Dear SCDTP Students, PGR, and Supervisors,

 We invite your attention to the biweekly SCDTP and Network Update, which may be of interest to many of you. To navigate through each news item, kindly utilize the provided links. Should you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at scdtp@soton.ac.uk.

Appreciate your cooperation.

Best regards,

 The SCDTP Team.

Please find attached details of a placement opportunity being offered by The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR is the independent regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, which is a non-ministerial government department. The project offers an opportunity to improve the way OSR regulates official statistics across the UK statistical system, by creating greater accountability for government departments to comply with the intelligent transparency principles. The project seeks to develop a monitoring and reporting approach for intelligent transparency, which will be summarised in a report.

The application deadline is the 31 October 2024, so please circulate this opportunity along with the funding permission form, to all students as soon as possible. Details on how to apply can be found within the opportunity attached in the links above.

Participants will be assigned a task which involves building a simple model to predict an outcome. To build that model, they will need to combine data from multiple datasets together. The task will be completed in groups. The hackathon will be delivered over two live online sessions:

• Session 1 – 30th October  2-4 pm will introduce the task and provide time for teams to scope out their plan.
• Teams will then have one week to work on the task.
• Session 2 – 6th November 2-4 pm will focus on teams’ finalisation of their output and producing and delivering a short presentation on their solution.

No specific programming skills are needed. The problem can be tackled in Excel, SPSS, R, or Python.

We would like to highlight that the 2024 ESRC Festival of Social Science is running from 19 October to 9 November 2024.

There are hundreds of events to choose from, most taking place in person, with some online and hybrid formats, led by 41 higher education institutions across the UK. The festival is an annual celebration of research and knowledge about humans and society and is ESRC’s flagship public engagement initiative.

A key theme for the 2024 festival is ‘our digital lives’. Many of the events will explore the relationship between humans and digital technology, from threats and opportunities facing us today to what life might look like in future.

You can search the full range of events on the festival website. For most events you can book a place in advance online, and all are free to attend.

The ESRC has awarded funding to the Royal Economic Society to deliver a new training programme for PhD candidates in Economics, starting this academic year.

The programme includes expert workshops, masterclasses, and a residential school on key skills and research areas. Sessions will run on Wednesday afternoons, with online workshops for Autumn 2024 now open for registration.

For more details, visit the RES DTP website or contact doctoraltraining@res.org.uk.

Dear Students,

 In our efforts to foster a sense of community and wellbeing, we have introduced a weekly meditation session on Wednesdays from 1-2pm. This will be our fourth virtual session, and you can join via the Teams link below. Feel free to participate while sitting at your desk with headphones, or if space permits, standing or lying down is also fine.

We hope you can join us. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Prof. Tamsin Bradley 

Postdoctoral Fellows

We are thrilled to introduce the 2024/25 cohort of of Postdoctoral Fellows at the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP). These prestigious fellowships, awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), provide an excellent platform for early-career researchers to advance their independent research careers in a supportive environment.

• Dr Ellie Atayee-Bennett
• Dr Monica Sood
• Dr Olivia Caskey
• Dr Patience Mutunami

The fellowship not only support the professional growth of our fellows but also contribute significantly to their respective fields. We look forward to the impactful research and advancements they will bring in the coming year.

Postdocs - South Coast DTP

We are also preparing for our new call for ESRC SCDTP Posdoctoral Fellowship Scheme for 2025/2026 soon. For more details please refer to our website.

Student Representatives

We are delighted to introduce our dedicated SCDTP student representatives and EDI student champions. These individuals play a crucial role in ensuring that the voices of our student cohort are heard and represented. They are integral members of the South Coast DTP Steering Group Committee, working tirelessly to advocate for student needs and concerns.

University Student Representatives:

• Isaac Thornton: Isaac is committed to representing the student body and ensuring that your concerns are addressed.
• Josette Crispin: Josette brings a wealth of experience and a passion for student advocacy.
• Sarah Salphati: Sarah is dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for all students.

EDI Student Champions:

• Holly Radford: Holly is focused on promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion within our community.
• Sudip Sen: Sudip works alongside Holly to ensure that all students feel valued and included.

Our student representatives and EDI champions are here to support you. They are always open to hearing your feedback and working with you to improve your experience at the South Coast DTP. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out to them.

We appreciate the hard work and dedication of our student representatives and EDI champions. Their efforts are vital in creating a vibrant and inclusive community where every student can thrive.

Our Reps - South Coast DTP

We warmly invite all postgraduate researchers to become part of the new SRI Centre for Postgraduate Research as members or leaders (there will be many opportunities), and to attend the SRI Seminar Series.

SRI Centre for Postgraduate Research

The new Sustainability & Resilience Institute Centre for Postgraduate Research will provide funded opportunities for postgraduate researchers to access sustainability leadership courses, interdisciplinary research retreats, funding opportunities, mentoring programmes, teaching opportunities, assessment and internships, and a community of practice for PGRs working in these interdisciplinary fields.

The SRI Centre for Postgraduate Research will be launched with a presentation and discussion session on Thursday 17th October (16:00 – 17:30) in Building 100 Room 4011 where we will outline the programmes available through the Centre, the range of opportunities and benefits for postgraduates from all research areas and groups, and how to become a Member.

All are welcome to attend and join this exciting new PGR venture.

If you are a Southampton based student, please sign up here.

If you are a student from Brighton, Chichester or Portsmouth and would like to sign up, please can you email Professor Athina Vlachantoni first.

Contact Professor Athina Vlachantoni

SRI Seminar Series

The new SRI Seminar Series will be a monthly event where we shine a light on the ground-breaking interdisciplinary sustainability and resilience research work of our academics and postgraduate researchers from across the University. Everyone is welcome.

The SRI Seminar Series launches on Wednesday 9^th October (13:00 – 14:30) in Building 100 Room 4011

We have two inspirational speakers:

• Dr Michael Head (Senior Research Fellow in Global Health from the Faculty of Medicine) will be discussing his work on Climate Change and Health in Ghana
• Emily Cole (INSPIRE DTP PhD student in SoGES) will be presenting insights from local government about the challenges to implementation of national biodiversity and net zero obligations. 

The presentations will be followed by discussions and networking. 

Please sign up here

Please contact Professor Simon Kemp if you have any questions, and if you would be interested in presenting your work as a 15-20 minute presentation in a future seminar.

Open to all SCDTP students.

We have 7 main aims:

1. Develop and apply critical social justice frameworks that address emerging global challenges, particularly foregrounding cognitive and theoretical perspectives from the Majority World
2. Shape research on new technologies like AI and blockchain with a justice-oriented lens, ensuring these innovations benefit marginalised and minoritised individuals and groups
3. Enhance empirical investigations on global health and climate crises through the application of social justice theory, particularly from the Majority World perspective
4. Nurture a pan-institutional community of social justice-orientated researchers from PhDs to Professors
5. Develop the field of interdisciplinary social justice theory and methods
6. Enrich empirical research on global health and the climate crisis through the application of social justice orientated methods, particularly in terms of co-production and equitable public engagement.
7. Improve the interface between humanities, social sciences and life/environmental/engineering sciences

If you are interested, please email Professor Pathik Pathak (P.Pathak@soton.ac.uk). Students from Southampton, Brighton, Portsmouth and Chichester are welcome!

Information Doc: Interdisciplinary Social Justice Theory & Methods Group 

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South Coast DTP | R2043/B58, Murray Building, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, Southampton