Submitted by Emma Bonsall on Mon, 08/01/2018 - 10:08
During 2017 we have gradually been making some improvements and additions to the professional activities module in Elements. New categories have been added, and previous ones merged or adapted to simplify the structure. Wherever possible pre-existing records have been transferred to the new categories.
A major new development is the addition of three pre-populated categories; Cambridge festivals, using event data directly from the Cambridge Science Festival, Festival of Ideas and Open Cambridge; Research communications, containing details of articles which have appeared on the Research Communications area of the www.cam.ac.uk website; and finally the 227 impact case studies submitted to REF2014, which uses (and links to) the final text published on the HEFCE website.
These pre-populated entries cannot be edited, but can be linked to other activity; for example, a University press release or news item may have resulted in a radio interview, which should be recorded separately within the Public engagement and communications section and linked.
There are now over 2,000 entries in the Cambridge festivals category, covering 2014 to 2017. 2013 will follow shortly. There are now more than 1,000 entries in the Research communications category, covering 2015-2017 and we are working our way backwards!
Where possible, the new structure has been designed to be compatible with and facilitate responses to external reporting requirements, such as the Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI) and we would be happy to discuss how we might be able to assist with any other regular reports you need to produce.
In all cases, your help is needed to connect other objects within Elements to these entries, as limited information is available as to the personnel involved, publications or grants which may be relevant or records of impact which may have been submitted to the institutional repository.
More information about the new framework and the thinking behind it can be found on our Moodle course here.