Issue 134 – Tuesday 29 October 2024
Contents
HeadsUp
Hearing Masters/ Hons presentations, DCOs appearing in my email inbox, being consulted on catering for the end of year party…all signs that year’s end is fast approaching. Even the supermarkets have starting stocking Christmas fare. And in the last announcement of spring, the pipiwharauroa, (shining cuckoo) has returned from the tropics and started calling in the bush.
Labour Weekend offered a taster of summer holidays to come. Like most public holidays the meaning is sadly lost over time. In this case an extra day to sleep in or go to the beach is actually a commemoration of the struggle for an eight-hour working day (NZ workers were among the world’s first to claim this right). Although this was gained in in 1840, Labour Day wasn’t celebrated in New Zealand until 28 October 1890. While many of us work a longer day than eight hours at times, its surely good to know we don’t have to. So we should be grateful for more than a day off.
There have been other hard-won rights. In the US annual leave (AL) is only 2 weeks. Here we have five. Think of the uproar if the university proposed to cut back from five weeks to just a fortnight a year. Yet, as most of you know only too well, I have to persuade some colleagues to book AL. With summer approaching, it is seriously time to book time off or it may, with consultation, be booked for you. We owe it to ourselves and those close to us to take what time we are eligible for. I know most of us love our jobs, but surely not so much that we forego booking leave…
This is a time many of us ‘go to ground’ with exam marking, conferences and fieldwork. Next week we have a triumvirate of School events: on Monday a visit from Sarah Young, the new Dean; and on Wednesday, an all-staff showcase for the new stage 1 offerings followed by our last staff meeting of the year. The latter two have been scheduled back-to-back to ease scheduling. I look forward to seeing most of you at those occasions next week.
Till then, enjoy planning and booking AL. And listen out for the pipiwharauroa singing as it searches for other birds’ nests to lay in.
Robin Kearns
Announcements
Digital Capability Coaching
The university (Elanor and Gill) are offering UoA staff the opportunity to improve their digital capability and confidence. To learn more about their service please see the images/slides below. If you would like assistance using digital tools (eg TEAMS, Excel, Word, or any of the MS 365 applications) please get in touch!
- Book a session
- Or to enquire about a group session, email digitalcoach@auckland.ac.nz
Ngā mihi,
Gill Hotter (she/her) and Eleanor Almeida (she/her)
Digital Capability Coaches
Short-Term Job Opportunity – Collections Assistance Needed!
We have an exciting opportunity for two students to join us in preparing for a significant move in 2025. As part of this process, we need some help bagging up our school collections located at an offsite warehouse.
What the role involves:
You’ll be working with us to carefully pack and organise collections, making sure everything is ready for transport. The role is expected to last around 2–3 months and can be offered on either a fixed-term or casual basis, depending on what works best for us.
Interested?
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, please get in touch! We’d love to chat further and provide more details on the job, as well as discuss the next steps.
Feel free to contact me directly:
Blair Sowman
Technical Manager, School of Environment
Phone: (09) 373 7599 Ext. 84128
Outreach
Outreach opportunities for staff and students:
Highlighting your research
Have you recently published a blog piece/ generated any film footage/ given an interview/ written something for mainstream media, about your research? Could we give it a little mention on our School of Environment socials? See some recent examples here.
Please send your news to Emma el.sharp@auckland.ac.nz so we can share it more widely! Please also send a useful image (of yourself/ the thing being studied) and complete the following prompts:
[Researcher name/s] from the School of Environment investigated [the problem] and found [this finding]. This helps us know [what?] and is relevant to [recent event/ issue/context]. Read more here/ see photo of [x]: [link]
Note: Academic articles are interesting but get less takeup from social media so if you have something in a ‘predigested’ form (e.g. a news link to the debate or problem, that’s helpful, and the article would have to be open access).
Graduates out in the world
For staff: If you have students who have completed their degree and moved onto new pursuits, and they might like to do a ’10 minutes with [name]’ written interview that we might post on social media to show what our graduates get up to, then put them in touch with Emma el.sharp@auckland.ac.nz
Earthfest
GSNZ is planning Earthfest – a national Earth and Space Science Hui in Dunedin on November 23 and 24 (weekend prior to the GSNZ conference). It’s for high school teachers and university geoscientists to get together, develop relationships, and workshop getting more students into geoscience. Mila Adams and Giovanni Coco will be attending and it would be great to have others there too. Sponsorship from Industry and NZGeolS.
Whakawhanaungatanga – Communities
IEEE Explore Database Training
IEEE Explore is offering an upcoming Zoom workshop for the University of Auckland on The Literature Review Process on Tuesday, November 12, 3-4pm NZ Daylight Savings Time.
This workshop will help you hone your research skills and feel more confident when using this database to further your research.
Access the link below on the day to attend the workshop.
| Zoom Link: https://ieee.zoom.us/j/92606478460?pwd=UIaf2HctCLoAbZxFbaT843Cc5XCA6U.1
This session showcases the literature review process using IEEE Xplore Digital Library’s 6+ million publications, and demonstrates how students and researchers would leverage on the platform’s features to filter and locate the most relevant and impactful references for their coursework and research. Topics covered include:
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| Tuesday Nov 12, 2024 ⋅ 3pm – 4pm (New Zealand Daylight Savings Time) |
We would like to request your nominations for the School of Environment Equity Awards for 2024.
These awards are an ongoing effort to acknowledge, recognise, and reward the amazing work in equity that people are doing in our school – whether they are academic staff, professional staff or post-graduate students. The awards will be held at an end of year Equity event on Wednesday 13th November.
Details:
We have four School Equity Award categories.
- Equity in Service Award
- Equity in Teaching Award
- Equity in Research Award
- Equity in the School of Environment Award
Please make your nominations using this Google Form:
Deadline for nominations: End of day Friday 8th November.
Thank you for helping recognise the equity efforts in our School. We look forward to reading the nominations.
Ngā mihi nui,
Heather (on behalf of the Env Equity Committee)
Coastal and Marine Geoscience Group Meeting/Seminar
The next Coastal-Marine Geoscience Group seminar will be held on Wednesday 6th of November at 1:00pm to 2:00 pm in the Ontology Lab (302-551).
News will be shared and a talk given from Yiming Wu, “Impacts of exotic saltmarsh removal and native saltmarsh restoration on bed level change and surficial sediment distribution in an estuary wetland”
and Maurizio D’Anna, “Reshaping the understanding of beach response to Sea Level Rise for equilibrium shoreline models“.
All welcome to attend – please email Edouard Basquin at ebas390@aucklanduni.ac.nz if you wish to attend and don’t have the calendar invite already.
NZSA Space Scholarships – NASA internships – applications for 2025 close 3 November
Applications are currently open for the New Zealand Space Scholarship. It is aimed at students who will be studying at a post-grad level in 2025 and who are interested in working on NASA projects in the U.S. next year. Applications close 3 November 2024.
Successfully applicants will have the opportunity to work on space-related projects at either NASA’s Ames Research Center or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While there, they’ll be guided by NASA mentors, gaining hands-on experience in their fields of study and access to advanced research facilities.
The New Zealand Space Scholarship covers return airfares to the United States and accommodation costs, plus an allowance for living expenses.
More information, including eligibility criteria is available online: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/space/nasa-internships
And interested students can apply online: https://jobs.mbie.govt.nz/job-invite/15694/
You liked our Whose lecture is it anyway? event last year… you’ll like this 3-minute research competition this year…’ We’ll add more details in the future.
E-bike offers
Check out the e-bike deals for University staff.
Electric bike team
Electric Bike Team has a great deal for staff wishing to purchase one of their bikes. Look now: Electric bike team
Big Street Bikers
Looking to buy an e-bike? Big Street Bikers has discounts and some freebies for University staff. Check it out: Big Street Bikers
Doctoral Development Offerings
An overview of the many UoA Doctoral Development offerings that candidates and supervisors may want to consider has been compiled here.
Co-funded University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships
Guidelines have now been drafted for the University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship scheme to co-fund scholarships with industry or philanthropic partners to seed new collaborations. If you are making connections where some money to support a student may be possible please come and chat to Jennifer Eccles asap about whether this could be an option.
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.
Rangahau – Research
“Efficiency & Effectiveness Workshop”, organized by the Rangahau Committee:
We would like to invite you to the following workshop that have been organized for the Research fellows at the School of Environment, and funded by the Rangahau Committee.
The workshop will focus on “Efficiency & Effectiveness”, and it is organized as virtual Weekly mini workshops:
60–90 minute workshops will cover the subtopics spread out over four weeks. The first workshop will be 90 minutes, while the other three are planned for 60 minutes each. However, all sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes to allow extra time for questions and follow-up discussions if participants wish to stay longer.
Efficiency covers:
- Work organisation – how to better store, and therefore find the information you need, in order to work more efficiently
- Finding Flow – how to optimise your work in order to find more time in a ‘flow state’
- Strategies to minimise work habits – including those for handling of information, distractions, interruptions & procrastination
Effectiveness covers:
- Importance of progress individually and as a team
- Prioritising & time management – what work to do when & in what size chunks
- Planning – strategies to plan projects and/or plan your work day & workload
There are also elements of wellbeing that are woven into these discussions, physiological factors & burnout prevention.
Dates:
- Friday 25 Oct
- Friday 01 Nov
- Friday 08 Nov
- Friday 15 Nov
Time (to be decided between the following options)
- Option 01: 9:30 to 11:00 am
- Option 02: 12:00 to 1:30 pm
This workshop is intended for Research Fellows, final-year PhD students, and staff.
If you’re interested in attending, please send an email to joa.paredes.marino@auckland.ac.nz with a brief paragraph explaining your motivation to participate. Please indicate as well the time that suits you better. Spots are limited.
Cheers,
Joali on behalf of the Rangahau Committee.
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
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
| Near-miss funding round 2024 | |
| This fund aims to provide support to PIs, for applications from the University of Auckland, Faculty of Science for major grants (≥ $100,000), who successfully progressed to the second stage of a major external funding round but missed out at the final stage. The faculty envisage being able to fund up to 5 applications in the 2024 round. | |
| Value/Duration: | Deadline: |
| Grants up to $10,000 for research activity | Applications are due by 5pm, Monday 25th Nov 2024 |
| Further Information:
· Full details including guidelines and the application form are available on the research page of the staff intranet If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST (Kelly or Sophie) |
|
| Faculty of Science Commercial Seed Funding | |
| This fund aims to support early-stage work that will make a difference to the tech development pathway.
A range of commercial R&D or skill development activities could be supported, including experiments to determine whether a particular idea is commercially feasible, development of initial proof-of-concept results for commercial funding applications, IP and Freedom to Operate searches, or market research. Researchers may also apply for this funding to support their personal development. |
|
| Value/Duration: | Deadline: |
| Grants up to $10,000 for research activity
(The total budget for this round is ~$25k) |
Applications are due by 5pm, Monday 25th Nov 2024 |
| Further Information:
*Applicants should submit a proposal via email to FoS-researchadmin@auckland.ac.nz If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST (Kelly or Sophie) |
|
| MBIE 2025 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 17 Research Programmes. |
|
| Value/Duration: | Internal Deadline |
| · Total funding pool: $38 million
· Value: $0.5 million or more per year · Duration: 3, 4 or 5 years |
· Registration: 12 noon, Monday 25 November 2024.
· Full Proposal: 12 noon, Monday 24 February 2025. |
| Further Information (funding call, guidelines, registration info, templates):
· Website If you are interested, please notify your FIRST (research support) of your intent to apply for this scheme to receive important information and updates in relation to this fund |
|
| The George Mason Centre for Natural Environment | |
| This fund aims to support projects that enhance the aims of the George Mason Centre and focus on environmental solutions. The Expert Advisory Panel will be looking to foster connections between projects that lead to thematic research and to expanded funding opportunities for research and application. | |
| Value/Duration: | Deadline |
| · Value: up to $10,000
· Duration: 1 year |
12 Noon, 5 November 2024 |
| Further Information (funding call, guidelines, registration info, templates):
If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST. |
|
| Ember Innovations – Research Grants | |
| Ember Innovations proudly presents two distinct research grant opportunities for University of Auckland research projects that align with our commitment to innovation, mental health, and honouring lived experiences (B)
(B). Lived Experience Research Grant: For research in any discipline/category led by a researcher with personal experience of mental distress or substance, or non-substance harm |
|
| Value/Duration: | External Deadline |
| · Value: $50,000 (ex GST)
· Duration: up to 3 years |
5pm, Tuesday 31 October |
| Information Workshop will be held at The University of Auckland on 23rd September 2024 at 1pm – 2:30pm with light refreshments and networking until 3pm, at University of Auckland Campus 49 Symonds St – link to workshop registration is here. | |
| Further Information (funding call, guidelines, registration info):
· Website If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST. |
|
| The Transdisciplinary Ideation Fund (TIF) | |
| The Waipapa Taumata Rau (TIF) is a fund that encourages research staff from across the University to develop cross-faculty research partnerships, aspiring toward high-quality Transdisciplinary research outputs, research learning initiatives, and successful applications to external research funders. | |
| Value/Duration: | Deadline |
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· Grants of $20,000. Up to 15 projects will be funded. |
5pm, Thursday 31 October 2024 |
| TIF workshop: encourages new cross-disciplinary research collaborations and is designed for academic staff who are intending to pursue transdisciplinary research. (Please register bid via registration link provided)
Date and Time: Friday 13 September 2024, 9am to 12pm (morning tea provided) Location: B201-342, 10 Symonds Street |
|
| Further Information:
· Full details including guidelines and the application form are available on Research Hub If you are interested, please also get in touch with your FIRST. |
|
| New Horizon Europe Calls |
| In mid-April, the European Commission announced a new selection of funding calls covering the remainder of 2024. The funding call details here Horizon Europe Funding Call List on the Horizon Europe Support Materials page on ResearchHub.
New Zealand can participate in these calls on equal terms as our European counterparts. However, the targeted nature of most of these calls means that it is highly likely that it will be more appropriate for us to partner on these projects, joining European-led bids as a collaborator rather than developing a proposal as a lead. Anybody exploring these opportunities should contact International.Research@Auckland.ac.nz to arrange a discussion and explore additional support available. |
Announcements
| Research Impact Survey |
| The Research & Innovation Office and Research Services are collaborating on a project to design a resource for researchers around capturing and evidencing research impact. We are hopeful that we can design a tool or module that will become an important part of the research impact toolkit for researchers, helping them to feel better equipped to plan and communicate their potential impact effectively.
· The survey link is: https://forms.office.com/r/VyM2tpnzpe |
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Updates from HSW
With Spring well under way outdoors activities are around us. However, a reminder that work and recreational activities require adequate gear to avoid unnecessary injuries.
If you have allergies, refrain from taking unprescribed medicines. Ask your physician for the right type of antihistamines for you, some cause drowsiness and it’s use can cause fatal accidents or can reduce your productivity dramatically.
Managing Spring Allergies Safely
Spring is a beautiful season, but for many, it brings the challenge of allergies. Here are some tips to help you manage your symptoms safely and effectively:
Safe Use of Antihistamines
Antihistamines are a common remedy for allergy symptoms like sneezing, itching, and runny nose. Here are some guidelines for their safe use:
- Consult a Healthcare Provider: Before starting any medication, it’s important to talk to your doctor, especially if you have other health conditions or are taking other medications.
- Follow Dosage Instructions: Always adhere to the recommended dosage on the package or as prescribed by your doctor. Overuse can lead to unwanted side effects.
- Be Aware of Side Effects: Some antihistamines can cause drowsiness. If you’re taking a new medication, see how it affects you before driving or operating heavy machinery.
- Non-Drowsy Options: If drowsiness is a concern, look for non-drowsy antihistamines, which are less likely to affect your daily activities.
Monitoring the Pollen Index
Keeping an eye on the pollen, use Metservice, index can help you manage your exposure to allergens:
- Check Daily Reports: Many weather websites and apps provide daily pollen counts. High pollen days might be a good time to stay indoors or take extra precautions.
- Plan Outdoor Activities: Try to schedule outdoor activities when pollen levels are lower, typically after rain or in the late afternoon.
- Keep Windows Closed: On high pollen days, keep windows and doors closed to prevent pollen from entering your home.
Additional Tips
- Shower and Change Clothes: After spending time outside, shower and change your clothes to remove pollen.
- Use Air Purifiers: Consider using air purifiers with HEPA filters to reduce indoor allergens.
- Stay Hydrated: Drinking plenty of water can help thin mucus and keep you hydrated.
By following these tips and staying informed, you can enjoy the beauty of spring while keeping your allergies under control. 🌸
Deliberate actions to increase optimism will boost your mood.