Environment submissions database

The University has sustained its research mission, and protected its staff and students, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Sussex researchers have also rapidly deployed research expertise to directly assist in governmental responses to the pandemic (some of these are described in our impact case study submitted in UoA10). Professor John Drury, in our School of Psychology, is a member of both the Government’s Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) and of the Independent SAGE group. Sussex experts have also contributed to a range of research projects on the social, educational and familial effects of Covid-19 and associated lockdowns. Throughout the period of severe disruption caused by Covid-19, standard academic contracts and academic workload planning at Sussex have maintained the equal weighting given to research and teaching activities, indicating the importance we place on research as a core part of academic life even during major challenges and changes in teaching delivery. There have been no involuntary redundancies during the period (a voluntary severance scheme operated in early summer 2020), and the University has continued to recruit to research appointments from junior to leadership levels. Our research laboratories were the first on-campus academic spaces to reopen after the initial lockdown in Spring 2020, again indicating the high priority placed on research within our operations. We have, however, also redeployed and repurposed elements of our physical and technical research infrastructure, and the capacity of our research staff and students, to assist in the production of PPE and specialist equipment for the local NHS Trust and other key agencies responding to the crisis. A package of additional financial support has been provided for doctoral students, with the University prioritising this even during a time of some financial strain from the pandemic. The Sussex Scholarship extension scheme awarded £75k to 54 Sussex-funded PGRs who required an extension to their scholarships as a result of Covid-19. An expanded PGR Hardship Fund awarded £41,950 to a total of 71 PGR applicants, and this continues to be open to those PGRs experiencing Covid-19-related financial difficulties who do not have access to additional support from external funders. A tailored induction for new doctoral entrants, ‘Starting your PhD in a Pandemic’, has been introduced. The format of doctoral supervision meetings and doctoral examinations have all been adjusted to offer online, in-person or blended sessions as permitted by government rules at the relevant time; within the rules and the needs of individual staff, the doctoral researcher is able to specify the format they prefer. The University has put in place numerous measures to support its staff during this period, including support for staff who are critical workers and the parents of school-age children, access to a new online mental health support programme (Togetherall), and a one-off universal bonus payment of £250 to all staff in January 2021. The Sussex Community Pledge on Coronavirus allows the whole staff and student community to commit to a set of values through which Sussex is approaching this crisis.