Environment submissions database

The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the University’s research environment are set out below. 1. Focus of academic activities From March 2020, if not earlier, academic and support staff have had to focus their energies on pandemic response activities, not least moving much of their teaching online or identifying solutions for those courses where this is extremely problematic or impossible, e.g. nursing, allied health professions, teacher training. Professional courses account for 50% of the University’s students. This has had short term impacts on staff publication – our data shows there has been a drop off in publication in the second half of the year when we would normally expect to see an upturn. It will also be felt longer term, as there has also been a drop off in bidding activity. 2. Staff health and wellbeing Whilst some staff have been ill with the virus, the wider impact of the pandemic on staff mental health and on staff forced to shield seems to have affected the productivity of some researchers. There is good anecdotal evidence of this. 3. Delivery of projects A number of projects have been delayed or postponed due to: a. Delays in data collection (e.g. data collection in care home settings, fieldwork) b. Financial impacts of pandemic on some funders, particularly charitable funders c. Staff sickness d. Practical challenges in recruiting research staff 4. Research students The pandemic has delayed student progress and has also led to a significant number of suspensions of study. A strong focus on qualitative research in some research areas (dementia studies, mental health, education) has led to significant delays in data collection or the need to redesign projects, leading to further delay. Very specifically, a small number of students saw delays to their viva and to the submission of amendments which has impacted on the number of completions in the assessment period. 5. Postponement, delay or refocusing of impact and engagement activities The pandemic has led to the cancellation of public engagement activities such as Images of Research, Science Fairs, public lecture series and the Beeline Storytelling Festival. It has also led to the cancellation of exhibitions and performances which were linked to impact case studies in UoAs 32 and 33. Effort has been made to move events “online”, but this has limited engagement. 6. Delivery of research support The impacts of staff absence and in some cases delays in recruitment caused by the pandemic has meant that our smal team has been depleted at key periods in the final stages of REF 2021. This has particularly affected the collection of impact evidence. 7. Challenges in implementing new strategy The University approved its new RKE Strategy in Summer 2020. The planned full implementation of the strategy has been postponed with School’s asked to look at short term priorities and the University forced to delay decisions on investment in key areas of the strategy. This is reflected in the submission in the future strategy sections of REF5b.