{"id":375,"date":"2022-01-21T14:28:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T14:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/?p=375"},"modified":"2022-01-21T14:28:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T14:28:23","slug":"ra-catchup-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/2022\/01\/21\/ra-catchup-event\/","title":{"rendered":"RA Catchup Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On December 9th 2021, Research Assistants (RAs) met in Bristol for dinner ahead of the final Supergen networking event before the new year. On the 10th, in the magnificent \u2018Engine Shed\u2019 events hub, RAs presented research updates to their colleagues and discussed the possibility of collaborative research efforts in the future. This RA catchup event was an opportunity to share their achievements, progress, and ideas with others in the Supergen network. It was also a reminder of breadth of expertise among Supergen\u2019s researchers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI personally consider that the team has a unique range of skills and research interests\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Andrei-Nicolas Manea<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The opportunity to share ideas and receive feedback from colleagues with different research interests showed a real strength of the Structure of the Supergen network. The multidisciplinary research team was able to offer a range of insights that very few other workshops could.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI shared my recent work and got meaningful feedback, thanks to this forum\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Wie Gan<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Throughout a difficult 2021, the RAs in the wider Supergen network have shown themselves to be resilient to the challenges facing academic enquiry. Despite these hurdles, RAs have managed to continue their research, produce new papers and disseminate their work at conferences and COP events. Meeting face to face, after an extended period dominated by online networking events, therefore came as a welcome change:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt was fantastic to meet other researchers face to face, having only very limited opportunities to do so since starting my PhD\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Jonathan Amirmadhi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was great to meet colleagues after almost 2 years of remote working\u201d \u2013 <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Muditha Abeyseker.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Once those who presented their research had done so, the event ended with a discussion, chaired by Laiz Souto, on the future direction of the Supergen RA investigations, specifically <em>\u2018what understanding, shaping and challenging is still required for a move towards Net Zero?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Discussants covered several topics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The role of energy networks\/companies in future decision making.<\/li>\n<li>The financial burden of upgrading\/developing networks.<\/li>\n<li>The transportation of energy throughout the country.<\/li>\n<li>The concerns of energy firms\/distributors regarding risk.<\/li>\n<li>Possible energy futures, and what an integrated energy future might look like.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Discussants mentioned that more interactions with policymakers\/regulators would be beneficial and that their suggestions could be directly investigated and tested by Supergen RAs. Summarising these discussions, it was suggested that RAs should meet again for further workshops and should work towards coauthoring a piece of work that could be presented to appropriate policymakers\/regulators. This idea has been very well received among the RAs:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI am excited to see how the group could produce a coherent collaborative piece of work\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Jonathan Amirmadhi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLots of opportunities are present for further collaboration between each of the different institutions, and there is a feeling among the researchers that we could bring our ideas together to deliver a single body of work\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Daniel Carr<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Overall, the event demonstrated the importance of face-to-face meetings for large projects, especially those with researchers from different academic institutions with a range of research interests. The entire catchup event was optimistic, constructive, and set the foundations for future collaborations. It is hoped that, in the coming year, Supergen RAs will be able to meet more frequently, supporting each other&#8217;s research.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI hope to continue to communicate with my friends and colleagues and do more for the Supergen project together\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Wei Gan<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe was real enthusiasm for the work that we are all doing, and I am looking forward to future face to face meetings over the duration of the research project\u201d &#8211; <span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Daniel Carr<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-376\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/files\/2022\/01\/RA-10-Dec-300x228.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"394\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/files\/2022\/01\/RA-10-Dec-300x228.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/files\/2022\/01\/RA-10-Dec.jpg 473w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Attendees:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Daniel Carr, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Nicolas Manea, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Laiz Souto, Bristol<\/li>\n<li>Amirreza Azimipoor, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Wei Gan, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Jonathan Amirmadhi, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Andrei Manea, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Muditha Abeyseker, Cardiff<\/li>\n<li>Richard Oduro, Leeds<\/li>\n<li>Minghao Xu, Bath<\/li>\n<li>Phil Taylor, Bristol<\/li>\n<li>Furong Li, Bath<\/li>\n<li>Jack Dury, Bristol<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 9th 2021, Research Assistants (RAs) met in Bristol for dinner ahead of the final Supergen networking event before the new year. On the 10th, in the magnificent \u2018Engine Shed\u2019 events hub, RAs presented research updates to their colleagues and discussed the possibility of collaborative research efforts in the future. This RA catchup event &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/2022\/01\/21\/ra-catchup-event\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">RA Catchup Event<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6716,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,64,62,63,22],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-energy-networks","tag-event","tag-ra","tag-researchers","tag-supergen-energy-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/supergenenhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}