Category: Research Community Fund

1st MRC Centre for Environment and Health’s Sustainability Workshop

by Aina Roca Barceló

On the 29th of January 2020, a group of students and staff members from Imperial College London gathered with one objective: to identify the barriers to a more sustainable workspace. This was part of the 1st MRC Centre for Environment and Health’s Sustainability Workshop, organised by the MRC Researchers Society’s co-chair Aina Roca Barceló (1st year President PhD Scholar), supported by the MRC Centre for Environment and Health, within the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department (EBS), represented by Drs Fred Piel and Eduardo Seleiro. This was kindly funded by the Graduate School’s Research Community Fund.

For a long time, I (and a lot of people out there) believed that information would lead to change. We now know this is not necessarily correct for climate action. The planet is warming – we know it. Long-term changes in climate, biodiversity, air, water and soil quality are caused by human actions – we know it. We are running out of time to minimise the damage to Earth – we know it. We need to change our behaviours if we want to save humanity and the planet – again, we know it. We are probably the most well informed generation that the Earth has seen [1] and yet, we can’t seem to change fast enough, and not at all in some fronts. Even more alarming is the fact that those advocating for this change often fail to make the necessary changes themselves. Ironic, isn’t it? Yet, this is the reality for many Academic environments. The 1st MRC Centre for Environment and Health’s Sustainability Workshop was designed to change this drift and create the momentum to initiate a sustainability journey in the department. This involved creating an engaging space for students at the School of Public Health (staff members were also welcomed) to identify barriers to sustainable behaviours and generate ideas for action.

Prof. Paul Lickiss, Academic Sustainability Leader at Imperial College London, presenting the current reality of the university and its future plans in relation to its sustainable practises.

The first stop of our journey; where are we starting from? To do so, we invited Prof. Paul Lickiss, the new Academic Leader in Sustainability for Imperial College London. He guided us through all the past, present and future initiatives happening at Imperial. Several of the initiatives described and available resources were unknown by most of the audience, which highlighted the need for better communication.

 

Dr. Nicola Hogan, Sustainability Manager for the Sustainability Team at King’s College London, giving some useful tips on how to make institutions greener, building on her previous experience.

Second stop; how are others moving? Dr Nicola Hogan from the Sustainability Team at King’s College London shared with us a collection of “lessons learned” from their long-running and highly-successful sustainability programme, giving us useful practical tips for achieving rapid changes.

Third stop; why are we not moving? We were determined to identify concrete problems and the barriers to more sustainable behaviours. To do this, we ran a behavioural change co-creation workshop with a user-centred approach. The idea was to promote an environment and state of mind that puts aside prejudice and preconceived ideas and fosters empathy, introspection and creative thinking. One of the activities we used to endorse empathy and explore barriers was role playing. In small groups, participants mapped potential unsustainable actions in a normal day of a fictional character and discussed reasons for such actions, based on that character’s story. To the surprise of most participants, barriers were often neither financial nor relating to knowledge (despite these being the focus of most campaigns and initiatives) but emotional, cultural or social instead. This, and the rest of activities highlighted the complex mixture of barriers that conditions behavioural changes, while also creating a nice engaging drive to push for change.

Participants and keynote speakers networking during our sustainable and eco-friendly lunch.

Final stop; let’s move! Of the barriers and unsustainable practises identified in the activities, each group picked a few and brainstormed ideas on how to break those walls that inhibit people to change. Groups were encouraged to think big, to think outside the box, we wanted to drift away from the standard initiatives and create something unique and suitable for our audience.

What is next, you may be wondering? Well, the workshop helped to create a nice momentum that we aim to keep exploring in the coming months. So far, the lines of work that have arose from the workshop include: the creation of a working group focusing on looking in more detail into the ideas generated in the workshop and suggesting potential changes to make the university more sustainable; organizing awareness campaigns; continue to grow our relationship with the Academic Sustainability Leader Prof. Paul Lickiss, and starting some conversations with other groups across the college with similar interests to join up and bring forces together. So, stay tuned to know more about what we found out. Soon on our website!

Overall, the workshop was well received by both the participants and the keynote speakers, who engaged in part of the co-creation workshop. Based on the feedback, the workshop helped to create a great space to discuss with peers’ and institutional representatives’ views, concerns and ideas to keep pushing our university forward and set the seed for a sustainability network.

Co-organizer Aina Roca Barcelo (1st year President Scholar PhD student) introducing the first activity of the co-creation workshop.
Picture of the “Know your problem” activity, where the different issues raised where classified based on “how many people is affected” and whether the problem is “institutional or individual”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Funding disclaimer: This initiative has been possible thanks to the generous support from the Community Research Seed Fund, Imperial College London.

[1] Obviously, with some communities remaining in the shadow of this information pandemic due to social, economic and technical limitations

My experience at the ‘Careers Talk with a Difference’

My name is Niamh Sayers and I’m a third year PhD student based at Hammersmith Hospital in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, and also a Student Rep for this cohort. As I am nearing the end of my PhD (as are many of the friends I started with) I realised we may all be looking for things we want to do after our PhD, therefore I decided to organise this ‘Careers Talk with a Difference…’. We attend many scientific talks during our PhDs, from Work in Progress’ to conference seminars, but I realised we do not have access to many talks outside of the realms of science. So, I decided to organise a careers talk with a renowned public speaker to give some insight into other forms of communication besides scientific.

All postgraduate students were invited, across both the Hammersmith and White City campuses. The event was held in the IRDB seminar room. Drinks were provided upon arrival and pizza was ordered for the networking session after the talk had been given. The talk was held on Wednesday 4th March 2020.

I invited renowned public speaker Matt Black to talk at our University to the postgraduate students to give us an introduction into another way of thinking about the world and potentially help us in the next big steps of our career paths. Matt Black spoke about finding a path that is right for you and your motivations, and finding something that suits you, emphasising most importantly doing something that YOU choose you want to do. He used examples from his own personal career journey and spoke about Greta Thunberg as an inspiration for taking on big challenges.

There were many positive outcomes from the talk, one student even commented they were influenced to apply for a PhD position after Matt Black spoke about the idea that we choose the life we build and the direction we go in. I agree, in that he reminded me of the importance of choosing to do something I am passionate about, rather than following on down a path already trodden/laid out for me, based on what I “think” I should be doing. He also convinced me that anything is possible, if you choose the right mindset.

For me personally, I found Matt Black very engaging and enthusiastic, and I can see with his energy how he has gotten so far in the public speaking domain, which was excellent to witness, as well as learn from some the techniques he used to engage the audience. In addition to seeing his encapsulation of the audience, Matt gave me plenty to ponder over; my goals in life; what makes me happy and what incentivises me, so I left feeling thoughtful about my next steps after completing my PhD.

The aim of this event was to bring in a thought-provoking speaker with experience outside of science and to get students thinking about potential career moves after their postgraduate degree. Matt Black engaged with the audience and asked questions throughout, he also stayed behind and was approached to talk to by many groups of students in the networking event after. The feedback from the event was that many students left feeling thoughtful and encouraged, and there were many positive comments about the speaker and the event at large, with a highlight being one student even referencing this talk affirming her idea of wanting to apply for a PhD position next year.

All-in-all I am very happy with how the event turned out. Many postgraduate students attended, from a range of departments across the Hammersmith and White City campuses, and I will be looking for more speakers of a similar nature to invite to Imperial to aid tough decision-making by students about themselves and their future careers with another careers talk with a difference.

Many thanks to the Graduate School for funding this event and making it possible.

 

Exploring London’s Hidden Tunnels

On 28th February, the researchers from the Geotechnics Section explored some of London’s hidden tunnels in a fascinating tour run by the London Transport Museum. With the financial support from the Graduate School cohort building fund, we were able to enjoy this social event and get closer as a group while also learning more about the tunnels that many of us study as part of our research projects.

On Friday afternoon, we all made our way to Euston station and joined the brilliant team from ‘Hidden London’ who first gave us a presentation on the history of the London Underground. Once we all had our high-vis jackets on, we were led down into the tunnels, past the busy crowds of commuters into the parts of the station that are normally hidden from the public. We were able to see one of the original ticket offices, beautiful old posters and many disused station-, construction-, and ventilation-tunnels. Since we are a group of geologists and geotechnical engineers it was an amazing experience for us to learn so much about the tunnels and the construction processes behind them. It was also a great opportunity for everyone to start conversation and get to know the new students that had recently started their PhD in the Section. Thanks to the support from the Graduate School we were able to bond as a group and gained a boost of motivation for our research by exploring the tunnels that engineers built in the last hundred years. After the tour, we gathered in a nearby pub, talked about the experience, each other’s research work and life and enjoyed each other’s company until the day came to an end.

The PG Leap Year Ball

On Saturday 29th February 2020, the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) held its second annual Graduate Students’ ball, an event which aims to bring together postgraduate students from across each campus, each department and either research or taught Masters’ or PhD courses for a night of fun, and relaxed socialising. The Leap Year Ball was held at the Under the Bridge venue in Fulham and was a roaring success for both the GSU organising committee and attendees alike.

The first of these GSU Postgraduate Balls’ ran last year and was well-received, with just under three-hundred students attending. This year, the GSU team were more ambitious. “The challenge with events aimed at all postgraduate students is how to get the word out. Since we knew there would be students who attended last year who would be interested in coming again this year, we wanted to ensure we could facilitate them and even more students” said GSU Activities and Events Rep, Michaela Joyce. “We were fortunate enough to be able to secure a larger venue than last year, with a capacity of just under five-hundred.”

With a larger venue to fill and pressure to top the previous event, the GSU team were in for a challenge bigger than delivering Brexit on time! However, when early-bird tickets sold out within the first hour, the team knew the demand they had hoped for was there. “All the tickets sold out weeks before the event was held, we had emails from lots of people looking for spare tickets in the run-up to the event” said Hannah Jones, from the GSU organising committee.

Anticipation was growing more quickly than the fame of Joe Exotic. The event promised a live band, DJ, a buffet dinner with two different cuisines, a free Pick ‘n Mix stand and a digital photo-printing mirror all inside one of London’s leading party venues in the grounds of the Chelsea football stadium.

So did the event deliver? “The event was really great fun and a good opportunity to meet others from around the College in an informal setting.” said Masters’ student and attendee Laurence Blackhurst “I particularly enjoyed the Pick and Mix stand.”

Mohit Devgan, GSU President said of the event “It was great to see students from all around College having a great time. I’m proud of my team and of the fact that we managed to provide such a great event for so many students.

This event was fortunate enough to receive funding from both Imperial College Faculties and the Graduate School.

SPIKE Goes Karting

After weeks of online SuperTuxKart championships, it was time for the PhD members of the SPIKE research group to race in real life. On Sunday, 8 March, 2020 (just before a pandemic took over the world), SPIKE members enjoyed an eventful evening of go karting followed by a group dinner.

The evening was a chance to help foster the team spirit of the research group, and enable collaboration that goes beyond the day to day activities of each member’s individual research journey. As one PhD student put it:

“Karting was an unequalled experience: the wind on my face, the speed making the kart almost fly… It would have been that, if I had not worn a helmet, and I had not driven as slow as a stroll in the park (cit.).
But it was my first time karting at all, and as they say, better safe than sorry, right?
Anyway, it was a fun experience. It was cool to see people you normally see at work in a more relaxed atmosphere, where you don’t feel guilty if you’re not discussing work.​”

All in all, it was an evening to remember. Thanks to the Graduate School for sponsoring it.

London Malaria ECR Network Launch Event

In their effort to establish an Early Career Research (ECR) community for all malaria researchers based at London research institutes, PhD students organized a launch event at the Crick Institute to bring everyone together. Research assistants, research technicians, PhD students and junior postdocs who work under either computational or laboratory settings were encouraged to interact with researchers outside their own social/departmental circles and suggest their ideas about the future of this network. None missed the chance to also show-off their ‘Knowles-it-all’ expertise on a malaria-based pub quiz, while enjoying nibbles and drinks.

Over 50 people from four different London-based institutes registered for the event, with a turnout of 30. It was a fantastic success and the outputs of the evening have included launch of a Slack and Twitter account which will facilitate the direct communication between researchers, a speed-networking event where researchers will have a few minutes to talk about their work with each other and more future social events where researchers will have the opportunity to mainly have fun and build new friendships and collaborations. Everyone in the end left with an ‘Ano-pheeling good’ attitude!

The workshop was made possible through the generous financial support of the Graduate School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PhD students are bringing science to your ears

Usually a medical tool used to check your ear canal, Otoscope is now also the name of a project led by PhD students at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS).

Learning how to surf the wave of podcast popularity, the students are producing interview-style episodes with the aim of discussing complex medical science topics in a way that is informative to other students who may not be familiar with biomedical jargon.

This activity, now sponsored by the Imperial Graduate School, is currently under preparation and the first episodes are expected to be released later this year.

Photo after the first recorded episode at The Pod, White City Place. From left to right: Macia Sureda Vives, Eren Akademir, Matt Newton, Dr. Richard Festenstein, Manos Stylianakis, Eliano  Santos
Second recorded episode at The Pod. From left to right: Saul Moore, Vassili Kusmartsev, Dr. Peter Sarkies, Radina Georgieva, Virinder Reen, Monica Della Rosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded at The Pod in White City Place, the podcast is bringing together in the studio experts on different fields of biomedical research with PhD students to discuss topics such as precision medicine, ageing as a drug target or how genes affect behaviour. These topics are discussed with the aim of being informative to the bioscience-curious individual and of providing both the students and the public with tools to think critically about evidence and science.

Recording session at The Pod. From left to right: Macia Sureda Vives, Dr. Richard Festenstein, Eren Akademir, Manos Stilianakis

Organising the activity are PhD students at the LMS, while other students are taking part as guests to pitch their own research in the segment ‘Publication of the month’. ‘We thought this project would be a nice way to learn how to communicate science effectively, while networking and having fun at the same time. But also learning key skills that could help us with our post-PhD careers’, says Eliano dos Santos, the PhD student coordinating the project.

This science communication project is supported by the Grants, Engagement and Communications team at the LMS. And the voice of Dr Sophie Arthur, the Science Communication Officer at the MRC LMS and author of the award-winning blog Soph Talks Science, will guide you through each episode.

The first episode is expected to be released later this year, and from then on monthly talks will be available on the usual platforms. To receive the latest Otoscope updates, follow @MRC_LMS on Twitter and @mrc.lms on Instagram.