Reproduction SRI funding is confirmed for another three years

We are delighted to announce that the Reproduction SRI has received another three years of funding from the University, following a report and presentation to the Research Policy Committee (RPC) by the SRI Chairs. Feedback from the RPC was very positive, and noted that they were "impressed by the span of disciplines and approaches involved in the SRI" as well as "the SRI’s considerable achievements over its lifetime, in particular its work in communications and events and building a genuinely cross-disciplinary research community with an emphasis on the training and development of Early Career Researchers."

We are very grateful to all the members who shared information about their research and other activities with us recently, and to everybody who filled in our members' feedback survey. Your responses gave us some hugely useful information about the benefits and impact of SRI membership (see below), as well as some ideas about how we can become even more useful to researchers in future (see below)

Member survey results

Thank you to everyone who completed our member survey at the end of last year. We found your feedback both helpful and encouraging, and plan to make this an annual exercise.

When asked about the impact of SRI membership, respondents were very supportive overall, with many identifying several benefits of joining the SRI:

Above: the percentage of respondents who feel that their membership has brought this benefit

Your feedback about the impact that the SRI has had on your work was also strongly positive, and reflected the efforts that we have made to promote interdisciplinary research in reproduction, and to bring researchers together to create a more unified community in Cambridge:

When asked how the SRI could further support researchers, there was an overwhelming demand for more interdisciplinary events, especially those that aim to promote networking. Other popular requests were for more channels for researchers to disseminate work (e.g. through videos, podcasts or publications), and small grants to allow early-stage research. We have taken all of this feedback on board, and are planning an exciting programme of activities for the next three years in response to this demand.

External Advisory Board 

We are delighted to announce that the Reproduction SRI has appointed an External Advisory Board, to help us develop through the next funding period. The Board's remit is to advise "on all aspects of the programme, policy, activities and future directions of the SRI, and in particular to assist SRI in raising the institutional, national and international profile of research and other activity in the field of reproduction at the University of Cambridge."

The new Board comprises seven distinguished academics, practitioners and policy experts with expertise in a wide-range of reproduction-related areas, including basic science, maternal-fetal health, law, history, policy and society. The members are:

• Professor Alison Bashford (UNSW Sydney, Australia)
• Professor Emily Jackson (LSE, UK)
• Professor Marian Knight (University of Oxford, UK)
• Professor Robin Lovell-Badge (Francis Crick Institute, UK)
• Ms Sarah Norcross (Progress Educational Trust, UK)
• Dr Olufemi Oladapo (WHO, Switzerland)
• Professor Ayo Wahlberg (Copenhagen University)

The inaugural Board meeting will be on 2 July, and we hope to welcome some of the Board members to the SRI annual meeting on the same day, to find out more about our activities.

New SRI funding opportunities 

The call for our new funding schemes will open next week, on 2 March. The new schemes are:

The Incubator Fund provides seed funding of up to £5,000 to support novel or exploratory interdisciplinary research into any aspect of reproduction.

The Conceptions Fund provides grants of up to £5,000 for early career researchers to run their own creative interdisciplinary project around the theme of reproduction.

The Development Fund supports early career researchers in their professional development by providing small grants for training and other development activities.

The Events Fund provides grants to support interdisciplinary events and other activities in the area of reproduction research.

More information about each scheme, including information about how to apply, will be available on the SRI website from Thursday 4 March.

The Cambridge BabyLab, based in the Department of Psychology, has launched a project to understand the physical, psychological and social impacts of COVID-19 on expectant and new parents, and how young infants are affected by changes in the way that we interact with others.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected what it is like to be pregnant and give birth through changes to the availability of social support networks and health services. The COVID in the Context of Pregnancy, Infancy and Parenting (CoCoPIP) study is recruiting mothers and fathers who are expecting or have recently had a baby, to find out about their experiences of becoming a parent during the COVID pandemic. Participants will be invited to complete an online questionnaire every three months, to capture how their experiences vary during different stages of pregnancy and parenting.

The mobile app Dish Life: The Game, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, has been nominated in the Best Educational Game category at the 2021 Pocket Gamer Awards.

In Dish Life: The Game you put the lab coat on and experience first-hand the life of a stem cell scientist. This game is unique in its focus on the laboratory as a social world, where good science depends on the social relationships that scientists build. The game was developed by an interdisciplinary team at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) and the Stem Cell Institute, who were also behind the award-winning documentary Dish Life (2016).

The Pocket Gamer Awards are a celebration of the best in mobile games; the awards will be announced on 16 March.

Survey on international surrogacy arrangements

Cambridge Family Law is undertaking a research project on the experiences of individuals involved in international surrogacy arrangements. We are looking for information from those who became parents through surrogacy; intended parents from surrogacy; surrogates; agencies and NGOs involved in surrogacy arrangements; and legal practitioners who work in this field.

The aim of this study is to provide a more in depth understanding of the issues faced by those undertaking international surrogacy agreements. The information obtained from this survey will help develop a new set of guidelines and advice for those entering into such arrangements, in conjunction with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK Government.

New videos on our YouTube channel

Click on the photos to watch the latest videos from Cambridge Reproduction SRI.

Two distinguished archaeologists are appointed annually as the Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecturers. Pre-pandemic the lectures were delivered to twenty-seven local North American societies. The 2020-21 series is being delivered remotely.

Rebecca’s Joukowsky lectures are on the theme of Having Babies in Antiquity: Promotion, Planning and Intervention and Anatomy as Religion: The Body in Ancient Italian Votive practice.

For a recent publication on a similar theme see the open access preprint: ‘Fertility control in ancient Rome’, Women’s History Review 2020.

New network members

We were delighted to welcome the following new members to our SRI network in January 2021:

Dr Edmée Ballif (Sociology)
Ms Marta Ibáñez Lligoña (PDN)
Dr Anastasios Mastrokolias (Babraham Institute)
Miss Gabrielle Oxley (MRC Toxicology Unit)
Mr Liam Webb (PDN)

Please send details of any forthcoming events to the SRI Coordinator, for inclusion on our website and in our newsletter. There is a full events listing on our website.

As Small as a Grain of Barley: The Bourbon State and the Caesarean Operation in New Spain, 1771-1810s

Tuesday 2 March, 5 - 6.30 pm
Online

The speaker is Elizabeth O'Brien (Johns Hopkins).
external event

Early Researchers Seminar Series (ERSS)

Thursday 11 March, 1 - 2 pm
Online

This month's seminar will be presented by Jinal Dadiya (Law) and Su Young Han (PDN). Pre-registration is essential. All are very welcome!

Cambridge Reproduction Forum
 

Imaging Reproduction: a cross-disciplinary conversation

Tuesday 16 March, 3.30 - 5 pm
Online

We welcome you to the next Cambridge Reproduction Forum, which will be on Imaging Reproduction. Visual dimensions of reproduction are central to the work of many members across our network. Whether you study fertility atlases or fetal imagery in abortion debates, whether you produce images of reproductive cells or use them in public health initiatives, the visual plays a key role. In this cross-disciplinary conversation we will share our experiences in order to build new networks and exchange insights about imaging reproduction at Cambridge.

Cambridge Festival 2021: booking now open!

The new, interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival (replacing the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas) will take place from 26 March to 4 April 2021. The festival will primarily be digital in 2021 – to enable wide-reaching engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cambridge Reproduction SRI has four exciting events planned for the Festival. Booking has now opened for these events, so reserve your tickets now!

For more information about Cambridge Reproduction SRI @ the Cambridge Festival, and to see other reproduction-related events taking place at the Festival, please see the Festival page on our website.

Anne McLaren Symposium 2021
 

Synthetic gametes and germline development for science and society

Tuesday 23 March, 10.00 am - 4.45 pm
Online

There are still tickets available for the 2021 Anne McLaren meeting about in vitro gametogenesis!

Speakers include: Thorsten Boroviak (Cambridge), Robert Bud (Science Museum), Sarah Chan (Edinburgh), Mary Herbert (Newcastle), Naoko Irie (Cambridge), Emily Jackson (LSE), Amarpreet Kaur (Cambridge), Robin Lovell-Badge (Francis Crick Institute), Noémie Merleau-Ponty (CNRS/Cambridge), Azim Surani (Cambridge) and Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz (Cambridge)

Glucocorticoids, developmental programming and ageing

Thursday 15 April, 3 - 4 pm
Online

Organised by Dr Peter Nathanielsz, University of Wyoming, USA and Professor Dino Giussani, University of Cambridge, UK.

Dr Kim Botting (University of Cambridge, UK) will review evidence for antenatal glucocorticoids therapy in programming adverse effects on the cardiovascular system of the adult offspring.

Dr Elena Zambrano (Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico) will discuss the role of glucocorticoids in programming changes in the pituitary-adrenal axis of the offspring in pregnancy complicated by under as well as over-nutrition, and the relationship between glucocorticoids and ageing trajectories of metabolic, behavioural and reproductive function.

Other events

The special status of Mary Warnock: from fertility treatment to embryo research
external event
14 April 2021, 5.30 - 7 pm


Cambridge Reproduction Forum
20 May 2021
SAVE THE DATE!

Cambridge Reproduction SRI annual meeting
2 July 2021
SAVE THE DATE!

Internal Call: Philip Leverhulme Prizes

Internal deadline: 8 March 2021

The Leverhulme Trust has announced the Philip Leverhulme Prizes. Each prize is worth £100,000 and the funding is available over 2 to 3 years. Nominees must hold either a permanent post or a long-term fellowship in a UK institution of higher education or research that would extend beyond the duration of the Philip Leverhulme Prize. Nominees should normally have been awarded their doctoral degree not more than ten years prior to the closing date for nominations.

Applications will be considered within the six broad subject areas available each year. The subject areas for 2021 are Classics, Earth Sciences, Physics, Politics and International Relations, Psychology, and Visual and Performing Arts.

Restricted call: Challenge-led KEN Pump Priming Fund

Internal deadline: 9 March 2021, 4pm

The eighth round of the Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) Pump Priming Funding Scheme is now open for application, and KEN colleagues are invited to apply for up to £20k of ‘pump priming’ funding for challenge-led activities, to support collaborative research between the University and industry.

Applications should be submitted by KEN colleagues as the lead applicant(s), so if you are interested in submitting an application to this fund, please contact Christina Rozeik in the first instance.

Restricted call: ESRC New Investigators Grant

Internal deadline: 22 March 2021

The ESRC have announced their New Investigators scheme. This scheme is suitable for early career researchers who have yet to make the transition to be an independent researcher. Proposals are welcome in any topic which falls within ESRC’s remit, including projects at the “interface with the wider sciences”, provided that social sciences accounts for at least 50% of the proposed research. The ESRC will award grants of between £100-300K (covered at 80%fEC). For full details please see the call specification.

There will be 3 internal calls every year (in March, June and October). Only applicants whose proposals have been approved and selected through the internal selection process will be allowed to proceed with submission of their applications to ESRC.

Restricted call: AMS Springboard round 7 (pre-announcement)

Indicative internal deadline: late March 2021

The Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) has notified us of the upcoming launch of Springboard – Round 7 (with a predicted opening date from 1 March 2021). This scheme aims to support newly independent biomedical scientists to launch their research careers.

Applicants may use experimental or theoretical approaches and be undertaking everything from basic laboratory research through clinical application to healthcare delivery, as long as the work reflects the Academy’s mission to improve human health through research.

This scheme includes funding of up to £100,000 over two years and access to the Academy’s acclaimed mentoring and career development programme.

Internal call: AHRC Impact Fund

Internal deadline: 19 April 2021

The Arts and Humanities Impact Fund invites applications for funding of up to £10,000 for impact projects in arts and humanities disciplines, as broadly defined within the remit of the AHRC. 

Applications are invited from any researcher active in the arts and humanities who holds a current contract of employment as a senior independent researcher – at the point of application – with the University. Relevant non-school institutional staff (such as from Museums or Libraries) on academic-related contracts are also eligible to apply.

Opening Lines: writing group 

Deadline: 12 March 2021

CRASSH is excited to announce the launch of ‘Opening Lines’, a writing group for Cambridge postdocs/early career researchers in arts, social sciences, and humanities writing their first books. The group will be run by Asiya Islam (Joyce Lambert Research Fellow, Newnham College, Cambridge) and it aims to provide support to first book writers through a sustained programme of writing and related activities, including weekly writing sessions, workshops on writing strategies led by a writing coach, sessions for peer feedback on drafts, and events with editors/publishers to learn more about the process of publishing. We hope that it will enable academic writers to improve their writing craft, set themselves goals, and work towards them in an environment of friendly accountability.

This is the first such group at the University of Cambridge and will, in the first instance, be run online from March to July 2021, with potential to continue into the academic year 2021-22. If accepted on to the first cohort of ‘Opening Lines’, you will be expected to be committed to participating in all the sessions as far as possible and your input will help to shape it.

CRASSH Research Networks Annual Competition

Deadline: 11 May 2021

The Research Networks programme offers funding of up to £1,500 per year, plus administrative assistance, a free venue and a platform for virtual and hybrid sessions to supports groups of Cambridge graduate students, Cambridge based academics (CTOs/UTOs) and postdoctoral researchers working together with a common interdisciplinary research interest.

The support to run your own network is available for the academic year (October 2021 to June 2022). Networks range in size from reading groups to full-scale symposia. Experimental forms of engagement are encouraged. Since its inception in 2006, the programme has hosted 71 Networks.

CTR placental biology course

The Centre for Trophoblast Research will again run its popular course in placental biology on 5-9 July 2021. 

This online course is aimed at students, post-docs, established researchers, medical & veterinary healthcare professionals and industry colleagues interested in cutting-edge placental biology and research.

Most content will be pre-recorded lectures and practical sessions given by investigators at the forefront of the placental biology field. There will be daily live Q&A sessions with the speakers, and opportunities to give talks and network.

Job opportunities in Cambridge

University Lecturer in Medical Anthropology

Deadline for applications: 5 March 2021

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Morphological Evolution Group

Deadline for applications: 8 March 2021

Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Epigenetics and Pluripotency (fixed-term)

Deadline for applications: 15 March 2021

Research Associate, Plant Sciences (fixed-term)

Deadline for applications: 15 March 2021

University Lecturer in Healthcare Systems

Deadline for applications: 6 April 2021

Please send details of recent publications relating to any aspect of reproduction to the SRI Coordinator, for inclusion in our newsletter.

Sabitri Ghimire, Veronika Mantziou, Naomi Moris and Alfonso Martinez Arias, ‘Human gastrulation: the embryo and its models’, Developmental Biology (in press, 20 January 2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2021.01.006.

Amarpreet Kaur, ‘The implications of the gender-based prohibitions relating to human germline genome editing in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act’, Reproductive BioMedicine Online 42(2): 457 – 462 (February 2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2020.11.009.

Amarpreet Kaur, ‘The rise of non-traditional pregnancies through assisted reproductive technologies’, British Journal of Midwifery 29(2) (February 2021). DOI: 10.12968/bjom.2021.29.2.82.

Clive J. Petry, Keith A. Burling, Peter Barker, Ieuan A. Hughes, Ken K. Ong and David B. Dunger, ‘Pregnancy serum DLK1 concentrations are associated with indices of insulin resistance and secretion’, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, dgab123 (online first, 26 February 2021). DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgab123.
R. Sanchez-Rivera, ‘The Making of “La Gran Familia Mexicana”: Eugenics, Gender, and Sexuality in Mexico’, Journal of Historical Sociology (early view, 2021). DOI: 10.1111/johs.12308.

Amanda N. Sferruzzi-Perri, ‘Placental mitochondria central to gestational diabetes pathogenesis?’, 599(4): 1019–1020 (February 2021). DOI: 10.1113/JP281041.  

Ulla Sovio and Gordon C.S. Smith, ‘Comparison of estimated fetal weight percentiles near term for predicting extremes of birthweight percentile’, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 224(3): 292.e1–292.e19 (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.08.054.

Benedikt Strunz, Jonna Bister, Hanna Jönsson, Iva Filipovic, Ylva Crona-Guterstam, Egle Kvedaraite, Natalie Sleiers, Bogdan Dumitrescu, Mats Brännström, Antonio Lentini, Björn Reinius, Martin Cornillet, Tim Willinger, Sebastian Gidlöf, Russell S. Hamilton, Martin A. Ivarsson and Niklas K. Björkström, ‘Continuous human uterine NK cell differentiation in response to endometrial regeneration and pregnancy’, Science Immunology 6(56): eabb7800 (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abb7800.

Dawei Sun,  Lewis Evans, Kyungtae Lim and Emma L. Rawlins, ‘A functional genetic toolbox for human tissue-derived organoids’, bioRxiv (24 February, 2021). DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.04.076067.

Meng Zhu, Jake Cornwall-Scoones, Peizhe Wang, Charlotte E Handford, Jie Na, Matt Thomson and Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, ‘Developmental clock and mechanism of de novo polarization of the mouse embryo’ Science 370(6522): eabd2703 (11 December 2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abd2703.