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NEWS

People's ideas to feature in exhibition

More than five hundred people have put forward their ideas about how to transform one of Lancaster’s most historic public spaces as part of the Beyond the Castle project. Their suggestions will be featured in a new interactive exhibition called Picture This. It will be held at The Storey Institute in Lancaster from November 15 to November 20. Full story.

Spotlight on Health and Medicine

The Faculty of Health and Medicine is hosting a one-day event designed to bring together all colleagues in the University who share an interest in issues relating to health and medicine. The aim is to develop a better understanding, within the University community, of what different individuals and research groups are doing, in the hope that we can build further collaborations. There will be a series of short presentations delivered by colleagues drawn from each of the four Faculties. The date is 4 December, from 9.15am to 4.30pm; venue FASS Rooms 2/3. The event is open to all but for catering purposes we would appreciate it if Bethan McMullen was notified of attendance.

£1.4m grant success for Computing and Communications research

Computing and Communications researchers at Lancaster have secured six research grants totalling £1.4m. The grants have been awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), bolstering the School's existing £10m grant portfolio. Full story.

Lancaster and QUB to form partnership on cyber security

Lancaster University and Queen’s University Belfast have formalised their close working relationship in cyber security with a memorandum of understanding in order to produce the UK’s biggest and brightest group of creative and innovative cyber security researchers. Full story.

Santander Scholarships

Nine students at Lancaster University have already benefited from the first tranche of scholarships worth around £45,000 from Santander Universities Global Division, which is funding various scholarships and awards after signing a co-operation agreement last year for a total of £168,000 over three years. This funding is also being allocated to support student placements at SMEs across the University, and in the future, both PhD funding and support for staff mobility will extend to all faculties. Full story.

Inaugural Light Up Lancaster event

Around two thousand people have attended the first ever Light Up Lancaster event, presented by Live at LICA together with local arts partners. Full story.

People

Professor Linda Woodhead (PPR) has been invited to attend The World Economic Forum summit of world leaders in Davos in January as an academic.

Congratulations to Lancaster’s University Challenge team which has made it through to the second round of the current series of the BBC2 academic quiz show after beating opponents Lincoln College, Oxford. Three of the Lancaster team are from the Lancaster Environment Centre; Iain Dickson, Ann Kretzschmar, Alan Webster, along with team captain George Pinkerton who is studying, History, Philosophy and Politics.

Dr Plamen Angelov, Reader in Computational Intelligence (School of Computing and Communications) has been presented with best paper award at the IEEE Conference on Intelligent Systems 2012. The paper is co-authored by Lancaster Phd student Pouria Sedeghi-Tehran.

Professor Cary Cooper (LUMS) was awarded an honorary fellowship at the Annual Dinner of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health on 6 November. Professor Cooper is also due to travel to the World Economic Forum meeting, 10-11 November, to attend the Global Agenda Council on Wellbeing and Mental Health in Dubai.

Roger Kemp (Engineering) was an invited speaker on energy efficiency at a Parliamentary and Scientific Committee meeting in Westminster on 6 November .

A vacancy has arisen on the Chaplaincy Management Committee. The vacancy is to be filled by an academic member of staff, appointed by the Senate; it would be preferable to have someone who is a member of Senate, but does not necessarily need to be. The term of office will be for three years, and is renewable for further terms. Could you please contact Fiona Aiken if you are interested in serving on this committee.

Caren Beale, Tim Wardle, Ian Kettlewell and Andrew Wright have joined Security as relief facilities porters, covering largely academic buildings across campus including the Great Hall, LICA, Post room, LUMS and InfoLab21.

Lancaster in the news

Professor Ram-Prasad, (PPR), was on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, 8 November, discussing the Upanishads - the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism with Melvyn Bragg. Also from PPR, Professor Linda Woodhead was interviewed twice on BBC Radio 4 this week; on the flagship PM news programme about the new Archbishop of Canterbury and on Analysis about Roman Catholic social teaching. Lancaster University Management School’s effective research-led approach to business is featured in the Sunday Telegraph’s Ingenious Britain supplement , with quotes from Dr Cathy Garner and Dr Ellie Hamilton.

Follow link to see a list of people in the news.

Notices

Town planning consultation

On Thursday 22 November from 2 - 7pm, there will be a public consultation event on the planning development framework at the Bailrigg Conference Centre. The event is designed specifically for staff and students who missed the consultation on Saturday 3 November in the town library. The views of staff and students are welcomed. There is also a proposal to extend onto the Science Park area. The planning information and plans are here.

Friends Programme funding available in December– **Final call for proposals**

See details and application form here Please ensure that applications have been submitted for authorisation by 5pm Friday 16 November 2012. Deadline for all applications to be submitted to the Alumni and Development Office: 5pm Friday 23 November 2012. Enquiries to Rachel Newbury in the Alumni and Development Office on ext 92904.

Participants needed for music preferences study

Lancaster PhD student Richard Leadbeater is looking for volunteers to take part in interviews exploring the development and trajectory of their music preferences from adolescence onwards. He is interested in identifying the main influences that shape music preferences during adolescence, and how music preferences change over time. Answers will be completely anonymous, confidential and in no way attributable. Interviews will be held on campus and will last approximately one hour. If you would like to take part in this study, please contact r.leadbeater1@lancaster.ac.uk.

Travel Bingo - volunteers needed

An undergraduate project in the School of Computing and Communications is looking for a group of parents and their children aged 6-12 years old to give feedback on an exciting new App called 'Travel Bingo'. This mobile application is designed for children aged 6-12 years old and is aimed to keep children entertained during long car journeys by reinventing the traditional game of counting cars. Short focus group sessions lasting 30-45 minutes will be organised, one in mid November, mid December and in February.

To volunteer or to find out further information please visit the project webpage or email.

Course Approvals and Information Tool (CAIT)

The new course approvals and information tool (CAIT) came into service on Friday 26 October. This will replace the current online course approvals tool. Users will be redirected to use CAIT for all new and revised course proposals. The main changes hosted within CAIT include:

• Proposed revisions to courses will now be submitted online, allowing LUSI records to be retrieved for amendment.
• Submissions of proposed new courses or revisions will generate email alerts to Faculty TQSO and others – for example, to ensure that a check of HESA-sensitive data takes place.
• User libraries can be accessed in CAIT, showing draft and submitted proposals. Users can also view other submissions from within their department or faculty.
• It is also possible to share a draft proposal with other users, for editing or to keep other users updated on the progress of a proposal.

A number of routes to help CAIT users are available:

• Each field in CAIT has a pop-up text box providing onscreen instructions.
• Users in CAIT can email the helpdesk within the service.
• A short user manual has been prepared and can be accessed from any page in CAIT, via the main menu.
• A short (25-minute) tutorial introducing CAIT is available for users here. We hope that this will be useful for first-time users and has been recorded to complement the user manual.
• Finally, during the coming two terms, project team members will be able to help users settle in to using CAIT – either via enquiries to the CAIT mailbox or by organising tutorial sessions in departments/ faculties, should there be sufficient need and interest.

Information Security

Advice and guidance on information security is available through Information Security training – either online or as a taught half day session. The training will help you familiarise yourself with the University policy for data protection and freedom of information, as well as learn about general processes for keeping information secure.

Mezze & More

Grizedale Cafe Bar is now serving a Mediterranean inspired ‘Mezze & More’ menu, featuring dishes from Spain, Greece and Italy. This menu is served daily Monday – Friday from 12.00pm onwards and can be viewed here. During weeks 5 and 6 you can purchase a Mezze Sharing platter featuring any 3 dishes of your choice for £6 if you have a purple card.

Changes to water testing

From Monday 26 November, there will be changes to the water testing and shower head cleaning schedules. For further information and to view the updated schedule, please click here.

Road works for weekend of 17 and 18 November

There will be roadworks at the speed reduction structure at the junction between Alexandra Park, the perimeter road and Green Lane. Noisy work will not begin before 9am and the ramps will be rebuilt in two halves so vehicles can pass at all times.

Training and courses

Short courses in Applied Statistics for Scientists, Social Scientists and Health Researchers

• Introduction to Statistics (SPSS I) - 14-15 November
• Secondary Data Analysis - 29 November
• Questionnaire Design, Validity and reliability - 3 December
• Sampling Design - 4 December

To book a place and to see courses running after Christmas please go to www.lancs.ac.uk/fas/cpd/statistics/

Staff IT training

IT training sessions run by ISS, in the Library Training suites (unless otherwise stated) are listed here. All training sessions require booking, unless otherwise stated. Please book online.

• Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint 2010 hourly sessions – follow the link for details
• Windows 7 & Office 10 General User Tips n Tricks
  12 November, 10.00am – 10.30am
  14 November, 1.00pm – 1.30pm
• Information Security Practical Advice – 13 November, 2.00pm – 3.30pm
• Introducing Windows 7 – 14 November, 10.00am – 11.00am
• Introducing Office 2010 – 14 November, 11.30am – 12.30pm
• LUSI Marks Management – 15 November, 2.00pm – 4.00pm
• Information Security Online Training – follow the link for details.

More information is available on the ISS Staff IT Training pages.

Organisation and Educational Development

Please find below a list of upcoming staff development opportunities that may be of interest to you. For more opportunities please visit the OED Website or email us directly on OED@lancaster.ac.uk.

• Building Personal Resilience – 15 November, 9.00am - 12.30pm
• Managing Team Resilience – 15 November, 1.00pm - 4.30pm
• Having Difficult Conversations – 16 November, 9.30am - 1.00pm
• Using RDF to Navigate your Career – 20 November, 1.00 - 4.00pm
• Writing Meaningful Minutes – 21/11/12, 9.00am - 1.00pm
• Conducting Investigations (Disciplinary and Grievance) – 23 November, 9.00am - 5.00pm
• Writing an Effective CV – 26 November, 1.30pm - 4.30pm
• Effective People Management – 28 November, 9.30am - 4.30pm

WHAT'S ON

For a full list of all events, please see Events.

The Mikimoto Memorial Ruskin Lecture 2012

Ruskin, Engels and the City, with Dr Tristram Hunt, MP will be held in the Faraday Lecture Theatre on 29 November at 6pm followed by refreshments. All Welcome. For further details, contact: The Ruskin Library 593587 ruskin.library@lancaster.ac.uk.

Wellbeing Day

On Thursday 15 November from 12 – 3 pm in the Fylde Common Room organised by the Natural Health Care team. There will be free tasters, vouchers and information on Acupuncture, Alexander Technique, Aromatherapy. Herbal Medicine, Massage, Reflexology and Shiatsu plus refreshments. All are welcome. www.naturalhealthcare.org.uk.

Forthcoming Live at LICA events

Concert
Transpennie Triple Jam, 10 November, 7.30pm
SaxAssault, 15 November, 7.30pm.

Theatre
Ridiculusmus: Total Football, 13 and 14 November, 8pm.
Vincent Dance Theatre: Motherland, 15 November, 8pm.

ADVERTS

All adverts - posted by staff.