As part of our 180th anniversary celebrations, Queen's University Belfast's Arts and Sustainability Festival, 'Reach'25', returns from Wednesday 2 to Saturday 5 April with a bumper four-day programme of events taking place across the University campus.

The festival is open to staff, students, and members of the public and features events suitable for all ages, and will explore the interface of sustainability and art.

• View the programme of events here.

An exhibition of records from the Queen’s University Archive, relating to the history of Queen’s from its establishment in 1845, is now on display in The McClay Library.

This exhibition runs until Friday 30 May.

Good luck to all our colleagues shortlisted in this year's Staff Excellence Awards!

Staff interested in attending this year’s Awards on the afternoon of Friday 28 March are invited to register their interest via email to excellenceawards@qub.ac.uk. A light lunch will be served.

'Find Your Movement', led by Queen’s Sport and QUBeWell, is a university-wide initiative to encourage both students and staff to incorporate more movement into their daily lives through whatever activity they enjoy. Colleagues are encouraged to get involved and support this initiative in a variety of ways.

The University is currently advertising the following position internally:

• 25/112458 – Government Affairs and Campaigns Officer, Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility

Staff can view internal and external vacancies through iTrent Employee Self-Service.

Ahead of the Easter break (18 April to 27 April inclusive), the cut-off date for all information to be included in April's pay run is Friday 4 April at 5.00pm.

Additionally, staff should note the following Accounts Payable arrangements over the Easter holiday period for paying authorised Supplier Invoices, Request for Payment and Staff Expenses Claims:

More information

The Spring Open Learning Programme is now available, with a great selection of short, part-time courses in a wide variety of subject areas including Creative Writing, Digital Photography, First Aid, History, Languages (French, German, Italian and Spanish), Leisure, Literature, Drama, Music, Personal Development, and Science. Classes start week beginning Tuesday 6 May.

The National Student Survey (NSS) is open until 30 April. The Student Surveys Team would like to see a response rate of 80% (current rate: 60%). All eligible students will have received their emails, texts and phonecalls from Ipsos asking them to complete the survey.

Any local promotion staff can provide will help Queen's reach its target and deliver representative results.

As part of our Find Your Movement initiative, Week 2 is all about Fitness Classes. With over 75 classes per week, Queen’s Sport offers something for everyone – whether you are looking to build strength, improve flexibility, or simply try something new.

Queen’s Sport offers a Pay & Play system exclusively for staff, allowing you to join classes with no long-term commitment. Find out more here.

Colleagues are reminded that no member of staff can book a room for their own external purposes.

Please do not make room bookings on behalf of an external organisation on a personal basis.

If there is any uncertainty about the appropriateness of a room booking, please email: roombookings@qub.ac.uk for guidance and support.

The inaugural Staff Sustainability Summit will take place on Wednesday 9 April from 11.00am to 12.15pm in-person at the Sonic Lab, SARC (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Music), Cloreen Park, Malone Road, and online.

This hybrid event aims to inform staff on how the University is progressing with its sustainability commitments, and provide staff with an opportunity to ask questions and share their views.

The One Elmwood Student Experience Team and the Staff Diversity and Inclusion Team invite staff and students to come together for a joyful and inclusive celebration of Eid al-Fitr in The Cube, First Floor, One Elmwood, on Monday 31 March, from 4.00pm to 6.30pm, for an evening of festivity and community.

• Please register here by Friday 28 March.*

Staff and students can use the Mobilityways car sharing app to save money and stress while reducing carbon impact. You can find car sharing matches based on location. The app is free to use and is user friendly with only a few simple steps to register your journey.

• Download the Mobilityways App here.

For the first four weeks of the new Mobilityways app, new members will be entered into the following weekly prize draws:

• 15 x £10 Amazon vouchers for new members
• 10 x £10 Amazon vouchers for members who ‘Trip Authenticate’

Colleagues from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and/or international backgrounds are invited to participate in a focus group aimed at exploring the results of the recent Racial Equity at Queen’s Survey. This focus group will take place on Tuesday 1 April from 10.00am to 11.00am in the Learning and Development Training Rooms, Main Site Tower (behind Junction Café).

Recent posts from Queen's Policy Engagement (QPol):

• The winner takes it all? Reflection on the election success of the Far-Right in Germany, by Dr Ulrike Vieten

The Conversation is a news website featuring articles by academics, often republished to global media outlets. Articles by Queen's academics published in The Conversation have been read by 12.5 million people internationally. Read the latest:

• J.D. Vance has become Trump's attack dog, but he's yet to prove himself a worthy successor, by Dr Richard Hargy

Read the latest staff news stories on the Staff News and Community Gateway:

• Lord Alderdice appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at the Mitchell Institute
• Engage with Nature and Horrible Histories this Spring with Queen’s short courses
• Over 20 subjects at Queen’s University Belfast rank in the world’s top 200 for 2025

Paul Curry joined Queen's in 1995 and became a member of the Staff Forum in 2019. He is the Operations and Compliance Manager at Queen's Sport and Staff Forum Representative for the Student and Campus Experience Directorate. Read Paul's Staff Forum profile:

• Profile: Student and Campus Experience Directorate Staff Forum Representative, Paul Curry

Academics and researchers from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) who would like to discuss a potential news story based on their research, or explore ways to engage with the media, are invited to schedule an online meeting here with Zara McBrearty, Faculty-Facing Communications Officer, and Colm Heatley, Research Communications Officer for AHSS.

The Mitchell Institute invites staff to the following events. Find out more and register at the links below:

• Workshop: Global Rhythms: Music, Modernity & Conflict, Thursday 27 and Friday 28 March, Peter Froggatt Centre (room 02/017) and 27 University Square (room 01/003)
• In Conversation Event: Alex Burghart MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Thursday 27 March, 12.30pm to 2.30pm, Peter Froggatt Centre (room 02.026)

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is launching the Translational Pump Priming Awards to support innovative research in heart, stroke, and circulatory diseases, including vascular dementia. These awards help bridge the gap between discovery and clinical application. This funding supports researchers in validating data and accelerating the development of promising technologies.

A training session giving an overview of the Open Access requirements for REF 2029 will take place on Tuesday 8 April from 11.00am to 11.30am via MS Teams. This session will also cover the procedure for uploading accepted manuscripts to Pure.

Staff should email openaccess@qub.ac.uk to book their place. Attendance is strongly encouraged.

Innovate UK ICURe DISCOVER is a 10-week, part-time, online, market discovery programme designed to support researchers and technicians in exploring their potential market. The April 2025 cohort will be delivered via a two-day virtual bootcamp followed by eight weeks of early-stage market engagement and discovery (total of 10 weeks, part-time).

Staff are invited to view the latest edition of the Research and Innovation Newsletter.

This newsletter provides the entire research community at Queen’s with information on the latest news, announcements and events related to their researcher journey and on Research and Innovation activities at Queen’s.

Details of ongoing works being carried out across the University campus can be found on the Estates Directorate webpage.

This week’s new and returning films at Queen’s Film Theatre, your cinema on campus.

SHOWING THIS WEEK:

• Visions of Europe: Flow
• Visions of Europe: Preview: When the Light Breaks
• Visions of Europe: Oh My Goodness!

The Naughton Gallery welcomes the Queen's community to the opening of REACH ’25, the University’s award-winning Arts and Sustainability Festival, on Wednesday 2 April from 6.00pm. This special event will mark the official launch of the Festival and the opening of two brand new exhibitions – one in the Naughton Gallery and another on the Quad Lawn – featuring the work of internationally renowned artists Ola Hassanain, Aidan Koch, and Joe Laverty. Admission is free and refreshments are provided.

Colleagues are invited to the following events, held at the Seamus Heaney Centre. Find out more at the links provided:

• Currents in Crime Fiction: Trans-Atlantic Translations (double-bill event), Tuesday 25 March, 4.00pm to 7.00pm
• Dane Holt Book Launch: Father's Father's Father, Thursday 27 March, 6.00pm to 7.30pm
• The Seamus Heaney Centre presents ... LAND (at the Imagine Festival of Ideas and Politics), Saturday 29 March, 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Queen’s students, clubs, and societies achieve amazing things, and the Students’ Union wants to celebrate them in this year's SU Awards. There are nine award categories, and students whose nominations are successfully shortlisted will be invited to an awards night in Mandela Hall where the winners will be revealed.

Staff are asked to promote this opportunity and encourage students to find out more and nominate themselves or their club, society, or student group by 12.00pm (noon) on Monday 31 March.

The next Advisors of Studies Community of Practice event will take place on Friday 28 March between 10.00am and 11.00am via MS Teams. Although there is no formal presentation, Jenny Brown from Academic Affairs will be attending to discuss exceptional circumstances and their impact on module results, progression decisions, and student outcome meetings, ahead of the exam period. Colleagues can feel free to drop in online any time during the session.

• Join the discussion here.

The Safety Training programme for this academic year is available on the University Safety Service Training webpage. The full range of courses can be booked via iTrent Employee Self-Service.

Available training sessions until the Easter break are given below. All sessions are in person.

• A Canvas training video catalogue has been created for staff to access on a self-service basis. Whether you need a refresher or want to learn something new, explore our range of short, on-demand training videos covering Canvas Fundamentals, assignment setup, Turnitin, and more. Check out the Training Catalogue on the DigiHub today.
• Book a 30-minute virtual session with a Digital Learning Developer from your Faculty, School or VLE Pedagogy Support Team (subject to availability).

• Read the Jisc Report: How to Approach Digital Transformation in Higher Education. Jisc’s newly published report highlights the key success factors for digital transformation, drawing on insights from universities, including Queen’s. The findings demonstrate how institutions can integrate digital technologies, such as AI, to enhance teaching, learning, and strategic planning.
• Join our AI Building Blocks training series to develop your understanding of AI and explore practical ways to integrate it into your work. Register and catch up on the series so far.
• Explore a range of case studies that showcase innovative applications of AI across Queen’s to inspire new approaches in your own field of work.

The following events for postdoctoral researchers are now available for booking. Find out more and register at the links below.

• Career Audit and Skills for the Future: Thursday 27 March, 10.00am to 12.00pm, online
• Decision Making – Career Choices: Wednesday 2 April, 9.30am to 1.00pm, Research and Enterprise Seminar Room, 63 University Road

Staff are invited to view the full IT Training programme on the IT Training Unit SharePoint site.

If your School or Directorate requires IT training for staff, geared towards a specific area or set of tasks, email itcourses@qub.ac.uk and the team will arrange a consultation.

Researchers at Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast are investigating how the structures of the eye could indicate early Alzheimer’s disease changes. The following volunteers are encouraged to participate: