MANCHESTER 1824	School of Computer Science
Weekly Newsletter	11 January 2010
Contents News from HoS This Week School Events External Events Funding Opps Prize & Award Opps Research Awards Staff News Vacancies Links News Submissions Newsletter Archive School Strategy School Intranet School Seminars ESNW Seminars NaCTeM Seminars	News from Head of School Duties Allocation Process: Action Required The 2010/11 academic year sees the introduction of the new masters programmes and the new undergraduate third year, the latter representing half of our undergraduate course units. As such, there will be substantial changes in teaching responsibilities, and lots of preparation required. With this in mind, I am keen to complete the duties allocation process by the Easter vacation, so that staff have as much notice as possible of changes. The overall process is the same as last year, and is described at: http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/ACSO/staffLoads/. The activities with early deadlines (all the following are 31^st January) are as follows: Revision of Credit for Administrative Tasks. If you think the hours associated with any administrative tasks are inappropriate, please make your case to the relevant Head of Function. The current values are at: http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/ACSO/staffLoads/admintable.php. The heads of functions associated with most of the tasks are: UG (Graham), PGT (Uli), PGR (Jon), Teaching Strategy (Ian), Research (Howard), External Affairs (Steve) and School (Norman). Revision of Credit for Teaching Tasks. If you think the hours associated with any teaching tasks are inappropriate, please make your case to the relevant programme director (Graham or Uli). The current values are at: http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/ACSO/staffLoads/courseunitstaff.php. Requests for changes and statement of preferences. Staff can state preferences in terms of the types of task for which they would like to increase or reduce their contribution (e.g. it is equally valid to seek to have a centre of gravity that contains mostly teaching or mostly administration/management). If you want to express a preference, please complete this form (DOC or PDF), which must be signed by your manager and returned to me. For information, current staff loads are online at: http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/ACSO/staffLoads/; staff with heavy and light loads using the crediting system can expect to see changes in predictable directions. Requests for new or changed responsibilities within functions. If you are a Head of Function, and have identified changes that are required to the duties in your area (including what they are and who does them), please email these to Ruth for consideration at the first Duties Allocation Meeting. Researcher development update from EPS FORTHCOMING: 1) Something to particularly flag up to any new(ish) PDRAs in your group: sessions covering essential info and perspectives on being a PDRA (roles, challenges, contracts, careers, support available). "Research Staff: Perspectives, opportunities and support" 3 Feb and 12 May 2010, 12pm-2pm http://www.graduateeducation.eps.manchester.ac.uk/resdev/events/ perspectives_030210.html 2) When you discuss professional development with your research staff (e.g. in their P&DR or one-to-one meetings), you may wish to point them towards suitable workshops from our programme. Workshops confirmed so far for the new year are: * Motivation and You: Doing what you do because you want to - 27 Jan 10, 9:00 - 12:30 * Getting the Job Done - 27 Jan 10, 13:30 - 17:00 * Scheduling Time for Success - 12 Feb 10, 12:00 - 14:00 * Influencing: How to get out of your own way - 17 Feb 10, 9:00 - 12:3 * Positive Relationships - 17 Feb 10, 13:30 - 17:00, Renold Building E1 * Beat the Time-Stealers - 26 Feb 10, 12:00 - 14:00, Sackville Street Building J15 * Leadership, team-working, & Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) - 11 Mar 10, 9:00 - 17:00 * Stand and Deliver: Giving Presentations at Conferences - 5 May 10, 9:00 - 17:00 * Co-Active Coaching - by appointment * Individual Writing Tutorials - by appointment Details via www.manchester.ac.uk/eps/resdev 3) Our 2010 programme will also include sessions on funding, fellowships, peer review, graphic design for posters & slides, teaching in HE, careers in academia, and more. If you have any suggestions or could contribute in any way, do get in touch with me. We particularly seek Academics with experience to share in these areas. BEYOND EPS FACULTY: 1) If your PDRAs seek careers guidance beyond your scope, remind them there is a dedicated specialist Careers Advisor for Research Staff. Details at http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/staff/research-staff/ 2) The University leadership programme for research staff, "Researchers into Management" has had two successful presentations and will run again May - July 2010. Participants assert the course has enabled them to train/support junior lab members more effectively, and given them confidence and calm when dealing with unexpected complex situations! Details at www.manchester.ac.uk/researchersintomanagement AND FINALLY... Richard Wimpenny sends a monthly email bulletin to EPS research staff, highlighting forthcoming opportunities, and there is a Twitter feed which also flags up relevant news and websites. You are welcome to subscribe to these, just let him know if you'd like to be on the listserv to receive emails, or subscribe to the Twitter account http://twitter.com/epsresearchstaf. Funding Opportunities Newton International Fellowship 01 Feb 10 This scheme is an initiative of the UK’s leading academies - the British Academy, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society. The Scheme has been established to select the very best early stage post-doctoral researchers from all over the world and enable them to work at UK research institutions for a period of two years. The Scheme covers researchers in all disciplines covered by the three academies – natural and social sciences, engineering and humanities. The two-year Fellowships cover the broad range of the natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. * Eligibility: for criteria, please download the scheme notes from the website * Length of Tenure: two years full-time * Value of Grant: the Fellowships include £24,000 per annum to cover subsistence and up to £8,000 to cover research expenses, plus a one-off relocation allowance of up to £2,000. Funding worth £6,000 per year for ten years after the Fellowship ends, will support follow-on activities to enable Newton Fellows to build long-term links with the UK. Opening date is December 2009 Website link Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship 01 Feb 10 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship: Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Google will award multiple scholarships based on the strength of candidate’s academic performance, leadership experience and demonstrated passion for computer science. A group of female Bachelor’s, Masters, and PhD students will each receive a €7,000 or equivalent scholarship for the 2010/2011 academic year. All finalists will be invited to visit Google’s Engineering Centre in Zurich for a networking retreat. Full details Deadline is 1 February 2010