Environment submissions database

The past twelve months have seen a fundamental change in the way Higher Education Institutions function, and at the University of Chester, as similarly reported across the wider HE sector, we have had to adapt and innovate in order to continue our high standard of teaching-led research including: - Expanding robust and secure methods of accessing the University’s digital facilities off-site; - Implementation of COVID-19 safe-working arrangements for on-site facilities - although facilities were closed at first, they were subsequently reopened to give doctoral students and researchers access to essential, specialised equipment; - No-cost extensions to submission deadlines for all doctoral students, and some additional stipend payments for doctoral students whose research was disrupted. The switch to blended learning has had a positive effect on many doctoral students by promoting a more inclusive research environment; - Continued student and staff support networks. The parent and carer networks have been fundamental in supporting those juggling work and home-schooling/caring, and our Employee Assistance Programme gave all staff access to mental health support (eg counselling, online-CBT), legal information, and physical and emotional health checks. The University’s support teams continued to provide support with disability and inclusion, mentoring, financial support, and induction/transition. The reprofiling and additional QR funding from Research England has allowed the University to focus increased expenditure on online conferences to offset travel restrictions. Further, the inevitable suspension of some research projects due to Covid-19 restrictions at the end of the 2019/20 academic year allowed the University to invest over £110k in a short-term Covid-19 research fund from QR resources. These new projects included: - Understanding food insecurity and digital poverty during lockdown; - Development of an app for a home fitness assessment package for people unable to attend outpatient rehabilitation programmes due to COVID-19; - Understanding the mental health and well-being impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on trainee nurses; - Application of 3D printing technology and citizen science to address COVID 19 supply shortages in developing countries; and - Household micro-resilience and local ‘green recovery’ from lock-down life in the UK. The extension of the impact assessment period was welcomed by those whose impact stems from interaction with the general public and local businesses/industry. This enabled some physical presentations, exhibitions and seminars to pivot towards digital provision, and the challenge of collecting physical evidence of impact (eg feedback forms) during this period was somewhat mitigated by the addition of three-months to connect with respondents.