UWS Research Festival Events

Led by Aileen O’Gorman, School of Education & Social Sciences

The UK, and Scotland, has one of the highest rates of drug use in Europe. Drawing on international evidence and the speakers’ experience of policy advocacy, this session invites you to join us in exploring the possibilities for drugs policy reform in the UK.

Dr Aileen O’Gorman, Contemporary Drug and Alcohol Studies Programme, UWS (Drugs policy reform internationally); Peter Krykant, Cranstoun Project (Safe Injecting Facilities); Dr Anna Ross, Scottish Cannabis Consortium (Cannabis reform); Dr Jake Hawthorn, Scottish Psychedelic Research Group (Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy); Emma Crawshaw, Crew2000, Vikki Craik PHS (Drug checking services); Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Harm Reduction for students).

For joining instructions, please register here

Led by Dr Dina Sidhva, School of Education and Social Sciences

This international webinar is organised jointly by the University of the West of Scotland’s Protracted Crisis Research Centre (PCRC) and the Global Refugee Health Research Network (GRHRN) based at the University of Edinburgh.

This is our 3^rd annual ‘Endangered Lives’ event and will explore the continued precarity that shapes the lives of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland. In conversation with three asylum seekers and refugees, the event will examine the lived experiences of forcibly displaced people in Scotland. The dialogue will be led by Dr Dina Sidhva from the University of the West of Scotland and Dr George Palattiyil of the University of Edinburgh, who have worked with the speakers over the past 13 years.

The conversation will focus on the interminable uncertainty and precarity as they wait for their right to remain in this country, against the backdrop of the C-19 pandemic and the ever-changing UK immigration policies that have exacerbated the poverty, social exclusion, destitution and intersectionality of varied inequalities that they experience.

Prof Graham Jeffery (Director PCRC) will introduce the session and pull together the themes in the Closing Reflections.

Zoom meeting

Led by Professor Gayle McPherson, School of Business and Creative Industries

Professor Gayle McPherson is lifting the curtain on REF2021 and delivering a fascinating and thought-provoking presentation, including some tips and tricks, from her time as a sub-panel member and interdisciplinary member for REF2021. Hear her experience of the review process, key learnings and lessons, large vs small submissions and how to demonstrate that illusive world leading status.

This session will look at the three key areas in REF2021: Outputs, Impact and Environment, offering guidance and support to academics to strengthen future submissions including if you are submitting for the first time.

To book your place register here

The UWS Doctoral College is excited to host the hugely popular and successful Research Poster Competition as part of the UWS Research Festival. The event will be in person at UWS Paisley Campus on Tuesday 21st June 2022, 11am-2pm.

This is one of the highlights of the UWS Research Festival. It gives students the opportunity to showcase their research and demonstrate the important contributions they make to UWS and wider research communities.

This is also a great way to meet other PGRs, learn more about each other’s research and build upon our collegiate, interdisciplinary research environment.

Led By Amanda Simpson, School of Education & Social Sciences

Background: In March 2020, in response to public health measures implemented to curb COVID-19, UK universities closed physical campus spaces and moved to engage in the ‘emergency remote’ delivery of courses online requiring teaching staff and students to participate in education from their personal home spaces. This disruption brought many challenges for educators and students alike as people collectively adapted to the novel experience of using the home and online as the primary learning environment. During the first full academic year of ‘emergency remote learning’, our team conducted photoelicitation research exploring UWS staff and students’ experiences and perceptions of the home as a learning environment. Participants provided digital images of their ‘workspaces’ and completed an online qualitative survey. 

Event: In this 30-minute, in-person panel discussion the authors will discuss the research study and consider the emergent challenges of adapting qualitative methodologies to the emergency remote research environment. The discussion will also explore the benefits of teams-based collaboration and creative methods in research more generally. Delegates will be encouraged to participate via discussion at the event and via social media during the Research Festival. Delegates will also be invited to visit the digital showcase of ‘workspace’ images accompanying this panel discussion to explore the research findings on aspects of the home that facilitate and frustrate the home-based teaching and learning experience.  

To book your place register here 

Led by Dr Joanne Ingram, School of Education & Social Sciences

This symposium aims to bring together researchers interested in COVID-19 research. Colleagues from the School of Education and Social Sciences will give short talks on what they have learnt about human behaviour and wellbeing during or because of the pandemic. The talks give us insight into the impact of the pandemic on online teaching, domestic abuse, wellbeing, and mental ability to name a few.

For more information, contact the chair of the symposium – Dr Joanne Ingram joanne.ingram@uws.ac.uk

To book your place register here 

Led by Rabia Arshad

This event aims to raise awareness of the relevance of peer support in the mental health and wellbeing of postgraduate researchers. PGR Connections is a peer-assisted learning project for doctoral students at UWS. The scheme was founded by two academics from the UWS Paisley Campus in the summer of 2020 as a way to foster a sense of community among postgraduate researchers at UWS.

A pre-recorded brief video featuring some PGR Connections presenters and attendees will be shown at this fringe event, in which they will share their experience participating in the project. Attendees will be encouraged to take part in a discussion on the subject. There will also be some activities for the attendees. They will be asked to write a thank you note to a fellow PGR who had a significant impact on their successful doctoral journey, read it in the session, and post it on Twitter tagging the person in order to raise awareness of the positive impact of peer support during the PhD and, ultimately, promote the culture of peer support in PhD. Attendees will also be invited to make brief comments/reviews of their PGR Connections experience on flashcards provided to them, which will eventually be posted on campus display board to raise awareness of the scheme and its impact on PGRs.

To book your place, register here 

Led by Dr Arno van der Zwet, School of Education & Social Sciences

This round table discussion will provide a ‘real world’ insight in the way in which academic research is used in parliaments. The session will focus on how academic evidence can be used to inform parliamentarians and who can be considered an expert. In this context, the speakers will particularly consider how a diversity of voices can be included in Parliamentary evidence. Lastly, the panel will discuss what practical steps academics can take to engage with decision makers in Parliament. The speakers all work closely with Scottish and/or UK parliament and include Dr David Torrance Senior Library Clerk at the House of Commons Library, Nick Bibby, Director of the Scottish Policy and Research Exchange, Professor Margaret Arnott, Senior Fellow at the House of Commons Library, and Angus Evans, Senior Researcher at the Scottish Parliament Information Service. There will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions and engage in the discussion. 

Join Zoom Meeting

Join us on Tuesday 21st June at Chancellor’s Hall, Paisley Campus to celebrate our winners of two new research awards:

Public Engagement with Research Award

This award will go to a researcher who has presented a research-led public engagement activity within their research. Research-led public engagement means the researcher has involved communities outside of the academic industry and has encouraged this community to feel inspired by the research. Find out more information and sponsorship of this award here.

UWS Researcher Development Award

The UWS Researcher Development Award is open to all PGRs and recognises engagement related to the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and the UWS Doctoral College Pillars: Behaviours, Interactions and Wellbeing.

Led by Rae Fotheringham, School of Education & Social Sciences

At this event, I will share how I am using collage as a method to support participants to reflect on experiences as part of my doctoral study which is exploring the ways in which student teachers positively influence the mentoring relationship with their in-school supporter. I will also demonstrate how I have used collage as part of the research process to help me reflect on my own work. Come along if you are curious to know more about collage and even have a go yourself! 

Join Zoom Meeting

Led by Dr. Marco Gilardi , School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences

The advent of immersive technologies has open new opportunities to enhance teaching practice and immerse students in situations and scenarios which are not normally possible in a traditional classroom setting. 

After presentation of three case studies relating to the use of VR to deliver remote interactive lectures, the process of developing a VR application for a nursing training scenario in decision making and wound dressing, and the use of VR to teach empathy towards individual with sensory processing differences, the benefits and limitations around different uses of immersive technologies in a teaching context will be discussed between a panel composed by Dr Marco Gilardi, Dr Audrey Cund, and Mrs Susanne Lewes and the audience.

Sign up here

Led by Professor Debbie Tolson, Dr Lawrence Hayes, and Dr Anna Jack-Waugh, School of Health & Life Sciences

Research funders and universities are increasingly placing emphasis on the importance of public engagement in science and research involvement. Public involvement in research has moved from something initially heralded as a good thing to do, to a prerequisite for funding success, particularly within the applied sciences including health and care research. If you are new to research involvement, or you have been wondering about how to put the UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research into practice or imagined you could simply tick the research involvement box (which you can’t) – this could be the Fringe Event for you! 

At the Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice at UWS, we have been working with people with lived experience of dementia to develop best practice approaches to research involvement. We will show you the funny and serious side of dementia research involvement. With illustrative best practice films of what worked well and confessions about the things that could have worked well if only we had thought of…well you need to come along to hear the rest of our story. An open discussion about workshop participants’ own research involvement triumphs and challenges will allow us to develop a shared understanding about how to promote meaningful research involvement – both for those we are involving and for ourselves as researchers.

Register for ZOOM Meeting

Led by Dr Hayley McEwan,  School of Health & Life Sciences

In this one-hour interactive workshop, you will learn about narrative inquiry from three perspectives (psychology, criminology, and health). You will have the opportunity to ask questions to a panel and engage in a peer-learning activity on ways of presenting narrative research findings. The aim of this event is to showcase narrative inquiry for those who might be new to it and to bring UWS’s narrative researchers together around their shared practice. This workshop is interdisciplinary and would be of interest for all research themes.

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 824 3499 2725

Passcode: 959373

 to attend in person register here

Led by Dr Christian Harrison and Dr Conny Gollek, Co-Chair of Staff Forum For Research

This 1-hour event holding during the Research Festival aims to bring research active colleagues across the university together for a meet & great and to exchange ideas, to form the basis for future collaborations. We are inviting interested colleagues to post a brief note about themselves on a shared Padlet before the event so that other colleagues can consider who they would like to meet for a conversation on the day.

It will be an ideal platform to network with other colleagues and meet for refreshments, cake and a chat.

Register Here

PADLET