIRST (Kelly, Alex or Sophie) of your intent to apply for this scheme to receive important information and updates in relation to this fund. |
|
| Open Access Support Fund | |
| This fund aims to support the payment of Open Access fees for researchers publishing high-impact research. This fund is intended to support the following priority cohorts to be published openly and immediately in high-impact journals:
· Postgraduates · PhD candidates · Early career researchers (ECRs) · Indigenous researchers · Transdisciplinary researchers |
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| Value/Duration: | Deadlines: |
| The Faculty of Science Research Committee has $125K to distribute in 2023 as part of this fund | This funding is available Q3-Q4 2023 |
| · Details on eligibility criteria can be found on the Research Hub and the Faculty of Science. Research intranet.
· To apply please complete the following open access fund Application Form. Please contact the FIRST team (Kelly or Alex or Sophie) for more information on how to apply for this funding. |
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Announcements
| Marsden Support Sessions 2024 | ||||||
| Support for the 2024 Marsden round is currently underway.
· Marsden Roadshow: the Royal Society Te Apārangi is hosting an in-person roadshow to give an overview of the Marsden fund and to answer any questions applicants may have.
· The Marsden Q&A Insights Panel Session is an opportunity to get advice, answers, and clarification on proposal development and submission, and to hear some recent awardees’ and experts’ experience of the application process.
· The Marsden-specific Vision Mātauranga Session: the purpose of this session is to clarify some of the instructions, expectations, and best-practice for approaching Vision Mātauranga specifically for Marsden Fund applications with advice from Jaylene Wehipeihana, Poutaki Rangahau Vision Mātauranga Research Manager at ORSI.
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Publications | Articles
- Baker, T. (2023) On the waterfront: The stadiums that could have been contenders. Newsroom, 30 November.
- Baker, T. et al. (2023) Podcast series ‘Innovating Cities’ on the City Road Podcast.
- S.E. Grasby, O.H. Ardakani, X. Liu, D.P.G. Bond, P.B. Wignall, and L.J. Strachan (2023) Marine snowstorm during the Permian–Triassic mass extinction, Geology, https://doi.org/10.1130/G51497.1
- McSherry , A and Kearns, R. 2023. Tending the wilds inside: cultivating healing at the unruly edges of the garden. In Cultivated Therapeutic Landscapes: Gardening for Prevention, Restoration and Equity. Eds P. Marsh and A Williams, Routledge, London,
- Lindsay, N. and Kearns, R. 2023. The New Zealand Geographic Board and the contested nature of place names in New Zealand. In Place naming, Identities and Geography (ed.) O’Reilly, G. Springer, 241-258.
- Bowen, M., “Ocean Temperature Change around Aotearoa New Zealand”, public talk as part of Seaweek, 9 November, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY80_1I34lg
- Silvano, A. & 44 others including Bowen, M., 2023, “Observing Antarctic Bottom Water in the Southern Ocean”, Frontiers in Marine Science, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1221701