Castles and Coprolites

One of the most formative aspects of my academic career has been my involvement in grant assessment. Like many researchers, I began by reviewing journal articles - once you have published a couple of papers, you find yourself being asked to review others on similar topics. Over time, I started to take up opportunities to review grant proposals, and this has become a central and enriching part of my professional life. The first grants I reviewed were for a European programme in 2014, where I was invited by recommendation from a colleague - they needed someone with environmental archaeology experience who could review a handful of proposals with a quick turnaround. I was still very much an early career researcher, just a couple of years out from finishing my PhD. I was thrilled that my expertise was being recognised in this way, and it is a responsibility I took very seriously. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide range of funders, both in the UK and international...

Over the past few years, the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) has emerged as an alternative to the traditional academic CV in research funding applications, and has been adopted by major funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust. This format is intended to rethink how we present our careers and contributions, with the idea being that the R4RI format is more inclusive and allows us to demonstrate a wider range of contributions. I have mixed feelings around it. I certainly agree that we need to value a wider range of experience and contributions, but I have some reservations about the format’s effectiveness and accessibility. The R4RI is basically a narrative-based CV that encourages researchers to describe their work across four key areas: contributions to the generation of knowledge, development of individuals and teams, contribution to the wider research community, and contribution to broader society.  It is designed to recognise a broader range of contributions, inclu...

It finally happened. After continuously posting since 2012, 2024 was the first year I didn't make a single blog post. To be fair, 2022 and 2023 weren't exactly prolific either, but I did manage a handful of posts. There is an explanation for this. 2024 overall was a incredibly stressful year, and I didn't manage to get much of anything done, as most of my time was taken up trying to solve a rather major problem. Back in 2021 I was lucky to apply successfully for an AHRC Capability for Collections grant , to establish NEMCAS (formerly Newcastle Material Culture Analytical Suite). Over the following 3 years, I worked hard with my technical team and colleagues to build up our portfolio of research in the facility, and build collaborations with museum partners in the north-east. I also worked very hard developing a relationship with the AHRC, as part of my vision for NEMCAS was to integrate into the new RICHeS programme that we knew was on the horizon. RICHeS ( Research Infras...

I am excited to announce a new AHRC research project starting at Newcastle  in January,   TerraSAgE: Terraces as Sustainable Agricultural Environments .The project is led by PI Prof. Sam Turner, and I am one of the project coIs, overseeing the geoarchaeological aspects of the project. Sam and his team have been doing pilot studies for this project for a while now, developing a new OSL dating method to understand the chronology and formation of agricultural terraces from prehistory to historic periods. I became involved in the project last year to advise on geoarchaeological and soil science approaches to the analysis of archaeological and historic terraces. The major aims of the project are to understand how and when terraces were constructed and how they were maintained and managed, and how this varies in different geographic regions, and in different time periods. We also want to understand why terracing developed, and conversely, why it was abandoned in some places but not...

For the past year I've been involved in the organisation of the 5th biennial  Landscape Archaeology Conference , which is being held this week at Newcastle and Durham. It's a step up from organizing DIG2017 last year , which had around 100 participants, compared to LAC's estimated 300. The timing has been rather unfortunate for a number of reasons. Firstly my pregnancy, which means I was unable to attend the drinks reception at the wonderful Wylam Brewery . I love this venue and have been trying to get an event organised here for ages, so am a bit gutted I missed out on it. There are many people I would have liked to catch up with, including plenary speaker Dr Nicki Whitehouse . But the main reason I've been absent from LAC is that I had another important event this week - an interview for an ERC consolidator grant , which happened to clash with the full day Geoarchaeology and Landscape session I was supposed to be co-chairing at LAC. Many thanks to Dr John Blong for...

Following a discussion elsewhere on the interwebs, I thought it might be useful to create a list of postdoc funding opportunities in the UK, distinguishing between those which are open to UK, EU and international applicants. All of these fund various aspects of archaeology, though some are more geared towards science than others so you will need to make sure your topic fits the remit. Having been a reviewer for several postdoc applications, I should emphasise that all of these are extremely competitive, and the best thing you can do to increase your chance of success is to have a plan for building your CV during your PhD, beyond the 'minimum' requirements. For all of these awards the criteria center on supporting individuals who show ability to become independent researchers, and that means you have to provide evidence that you are heading in that direction. So what sort of evidence are reviewers looking for? This includes most obviously, making sure that you have published...

Hello blogging friends, and apologies yet again for the lack of updates. Did I mention that I was on sabbatical at the moment? You would think this would mean more time to do blogging, but in fact it has been a whirlwind of catch up for the NERC and Wellcome Trust projects, both of which have gone amazingly well and have produced some really exciting results. So I've been busy working with the team to start writing up results, presenting at conferences, and crucially, applying for more grants to keep the research going (and keep everyone employed...). Tangentially related to this is some good news - firstly, I passed my 2 year probation period at Newcastle (I've been here 2 years and 7 months now), and in the same week, I also found out I am being promoted to Senior Lecturer. Hurray! I think the 2 grants went a long way towards getting that promotion. And this is where luck yet again plays a role in an academic career, even after getting over the many hurdles it takes to actua...

If you follow me on twitter you may have seen a series of posts over this year relating to a NERC application I submitted. From writing the thing, >10,000 words (that's a whole undergraduate dissertation!), going through the internal review process, finally submitting it in January. Then anxiously waiting for reviewer feedback, frantically responding to reviewer queries within a very short time frame, then waiting for another couple of months to hear...the amazing news that I was awarded the grant! When the administrative process is complete, I'll write a proper post about the project and what it is we hope to do, but for now I wanted to tell the story of how I ended up working on a project that initially seems far removed from working on Neolithic middens in the Near East, or even Neolithic pottery in Britain. I like this story, as it goes to show how opportunities turn up in strange ways, often when you don't expect them, and that the research process can take you in ...

I can't believe it's already June, getting close to a year in my job at Newcastle . I can't even call it my new job anymore! It's been an amazing year so far. Even though I have been swamped with designing new modules and getting used to the teaching and admin processes here, I have really enjoyed everything. I even managed to get some research related activities in. I applied for a NERC new investigator grant back in January, which in itself was a learning process. 10,000 words in total for that application, and that wasn't even the hard part; sorting out the finances for an international project split between two institutions (my co-I is at Bristol) was more of a headache that I expected. Then the reviewing process, oh the reviewing process. Despite being told that being interdisciplinary is one of my major strengths, and I do believe that it leads to better, more innovative research, it makes things surprisingly hard when it comes to applying for funding. There...