Category: College News & Updates

REF 2029: What you need to know

REF 2029: what you need to know 

Code of Practice 

Imperial’s REF 2029 Code of Practice has been submitted to Research England and is now available for staff to view. The Code of Practice is our REF governance framework which ensures that decisions are being made fairly and transparently and that our submission reflects the breadth and excellence of our research.

Training and resources

Training and resources are available to all staff to support REF preparations, including:

All staff should also make sure their Imperial Essentials are up to date.

Volume measure and REF independence

The volume measure is a calculation of staff contracts which determines the size of Imperial’s submission to REF 2029. You can find more detail about the volume measure, how it’s calculated, and which contracts are included in our FAQs.

We are required to have a process for determining whether contracts in the Research job family at grades Research Associate, Research Fellow and Advanced Research Fellow, meet the REF criteria for ‘research independence’. Staff who hold a contract at these grades will receive an email notifying them about whether their contract will be included in the volume measure.

Decisions on whether a contract is included in the volume measure are for REF purposes only and have no relation to an individual’s career progression at Imperial.

Special IGHI & Bioeng Lecture with Professor Stephen Quake, 7th July

Medical innovations from the genome revolution: liquid biopsies

Join Professor Stephen Quake, Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University, for a special lecture exploring how the genomic revolution is transforming clinical medicine through liquid biopsies and what that means for the future of disease detection and patient care.

This lecture is hosted by the Institute of Global Health Innovation and the Department of Bioengineering.

🗓️ Tuesday 7 July 2026 | 🕕 18.15–19.30 📍 South Kensington Campus

🔗Click to Register: https://bit.ly/4w4A7S4 

Imperial Waves Community Event (8 July)

Welcome to the Imperial Waves Community!

We represent students and researchers across Imperial who study waves.

Following the success of the previous Waves Day hosted by Prof. Richard Craster, we are launching Waves Day – Student Edition, our flagship event for PhD students and Postdocs. This will be an informal event aimed at bringing students and researchers together from a variety of departments to share knowledge and tools, discuss problems, give talks and network/socialise.

Agenda:

  1. 4-5pm
    1. Introduction to the Imperial Waves Community
    2. Prof. Mike Lowe, Head of NDE – Inspection of Pipelines Using Guided Ultrasonic Waves
    3. Xuekang Liu, RA, Dept of EEE – BD-RIS and MiLAC: Principles and Prototyping for Wireless Systems
    4. Closing presentation and feedback
  2. 5-6pm
    1. Pizza ‘n’ Projects – a chance for everyone to share what they’re working on (bring a poster/laptop if you want!)
  3. After 6pm
    1. Drinks @ Eastside

When/Where?
4-6pm, 8 July 2026
Room 120, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington

Please forward this form to other PhD students and Postdocs who study waves and would be interested in attending the event.

We’re looking for speakers! If you know any students/academics who would like to present at the event (or future events), let us know in the form below.

Survey on how ECRs use generative AI

The Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI) is carrying out a survey to find out how Early Career Researchers (ranging from doctoral students to early career lecturers) use generative AI as part of their research process.

Our goal is to understand what practices are currently common in the community with a view to disseminating best practice, informing the teaching provision we provide to the community, and advocating on the behalf of ECRs in the Imperial community at large.

The link can be found here, and should take around 10 minutes to complete

Postgraduate Sustainable Travel Fund 2025-26

Travel funding available for postgraduate students! The Postgraduate Sustainable Travel Fund 2025-26 is accepting applications to support PG students taking more sustainable modes of travel.

Applications are assessed on a rolling basis, and funds must be utilised by 30 June 2026.

Please read the guidance document before applying via this form.

Parents and Carers network and The Benefits Corner Teams Channels

Two brand‑new Teams channels, The Benefits Corner and the Parents and Carers Network, are officially live!

These spaces have been created to help the network stay more connected and to make it easier for you to find and share the information that matters. Their purpose is to:

  • Strengthen two‑way communication with colleagues
  • Centralise access to all the benefits, resources, and events available to you
  • Build a supportive community, where we can help each other and stay up to date with what’s on offer

Whether you’re looking to explore our full range of benefits or hoping to connect with fellow parents and carers, these channels are here to make that simpler and more engaging.

To join the channels, please complete the short forms below:

Access to Food Banks – Advice Service & Working-Class Network

Our Advice Service and Working-Class Network are working collaboratively to ensure all students at Imperial College experiencing short term financial hardship have access to food banks across the UK.

If you’re struggling to afford food, especially given the current cost of living crisis, you can now reach out to our Advice Service who will be able to issue an e-voucher for your local  The Trussell Trust food bank.

A typical food parcel may contain long life milk, pasta, tinned vegetables and fruit, tea or coffee, biscuits, and soup. If you cannot access your nearest food bank, delivery may be available although not guaranteed.

The Advice Service and Working-Class Network will also be able to signpost you to the relevant long term financial support services at Imperial College to help you get back on your feet. All requests are strictly confidential.

Please remember you are not alone and it’s okay to reach out for a bit of extra support – rising living costs are affecting students across the UK. We are here to ensure that you always have access to food and that you are not disadvantaged in your studies because of a lack of essentials.

How it works

  1. Fill out this form from the Advice Service
  2. The Advice service will send you an e-voucher
  3. You can pick up your parcel at your local Trussell Trust Food bank. You can find the locations here
  4. For further financial assistance, please reach out to Student Finance Support Team

New Doctoral Theses: access and alerts

Looking for Imperial theses? Explore and download theses via the Library’s guide:

Stay updated with Spiral

  • Imperial users can subscribe to collections (e.g., departmental PhD theses) and receive daily, weekly, or monthly digests of newly added items.
  • Log in with College credentials to subscribe.
  • External users can follow updates via RSS for the same collections.

How to subscribe (Imperial users)

  1. Go to Spiral: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk
  2. Open the collection you want to follow (e.g., “Physics PhD theses”).
  3. Click “Subscribe” and choose your preferred frequency.
  4. Manage your preferences here: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/subscriptions

Introducing dAIsy – Imperial’s New GenAI workspace

dAIsy is Imperial’s new Generative AI platform, designed to give you safe, easy access to multiple AI models (such as GPT, Claude, Deepseek, and others) through a single interface.

dAIsy is built to support teaching, learning, and research while ensuring data protection and institutional compliance.

Why use dAIsy?

  • Private and secure – your data stays protected. All your prompts and chat history are stored securely in Imperial’s cloud.
  • Build your own agents – You can define instructions or behaviours suited to your specific needs.
  • Advanced developer role available on request – if you want to go deeper.

Imperial offers licensed AI models to promote equitable access and, alongside Microsoft Copilot, dAIsy supports our commitment to harnessing AI’s transformative potential responsibly and effectively.

Further support