February 2026 round-up

Another month of contrasting travels: starting with a trip to Portugal for a funeral (on my birthday) and ending with a trip to Milan for the Olympics (a birthday present).

There was also time with friends, coffee with colleagues, theatre, puzzles and flowers.

Research

I had discussions with different colleagues about some potential research grant applications. One of these was with a former PhD student, which feels particularly rewarding.

I also reviewed the data collection instrument for a study, and applied for a sandpit.

Writing

I submitted two journal articles and worked on a conference paper.

The white paper on the use of Generative AI for decision making in high-risk environments has been published. 

And the resource that the AI working group of the ESRC doctoral training partnership training network (DTP-TN), of which I am a member, has developed, is also live, here.

Teaching

This was a busy teaching month!

I designed new class tasks, which meant re-doing most of my slides for this module. I also wrote two assessment briefs, based on real data from a company. Did some marking, and reviewed 5 chapters / paper drafts from doctoral students.

Service

The key activity in my SeNSS role, this month, has been to analyse students’ yearly development needs assessment. 

In my ethics role, I reviewed various applications and had discussions about an online resource. But annoyingly, I realised that I either failed to record or lost the recording of an information session that I had hosted ealier in the year.

I also reviewed some abstracts for the track that I am co-hosting, at the ServSig conference. And reviewed colleagues’ papers as part of our preparation for the REF assessment exercise. 

What did February have in store for you?