Environment submissions database

Impact of COVID-19 on Northumbria University Research Environment: The COVID-19 pandemic has not disrupted Northumbria University’s medium and long-term ambitions or investment plans. In the short-term, the pandemic had a profound impact. Labs closed on 20th March 2020 and research involving face-to-face contact with human participants ceased. Researchers were unable to progress projects due to their own caring responsibilities and the impact of lockdown. However, there is no long-term threat to the sustainability of the research environment and none of Northumbria’s strategic goals are imperilled. In financial terms, the full year budget for 2020/21 was based on a scenario which assumed a significant loss of income. Despite that, strong expenditure controls allowed ongoing investment in research: including ca. £2.0M in new academic staff posts and capital expenditure to support incoming colleagues. Ultimately 2020/21 financial performance has been above expectations and ca. 50% of the budgeted lost income is expected to be recovered. Plans for continued investment in support of research will continue, including rolling forward an element of unspent research support funding into the next financial year. COVID-19 has changed the way all colleagues work. However, the move to blended teaching delivery has been managed within the extant workload allocation model. There has, for example, been no revocation of sabbaticals, although some sabbaticals were rearranged because of impacted travel and fieldwork. Northumbria continued its annual promotion rounds with no disruption to the award of Professorial or Associate Professor titles or associated pay increases. PDRAs contracts that were due to expire were extended. Researcher development programmes continued to be delivered on-line, and participant numbers have increased. Where possible data gathering for human participant research moved on-line. Significant COVID-19 related laboratory research was established. For example, the NU-OMICs sequencing team (UoA 3) are funded to contribute to the UK COVID-19 genome sequencing project (COG-UK) and UoA 18 colleagues collaborate in the ‘Observatory for Monitoring Data-Driven Approaches to COVID-19’. Research environments across different UoAs were rapidly repurposed from March 2020, to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. For example, UoA 32 began manufacturing PPE for local NHS Trusts and, more recently, have been producing automatic hand sanitising equipment. Non-COVID-19 research began to restart in June 2020, and all labs and workshops were open in August 2020, in line with COVID-19 related health and safety arrangements. Postgraduate Research Students: Between June and December 2020, Northumbria supported final year PGRs with funded extensions of up to 6 months, following the principles established by UKRI. 87 eligible students applied, with 10% of students receiving a funded extension of up to 2 months, 64% receiving 3-4 months, and 26% receiving 5-6 months, at a cost of £441,991. Northumbria also match-funded extensions for 5 Research Council funded students, to a value of £10,244. Northumbria plans to provide further support to an estimated 90 other PGR students on a needs-priority basis, including those now in their final year, and those with a disability, long-term conditions, who are neuro-divergent, or who have significant caring responsibilities (estimated cost £350,000).