Yearly Archives / 2012

Support your colleagues at the EU Showcase Event

EU

As the time grows closer to this event, I am getting more excited!  Last year’s event was a tremendous success and this year’s looks like it will be even bigger and better!

We all know the importance of getting involved in EU funding as national funds dwindle, greater importance is placed on international collaborations and of BUs strategic focus on internationalisation. This event will celebrate our successful EU award holders who will share their tips for engaging in EU funding.

We have presentations on schemes to help you start your EU career (Christos Gatzidis on the Leonardo scheme of the Lifelong Learning Programme and Bogdan Gabrys and Rob Britton on Marie Curie schemes) and schemes for those already engaged (Anthea Innes on applying for an FP7 grant and Adrian Newton on being a Partner in an FP7 consortium). We also have top tips on how to network effectively to become involved in EU funding (from the very experienced Dimitrios Buhalis and Cornelius Ncube). Finally I will be launching 3 very exciting internal EU focused funding competitions at this event to help you engage in EU funding and we have presentations from those who won funding through 2 of these schemes last year.

The informal and informative event will be opened by Matthew Bennett in Kimmeridge House  on 14th November. Plenty of coffee, tea, lunch and cake provided and due to the restriction of room size, registration is essential. This takes only 10 seconds on the Staff Development website.

The event will be finished in plenty of time for you to drive/ catch the uni bus to the Executive Business Centre (EBC) to hear the Inaugural Lecture Dementia: personal journey to policy priority by HSC’s Prof. Anthea Innes.

LAST CHANCE – sign up here for the Dementia luncheon!

BU research, Research themes

Prof. Anthea Innes, the director of the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI), is planning a dementia lunch as part of the BU Research Theme development. The BU Research Themes were launched almost a year ago at the first of the BU-wide Fusion events. The Themes are society-led, encourage cross-School working and collaboration, and will be the main vehicle through which BU research is presented externally in future.

At BU, we are proud of the way in which we demonstrate the fusion of research, education and professional practice, and Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) demonstrates the benefits that this collaborative way of thinking can bring to our dementia work in three ways:

  1. By working across schools, it is possible to draw on the strengths of academics with a wide variety of disciplines.
  2. By working with local service providers and engaging with local people, we can strengthen, develop and consolidate links with these key stakeholders.
  3. BUDI will promote the fusion of research, education and practice. Our locally relevant evaluation and research will be combined with international research evidence so that we can develop training courses and other educational activities to inform and shape professional dementia care in the region.

Would you like to get involved in this exciting cross-school initiative? If so, please fill in the form below and we’ll sign you up. The lunch is planned for Wednesday, 28 November at La Piccolo in Lansdowne (http://www.lapiccolaitalia.co.uk/) from 1200-1400. Act fast – this is on a first-come-first-served basis and there are only a few spots left!

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your School / Professional Service (required)

    Launch of our new Researcher Development webpage!

    Research news

    Today we have launched a Researcher Development webpage as part of the Research Blog that focuses specifically on the development of researchers at BU. The page currently contains information about training and development opportunities, Vitae, the ECR Forum and what BU is doing to support the implementation of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. We aim to develop this into a comprehensive suite of information for staff researchers over the next few months. If there is anything you’d like to see on the webpage that isn’t there yet then please let us know so it can be added.

    To mark the launch of the Researcher Development webpage we have also sent a copy of the Concordat and the relevant Vitae briefing document on implementing the Concordat to all staff researchers at BU and their line managers, as well as to colleagues in Human Resources, Staff Development and the Graduate Employment Service. We are currently undertaking a gap analysis of how current BU policy and practice compares to the Concordat and will publish an action plan of initiatives to improve alignment with the Concordat in due course. The action plan already includes a number of exciting new projects aimed to improve the environment for researchers and I look forward to sharing these with you shortly.

    The seven principles of the Concordat are:

    1. Recruitment and selection – Recognition of the importance of recruiting, selecting and retaining researchers with the highest potential to achieve excellence in research.

    2. Recognition and value – Researchers are recognised and valued by their employing organisation as an essential part of their organisation’s human resources and a key component of their overall strategy to develop and deliver world-class research.

    3. Support and career development 1 – Researchers are equipped and supported to be adaptable and flexible in an increasingly diverse, mobile, global research environment.

    4. Support and career development 2 – The importance of researchers’ personal and career development, and lifelong learning, is clearly recognised and promoted at all stages of their career.

    5. Researchers’ responsibilities – Individual researchers share the responsibility for and need to pro-actively engage in their own personal and career development, and lifelong learning.

    6. Equality and diversity – Diversity and equality must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers.

    7. Implementation and review – The sector and all stakeholders will undertake regular and collective review of their progress in strengthening the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK.

    If you have any feedback about the new Researcher Development webpage or any questions about the Concordat and its implementation at BU then please send me an email.

    British Academy Wolfson Research Professorships

    Funding opportunities

    Thanks to the generosity of the Wolfson Foundation, the British Academy is able to offer four new Research Professorships to be taken up in the autumn of 2013. The purpose of these awards is to give an opportunity for extended research leave to a small number of the most outstanding established scholars to enable them to concentrate on a significant research programme, while freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments. Emphasis is also placed by the Academy and the Foundation on the importance of award-holders communicating their plans and results to a broad audience.

    The awards are of a fixed value of £150,000 (£50,000pa for three years). Funding is expected to be used primarily to meet the costs of replacement teaching, with any balance available to the award-holder as research expenses. These awards are not covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) regime.

    The call is now open and the closing date is on 28 November 2012.

    Eligibility: The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s age or current status (eg Professor, Lecturer) in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, in all cases, award-holders are expected to be established scholars with a significant track record of publication. Any field of study in the humanities and social sciences is suitable for support.

    • Number of Awards: Four Professorships are offered.
    • Method of Application: Applications are submitted via e-GAP2, the Academy’s electronic grant application system.
    • The deadline for applications is 28 November 2012 

    The RKE Operations team can help you with your application. Please direct any enquiries to RKE Ops in the first instance. Alternatively, contact the British Academy Research Awards Department for further information.

    Would you like to learn more about Scopus and BRIAN? Then come along to one of our workshops!

    BU research, Guidance

    The aim of these workshops is to support academic colleagues to learn more about Scopus and BRIAN, and how they can use these systems to monitor their publication impact, identify where to publish, identify potential collaborators and also to help them to ensure their Scopus and BRIAN profiles are up to date and optimised.  Matthew Bennett will do an initial presentation about the two systems and this will be followed with the opportunity for participants to look through their own Scopus and BRIAN profiles together with Library and RKEDO (formerly RDU) staff.

    They will take place on both the Lansdowne and Talbot Campuses on the following dates:

     15 October 10am – 11am CG21 Talbot Campus

    23 October 2:30pm – 3:30pm S102 Lansdowne Campus

    31 October 9am – 10am S102 Lansdowne Campus

     Please book a place if you would like to attend by following this link

    Book now for the multidisciplinary Sandpit at BU!

    BU research

    Sandpits provide an intensive, interactive and free-thinking environment. A group of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds use this space to get together to become immersed in a collaborative thinking processes in order to construct innovative approaches to issues or questions. As sandpits involve diverse participants, they force catalysation, collision and collaboration which produces unique and innovative outputs and fosters new partnerships.

    BU academics such as Adele Ladkin and Janet Dickinson have participated in EPSRC sandpits and are fans of this approach and for the experience it provides. To help BU staff start to develop relationships with staff from other disciplines and to get a taster of a sandpit, Julie Northam, myself and expert bid writer Dr Martin Pickard of GrantCraft are facilitating sandpits at BU. The first focuses on Lifelong Heath and Wellbeing and is aligned with the , three 1-Research Council UK cross-thematic areas and is taking place 10-3 on 24.10.12

    Attending this sandpit will:

    • facilitate you networking with other researchers across BU who you wouldn’t normally come in to contact with
    • allow you to get a fresh perspective from a different discipline on the same issue
    • enable you to be part of a multidisciplinary team who potentially bids for Research Council funding
    • give you a truly unique experience

    Spaces are limited for the sandpits to ensure they are effective; you can register for a place on the Staff Development website.

    Book onto one of the British Library’s Doctoral Open Days

    Uncategorized

    A chance for new PhD students to book onto one of the British Library’s Doctoral Open Days and to discover the British Library’s unique research materials. From newspapers to maps, datasets to manuscripts, ships’ logs to websites, our collections cover every format and language and span the last 3,000 years.  At these free events you will learn about our collections, find out how to access them, and meet the BL’s expert staff and other researchers in your field. The events are aimed at first year PhD students who are new to the Library.

    To make the most of your day, you may wish to get a free Reader Pass before the event.

    The main focus of these events is towards the arts, humanities and social sciences, however, science students can of course apply for a free Reader Pass – useful if you’re already planning a research trip to London.

    If you’re visiting one of the London university or museum libraries you can use the Inform25 Catalogue to search their Library Catalogues in advance.  Make sure you join the Sconul Access Scheme at Bournemouth University Library first to ensure you can gain access to those libraries and potentially borrow books.

    The power of resubmission?

    News from the PVC

    Check this out: rejection can help your citations!  This sounds a little counter intuitive but is one of the conclusions of a piece of work published in Science recently by Calcagno and colleagues.  They have done this huge network based study of submission patterns within the biological sciences across some 923 journals involving some 80 thousand articles.    Some of their conclusions are obvious, scientists aspire to high impact journals and resubmit successively to lower impact journals when rejected, but others are not.  The paper’s particular focus is on the pattern of resubmission between journals when a manuscript is rejected.  The network of resubmissions is impressive and forms clear academic clusters.  Interestingly high impact journals publish proportionally more articles that had been resubmitted from another journal suggesting that even the best journals receive manuscripts rejected by others.  This makes sense to me, for example my own Science paper in 2009 was first rejected by Nature.  But the really interesting bit is that resubmission can actually enhance the impact of a paper post-publication in terms of citations.  The question is why?  Do good papers just shine through or is there something else?  The authors suggest that in fact this may be a reflection of the contribution of editors and reviewers to a paper enhancing that paper even if they ultimately reject it.  I like this because ambition and aspiration to the top journals, even if one fails in the attempt, gets its reward in the end!  Interestingly the survey also shows that authors are often very conservative in their journal choices placing material where they are confident it will be published.  In fact 75% of outputs in the survey are published where they were first submitted.  One could argue, however, that in being conservative we are in fact in some cases doing our work a disservice and that by exposing our work to risk of rejection it may often end having more impact.  One final parting shot from this great little paper; if you switch journal or discipline networks during the resubmission cascade your paper will do worse in terms of its post-publication impact.  Any way check it out a great study!

    Changes to the external Staff Profile Pages

    BU research, Guidance

    After helpful feedback from staff, we have agreed to temporarily remove the charts that appear on your external staff profile pages.  These were a snapsnot of your publications, co-author network (which only showed current BU staff), and map of science (which isn’t clear as to what it shows).  We will consider re-activating the available charts when they have been improved and become more meaningful.

    The staff profile pages are currently not mapping across all ‘Authors’ listed within BRIAN for publications.  Therefore, the staff profile pages have been amended so that publications now have an author title of ‘Authors at BU’.  Development is underway for a complete list of authors to be shown and this will be provided shortly.

    FIF Launch Week – Focus on Co-Creation and Co-Production strand

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

     The popular Co-Creation and Co-Production (CCCP) strand is open to applications.  This strand was most popular of the three open to staff in the July round with 38 applications.

     A total of £246, 102.96 was awarded to successful applicants, to get ahead of the competition please note an important addition to the strand policy:

    Successful bids will need to have benefits to the student experience at the core – and be able to demonstrate how this will occur, so hitting the Education point in the BU Fusion triangle is now more important than before.

    Applications that do not satisfy how education at BU will be improved will not be looked at favourably by the panel.   To review the full strand developments and how this has affected the policy, you can view the updated FIF CCCP policy sept.

    Our successful CCCP applicants have been blogging about their activity on our Research Blog, I hope that you will be successful in securing funds in this round and will join them!  Read their blogs below:

    Sarah Bate who has used Fusion Investment funds to develop the Centre for Face Processing Disorders at BU – Watch out for the Centre’s regular updates on the Research Blog, and also check out www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org for more information.

    Hossein Hassani is leading an inter-disciplinary project to characterize the socio-economic drivers underpinning change in freshwater host biodiversity that lead to the emergence of immuno-suppressant related human disease.

    Don’t forget to take advantage of the intervention programmes running this October and November!

    For further details about the fund please see www.bournemouth.ac.uk/FIF

    Best of luck!

    Adele Ladkin secures Fusion Investment Funding to visit the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in Andorra

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

    Professor Adele Ladkin has received funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two week long visits to the UNWTO Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra.

    As part of its Capacity Building Programme, the UNWTO.Themis Foundation provides educational courses and workshops for tourism industry experts.  These are in a range of subjects, for example tourism marketing, adventure tourism and sustainable tourism.  Because of the nature of these courses and the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sectors are recruited as tutors to deliver the courses.

    Adele and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO. Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO Themis Foundation are engaged in collaborative work to produce a teaching guide and intensive training course for tutors responsible for delivering tourism capacity building courses and workshops as part of the UNWTO. Capacity Programme.  The Themis Foundation enables UNWTO Member States to devise and implement education, training and capacity building policies, plans and tools that fully harness the employment potential of their tourism sector and effectively enhance its competitiveness and sustainability. Working with Ms Figueras, Adele will provide input into teaching methodologies commonly used in tourism programmes.

    The collaboration has arisen as the School of Tourism is part of the Themis TedQual Network and aims to support activities undertaken in the areas of education, training and tourism capacity building. The impact of the collaboration will be practical through the dissemination and use of the teachers guide and the training course by highly experienced tourism subject experts. The collaboration and pedagogic approach will also be presented at an appropriate tourism educator’s conference. This knowledge exchange opportunity demonstrates the Schools commitment to supporting tourism education initiatives.

    Adele will be spending time in Andorra at the headquarters of the Themis Foundation to work directly on the course materials as well as on-line collaborative working. The visits will enable Adele to spend a concentrated period of time working on the project, and will also give her further insight into the activities of the Themis Foundation.  She plans to undertake the first visit later this year – weather permitting as the mountain roads into Andorra are often covered in snow!

    ESRC Festival of Social Science @BU features ‘Methods to Diversity’ and the film, Rufus Stone

    BU research

    BU’s involvement in the ESRC Festival of Social Science includes a one-day event entitled, “Pathways to Impact: ageing, diversity, connectivity and community” on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (GMT) being held at the Executive Business Centre, 7th Floor.

    The day will feature stimulating activities and informal discussions about diversity, the potential damage of discrimination experienced by many older gay and lesbian citizens, and what can be done about it. 

    Equality South West’s Chief Executive Katie Pratt will start off the day with highlights from their survey, “Pride Progress & Transformation”.

    Members of BU’s LGB Research Advisory Committee will be on hand to informally share their experiences of working on BU projects.

    A screening of the award winning, Bournemouth produced short film, Rufus Stone will follow Rufus Stone the movie blog.

    Following a networking lunch, the big event of the day is the launch the Method Deck, Methods to Diversity – a learning tool to inspire agencies, practitioners and communities to think about diversity within their ageing population. Methods to Diversity is a playful compendium of information, practical tips and engaging exercises to help agencies and community groups think creatively about their approach to working with older lesbian and gay people.

    Space is VERY limited (60 participants) and will fill up fast.  If you are interested in attending, please register quickly at http://esrcfestival.eventbrite.com

    The event is free, including lunch and a set of the Methods to Diversity cards. 

    Any questions?  Please contact Dr Lee–Ann Fenge lfenge@bournemouth.ac.uk.

    Joseph Rowntree Trust session – slides available

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news

    Thank you to everyone who came to the Joseph Rowntree Trust session yesterday, presented by Tony Stoller – Chair of the Board of Trustees.  Tony gave an extremely informative overview of the varied and fascinating work of the JR Trust and Housing Foundation.

     Please click here to access the slides:   JRF presentation – 10th October 2012

    Funding:  It is worth re-iterating that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is not a grant-making organisation and generally does not accept speculative enquiries for funding.The JRF issues ‘calls for proposals’ and invites submissions to them.   Via the JRF website you can sign up for alerts – this is the best way to keep in touch with the latest funding opportunities.

    If you have any questions about JRF and their work please contact Tony Stoller himself:

    tstoller@bournemouth.ac.uk

     or even better,  Emma Stone who is the Head of Research:

    Emma.stone@jrf.org.uk

    FREE – Vitae Research Staff Conference, 8 November 2012

    BU research, REF Subjects, Research assessment

    This conference will focus on the role of research staff and research staff associations in leading and supporting sector change. The plenary will have an international emphasis to reflect progress in setting up the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICoRSA).

    Research staff associations represent the interests of research staff and their colleagues by interacting with institutional management and administration, informing institutional policy, and facilitating the organisation of training activities and career development session for other researchers.  Research staff associations can be crucial agents in embedding the implementation of the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (‘Concordat’) and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Research Environment.

    Research staff are well placed to inform, represent and develop the skills and knowledge base of research staff colleagues in the areas that matter most to them. Research staff associations are in a unique position to co-ordinate the responses of research staff to policy changes that affect their working conditions, professional development and career opportunities and to ensure that the provisions introduced and delivered by higher education institution employers are tailored to their needs and that research staff participate in their development.

    For more information, please visit this link

    http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/916-532601/Vitae-Research-Staff-Conference-2012.html

     

    September Early Career Forum – How to get that first grant or paper…..

    BU research, Research news

    In September we held the second of our open forum meetings for Early Career Researchers (ECRs).  These meetings provide  an opportunity to ask for advice and guidance from a team of experienced academics and research managers in an informal setting. Questions can be about anything related to research – from publications to projects to funding to research strategy! The Forums also provide an opportunity for ECRs to network with colleagues from across the University.

    The September meeting was well attended by ECRs from Schools across the University, and they met with Prof Bogdan Gabrys, Assoc Prof Richard Berger,  plus Jennifer Roddis and myself from the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office.

    The discussions related getting started – how to get that first grant, or first paper when you don’t have a track-record (apart from your Phd research). One of the key messages here was to work on your profile, and there are various ways you can approach profile-raising.  Here are some of the key messages that emerged from this theme:

    Publishing: Remember, your Phd is a valid piece of research!  You might want to talk to your supervisor about targeting likely publications and jointly publishing on your Phd topic or theme.  Regularly publish if you can.  Get your name out. 

    Don’t be afraid to take a tangent:  A useful message from this meeting was don’t be precious about your research area.  You may miss opportunities if you are not prepared to follow a research path on a tangent.  After completing your Phd it can be challenging to find topics to research or publish on.  Take a look at your literature review and early drafts of your Phd.  Examine the abandoned strands of argument and research questions you decided not to pursue.  These could present themselves as great opportunities for research and publication, as they are related to your Phd topic, but not restricted by it.   This is one way that you might expand your research out of your Phd subject.

    For example, Richard Berger won a BBC grant that was not strictly in his subject area.  He felt out of his comfort zone for the 8 weeks of the project.  However, he learned enormous amounts about new methodolgieis, delivering research, and presenting his work, which has stood him in good stead for his further research work.

    Networking: Getting involved in networks is an effective part of raising your profile.  Attending conferences is a good start. You might start by choosing conferences with the best repuation, or by going to small conferences, where you may find other academics like you!  Over time, you will naturally get to know the other conference attendees (peopl you sit next to etc).    If you find someone you like, you might want to start presenting together. 

    This was the experience of one of the senior academics – they started presenting together, then started to write together, then started their own journal on the subjects that they are interested in.   Starting your own journal is not as hard as it sounds.  You could publish online, and academics from around the world like being invited to be on editorial boards.  Its worth a thought. You can try submitting papers to conferences – but bear in mind that there is a lot of competition, with probably a 20% chance of your paper being accepted, but if you don’t try, you won’t know!

    Networking funds?  Ask in your School if there are funds available for attending conferences.  Each School has a different way of doing things, so it is worth asking around. Investigate the research councils and other funders, which offer networking grants.   You could organise your own conference – this would be a great opportunity to generate some funds, plus a fantastic way to create your own network.  Host it at the EBC, write about it on the reserach blog, write about it on other blogs, advertise it through online networks.    

    Cold calling:  When you are cold-calling, make sure you have something to offer – be honest and be upfront.  The worst that can happen is that you receive a polite no, or are ignored!   Maybe don’t always email potential collaborators. If they are within BU knock on their door and be pursuasive!  Research groups at other institutions may well be looking for speakers on certain topics.  Do some research, find out, offer yourself as a speaker.

    Online communities: there are networks of excellence that operate online.  Join in and find like-minded people.   A good opportunity to make connections and raise your profile.

    Research Grants:  Take advantage of schemes such as the Grants Academy and Research Proposal Review Service.   Subscribe to the research blog for news on internal funding opportunities.  Bid for Phd studentships. Talk to colleagues – maybe you could collaborate?  Use Research Professional and look for open calls.  Don’t focus only on the big research council grants – these are highly competitive, and generally are looking for a research grant track record.  Look for smaller funding opportunities – charities, foundations and even regional funding agencies are often good places to start.  A good piece of advice:  stay away from scary deadlines until you are ready!   

    Prepare to fail! You will get rejections – because everyone gets rejections for papers submitted to journals, and for research grant applications.   When you suffer a rejection your first reaction will be emotional.  Take time to reflect.  Then go back to your proposal and take a constructive look.  The work won’t be wasted, as you will be able to re-work it for another journal or another funder.

    BRIAN: make sure your profile is up to date.

    Make the most of internal support available:

    One of the ECRs who attended has helpfully set up a Facebook page called ECR BU – here is the link:

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/265825716854423/

    What next?

    If you’re interested in coming to one of the next ECR Forums you will need to book to confirm your attendance (this is so we can order enough food and refreshments in advance). The next Forums are scheduled as follows (rooms to be confirmed):

    19 November 12:30 – 15:00 on the Lansdowne Campus

    11 December 12:30 – 15:00 on the Talbot Campus