Dear colleagues,

It was great to see many of you at NAM this year and online at the joint UKSP-MIST business lunch. It was an excellent (and mainly sunny) week in Hull, and our community planned and contributed to many parallel sessions (24 hours) ranging over all topics from dynamos to the solar wind. 

We thank Dr Stephanie Yardley for her excellent solar plenary at NAM discussing the solar flare and CME events in May!

UKSP Early Career Researcher (ECR) Poster Prize

During NAM, we offered an ECR poster prize, and we are happy to congratulate our winner: Samantha Cook (Glasgow), “Observational Analysis of Line Formation Heights in the Flaring Chromosphere”
The winner receives a monetary prize (thanks to the RAS) and an opportunity to write an article about their work in A&G magazine.

UKSP Business Lunch and SSAP Science Board Roadmap Survey

The slides from the UKSP business lunch are now available:
https://www.uksolphys.org/uksp-business-meeting/

As discussed at the lunch, the Solar System Advisory Panel (SSAP) is still asking for comments that can be fed into the Science Board (PPAN) Roadmap request for information.
https://www.uksolphys.org/general-news/solar-system-advisory-panel-consultation-on-new-stfc-science-board-ppan-roadmap/

Please send comments as soon as possible using the form:
https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6oitQhDxdsXI3QO

NAM Experience

If you have feedback about your experience at NAM this year, then please send it to the chair (natasha.jeffrey@northumbria.ac.uk) and/or deputy chair (m.korsos@sheffield.ac.uk). This will help with the organisation of future meetings.

We hope you all have a restful summer!

Kind regards,
UKSP Council… continue to the full article

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Following our election of project custodians, nominations are now open for people to serve on the SunPy Project’s Steering Committee.
The Steering Committee is responsible for the day-to-day running of the SunPy project including its financial management, the full list of responsibilities can be found in our governance document.

Anyone is eligible to be nominated to serve on the committee, the committee will be elected by the Project Custodians.
Nominations are open until the 5th of August and the election runs for two weeks from the 7th.

If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/27LJNPPFfAZnrTym7… continue to the full article

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Dear Colleagues,

The UKRI Policy Internships Scheme for 2024/25 is now open and the closing date for applications is 4.00pm on 2 October 2024.

The scheme provides the opportunity for doctoral students funded by the Research Councils of UKRI to undertake a three-month placement at one of a selected group of highly influential policy organisations. During their internship, the student undertakes training and experience on a policy topic agreed with their host partner that is relevant to both parties. The intention of the scheme is to embed students in an environment where they can engage with the process of converting research outputs into policy. These internships equip students with transferable skills and training relevant to the future career paths that the student may choose.

Please note, that STFC students are only permitted to apply for an internship at either Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) and Go-Science please.

Full details of how to apply, including links to the online application form and guidance documents are available through the UKRI Policy Internships Scheme webpage.

The Policy Internships Scheme is coordinated by NERC on behalf of the other Research Councils of UKRI. Any queries relating to the application process should be directed to the NERC Talent and Skills team (researchcareers@nerc.ukri.org) or the relevant host partner.

To encourage student uptake, we would ask you to please circulate this opportunity to your students through your usual channels.

Kind regards,

NERC Talent and Skills Team
researchcareers@nerc.ukri.org… continue to the full article

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Dear Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that we are letting our community know about the death of Dr David (Dave) Pascoe.

Dave got his PhD at Warwick (UK) in 2008. He was then a postdoc at St Andrews (UK) from 2008-2013, at Warwick in 2013-2018 and at KU Leuven (Belgium) between 2018-2021. Most recently, he was again a Research Fellow in the St Andrews Solar and Magnetospheric Theory Group, from 2021 until this January where he was working on numerical models of MHD wave heating.

Dave was well known for his modelling work of solar coronal oscillations. He has contributed significantly to the modelling of the damping of propagating and standing kink waves. He was the driving force in developing the models for Gaussian damping through resonant absorption, and its potential applications for seismology. Moreover, he was an avid fan of quasi-periodic fast propagating waves and Bayesian techniques for seismology, producing a number of influential research papers well accepted by our research community.

As well as his solar contributions, many colleagues will also remember Dave through his enthusiasm for football, including the NAM 5-aside football competition.… continue to the full article

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The DiRAC Resource Allocation Committee facility time opportunity (RAC17) is now open.  The UK theory and modelling communities in astronomy and cosmology, astrophysics, solar system physics, particle astrophysics, particle physics and nuclear physics are invited to apply for computational resources on the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility.  

The deadline for submission of proposals is Thursday 12th September 2024 at 16:00 UK time. 

The submission process is the same as last year (RAC16), via the new UKRI Funding Service (TFS) as follows:

• • Scientific proposals for Short and Thematic projects must be submitted using The new UKRI Funding Service (TFS), the replacement for Je-S. This will cover the information which in previous facility time opportunities (calls) would have been provided as part of the scientific application form, scientific case for support, and the project management and data management plans which were submitted as separate attachments via email to STFC.  Applicants are no longer required to submit documents via email to STFC; any documents sent to STFC via email will not be accepted.  Proposals must be submitted by the closing date of Thursday 12th September 2024 16:00 UK time.  The system will close at this time and it will not be possible to submit after this deadline.  Please see the UKRI Funding Finder for full details including the link to begin your application. 
  • A technical proposal form for Short and Thematic projects must be completed and sent directly to DiRAC via email: dirac-support@epcc.ed.ac.uk by the closing date of Thursday 12th September 2024 16:00 UK time. The technical form can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder.  Applicants may discuss their request with the DiRAC RSE Team in advance of submitting a technical case by emailing DiRAC support (dirac-support@epcc.ed.ac.uk) and adding the heading ‘RAC 17 technical enquiry’ into the subject of the email.
  • Applicants requesting Research Software Engineer (RSE) support must complete the RSE application form and send it directly to DiRAC via email:
    dirac-support@epcc.ed.ac.uk by the closing date of Thursday 12th September 2024 16:00 UK. Time.  The RSE application form and guidance can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder.  Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss RSE requests with the RSE team in advance of the closing date.
  • Seedcorn proposals can be submitted at any time; please see the DiRAC website. 

Proposals for Short and Thematic projects will not be accepted unless both a scientific application has been submitted via the UKRI Funding Service and a technical application has been submitted to DiRAC. 

Please refer to the UKRI Funding Finder for full instructions on how to submit proposals. 

Applicants are encouraged to visit the UKRI website to see information regarding The new Funding Service including videos to show how to use the system. 

Applicants should ensure they are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place for the submission of their proposal.  These deadlines may be similar to those for standard Je-S grant applications and it is the applicant’s responsibility to confirm this, as they may be significantly earlier than the STFC submission deadline of Thursday 12th September 2024 16:00 UK time. 

Successful awards will be scheduled to begin on 1st April 2025.

STFC welcomes applications from Early Career Researchers. 

No single application can request more than 80% of the availability of a DiRAC machine within a given year. Availability figures are provided in the guidance notes at annex 1, which can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder.  Please note the availability figures are provisional, and the resources which are allocated may be lower depending on confirmation of the levels of systems availability. 

Applicants are strongly advised to read the RAC guidance notes and information available on the UKRI Funding Finder under the Additional info section.   

Enquiries:

Enquiries should be directed as follows: 

• RAC process and remit: STFC Swindon Office: DiRACRAC@stfc.ac.uk
• Technical questions: RSE Team: dirac-support@epcc.ed.ac.uk
• Discretionary requests: DiRAC Director, Prof Mark Wilkinson
• UKRI Funding Service helpdesk: Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org  
  Phone: 01793 547490
  Phone lines are open:
  Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
  Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

Read more about it here… continue to the full article

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Please note, the 2025 opportunity to apply for funding to host an STFC Summer school is now open and live on the UKRI funding funder. Please see the link below:

https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/funding-for-short-courses-and-summer-schools-in-2025/

STFC’s Education, Training and Careers Committee (ETCC) conducted a review of the summer schools in 2019 and recommended supporting the following fundamental schools from the core budget:

• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Introductory Course in Astronomy for New Research Students
• British Universities Summer School in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics (BUSSTEPP)
• STFC Introductory Course in Solar and Solar-terrestrial Physics
• UK Nuclear Physics Summer School
• STFC High Energy Physics (HEP) Summer School.

Recent feedback from students and members of the STFC community has supported a request for schools (in addition to the above) in the areas of planetary science and advanced astronomy. STFC would like to reiterate that bids for courses in these areas are most welcome, in addition to other innovative courses within the STFC remit.

Your short course, summer school or online training resource must:

1. be aimed primarily at STFC-funded PhD students
2. cover core research activity supported by the STFC studentships programme

The STFC studentships programme covers:

• astronomy
• solar and planetary science
• particle astrophysics
• cosmology
• particle physics
• accelerator science
• nuclear physics

Should you have any questions about the opportunity or assessment process, please contact us at studentships@stfc.ukri.org

Kind regards,

The STFC Education, Training and Careers Team… continue to the full article

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The European Solar Telescope (EST) project has made a number of further important steps in the past few months. The UK Universities Consortium (UKUC) was formed last year and is led by U of Sheffield in the legal framework – the EST Foundation Canarias (EST-FC) – to represent the interest of our solar community in the UK. At present, UKUC is made of Aberystwyth University, Universities of Exeter, Glasgow, Sheffield and QUB with additional interest expressed by a few additional UK institutions.

We are pleased to report that funding was successfully raised and UKUC is now in the process of settling the current annual financial contributions to the Foundation.

Some recent key organisational and technical developments are:

• The director and Administrator of EST Foundation were sought, interviews with shortlisted applicants were conducted and recommendations by the Executive Cttee (EC) were made, and are awaiting approval by the Board of Trustees (BoT)
• Pier Optical Path Design is updated
• Polarimetric Calibration and Alignment Assembly
• EST Control System

EST-FC has just expanded with the joining of the University of Graz. This is excellent news as it demonstrates the increasing importance of the project.

For more about some recent updates, including communication news and the EST photo gallery, please read the latest issue of the EST Newsletter here:  https://www.est-east.eu/newsletter

If you have any queries about the EST-FC project and how to join UKUC, please contact Robertus who is the UKUC representative on the BoT of EST-FC.

Robertus Erdelyi (on behalf of EST UKUC, a member of the EST-FC EC)
robertus@sheffield.ac.uk… continue to the full article

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We are delighted to announce that the SunPy development team has been awarded with a NASA Group Achievement Award!

The award was given to our team for “developing and continually improving free and reliable open-source software that supports NASA missions and the analysis of NASA’s vast archives of solar physics data”.

This award is a collective achievement, and we share it with everyone who has contributed to SunPy! We look forward to continuing our mission of supporting solar physics research and making impactful contributions to the scientific community.

https://sunpy.org/posts/2024/2024-06-19-groupaward/… continue to the full article

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Join UKRI’s Infrastructure and Digital Infrastructure advisory committees! UKRI is seeking passionate individuals to join two committees:

• Advisory Group for Digital Research Infrastructure (AGD)
• Infrastructure Advisory Committee (IAC)

AGDs Role: Shape the future of Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI), providing strategic advice on investment portfolios, data infrastructure, large-scale computing, DRI skills and more. We’re looking for up to five members with understanding of and experience in using, planning, or delivering digital research infrastructure and awareness of current and emerging opportunities and challenges in DRI. We particularly welcome applications from individuals with a background in international DRIs, those based outside the UK, early or mid-career professionals, and members of groups currently under-represented at senior levels in the R&I community.

 IACs Role: Provide advice to UKRI’s Executive Committee and UKRI Board on the prioritisation of projects for the pan-UKRI research and innovation infrastructure portfolio. We’re looking for one member with senior-level knowledge of R&I infrastructure planning or delivery, including issues such as environmental sustainability and trusted research.  

 Ideal candidates will have a strategic vision, excellent communication skills, and a collaborative spirit.

For more details and to apply, visit: UKRI Infrastructure and Digital Research Infrastructure advisory committees vacancies – UKRI… continue to the full article

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Dear Community Members,

The UKRI Talent Peer Review College (PRC) is currently running an open call for recruitment:

https://www.ukri.org/who-we-are/work-for-us/join-an-advisory-committee-panel-or-network/ukri-talent-peer-review-college-member-vacancies/

This call is specifically inviting reviewers from the following remit areas:

•       agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
•       biological sciences
•       biomedical and clinical sciences
•       commerce, management, tourism and services
•       creative arts and writing
•       earth sciences
•       education
•       engineering
•       environmental sciences
•       health sciences
•       human society
•       language, communication and culture
•       physical sciences

If you have questions about this call, please contact Martin French martin.french@ukri.org… continue to the full article

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