Technical Services October Newsletter

Welcome back to another of our service newsletters - and we just can't believe quite where this year has gone. This month's edition is chock full of exciting information for you to digest, from facility birthdays, to above & beyond guidance, looking for your input on our next Conference workshops and so much more. Make sure you check out all our current vacancies too!

As a reminder, please reach out to any of the management team if you need any support or have any questions, and remember we always have our anonymous form open for suggestions, questions, or comments too.

Stories this month

Digital Humanities is 5!
Above & Beyond
VSimulators featured in BBC Spotlight report
The HERA Framework and guidance
Special webinar from Royal Society of Biology
Galleria Research – Cytomics – Bioimaging Video
Recent publications from technical staff
Next Technical Lunch
Conference: Your input wanted!
Last all staff talk
LEAF update
Useful links
Current vacancies
Upcoming events

If you have a story you would like to be included in November's newsletter please send in your submissions no later than Wednesday 23rd November

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Digital Humanities is 5!
 

5 years ago, on the 23rd October 2017, after many months of planning and construction work, the Digital Humanities Lab officially opened. Since then we’ve supported teaching and research through a pandemic, collaborated with academics and cultural heritage institutions on research projects, created many exciting digital resources and websites, worked with 28 undergraduate interns, digitised 100s of cassettes to preserve recordings for future use, worked with Exeter City FC, developed websites and databases for research projects, taken 1000s of high quality photographs of rare books and manuscripts including the Exeter Book and the University of Exeter archive, supported podcast and film recordings, created RTI and 3D printed models for archaeology and a whole lot more. You can take a look at where it all began with our blog post.

To celebrate our 5^th birthday we will be running open day events throughout the term – keep an eye on our upcoming events or twitter to join us!

You said: The process for nominating colleagues for A&Bs isn't clear

We did: The Technician Commitment working group have recently written some updated guidance about Above and Beyond awards, which include why awards are given, how to send a 'Thank You', and also a new process for how to nominate a colleague for a monetary voucher award.

You can read the policy document here.

Recognised this month

The following colleagues were recognised through A&B this month - well done to all of you for embodying the university's values:

Hong Chang: Thanks Hong for allocating the time during your holiday to resolve the problem at TEM instrument

Roger Perrett, Jordanna Broom, Hong Chang, Brendan Corkery, Adam Woodgate, George Ricketts: Supporting the Open Day of the Centre for Smart Grid

Nev England: Constant source of advice and skills to ensure project's success

Rebecca Nicholas: Continued Support

Joana Zaragoza-Castells: Collaborating to help Archaeology team

Callum Beeson: Outstanding preparation of the Geology Lab for an Open Day

Annie Knight: Booking AV and refreshment and being involved in Technical Lunches

Emma McArdle: Booking the room for Technical Lunches

Sophie Weston, Gavyn Rollinson, Joseph Huggett: Clearing up a lab flood

VSimulators featured in BBC Spotlight report on new Biomedical Research Centre at University

VSimulators at Exeter Science Park recently featured in a BBC Spotlight news segment about a successful £15m bid for a Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

The segment about the grant for the BRC, secured by Professor Sallie Lamb at the Medical School, featured the state of the art VSimulators facility as a resource being used to explore and potentially find solutions for a range of medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease.

The segment includes an interview with Professor Lamb, footage of Senior Experimental Officer James Bassitt from Technical Services operating the VSimulator, and interviews with Parkinson’s researcher Dr Will Young, and Parkinson’s patient Jane Rideout, who participates in a demonstration of the facility’s motion platform, headset virtual reality and motion capture.

To find out more and watch the footage from BBC Spotlight, please click this link

The Higher Education Roles Analysis (HERA) Framework

You said: the HERA framework is hard to understand and navigate, especially when it comes to career progression

We did:  The Technician Commitment working group have written a new guidance/policy document which details the university's use of HERA, career progression opportunities, and support you can receive within Technical Services.

You can view the document here. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Special webinar from Royal Society of Biology, 18^th of October 2022

Raif Yuecel delivered a stimulating lecture on behalf of the Royal Society of Biology charting the exciting journey of a cell through various Exeter University research facilities and technologies, ranging from shared resources to large, formalised centres of excellence, such as the Centre for Cytomics, Aquatic Resources Centre, Sequencing, and Bioimaging.

The presentation was chaired by Professor Jennifer Littlechild, Professor of Biological Chemistry, University of Exeter and was very well received by the national audience of registered participants.

The event is now available on the RSB YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/gjY8pPBOo0g

Galleria Research – Cytomics – Bioimaging Video

An exciting video about the effective collaboration between Research Groups and Research Facilities. Professor James Wakefield, Dr Jennie Campbell, Dr Raif Yuecel, Dr Christian Hacker and Corin Liddle are describing the application of Cytomics and Bioimaging to investigate Galleria Mellonella as replacement animal model.

Recent publications from technical staff

Gabriela M. Avelar, Ivy M. Dambuza, Liviana Ricci, Raif Yuecel, Kevin Mackenzie, Delma S. Childers, Judith M. Bain, Arnab Pradhan, Daniel E. Larcombe, Mihai G. Netea, Lars P. Erwig, Gordon D. Brown, Sylvia H. Duncan, Neil A.R. Gow, Alan W. Walker, Alistair J.P. Brown, Impact of changes at the Candida albicans cell surface upon immunogenicity and colonisation in the gastrointestinal tract, The Cell Surface, 8 (2022) 100084
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcsw.2022.100084

de Assis LJ, Bain JM, Liddle C, Leaves I, Hacker C, Peres da Silva R, Yuecel R, Bebes A, Stead D, Childers DS, Pradhan A, Mackenzie K, Lagree K, Larcombe DE, Ma Q, Avelar GM, Netea MG, Erwig LP, Mitchell AP, Brown GD, Gow NAR, Brown AJP.
Nature of β-1,3-Glucan-Exposing Features on Candida albicans Cell Wall and Their Modulation. mBio. 2022 Oct 11:e0260522.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/mbio.02605-22

Have you been included in a recent publication? Let us know by sending us the link here.

'The Technician Commitment: What it is, what we've done, and what more we can do'

presented by the Technician Commitment Working Group.

on Friday 4th November, 12:30-13:30

Streatham Campus: The America Room, The Forum

St Luke's Campus: South Cloisters 1.22

Penryn: B058-032 - EXCH Courtyard Room 08 

Light refreshments provided, we also encourage you to bring your lunch along.

Technical Services Conference: Your input required!

The Conference working group would like your input as to what workshops YOU would be interested in for next year's event. Please take a few minutes to complete this form to let us know!

Last All Staff Talk

Remember our All Staff Talks are still being held every third Wednesday of the month via Teams, 11:05-11:55. You can join via the General channel on the Teams site. If you missed last week's call, you can catch up on the recording here.

Last week we spoke about a new Sustainability led Equipment Replacement Scheme to allow us to replace freezers which are over 10 years old, we had an update on our LEAF goals - going for Silver by the end of 2023! We also spoke about the C grade recruitment pool which is currently up and running to help to reduce the recruitment time of these junior positions. You can read the SOP here, and if you'd like to get ahead and request to look at the pool of applicants ASAP you can contact our Recruitment Manager, Jessica Bray.

This coming month sees this years’ European Week for Waste Reduction take place from the 19th – 27th November. The theme this year (‘Circular and Sustainable Textiles’) may be unrelated to the types of waste created by most laboratories but the concepts and reasons for taking action remain the same…the unsustainable production and consumption of products and the resultant waste and carbon emissions this creates! 

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol splits emissions into three scopes (see the table from the carbontrust.com here), with Scope 3 usually accounting for over 70% of an institution’s carbon footprint! 

Product consumption (including production, transport and distribution), accounts for around half of emissions contributing to climate change and the University’s lab spaces contribute to this significantly, due to the copious consumption of consumables required for effective research.

What are the most effective ways to tackle this consumption/waste problem? This is where the ‘waste management hierarchy’ comes in: 

Prevent: Obviously, it is best if the product and its associated waste isn’t created in the first place. So, taking time to consider the sustainability of the items you are buying and their potential to either cause waste (single-use plastics) or be reused/repurposed (autoclavable plasticware, glass petri dishes, empty chemical containers) can prevent waste via the avoidance of unsustainable options in the first place. 

Reduce: Waste reduction is fundamental. We should remember that all resources are finite and aim to reduce our consumption as much as possible. This includes planning your purchases to minimise transport and packaging waste, as well as not overbuying (which can result in expired products going to waste). Call out and avoid companies that use unsustainable packaging and look to borrow or share before buying new things.  

Reuse: Many items in the lab can be reused if they can be safely decontaminated; glass serological pipettes, Falcon tubes, reservoirs and even pipette tips can be reused under the right circumstances. Empty containers can be reused for other purposes, packaging can be reused, opt for reusable/autoclavable consumables instead of single-use versions and check that other lab users can’t make use of something before throwing it away/putting it in the recycling.  

Recycle: If it’s not possible to reduce or reuse, some items can be safely recycled (uncontaminated lab plastics for example) or sent back to suppliers to avoid incineration or landfill (e.g., the packaging returns available from Fisher Scientific). Your lab should have clearly labelled waste and recycling streams available to enable the recycling of cardboard, paper, glass, uncontaminated plastics, foil, etc. 

Recover: This refers to when further recycling is not practical or possible. It is possible to recover energy or materials from waste through processes such as, incineration, anaerobic digestion, gasification, and pyrolysis. The recovered energy can be made available for the organisation’s use or fed back into the electricity grid. 

Current vacancies

Experimental Officer (Vibration Engineering), Grade F. Closing date: 30/10/2022
The primary role of this post is to contribute to the day-to-day and planned future support for activities required by both the Vibration Engineering Section (VES) and the new VSimulators experimental facility.

Assistant Laboratory Manager, Grade D 0.8FTE. Closing date: 31/10/2022
This role offers an excellent opportunity to support the medical research groups and their students in those labs and to be part of the technical team.

Assistant Laboratory Manager, Grade D 0.5 FTE. Closing date: 01/11/2022
Working as part of the St Luke’s team in Technical Services you will provide direct support to research activities in for the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences within the Exeter Medical School building.

Research Technician, Grade E. Closing date: 06/11/2022
The successful applicant will be integral to a quantitative genetics experiment using guppies (Poecilia reticulata); organising and monitoring fish breeding crosses, phenotyping fish, molecular laboratory techniques (e.g. DNA extraction), and day-to-day management of the lab.

Experimental Officer/Senior Research Technician, Grade E/F. Closing date: 08/11/2022
The university wishes to recruit an Experimental Officer / Senior Research Technician to take a key role in a major industry-funded project that aims to aims to use agricultural management, nature-based solutions and ecosystem stewardship to substantially increase carbon storage in managed soils as a climate-change mitigation strategy

Administrator (Biological Services), Grade D. Closing date: 08/11/2022
You will be the key member of staff in administrative support across BSU, assisting with smooth running of the facilities and our Home Office requirements

Assistant Technical Services Manager, Grade D. Closing date: 08/11/2022 x2
Working as part of the Clinical Skills Resource Centre in Technical Services the role holder provide direct support to teaching in Heavitree Hospital.

Research Technician, Grade E 0.8FTE. Closing date: 09/11/2022
You would be joining a team of world-leading researchers with expertise in the ecological effects of ALAN, and visual ecology.

Data Technician, Grade E 0.5FTE. Closing date: 09/11/2022
The successful applicant will work on developing and growing our environmental intelligence platform Lagas as well as assist in the delivery of a network of different kinds of environmental sensors.

Senior Geological Technician, Grade E. Closing date: 10/11/2022
An exciting opportunity is available for an exceptionally organised and dedicated researcher to use their skills and creativity to support the Westcountry’s first NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Research Technician, Grade D. Closing date: 15/11/2022
You will support a post-doctoral researcher in conducting molecular biology works, microinjections and in vivo imaging experiments in the zebrafish.

Senior Research Technician, Grade E. Closing date: 15/11/2022
An exciting opportunity is available for an exceptionally organised and dedicated researcher to use their skills and creativity to support the Westcountry’s first NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Experimental Officer - Mass Spectrometry, Grade F. Closing date: 16/11/2022
The primary responsibility of the role-holder is to operate and manage the Mass Spectrometry Facility. The MS Facility provides an analytical service for Biosciences as well as the wider scientific community and is currently focussed on small molecules.

BSU Deputy Manager/NACWO, Grade F. Closing date: 16/11/2022
A critical member of the BSU team, you will be responsible for supporting the day-to-day management of the University’s rodent research facilities, both in terms of maintaining animal husbandry and supporting the operational needs of a multitude of research projects.

Upcoming events

TS All Staff Meeting, Wednesday 16th November, 11:05-11:55

Vice-Chancellor's All Staff Update & Q&A, Wednesday 16th November, 12:00-12:45

RS, DC, TS Divisional Briefing, Tuesday 25th October, 11:30-12:45