Tagged / BUCRU

Writing Week – support from BUCRU and RDS

BU research, COVID-19, Funding opportunities, HSS Our 9 Research Entities, NHS, Postgraduate Research, pre-award, Research Centres, research staff

Writing Week in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is coming up next week and we wanted to highlight some of the expertise within BUCRU and NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) and remind you that we’re available to provide support for your health or social care research.

Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across the University and local NHS Trusts.

We do this by:

  • Helping researchers develop high quality applications for external research funding (including small grants)
  • Ongoing involvement in funded research projects

How can we help?

BUCRU/RDS can provide help in the following areas:

  • Formulating research questions
  • Building an appropriate team
  • Study design
  • Appropriate methodologies for quantitative research, e.g. statistical issues, health economics
  • Appropriate methodologies for qualitative research, e.g. sampling, analytical strategies
  • Advice on data management and data analysis
  • Identifying suitable funding sources
  • Writing plain English summaries
  • Identifying the resources required for a successful project
  • Critical reviews of proposed grant applications can be obtained through our Project Review Committee before they are sent to a funding body.
  • Patient and public involvement in research
  • Trial management
  • Ethics, governance and other regulatory issues
  • Linking University and NHS researchers

Over the coming weeks we’ll cover some of these areas in more detail in future blogs and how we can help you.

Our support is available to Bournemouth University staff and people working locally in the NHS, and depending on the support you require, is mostly free of charge. There are no general restrictions on topic area or professional background of the researcher.

If you would like support in developing your research please get in touch through bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or by calling us on 01202 961939. Please see our website for further information, details of our current and previous projects and a link to our recent newsletter.

BUCRU (Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit) – Bulletin

BU research, NHS, Post-award, pre-award, Research Centres, Research news

Please see the latest BUCRU Bulletin from the Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit. We hope you find it interesting.  Featuring details on our online NIHR Grant Applications Seminar next week (28th July) and how to register.

BUCRU supports researchers to improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of research locally by supporting grant applications and providing on-going support in funded projects, as well as developing our own programme of research.

Don’t forget, your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) staff are working remotely at present so please call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email in the first instance.

BUCRU – not just for Writing Week

BU research, writing

We’re coming to the end of Writing Week in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences and by now you will have made a good start or have put the finishing touches to your academic writing projects. Over the last week, we have given you some tips on writing grant applications and highlighted some of the expertise within BUCRU. If you didn’t get the chance to pop in and see us we thought it would be useful to remind you what we’re about and how we can help.

Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across the University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. We do this by:

  • Helping researchers develop high quality applications for external research funding (including small grants)
  • Ongoing involvement in funded research projects
  • A “pay-as-you-go” consultation service for other work.

How can we help?

BUCRU can provide help in the following areas:

  • Study design
  • Quantitative and qualitative research methods
  • Statistics, data management and data analysis
  • Patient and public involvement in research
  • Trial management
  • Ethics, governance and other regulatory issues
  • Linking University and NHS researchers

Our support is available to Bournemouth University staff and people working locally in the NHS, and depending on the support you require, is mostly free of charge. There are no general restrictions on topic area or professional background of the researcher.

If you would like support in developing your research please get in touch through bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or by calling us on 01202 961939. Please see our website for further information, details of our current and previous projects and a link to our recent newsletter.

Making the Most of Writing Week: What to do with your Data?

BU research

You don’t have to spend Faculty of Health and Social Science Writing Week (3rd to 6th January) working on grant applications. You may already have a dataset and now finally have some time to do something with it. But where to start? It’s often a good idea to go back to your original research questions/aims/objectives… a well thought out research question can help shape your analysis strategy.
Hopefully you will have a record of which variables you were measuring and how data were coded. Were any calculations performed using the raw data to create new variables? How were these done? This is all part of good data management. To find out more visit the information pages created by the Library and Learning Support Team.
Once you are reacquainted with your data, it’s often a good idea (in the case of quantitative data) to start plotting graphs to find out more. Always keep in mind the original aims of the study, it’s easy to wander down a path of distraction. If you are feeling confused by all of this or, have got yourself lost down a data track, the BU Clinical Research Unit team are at hand to help.
Peter Thomas is available on Tuesday and Wednesday while Sharon Docherty is available Thursday and Friday this week. Why not drop us an email or pop by to see us in R505?

Making the Most of Writing Week: Research grant applications – not THAT PPI

BU research, writing

Remember, there are members of the BU Clinical Research Unit team available during the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences Writing Week to help you (you don’t need to be FHSS to speak to us, we’re here to help anyone doing health research) along the way. Today we’ll focus on Helen Allen.

Once you have decided on a funder, an important (but sometimes overlooked) aspect of working up a grant application is the planning and documenting of the involvement of service users/patients/relevant groups or organisations (Public Patient Involvement or PPI) ie the people most likely to have a vested interest in the research you are intending to do. Indeed, many major national funders, including the NIHR, require detailed evidence of how service users have been involved. But do you know who to approach?  When?  How?  What can service users be involved with? What can they add? Sometimes it’s relatively straightforward to identify appropriate individuals and organisations. Other occasions can call for more creativity. Hot tip: everything takes longer to arrange than you might think. Allow a minimum of 6 weeks to plan, consult service users and feedback from the PPI consultation to your colleagues.

If you’d like some advice about planning PPI and conducting service user consultations for a project Helen Allen will be pleased to advise you. Helen is available on Tuesday 3rd and Thursday 5th January.

Writer’s block? Wondering where to start? Need someone to talk to? BUCRU can help!

BU research, writing

Happy New Year! If making more time for writing grant proposals and research articles is one of your New Year’s Resolutions, then make the most of HSS Writing Week (3rd to 6th January). The aim of this week is to help support staff to find time in their busy schedules to work on those all-important grant proposals and research articles that keep getting lost under piles of marking.

We’re not expecting you to do it alone. Did you know that the Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit can provide support for people undertaking healthcare research? As part of Writing Week, members of the unit will be available to help during the week (see below) so why don’t you pop in and see us (5th floor Royal London House) or send us an email.

BUCRU Availability

Who? When? What with?
Peter Thomas

(Professor of Healthcare Statistics & Epidemiology)

 Tuesday and Wednesday research study design and statistics
Helen Allen

(Public and Patient Involvement Lead)

 Tuesday and Thursday involvement of service users in research projects, arranging focus groups and interviews
Sharon Docherty

(Research Fellow: Quantitative Methods)

 Thursday and Friday designing, conducting and analysing quantitative research

Making the Most of Writing Week Part 2: Research grant applications – building a team

BU research, Events, Guidance, Research news, writing

Next week (25-29 July) is Writing Week in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. A whole week dedicated to freeing up some time for academic writing. So, how can you make the most of this opportunity? Over the next few days, we’ll give you some tips on ways to spend your Writing Week as well as letting you know which members of the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) team can help you and when they are available.

Writing Week is not just about writing papers – it also provides an opportunity to finally start thinking about that piece of research you’ve been dying to do. In BUCRU we have a wealth of expertise to support health research, and several members of our team are also members of the NIHR Research Design Service (more to come on that in a later blog). The next few posts cover our speciality subject – research grant applications.

Step 2 is thinking about your research team. You might have a great idea for a research project, but do you have the right people to ensure a strong, supportive team who can deliver the research? Depending on your research question, you might need a multi/interdisciplinary team of academics from different disciplines, clinicians, nurses, Allied Health Professionals etc. You may have a good network around you already, but what do you do if you don’t? Lisa Gale-Andrews is Clinical Research Co-ordinator in BUCRU, and can help facilitate research collaborations particularly with clinicians in the local health service and with academics across Faculties. Please contact Lisa (lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you’re looking for contacts and for support in building your research team. She will be available all day Mon-Thurs during Writing Week if you’d like to pop in (R506).

There’s more to come on grant applications over the next few days including choosing a funder, research design, and the importance of patient and public involvement (PPI).