The story so far

The University of Portsmouth Themes are pleased to report that, since January 2018, 570 individual members of staff have attended the 22 events hosted by the University of Portsmouth themes. This demonstrates fantastic engagement and success in bringing together staff from across faculties as well as 136 external visitors to support the creation of new collaborative opportunities.

Several project proposals have come about as a result of themes activity, particularly in the form of events and workshops and several bids have been written and submitted as the result of cross-faculty and external collaboration. The support of the themes team, including the Theme Directors and Research Development Officers has been crucial in bringing together staff around the prospect of new and innovative research projects.

Some highlights

April saw the Sustainability & The Environment and Health & Wellbeing Themes co-host The Whitehill and Bordon Healthy New Town collaboration event at which several external visitors from East Hampshire County Council and Radian Homes attended with lunch and networking held in the brand new Future Technology Centre in Portland Building.

In June, The Health &Wellbeing and Future & Emerging Technologies Themes co-hosted the Health and Technology Research and Innovation Conference with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, at which the Portsmouth Technology Trials Unit launch (PTTU) was announced and many visitors came to see keynote speaker, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, aka The Supervet, deliver his take on how a holistic approach to human and animal medicine, referred to as One Medicine, is the best way forward.

The Democratic Citizenship theme hosted colleagues from other institutions around the World at the two day India-UK conference which looked at the UK Economic and Regulatory Perspectives. Democratic Citizenship Theme Director, Professor Leila Choukroune, recently launched a book for which she is editor at the India International Centre in New Delhi.

Most recently, the Security & Risk theme hosted a Police Symposium which saw attendance from the Hampshire Police who described the challenges they face and which focused on the development of pilot research projects.  

What’s Next

The Theme Directors are looking forward to letting university Staff know more about plans for the themes this upcoming academic year and beyond, including the changing landscape for obtaining external funding, at the Research and Innovation Conference to be held on Thursday 6th September a few places are still available so make sure you book yours now!

The call for the 2018/19 Themes Research and Innovation Fund (TRIF) has just been launched. You can find out more about the TRIF application process in the TRIF Information pack. If you have any queries, please email ris@port.ac.uk

On behalf of the Theme Directors, we wish you every success working with the Themes in the future.