Exeter’s Vice Chancellor, Sir Steve Smith, visited USF on 2 March to renew partnership agreements and launch the Research Catalyst Fund.
Graduate School of Education to launch joint projects with University of South Florida
Two projects in the Graduate School of Education (GSE) will receive funding through the newly established Exeter / University of South Florida Research Catalyst Fund. The Exeter / USF Research Catalyst Fund provides grants of up to £8000 to support joint research or education initiatives between the two institutions. Academics in GSE have a long history of collaborating with colleagues at USF and this funding will allow for the development two exciting new initiatives.
The first project will create a new Doctoral Exchange between Exeter and USF. Project Leads Phil Durrant (Exeter) and Nicole Tracy-Ventura (USF) are both linguists who use a particular research methodology called corpus linguistics, which involves using computers to analyse large collections of texts. USF is home to the MyReviewers writing interface, a project which has led to the collection of the world's largest corpus of post-secondary student writing. The new Doctoral Exchange will see an Exeter PhD student visit USF in Autumn 2018 to work with the MyReviewers Team and review the corpus, with a USF PhD student visiting Exeter the following Spring. Co-authored papers will be the result of both visits and a large bid for external funding is intended to follow.
The second project is the creation of long-term collaborators Phyllis Jones (USF) and Hazel Lawson (Exeter). Here, the focus will be on bringing together both institutions significant expertise for a series of research seminars entitled Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Inclusive Education. In this case, a research assistant will be employed at both Exeter and USF to carry out a study into inclusion in their respective home countries. Themes and results will be discussed at a USF based seminar, to be hosted in December 2018, and an Exeter based seminar in the Summer of 2019. Through both face-to-face and virtual participation, around 50 academics and PhD students from both universities will have the opportunity to attend each session. In addition to bringing together the expertise of researchers in Exeter’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Research Centre with their counterparts at USF, this project will also look to produce co-authored publications and lead to future funding bids.
Exeter’s Vice Chancellor, Sir Steve Smith, visited USF on March 2nd to renew partnership agreements and launch the Research Catalyst Fund. He said… “the catalyst fund supports activities that enhance research capacity and impact through international collaboration. The successful GSE projects will bring internationally renowned academics together, to work jointly with research students in areas of vital importance to the fields of Linguistics and SEN. This kind of international engagement really strengthens the work we do at Exeter and adds new, exciting dimensions to our PhD programmes. We’re delighted to be able to support the teams in GSE.”
Date: 7 March 2018