THE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE WORKING LIFE & THE METIS COLLABORATION: PEOPLE, SEMINARS & NEW PROJECTS.

Much has happened over the last six or so months that warrants reporting both with regards to the Centre for Sustainable Working Life (the Centre) at Birkbeck and to The METIS Collaboration (METIS). The headline topics are people, seminars and projects and, of course, publications and conference presentations.

The ESRC seminar series on Cancer & Employment, which is led by the Centre but involves the other core partners in METIS, is a success and is entering its third and final year. Plans to take this initiative forward, beyond ESRC funding, are being discussed. People have left the Centre; some to further their academic careers and some through retirement. All are missed and most remain part of the overall project. New people are coming in and there is an excitement about how this new team will feel and work as it comes together. We are particularly looking forward to welcoming two Brazilian researchers in occupational health psychology on short sabbaticals, later in 2017, if suitable funding is secured for them. The Professional Doctorate in Occupational Health Psychology (see below) is established and the programme is open to those who wish to study and research in its area. At the same time, the Centre is launching a new project on ensuring safety in large high hazard organisations. It is funded by Balfour Beatty and is a collaborative enterprise involving senior colleagues in the company and in Lancaster and Loughborough universities.

METIS continues to thrive and, partly through the ESRC seminar series, is becoming well established in the area of cancer survivorship and work engagement. It offers a unique integration of interests in the psychosocial, organisational and economic aspects of this topic. The core membership of the Collaboration is growing as is the network that it is developing of people involved in this important area. It is planned that this network and METIS itself be supported in 2017 through a new internet-based portal. The development work is well advanced. Several important conference presentations have been made successfully and publications on cancer survivorship and work engagement and other areas of psychosocial oncology are in the pipe-line.

There will be more information on all of these headline topics soon including details of appointments to be made to the Centre; specifically (1) a full-time fully-funded postgraduate researcher to work on the Balfour Beatty project and complete the Professional Doctorate in occupational health psychology (three years funding available) and (2) a part-time Lecturer (A/B) in occupational health psychology or health and safety management, or a related area, to join the Centre team (permanent contract).
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