Environment submissions database

Bangor University COVID-19 annex to REF5A Bangor University has strategically addressed the challenges posed by COVID-19 to our research activity. A COVID-19 Risk Assessment Team was convened by the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) in April 2020 to understand how the pandemic was affecting research at Bangor, and to coordinate risk assessments of all research projects (including all externally- and internally-funded projects, and all PhD projects). The team also worked with researchers and grant funders to implement mitigations where necessary (e.g. no-cost extensions). Following the initial lockdown, the Pro-VC (Research) established a “Return-to-Research” group, including researchers, Property and Campus Services, and College administrators. This group, reporting to the University Executive, manages the safe operation of research at Bangor, including modifications to buildings and research procedures, and ensures compliance. The group works to prioritize project and researcher needs while adhering to all government regulations and guidelines. Rigorous risk assessments are applied to each prioritized project, rather than stopping whole categories of activity. Return-to-research for individual projects is initially managed through College-specific groups that risk-assess and prioritize, and agree suitable risk management measures, before final review and approval from the University’s Health, Safety and Emergency Management Task Group. Input is sought from relevant external stakeholders (e.g. police, local authorities, land owners) where appropriate. Continuous dialogue with relevant external regulators ensures ongoing compliance and best practice. Communication with affected staff and postgraduate research students is managed by email lists, online newsletters, and a dedicated COVID-19 FAQs webpage. Training programmes inform returning researchers of COVID-19 mitigations (one-way systems, booking systems, clean routines, reporting mechanisms, ventilation, etc.). Returning staff are encouraged to make regular use of the lateral flow testing available at the University, and PPE and cleaning materials are provided. Bangor’s Doctoral School worked with postgraduate researchers, the Students’ Union, and Student Services to maintain postgraduate experience (e.g. moving inductions and training programmes online) and led adaptations to the force majeure and conventional regulations. The University’s well-being services were enhanced and annual progression monitoring has taken place normally. Home-working led to increased demand for remote supercomputing facilities, a 30-fold increase in online meetings, and a 4-fold increase in cloud-storage demand, all met by coordinated activity led by IT Services. Hundreds of computers were reconfigured for home use and a new socially-distant computing space was created for students including postgraduates. Multi-factor authentication was already in place to ensure data security. Staff and students with caring responsibilities are particularly impacted by COVID-19 measures. Managers are flexible about workload expectations, particularly during school closures. HR initiatives include a staff well-being webpage, a new parent-to-parent network, and an interim homeworking policy. Bangor researchers rapidly launched COVID-19-related projects, including: national roll-out of Bangor-developed methods and models for effective COVID-19 monitoring; EU and NIHR-funded projects that examine the impact of lockdowns on informal caregivers, and evaluate an online training programme for their benefit; and an ESRC-funded project to identify effective remote teaching methods for children with and without literacy difficulties. Several Bangor researchers contribute directly to the Welsh Government’s COVID-19 response.