Research Newsletter – Issue 59: Information and Updates
Please find below both internal and external research-related information and updates.
It has been another busy year for the DCU REC, with 285 applications for ethics approval reviewed, and a record number of amendments to existing protocols as researchers looked to adapt their research, given the pandemic restrictions. Many thanks to all our REC members who have given so much of their time to this process.
We have had some changes in membership over the last months. Dr Joss Moorkens (School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies) and Dr Mark Philbin (School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health) have retired from the committee. DCU REC would like to acknowledge their significant contributions in facilitating the conduct of ethically sound research at DCU, and their overall dedication to the work of the committee.
We have been delighted to welcome a number of new members as follows:
- Claire McCarrick (Clinical Practitioner)
- Ellen Drumm (Lay Member)
- Prof. Kate Irving (School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health)
- Dr Marta Rocchi (DCU Business School)
- Dr Brendan Egan (School of Health and Human Performance)
The last REC committee meeting of this year takes place on Friday 18th December 2020. As we have received 42 applications for review, applicants should be aware that there may be a delay providing feedback, due to the University being closed for Christmas break from end of business that day. We will endeavour to follow up with all applicants by early January.
Finally, please note that an updated REC application form will be in operation from January 2021. This will provide clarity around GDPR requirements within the context of ethical review, and reflects discussions between the DCU REC and the Data Protection Office. Applicants who have already prepared their application on the existing form for submission to the January meeting will be facilitated - but all applications subsequent to that must use the updated form.
As many of you will be aware, over the past year, members of the DCU Research team have been working on a project to map the DCU Research Lifecycle and develop a resource to facilitate enhanced understanding of, and engagement with, the suite of supports available to researchers. We are nearing the end of the content development phase and we wish to thank everyone who has engaged to date. This is a large-scale project and the level of engagement has been both vast and extremely encouraging. At this point, over 100 stakeholders from across the research community have been involved in consultations, including researchers, support units and staff in supporting roles. The invaluable contributions and feedback are ensuring the development of a very useful resource that will hopefully be of benefit to the full research community.
In the New Year we will be entering the next stage of the project, moving the content online and carrying out the next level of user testing. We look forward to engaging with many more of you during these stages and to launching the Lifecycle later in 2021. If anyone wishes to find out more about the project or get involved please feel free to contact the Project Lead, Dr. Helen Burke (helen.burke@dcu.ie) or any of the Project Team members listed below.
This is a cross-team project, with the Project Team comprised of members from each of the DCU Research Teams: Dr Helen Burke (Research Support), Dr Jane Carrigan (Research Development), Deirdre Donnelly (Research Infrastructure), Isabel Hidalgo (Research Support), Dr Eamonn McConnon (Research Development), Dr Sumona Mukherjee (Research Support), Micheál Murphy (Research Project Administration).
Open Research Europe will provide all Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe beneficiaries and their researchers with an easy, high quality peer-reviewed venue to publish their results in open access, at no cost to them, and in full compliance with EC open access policies.
The article processing charges will be paid through a procurement contract for publishing and technology services with F1000 Research managed by the Commission. The service will be available also after the end of the grants. The platform will accept publications in all fields of science. Research should be original and stem from a Horizon 2020 grant (and later Horizon Europe) in which at least one of the authors is involved. The article guidelines for publishing in the platform have just been released and submissions will be possible as of early December 2020.
The platform will use a model of immediate publication of submissions followed by transparent, invited and open peer review with inclusion of all supporting data. The names of the reviewers will be open, as well as their reviews, which will also be citeable. The platform boasts a strong international Scientific Advisory Board that advises the Commission on strategic scientific issues. The formal launch of the platform will take place in early 2021.
SFI Research Outputs 2020 survey period is now open with a strict deadline for submission of 25 January 2021. Please note that the survey on research outputs must be completed by two cohorts of researchers: 1) researchers who held active SFI awards in 2020, and 2) researchers who didn’t hold active SFI awards in 2020 (in this case, you are only required to provide data on publications and commercial outputs in 2020, if relevant, as well as impacts that have arisen from your completed SFI-funded project). To complete this survey, log in to SFI SESAME system, click on the Research Outputs icon and add your research outputs to the form provided. If you are due to also complete Annual / Final reports, the outputs you enter into this form may be re-used, if and as required. You can download the user guide for completing this survey here.
Please note that the SFI Reporting Compliance Policy will continue to apply to all holders of SFI research grants that were active for all or part of 2020. The policy is currently under review in light of Covid-19 and revised guidelines will issue shortly. However, this will not change the requirement for researchers to adhere to the Research Outputs deadline (25 January 2021) and other reporting deadlines (most Annual Reports are due on 31 January 2021). It should also be noted that the policy does not apply to awards that expired prior to 2020. However, SFI still requires researchers who have held an award for any part of the past 5 years to complete their Research Outputs. The data that SFI gathers through the survey are necessary to enable SFI to present a comprehensive case to the government about the value of STEM research to the economy and society.
The DCU Salary Calculator has undergone an update and now runs until 2030 (it previously ran until 2020). You can find the DCU Salary Calculator here. The calculator is very useful when preparing personnel budgets for funding applications.
The national pilot programme for the Online Research Integrity Training for staff is coming to a close at the end of December 2020. As part of the pilot staff can currently access a concise version (45-75mins) of the course. Once the pilot ends it is likely that only the longer (4-5 hour) version will be available. We understand that the last number of months have been extremely demanding on everybody’s time but would highly recommend taking the time to complete the concise course whilst you still can.
We have been following up with existing members of staff, who are currently pre-registered or registered for the training, to individually assist them. If you are experiencing issues accessing the course, please contact research@dcu.ie.
Any new academic and research staff should contact research@dcu.ie for further information or assistance in accessing this training.
The deadline for submitting applications under the Green Deal Call is the 26th of January 2021. At this stage you may have your consortium full but for those of you that are looking to fill gaps with more partners, there are some online partner search facilities available.
The Funding & Tenders Portal (link to a guide), allows you to search for organisations that received funding in the past by topic, call and programme. You can also find project coordinators seeking partners, as well as organisations willing to join a project. Should you wish for other organisations to find you, you can add a topic of interest that you would like to be found under on the DCU Funding & Tenders organisation profile and publish your partner search. Contact DCU Research Support (research@dcu.ie) if you wish to add tailored content to the portal and we will assist with this. When a potential partner views the DCU organisation profile, they will see the post in the Published Partner Searches section (below the Projects List).
Another useful partner search platform is the NCPs CaRE Partner Search Tool, where you can find partners and/or submit your own details offering your organisation as a partner to others for the Green Deal Call topics (link to a guide).
Finally, the Enterprise Europe Network Ireland offers a partner search tool, which is tailored to SMEs but also available to other businesses and academia.
DCU is a member of the Young European Research University Network (YERUN). YERUN publishes a regular newsletter for members. This contains news about education and research policies and initiatives under development at the European Commission, and stories from our fellow YERUN members. GDPR means that if you want to receive this letter you need to sign yourself up. Please do so using this link.
Developed by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Leiden University Libraries, and Eindhoven University of Technology, the Data Horror Escape Room takes participants on a journey to ‘escape’ from a Professor’s study using only the clues they locate in the room. The game can be completed in roughly an hour, all the while testing your knowledge of the FAIR principles, data archiving, metadata, and other concepts related to RDM.
A blog on digitalscholarshipleiden.nl outlines how the game was developed, and you can access the room itself at the Data Horror Escape Room’s website.