Research Newsletter - Issue 90: Information and Updates
Please click on the headings below for further information:
Nominations for the President's Awards for Research are open until the 9th February 2024.
Please read the guidelines carefully, as this year some of the categories and eligibility have changed. In each category there will be one award across all five Faculties.
The categories are:
The President's Research Award for Academic Staff
The purpose of this award is to recognize and encourage overall research excellence. Nominees must have a research track record and profile that identifies them as leaders in their respective fields of research.
The President's Research Award for Early Career Staff (open to academic and research contract staff)
The purpose of this award is to recognize and encourage overall research excellence. Nominees must have a research track record and profile that identifies them as leaders in their respective fields of research.
The President's Award for Research Impact
The award aims to recognise and reward those whose research at DCU has led to excellent impact outside of academia. ‘Research impact’ is understood as: ‘An effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia’.
Further information can be found on the new President's Awards website. Please share this with your colleagues and encourage them to nominate colleagues for the 2024 Awards.
The President's Awards for Research will be presented on Research Day, which will take place on Thursday, 25th April 2024. Nominations should be submitted via the President's Awards website by 5pm on Friday, 9th February 2024. For further information, contact Kieran O’Dwyer (Kieran.odwyer@dcu.ie).
The EIC hosted an online information day on the upcoming funding opportunities under EIC Work Programme 2024 on the 15th of January 2024.
High-level speakers from the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission and from the European Investment Bank (EIB) provided an overview about three main funding schemes of the EIC:
- EIC Pathfinder: for advanced research on breakthrough or game-changing technologies;
- EIC Transition: for transforming research results into innovation opportunities;
- EIC Accelerator: for individual companies to develop and scale up breakthrough innovations with high risk and high impact.
The recording, presentations from the information day and other relevant materials, including information on the successful EIC proposals, policy context and the main novelties of the EIC Work Programme 2024, are now available on the EIC website.
The EIC Accelerator Work Programme 2024 information Day was also held on the 16th of January. The recording, presentations and other relevant materials are now available here.
The deadline for expressions of interest to participate in tranche 2 of the SFI Sustainable Laboratory Certification Pilot Programme is Wednesday 31st January 2024 at 1:00pm.
This pilot programme, delivered in partnership with My Green Lab, will support up to 100 labs maintained by SFI Principal Investigators/Funded Investigators, and their research groups, to participate in the My Green Lab Certification process.
Principal Investigators interested in being part of the pilot are invited to submit a short expression of interest, which will take circa 20 minutes to complete.
For more information on the programme and how to apply, please visit the SFI website.
A NORF-funded project called TROPIC (TRaining for OPen research in an Irish Context) is carrying out a national survey on awareness of Open Research practices (e.g. data sharing, pre-registration, open peer review) in Ireland. The project team includes members from DCU Library.
The aim is to gather insights, experiences, and needs regarding training on open research and to use that input to develop effective strategies and initiatives to foster transparency, collaboration, and accessibility in the research community.
The survey (5-10 minutes) is relevant to researchers at all career stages (including PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and senior academics), librarians and people in research support roles. Participants will be asked about their knowledge and adoption of open research practices, and about some factors that may impact their capacity and opportunities to engage with such practices.
The survey data is completely anonymised at the point of collection, and it will be used to provide a census of research practices in all disciplines, highlight common barriers and opportunities for engaging in open research, and also help identify training needs that could better support researchers across disciplines.
Whether or not you are aware of open research practices, have experience in using them, or even deem them to be necessary for your research, your opinion is vital for the team to gain a representative picture of current research practices, and views towards them, across all disciplines in Ireland.
Please follow this link to the survey: Open Research Practices Survey
Please note that the Data Protection Unit have recently updated their web guidance for research, bringing resources together under a Toolkit for Researchers.
This toolkit includes a GDPR Questionnaire, whose purpose is to facilitate researchers in their own assessment of the possible data protection risks associated with their research project. Further details will be communicated by the DPU in due course.
Compliance with export controls procedures is an area under increasing scrutiny by government departments. For researchers, this means knowing whether any product, including technology (e.g. know-how), being used in, or resulting from, their research, or the research of students they are supervising, is subject to export controls.
DCU have an Export Controls Policy in place, and researchers should note that the following Export Controls guidance and training is available via Loop :
- Overview of Export Controls and Dual-Use Research (guidance document)
- Specialist Module on Export Controls (online Epigeum training)
- Export Controls Training for Researchers in Irish HEI's (PWC presentation)
As you may know, TORA (the DCU grant management system) is undergoing updates as part of the wider, phased Agresso upgrade project. In preparation for the final phase of this project, the TORA Form will undergo some minor changes over the coming weeks. These changes endeavour to streamline the data collected in the Form and will not affect your access to the Form nor the TORA institutional review and approval process.
If you have any queries however, please do not hesitate to contact research@dcu.ie.