The second talk in the Universities at Medway Open Lecture Series is taking place on Wednesday 23 November 2022, with Professor Gurprit Lall discussing Sleep and the Biological Clock.

We have entered a time where medical advances have strengthened our healthcare provisions and improved life longevity. This has resulted in an ever-growing ageing population. Understanding how the human body ages is a step closer to developing preventative therapies for improving the quality of life across an individual’s lifespan. In this Talk Professor Lall will discuss how ageing effects the brain’s circadian clock and its impact on our day-to-day routines. We will look at how the clock synchronises our bodily functions, from hormonal fluctuations through to sleeping patterns and why disruption of such rhythms can have a significant impact on our health and wellbeing.

Professor Gurprit Lall is a neuroscientist based at the University of Kent, Medway School of Pharmacy specialising in mammalian circadian rhythms. His research interests focus on how the circadian clock in our brain regulates and synchronises our behavioural and physiological rhythms with our environmental day-night cycle. He has published research on how daylight is able to manipulate the clock and, most recently, how ageing impacts this process.

Tickets can be booked through Eventbrite.

In 2020 the University of Kent, Université de Lille, KU Leuven and Ghent University established the Interregional Internationalisation Initiative, the 3i University Network. The main goal of the network is to bring together universities, regional governments and the private sector/civil society to work on challenges common to Flanders, Kent and the Hauts-de-France. By virtue of their proximity, the three regions share challenges in a number of areas, including, but not limited to

• Marine and maritime questions (blue energy, preservation of the coastal environment…)
• Climate and energy (net zero, sustainability, energy security etc)
• Nutrition and health  (sustainable, healthy alternative food sources,  …)
• Communities and well-being (migration and refugee studies, vulnerability and inclusion of ageing populations and people with disabilities,…).

In order to enhance cooperation between the 3i-partners, the members of the 3i University Network have decided to put out a call for proposals for collaborative projects. This call aims to support academic staff of the four partners who want to set up or increase their cross-border collaborations with the specific goal of submitting joint project applications for larger grants.

Maximum funding available per project: €10.000 for one project per thematic cluster of the 3i University Network.
Total budget available for this call is 40.000€.

Find out more about this call here:

Joint call for projects

Application file

Congratulations to Steven Allain, from the School of Anthology and Conservation, who won an award at this year’s NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2022. Steven won the 2022 NBN Award for Wildlife Recording – Terrestrial.

The winners and runners-up of the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2022 were announced at the Natural History Museum, in London, on Wednesday 9 November 2022.

These national Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions adults and young people are making to wildlife recording and data sharing, which is helping to improve our understanding of the UK’s biodiversity.

Steven has worked hard to both generate and verify records of amphibians and reptiles in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk since 2016 and in the last two years in Kent.

All of the records that Steven generates are shared with the local Amphibian and Reptile Groups. He is Chairman of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Amphibian and Reptile Group, and also the Norfolk Amphibian and Reptile Group as well as being Volunteer Officer for the Bedfordshire Reptile and Amphibian Group.

Steven is often consulted by Animal and Plant Health Agency regarding the presence of non-native amphibian and reptile species in the UK, and his passion and enthusiasm for amphibians and reptiles, and his unique ways of engaging people helped him to also win the 2022 Anglia Ruskin University Sustainability Champion Award.

Steven Allain says: “The main thing that excites me about recording amphibians and reptiles, is that they are historically under-recorded. This means that it is fairly easy to discover new populations of even the most widespread species that no one knew were present in an area. For me, it is all about putting dots on maps, and trying to cover as large a geographical area as possible, to help maintain up-to-date distribution maps of our herpetofauna.”

Come join us at our Menopause café on Wednesday 23 November! Head over to the Oasis Lounge, Rochester Building from 13.00 – 15.00 where you can gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss the menopause – there’s no need to book!

At the Menopause café

At a menopause café there is no agenda – you won’t learn facts about the menopause, and there is no intention of leading café participants to any conclusion, product or course of action. The café simply gives space to anyone wanting to chat about the menopause in a confidential, respectful space. We will have lots of treats, teas and coffees available, and a few facilitators hopping between tables to keep conversation flowing.

We are running this menopause café in partnership with Menopause Café, which is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the set-up of the café with some guidelines, and also run their own #flushfest. More info can be found on their website.

How it started

The Menopause Café came about in 2017, in Perth, Australia, created by Rachel Weiss who was inspired to get more people talking about the menopause after watching the BBC programme ‘Menopause and Me’.

She modelled the Menopause Café on the Death Café, which aimed to ‘increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

The menopause café has only one purpose: to gather people, often strangers, in one place to drink tea, eat cake and discuss the menopause.

Castles are Elsewhere is an exhibition that commemorates the life of Roger Cardinal (1940-2019), whose fascination with the extraordinary led him on a wondrous odyssey upon which he encountered creativity in the most unexpected places.

Roger is probably best known for his seminal book titled Outsider Art, published in 1972 – the first of its kind in the UK which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. It was followed a few years later in 1979, with the ground-breaking Outsiders exhibition at The Hayward Gallery.

Through the treasures in his private art collection, his books, his letters, and a selection of his fascinating diaries, this exhibition will give an insight into Roger’s life, and we hope fitting
memoriam to a man who encouraged us all to look at art and life differently, to see that ‘castles
are elsewhere’.

The exhibition which was curated Jennifer Gilbert & Vivienne Roberts, will be accompanied by a publication where luminaires of the Outsider Art world have been invited.

When:

Wednesday 23 November. 17.30 – 19.30
Opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday (27 November), 10.00 – 17.00
This venue is wheelchair accessible and it’s FREE admission.

Where:

Foyle Rooms, Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, CT9 1HG

“Who are the Outsiders? They possess no qualifications as artists. They seem to work on their own, for themselves, for the fun of it. They know nothing of the trends and snobberies of the cultural centre. All prefer the rule of the imagination to the strictures of officialdom. Instinctive and independent, the appear to tackle the business of making art as if it had never existed before they came along. What they make has a primal freshness: it is the product of an authentic impulse to create and is free of conscious artifice.” – Roger Cardinal, 1979

Eastern Arc will be hosting a one day workshop on 10 January 2023 for those working on practice research. It will be led by practitioners from the three EARC universities (UEA, Essex and Kent), and will be a chance to explore the issues and opportunities facing all those whose work involves a significant practice element.

The event is free and open to all. However, it is primarily intended for colleagues at the Eastern Arc universities. Those at other universities, research institutes and organisations are welcome to apply and, if there is capacity, their place will be confirmed by 17 December at the latest.

The draft programme is available on the Eastern Arc webpage. The location will be a short walk from Chelmsford mainline station, the midpoint of the EARC Consortium, and the venue will be confirmed shortly.

To take part, please complete this short form. If you have any queries, email Phil Ward, Director of EARC.

2022 has seen the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) celebrate its 10^th anniversary. To end the celebrations, the CCP introduced an award for child protection professionals engaged in outstanding creative, effective, and collaborative practices across disciplines, with an awards ceremony held on Wednesday 9 November.

Strong collaboration and cooperation is is essential in child safeguarding work to keep children safe. Multidisciplinary collaboration is routinely raised as a concern and is highlighted as a key area for further development and learning. CCP regularly hears good examples of strong practices that should be recognised and celebrated alongside the promotion of learning to promote effective working.

Winner – Vulnerable Adolescent Panel (Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board)

Congratulations to our winners of the Centre for Child Protection Collaboration Award 2022!

The Vulnerable Adolescent Panel was created due to the growing problem of extrafamilial harm, which presents a risk to young people in our communities and creates challenges for professionals. The panel consists of health, police, children’s social care and the youth offending service who have worked together to achieve a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for success.

The panel provides a forum for timely and robust expert guidance, advice to professionals and information sharing between agencies who are working with young people at risk of extrafamilial harm. The time and dedication required to create this show a systemwide commitment to tackling child exploitation.

Highly Commended – Ynys Môn Local Authority

The young carers services deliver specialist support to children and young people ages between 5-18 living in Ynys Môn who have caring responsibilities at home. Ynys Môn local authority prides itself on collaborative working, resulting in greater communication between services, effective information sharing and efficient early intervention. They are also dedicated to offering their services in Welsh and English so they can successfully communicate with all children and young people.

Highly Commended – Joint Agency Group Supervision (JAGS) (Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership)

JAGS was initiated in response to learning which identified a need for ringfenced time to reflect on challenges and barriers to intervention in complex cases. JAGS provides a reflective space for joint analysis to learn together and understand the family’s lived experiences. JAGS works across children’s social care, health, education, and police and has supported collaborators to move from feeling ‘helpless’ and ‘frustrated’, to feeling ‘confident’ and ‘enthusiastic’. This has led to strong multi-agency working, understanding of different roles, improved communication, and advocacy for children.

Yesterday the University & College Union announced national strike action at 150 universities across the country. This will take the form of strikes on the 24, 25 and 30 November, along with ‘Action Short of a Strike’ until further notice. At this stage this does not include a marking and assessment boycott. 

The strikes are part of a national dispute over pay, pensions and working conditions across the university sector. As an individual institution, we don’t have a major influence over the negotiations which take place at national level between UCU and both Universities UK and UCEA. Our hope is that through discussion all parties can come to an agreement that works for everyone – all of us want to work in a sector where staff are well rewarded for their hard work, but the same cost of living squeeze felt by people across the country also has an impact on the finances of universities too. 

Our priority initially will also be ensuring we minimise any impact on students as far as we can. We will shortly be sending an update to students which will set out our principles in responding to industrial action, including that we will do all we can to limit the impact on their studies and that we will never devalue their degree or coursework.  

Alongside this we will shortly publish student and staff information which will be regularly updated throughout. This will include the background to the strikes, what we have been doing at Kent to address the issues being discussed, what happens on strike days, plus links to wider support. These will be regularly updated throughout.  

Working groups are also meeting this week to manage our response to strikes across the University, while there will be a number of opportunities for students to have their say, including via the Strike Forums organised by Kent Union. 

It’s International Stress Awareness Week this week. The theme for this year is ‘Working Together to Build Resilience and Reduce Stress.’

Stress is not new. The stress hormone cortisol has even been found in the hair of ancient Peruvians who were alive between 550-1532 CE/AD. Defined as a state of mental or emotional strain caused by adverse circumstances, stress is a physical and emotional reaction experienced by all of us, with symptoms such as headaches, a pounding heart, sweating, and more. Experiencing long-term stress can lead to the development of health problems such as high blood pressure and mental health problems, as well as a physiological and psychological condition known as ‘burn-out’.

People can experience stress due to many circumstances in their lives. With the current cost of living crisis, many people are struggling with the basic demands of living. Work can also cause stress, with studies suggesting that costs to businesses from poor employee mental health have increased by 25% since the pandemic.

At Kent, we have measures in place to help you. For example, our Employee Assistance Programme can be accessed 24 hours a day and you can reach out to them if you are struggling, feeling overwhelmed or just at your wit’s end! Details on how to contact them and other support available can be found on the University’s Mental Health Support webpages. There’s also the Staff Wellbeing Reading List, a useful Staff Wellbeing Toolkit, and the opportunity to use the Roberston-Cooper i-resilience tool.

Using the available resources and having a toolkit of tips such as working out how to look after your wellbeing, building a support network and finding out how to organise your time effectively can help you manage stress and build your resilience. Although it’s impossible to make all the stress in your life disappear, the help available could make it easier to get through stressful situations.

To help with the rising cost of living, we have introduced a £3.60 meal deal in Rutherford Dining Hall (Canterbury) at lunch (12:00-14:00) and dinner time (17:00-20:00), every day of the week!

For staff the meal deal is £3.60 as this includes VAT.

You can choose from two options, including a vegetarian or meat option. Both come with freshly cooked vegetables, sides and salad.

You can see all the financial support available to staff on our Cost of Living Support webpages.