Category: College News & Updates

Take part in the Student Reference Management Software Survey 

Take part in the Student Reference Management Software Survey

EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero and Mendeley. Sound familiar? Share your views on the most important features of reference management software by taking part in our short survey. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete and will help us ensure that we are continually providing the most appropriate reference management software to our Imperial community as well as improving the library’s support, guidance, and training.

For every survey completed Library Services will donate to worldwide forestation projects supported by the World Land Trust https://www.worldlandtrust.org

 

Seeking sustainability startups to nominate for £1m Earthshot Prize (deadline: 17 Nov 2024)

Imperial is an Official Nominator for the Earthshot Prize 2025. An Imperial panel is seeking sustainability startups from the university and beyond to put themselves forward for consideration. It will then send its chosen nominations to the Earthshot Prize Council to consider for its five £1m prizes.

Submit your startup by 17 November 2024.

Find out more

Global Fellows Fund – applications close: 27 Nov 2024

Applications are now open for the Global Fellows Fund 2024-25.

The Imperial Global Fellows Fund supports high impact international placements for PhD students in labs at Imperial’s strategic international partners.
Students, with support of their PhD supervisor and host supervisor, will have the opportunity to spend between 1 and 3 months at one of the following partners:

  • Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany
  • Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
  •  Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, India
  • Karolinska Institute, Sweden
  • French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France (NB approval is needed from both the CNRS host supervisor and her/his head of department or institute)
  • African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon and Ghana
  • Cornell University, USA
  • University of Toronto, Canada
  • Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 27 November.

Financial support for this scheme is provided in part by the College’s 2024-25 Turing Scheme award.

For the 2024/25 academic year, the International Relations Office will provide top up funding equal to the cost-of-living grant provided by the Turing scheme grant to help cover more of the overall costs. Enhanced funding is also available for those who meet the necessary criteria.

For further details, including full guidance, eligibility criteria, information on the partners and a link to the application form, please visit the webpage.

Queries can be sent to globalseedfunds@imperial.ac.uk

Applications opens for WE Innovate (deadline: 24 Nov 2024)


WE Innovate Applications OPEN!

Begin your journey as a startup founder through the WE Innovate programme, led on-campus by the Imperial Enterprise Lab.

Got a business idea, product, or technology that you want to explore and develop?

WE Innovate provides 25 women-led teams with the skills needed for you and your idea to thrive, with a chance to win up to £15k. You can turn your early-stage business idea into a pitch-ready startup through a bespoke five-month programme of workshops, coaching, network building and mentoring, all designed to fit around your studies or other commitments.

WE Innovate is open to Imperial students, early career researchers and alumni within three years of graduation. Over the past ten years, the programme has supported over 500 Imperial women who have gone on to raise more than £37.5 million for their startups.

Applications close on Sunday 24 November. We are running a range of workshops and events to help you prepare ahead of the deadline. You can also drop-in to our Office Hours to talk to a member of the team.

Find out more and apply: imperialenterpriselab.com/we-innovate

International Family Network

Are you an international student with dependants ?   Our International Family Network is for all Imperial International Students who have their dependants with them in the UK.  We arrange fun trips and events for you and your family such as theatre trips , visits to London tourist destinations and also on campus events such as the traditional Easter Egg Hunt in the College Gardens  .  See our website for further details.

Join our mailing list here or email s.markey@imperial.ac.uk .

Postgraduate Climate Conscious Travel Fund

Introducing the Introducing the Postgraduate Climate Conscious Travel Fund 

We are excited to announce the launch of the Postgraduate Climate Conscious Travel Fund for this academic year, designed to help postgraduate students make more sustainable travel choices by supporting them with the costs associated with making greener travel choices.  

Did you know that 81% of Imperial’s carbon emissions come from external sources, otherwise known as Scope 3 emissions? Nearly half of these emissions stem from university-related travel. With the recent publication of Imperial’s Sustainable Travel Policy, we are committed to reducing our travel-related carbon footprint. However, we recognise that choosing greener travel options is not always the most affordable for postgraduate students. 

The Postgraduate Travel Fund has been created to help cover the extra costs of sustainable travel, ensuring that students aren’t left out of pocket. For instance, the fund would cover the price difference between travelling by train instead of flying, as illustrated in the table below. 

Route   Average Cost Return Economy   PG Travel Funding Provided  
   Flight   Rail     
London – Amsterdam   £130   £180   £50  
London – Frankfurt   £160   £220   £60  
London – Glasgow   £110   £140   £30  

If you’re interested in applying, please review the fund’s guidelines for details on what it will and won’t cover. Please note that funding is limited and will only be provided where no alternative funding sources are available. You can find the link to the application form here. 

New Trusted Research Training e-learning module

All staff with research, and academic responsibilities are expected to complete a new Trusted Research e-learning module. We encourage PhD students to complete this module too.

Research security considerations are increasingly important for universities across the UK, which includes minimising risks to national security during international research collaborations. It is crucial to ensure that everyone undertaking research at Imperial are aware of what Research Security is, its role in academia and key considerations when collaborating with research and funding partners overseas.

This module introduces Research Security, providing learners with insight into core principles including legal compliance, contractual obligations, and protective measures.

Joining instructions: You can self-enrol onto the course through the Trusted Research Module website.

Further training focused on export controls specifically will be released soon. If you are interested in being enrolled onto this module, please see the Research Security Training website for more information.

Additionally, the new Research Security website provides guidance on various areas of Research Security including the Trusted Research agenda, key legislation, and signposts other relevant areas of the university’s online guidance.

Call for PhD students: present your 3Rs work at the next Animal Forum

Call for PhD students: present your 3Rs work at the next Animal Forum

Following last year’ success, PhD Students, will have a chance to present their work at the Poster Display Session and be selected for the Best Poster Award. We are particularly interested in PhD students who are not working with animals but whose projects have a direct replacement impact. The Forum is an opportunity to highlight your project’s 3Rs impact, gain recognition from your peers, and network with experts from all Imperial departments. You can find examples of last year’s posters on the 3RsHub website.

If you are a PhD student and want to present a poster or have more information, don’t hesitate to contact Anna Napolitano. This year’s Animal Research Forum will be held on November 22, 2024 from 1pm to 6pm at White City Campus.

Help us to design a new event for undergraduate minority ethnic students, interested in postgraduate education at Imperial!

Help us to design a new event for undergraduate minority ethnic students, interested in postgraduate education at Imperial!

As part of Imperial’s Race Equality Charter (REC) Action Plan, the Graduate School has, for the last 3 years, delivered an event (online and in-person) for Minority Ethnic undergraduate students interested in postgraduate education at Imperial.   The event comprised short talks, delivered by a panel of students who talked about their lived experiences at Imperial, and staff who talked about the admissions process, applying to Imperial, top tips, and funding opportunities.

Despite concerted marketing efforts which resulted in a good number of registrations to attend the event (87, 63 and 156 respectively for the events delivered in 2021, 2022 and 2023), this has not translated into actual attendees (45, 25 and 15 respectively for the events delivered in 2021, 2022 and 2023).   To help us move forward and deliver an event which is meaningful and helpful to undergraduate students, we are looking for student shapers to lead the design and development of a fully costed revised event which will be delivered in autumn 2025.

The project will start in November 2024 and will complete in February 2025.  Student shapers will be expected to carry out the following tasks:

  1. A desk-based review of what other institutions provide in relation to supporting minority ethnic undergraduates thinking about postgraduate education
  2. A survey of individuals who registered to attend one of the previous iterations of the event but did not attend on the day. The purpose of this is to explore why they did not attend and to find out what would have made the event more attractive.
  3. Discuss good practice initiatives being carried out by the Faculties to support minority ethnic undergraduates thinking about postgraduate education.
  4. Host one focus group per Faculty with up to 6 students (Master’s and PhD) and one online alumni focus group. The purpose of the focus groups is to explore further what would be most helpful for students and to explore ideas which came through as a result of the discussions with the Faculty and the desk-based review.
  5. During mid-late January, begin the design work for the event, which will also include a method to assess its impact.
  6. By 14 February 2025, submit the costed proposal to the project team.

To find out more about the project, review the eligibility criteria and submit an expression of interest visit: Current projects | Imperial students | Imperial College London

Access the New York Times to discover quality journalism

Access the New York Times to discover quality journalism

We are pleased to announce that we have purchased a subscription to the New York Times.  The subscription provides access to all Imperial students and staff.

Don’t miss this opportunity to stay informed and up to date with the latest news from one of the world’s most respected news sources.

You can access both New York Times website and app content, including the International, Chinese, and Spanish editions of the newspaper.

First-time users are required to register with their Imperial email address. Further details on how to register can be found on the Imperial website.