Environment submissions database

The key impacts of the pandemic on our research community were the rapid move to home-working, reduction in laboratory capacity, inability to carry out face-to-face work with participants or undertake fieldwork and restrictions on public performances. The culture and practices of our research community enabled us to move quickly to implement the necessary interventions. Our flexible working practices meant that nearly all staff and students already had remote working tools which helped avoid significant disruption to research. Our SRLT, headed by the DVCR, met initially twice a week to put in place: • Regular communications for research staff and students to outline support available. • Advice on the safe and ethical continuation of research projects. Research was moved online where possible and research projects were risk-assessed on a case-by-case basis before approval was granted. • Delivery of events and training moved online, including the three-minute thesis competition which took place in the first week of lock-down. • A process for safely opening experimental labs, including development of standard operating procedures, induction, guidance, and booking system (from July 2020). • Bookable hot-desking for research staff and students who were struggling to work effectively at home (from July 2020). • Innovative communities to provide pastoral support, including drop-in sessions for research students over holiday periods. • A £3.4M investment of QR funding for 50 interdisciplinary PhD studentships to deliver research-led solutions to real world challenges posed by COVID. • Support to all staff and research students to adapt to a COVID-safe environment through risk assessments. • Extensions to University funded studentships, stipends and all registration periods are considered on a case-by-case basis. We place great importance in considering the individual needs and requirements of every research student. Payment plans have been implemented for self-funded candidates in their normal registration period where they have requested flexibility in fee payment. For those requiring registration extensions, their fees have been waived. In addition, the University: • Established a ‘Connections Matter’ digital portal for staff and students to access online resources to help stay connected and healthy; both mentally and physically. • Conducted regular home-working surveys to assess how people were coping and enable provision of equipment and interventions as required. Our research activity has not experienced any significant income changes and, except for projects with a high dependency on field work, our research delivery has not been significantly delayed. Our agile and responsive ways of working have enabled us to respond well to the challenges, as reflected in an increased volume of bid proposals. For example, several of the projects linked to City of Culture have been adapted to produce digitally rendered outputs through Coventry Creates (https://coventrycreates.co.uk/). The ‘no-detriment’ policy for research students will impact funds available for future recruitment; however, given the recent institutional increase in investment for research scholarships, this can be absorbed without reducing our overall research student population. The start of our £5M research infrastructure capital programme was paused but has now restarted with no budget change.