Our Values

This element is led by Professor Avtar Matharu, Deputy Director of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE) at University of York. The Department of Chemistry at York was the first academic department in a UK institution to be awarded the Gold Athena Swan award for gender equality.  

Recruitment and advertising 

The use of gender decoded advertising will be used throughout all campaigns for this CDT to reduce barriers. Each studentship project is advertised to offer flexibility based on either full-time or part-time working and aims to address underrepresented groups. Other advertising opportunities within Engineering and Science disciplines include FindAPhD, Jobsacuk as well as within the postgraduate opportunities advertised through each institution.

Interview process 

All panels for studentship interviews will comprise male and female representation and all panel members are trained in unconscious bias. Where possible, a representative from each institution will be in attendance. Applications will be shared amongst academic and industrial supervisors for the purposes of reviewing and considering for potential funded places. Each applicant will be asked standardised questions which will be shared in advance of the interview and each interview scheduled for the same amount of time. The panel will complete applicant assessments which will be used towards decisions following the selection process. 

This element is led by Dr Sharon Velasquez Orta who is the Chemical Engineering Postgraduate Research lead at NU. 

Leadership

Each institution has a dedicated Health and Wellbeing team at NU and UoY who offer advice and information on a wide range of issues including mental and physical health issues to staff members and postgraduate students.  Some examples of this include 24/7 support, counselling, wellbeing workshops as well as disability support and mental health. 

Disabled Student Allowance 

As part of this CDT’s induction process, any students who declare a disability within their application are assessed by the student wellbeing team within their host institution.  If further support is required to assist them during their PhD, a full assessment will be carried out including a list of requirements and costs with a copy retained by the Graduate School. 

Monitoring and Evaluation 

Wellbeing will be closely monitored throughout the lifetime of the CDT and opportunities for this to be addressed for each student will be identified as part of the progression and project assessment period. Relevant training for supervisors and management team is also available led from each institution. 

This element is led by Professor Helen Sneddon, Co-Director of the PINZ CDT and Director of the GCCE at University of York.

At each institution, Trusted Research is regulated by the Research and Innovation Development teams within the governance structures of the institutions and includes a number of policies and frameworks to ensure research conforms to requirements.  For postgraduate students, this includes the Student Academic Misconduct Procedure including breach of ethical governance, falsification of research results and plagiarism.

The projects within the CDT will be closely monitored in conjunction with colleagues from within the governance teams at each institution.  The shared responsibility of conforming to UKRI Trusted Research and Innovation Principles will include responding to institutional policies and processes, seeking advice and support as well as further steps towards due diligence including assessing project partner suitability, adopting strategies to mitigate risks, and complying with relevant legislation.

This element is led by Dr Greg Mutch, a Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow at NU.

As part of the induction process within the training programme of year one, PINZ CDT students will complete RRI training facilitated by Leeds Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre (IDEA). IDEA will also provide dedicated project-specific training where required across all aspects of ethics, including RRI.

At NU, workshops on RRI are facilitated by the Postgraduate Researcher Development Programme (PGRDP).  Students are eligible to sign up and attend workshops which are developed to address RRI.

At UoY, the principles and culture of open research and RRI are embedded as a priority area.  Staff and students will be encouraged and supported to explore and engage with open research practices in their work and study, acknowledging that research should be as open as possible, ensuring that research processes are transparent and create opportunities for outputs and methods to be reused, reproduced, and credited.