Environment submissions database

The Covid-19 pandemic has had substantial and ongoing adverse effects on researchers and projects. Newcastle University’s (NU’s) surveys of colleagues and postgraduate research (PGR) students reveal wide disparities depending on individual’s personal circumstances, project, and teaching responsibilities. Research activity, as judged by consumables spending on grants and contracts, fell by 69% in June 2020 versus June 2019 but recovered by Dec 2020. NU’s response to Covid-19 was coordinated through emergency teams, including one for Research & Innovation. Our strategy from March 2020 was to maintain research capacity across the crisis, with an emphasis on retaining researchers who might otherwise be lost to research, and to restore research activity and NU’s trajectory to grow research intensivity and power as soon as possible. We have also been attentive to supporting external partners and regional recovery. Supporting this people-centred response, and reflecting the priority of research against a backdrop of financial uncertainty, NU committed £2.5M to ensure that no staff were made redundant at the end of fixed-term contracts from April-July 2020, and £2.6M to provide Covid Impact Scholarships for up to 3 months for PGRs. Deployment of the UKRI Covid-19 Grant Extension Allocation (£2.5M) included a default 3-month extension for those employed on UKRI funding in the final year of award and prioritisation of early career researchers for additional awards. Being ineligible for the SURE scheme, NU set aside >£1M to provide similar support to non-UKRI grant holders. Very few NU researchers were ‘furloughed’ under the CJRS in order to minimise disruption to career development. Although NU was obliged to suspend non-business-critical recruitment for 6 months, recruitment of researchers making the transition to independence through NUAcT Fellowships was prioritised. To ensure fairness in future promotion and performance reviews, NU will offer researchers the option to complete a personal Covid-19 impact form. We prioritised reopening of research facilities ahead of other buildings. This was initiated as soon as possible in June 2020 and completed by September 2020. Researchers have been supported to undertake research-related tasks within the constraints of Covid-19 restrictions. Collective activities across the University were maintained during ‘lockdown’, including the collaborative development of several NU Centres of Research Excellence and hosting of a large number of research webinars and workshops. Internal funding and sabbatical schemes were largely un-interrupted. Researchers were kept informed of policy and other developments through FAQs on the NU intranet, regular newsletters, and Town Hall and other online events. Feedback regarding NU’s communications with staff was strongly positive. NU has contributed to research on Covid-19, e.g. through major projects on detection of viral RNA in sewage, as participants in the national Covid-19 Immunology Consortium, and modelling consequences of lockdown and lifting of restrictions through NHS and Urban Observatory real-time data streaming. A NU Covid-19 Research & Innovation Network has launched, with philanthropic donations >£200k being deployed to support collaborative projects. The ambition of our 2018 Research Strategy is undimmed and we are confident that we will maintain Newcastle’s capabilities as a world-class research-intensive university.