Research at Keele Month

Researcher Skills Sessions

All researcher skills sessions will take place between 12:30pm - 1:30pm.  For more information on the sessions and location details please click on the sign up link.

29th March - Open Research - sign up here

This session will look at the various ways of making your research openly available, including ensuring your research publications are made available via open access, and ways of making your research data openly available.  We will consider Keele's read and publish deals that can pay for your open access fees, along with other pots of funding available to researchers.  We will also highlight the systems we use at Keele to make our research open and how you can use these.

30th March - Research Leadership - sign up here

How is the research landscape changing? What are 'docking points' and 'braided careers'? Why does mobility matter and what does it mean? How can I position myself to thrive and flourish as a researcher who is 'fit for the future'? What does research leadership mean and why does it matter at all career stages? These are some of the questions this session will engage with as Prof. Matthew Flinders explores how and why the research, development and innovation ecosystem is changing. With a focus on skills, networks and talent management the aim of this session is to create an open and inclusive space in which to discuss career development within and beyond academe. The session will build upon Prof. Flinders recent report (October 2022) for the Higher Education Policy Institute - Research Leadership Matters: Agility, Alignment, Ambition​​​​​​​

Professor Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, and is President of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom. A former ESRC Board Member. He led the national review into research leadership (2018-2020) and is currently working with UKRI to design and deliver a number of new career support structures. 

31st March - Narrative CVs - sign up here

Keynote Speakers

Dr Azumah Dennis 

EDI in research: a 10 point manifesto

Over the last academic year a group of OU academics through a series of seminars and discussions, created an EDI in research strategy. The strategy is designed to be used by PostGraduate Researchers as well as seasoned academics and large research teams.  In this session, I will offer a critical introduction to the defining features of an EDI in research institutional strategy. Participants will explore with me, a series of concrete action points that will help develop a research environment that is supportive, inclusive and equitable, facilitative of good practice and based on principles of research integrity, enabling communities of researchers to undertake their best work. I aim at discussion that will connect to individuals researchers wanting to explore their own practice or research leaders wanting to enhance their research context.  

Description and bio

I am Programme Leader for the Doctor in Education at the Open University. My work is situated within the research, policy, practice nexus conceptualising what it means to be a professional working in the area of post-16 education.  I have focussed attention on the ethical dilemmas experienced by professionals and the inadequacy of the policy response, a discussion undertaken in the terrains of decolonisation, social media and futures.  My full bio is here: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/cd9469    

7th March 2023, 2pm-4pm - sign up here

Ayo Sokale - Sustainability and Inclusion - The Key to the Innovation

Ayo is a Chartered Civil Engineer, BBC Presenter, Project Manager and Building Information lead for the Environment Agency in Eastern England who stands at the cutting edge of the evolving scientific, media and environmental landscape. 

Ayo shares her insights around

• Inclusion and how this has a positive impact
• Neurodiversity - what value does it add? How does it link to sustainability?
• Innovation and the neurodiverse mind - where we could be? where are we now?
• Aligned actions - mastery and wellbeing, how to become more inclusive, what can we do differently?

9th March 2023, 2pm-4pm - sign up here

Carl Miller - Carl is a pioneering technology researcher and expert in the influence of digital technology on modern society. Carl shares incredible stories based on his research which captivate audiences and leave them with plenty to ponder as he peels back the layers behind the digital revolution. Carl Miller | Technology Researcher & Trends Keynote Speaker

Carl's keynote talk will look at social media, and how this was a generational challenge to researchers, and how the main underlying challenge was actually how to research all of this.  The talk will be about how he's explored an enduring fascination - ‘power’ - and how it’s changing in the digital age.  This will include:

• Crime, and how has changed hands between law enforcement and criminals
• Disinformation - how we investigate it, going all the way from underlying technology development through to how we used it to pull apart a pro-invasion influence operation online
• Politics, which combines both journalism and data-driven research

This will be followed by a Q&A discussion session.

15th March 2023, 2pm-4pm - sign up here

Prof Marcus Munafo - Marcus is Chair of UK Reproducibility Network and has long-standing interest in meta-research, and the factors and incentive structures that shape researcher behaviour and research quality.

22nd March 2023, 2pm-4pm - sign up here

Prof Matthew Flinders - How is the research landscape changing? What are 'docking points' and 'braided careers'? Why does mobility matter and what does it mean? How can I position myself to thrive and flourish as a researcher who is 'fit for the future'? What does research leadership mean and why does it matter at all career stages? These are some of the questions this session will engage with as Prof. Matthew Flinders explores how and why the research, development and innovation ecosystem is changing. With a focus on skills, networks and talent management the aim of this session is to create an open and inclusive space in which to discuss career development within and beyond academe. The session will build upon Prof. Flinders recent report (October 2022) for the Higher Education Policy Institute - Research Leadership Matters: Agility, Alignment, Ambition. Professor Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, and is President of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom. A former ESRC Board Member. He led the national review into research leadership (2018-2020) and is currently working with UKRI to design and deliver a number of new career support structures. 

30th March 2023 - 12:30pm-1:30pm - sign up here