COVID-19: Changes to Face-to-Face Research Activities at Western

April 6/21 – Memo from Lesley Rigg, Vice-President (Research)

There has been a rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases in our community, including on our campus.

To address increasing risks, we are implementing additional restrictions to permitted research activities. We need to be proactive and we need to continue to be rigorous.

Effective April 7, 2021 at 6 p.m., we will pause all face-to-face research with human participants on campus and in field studies for four weeks. We will re-evaluate these restrictions every two weeks by looking for a pattern of reduction in our community caseload.

These changes do not apply to research directly related to COVID-19. Other studies, including those approved over the past few months, may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to assess potential risks and benefits using the two-level approval system currently in place.

At the same time, research personnel are still able to access research spaces under current safety guidelines and to pursue research that does not involve face-to-face interactions with human participants.

As a reminder, members of our community are required to wear three-ply masks and to wear safety glasses if working within two metres of each other. Supervisors may also recommend face shields for additional protection. Occupancy in Western’s research spaces remains at 30 per cent capacity.

Where possible, we encourage you to work from home.

Please direct any questions to your Associate Dean (Research) and/or department delegate. Kevin Shoemaker is also available to assist with any questions on behalf of Western Research.

Western Research COVID-19 Updates

Research Using Social Media Data – Western Libraries Workshop

Social Media Data for Research: Twitter and Others

Tuesday March 16, 2021
1:00 pm
via Zoom

Want to learn how to get started with social media research? Join Western Libraries staff for a FREE Zoom workshop on popular platforms for research, methods for accessing the data, and different approaches and tools for analysis. Sign up at:  http://www.events.westernu.ca/events/libraries/2021-03/social-media-data.html 

Queer Research Day 2021 – Call for Papers and Presentations

The Sexuality and Gender Research Group at Western University will be holding the eleventh annual Queer Research Day on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. This will be an online conference, so presentations need to be in a format that can be read or otherwise displayed effectively on Zoom. The group welcomes 15 – 20 minute oral presentations, in particular, but is also interested in other types of proposals, including artists’ performances, film screenings, musical events, and other forms of queer work.

Registration is free, but you will be required to register in order to receive the Zoom invitation. More information on registration will be available shortly.

Faculty and graduate students are welcome to participate or just to attend. If you are interested in presenting, please email a short abstract with title or a brief description of your paper or other proposal to Wendy Pearson (wpearson@uwo.ca). The group hopes to include presentations on a wide variety of topics from a broad range of disciplines. The deadline for receiving proposals is April 14, 2021.

Looking for Scholarships or Funding?

Are you looking for funding from sources other than traditional agencies such as SSHRC or the other Tri-Council Agencies (CIHR, NSERC)?

Please consider using Pivot. It’s free! (Paid for by Western Research).

What is Pivot?

Pivot is a comprehensive database of international grant funding opportunities available to all Western faculty, staff, and students. You can access Pivot from any computer on campus.

However, to use Pivot off campus, you must create a personal Pivot account. 

Why use Pivot?

  • Pivot can assist you in finding funding opportunities – government, private, foundation, and international funding
  • Once you do a search for funding (and save it) you can have Pivot send you weekly updates via email on potential funding sources with upcoming deadlines based on the search
  • Once you find a funding source that might be of interest in the future, you can ‘track’ it and have alerts sent to your email so that you know of upcoming deadlines.

To learn more about how to use Pivot:

Researcher Profiles: Pivot provides information from publicly sourced sites, and Western does not review or manage researchers identified as Western faculty on the PIVOT profiles. We do suggest you Create or Update Your Profile on Pivot. Doing this will assist Pivot in providing you with a curated list of funding opportunities based on your departmental affiliation, research interests, publication and granting history.

Western University Graduate Symposium on Music 2021

Mark your calendars for the Western University Graduate Symposium on Music (WUGSOM) 2021, scheduled for August 20-21. The symposium will feature keynote speaker Dr. Philip Ewell, (Hunter College of the City University of New York). 

Like last year, the conference will be entirely online, although this year submissions from outside of the Western community will be accepted.

Call for Proposals:
The deadline for submission is Friday, May 21st, 2021 at 4:00 pm EST. 
The program committee invites graduate students of from all institutions and all disciplines to submit proposals for papers on any aspect of music, including but by no means limited to music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, music cognition, music education, composition, and performance. Papers are welcome on any topic and encourage a diversity of excellence in research across many fields.
Presentations are limited to 20 minutes, with a 10-minute question period. All submissions must include the title of the paper and a proposal not exceeding 350 words. Proposals should not include supplementary materials or figures and should not include your name or other identifying information. Please send submissions in MS Word format (.doc or .docx) to wugsom2021@gmail.com. In your cover email, please include your name, university, program, year in program, and preferred email address.

Further information will be posted to the conference website as it becomes available: http://sogsim.com/conference-2021/   

Questions or more information: The Society of Graduate Students in Music, Western University wugsom2021@gmail.com

New Program at the Africa Institute

Western’s Africa Institute has launched The Canada-Africa Young Scholars Coalition (CAYSC) whose membership will include undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and other trainees of African heritage or identity from across Canada, as well as allies.

Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars are invited to become members of the CAYSC. More information available at The Wire.

NVivo Workshop from Western Libraries

Introduction to Qualitative Analysis with NVivo

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2021
1:00 – 2:30 pm
Via Zoom

Interested in digital qualitative research? Join Western Libraries for a webinar on getting started with NVivo. Learn about the capabilities of this popular analysis package, how to set up a project and import different kinds of data, and start coding. NVivo is a tool for organizing, managing and analyzing qualitative data. This introductory session will provide an overview of NVivo’s capabilities and demonstrate how to use it to get started on a qualitative research project.

Session outcomes:

  • Learn about the features and functionality of NVivo
  • Set data files up for autocoding and import
  • Create an NVivo project and import different types of data
  • Organize and classify files and cases
  • Code data and create notes and memos
  • Run queries and create charts
  • Plan a content analysis

Register for this online workshop here.

Access to NVivo software is not essential but may be helpful if you want to follow along. A trial version of the software may be downloaded here. Sample data files will be sent out with the link to access the workshop.

Social Network Analysis – Are you interested in this methodology?

Social network analysis (SNA) is a unique field of study that looks to better understand the relationships and social networks of a defined group of individuals and/or organizations. In research, applications of social network analysis are myriad. People from many disciplines might have use for social network approaches, ranging from biology to computer science, psychology, sociology, healthcare, and public health (as only a few examples).

In an effort to enhance the depth and scope of expertise locally at Western, a series of talks and workshops led by experts in this field is being planned.

The initial talks will introduce the essentials of social network analysis including the theories and methods of analyzing social interactions such as inter-individual, inter-organizational, partnership, and social support. After this, there will be a series of workshops where scholars can develop a proposal with peer support and expert facilitation choosing and adapting the optimal data collection and analysis techniques for their research.

No prior knowledge in SNA is required.

As a way to gauge interest in potential future methodological workshops it is important to identify the spectrum of researchers who are currently engaging in or wish to engage in social network analysis/approaches.

Interested Western University faculty, post-doctoral scholars, trainees, PhD candidates and staff are asked to complete a brief survey which will remain open until February 26th. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Contact for more information:
Anna Gunz, Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics
Mariam Hayward, mariam.hayward@uwo.ca, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager, Western Research

Envirocon 2021 Call for Abstracts

Western University invites graduate students to submit abstracts for presentations and speed talks for the 2021 EnviroCon research conference.

The following is copied from The WIRE:

EnviroCon is an annual interdisciplinary conference organized by the Centre for Environment and Sustainability. It offers an opportunity for graduate students to present their work to a diverse audience of researchers focusing on environment and sustainably issues. We welcome students from any and all departments and disciplines.

The virtual conference will take place on March 26, 2021, and there are no fees associated with this event.

Presenters and attendees are required to register at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/envirocon-2021-tickets-140285171725

Abstracts can be submitted HERE (deadline for abstracts is February 26, 2021).

LEARN MORE

Questions can be directed to uwoenvirocon@gmail.com.

Canadian Digital Research Infrastructure – Needs Assessment

The New Digital Research Infrastructure Organization (NDRIO) is pleased to announce the launch of a nation-wide survey, as part of the Canadian Digital Research Infrastructure Needs Assessment. This survey is open to all Canadian researchers, regardless of their current use of digital infrastructure, and will be available until Monday, February 22.

From undergraduate students and early-stage researchers to established scholars, scientists and researchers – no matter the discipline – the hope is to reach the broader Canadian research community to understand their unique, individual needs as relates to digital research infrastructure (DRI). While the survey is specifically targeted toward DRI end users, NDRIO welcomes feedback from all members of the research community.

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete, and will help inform the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan.

NDRIO works with its partners to harmonize and improve Canada’s DRI services and tools for Canadian researchers to support scientific excellence, academic research and innovation across disciplines.

If you have any questions about the survey, or the ongoing Needs Assessment consultation process, please contact us at research_recherche@EngageDRI.ca.