The SAQN has reviewed feedback from network members and points of discussion raised at our initial meeting, and agreed the following actions for the network to pursue:

Future events

For future events we will continue to prioritise venues with convenient location and good accessibility, as far as budget will allow. 

Online discussion space

We will investigate options for this that would allow conversations between members. Constraints would be that we do not have a budget for this, and do not want something that involves a lot of monitoring/moderating. A possible platform is LinkedIn or there may be a google platform supported by the University of York that would suit.

Collaboration Building Workshop

A decision was taken to rename the sandpits as ‘Collaboration Building Workshops’ given the negative connotations of sandpits for many people. The topics identified could be used for the workshop in June to give the event more focus, but the LMG had concerns that this might be too narrow and exclude too many people. The risk of giving the sandpit no focus is that there will not be enough common interest amongst the attendees to produce good projects. This discussion will be taken further by the LMG when planning the workshop.

Mapping networks

Given the feedback about the numerous other networks, we felt it would be helpful to map these networks and identify their particular niche. This would help us in our awareness of other events and activities, as well as to define more clearly our own niche in the air quality space. It would also enable us to better signpost members to other relevant activity where their interests cannot be met by SAQN. This mapping exercise would need to be maintained and revised over time to take account of the changing landscape.

Tracking new collaborations

One of the aims of the network is to foster new collaborations among network members that lead to new projects and research activity. We have positive indications that such collaborations have started already at the launch, but need to get more detailed information about who the collaborators are and what activity they are doing. We will ask members to report back regularly through the monthly newsletter, but also send an annual survey to members, asking them to give details of any new partnerships that they have developed through SAQN. This information can be reported back to STFC, but will also allow us to make better connections through the network, by spotting opportunities for different organisations to join a developing collaboration or signposting people to relevant funding.

Under-represented sectors

Discussions at the meeting identified areas of interest to the network where we did not have representation. These included health (particularly highlighted by Ian Mudway’s excellent presentation), social sciences (as demonstrated by the interest in behaviour change) and agriculture (given the strong interest in ammonia). We will:

  • Seek out individuals from these sectors to join the network / be champions / join the steering group
  • Identify relevant events to attend/present at where we can reach these sectors
  • Explore the possibilities of hosting smaller events aimed at these particular sectors (possibly by piggy backing on existing meetings or holding virtual meetings/seminars)

We welcome ongoing feedback on the activity of the network. If you have any comments on the actions from the report, or other ideas about what you’d like to see from the network, please email fleur.hughes@york.ac.uk