Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton- Driving Discovery and Positive Impact
by Guy Poppy
Riding the wave of recent successes Multidisciplinary Research Week and the inaugural University of Southampton TEDx conference, Director of Multidiscplinary Research Professor Guy Poppy (pictured) blogs here to give further insight into his fascinating work…
At the University of Southampton we recognise that a range of research competencies are necessary to devise and apply integrative solutions to today’s most pressing societal challenges.
This new holistic approach to research is inspired by the drive to solve complex questions and address the multifaceted nature of high priority issues such as ensuring energy and food supply, biomedical ethics, sustainable resources, population health, and an ageing population.
That is why the University of Southampton has opened up the traditional approach to research with one that transcends research boundaries. We have established a number of multidisciplinary research groups that we call USRGs (University Strategic Research Groups) as well as Institutes which provide a unique, cross-disciplinary research community of over 2000 academics, staff and students working to address key national and international priority research areas, as well as driving forward scholarly understanding within disciplines.
See my latest interview Multidisciplinary Research Week.
Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton acts as a mode of discovery and education. This holistic approach has had a positive impact on the culture of the University of Southampton over the past 6 years through providing a model which supports cross-disciplinary research excellence and links our academics to decision makers and the general public.
Our USRGs and Institutes are working on the frontiers of knowledge in a range of areas that drive academic excellence and positive impact in policy and public debate. It is really exciting to see ones research have influence and impact in many ways beyond those usually reachable in academia. Clearly the funders of research see this as important too as does the REF2014 exercise where impact case studies have been introduced.
One of the extraordinary achievements of the past six years has included the development of our annual Multidisciplinary Research Week. Now in its third year, #MDRWeek has grown into what has become a significant role here in the University of Southampton in showcasing the diverse quality of our cross-disciplinary research and driving effective influence to policy and the broader community.
Our recent Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013 is an excellent example of how cross-disciplinary research can have a positive change here at the university in stimulating debate, innovation and inspiring ‘ideas worth spreading’.
Full details about our #MDRWeek 2013 can be found here.
Multidisciplinary Research has delivered much already and promises more.
I am convinced that developing this unique cross-disciplinary model and building on the foundation of research excellence, the University of Southampton will be even more successful in the future in developing research that benefit humanity and change the world.
Full details about all of our multidisciplinary research initiatives can be found below.
Share your thoughts with me on Twitter @GuyPoppy1
See my latest TEDx talk Global Food Security
Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton.
Bringing together adventurous minds to achieve the impossible.
Seminar Series: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary/mdrseminar/index.page
Research Week: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary/researchweek/index.page
Blog: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary
Website: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary
Email: multidisciplinary@southampton.ac.uk
Follow us on twitter and share your experience with us: @multisoton #MDRweek
Seminar 2:‘Practitioner Perspectives’ – Digital technologies and school-to-work transition
by Alison Simmance via Work Thought Blog
Seminar 2 ‘Practitioner Perspectives’ | Digital technologies and school-to-work transition | Tuesday, 28th May, 4 to 6pm | Building 32, Room 2097 We are an interdisciplinary working group at the Work Futures Research Centre at Southampton University. Our aim is to explore the role of digital technology in the formation of learner identities and in […]
Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013- Success
by Alison Simmance via Digital Economy USRG
The University of Southampton sprang to life during the 17-22nd March when over 1050 attendees joined us for the 3rd annual Multidisciplinary Research Week. This year’s week long celebration was built on the best cross-disciplinary science and arts from the University of Southampton’s staff and students with a packed programme of talks, hands-on science demonstrations, […]
Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013- Success
by Alison Simmance
The University of Southampton sprang to life during the 17-22nd March when over 1050 attendees joined us for the 3rd annual Multidisciplinary Research Week.
This year’s week long celebration was built on the best cross-disciplinary science and arts from the University of Southampton’s staff and students with a packed programme of talks, hands-on science demonstrations, exhibitions, debates and a film screening. We were also joined by key external speakers who brought insights into policy applications and cutting edge research in relation to our University Strategic Research Groups.
See the full programme here. The energy and intellectual alchemy of the week certainly inspired ‘ideas worth spreading’ and far exceeded our expectations. Thank you to all our speakers, demonstrators, supporters, volunteers, digital champions, sponsors and attendees for enabling this annual cross-disciplinary event at the University of Southampton to be a huge success.
The week in numbers– see the statistics from MDR Week 2013 below or in the MDRWeek 2013 Final Statistics Flyer.
Blog posts about all our events at #MDRWeek will be coming shortly! Watch this site for news.
Did you miss MDR week 2013?
See all our multimedia outputs online now!
- Full webcasts (videos of all talks).
- Interviews and on the floor views (by ICM Reporting).
- YouTube #MDRWeek (all interviews and videos).
- Blogs from the week.
- See all the power point presentations on slideshare.
- In pictures on pinterest.
Did you miss TEDxSouthamptonUniversity 2013?
- All videos now on YouTube (TedxSotonUni).
- In pictures (Flickr).
- Website for full details.
MDR Week 2013 STATISTICS-
- 23 events (incl. 2 exhibitions and 1 interactive art session) from 17-22nd March 2013.
- 1057 actual attendees (approx. 10% external).
- First TEDx at the University of Southampton- tickets sold out; new website; IBM sponsorship; 15 speakers; >1000 hits so far on YouTube.
- Prof Mohan Munasinghe– Vice Chair of IPPC/Nobel Prize Winner 2007 (BBC Radio Solent Broadcast & future collaborations).
- First formal celebration of the World Water Day 2013 (150 attendees).
- >70 people attended the ‘Litmus Project: Science & Poetry Exhibition’.
- >120 people attended ‘Question Time: The Brain & Society’, (incl. 40 6th Formers)
- 15 people created an eco-friendly bag from 60th Anniversary campaign banner material at ‘Be a Green Shopper’.
- Collaborations: UoS Science & Engineering Festival, WSA, WUN, IBM, Google, Marwell Wildlife, three 6th Form Colleges.
First year that social media was used!
- 11 blogs (>300 hits in the 1st week);
- 26 interviews– >500 hits so far on YouTube;
- 17 webcasts from all talks;
- Tedx 15 Videos– >1000 hits so far on YouTube.
- >370 hits to the multidisciplinary website;
- >630 tweets #MDRWeek;
- 3 storifys;
- 3 pinterests.
MDR Week 2014- Your Views
We are now already planning next year’s research week and welcome any suggestions for a possible theme on this. If you have an interesting cross-disciplinary project/initiative or idea and/or wish to get involved in other ways then please contact us: multidisciplinary@soton.ac.uk
Full details available at: www.southampton.ac.uk/multidisciplinary
Share your experience with us on Twitter #MDRWeek @Multisoton
RSPB Wallasea Island Project- World Environment Day Seminar
by Alison Simmance
RSPB Wallasea Island Project: Conservation for the 21st Century
World Environment Day Seminar 2013 by Chris Tyas Wallasea Island Project Manager, RSPB
Wednesday 5 June | 16:00- 18:00pm | Wine & nibbles from 16:00 | The Nuffield Theatre, Building 6, Lecture Theatre A, Highfield Campus
Join us in celebration of World Environment Day with a special afternoon seminar and art exhibition.
All staff, students, local teachers, community groups and the wider public are welcome to attend this free event.
RSVP: www.multidisciplinaryseminars.eventbrite.com
Download and share the event’s poster: RSPB Wallasea Island Project- World Environment Day Poster.
Did you know?
Wallasea Island Wild Coast project is a landmark conservation and engineering scheme for the 21st century, on a scale never before attempted in the UK and the largest of its type in Europe. The project will receive 4.5million tonnes of material excavated during the Crossrail operations in London to help shape Europe’s largest man-made nature reserve. The aim of this project is to combat the threats from climate change and coastal flooding by recreating the ancient wetland landscape of mudflats and saltmarsh, lagoons and pasture.
The landmark project adopts a true multidisciplinary approach which will prove influential in linking Europe’s largest construction project with the continent’s biggest wetland creation scheme.
What’s World Environment Day?
World Environment Day is an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your food print.
Event Information:
The event is part of the University of Southampton’s Multidisciplinary Seminar Series and is jointly organised by the Multidisciplinary Sustainability Science at Southampton (SSS) Group and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI).
RSVP: www.multidisciplinaryseminars.eventbrite.com
Live stream & full details available at: www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainability_science
Share your experience with us @SustainScience #WED2013
Relevant Links:
Wallasea Island Project Leaflet.
ESPA Deltas at UNESCO international workshop on Sustainability Science
by Craig Hutton
Reflections by Dr Craig Hutton, GeoData Institute, University of Southampton- Research Coordinator for ESPA Deltas project
Workshop Reference: UNESCO International Workshop on Sustainability Science: A Science Based Approach to Realize the Future We Want for All. 4th – 5th April 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Website: http://www.ukm.my/sustainability/
The ESPA Deltas project- Assessing Health, Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services And Poverty Alleviation In Populous Deltas – was invited to a UNESCO international workshop on the applications of Sustainability Science to their Asian Pacific activities. The GeoData Institute, University of Southampton has, under the auspices of the Sustainability Science Southampton (SSS), been engaged with UNESCO and the MEXT of Japan (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology) in developing a document that will highlight the role and application of the science underpinning sustainable development.
The ESPA Deltas project was invited to present as a case study in Sustainability Science with specific reference to the three critical components of the project: 1) environment/ecology; 2) socio-economics/economics; and 3) government/governance; and more specifically the integration of these three. The meeting was of particular interest to the ESPA Deltas project as we have been developing ideas on how we promote tools etc. that could be transferable to other socio-ecological systems. This includes systems dynamics approaches and work in such areas as scenario development.
The workshop programme included presentations from experts in the field of Sustainability Science as well as a series of high profile talks about UNESCO’s Sustainability Initiative, including high level UNESCO representation from Paris. There was some debate regarding the definition of Sustainability Science and the fact that this hinges on the definition of sustainability itself. The problem here is that there is no clear single definition of sustainability.
What I would suggest is that we accept the nebulous nature of sustainability, at least for now, and not allow that potentially intractable debate to stop the development of what is a very necessary tool set. We need to develop practical tools in the field of sustainability, and we need to do so in parallel with the vying definitions of sustainability. So what is a pragmatic approach here? Well Sustainability Science should be a method. As such I would suggest that we focus on methodologies we know to be effective and focus on the benefits of participation, stakeholder involvement and a focus on effective decision making supported by a strong evidence base. Indeed we can extend the participatory paradigm by truly incorporating experts and communities not only in the development of option and awareness raising but more centrally in the capture of key issues, development of scenarios, the weighting of statistical models (capturing expertise which can be practiced at a community level as well as in formal government) and the design of visualisation and information outputs. In effect, placing the stakeholder profile at the centre of the work and not simply as a validator or advisory role. Finally we need to recognise the body of emerging work on systems based approaches. These approaches allow for the true integration of socio-environmental issues and have a substantive potential to enhance the decision making process and the formulation and testing of policy.
However we need to be clear that as an applied method, Sustainability Science does not in itself provide a policy direction or make the choice in a situation of trade-off, it simply attempts to answers questions posed by stakeholders, and it is the question we ask that is the real decision making process. If I ask which of a suite of policies will raise GDP I may receive one answer, however, if I ask which policy will alleviate poverty I may find a completely different solution. Both valid answers supported by an evidence base, but the strategic decision was already made in the question being asked of the science.
There is a large body of work to be conducted to understand what are the questions being asked before we apply Sustainability Science and what sort of world we want to live in. It is not enough to say a “sustainable world”. We need to characterise what exactly it is that we want to be sustained. Of course we may espouse the desire to have equity and social justice but more often decision makers find themselves in positions of making difficult decisions regarding trade-offs where there will inevitably be winners and losers. At this juncture, Sustainability Science can offer two clear services:
1) to allow policy makers to test various policies against desired outcomes set by the governance framework (scenario development and systems based models that integrate over themes); and
2) to provide transparency in that process linking the process of making policy decisions to an evidence base.
In ESPA Deltas we are seeing an example of the need for decision makers to define what their possible visions of the future are in the management of the delta front of Bangladesh. In its simplest form the delta front is experiencing degradation through climatic and direct anthropogenic impacts which are degrading agricultural land through salination. This in turn has the effect of lowering land prices and, combined with the potential to find work in urban centres, driving people out of the rural environments. Such a process results in increased urban population which drives up demand for diverse food types (e.g. meat and shrimp) and export income. This pressure results in agro-business taking up the rural land through various means and the development of intensive agricultural practices – often trading short term financial gain for the richer elements of society prepared to invest with further degradation of agricultural land (e.g. shrimp fisheries) driving the process forward again. The question is what is the vision of the future here? Is it:
1) What the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) refers to as a “techno garden” where the rural areas are efficiently farmed by commercial interests with substantial work on relieving urban poverty and dramatically improving welfare (very much an approach that has occurred in the West)?; or
2) The aim to develop a sustainable future for the rural population in-situ that balances rural stewardship of the land, sustainable development with production needs?
Both can be argued to be the way forward, or the most practical approach. However there is a need for decision makers to define the vision or at least explore options before formulating key questions for Sustainability Science to answer. Sustainability Science will work best within a framework of testing strategic ideas. Without exploring carefully with users what they are considering we may find ourselves answering questions that are not being asked or missing the opportunity to identify why their current thinking may not be the solution that was hoped for.
The ESPA Deltas presentation, which can be downloaded along with the other presentations (see here), suggested that there are four key areas of activity within a project or intervention that might define it as utilising “Sustainability Science”. These are:
1) Integration, which links the socio-environmental context of the project together by viewing the Bangladesh delta front as a single “system” as opposed to a series of parallel systems that are integrated by the final user (e.g. a systems dynamics approach);
2) Stakeholder driven, which highlights the need to gather, perceptions, data and information from a wide profile of stakeholders with particular reference to the community base. This should include the inclusion of stakeholders in modelling processes such as the development of weighting, identification of indicator sets and development of scenarios;
3) Equity/Poverty centred, highlighting the need to ensure that the project aims to address issues of poverty and/or equity;
4) Support decision makers, emphasising that the design of outputs should be guided early on in the project by the specified needs of those who will be making decisions, from a community level up. Examples of this approach include the development of decision support systems, community support information & policy testing facilities and scenario development.
The GeoData Institute along with ESSC (Philippines) have now been asked by UNESCO/MEXT to write a joint proposal developing tools and approaches for the application of systems dynamics conceptual approaches (drawing flow diagrams of relationships and quantifications between socio-environmental components) to be applied at a community level in Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia.
Further details:
Follow Craig Hutton on Twitter- @CraigHutton4
GeoData Institute website: http://www.geodata.soton.ac.uk/geodata/
ESPA Deltas Project:
Twitter- @ESPADeltas
Website- www.espadelta.net
Sustainability Science at Southampton:
Twitter- @SustainScience
Raspberry Pi workshop
by Luke Goater via Digital Economy USRG
Really enjoyed last night’s Raspberry Pi Workshop at Southampton University, which was sponsored and organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, in collaboration with the Centre for Strategic Innovation and Dirk Gorissen, then part of Engineering and the Environment here. The session began with a demo from Simon Cox and an excellent introduction to […]
#Digichamp Flo Broderick on learning to be a Reporter
by Lisa Harris via Digital Economy USRG
Only a month ago I spent my Monday morning at university attending a Digichamps workshop on creating and editing video on smartphones with David Willox and Simon Morice of icmReporting. After learning about conducting video interviews, we exchanged contact details and a month later I found myself working as a news reporter at Digital Media […]
The 2013 Digital Literacies Conference #sotonMOOC
by Lisa Harris via Digital Economy USRG
Written by @garethpbeeston and first published on the #digichamps blog: The #SotonMOOC conference held today was host to a number of prestigious people from UK businesses and Universities, hoping to debate the challenges involved with building, moderating and launching a MOOC. The event was kicked off by our very own @HughDavis who spoke about the […]
Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700: the case of decorative textiles
by Catriona Cooper via Digital Humanities | Digital Humanities
On 19th March I attended the third workshop for this AHRC research network. The aim of the day was to explore how eyetracking technology can be exploited towards the understanding of visitor experience of 17th century painted cloths at Owlpen Manor in Gloucestershire. The day began with two groups of volunteers being “wired up” to the eyetracking hardware. The first …