Our contribution

University staff and students step up to support the NHS vaccination programme

The University is supporting the NHS Covid-19 vaccinations programme, with two local vaccination services opening across its campuses and staff and students stepping up to help administer the vaccine to patients.

This week the doors have opened at a new vaccination service based on the University’s King’s Meadow Campus, which is set to be one of the largest sites in Nottinghamshire providing the vaccine to patients from across the city and wider county.

Student steps up frontline vaccination roll out

A student from the University of Nottingham has stepped up to support the roll out of the Covid-19 Vaccine to patients.

Jessica McMullen is a University of Nottingham PhD pharmacy student and an independent pharmacy prescriber at a GP surgery.

Students step up to help local communities in bumper term for good causes

Through their numerous acts of kindness, impressive feats of fundraising and concerted community campaigns, the University of Nottingham’s student groups have proved this term that it will take more than a global pandemic to slow them down.

Despite a difficult year, where they have faced significant disruption to their education and had to navigate a whole new approach to campus life under Covid-19 restrictions, the University’s numerous societies and charitable organisations have pulled together to support people in need in the communities around them.

Helping local businesses recover from the economic impact of COVID-19

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire can now benefit from our expertise through a programme which has been re-purposed to help businesses prepare for economic recovery following Covid-19. .

Companies from any sector can receive strategic planning and operational insight in areas such as business continuity, future markets research, product development support, digital technologies and digital marketing strategies.

Alumna on the frontline

Maddie Pizzoni is on the frontline supporting emergency services as part of the work being done by the British Army. She studied Nursing Science at Nottingham and is now a helicopter pilot. Throughout the crisis she has been deployed on Operation Rescript; providing help to the emergency services and on standby to assist with the movement of life saving equipment across the country.

She was also part of the team asked to be involved in a training trip that would culminate in a surprise birthday fly-past for Sir Tom Moore. 

Lockdown literature: Translating the first Coronavirus pandemic novel

Dr Mark Sabine, Associate Professor in Lusophone Studies in the Faculty of Arts, shares his experiences translating a novel written by 40 Portuguese writers.

The writers took turns to publish a new chapter daily, after being challenged by award-winning author Ana Margarida de Carvalho.

Support for Midlands food charity

FareShare Midlands scrambled to set up a Nottingham office because of a sudden demand for services during the Coronavirus lockdown. The University was able to help with volunteers and office equipment.

Gareth Gee, a tutor in the School of Education, responded to the call for volunteers. He began helping to unload and load food in the warehouse and drive a collection/drop off vehicle to locations in the region.

When he learnt that the charity needed furniture for the Lenton depot he approached the University’s Estates team. The University was able to offer desks, tables, chairs and filing cabinets that were no longer needed.

New lockdown-friendly support for people with eating disorders

University experts from the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies are helping to deliver a new package of support for those struggling with eating disorders while in lockdown. 

Working with Derby-based charity, First Steps ED, Dr Heike Bartel is carrying out innovative research in the neglected area of eating disorders in men and boys.

Our experts launch animated parenting tips for struggling households during lockdown

A series of short films featuring a host of famous faces aims to ease lockdown parenting woes.

The tips are based on decades of research from the UK’s leading experts and feature eight famous faces.

Free yoga and mindfulness classes for NHS workers

Our alumna Yasmin Gregory, who runs at1.SPACE, based on Triumph Road in Nottingham, has taken her business online to offer classes in yoga, mindfulness and meditation; as well as nutritional consultations. 

The company’s proximity to both the University of Nottingham and Queens Medical Centre saw many medicine students and health workers among its clientele and is now offering free membership to NHS workers during the coronavirus outbreak. 

Keeping regional heritage in the limelight during lockdown

The COVID-19 crisis has challenged the museum world with the temporary closure of their premises and the furloughing of many of their staff. 

With physical doors closed at one museum in Cumbria, the Keswick Museum, another ‘virtual’ door has opened thanks to our researchers in School of English who are now expanding the museum’s presence online.

Your philosopher will see you now...

As lockdown continues we are encouraging a virtual visit to our 'Attic Philospher' Mark Jago.

Mark has turned his attic into a bespoke thinking space and philosophy studio and has made a series of videos that can help us cope with life in lockdown when we suddenly find we have more time to think, which in itself can be unsettling, with thought patterns hard to direct and control.

Mark’s video guide to getting through time spent in isolation is called ‘Coronavirus Self Isolation – 7 strategies for getting through it’. His channel, Attic Philosophy, has further content featuring easily digestible and thought-provoking aspects of philosophy including the Mind, Language, Knowledge, Social Philosophy, Logic and the Environment.  

Students’ food surplus supermarket steps up to COVID challenge

Foodprint is an award-winning social enterprise, and Nottingham’s first social supermarket run entirely by students and volunteers. It is supported by Enactus Nottingham, a student entrepreneurship body based at the Nottingham University Business School. 

Foodprint has been supplying food to around 600 households, food banks, homeless shelters and school breakfast clubs in inner city Nottingham but the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown has seen demand increase dramatically. 

Learning in lockdown: Free online classes for local communities during coronavirus pandemic

We have launched a programme of free online classes for its local communities in Nottingham and the East Midlands.

In response to the isolation that COVID-19 has created, the School of Education has planned thirty-four online discussion classes, from a host of University of Nottingham experts, for the local community to enjoy at home. 

Student nurses sign up for extended placements

Hundreds of our student nurses are volunteering to support frontline medical staff during the coronavirus pandemic, by signing up for extended paid placements in the NHS.

Out of the almost 200 student nurses who have agreed to undertake one of the placements, which are for a minimum of 12 weeks, 172 of them are expected to stay at local trusts across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Leadership in COVID-19

Nottingham University Business School announces May event to help business leaders survive and thrive in the ‘new normal’

Chief Executives, HR, Learning and Development and Talent Management professionals are being brought together by Nottingham University Business School to plot their way forward from the Covid-19 pandemic which is threatening irreversible damage to the UK economy.

Medical students graduate early to join fight against COVID-19

Final-year medical students are being graduated early to offer them the opportunity to support the NHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students who have passed their final examinations and satisfactorily completed all their clinical skills and fitness to practice assessments will be graduated on 8 April, three months ahead of normal graduation, and will be eligible to gain provisional registration to practice with the General Medical Council.

Helping with homeschooling

With the unprecedented nationwide closure of schools in response to the current coronavirus crisis, hundreds of thousands of children will be forced to learn from home.

Professor Nicola Pitchford and Anthea Gulliford from the School of Psychology offer guidance to help support children’s learning.

Keeping essential services running

Staff across our campuses are working hard to keep essential services running.

At our campus in Malaysia, staff have been going the extra mile. From cleaners ensuring campus is kept spotless, to hall tutors and wardens keeping everyone safe, to people giving up their own time to deliver food and supplies to vulnerable people. Thank you to you all!

Nottingham MedSoc step up to help COVID-19 response

Over 500 of our medical students have signed up to help the UK response to COVID-19.

The aim of the group is to connect students wanting to volunteer with roles at NHS trusts and in the local community. The society’s president, Callum McIntyre, said that they had 550 active members within a day.

John Atherton, Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences told The BMJ, “We are very proud of our students; their enthusiasm is inspiring and they are a credit to the University.” They are volunteering while continuing their training to ensure that there was “no delay in providing the NHS with newly qualified nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals over the coming years.”

A new online fitness programme launches

Staff and students from the University of Nottingham are part of an international team of experts who have launched QuaranTrain – a student-led healthcare project to help provide information and resources to stay fit and well during periods of isolation.

Quarantrain provides evidence-based, meaningful, effective information and support material in the form of videos and blogging. The team is providing video content through YouTube, and the website acts as a portal for huge amounts of additional and external physical activity resources.

Equipment supplied to increase number of COVID-19 tests

We have added further support to increased testing for COVID-19 with the supply of more equipment to local clinical labs.

The Maxwell RSC 48 Instrument has been sent to the testing laboratory at the Queen’s Medical Centre to help them triple the number of tests they can carry out. This machine can process up to 48 swab samples simultaneously; the current machine like this at QMC can process 16.

Professor Gisli Jenkins from the School of Medicine leads the team who usually use this machine, he said: “Our University community is doing everything they can to support the national effort in combating this virus and this latest equipment will make a significant difference in the amount of COVID-19 tests that can be carried out.”

Enabling safe COVID-19 testing

We are helping to protect scientists testing for COVID-19, by providing the Government with essential safety cabinets.

The Category 2 Cell Culture Cabinets will provide a highly controlled environment to protect skilled scientists, who are also needed to carry out tests for COVID-19.

The 28 cabinets were collected by the British Armed Forces from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. The size of the units meant it took five 7.5 tonne trucks to move them all.

Supplying machines to test for COVID-19

Universities in Nottingham have supplied 16 machines to support the national effort in the fight against COVID-19.

The British Armed Forces collected 13 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines from across the University of Nottingham’s five campuses, as well as three from Nottingham Trent University's Clifton Campus. They have a total value of £1 million and can together perform an estimated 20,000 tests a day

Nottingham engineers produce certified 3D printed face shields for NHS

The Centre for Additive Manufacturing (CfAM) at the University of Nottingham (UoN) have worked with colleagues within the University's Bioengineering Research Group, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) and a host of external collaborators and contributors to develop a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) FaceShield to meet the critical need for COVID-19 related PPE from healthcare professionals.

Building on an open-source design of headband originally from HP, the team made modifications to ensure the face shield could pass a regulatory test¹ by BSI, the UK’s national standards body, to ensure the highest level of protection is provided.

The face shields successfully passed the BSI tests and are CE approved¹ for use as part of PPE for healthcare workers’ protection against COVID-19 in both hospital and community environments. They are provided in packs to the NHS, with five replacement visors per face shield as well as instructions for use.

The team have made the design and its accompanying documents ‘open-source’ to enable other manufacturers to produce the face shields – however, manufacturers will need to submit their product for testing to the BSI to obtain their own CE certification.

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New solution for NHS PPE training

We have come to the aid of the NHS in Nottinghamshire with the supply of a special solution that is used to train staff to properly use PPE masks.

After supplies of Fit Testing solution became scarce, Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s procurement team, asked for help on social media in developing the solution. Professor Simon Langley-Evans, Head of the School of Biosciences responded to that call and with the help of technician John Corrie, made 10 litres of the solution.

Sharing supplies and equipment

As our staff in the obstetrics and gynaecology department at the City Hospital campus have been working from home, they are supporting NHS colleagues in a variety of ways.

An ABI 7500 FAST machine was one of the 16 machines sent as part of the national effort to carry out PCR testing for COVID-19.

Supplies have been shared to help set up local virus testing labs. These include portable electrical items such as dry block heaters to enable safe sample processing and reagent heating; 96-well plastic plates and adhesive sealing films for PCR machines, spare machine lamps, nitrile gloves and tissues.

As research is being carried out from home, unused space within the department has been given over to the NHS colleagues for use as rest areas for the clinical staff. These include a kitchen-common room and two seminar-meeting rooms.

Free parking for NHS workers

We are offering free parking spaces for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust staff.

Spaces will be available in the Nottingham Medical School car park, at University Park, at Derby Medical School and Jubilee Campus to enable workers to carry out essential front line services.

Accommodation support 

The University is working with local partners including Nottingham University Hospitals Trust to help provide extra accommodation for key workers.

The rooms in our halls of residence, on University Park, are available for staff who need accommodation close to Queen’s Medical Hospital, for those whose family members are self-isolating and cannot return home, and for those who may require emergency accommodation due to urgent response.

This is the first tranche of accommodation agreements. Non-profit rates, which are then refunded through the Government, have also been put in place for halls accommodation. 

Other agreements have been put in place for key workers, including those who are working to repair the A52 Clifton Bridge.