RKT News February 2013 - University of Portsmouth

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On Wednesday 28 November 2012, academics, healthcare practitioners, support organisations, schools and interested members of the public took part in the University’s first collaborative public outreach lecture. The lecture, entitled ‘Focus on health – Asthma and allergy in your family’, delivered a progressive series of talks aimed at engaging the audience with the University’s research on both a personal and practical level. Chairing the event, Professor Taraneh Dean said: ‘We aimed to reach out to local families who suffer with asthma and allergies and help them realise they can have more control over their condition and their treatment plan and that their voice can be heard.’ Speakers at the event included Dr Carina Venter, senior research fellow at the University of Portsmouth and registered dietician who specialises in food hypersensitivity in children; Dr Tom Brown, who works in the Asthma Research Team at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and is currently researching ways to better predict asthma attacks; Dr Charlotte Wade, a GP in Somers Town Health Centre; and Hazel Gowland, who has a severe nut allergy and works for Allergy Action. After the speakers had presented, the audience were given an opportunity to ask questions of the experts. This led to an active debate that looked at future treatments, dispelled myths about individual conditions and gave a practical view of how medical science was progressing in the lab, in hospitals and with patients. Three children from local schools received prizes at the event for winning an art competition to design a poster showing what it looks or feels like to live with asthma and allergies. As part of the event’s schools element, Dr Heather MacKenzie, a researcher specialising in food allergies, had visited the schools involved and talked to pupils about living with asthma and allergies. The event finished with a networking session at which academic posters and artwork from the schools and charities were presented. Professor John Craven presents a prize to Charlotte Larder for her poster design. Attendees ask questions of the experts. Dr Heather MacKenzie discusses her research with an attendee. Research and Knowledge Transfer newsletter • February 2013 8 www.port.ac.uk/research
Our researchers organise international conferences LARC Neuroscience Network On Friday 9 November 2012 the University hosted the 16th Annual Meeting of the LARC‐Neuroscience Network. The network was originally created by neuroscientists working in the universities of Lille, Amiens, Rouen and Caen (LARC). Over the years the network extended to Brest and Rotterdam and currently involves over 40 research teams from universities and institutes located in northern France, Belgium and Holland. Portsmouth was the first UK institution to join LARC in 2008. The network promotes collaboration between member laboratories, the training of young neuroscientists and the exchange of staff and knowledge, resulting in numerous successful joint projects. Recent successes include three large Interreg EU grants - the Advanced Microscopy Network, the Trans Channel Neuorscience Network and the Peptide Research Network - involving dozens of institutions with a combined budget of over €13 million. These ongoing projects have already produced several important findings and publications. The LARC network (http://larc-neurosciences.org) organises various scientific meetings as well as events to promote neuroscience research amongst the public, the most important being the annual LARC Neuroscience Network meeting. These meetings are open to all, thus showcasing LARC’s achievements and creating opportunities for new collaborations. The meetings promote networking at all levels and allow young researchers (PhD students and post-docs) to present their results alongside distinguished keynote speakers. This year’s meeting in Portsmouth was the first to be held outside France. The local organising committee included Professor Darek Gorecki, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Dr Frank Schubert, School of Biological Sciences and Mr Andy Mew, Research and Knowledge Transfer Services, all supported by Dr David Vaudry and Mr Alexis Lebon (Rouen, France). The meeting was held in Action Stations at the Historic Dockyard and thanks to the support from the Trans Channel Neuroscience Network grant (EU, Interreg) it was free to all participants. The meeting was attended by 120 participants, with 78 researchers from France, 37 from Britain, two from Poland, two from the Netherlands and one from Spain. Professor John Craven welcomed the participants and the programme included keynote speakers Professor Graham Collingridge FRS, Director of the MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, Bristol University and a former president of the British Neuroscience Association, and Professor Peter Somogyi FRS, Director, MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Oxford University. The award for the best oral presentation was sponsored by Scientifica and the best poster and the runner-up poster awards were sponsored by Tripple Red and Roche respectively. The winner of the best oral presentation was Ms Madga Hamza, INSERM Unit 982, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France. The poster prizes went to Nicole Bellefontaine, INSERM Unit 837, Lille, France and Alexandra Spittle, Bristol University. The 16th Annual Meeting was received with great enthusiasm by all participants. The strong presence of scientists from Portsmouth demonstrated the vibrant research culture of our University. Attendees at the 16th Annual Meeting at Action Stations, Portsmouth. Channel 4 30th Birthday Conference Researchers based in the University’s Centre for Cultural and Creative Research celebrated Channel 4’s 30th birthday on 2 November 2012 with a two-day conference at BFI Southbank in London. The event brought together media historians and key personnel from the film and television industries to review Channel 4’s contribution to British film culture over three decades, and to debate the future of public service broadcasters’ support for the UK film industry in the light of the Government’s Film Policy Review, published in January 2012. The conference marked the highpoint of a four-year study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) entitled ‘Channel 4 and British Film Culture’ (2010-2014), led by Dr Justin Smith, Reader in British Film Culture (www.c4film.co.uk). A conference report by Dr Leuan Franklin, Research Assistant on the project, is published in Viewfinder, the magazine of project partners of the British Universities Film and Video Council, and can be accessed at: http://bufvc.ac.uk/articles/channel-4-thirty-years-later. Research and Knowledge Transfer newsletter • February 2013 9 www.port.ac.uk/research
Page 1 and 2: Research & KT News Issue 7 February
Page 3 and 4: The Athena SWAN Charter Dr Jan Shut
Page 5 and 6: Funding update Successful grants aw
Page 7: RDF Round 3: Successful projects On
Page 11 and 12: Award-winning publications Two of o
Page 13 and 14: University of Portsmouth Environmen

RKT News February 2013 - University of Portsmouth

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