Q3 2019/2020

Report Date

May 2020

Due to the University closure in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2019-2020 Awards Celebration was unable to take place as planned. In it's place, an online celebration took place, with this year's teams being highlighted on our website, on our social media and in the University wide Bulletin magazine. Personalised emails were also prepared and sent out to all Heads of Schools and Departments on behalf of Dave Gorman, to highlight the teams to senior management, and seek continued support for the Awards and SRS. A number of recipients replied to Dave with positive comments on the Awards and the participating teams in their area.

Awards trophies have been created and will be given to teams when a return to the University is possible.

Guides, materials and resources for the 2020 Awards have been prepared. As part of this, all Lab Awards criteria were reviewed and some changes  were made to ensure that the criteria remain relevant and ambitious. Mapping of the criteria to the SDGs was completed, making it clear which SDGs each criterion contributes to. 

In light of the closures, the launch of the Awards for 2020 has been delayed, and the timeline revised. A soft launch of the Awards, with the guides and resources being made available, is scheduled for May/June. A formal launch with active team recruitment will take place when the University reopens, and the timeline will be adjusted to correlate to this. As such, there is a risk to the project being carried out within it's expected timeframe. 

At present there are 9 teams still accredited from the 2019-2020 Awards participating, along with 2 teams who have already expressed a commitment to taking part this year. Additionally, a further 8 teams have expressed interest in participating (including 2018-2019 teams who would be due to take part this year in order to maintain their accreditation). This brings the total number of participating and interested teams to 19.