Phil Ward's Avatar

Phil Ward

@frootle.bsky.social

Director of Eastern Arc, a regional consortium in the UK comprising the universities of East Anglia, Essex, Kent and Sussex. You know the score: views all my own. But that's because no one else would want them. www.easternarc.ac.uk www.fundermentals.org

549 Followers  |  176 Following  |  83 Posts  |  Joined: 12.11.2024  |  2.0835

Latest posts by frootle.bsky.social on Bluesky

Preview
Lecturer in Creative Writing and Digital Technologies(ATS1307) in University of East Anglia | UEA View details and apply for this Lecturer in Creative Writing and Digital Technologies(ATS1307) vacancy in University of East Anglia. Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of Literatur...

A rare thing to see in the wild these days: a Creative Writing lectureship (fixed term) at the University of East Anglia vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/15...

05.06.2025 08:53 β€” πŸ‘ 33    πŸ” 30    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The deadline for abstracts is Monday 2 June. We've had a lot of interest, so do submit a proposal if you want to be part of the conversation on 10 Sept!

28.05.2025 06:54 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Vacancy: Researcher for the DALE project - Eastern Arc

We've got a vacancy for a researcher for our DALE project, which will look at accessibility to our lab environment for those with disabilities. Deadline: 12 May: easternarc.ac.uk/news/vacancy...

06.05.2025 10:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

A quick repost for our open call for our #sanctuary conference in Sept. Do submit a proposal if you have an idea for a session!

06.05.2025 10:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS* The call for abstracts for the #EARC2025 is now OPEN! This year our focus is on Sanctuary Solidarities and we're looking for a wide and diverse group of academics and stakeholders to join us! Deadline 2 June 2025. easternarc.ac.uk/news/sanctua... @easternarc.bsky.social

14.04.2025 09:33 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Your tariff rate is your star sign divided by the number of boys you've kissed, multiplied by one

03.04.2025 07:51 β€” πŸ‘ 16289    πŸ” 2680    πŸ’¬ 390    πŸ“Œ 210
Post image

interesting

20.03.2025 14:51 β€” πŸ‘ 14073    πŸ” 1216    πŸ’¬ 423    πŸ“Œ 128
Preview
Gulf of Mexico - Wikipedia

Go to Google
Search "Gulf of Mexico"
Click the 3 little dots next to "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)"
Choose "Send feedback"
Click "Gulf of America"
Click "Inaccurate content"
Click "Incorrect"
Tell Google the correct name
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of...

12.02.2025 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 16679    πŸ” 5507    πŸ’¬ 1999    πŸ“Œ 722

Well, looking at UKRI's data for 2022-23, the top 20 unis in terms of value of awards are as follows: S/SE - 5; North - 5; East - 1; Scotland - 2; Midlands - 3; SW - 3; Wales - 1. Aggregating these, S/SE has ~30% of overall value.

12.02.2025 13:33 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

As ever, I think we need to be more nuanced about suggesting where research/funding will be concentrated. S/SE is not synonymous with the Golden Triangle: there's a lot of smaller unis in S/SE that may lose out, and many huge players in N/SW/Scotland that may benefit.

12.02.2025 11:18 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Fair enough! It completely passed me by.

11.02.2025 22:38 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

This is excellent work! Unfortunately, tantalisingly, the pages aren't opening for me. I'll have to wait to get some decent WiFi. The sense of anticipation is explosive.

11.02.2025 22:35 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Really? They chose to rebroadcast... that?

11.02.2025 21:08 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I don't know the answer, but I was told that, for strawberry jam, the seeds are actually added back in after the jam is made, and that they're actually little chips of wood. Even as I write this I can't believe how implausible it sounds. I'm going to have to look this up.

11.02.2025 21:07 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Although you could argue that the decrease in Google searches is not down to less interest but more awareness/familiarity and direct traffic.

11.02.2025 19:55 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If you feel bad about not getting a grant, worth keeping in mind ESRC's success for:

new investigator is ~14%
standard scheme is ~9%
secondary data analysis scheme is ~9%.

These are on par with acceptance rates for the most competitive journals in the field...

11.02.2025 17:46 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 3

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

11.02.2025 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Me too! With Sounds/podcasts it's now a rarity. It was Alexi Sayle so I was thinking there'd be at least some solid work there, less neediness, less desperation to prove himself. Reader, I was wrong.

11.02.2025 19:39 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Oof. Listening to @bbcradio4.bsky.social 6:30 comedy slot for the first time in - oh - decades. Good to see the quality hasn't changed. How can it be so consistently terrible?

11.02.2025 18:48 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future".

We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.

26.01.2025 10:59 β€” πŸ‘ 1285    πŸ” 376    πŸ’¬ 89    πŸ“Œ 39

Well, not surprising, but very depressing nonetheless.

26.01.2025 17:27 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Funding in 2025: A new hope or more of the same? - Research Professional News The crystal ball is murky, but the new year’s defining issues can be identified within

Joyful piece by @annamgrey.bsky.social on her predictions for UK research funding in 2025 (with a pinch of gallows humour), picking up the baton from @frootle.bsky.social

10.01.2025 08:16 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Haha! Excellent! Good work @annamgrey.bsky.social! I'll check in 12 months to see how close you were. You couldn't be any worse than me. In my defence I was covering the May/Johnson/Truss/Sunak years...

09.01.2025 23:33 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes it is! Glad you're focussing on the key issues - just as I would have done!

08.01.2025 11:22 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I know where he could find some out of work fact checkers, if that's any help?

07.01.2025 22:54 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Industrious Efforts - HEPI The consultation on the Industrial Strategy Green Paper closed at the end of November. Phil Ward, Director of the Eastern Arc research consortium (which comprises the universities of East Anglia, Esse...

Morning everyone! The first day back; I hope you all had a peaceful break. To ease you back into the world of work, here's a piece I wrote for @hepi-news.bsky.social on the #IndustrialStrategy over the hols. Events have moved on, but I'd welcome your thoughts! www.hepi.ac.uk/2024/12/31/i...

02.01.2025 10:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all."

Arthur C. Clarke

17.12.2024 11:54 β€” πŸ‘ 20110    πŸ” 4388    πŸ’¬ 432    πŸ“Œ 256

Was he based in Cornwall? Wow! The things you learn!

17.12.2024 20:59 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Excellent! Thank you!

17.12.2024 19:28 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@frootle is following 19 prominent accounts