Tagged / impact

Impact and Funding Bids workshop -Thursday 7th November

There are still places available for this online workshop, facilitated by Eva Papadapoulou, Research Facilitator and Amanda Lazar, Impact Advisor.

Writing about impact in a grant application can be challenging. However, a strong description of the benefits you hope your project will have on society and the economy, and the means you will take to get there, can make all the difference between getting funded or not.

The RKEDF online training session will help you understand what you need to include for the best chance of success and look at the different ways impact may be considered within each call.

Since the UKRI removed the Pathways to Impact sections of grant applications, they actually expect impact to be even more embedded within funding bids. So, how do you write about impact in grant applications? And what counts as impact?

This session is aimed at researchers at all stages of their careers but is likely to be especially useful for ECRs preparing their first funding bids.

Book your place

 

New Research Impact, Engagement and Communications Sharepoint Site!

We are proud to launch our new Research Impact, Engagement and Communications Sharepoint site!  

This is your one stop shop for all things impact, public engagement and research communications within RDS. 

On the site, you will find resources for communicating your research, increasing its impact and engaging the public with your research. 

You’ll find links to RKEDF training sessions, guides to impact, public engagement and research communications along with information about useful contacts within RDS and news about the REF. 

The site is easily navigable and is divided into three sections: 

 Research Impact: 

This section outlines how we can help you to plan, accelerate and evidence the impact of your research and includes resources, contact details of our Impact Advisers and links to useful information on impact pathways, the REF and impact training. 

Public Engagement with Research: 

In this section, we explain how we can help when you want to engage with the public to share your research. The ways to do this are many and varied but ultimately, high quality public engagement has huge benefits for BU, for society and for you – the academic. Here you can find links to advice, training and funding along with the contact details of our Public Engagement team and details of how to join the thriving BU Public Engagement Network.  

Research Communications: 

Here, we offer you support and guidance on the different ways of sharing your research with different audiences. This includes working with the media (including our partnership with The Conversation), writing for the web and using social media. 

The site will be updated regularly and has been designed to be as user friendly as possible. Please make sure you bookmark and keep checking back regularly for updates and news. 

 

 

An Academic’s Guide to Medtech Translation

The Medical Technologies Innovation and Knowledge Centre (based at the University of Leeds) has announced the launch of an online guide to medtech research translation for academics and researchers based in UK universities.

The guide aims to familiarise STEM researchers with the complex medtech innovation pathway from bench to bedside, signposting to credible further resources and suggesting reflective tasks to start practically building a business case.

The resource is free, and researchers can work through it from beginning to end or access relevant chapters to suit their requirements.

Take me to An academic’s guide to medtech translation

It’s great to see the launch of this online guide which will support research translation in medical technologies. Advances in medtech have fundamentally improved the length and quality of life on a global scale and the guide will help facilitate the development of new medical technology innovations in all areas, including the introduction of new software like this EMR for Plastic Surgery.

Professor Ruth Wilcox, Director of the Medical Technologies IKC said: “For many researchers, the goal of their work is to make an impact. Translating and commercialising research is a way of achieving that long-term impact on society but the route to clinic is highly complex. We developed this guide to untangle the process overall, and to hone-in on some of the trickiest hurdles to overcome, like regulatory issues and clinical studies. This guide provides practical advice to help researchers navigate the innovation pathway and signposts to appropriate support and resources available for each stage.”

The guide has been developed using experience and expertise developed throughout the lifetime of the Medical Technologies IKC, established by the University of Leeds in 2009, and through Grow MedTech, a consortium of six universities set up in 2018.

“Through these programmes, and working with our industry partners, we’ve progressed over 250 projects (proof of concept or technology development and demonstration), of which 84 have gone beyond Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 – with over 50 products or services reaching the market,” said Professor Wilcox.

Take me to An academic’s guide to medtech translation

HRV and Traumatic Injury- systematic review protocol published in PloS One by MSPH researcher

Rabeea Maqsood is a first year PhD student within the department of Medical Sciences and Public Health. She is exploring the role of serious battlefield traumatic injury and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in military veterans and personnel in a collaborative project between BU and the ADVANCE study, UK (For more: https://www.advancestudydmrc.org.uk/)

Recently, as a part of her PhD thesis, Rabeea’s study protocol on traumatic injuries and HRV has been published in PloS One with open access. The article has been downloaded and viewed hundreds of times since its publication. Here’s the link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0273688

Watch this space for the full systematic review which will address the evidence gap in the field of HRV and combat trauma research.

Upcoming Research Impact Workshops

There are three Research Impact training workshops coming up over the next few weeks:

Anatomy of a case study is a 2-hour in-person workshop in Fusion  – 8th September, 13:00-15:00.

In this workshop we will be examining REF impact case study examples from REF2021 and identifying what makes an excellent case study. There will also be an opportunity to start building your own impact case study.

Getting Started with Research Impact: what is it? is an online workshop – 16th September, 10:00-11:00.

We will look at the impact basics – what research impact is and why it matters in funding applications, for the REF and for your research career. You will find out how to turn your research into impact and how your research can benefit society/the economy.

Evidencing Impact is online – 12th October 14:00-15:00.

We will look at how to evidence your research impact – what counts as evidence, how to find creative ways of getting it, what qualitative and quantitative evidence is needed for a REF impact case study and how to gather and store it.

You can sign up for these sessions here: RKEDF – Workshop Booking Form (office.com)

 

 

 

 

Reminder: Workshop on including impact in grant applications

Impact and Funding Applications Training: Thursday 30 June 2pm-3pm Online

How to write about impact in your funding bids

Writing about impact in a grant application can be challenging. However, a strong description of the benefits you hope your project will have on society and the economy, and the means you will take to get there, can make all the difference between getting funded or not.

Book your place now on the online training session Impact and Funding Bids on 30 June at 2pm and we will help you understand what you need to include for the best chance of success, and look at the different ways impact may be considered within each call.

Although the session will include a brief look at definitions of impact, if you are new to this area it is advised that you watch the 10-minute introduction to impact video on Brightspace beforehand to get the most out of the training.

Book your place.

Professor Feigenbaum and her team launch guide on social media storytelling for health literacy

Creating social media posts that aim to build health or information literacy is challenging. It is one thing to get likes on a video of a cute dog dancing or your latest holiday pics, it is another to develop reflective, empathetic understanding of complex phenomena in a bite-sized image or video.

To help guide people through the process of creating social media stories for information and health literacy,  Professor Feigenbaum designed the Pick N Mix strategy. This Pick N Mix method is based on research findings from her team’s UKRI/AHRC COVID-19 Rapid Response project that analysed over 15,000 webcomics to look at the role this medium played in public health messaging on Instagram during the first year of the pandemic. The guide also draws from current research in psychology, graphic medicine and media studies. It was designed by creative studio partners Minute Works.

On 10th June 2022 Professor Feigenbaum and her team of BU student RAs — Katie Penfound, Kristy Hart, Linh Trinh and Abbie Smith — launched the new guide during a training workshop for stakeholders delivered to project partners from University Hospitals Dorset, CILIP The Library and Information Association and CEMP’s EdD programme.
The guide and stakeholder training session are set to make a meaningful impact, already getting great feedback from stakeholders.
Reaching out to a wider audience, on 14 June 2022, Professor Feigenbaum and BU alumni Ozlem Demirkol Tonnesen, an AHRC project RA and PhD Candidate at the University of Southampton, published a piece for The Conversation’s Quarter Life series, translating their storytelling strategies for social media content creators in their 20s and 30s.
Professor Feigenbaum and her team’s research on social media storytelling for health literacy will feature later this year at the British Science Festival. For more resources on social media storytelling for information and health literacy, you can check out their healthy socials training pack and AHRC project website.