Diamond Annual Review 2020/21

130 131 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 0 / 2 1 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 0 / 2 1 Engagingwith Diamond Light Source Communications and EngagementTeam E ngaging with and inspiring the public continues to be a key part of the Diamond vision. The COVID-19 pandemic over the past year has had amajor impact on engagement; it has not ceased, but the focus has shifted fromon-site to virtual and remote activities. Diamond has moved rapidly to develop new programmes and systems to reach new and existing audiences and keep engaging and supporting during this unusual time. During the past year Diamond has had approximately 9,606 significant interactions (30 + minutes) with ‘virtual’visitors, including 3,077 for scientific and technical events, 286 undergraduate and postgraduate interactions, 6,161 school students and members of the public, and 82 VIPs and stakeholders. The increased need to engage remotely has this year seen Diamond embrace technology to engage with audiences, supporting schools, students and other publics often restricted to being at home for long periods. A new series of family webinars has been developed, working with Diamond staff and users to cover a range of subjects, and new video technologies have been used to allow us to deliver‘live’virtual tours to students, academics, and the general public. Interactive video and other media resources have been developed, allowing visitors to our website to virtually explore the Diamond facility for themselves. It was great to be able to see inside the beamline and the experimental hutch. The link between the crystallography results and the 3D structure of the proteinwas also excellent. Thank you somuch, it's difficult to domuch extra- curricular at the moment so this is a real treat. -A schoolteacher who brought their year 12 class to a virtual schools visit While schools have been unable to visit, we have continued to support students, running virtual schools events and moving our schools work experience programme online. This had the benefit of allowing us to expand the programme and offer a virtual experience to all of the original applicants. In July 2020, we welcomed over 100 students to three days of talks and workshops run by staff across all areas of Diamond, from vacuum systems to growing proteins, giving students a flavour of many different areas of work and a real insight into the variation of roles available as a career. I thought it was great that it was offered to everyone who applied. I have very much enjoyed the experience and would encourage other people to do this work experience. Lots of information, detailed, in-depth and fascinating! - 2020 work experience students Over the past year we have updated our public engagement strategy and reinforced our commitment to widening participation and diversity within STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and so were proud to partner with the Social Mobility Foundation, to distribute copies of the Diamond Board Game, and with BBSTEM (Black British Professionals in STEM) to coordinate a virtual visit for their members. The pandemic has not stopped either our core programme or our regular partnership events, in particular with our neighbours at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), with whom we have delivered virtual stargazing events; a ‘Science in your future’ event for girls; and particle physics masterclasses. The online nature of activities this year has helped in developing new partnerships as well, working with Daresbury Laboratory to support school events and SMASH_UK to help develop an interactive virtual reality (VR) science game for school students. I was inspired by the work we did crystallising haemoglobin in the labs at Diamond to readmore about proteins...I wouldn’t have thought to take the module if not for my week at Diamond. With all teaching at university being online this year the time I spent in the labs at Diamond has been really valuable. - A previous work experience student now studying natural sciences at university Higher Education engagement Training of students through our undergraduate placements and PhD programmes continues to be one of the core engagement activities, in support of the organisation’s vision to continuously plan for Diamond’s technical and scientific future. Diamond offers students a range of opportunities to engage with and learn from world-leading staff and resources, developing and inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. Like many other areas within Diamond, Student Engagement activities were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first priority was to make sure that our current PhD and Year in Industry students were well supported and kept informed of the changing circumstances as the pandemic evolved in late March 2020. We had regular meetings with the 2019 cohort of Year in Industry students and contacted all 13 university placement supervisors to make sure they knew the steps that Diamond had taken and how we were supporting students. We quickly established an extension request procedure for the PhD students whomight have been impacted by closures at their university campus and laboratories. To date we have supported 15 PhD student extensions. Throughout the pandemic, Diamond has continued to allow access to PhD students for beamtime and access to laboratories as part of the priority access route. Despite the restrictions, we welcomed 32 new PhD students as part of the 2020 cohort, co-funded with 17 different universities and world leading research facilities. This brings the total number of ongoing Diamond PhD studentships to 104. There were 46 submissions to the 2021 Diamond Doctoral Studentship call for proposals.These submissions were linked with 33 different universities and institutions. Following the internal review process, we will be welcoming 24 students in October 2021. The PhD student annual progress meetings with Diamond’s Student Engagement team have been more valuable than ever this year, providing an opportunity to check-in with each student in year two and above individually. As we haven’t been able to personally welcome the new 2020 cohort to Diamond site, we have also held virtual welcome meetings with each of the students to provide an opportunity for them to ask questions and to formally introduce them to the Diamond studentship programme. Due to the uncertainty at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, we took the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Summer Placement programme that was due to start in June the same year. Any students who had been recruited and would still be eligible for their placements in summer 2021 Pre-pandemic, Year in Industry student, Anna Herlihy, delivers a talk to the 2016-17 cohort. Screenshot of Diamond’s interactive map – enabling the public to take virtual visits of the synchrotron.