Wednesday 23 September 2009

AHRC secures additional £4m to support ICT developments

The AHRC has secured £4m of capital funding to enhance access to leading-edge digital technologies and facilities by arts and humanities researchers and enhance impact from digital research outputs, such as databases, established with current or past AHRC or AHRB support.

The call is designed to enhance the UK’s research strengths in the arts and humanities, including the outputs from AHRC’s ICT Programme, and to complement existing activities, such as those supported through the RCUK Digital Economy Programme.

The call has two strands, the first relating to access to leading-edge digital equipment, resources ands facilities, the second the development of AHRB/C digital research outputs to ensure long-term sustainability and accessibility of those resources.

Proposals can be submitted with a minimum full economic cost of £50,000 and a maximum full economic cost of £1,000,000. Projects will be expected to start on 1 March 2010 and run for periods of up to one year. The closing date for the receipt of applications is 4pm on Thursday 5 November 2009.

For further information, please go to the Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact funding opportunity page.

source: AHRC website

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Music Department Research Seminar

Title:Acoustics applied to manufacturing processes and organology. The case of the piano
Date:16 September 2009 – 2:00 pm
Venue:Room MR11 – Second Floor, Wilson Building A, Open University
Speaker: Adrien Mamou-Mani (Newton Research Fellow, OU)

I will present two previous studies I carried out concerning the physics of the piano. The first one is a modelling of the “downbearing”, the downward load applied by the strings on the piano soundboard. Following the opinions of makers, its adjustment is crucial for the mechanical stability and the acoustical quality of the instrument. I will present some effects of this load on the vibration properties of the soundboards. An emphasis will be done on unusual values of downbearing, which induce very large amplitude vibration. The second study deals with the dynamical behaviour of a historical piano action. The organological question asked by the piano curator at the Musee de la musique in Paris was: Is the simple escapement action of Erard pianos different than the English grand piano action? I will propose an answer using both experiments with a high-speed camera and numerical models of one Erard action and one Broadwood action.

Open Briefing Session on the University's Research Strategy

PVC (Research & Enterprise) Professor Brigid Heywood will lead an open briefing session on the University's research strategy for the next five years.
Questions are welcome via e-mail either before or during the event and can be sent to strategy-rae@open.ac.uk. All OU staff are welcome to attend.

The event will be webcast via KMi Stadium (see: [stadium.open.ac.uk])

The Road to Professordom

For many in the academic world a promotion to a professorship is the ultimate goal, and a difficult one to attain.

For hints and tips on how to make your career work for you so that you are in the best position for that promotion, come along to the first in our series of 2009-10 Bite Size Seminars, titled “The Road to Professordom”. Professor Linda Jones, Professor of Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Care, will tell her own story on what worked for her.

Seminar Title: The Road to Professordom
Speakers: Linda Jones, Faculty of Health & Social Care
Venue:Research Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, Library
Date: Thursday 1 October 2009
Time: 12 noon to 1pm

The seminar will be followed by lunch and an opportunity to network with other researchers.

To register: If you would like to attend, you can enrol directly by using the Staff Learning Management System (LMS): Link http://staff-lms.open.ac.uk/staff-lms/ or alternatively please contact research-training-development@open.ac.uk.

Sharing Best Practice in Supervision

Would you like an opportunity to:
discuss best practice with other research supervisors?
update your supervision skills?
influence Open University research supervision policy?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions Sharing Best Practice in Supervision is for you.

Sharing Best Practice in Supervision will address some or all of the following issues: Coping with difficulties; Supporting students through probation; Maintaining the momentum for finishing on time; Supporting part-time students; International students’ perspectives;

To register: You can enrol directly by using the Staff Learning Management System (LMS): Link http://staff-lms.open.ac.uk/staff-lms/ or alternatively please contact research-training-development@open.ac.uk.

Please note there are limited places available so early registration is recommended.

New Chief Executive arrives at the Arts and Humanities Research Council

This week sees the arrival of Professor Rick Rylance as the new Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Before taking up the post of AHRC Chief Executive, Rick Rylance was Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Literatures at the University of Exeter. Prior to moving to Exeter in 2003 he had been at the then Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge which he left as Dean of Arts and Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 1998 and a Founding Fellow of the English Association in 1999. He chaired the Sub-Panel for English in RAE2008 and was a member of HEFCE’S Advisory Group on the development of the REF. His personal research interests are in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and the literary, intellectual and scientific history of those periods.

Professor Rick Rylance said:
“Over the next few years I am looking forward tremendously to working with colleagues in the arts and humanities community and with Government to develop our world-class research achievements and demonstrate their importance culturally, academically, socially and economically at home and abroad. I’d like to thank the terrific work already done by my new colleagues at AHRC, and my predecessors in this role, which give such a strong basis on which to do this.”


source: AHRC website
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/News/Latest/Pages/NewChiefExecutivearrives.aspx

JISC Advance brings together eight JISC services

As stated on the JISC site. A new organisation called JISC Advance launches this week. It will bring together eight established JISC services as part of JISC’s ongoing strategy to deliver world-class support to colleges and universities.

The organisation will be led by new managing director Guy Lambert and will co-ordinate JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC TechDis and the JISC Regional Support Centre UK by centralising funding and business development opportunties.

Managing director Guy Lambert said: “All of these services are extremely well-respected within the education sector and receive good feedback from their users. JISC Advance will allow the services to reach new audiences, and will help our users to understand what we can collectively deliver for them.”

Guy Lambert joined JISC in January 2009, having previously worked in commercial and managerial roles at UK board level within the IT industry, in both the public and private sectors. His roles with Honeywell, Bull, Steria and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have all involved managing operational improvement and cultural change, with a service focus.

JISC Advance will launch at the Association for Learning Technology conference (ALT-C) at the University of Manchester on 9 September 2009.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/09/jiscadvance.aspx

Thursday 3 September 2009

Radical Nature Study Day at the Barbican

Saturday 12 September 2009 10:30am - 4:30 pm
Location: Redgrave Suite, Level 4, the Barbican Centre, London EC2Y 8DS

An event exploring the relationship between contemporary art and climate change.

How are artists responding to the urgency of the issue? How does climate change affect culture? This study day maps the possible collaboration between creative thinking and problem solving.

Join artists Cornelia Parker, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey; Franceco Manacorda, Curator of Radical Nature; Michaela Cimmin, Head of Arts, RSA; and Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer, Geography, OU to engage with this hot topic. The event is chaired by Bob Spicer, Professor of Earth Sciences, OU and Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, OU.

This Study Day will be of special interest to students studying Arts and Humanities, Art History, Earth Sciences and Geography. It is organised by the Barbican in association with the OU.

Tickets £20/ £15 concessions (includes ticket for the Radical Nature exhibition currently showing at the Barbican) available from the Barbican Box Office 0845 120 7500 or online.

The programme for the day

10.30am - 12.30pm Morning focus on Climate change - Chaired by Bob Spicer

10.30am - 11.00am Welcome

11.00am - 11.30am Bob Spicer, Professor of Earth Sciences, Open University Climate Change in Context

11.30am - 12 noon Dr Joe Smith, Open University - Climate Change changes everything

12 noon - 12.30pm Mark Watts, former Environment Advisor to Ken Livingstone, now at Arup

Discussion with all speakers, and opened up to the audience, chaired by Bob Spicer

12.30pm - 2.00pm Lunch break with time to see RN exhibition

2pm - 4.30pm Afternoon focus on mediating through art / artists’ responses to climate change Chaired by Gill Perry

2 .00pm - 2.30pm Gill Perry, Professor of Art History, Open University – ‘A bilious shade of green’? Installation Art and the Evironment: Problems and Possibilities

2.30pm - 3.00pm Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey artists – illustrated talk

3.00pm - 3.30pm Michaela Crimmin, Head of Arts, RSA curatorial concerns-

3.30pm - 3.50pm Cornelia Parker intro & showing Comskian Abstract 2007 film (short 6 mins extract)

3.50pm - 4.30pm Discussion with all speakers, opened up to audience chaired by Gill Perry.

Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969 -2009 exhibition open from 11am until 8pm.

Tickets for Study day include entry to the exhibition on this day only.