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Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

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Call for applications for STFC Public Engagement Early-Career Researcher Forum

 

The STFC Public Engagement Early-Career Researcher Forum (the ‘PEER Forum’) will support talented scientists and engineers in the early stages of their career to develop their public engagement and outreach goals, to ensure the next generation of STFC scientists and engineers continue to deliver the highest quality of purposeful, audience-driven public engagement.

Applications are being taken until 4pm on 3 June 2021. If you would like to apply, visit the PEER Forum website, and if you have queries This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The PEER Forum aims:

  • To foster peer learning and support between early career scientists and engineers with similar passion for public engagement and outreach, thus developing a peer support network that goes beyond an individual’s term in the forum 
  • To foster a better knowledge and understanding of the support mechanisms available from STFC and other organisations, including funding mechanisms, evaluation, and reporting. As well as how to successfully access and utilise this support 
  • To explore the realities of delivering and leading public engagement as an early career professional and build an evidence base to inform and influence STFC and by extension UKRI’s approaches to public engagement, giving an effective voice to early career researchers

What will participation in the Forum involve?

Participants in the PEER Forum will meet face-to-face at least twice per year to share learning and to participate in session that will strengthen the depth and breadth of their understanding of public engagement and outreach.

Who can apply to join the Forum?

The PEER Forum is for practising early-career scientists and engineers who have passion and ambition for carrying out excellent public engagement alongside, and complementary to, their career in science or engineering. We are seeking Forum members from across the breadth of STFC’s pure and applied science and technology remit.

The specific personal requirements of PEER Forum membership are that members:

  • Have completed (or currently studying for – including apprentices and PhD students) their highest level of academic qualification within the last ten years (not including any career breaks)
  • Are employed at a Higher Education Institute, or a research-intensive Public Sector Research Organisation or Research Laboratory (including STFC’s own national laboratories)
  • Work within a science and technology field in STFC’s remit, or with a strong inter-disciplinary connection to STFC’s remit, or use an STFC facility to enable their own research
  • Clearly describe their track record of experience in their field, corresponding to the length of their career to date
  • Clearly describe their track record of delivering and leading, or seeking the opportunity to lead, public engagement and/or outreach
  • Can provide insight into their experiences in public engagement and/or outreach and also evidence one or more of
  • Inspiring others
  • Delivering impact
  • Demonstrating creativity
  • Introducing transformative ideas and/or inventions
  • Building and sustaining collaborations/networks
  • Are keen communicators with a willingness to contribute to the success of a UK-wide network

    • https://stfc.ukri.org/public-engagement/training-and-support/peer-forum/  

    Astronet Science Vision & Infrastructure Roadmap

     

    Astronet is a consortium of European funding agencies, established for the purpose of providing advice on long-term planning and development of European Astronomy. Setup in 2005, its members include most of the major European astronomy nations, with associated links to the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory, SKA, and the European Astronomical Society, among others. The purpose of the Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap is to deliver a coordinated vision covering the entire breadth of astronomical research, from the origin and early development of the Universe to our own solar system.

    The first European Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap for Astronomy was created by Astronet, using EU funds, in 2008/09, and updated in 2014/15. Astronet is now developing a new Science Vision & Infrastructure Roadmap, in a single document with an outlook for the next 20 years. A delivery date to European funding agencies of mid-2021 is anticipated. 

    The Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap revolves around the research themes listed below:

    • Origin and evolution of the Universe
    • Formation and evolution of galaxies
    • Formation & evolution of stars
    • Formation & evolution of planetary systems
    • Understanding the solar system and conditions for life

    but will include cross-cutting aspects such as computing and training and sustainability.

     

    After some delays due to the global pandemic, the first drafts of the chapters for the document are now available from the Panels asked to draft them, for you to view and comment on. For the Science Vision & Roadmap to be truly representative it is essential we take account of the views of as much of the European astronomy and space science community as possible – so your input is really valued by the Panels and Astronet. Please leave any comments, feedback or questions on the site by 1 May 2021.

    It is intended that a virtual “town hall” style event will be held in late Spring 2021, where an update on the project and responses to the feedback will be provided.

    Equitable Letters in Space Physics (ELSP)

    Equitable Letters for Space Physics (ELSP) is a project to encourage merit-based recommendations and nominations in the space physics community by providing resources for letter writing and reviews of recommendation and nomination letters. You can learn more about ELSP's mission and find both letter writing and implicit bias resources at the ELSP website.

    ELSP seeks to achieve this goal by:

    1. Providing resources for people writing letters of recommendation and award nomination at the undergraduate level and above.
    2. Providing resources for people wishing to learn about different implicit biases and lessen their manifestation.
    3. Providing reviews of recommendation and nomination letters, with the goal of lessening implicit bias in these letters.

    At the moment, ELSP is seeking volunteers to participate as reviewers in the letter submission system. This system will function similarly to double-blind journal article reviews, with the ELSP executive director acting as editor.The ELSP board of directors is Angeline G. Burrell; John Coxon; Alexa Halford; McArthur Jones Jr.; and Kate Zawdie. If you have more questions or would like to participate, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    Call for proposals for ESA's Living Planet Fellowship

    ESA is currently inviting proposals for their Living Planet Fellowship with a deadline of 15 March 2021. These fellowships, worth a maximum of €110k, are intended:

    To support young scientists, at post-doctoral level, to undertake cutting-edge research in Earth Observation, Earth System Science or Climate Research, maximising the scientific return of ESA and European EO missions and datasets through the development of novel EO methods, techniques and products, and by delivering excellent scientific results addressing the grand Earth Science challenges of the next decade, enabling improved predictions of the physical interaction of society with the Earth system.

    Interested candidates need to propose a two-year-long research plan which contributes to either of the two themes of the fellowship: "Advancing novel methods and techniques" or "Advancing Earth system science". The call also includes opportunities in the use of cloud computing capabilities; to support small ground-based experiments and in situ data collection; and a visiting scientist scheme to join the new ESA Earth System Science Hub.

    Questions related to the call can be submitted via email, and must be "not later than two weeks before the Closing Date" (i.e. by the end of February 2021). The timeline for the fellowships is as follows:

    Milestone Date
    Submission of proposals 15 March 2021 
    Communication of results* Q2 2021
    Beginning of activities* Q3 2021

    *tentative

    "Mental Health and Wellbeing in the MIST Community": A series of panel discussions

    We are hosting a series of pre-recorded panel discussions on the topic of "Mental Health and Wellbeing in the MIST Community", exploring the sources and impacts within our community as well as discussing ways to move forwards. The discussions will focus on both individual and community-wide perspectives, and will consider perspectives from a range of career stages. The panel discussions will separately focus on views from a) PhD students, b) PDRAs, and c) Tenure positions. 
     
    To ensure that the discussion focuses on the needs and issues most important to the MIST Community, we request your input on questions that you would like to pose to the panel, as well as specific topics that you would like to see covered. To suggest questions & topics, please use the following form: https://forms.gle/J4QS5JdaVCo1hF6z7 and submit your suggestions by Friday 26 February. Please note that any responses on the form are completely anonymous.
     
    For support with mental health and wellbeing concerns, we recommend the following resources: https://ras.ac.uk/education-and-careers/places-you-can-find-support.
     
    If you have any other questions, concerns, or would like to discuss anything in further detail, please get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

    Minutes from meeting on 11 September 2018

    Approval of minutes of previous meeting

    • The minutes of the last face-to-face meeting were approved
    • Jim Wild is now the AGP grants chair
    • Newsletter
      • We were going to restart the newsletter but this fizzled—it may be the case that this is not something the community want?
      • It was suggested that we should do either the newsletter or individual emails from the list, not both
      • Nuggets were eventually divorced from newsletters and they are currently flourishing under Jasmine
    • Tweets were successfully sent during Autumn MIST and this was generally a success
    • We found out about why people didn’t attend MIST@NAM, which basically translated to lack of good advertising, cost, difficulty of going to Hull, and other good meetings
    • Spring MIST and EWASS occurred
    • Geophysics fora did not continue owing to the combination of the research councils into UKRI
    • The last teleconference minutes were discussed and the actions had been completed

    Welcomes to MIST Council

    • Oliver was welcomed and John was re-welcomed to MIST Council

    A&G special issue

    • Sarah to construct a list of A&G articles that it would be good to reprint in a virtual issue
    • Sue Bowler needs pictures
      • John has asked for images for aurora from [redacted]
      • Councillors to seek pictures of the aurora for the article and contact Sue Bowler
      • John sought conference photos from the mailing list and has specifically emailed [redacted] about the recent Spring MIST photos
      • John to submit his conference writeup to A&G
      • John to chase pictures if not enough have been submitted by the time he’s back from leave
      • Oliver to let Mike Lockwood know that his article is with Sue Bowler and thank him for writing it
      • It’s ended up looking like a great issue!

    Spring MIST 2018

    • Rishbeth prize articles are in A&G and winners will be notified
    • [redacted]

    Autumn MIST 2018

    • On 30 November
    • Announcement to go out on 1 October
    • Abstract deadline on 1 November
    • Ian got a new quote and put arrangements in place for the meeting at the GeolSoc
    • We have the venue
      • Costs approx £1800 (so charge £20 per person)
      • From 9:30–17:30
      • Meeting to run 10:30–17:30
      • Ian said 100 attendees
      • 15 double-sided poster boards
      • Tea with biscuits in the afternoon
      • We’re allowed to bring lunch into the library
    • John to look up stickers for attendees
    • We have to have someone on the door (as per GeolSoc rules)
      • Ian to ask Sue Caldwell to do this
    • Organisational details:
      • Theme: Radiation belts
        • Keynote talk and the morning session
        • Emphasise planetary radiation belts?
      • Ian to ask Richard Horne to deliver the keynote speech
      • Jasmine to organise the meeting
        • Oliver to co-organise
        • Organisers to ask people to write notes for the article
        • John to construct a document which guides the logic of assigning the oral presentations
      • Jasmine to include requests for lightning talks in abstract submission forms
        • A third type of presentation
        • Not for poster adverts
        • Designed for public engagement efforts, techniques, datasets, etc.
      • Jonny to consult the UCL diversity/inclusion rep about how best to navigate the location of the after-meeting socialising

    Future NAM/Spring MIST meetings

    • NAM 2019 SOC will be set up by the end of the month
    • Then the call for sessions will go out (approx. November, deadline January)
    • Should Council construct a basic schedule of key sessions it would be useful to have (some interdisciplinary)? Should we avoid the open MIST session?
    • Ian to contact Mihalis M:
      • Get UKSP’s opinion on what sessions they would like to see
      • And which ones would make good cross-disciplinary sessions?
      • Have a few hour long UKSP+MIST joint forum embedded in NAM?
      • Councillors to think about this and come back at the next teleconference
        • End of Oct/beginning of Nov
      • Sarah to push NERC involvement in the community sessions
      • Is there scope for a joint UKSP+MIST out-of-town meeting after NAM?
    • NAM 2020:
      • Jonny to ask RAS Council what they have planned
    • We should consider UKSP/MIST joint meetings!

    G-MIST discussion meetings

    • Three upcoming meetings
      • Jasmine’s Sandhu’s storms and substorms meeting
      • Steve Miller and Nick Achilleos‘ H3+ meeting
      • Richard Harrison’s L5 space weather meeting
        • John to put this on the website
    • Should we encourage people to suggest meetings?
      • Ian to check with Mark Lester whether ideas are ‘in the pipeline’
      • The deadline will probably be March 2019
    • The MIST+PE occurred:
      • One of the meeting outcomes was that a press list would be useful
        • John to contact the RAS about their press list
        • John to include a note about a press list on the MIST website
          • Possibly with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
        • One outcome was that continued discussion would be good
          • John to email Sheila at RAS to see whether there’s scope for getting funding for a series of MIST+PE meetings under the RAS200 banner
          • John to suggest MIST+PE session to NAM 2019
          • Encourage lightning talks at Autumn MIST?
        • Is the MIST website/social media aiming at the public? Should it be?
          • John and Jasmine’s gut feeling is ‘no, and no’. The MIST website is aimed at the community.
        • How do we use online resources to support the MIST+PE community?
          • New page on the website to highlight MIST+PE work
            • John to populate this and then announce it to the community for feedback
          • #public-engagement channel on Slack

    Summer schools

    • We think that [redacted] would be a good host for 2024
      • Last year Jonny had an action to sound them out for a future summer school
      • Jonny to check whether that happened/follow that up
    • Ian to talk to Mihalis M to see what the plan is for the next phase of summer schools
    • John to get any extant feedback from Rob Fear and Claire Foullon
      • With a view to passing it to the 2019 summer schools
    • It might be best to avoid having two institutions be the same affiliation (UKSP/MIST) in the same year

    Community consultations

    • Last consultation was the SSAP consultation
    • These are often announced very close to the deadline
    • Should we have venues to discuss MIST tactics on funding? A “MIST forum”?
      • Solar missions forum is (somewhat) the UKSP equivalent
    • Sarah and Jonny to discuss a MIST forum in or near Lancaster for the day after NAM
      • RAS out-of-town meeting?

    Geophysics forums

    • Jonny to ask MISTHOGS whether Geophysics Forums are a good thing and get ball rolling on re-establishing them
      • On proviso that every group needs to send 1–2 people
      • Chaired by Mark Lester
      • Follow-up actions to be taken

    RAS and other awards

    • John to resubmit his Maunder award nomination
    • We could nominate [redacted] for [redacted] next year
    • IOP award deadline coming up in January
      • Submit RAS award nominations to the IOP award?
    • John to add the Alfvén award and the AGU awards to the website

    MIST website

    • It has received an upgrade courtesy of John and Q
      • John to chase Q to see how to pin posts (e.g. on the Nuggets page)
      • John to look at whether This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and other email addresses could be set up to redirect to various members of Council
      • John to look at getting a Twitter widget embedded on the website
      • John to split summer school list into past/future schools
      • John to check whether we have analytics

    Nuggets

    • Jasmine has been doing great work on nuggets
    • John to replace ‘Science’ tab with ‘Nuggets’ tab on main menu
    • Jasmine to give guidelines on appropriate level for nuggets
      • Aimed at undergrad physics knowledge
      • No references!
      • Short text
      • One figure

    MISTHOGS mailing list

    • Being used, and has generally been well-received

    Doctoral Training Partnerships/Centres for Doctoral Training

    • Jonny fed into NERC at a relatively high level that a CDT is necessary
    • Next one is not us, but we think we are on the list of upcoming ideas
      • Jonny to see whether we’re still on the list
    • If CDTs are supposed to be cross-council, what about NERC+STFC?
    • How will UKRI affect this? They have a CDT on artificial intelligence
      • Jonny to speak to Robyn Thomas on how this has evolved
    • Lancaster has a PhD student starting on the new STFC data science CDT
    • Jonny put a comment into the SSAP consultation to use the UK spaceport for sounding rocket flights, balloons etc as a way to have PhD students (and the wider community) designing, building, analysing such missions
      • SSAP may endorse it in the report of unselected bits
      • If this occurs, Jonny to touch base with UKSA to try and move it forward

    MIST Council membership

    • Ian was elected Chair
    • Ian and Sarah will be at the end of their terms next year
    • We need to start thinking about who should succeed Ian
    • Some people asked whether they needed to be in post throughout the term they were standing for, and the answer is no — we should highlight that in future elections

    MIST Charter

    • John to put amendments to the vote with the MIST community
    • John also to remove “No intermediate counts will be revealed. Final vote totals will be released only to the candidates.”

    Any Other Business

    • We discussed the Strategic Priorities Fund:
      • Ian McCrea talked to Janet Seed, one of the things that UKRI do is look for overlapping bid ideas and combine them when they’re found
      • Other bodies are also allowed to bid into the process e.g. UKSA, Met Office
      • Ian McCrea requested STFC funding for a space weather idea. Others similar:
        • [redacted]
      • Ian’s idea is going through to phase two
    • Ian to talk to Lucy Carpenter to look at success rates of NERC standard grants