News in brief
NEWS IN BRIEF A PURE LANDMARK
COMMITTING TO SUSTAINABILITY
BOOSTING OUR GCRF ACTIVITY
Pure, the University’s current research information system, has surpassed the landmark of 150,000 research outputs.
In 2019 the University of Southampton was ranked 12th in the world in the new Times Higher Education Impact rankings, which measure progress against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to rank institutions from across the globe.
Research and Innovation Services has recently introduced a role that places a focus on the University’s efforts to participate in the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and other overseas development research.
The University has now demonstrated its commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by signing the SDG Accord.
Dominic Mikulski has joined the RIS team as Research Funding Officer for GCRF.
In 2018, that was an average of 425 research outputs (including journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, working papers and theses) being uploaded every single month – a reflection of the amount of research being conducted across the University. Pure, which was adopted by the University in 2017, is connected to our public-facing institutional repository ePrints Soton. The ePrints software was created at Southampton in 2000 as one of the first open source digital repository platforms. There have been over 26 million downloads from ePrints Soton, with more than 210,000 downloads in October 2019. Steven Vidovic, Open Research Development Manager, said: “At Southampton, we have a long history of advocating open research practices and had a policy of open access ahead of when it became a requirement through REF in 2014. “Open access to research is now a requirement of REF because it’s beneficial to engage with open research policies. It increases the visibility of research, and boosts the potential for citations and collaborations. It also increases the chances of research being carried forward and developed further by other research groups. Also, if your research is funded by public money, the public should be able to benefit by having the most up-to-date research publically available. It’s also ethically correct that research is open access – for example, it can prevent the repetition of clinical trials.” More information about open access is available on the Library’s website. 26
The Accord is the university and college sector’s collective response to the global goals. Signing it means the University is showing a commitment to embedding the SDGs into our education, research, leadership, operations, administration and engagement activities. There are currently 1,045 signatories on the Accord, across 85 countries. This includes 110 institutions, 16 students’ unions, as well as individuals and endorsing partners.
His role is as a principal line of support on GCRF and other ODA (Official Development Assistance)-relevant activity through supporting proposal developments, liaising with funders, partners and other stakeholders, providing advice to academic and project staff, and promoting the University’s international research activity.
Professor Rachel Mills, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, signed the Accord on behalf of the University.
“The GCRF and other ODA funding programmes provide a welcome opportunity to drive progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, although working towards development-oriented objectives presents a complex, multidimensional set of challenges,” said Dominic. “By supporting the implementation of the University’s ODA-GCRF strategy, my role is able to play a key part in helping to ensure these challenges are addressed accordingly.”
She said: “I signed the Accord on 19 September to mark the day that the University of Southampton community supported the global Climate Strike (pictured above). This huge day of globally coordinated action is a response to the requirement for urgent action for delivery of the SDGs. Signing the Accord is a measure of our commitment to this urgent action and will allow us to measure our progress.”
Dominic joined from the University of Bristol, where he completed an MSc in International Development and assisted in developing and implementing policies and procedures related to GCRF activities. Prior to that he was based in East Africa for four years, where he managed a research institute specialising in public health interventions.
As a signatory, the University will be asked to submit evidence of its work towards the SDGs every year.