Monthly Archives / September 2013

Reminder – CEMP open meeting this Thursday

    Reminder about this Thursday’s meeting which is an open invitation for people to come along, have a coffee and tell us how we can support collaborative approaches to pedagogic research & innovation.

The background:

This academic year CEMP will continue to publish a fortnightly research & innovation funding bulletin via this blog, like so:  CEMP bulletin 26.9.13

The Research & Innovation meetings will also continue, but we want to invite colleagues from the rest of the Media School and across BU to tell us how we can increase engagement and collaboration in all aspects of pedagogic / educational research and innovation related to media / technology.

Previously, the model has been like this –

The bulletin is posted on a Thursday – this contains information about funding calls and also monitors live projects and reports on the outcomes of all bids.

The next Thursday, we meet to discuss the calls in the bulletin and report on bids in progress.

The next Thursday, the updated bulletin is posted

….and so on.

So far, we’ve been successful in one of our two key objectives – increasing CEMP bidding activity, but less successful in the other – developing collaboration with other people in BU, either in response to the funding calls in the bulletin or to try to match peoples’ ideas for projects / innovation to funding opportunities. This second objective is a service / function CEMP can offer to the University, and we’d like more colleagues to access this.

So – we’d like to review how we do this, in order to get better at the second objective, and to this end the first R&I meeting of this year is an open forum and everyone is invited to either come along and contribute to the discussion or to add a comment to this post if you have ideas but can’t make the meeting.

Meeting details:

Thursday 26th September 10-12

CEMP’s new office (CAGO2) – with tea, coffee and pastries!!!

Key issues for discussion:

  • How can CEMP support people in developing research / innovation projects?
  • What are the structural obstacles and how can we overcome them?

When we’ve got everyone’s ideas / requests for how to proceed, we’ll decide how to go ahead.

I hope we’ll see you there or read your ideas on the blog.

Julian

BRIAN update completed successfully

Guidance

BRIANYesterday’s upgrade of BRIAN was completed successfully.  The system is now fully usable.

Updated guides and videos will be available soon.  In the interim, if you have any queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Details of grants can now be recorded in BRIAN.  This document explains how to manage grant information: BRIAN – Managing grants – Sep 13

The research themes have been updated too.  As a result, there is a new theme available ‘Ageing, Society and Dementia’ which you may wish to add to your profile, if applicable.  It would be good if you could check your choice of research themes in BRIAN to ensure they still reflect your interests.

We are now working on the release of the new staff profile pages and will tell you more about this shortly.

Desperate for uninterrupted quality time on your grant application? Come to the Residential Research Retreat!

The Research Design Service South West (RDS SW) is offering a unique opportunity to researchers in health and social care across the South West of England.

The Residential Research Retreat provides an opportunity for research teams to develop high quality research proposals suitable for submission to national peer-reviewed funding schemes. The aim of the Retreat is to provide the environment and support to promote rapid progress in developing proposals over a relatively short time period. The Retreat is open to health professionals and academic partners working within the South West. 

At the Retreat you will be supported by a range of academic experts while developing your research proposal. Away from the workplace, you will work intensively on your proposal, while learning how to maximise its chances for successfully securing a grant. You will learn how to develop your idea into a viable and first class research proposal and experience research project planning at a professional level.

A delegate from this year’s Retreat said, “This has been an extremely valuable exercise and has really helped build an understanding of what is expected from NIHR funded projects. In order to ensure that new researchers are able to make feasible, rigorous, well-designed bids for funding, this week is essential.”

The Retreat will be held at the Ammerdown Conference Centre, near Bath in Somerset from 1 June to 6 June 2014 inclusive. To win a place on the Retreat, applications should be submitted by 1pm on Friday 17th January 2014.  Applications will be reviewed competitively and places awarded to the most promising team proposals. The application and further information is available at http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/rrr.htm.

Don’t forget, your local branch of the Research Design Service is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us or send us an email.

CEMP Fellows? A Proposal for Fostering Innovative Education Research at BU

BU Challenges, Fusion

Many media studies professionals engaged in learning innovation first get introduced to Bournemouth University through CEMP, the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice. From attending annual summits to publishing in the Media Education Research Journal, before joining BU I was already connected to this unique community characterised by creativity, sharing and mentorship. Once I started working at BU I quickly realised that educational researchers interested in media and technology were not just in CEMP. From the School of Tourism to DEC, inspiring educational research can be found across BU.

As the Fusion vision expands and EdD programme grows, the time seems ripe to further foster innovative education research at BU, to use CEMP to bring our educational researchers together. Yet, as any of us who’ve scampered around to meet a grant deadline knows all too well, network building and collaborative bidding requires workload time and institutional support. This got some of us thinking about ways we might be able to foster educational research through CEMP. Borrowing a best practice employed at many research centres around the world, we asked ourselves: What if CEMP had internal fellows?

These CEMP Fellows could be culled from BU’s existing educational research community. Provided dedicated time in their schedules to meet together, they could share their previous scholarship and develop new collaborative projects. CEMP could create annual or bi-annual themes to guide this knowledge exchange and facilitate initiatives, offering a programmed series of meetings and events. For example, CEMP might run a Fellow programme on a topic like ‘Games and Education,’ bringing together researchers exploring the use of educational gaming across all schools.  As evidence that these fellows already exist amongst us, just two weeks ago at the VS Games conference hosted at BU by Dr. Christos Gatzidis and Dr. Jian Zhang of DEC, we saw BU participants from Tourism, the Centre for Digital Entertainment, Animation, Corporate Communication and more. Together we shared innovations in educational gaming.  Could CEMP Fellows be a way forward for fostering fusion?

An Appetite for Research in the Undergraduate Population

For the past four years we have run Research Assistantship Schemes in the Psychology Research Centre. These schemes, both voluntary and paid (fusion-funded), have lead to both expected and unexpected benefits. Read on to find out more.

The 2nd year Psychology undergraduate voluntary Research Assistantship Scheme received 45 applications this year which represented 25% of the eligible year group. This represents an almost 50% increase on the year before. Prior to formalising the scheme numbers were much lower than that. Formalising the scheme has helped reveal an amazing appetite for research in the undergraduate population, but our schemes have had further reaching benefits. One benefit has been that our accrediting body, The British Psychological Society, has commended the RA scheme. We have also learned that some students applied to our undergraduate course because of the RA scheme.

The related Fusion-funded Research Assistantship Summer Scheme received 37 applications for the 7 paid positions. Two of the positions were advertised to completed 3rd year students. Advertised as prestigious positions and a potential platform to MSc level study, all of the 3rd year applicants went on to apply for our research MSc in Lifespan Neuropsychology. This year the number of BU students recruited to the MSc has doubled (acting as somewhat of a buffer against the sector-typical drop in external applications). Furthermore, 66% of the unsuccessful applicants volunteered as RAs with us over the summer instead of missing out. Some of these applicants joined our RA schemes in their second years as volunteers meaning that we have provided them with a pathway for research training from early in their degree through to MSc; for some this has lead to their names’ inclusion on submitted papers.

For the first time this year the summer scheme positions sought sponsorship. Non-financial sponsorship came from three local charities alongside which the RAs worked giving them further invaluable experience. At least one of these is now considering providing financial sponsorship for summer 2014; we hope to introduce matched- or fully-funded sponsorship options in the near future. In sum, the RA positions are a useful route route to engagement with local, external bodies and could entice first-time funders, representing first-step funding, and potentially leading to funding for matched- or perhaps fully-funded PhD positions and beyond.

The RA schemes have been running in the Psychology Research Centre for four years. Increasing formalisation has led some important benefits for students and staff and revealed an appetite for for research in the undergraduate population that previously could only have been guessed at. For sure, some of this represents the desire for more general experience for CVs but most are genuinely interested in the outcome of the research. Students learn the difficulties involved in research and begin to better understand and appreciate what academics spend their time doing when they are not teaching. Staff are learning more about the utility of involving fresh, eager minds in their research. If wielded properly, RA schemes have the potential to meet student demands, increase MSc level study here at BU and as a consequence prevent the loss of our best students, and help build future researchers. We are happy to report all of these outcomes in the four years the schemes have been running. We aim to continue the formalisation and offer Certificates for newly defined stages of Research Assistantship, which involves combining our up until now separate voluntary and paid schemes. We have spoken to at least one head of group who is interested in porting this formalised scheme to their discipline and to allowing our RAs to interact in the hope of fermenting interdisciplinary discussion and research and the undergraduate level. We hope that this blog entry will spark more interest.

BRIAN being upgraded today

Guidance

BRIANA quick reminder that BRIAN is being upgraded today.  The upgrade starts at 10.00 so please do not use the application after that time today. 

The work is scheduled to take most of the day.  We expect BRIAN to be available tomorrow morning.

 

 

Dissent and protest – new directions for public relations

Dissent and Protest Public Relations is an initiative by the PR Research Group in the Media School which aims to help develop new directions for exploring both practice and theory.

A series of seminars launched this initiative in late 2012, and the global PR Conversations website has now published papers from three of the four contributors (including myself) who approached the topic from different perspectives.

The papers (click here for pdf) have been published to stimulate discussion around the terms dissent PR and protest PR, and whether they can, and should, be applied to current, recent and past PR happenings.

We are hoping to hear thoughts about whether or not the concepts should be developed further and views on considering a wider perspective on public relations than the normal idea that it is employed primarily within organisations and so is often critiqued as a right-wing, or at least, establishment, method of communications.

Please comment here or join the conversation at PR Conversations: http://www.prconversations.com/index.php/2013/09/dissent-and-protest-new-directions-for-public-relations/

5 exciting upgrades to the Online Ethics Checklist

Research Ethics

You spoke and we listened…the release of the updated Online Ethics Checklist is now live! Below is a list of 5 exciting changes to the checklist:

1. Document attachment function – that’s right, rather than emailing your participant information sheet, consent form, questionnaire, risk assessment, etc. to your supervisor/ethics representative, now you’ll be able to attach the documents through the Online Ethics Checklist!

2. PDF of what to expect to see on the checklist – researchers will be able to review this document prior to going through the actual checklist to ensure they are aware of the information they will need to provide in order to speed up the ethical review process!

3. The ability to view Open or Submitted checklists as a PDF prior to approval – researchers will now be able to produce a draft version of the ethics checklist in the instance they are working with multiple partners or multiple schools to ensure all parties are on the same page when it comes to research ethics!

4. A link to the Health Research Authority Decision Tool – researchers who aren’t sure if their research requires external approval (i.e. via a NHS Research Ethics Committee) can use this decision tool to know if they should apply for external approval.

5. Activity trail – supervisors and Ethics Representatives will now be able to see the record of activity between themselves and researchers, which will ensure an audit trail is available in the instance questions arise regarding the ethical review and approval process.

If you have any questions about the above upgrades or anything else regarding the Online Ethics Checklist, please get in touch with Julia Hastings Taylor.

BU Sport Students and Academic Succeed at European Association for Sport Management Conference in Istanbul

REF Subjects, Research themes

As part of its internationalisation activities the Sports group within the School of Tourism had four students and a scholar significantly contributing at the Student Seminar and the main conference of the European Association for Sport Management (EASM) in Turkey from 7 to 14 September.

The 4.5-full-day Student Seminar saw 60 students from 13 countries working in mixed international groups along management cases. Keynotes on those topics of current special interest were given by the NBA Europe Marketing Director, a recently retired UNICEF Programme Director, Professor March Krotee from North Carolina State University and Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University.

BU students John Bryson, Stefan Ferencz and Oliver Johnson won their case competitions with their respective teams, and therefor had the chance to present at the 21st EASM conference. After the four winning groups’ presentations in front of a large audience, the jury decided on Oliver Johnson and his team as the overall winner of the management game. They were awarded during the conference’s closing banquet, which took place during a nightlong boot trip on the Bosporus.

Students present dissertation research to academic community

Beyond all four students’ great work as BU ambassadors during the Student Seminar, Luke Frary and John Bryson presented their dissertation research to the interested academic community, guided by Tim and Dr Andrew Adams, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management. Before his presentation, Luke had the chance to personally discuss his work on leadership over breakfast with 86-year old Professor Packianathan Chelladurai, arguably the most globally renown sport management and leadership scholar. John was asked by NBA Europe Marketing Director Naci Cansun to send his research results on the impact of CSR in professional sport and thoughts on managerial implications.

All students had to go through a very competitive application process and a good proportion of the overall trip was funded because of the students’ very strong applications to the BU Global Horizon Fund and the School of Tourism internal funding scheme. Besides their successes related to the conference, all students generally benefitted from the process of actively engaging and working with the large intercultural sports and business community.

Dr Tim Breitbarth workshop Lead Convenor at EASM conference

Despite its small presence at the world’s largest sport management conference, the BU Sports group made a big impact also due to Tim’s role as Lead Convenor of a very well-attended 1.5-day workshop on social responsibility management in professional sport, which for the first time brought most of the key researchers on the topic from North America, Australia and Europe together. In addition, experienced practitioners from Euroleague Basketball and German Society for International Cooperation were invited as keynote speakers and added to the discussion.

The workshop is part of the process which will lead to a special issue on the topic in Corporate Governance – The International Journal of Business in Society, with Tim leading a the guest editor team, which also features three colleagues from England, Germany and The Netherlands (www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=4564).

Luke Frary with Andrés Guerrero, International Development Cooperation Expert and recently retired UNICEF Programme Director
Oliver Johnson (third from left) with his team from Finland, Germany and The Netherlands, which won the EASM 2013 Student Management Game.

Stefan Ferencz during group work

John Bryson with two of his team members from Germany and The Netherlands

Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, with Professor Birol Cotuk, Dean Marmara University School of PE and Sport and Chair of the 21st EASM Conference, Istanbul/Turkey

Health Survey for England

Research themes

Did you know?

Over eight in ten (84%) people aged 65 and over agree that ‘marriage is still the best kind of relationship’, compared with fewer than four in ten (38%) people aged 18-34.

from : British Social Attitudes 26th Report

The Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Research theme had an excellent meeting with representatives from the Health Survey for England team at NatCen. This is Britain’s leading centre for independent social research, a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to making an impact on society and advancing the role of social research in the UK.

Their research covers all areas of social policy, and findings have direct, practical application in terms of understanding social behaviour and informing policy. They bring to life what is really going on in Britain today.

The work is carried out by experienced researchers using innovative, high quality research methods, earning them an international reputation for delivering robust and rigorous research.

They work around the full range of social policy areas such as

Health & Lifestyle

Social & Political Attitudes

Children, Schools & Families

Crime & Justice

Employment, Skills & Education

Income & Welfare

Social Inclusion

Transport & Environment

There is a wealth of data available in the form of raw statistics and reports and including a ‘blood bank’.

Please click on the link below to find out more or please contact Rachel Craig

Senior Research Director, Health Survey for England

Direct line: 020 7549 7012

NatCen Social Research  Rachel Craig Rachel.Craig@natcen.ac.uk

 

 

BUDI works for Internationalising Dementia Education and Research

By Mariela Gaete-Reyes

 Thanks to the Fusion Investment Fund, SMN Strand Santander Scholarships 2012-13, I was able to visit Chile and Colombia as a BUDI ambassador this summer. The objective of the visits was to undertake collaborative work with two institutions and to develop networks with other institutions and academics in both countries to explore the possibilities of working collaboratively with them in the future.

In Santiago I did scoping interviews with 8 key actors working in dementia, which explored the social-economic and political situation of people living with dementia in Chile and their families. These interviews are the basis of a research grant proposal for a comparative study (underway), in which I worked with Dr Paulina Osorio at Universidad de Chile; she is an anthropologist with a PhD in Sociology. What was evident from the interviews was the absence of public policy relating to dementia in Chile, and consequently, the scarcity of state support. Although this can be expected in a country where there is not welfare state, it means that families have to arrange, do and/or pay for all the care. Connected to this is the prevalence of a medicalised view of dementia in Chile which is reflected, in part, in the lack of social research around dementia.

I visited Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, and had a meeting with Dr Patricio Fuentes. He is a consultant neurologist and has 20 years of experience working with people with dementia. Dr Fuentes is part of the medical and scientific advisory panel (MSAP) of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI). In his role, he provides expert advice and acts as the Chilean ambassador for ADI. Dr Fuentes expressed his interest in working collaboratively with us in research.

I got in contact with Corporación Profesional Alzheimer y otras Demencias COPRAD. This is a multidisciplinary organisation constituted by professionals that seek to contribute to the preservation of mental health and the improvement of the quality of life for people living with Alzheimer and other types of dementia, and also their family carers. I had a meeting with the vice-president of this association, Andrea Slachevsky, who is a consultant neurologist and has a PhD in Neuroscience (Paris). Her interests are in public policy and she, together with the corporation and other actors, has been working to put forward a National plan for dementia, this is called: Plan Nacional de Enfermedad de Alzheimer y Otras Demencias.

I had two meetings with the director of Corporación Alzheimer Chile, Nubia Alvarado. This organisation was created by family members of people with dementia and they have several services for individuals with dementia and their families. This organisation subscribes to ADI. Nubia Alvarado also expressed interest in working with us. I also visited the Instituto Nacional de Geriatria, a geriatric hospital, and had a meeting with the Director of the Hospital, Dr. Juana Silva. They have different levels of care for older people: ambulatory, daytime hospitalisation (four hours), this service is provided when somebody needs to be seen by different specialists; the objective is preventing longer periods of hospitalisations; and hospitalisation. Instituto Nacional de Geriatría has a unit which focuses on training, research, dissemination and extension. When I visited they were about to start a course on dementia care. Dr. Juana Silva manifested her interest in working with BUDI.

 

Instituto Nacional de Geriatría. Photos: Courtesy Instituto Nacional de Geriatría.

 
There were at least three people who expressed interest in coming to BUDI as visiting scholars at some point. Jean Gajardo, OT, MSc in Social Gerontology, who is doing a PhD in Public Health at Universidad de Chile. Javier Nuñez, who is a GP and works in matters relating to Dementia, and Agnieszka Bozanic a neuropsychologist who has worked with individuals with dementia and their families. Carolina Perez who works at Instituto Nacional de Geriatría is thinking about undertaking a postgraduate course (MSc or PhD) and was interested in hearing what we could offer.

After being in Chile, I went to Colombia and met a colleague from BUDI, Ben Hicks, to undertake an academic exchange in collaboration with Universidad del Rosario. We had a four day activity programme in Bogota and Nocaima. Our activities in Bogota included giving lectures/presentations at the University and MEDERI hospital to medical and OT students about the work we do at BUDI and other dementia related themes. We also participated in discussion panels. We visited Hospital Universitario de Barrios Unidos to observe a session of the programme PERMEA (Programa de Estimulación y Rehabilitación de la Memoria y la Atención), for the stimulation and rehabilitation of the memory for people with dementia and other memory problems.

Mariela Gaete-Reyes giving a talk at Universidad del Rosario.

 

Ben Hicks giving a talk at Universidad del Rosario.

As part of our academic visit we went to Nocaima a rural community close to Bogota. In Nocaima we were introduced to the Healthy Municipality project and had the opportunity to interact with Semillas de Amor, a group of elderly people. We also visited a care home which depends on the church and on donations of the local community. The care home has 33 residents and only one carer and she manages to do all the care and take them to the GP when needed. Finally, we visited Universidad Nacional de Colombia and held a meeting with the Faculty of Nursing to explore collaborative work in ‘Care for carers’, which is a training programme offered to carers of people with chronic illnesses.   

Hopefully from this visit we will be able to continue working in collaboration with the institutions we visited in Chile and Colombia in dementia research and education. So, many thanks again to the Santander Scholarship.

 
Institutions visited:

Santiago, Chile

  • Instituto Nacional de Geriatría.
  • Hospital Clínico Universidad de Chile, Geriatric section.                                 
  • Corporación Profesional Alzheimer y otras Demencias COPRAD.    
  • Corporación Alzheimer Chile.
  • Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.  

 

Bogotá, Colombia

  • Universidad del Rosario, Facultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) and Facultad de Jurisprudencia (Faculty of Law).
  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de enfermería (Faculty of Nursing).      

Upgrading BRIAN on Monday 23rd September

Guidance

BRIANBRIAN will be upgraded on Monday 23rd September.  This upgrade beings a new look and feel to BRIAN with a vibrant red banner to emphasise the many changes and improvements. 

This message is for information.  There is nothing you need to do.  All of the existing data will be transferred as part of the upgrade.

Please do not log into BRIAN on Monday 23rd.  In preparation for the upgrade, please do not make any changes to the data in BRIAN after Sunday as doing so may mean your changes are lost. 

There are some configuration changes to be made to add the grant component and research areas, and checks to be performed so please do not log into BRIAN until Tuesday 24th.

At the same time as we have been preparing for the BRIAN upgrade, we have been developing the new Staff Profile Page application.  This will be a major improvement on what we have today.  More on this next week once BRIAN has been updated.