Environment submissions database

In 2020, the Research Development Fund was repurposed to provide funding for COVID-19-related research. We invested in 22 projects that considered impacts of the pandemic on healthcare workers, consumers, businesses and financial markets, as well as social distancing optimisation and novel drug screening systems. Amongst the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown brought, we successfully developed a positive experience for PGRs across the world. We opened our PGR Framework to any doctoral researchers around the country and provided additional training-by-request for those who wanted to use their time at home to work on their research skills, whilst progressing their projects. Specifically, 17 additional training sessions were delivered with over 1040 researchers attending the online training from 10 different countries and time-zones. Of these, approximately 15% were Bradford researchers. The feedback was hugely encouraging, with PGRs and staff alike commending the training, the much-needed contact and stimulation it had given them, and the community it had fostered. As described above, we recognise that our researchers' needs are varied; some can work effectively at home, some require access to on-campus facilities, and others work in third party laboratories, clinics and in the field. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we supported our researchers, academic staff and PGRs alike, to undertake their research effectively, regardless of location, and addressing issues of equality, whilst recognising and adhering to Government guidance. We continued to provide that support as lockdown restrictions eased and staff returned to campus in a phased manner, and when lockdown was reinstated. However, we recognise that some researchers may have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdowns. We are aware that many staff have had to balance childcare and home-schooling responsibilities with their University roles, and that this may have had an impact on the quantum of research produced during lockdown. Similar effects will have been experienced by staff with other caring responsibilities, or who had shielding requirements. Consequently, we have commissioned a piece of work to help us understand the differential impacts of the pandemic on individuals’ research productivity, to discuss the challenges faced and the possible implications for the future of their research and career progression, and to seek views on how impacts might be mitigated. At the time of this REF submission, that work was still ongoing.