Helen Turner

📢 The MI Summer Newsletter is out now! This month:

🩺 Major health inequalities report launches in Parliament—@midshealth leads call for action across the region
⚡ @EnergyRA leads Westminster #NetZeroWeek roundtable
🏆 #PapinPrize winners announced at #HETS2025

Read it here ➡ buff.ly/PpYOr00

More from our summer newsletter:

🤝MI partners launch research hub to transform UK manufacturing
🎭Event sparks funding push for East Midlands’ creative and cultural sectors
✈MI partners secure funding for aerospace tech to support greener air travel

Read it here➡ buff.ly/c3B4Y4p

Join the Forging Ahead team — several exciting roles now open for applications.

🔗 Further details below ⬇️

⏹ Network Manager: buff.ly/abgMi0u
⏹ Project Administrator: buff.ly/B4dmVHw
⏹ Marketing and Communications Manager: buff.ly/EGbuWHR
⏹ Peer to Peer Learning Manager: buff.ly/RVLyB25

Research culture element of REF 2029 set to be shrunk - Research Professional News New ‘4-star plus’ research rating also being considered by Research Excellence Framework team, briefings suggest

The importance given to research culture and environment in the next Research Excellence Framework is set to be scaled back, Research Professional News understands.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

💬 UK universities are under financial strain. As institutions look to restructure, reduce costs and rethink delivery, there’s a clear need to make better use of the talent that already exists within them- Kelly Vere MBE

A graphic card promoting the position of hydrogeochemist. To the left is a picture of a river, with high grass on each bank. The closing date is stated as 23 July. The BGS logo is top right.

We're looking for a hydrogeochemist (2-year fixed term).

You'll lead a field-based investigation assessing the presence of microplastics in groundwater, planning and leading fieldwork as well as data interpretation and reporting results.

More info:
www.bgs.ac.uk/download/vac...

Just 1% of UKRI peer review panellists are Black - Research Professional News Funder stresses “continued efforts to diversify panel membership” after first release of reviewer equalities data

Just 1% of UKRI peer review panellists are Black.

Funder stresses “continued efforts to diversify panel membership” after first release of reviewer equalities data.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Six things they might not tell you about grant writing - Research Professional News Including why you shouldn’t let low success rates get you down

Six things they might not tell you about grant writing...including why you shouldn’t let low success rates get you down.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-funding-k...

🏆 67 technicians have been shortlisted for a #PapinPrize, from 328 nominations

View the shortlist buff.ly/ljSkiAD

Prizes will be awarded across ten categories at #HETS2025 on Wed 9 July 2025, celebrating #technicalexcellence and innovation in higher education & research

Want to learn more about our Electron Microscopy network and the exciting work and opportunities in this area? Sign up to our newsletter www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/weba...

Today we’re hosting #HETS2025 with @midlandsinnovation.bsky.social and @ukri.org

🎤 Talks from Sara Davies MBE and @joshpsmalley.bsky.social
🏆 10 Papin Prizes
🗣️ 30 workshops
🙌 500 technicians

It would be good to follow up that conversation and see what we can do

UKRI to scale-up ‘radical’ change to peer review - Research Professional News Metascience 2025: Expansion planned after trial run of modified process slashed review time for applications

UKRI to scale-up ‘radical’ change to peer review.

A modified version of peer review, whereby applicants assess each other’s proposals, is set to be scaled up at UK Research and Innovation after a successful trial. #Metascience2025

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

A graphic promoting the role of 'senior research grants manager', with the closing date of 13 July 2025. Top right is the BGS logo, and to the left is an image of the British coastline.

We're looking for a senior research grants manager to join our team 📝

You'll be identifying & publicising relevant and innovative grant opportunities to BGS, and will work with staff to create funding applications.

Apply now:
fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

JOB! 🏺#archaeology

We are hiring a Chief Executive Officer. Apply by 20 July 2025. Are you ready to lead one of the UK’s most influential organisations at a time of global change? This is a defining moment for engineering in the UK and globally. As CEO, you will shape policy, inspire innovation, and help ensure that engineering serves society — sustainably, inclusively, and ambitiously.

Are you ready to lead one of the UK’s most influential organisations at a time of global change?

We are seeking a visionary, values-led Chief Executive Officer to drive the delivery of our bold Strategy 2030: Engineering Better Lives. Apply by 20 July 2025:
www.russellreynolds.com/en/executive...

Jacqui Smith: Levy on fees ‘would show value of foreign students’ - Research Professional News Skills minister says “there has been an over-dependence on international students” for higher education funding

Jacqui Smith: Levy on international student fees ‘would show value of foreign students’

Smith said that if the government went ahead with the levy, it would “really demonstrate that [contribution] in terms of money that could then…be reinvested”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

The impact of parenthood on mental health within the academic community: highlighting vulnerabilities and identifying high-risk groups - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The impact of parenthood on mental health within the academic community: highlighting vulnerabilities and identifying high-risk groups

🧠 Parenthood in academia affects mental health – but not equally

Academic mothers face a much higher risk of depression than fathers or non-mothers. Risk is greatest for those without support, or who are Black or have disabled children.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #AcademicSky 🧪

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.

slate.com/technology/2...

#HETS2025 500 attendees, 30 workshops and 2 brilliant speakers

4 weeks to go until the UK Higher Education Technicians Summit, celebrating it's 10th anniversary year.

Thanks to sponsors and supporters @ukri.org‬ @midlandsinnovation.bsky.social‬ @tech-commit.bsky.social‬ and The Gatsby Foundation

AI boom means regulator cannot predict future water shortages in England Datacentres, which do not have to report amount of water used to cool servers, leave Environment Agency with no idea of shortfalls

'The artificial intelligence boom means the Environment Agency has no idea how much water England will be short of in future decades, as datacentres do not have to report how much they are using to cool their servers.' Maybe the policy of 'turbocharging' AI everywhere & all the time needs thought?

Facial recognition error sees woman accused of theft An apparent mix-up with the technology led to Danielle Horan being wrongly accused of shoplifting.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Universities should be architects of economic and social transformation In an era where funding models are crumbling, Aleks Subic argues that universities must become commercially astute architects of economic transformation or risk obsolescence In an era where funding models...

This week on Wonkhe: In an era where funding models are crumbling, Aleks Subic argues that universities must become commercially astute architects of economic transformation or risk obsolescence

Latest news from Midlands Innovation

More from our packed June newsletter:

🤝 One year on – R&D investment campaign returns to UKREiiF with a broader vision
🖋 Professor Dame Karen Holford reflects on an impactful two years as she concludes her tenure as MI Chair

Read it here ➡️

Financial sector ‘doesn’t know how to invest in universities’ - Research Professional News UKRI chair wants more industry money and calls out “insufferable” salary constraints on national funder

Financial sector ‘doesn’t know how to invest in universities’

UKRI chair also wants more industry money in higher education and calls out “insufferable” salary constraints on national funder

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

I am on my 3rd week with Covid and am still feeling rotten. I am struggling to switch off and rest and feeling increasingly like I am letting down work colleagues and family. So fed up. Stay safe people as it is a nasty strain.

NEW on Wonkhe: R&D spending to be maintained up to 2029/30 bit.ly/4jL2nmj

Here's our piece on the £86bn R&D budget

The govt calls it a “bumper funding package” worth more than £22.5bn a year by 2029–30

In reality it's a real-terms freeze, accounting for inflation, using OBR forecasts

But probably as good as the research sector could hope for

Exciting opportunity with the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (BMIHT ) is seeking an Archivist (Cataloguer) to play a key part in the collections information, development and management of the BMIHT Archive, ensuring tha...

📣Job opportunity in Warwickshire📣
The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (BMIHT) is seeking an Archivist (Cataloguer) to play a key part in the collections information, development and management of the BMIHT Archive.
Closing date 29 June 2025.
For more details 👇

Leicestershire’s universities invite local residents with life and skills experiences to apply for community-focused research projects Loughborough University, the University of Leicester and De Montfort University are inviting people from the local community to apply for paid, full-time PhD, and part-time placement research projects...

An available PhD for a Leicestershire resident: 'Inclusive Heritage in Superdiverse Places: Redesigning inclusion in heritage content, practice, and policy in Leicestershire'
www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/...