Research Funding Update: Fellowships and Studentships, 20th August 2010

Photo © http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyseeker/ 

Posted by Andy 

I thought seeing as we are coming close to the end of our summer, well it kind of ended in June, It would be nice to post a photo of a sunflower. I've got one in my garden right now and have no idea how it's grown so big with what little sun it's seen ;-)

You can download the latest Research Funding update by going to our Research Funding page or you can view it directly here

For more information please feel free to contact The Information Service @ ScHARR Library on 0114 2225420 or by email scharrlib@shef.ac.uk

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization

Posted by Andy

Another innovative TED Lecture Ideas Worth Sharing :-)

Research Funding Update - Projects and Programmes

Photo by   
Posted by Andy 

The latest issue of the Research Funding Update can be viewed by following this link.

Previous editions of the update can be viewed here

Go get Geocaching

Posted by Andy

I just had to post this video very quickly to not only highlight my latest hobby, which to the untrained eye perhaps appears faddy, but in truth has been around for almost a decade. With hundreds of thousands of users Geocaching it is the best bit of fun you could add to almost any journey, whether it be in a city or the countryside, it becomes a real adventure.

All you need is a GPS phone or device, and the Geocache app to get you up and running, the video above explains everything.

After finding my first cache deep in a dark cave, it got me thinking of how this could be applied in health and education. Considering more and more students are coming to The University of Sheffield with smart phones each year and that many of them are from outside of the local area or even country, it would be a good exercise to get them to find geocaches hidden in parts of the city and campus with the idea of familiarising them with thier new home in a fun way.

There's also the health benefits of encouraging people, who rarely get exercise, by getting them to go out and about and get some exercise whilst playing a clever game.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone seriously looks in to this.

Taken from the film Splinterheads

Recommended Website of the Month - Survs

 Posted by Andy

At ScHARR we carry out lots or surveys, surveys for our research, surveys on where people want to go on their next away day, and our students conduct lots of interesting surveys. Usually they employ Surveymonkey, which is a brilliant tool, but it has the limitation of only 100 responses only for the free account - this can be a big sticking point.

Survs gives you 200 responses per free account, which is more than enough for most people. I remember when writing my Masters Dissertation a few years ago I conducted a survey in Surveymonkey and got 111 responses, which meant me moving up to a paid account for a few months.

Obviously, Survs is limited in what it can do with a free account, they usually do the bare minimum which on many occassions is enough. A word of caution, however, the free Survs account does not allow users to export their results into a csv file, so if you want to export your results look elsewhere.

Here's what Survs can do (please note that not all of this is in the free version)

Create surveys on the fly

Start by building your survey with an easy to use interface, choosing between multiple question types, customizable themes and powerful options.

* Multiple question types - Choose from multiple question types
* Branded surveys - Brand surveys with your organization logo and colors
* Skip logic - Use skip logic to direct respondents to relevant questions
* Custom languages - Choose an existing language set or create your own
* Internationalization - Take advantage of right-to-left text and unicode

Distribute as you want

After you have finished building your survey, you can distribute it using one or several channels: email, web link or on your website.

• Link channel
  We generate a link for your survey that you can just copy and paste. You can share the link as you wish: posting on a website, sending via email, etc.
• Email channel
  Collect responses via email using Survs's own distribution system, manage contact lists and track respondents by email address or IP.
• Website channel
  Just embed a few lines of HTML code and start collecting responses on your website using a frame or a popup window.

August edition of Take Five

Photo © http://www.flickr.com/photos/dricker94/

Posted by Andy

The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of new websites, research funding opportunities,training courses and current awareness.

To join the Take Five distribution list please contact me, Andy Tattersall by email a.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk or phone 0114 2220702

You can view it here


Whilst an archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here