LEADING KEELE MEDICAL HEALTH RESEARCHER AWARDED NIHR PROFESSORSHIP

A Keele professor is one of eight of the UK's most promising leaders in medical health research to be awarded a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) professorship, the Government announced this week.

Each professor - selected by an international panel of independent experts - will receive around £1.5m of funding to conduct research into conditions that affect millions of patients across the UK.

Professor Nadine Foster, Professor of Musculoskeletal Health in Primary Care, Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre/ Primary Care Sciences, is to receive funding for her research programme which will ensure GPs and physiotherapists offer treatments and services that help people with musculoskeletal pain and disability, so they can cope with and reduce pain.

She said: "Support from the NIHR for this five year research programme will ensure the delivery of high quality evidence to support treatments and primary care services for patients with common painful conditions including back pain, shoulder pain and knee pain.

"My research involves randomised clinical trials testing the clinical and cost effectiveness of different treatments, as well as new services that can be translated into improved patient care."

£1.048MILLION STFC GRANT FOR KEELE ASTROPHYSICS GROUP

Keele's Astrophysics Group has won a major new Science and Technology Facilities Council grant of £1,048,698. 

The grant will fund three Post-Doctoral Research Associates, working on:

(1) A study of winds from supermassive black-holes in distant galaxies, led by Dr James Reeves,  pictured, based on 1,500 hours of time won competitively on major international facilities, such as the satellites Chandra, XMM and Suzaku.
(2) A large survey of star-formation regions and young stellar clusters in our galaxy, led by Professor Rob Jeffries, based on 300 nights of time on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
(3) The WASP search for extrasolar planets, led by Professor Coel Hellier, extending the WASP-South survey, currently the world's most successful search for transiting exoplanets.

Of the 15 UK astrophysics groups renewing their grants in this round at a time of reduced STFC budgets, Keele was the only group that did not have a reduction in PDRAs awarded.

NEW AGREEMENTS SIGNED IN INDIA

The second stage of a top level visit to India has seen the signing of a further two MoUs.

Professor Gordon Ferns, Director of ISTM, and Dr Paul Roach, Lecturer in Biomedical and Cell Tissue Engineering, visited IIT Indore, where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed.

  It followed on from the signing of an MoU with the Tata Institute of Social Science in Mumbai during the first part of the visit.
 
IIT Indore is a new Indian Institute of Technology, but very strong in Biomedical Engineering and related fields, which will present a range of research opportunities, as well as joint grant proposals.
 
Rama Thirunamachandran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, together with Professor Anand Pandyan, Professor of Rehabilitation, and Dr Annette Kratz, Head of Keele International, continued to Chennai, where they met with the Secretary of State for Higher Education for Tamil Nadu. Together with Professor Emma Bell, newly appointed Chair in Organisational Behaviour and Management, they signed the third MoU with Madurai Kamaraj University.

Links were made with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development in Madurai and a lively discussion was held with students who were receiving training in entrepreneurship. A final visit was undertaken to SRM University in Chennai, where Keele has already had an exchange of students and staff in Physiotherapy. A range of discussions took place with the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Dr M Ponnavaikko to expand these links into Humanities and Social Science.

Dr Kratz is pictured with Dr M Rajiakodie, Registrar-in-charge, Madurai Kamaraj University.

SABRe SYMPOSIUM

Sarah Watts, RI Humanities' (Music and Music Technology) PhD student, organised an international event at Keele last week that involved forefront technology and collaboration among researchers and practitioners of the contemporary bass clarinet.

This was the first presentation and workshop–based event of this kind involving top researches, performers and composers from all over the world. The workshops were followed by a concert involving the guests, researchers and performers, as well as a choir of thirty bass-clarinets, which performed a composition written for the occasion. 

Matthias Müller's SABRe is a new electroacoustic bass clarinet that aims to push the boundaries of what is happening in the world of the solo bass clarinet and which will eventually be manufactured and played by performers around the world. The event was a very important catalyst for raising awareness about Sarah's research in bass clarinet multiphonic techniques and electroacoustic interactive performance practices.

The symposium brought the newly developed SABRe (Sensor enhanced) bass clarinet to the UK for the first time, along with its creator Professor Müller (Zurich University of Arts). The event attracted more the fifty bass clarinet specialists and also a large group of amateur bass clarinet enthusiasts.

LGBT HISTORY MONTH LAUNCH

The University ran its first LGBT History Month Symposium last week, kicking off a month-long series of events and activities.

The symposium was the first in a series of Keele Unity events for 2012, organised and delivered by the University in partnership with its students and the local LGBT community. The event was attended by over 40 delegates to celebrate and raise awareness of the contributions made by Keele's LGBT community, offering staff, students and visitors the opportunity to engage in discussions and shape future equality initiatives within the University.

The symposium was opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, and student Jacob Tyler, Co-President of the LGBT Student Society. It included a key note address from Dr Dana Rosenfeld on "AIDS generation then and now: gay men, ageing, and HIV/AIDS", followed by a presentation and debate led by Neil Baker, from the Equality Challenge Unit, on the topic of the sexual orientation and the interface with religion and belief, and a historical talk by Dr Chris Harrison on 'Keele Gays in the 1970's and 80's'.

Further events are planned for the remainder of February. See the Keele Unity web pages for further information and bookings.
 
Pictured : Professor Nick Foskett, Vice Chancellor, Dr Dana Rosenfeld, Senior Lecturer, Jacob Tyler, Co-president of the LGBT Students Society, Bal Everitt,, Equalities and Workforce Planning Manager, Mak Chahal, Co-president of the LGBT Students Society.

NEW ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

School of Public Policy and Professional Practice -

Ms Noreen Maguinness has been appointed as a Lecturer in Social Work and was previously a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Chester.

KUSU ELECTIONS

KUSU Elections got underway this week as a list of candidates campaigning for Sabbatical positions was posted on the web site. For a view of their policies you can look at their manifestos at www.kusu.net/elections.

Key dates:

Feb. 16 - Candidates can collect and distribute their publicity material. 
Feb 21, 8pm. Hustings in the Ballroom when each candidate has the opportunity to give a speech.
Feb 27-29 . Online voting opens.
Feb 29 , 9pm. The new team is announced.

KEELE CYCLE TO WORK SCHEME

Keele has joined the national cycle to work scheme in partnership with Cyclescheme Ltd. This enables participating employees to acquire a bike and associated equipment up to a value of £1,000, including VAT, tax free.

Subject to eligibility with Cyclescheme, members of staff can get a bike with a saving of about 20-30%. Staff on, or near, national minimum wage should contact the scheme co-ordinator at Keele to discuss how they can participate in the scheme.

The scheme will be available for all eligible staff from March 1, initially for a period of three months. Check out the website www.cyclescheme.co.uk or contact David Gray: d.j.gray@kfm.keele.ac.uk.

KEELE RESEARCHER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS WELLCOME TRUST AWARD

Stephen Wilkinson, Professor of Bioethics and Head of the Research Centre for Law, Ethics and Society, and Rosamund Scott, Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at King's College, London, have jointly been awarded a Senior Investigator Award in Ethics and Society by the Wellcome Trust. 

The award has been granted to support a programme of work
on The Donation and Transfer of Human Reproductive Materials and is
expected to be worth more than £900,000 over five years.

Their research will consider the best ethical framework for the donation and transfer of human reproductive materials (such as eggs and
sperm) as well as the implications of this framework for clinical
practice, law, policy, and regulation. 

The grant will support a number of post-doctoral researchers, based partly at Keele and partly at King's, as well research leave for the award-holders, and a series of conferences and workshops.

MAJOR NIHR AWARD

The National Institute for Health Research for Patient Benefit Programme has awarded £249,231 to Dr Nicky Edelstyn (Psychological Research Centre, Keele), Dr Simon Ellis (Department of Neurology, University Hospital of North Staffordshire [UHNS]), Dr Keira Watts (UHNS Research and Development Department), Professor Julius Sim (Research Design Service), Sharon Hurlstone (Neurology Department, UHNS) and Tom Shepherd (Psychological Research Centre, Keele).

The award will fund a clinical trial investigating the effects of two commonly prescribed dopamine agonists on memory and attention in Parkinson's disease.

EXPLORING PERSONAL COMMUNITIES

Professor Mihaela Kelemen, pictured, and Dr Anita Mangan, Keele Management School, have been awarded a research grant by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a nine-month project entitled 'Exploring Personal Communities: A Review of Volunteering Processes'. The funding comes from the Connected Communities programme, a major new cross-council research initiative, led by the AHRC.

The project, run in conjunction with Sue Moffat, Director of New Vic Borderlines, explores the role of volunteering in the development of personal communities and the dynamics of volunteering work.

The novelty of the project lies in its multi-disciplinary and critical nature, and specifically, in the interplay between its theoretical foundations and the artistic/experiential research that will be carried out at the New Vic Theatre.

KEELE WOMEN'S COMMUNITY CHOIR

The inaugural meeting of Keele Women's Community Choir, a new community venture started by Dr Rebecca Leach, a campus resident and staff member in the School of Sociology and Criminology, takes place on March 1. 

The choir is intended for members of the Keele community to sing together for fun. Staff, students, campus/ village residents, those working in the village or connected to the school, pub, church, etc. are invited (adults only for now, though 16-17 year olds may attend with an adult). 

For further information please email Rebecca on r.leach @appsoc.keele. ac.uk .

NEXT WEEK

February 20 - Gillian Clarke, National Poet for Wales, will give a reading of her work in the Chancellor's Building, 7pm. Tickets are £5 (concessions £2.50).

She is a hugely successful poet, playwright, translator and is President of Ty Newydd, the writers´ centre in North Wales, which she co-founded in 1990. She was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry in 2010.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Thirty-three years ago -

Mr George White, who was employed as a driver at the University from 1951 until his retirement in 1969, died in February 1979. Mr White had a lifelong association with the Sneyd estate, having been chauffeur to Colonel Ralph Sneyd of Keele Hall. From 1951 to 1953 Mr White drove the University College mini-bus, one of his duties being the special Friday morning shopping trips.