EPSRC: Update on changes, and advice on impact

Ah, Swindon. Photo by Peter Albanese on Unsplash

Polaris House, which houses UK Research and Innovation in Swindon, can seem like a fortress: powerful, mysterious, impenetrable. A little like the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz, in fact.

But last week the city gates were flung open to the UK’s research-management Munchkins and we gained a glimpse of what was going on behind the walls. Yes, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s annual webinar for research office staff took place, with representation from more than 60 universities and research organisations.

In terms of active research funding, the EPSRC is the largest of the research councils and we were given a whistlestop tour of what’s afoot. Here are my top takeaways:

‘There's too much f**king perspective now’:

Working - with friend. Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

I wrote this article for the Arma magazine, The Protagonist, in March, at the beginning of the lockdown. Three months on and the shock of adjustment has softened somewhat, but the advice still stands. The Canadian government's wrote that you're not 'working from home', but rather 'at home, during a crisis, trying to work'. It's a subtle but important difference, and one I try to convey in this piece.