College of Social Sciences

Before you can start any research project involving human participants, material or data in the College, you have to get approval from the College of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (PGR and Staff) or your School’s Ethics Forum (UG and PGT). View the resources below to ensure you are aware of the ethical review process.

Resources:

• Ethics - this page contains guidance on College of Social Sciences ethical review process.
• Ethics Contacts - this page contains a list of ethics contacts on a College and School level.

Research excellence at the University of Glasgow is underpinned by research integrity. View the courses and resources below to find out what research integirty means and ensure you are adhereing to good research practice.

Courses:

• Staff Research Integrity - this Moodle course is recommended for all academic staff, technical staff and research administrators, and is mandatory for new research staff and staff on the Early Career Development programme (ECDP).

Resources:

• Research Integrity - this page sets out the policies, procedures, and resources to support research integrity.
• Research Integrity Champions & Advisers - this page lists the research integrity champions and advisors for the College of Social Sciences.

Collaborative and interdisciplinary research is an important mode of working that offers exciting opportunities to be part of impactful research teams, and is vitally important in attracting research funding. Browse the workshops below to see how you can best approach and engage with collaborative research.

Workshops:

The University of Glasgow is committed to promoting equality in all its activities and aims to provide a work, learning, research and teaching environment free from discrimination and unfair treatment. View the resources below to ensure you are embedding equality and diversity in your research.

Courses:

• Equality and Diversity Unit - browse through range of equality and diversity courses, such as managing diversity and implementing reasonable adjustments.

Resources:

• Equality & Diversity - HR's equality and diversity webpages contain a vast range of resources, from training courses to legislation, policy and strategy.
• Additional Diversity Related Learning Resources - this page lists further informative internal and external resources.

The importance of interdisciplinarity

Our academic environment is increasingly demanding research that addresses big issues from multiple perspectives. This encourages us to join with colleagues from other disciplines to fully realise the potential of research. 

What are the College's interdisciplinary research themes?

Interdisciplinary research themes are designed to be inclusive spaces to encourage and support interdisciplinary research across (and beyond) the College of Social Science. They organise events, support colleagues looking for funding, identify potential synergies, and help establish collaborations.

Our current themes and their contact email addresses are:

How do I become a member of a theme?

The themes don’t have members – they are not research groups or centres. Rather, each theme represents a community of interest in that topic. If your research (past or planned) fits with that topic, then you are already “part of” that theme. The themes do have leadership teams who help direct activities, but they are not members. Their role is to ensure the theme is as useful as possible to researchers in that area.

My work related to more than one theme. Do I have to pick one?

Some of the themes, especially where they relate to tricky or “wicked” problems, may overlap. As a researcher, you can engage with as many themes as you like – someone interested in wellbeing might attend a networking event organised by Addressing Inequalities, a seminar on urban planning from Challenges in Changing Cities, and a grant application work in progress session organised the Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making. That’s exactly how the themes should work – we are here to help people join the dots, not put people in boxes.

What do the theme leaders do?

The themes each have a leadership team, drawn from different schools and career stages, who design and implement the core activity programme for that theme. This involves running seminars, workshops, networking or skills development in areas where we have identified a need to support interdisciplinary working. They also work closely with colleagues in Research Development to identify and share funding calls or other opportunities that would be of interest to researchers working across the whole theme.

Can anyone go to a theme event?

All events are advertised across the college, and are generally open to everyone interested in that topic (some events may be targeted to specific career stages; if so this will be clearly stated). If you would like to make sure you get updates (including funding calls and invitations to share your work) directly, you can sign up to their mailing list by contacting the relevant theme (s).

Can I contact the themes about my own idea?

Yes! This is a really important part of the themes’ remit. As well as their core activity programme, each theme also has a “responsive mode” to ensure researchers across the college benefit from the support of the IRTs. If you have an idea for an event or research project that is relevant to one or more of the college themes and would like more information on how we can support this, please get in touch. Options include:

• Helping you plan and/ or communicate your own workshops
• Identifying potential funding schemes that best fit with your research plans
• Providing mentoring or additional review for grant applications
• Highlighting your work to internal and external audiences
• Connecting you with colleagues or collaborators.

More than anything, the themes are a place where you can talk through your ideas and access new perspectives. So please do get in touch! And of course, all researchers are welcome to reference the IRTs as part of the context for their research at Glasgow, when applying for funding.

You can find each theme’s planned events and core activity programme for 2022 on their website.