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Coronavirus (COVID-19) special newsletter

I hope this email finds you well. I appreciate that you are probably already overwhelmed with information relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the University’s response to it, so I have tried to keep it as brief as possible! This is just a quick update to let you all know how the Reproduction SRI is responding to the changed working conditions, and to pass on some relevant information to you all. If you have any comments or questions about the items in this newsletter, or about the SRI's activities over the next few months, please contact Christina Rozeik (srirepro@hermes.cam.ac.uk).

Events

We have had to cancel a number of events that were due to be held in March – June this year. Some of these have been rescheduled so that we can (hopefully!) hold the physical events as originally planned:

The workshop Maternal Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa has been postponed and we are hoping to hold it in Newnham College on Monday 28 September 2020 (depending on how far the COVID-19 pandemic has resolved by then).

The Anne McLaren Symposium on Synthetic Gametes and Germline Development for Science and Society has also been postponed and will be held in Christ’s College on Tuesday 23 March 2021.

The rest of our events for the academic year 2019–20 will now be held online. Forthcoming events include:

Friday 1 May, 2–4 pm. Online workshop to launch our new research theme “Inheritance, Development and Environment”. The programme will include short talks from a range of multi-disciplinary speakers, followed by a general discussion.

Tuesday 5 May, 2–4 pm. Cambridge Reproduction Forum. This will take place as planned, but with a shortened online programme.

We are also developing a programme of online events and new content for our website – watch this space!

Communicating coronavirus and reproduction

Some of our SRI members have been in the news recently, talking about the effects of coronavirus on reproductive issues:

The Physiology Society has made a video about pregnancy and coronavirus, featuring scientific advice from Dr Erica Watson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n8C1mYca7k
SRI affiliate Dr Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar has written a column for The Telegraph (India) about coronavirus, pregnancy and IVF: https://www.telegraphindia.com/calcutta/coronavirus-pregnancy-and-in-vitro-fertilisation/cid/1760108

Funding opportunities (Coronavirus-related)

Open Call for Research and Innovation Ideas to address Covid-19
Following Sir Mark Walport’s recent open letter to the Research and Innovation community, a call is now open inviting proposals for short term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Please see https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/ukri-open-call-for-research-and-innovation-ideas-to-address-covid-19/

Impact of Coronavirus on UKRI Supported Research
For guidance on the Impact of Coronavirus on UKRI Supported research, please see here: https://www.ukri.org/news/coronavirus-impact-on-ukri-supported-research/. It would be useful to refer back to this and the UKRI Coronavirus Hub for further updates as the situation evolves.

Internal funding opportunity: GCRF QR 2020–21
Applications are invited to the University’s GCRF QR internal funding call for the academic year 2020-21 for activities running from 1^st August 2020 (Round 5) until 31^st July 2021. Please note that funding is pending Research England confirming the GCRF QR 20/21 allocation.

A wide range of initiatives compliant with the UKRI Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines to promote the economic development and welfare of ODA eligible countries will be supported.

Please note that applications to this scheme addressing COVID-19 may be fast tracked. Please contact GCRFteam@admin.cam.ac.uk for further details or by sending the application directly to GCRFteam@admin.cam.ac.uk.

COVID-19 outbreak expert database

Over the past few weeks, Parliament has seen a surge in need for access to research expertise as it engages with the COVID-19 outbreak. In this rapidly evolving situation, Parliament needs quick access to researchers who can provide expert insights relating to both Coronavirus and its impacts. Parliament and Parliamentarians use these insights to help carry out their function effectively; that is to say, to represent the people, scrutinise the Government, debate important and pressing issues and pass legislation.

To speed up the process of Parliament accessing relevant research expertise, Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit (KEU) are creating a COVID-19 Outbreak Expert Database. If you feel you have any expertise relating to the COVID-19 outbreak or its impacts, the KEU would be very grateful if you would sign up to the database. Signing up does not commit you to contributing in anyway, it’s simply so that Parliament has your details to hand and can contact you very rapidly; if they contact you and you aren’t able to respond, they will fully understand.

A link to the sign-up form can be found here.

Rapid mapping of regional academic expertise and capacity to support the COVID-19 response

The East of England Population Health Research Hub would like to ask for your support to complete a rapid mapping to understand what academic skills are available regionally to support the COVID-19 response.

The Hub is in the process of collating research needs and questions from NHSE, Public Health England and Directors of Public Health and their teams within the region, and have identified the need for a quick and coordinated effort to map these research needs to capacity that may be available in the universities within the region to help support the COVID-19 response.

As such, the Hub would urgently like to understand what skills and capacity public health academics at the University of Cambridge may have to support the COVID-19 response, either through research or utilisation of existing core skills or whether your PhD or Masters’ students would have capacity to provide support as well.

Please complete the table (which you can download as a Word document from the SRI website) with the capabilities and capacity either yourself, your teams or PhD or Masters’ students may have to provide support towards the COVID-19 response, based on the sought after skills, expertise and experience areas listed in the table below.

If you have any questions please contact Caitlin Grant, Project Manager, East of England Population Health Research Hub: Caitlin.Grant@phe.gov.uk.

Download the reporting form as a Word document: https://www.repro.cam.ac.uk/downloads/rapid-mapping-regional-academic-expertise-and-capacity-support-covid-19-response

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Cambridge Reproduction · Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience · Downing Street · Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EL · United Kingdom