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In old tractors, apart from tires, the only means for the reduction of vibration was a seat consisting of a sheet metal shell supported by a simple U-shaped spring. Today, the effects of seats, cabins, axles, suspensions and tires combine to increase comfort and safety at levels that were once unimaginable. Trying to improve the safety and comfort levels in the work-places, this work describes a first experience on the application of a vibration active control system (AVC) on a medium-power agricultural tractor. Its seat’s suspension was integrated by an electromagnetic actuator generating movements opposing to those caused by soil unevenness, based on the signals received from two accelerometers measuring the vibrations at the seat and at the cab platform. A further instrumentation measured the driver whole-body vibration providing the frequency analysis and the calculation of the weighted accelerations and the acceleration sum vector (av). The tests were carried out on a compacted ground circuit with a section with natural unevenness. They aimed at evaluating the effects of the AVC system by comparing the whole-body vibrations measured in “ON” and “OFF” modes. The maximum accelerations always occurred at 2.5 Hz. The reduction mostly regarded the az component (“ON”:0.66 m s−2;“OFF”:0.94 m s−2). The resultant av were 1.47 m s−2 and 1.97 m s−2 respectively for “ON” and “OFF” modes. In both tests, the differences between the values of weighted accelerations were lower due to the effect of the filter “A”. The above data resulted from the acquisition along the entire established paths. Since only limited sections of the tracks were uneven, the results underestimated the actual reduction achieved on the obstacles, which becomes more evident by observing the FFT diagrams.

Research about the Covid-19 pandemic has taken centre stage in shaping the work of many scholars, inter alia highlighting the importance of research in addressing the grand challenges humanity faces. However, the pandemic has also ushered in increased administrative, teaching and out of work commitments for many researchers, leading to concerns that academics will become less willing to invest time in obtaining resources to undertake non-Covid-related projects. Using a large-scale survey of business, economics and management researchers, coupled with their publication histories and additional institutional data, we examine how far individuals experienced the focus on the pandemic as ‘crowding out’ interest in, and undermining their confidence in applying for grants for work not focused on the pandemic. We found 40% of the sample agree that the pandemic has impaired their confidence in applying for non-pandemic-related grants and ‘crowded out’ other projects. Researchers with current and prior grants, particularly those with the most experience of holding grants, scholars whose work ‘impacted’ beyond academia, and early career researchers, disproportionately considered themselves to be most affected. We also found that researchers’ perceptions differed based on institutional characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings for grant providers and national research agencies as well as for individual academic researchers and the institutions in which they work.