Wednesday 28 February 2018

Staff Newsletter Issue 63

Saturday Series: Our Mortal Remains (Sat 10 Mar)

Anatomical dissection has been the cornerstone of medical education for many years and the generosity of body donors continues to change the face of modern medicine.

Hear from a female panel of professionals who will discuss the importance of body donation, the impact it has had within anatomy and how it has influenced their careers. 

Chaired by Pennie Latin.

Book tickets.

See the full Saturday Series programme.

Universities UK open letter re USS

Universities UK have circulated an open letter to USS members, outlining their position in relation to the pension scheme and the current industrial dispute. The letter, signed by Professor Dame Janet Beer, President of Universities UK, and Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive, can be read on the Pensions page of the University website. View the letter.

Public engagement funding opportunity

The next round of the Life Science Public Engagement Seed Fund is open. The aim is to provide funding to competitive researcher-driven projects to develop novel public engagement ideas that foster cross-disciplinary activity with artists, animators, writers and scientists within the Wellcome Trust remit.

Details of the application process and forms are online.  

Submissions will be reviewed by a cross-University panel with representation from research students, scientists and academics. The deadline is Saturday 31 March 2018.

Please email questions to SLS-PublicEngagement@dundee.ac.uk.

External Relations materials to support travelling academics

External Relations continues to produce materials to support travelling academics and there are several new items that you may find helpful.  

• A crib sheet that includes the key selling points for all Schools/subjects and for the University and city overall. You can print this off and take with you on trips to give you key information about every part of the University.
• Up-to-date rankings for each discipline.
• Videos for each School and the University.
• The standard international presentation, which you can customise for your own use.

These are available from the brand website at https://www.dundee.ac.uk/brand/assets/marketing-resources/.  External Relations regularly update these resources so please use the latest versions from the site above rather than downloading and storing elsewhere.

As we are no longer Scottish University of the Year we have amended both the standard email signature and the powerpoint template. You can download new versions of each from the tabs at the top of this page https://www.dundee.ac.uk/brand/toolkit/brand-guidelines/.

Changes to the existing Childcare Scheme

Following the introduction of Tax Free Childcare, the University’s Childcare Voucher Scheme will close to new joiners from Friday 9 March 2018.

Please refer to the website for further information.

Microsoft slowness issue update

Following a lengthy investigation and testing period, we now have a workaround fix for the Microsoft slowness issues. A test group of over 100 staff has proven this to be effective. Although we're confident that most issues are now resolved, should you still be affected by this, please contact IT using Help4U.

Researcher's aerial photos reveal alpine climate change

New photographs taken by DJCAD researcher, Kieran Baxter have revealed a huge reduction of glacier ice in the Alps, putting into stark focus the effect of climate change in the region.

Kieran took the photos in mid-air from the exact elevation that 20th century balloonist Eduard Spelterini took his famous alpine photographs in 1909. Using modern photogrammetry techniques, Kieran was able to precisely pin-point the exact position he needed to be to replicate Spelterini’s images.

Read the full story and watch the video.

Help train our students and get free dental care

People who are not registered with an NHS dentist can gain access to free dental care at Dundee Dental Hospital provided by students from the School of Dentistry.

Providing routine dental care is a vital part of training for student dentists and dental hygienists. It is important that each one of them gains the necessary experience of routine dentistry in adults and children before they can qualify and practice independently. Students are always supervised by a qualified dentist or dental therapist.

“We are making our services more accessible as we would like patients who are not registered with a dentist to come in for relatively routine dental care which can be provided by our students,” said Colin Levey, Clinical Lecturer in the School of Dentistry.

For more information see https://dentistry.dundee.ac.uk/dundee-dental-hospital.

Venture 2018 - winners of £26k funding announced

Nine members of the University community won £26,000 of funding for their business ideas as a result of the Venture 2018 competition.

As part of Entrepreneurship Week, the winners were announced last Friday. They were:

Undergraduate Student Award Early Stage Idea
Kayleigh MacKinnon (Freedom Street Project) £2,500
Business School Award
Xiaoxiao Zhang (Jing Yu) £1,500
Kieran McIntosh (Kabungo) £1,000
Undergraduate Student Award
Grace Mostyn (Kruh) £2,500
Postgraduate Student Award
Louise Grace (ASD Assist) £3,000
Sara Nevay (Textile Tech Scotland) £2,000
Recent Graduate Award
Jack Hinton (Ox Pak Ltd) £2,500
Staff Award (Non-Research)
Dr Andrew Cook (Laughing Stock) £5,000
Staff Award (Research)
Dr Andrew Woodland (In4Derm) £6,000

Find out more about the Centre of Entrepreneurship.

10th anniversary of the Early Dispute Resolution service

The Early Dispute Resolution (EDR) service is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2018 and has expanded its team of trained mediators to 12.

To find out more about the team and how it helps staff and students anticipate, prevent and resolve disputes go to www.dundee.ac.uk/edr.

Volunteering and Work Experience Fair (Thu 8 Mar)

Please encourage your students to attend this fair, which allows them to meet a range of organisations offering local volunteering opportunities and summer work in the UK and abroad. For a list of organisations attending, visit the website or get your students to sign up here. 

OPD: Understanding Change: A Perspective for Individuals and Team-Members (Tue 6 Mar)

Transforming our University to become a high performance community requires us to embrace change and explore innovative ways of reaching our strategic aims.

Come along to Understanding Change: A Perspective for Individuals and Team-Members on Tuesday 6 March, 9.30am-12.30pm. 

Undergraduate Awards 2018

Last year we had two winners and eight “highly commended” entrants in the international Undergraduate Awards. Will it be your student or graduate this year?

Students who graduated in 2017, or will graduate in 2018 or 2019 with an undergraduate degree, can enter their best piece of work in one of over 25 categories. Think about who you can encourage to enter, and tell them they can register now and submit later.

Read about our successful students and graduates.

Then check the list of categories and requirements for this year.

Consider becoming a judge.

Student survey on the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of a citywide Dundee heating system

Louise Hyde is a final year MA (Hons) Environmental Sustainability and Geography student and is researching her dissertation, which is about the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of a citywide district heating system in Dundee.

If you are over 18, live in Dundee and have 5-10 minutes to spare, please complete the anonymous survey online. 

Volunteers needed aged 40+

Tanatswa Jamera (School of Science and Engineering) is seeking volunteers, targeting individuals who are aged 40 and over. The research aims to build a database of retina structures for certain ethnic groups. Please contact Tanatswa directly by email if you would like to volunteer at t.jamera@dundee.ac.uk.

Promoting the University in Malaysia

A staff team visited Malaysia this month to promote our offerings within the STEM and art and design subject areas. as part of our mission to take Dundee to the world.

Read the blog.

Our new prospectus launched on Monday

The new prospectus launched on Monday so we took to social media to share Dundee with the world. Check the Facebook video to see more.

If you wish to communicate around the University, this fortnightly newsletter is just one way to do that. Please check our Methods of Internal Communication webpage, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

The next newsletter will be distributed on Wednesday 14 March - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 9 March.