University of Dundee
17th February 2016 - Issue 13
Staff Newsletter
 
From the editors ...

We continue to bring you announcements and news from around the University. The next newsletter will be on Wednesday 3 March, so submissions should be received by Monday 29 February.

Selected "What's On" information will be featured here, but we have started a Friday Events mailing to feature everything from the main University Events webpage. Please check your inbox, and let us know if you didn't receive it.

Contact the editors internal-comms@dundee.ac.uk.

Announcements
Car Park Closure

From Monday 22 February - Friday 4 March the car park to the south of BSI will be closed. This is due to tree felling and construction works.

Estates & Buildings apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Support Hub (OTI Building)

The Health Service, Student Funding, Counselling Service, Disability Services and Occupational Health now make up the Support Hub, offering support to staff and students. Find them within the Old Technical Institute (OTI) Building, behind the Tower Building.

Upgraded service: Introducing the Staff Desktop

UoD IT has launched an upgrade desktop service for the University’s staff PCs and laptops.

The Staff Desktop is a replacement to the current ‘Managed Desktop’ service and offers an enterprise solution that increases productivity by providing:

• A faster login process

• A more flexible method of searching, installing and removing software

• A quicker method of requesting licenced/authorised software (e.g. Adobe CC & CODA Invoice Validation)

More information about the upgraded service and training materials can be found on the dedicated website.

To request the Staff Desktop on your work computer/laptop, please get in touch with the IT Service Desk.

News
Widening Access at Dundee

Earlier this month, the University welcomed a high-level delegation keen to hear about its sector-leading work in widening access to higher education.

The Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) is a group set up by the Scottish Government to help realise its ambition that children from the most deprived communities should have the same chance of going to university as those born in the least deprived.

Staff and students met with Commissioners and delivered presentations outlining the University’s innovative and pioneering approach to widening access that promotes the value of holistic, contextual selection and supports in-house preparation for study opportunities. 

Read the full story.

Medical Research Council Boost for Dundee

The University has been awarded almost £1million of £23m in new grants by the Medical Research Council (MRC), as part of a plan to take medical research and ground-breaking ideas from UK universities into industry, and out to patients.

The funding will allow researchers to translate biological discoveries from Dundee and partner universities towards new therapeutics via the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU), the only fully operational, fully integrated drug discovery group working across multiple diseases based within a UK university. 

Read the full story.

What's on
Staff Workshop - Dundee International Design Festival (Thu 18 Feb)

The UNESCO City of Design and Design in Action teams invite you to a lunchtime workshop to learn more about the first Dundee International Design Festival.

The team is inviting applications and proposals from local designers, businesses, collaborative groups, design collectives and other creatives who feel they can contribute to the first Dundee International Design Festival 2016.

Join them on Thursday 18 February at 12.30pm in Room 2S14, Dalhousie Building to learn more about how to get involved. Lunch and light refreshments will be provided.

Please email Louise Jack at l.y.jack@dundee.ac.uk before 10am on Wednesday 17 February if you would like to attend.

Read more about the workshop.

Bright Club Comedy Training Session (Mon 22 Feb)

Calling all budding comedians! Are you interested in having a go at stand-up? Revealing Research offers training courses to all research staff and students as a new way of engaging your research with the public. To secure your free place email Revealing Research.

Successful International Recruiting - How to bring the world to Dundee (Tue 23 Feb)

Would you like to know how to "Tell the University of Dundee story" to international audiences?

The Vice Principal International, Wendy Alexander, is keen to attract any staff who have committed to international travel for recruitment purposes during the spring semester, and those who may have indicated an interest in travelling abroad, to an event on Tuesday 23 February, 11am-1pm in LT1, Dalhousie Building.

The session will cover:
• the new international recruitment presentation,
• how to customise our materials for your School,
• how to make the most of any recruitment trip.

The specialist International Recruitment team will also share their expertise during the session.

For more information or to book a place please email Caroline Petrie at c.z.petrie@dundee.ac.uk.

Dundee Global Service Design Jam (26-28 Feb)

What would you do if you only had 48 hours to change the world?

That’s a question designers from Dundee will be grappling with when they get together with people from all walks of life to try and solve serious issues affecting the world at this year’s Global Service Jam.

The Dundee Jam, led by staff and students at the School of Art and Design and the School of Medicine, takes place at the Vision Building, Greenmarket, from 5pm on Friday 26 February.

Via live video links and social media, the Dundee participants will connect with Jammers from Cairo to California, Amsterdam to Athens, Stockholm to Shanghai and spend two days working together to address serious global issues in an inventive, engaging, and fun environment.

The Global Service Jam movement began in 2011 and has grown ever since, with over 120 locations and nearly 3,000 people taking part around the world in 2015. Dundee participated for the first time three years ago and has hosted the ninth largest jam in the world, with more attendees than either Los Angeles or New York. It was the biggest jam in Scotland, second to London in the UK.

Find out more.

Visit the website.

Book tickets.

Your Help Required
Volunteers Needed - Posture and Low Back Pain

Saleh Alkalbani is a Postgraduate Research medical student whose group is looking for two types of volunteers; healthy volunteers without low back pain and volunteers with muscular low back pain.

Participants should not have any previous back surgery, low back pain with neurological symptoms, severe trauma to back or lower limbs.

As a participant in this study, you will be asked to attend the Institute of Motion Analysis & Research (IMAR) which is located at the TORT Centre, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Dundee, to attend one session lasting approximately 1.5 hours where a comprehensive assessment of your gait, foot pressure and lower body muscle activity will be done.

All information collected will be treated with the strictest of confidence.

If you would like to volunteer or want more information please email Saleh at s.r.k.alkalbani@dundee.ac.uk.

IMAR’s main GOAL (Gait & Objective Assessment of Locomotion) is to promote excellence in teaching and research and to provide a comprehensive clinical service in the field of foot pressure analysis, gait analysis and motion analysis.

Participants Needed - Older Adults

Participants between the age of 60 and 80 are needed for a study looking at the predictive abilities of older adults. Participants should be native speakers of English, have either uncorrected vision or wear soft contact lenses (i.e. no bifocal lenses or cataracts, reading glasses are accepted) and should not be hard of hearing (hearing aids are accepted).

The study will take place in the Annex of Scrymgeour Building on the University's city campus and should not take any longer than 30-40 minutes to complete. Participation will be rewarded with tea or coffee and biscuits!

If interested please contact Amy Towns at a.towns@dundee.ac.uk

Working with Internal Comms

If you want to promote something to an internal audience, please visit our webpage for advice on the different ways to do this.

An archive of newsletters can also be found on our website.

To contact the editors, please email internal-comms@dundee.ac.uk

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The University of Dundee is a Scottish Registered Charity, No. SC015096

 

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