Yearly Archives / 2013

Are you keen to develop industry partnerships? Find out how academia and the private sector can work together

BU research, Uncategorized

By 2014, capital grants to UK universities from Government will have halved.

But what are you doing to bridge the gap?

In order to maintain a strong financial position in this environment, without allowing academic or commercial standards to slip, institutions will need to diversify their income streams.

Developing Industry Partnerships – Thursday 27th February 2014 in Central London will guide you through the process, from how to bid for industry funding successfully to how to maintain beneficial relationships with your partners.

Leave with all the practical guidance on the most effective methods for obtaining alternative HE funding, setting your University up for continued success and future improvement.

 

Only by attending will you:

– Establish the best approaches to industry collaboration

– Learn how to capitalise on your university’s reputation

– Identify the best strategy for your university to systematically achieve your goals

– Understand the importance of commercial partners when securing investment

– Raise your funding questions with experts in the field

 

Early Bird Rates Available Now

Please contact Claire Berry on 020 7550 5954 and quote MK2F3KP

Or email enquiries@moderngov.com

Book online: Please click here to visit the online booking form

University Rate – £395+VAT (standard rate – £445+VAT)

This offer must end Friday 22nd November, cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, applies to new bookings only, and must be mentioned at the time of booking.

Horizon 2020 info days are here!

EU

As you any of you regular EU section readers will know, attending the info days for EU funding is essential. Not only do you get the insider knowledge on what’s coming up, but you get to mingle with the National Contact Points and other useful source of information and help but also you get to network with loads of other people with similar research interests!

There are a few info days coming up and I recommend that if you are thinking of submitting to any of the related themes, that you dedicate the time to going.

Bigger on the Inside

BU research, Festival of Learning, Publishing, Uncategorized

 

 

 

 

 

The Doctor, his TARDIS-driven adventures, along with companions and iconic monsters, are all over the TV and newspapers. The Inner World of Doctor Who is a new book, just out. Written by Prof Mike Rustin (UEL, Tavsitock Clinic) and Prof. Iain MacRury in the Media School here at BU. This publication offers an accessible account of Doctor Who. It focusses just on the most recent television output – 2005 to 2013 – and examines why the show continues to fascinate us.
The Doctor’s relationships with his companions are to the fore. Various chapters also consider the dramatic meanings of monsters and time travel – linking the show back to ideas about audience experience – and what we might ‘learn’ from Doctor Who. It looks at the complexity of the new Doctor Who in its depictions of the suffering of the Doctor, as well that of his at times vulnerable and dependent companions. A connection is made between TV content and some (but not all) elements in the experience of psychotherapy.
We propose that one way of thinking about the Doctor is to see him as a kind of inadvertent ‘therapist’ – with the TV dramas on screen rendering troubled states of mind and society within a rich cultural frame. Doctor Who extends a fairy-tale and children’s fictional tradition across its contemporary media platforms. As we argue: In Doctor Who everyday life is often revealed to be “Bigger on the inside.”

The 50th anniversary won’t come again and it provided a chastening deadline we’re glad to have met it! The book was inspired by the startling success of the show in recent years. Why does it attract such attention and affection? While thinking about it I  got further daily encouragement from the TARDIS that sits on the ground floor of Weymouth House, courtesy of our former Media School colleague, Dr Andrew Ireland.

The Inner World of Doctor Who is published with Karnac books. It should be of interest to diehard fans. But it is written, too, for people who probably wouldn’t claim the title ‘fan’ but for whom all the fuss about Time Lords and Tardises just now (The Doctor is even on postage stamps!) is provoking the thought: “What’s this all about!?” The Inner World of Doctor Who offers some answers.
 – Written with a colleague, Prof. Mike Rustin, from UEL and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust the book emerges from an enriching collaboration that began in some teaching sessions at the Tavistock clinic on their MA in Psychoanalytic Studies. It has now developed into this book. The book came together quite quickly and has been usefully supported by an AHRC funded network called “Media and the Inner World”. The book is published as part of their new series with Karnac called Psychoanalysis and Popular Culture.
If you are interested the book can be found at http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=34857 or as an e-book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inner-World-Doctor-Psychoanalytic-Psychoanalysis/dp/1782200835

Need a Hand with your Vital Statistics?

BU research

Then our refresher session in all things stats is definitely for you! The content of the session can be shaped by what you need and will include key packages such as SPSS.

Most of us forget how to use our stats packages if we don’t use them all the time and this is precisely the reason this session will be held as part of the BRAD framework.

The session is taking place on the afternoon of 20th November and spaces for this session are limited, so you will need to book via the Staff Development webpage.

 

BU’s new research website, launching this month!

Research news, Research themes, Training

Why is there a new research website?

As regular readers of this blog know, across BU there is a wealth of research and knowledge exchange activities that take place through a wide array of projects, which in-turn bridge our academic schools, engage the public and have considerable impact on society.

However, it is difficult for readers of our current research webpages to understand the wealth of BU’s research expertise.  Most of the information about BU’s research is scattered across assorted school pages, microsites and news sections with many outdated materials still online.

Readers’ expectations of websites have changed considerably as well. When BU first started presenting information digitally, the norm was to display static content.  As we enter 2014 we need a digital platform which presents information in a dynamic and narrative driven way.

Therefore, we are about to launch BU’s new research website. The new site will have an updated design and will present our research around our eight societally focused research themes. In each section will be content on research news, research impact, public engagement and postgraduate research. It will also be possible to view content by each REF Unit of Assessment and see details of our research centres.

When will the new research website be available?

A beta version (i.e. test site) will go live by the end of November and we will be seeking submissions from across BU to further populate the site. This is to allow us to address any technical issues and for our research community to put forward content that wish to see on the new research website. There will be a full launch of the site in early 2014.

How will I be able to share news about my research?

One of the key reasons for the new research website is to ensure that our researchers are able to easily and frequently share their research online. Everyone will be able to craft their own content and upload articles themselves. The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (R&KEO) will perform a light-touch check to ensure the correct tags are added new content will go live on the site within 1-2 working days.

There is training available on the new research website – please see this post to reserve a session.

If you are unable to attend one of these sessions, further dates are being organised on a rolling basis in 2014, so please register your interest by emailing Rebecca Edwards.

FAQs

I’ve got really important information that is available on our current research webpages, will this get deleted at the end of the month?

No! Any content which is taken down from our publicly available servers will still remain available within BU. Therefore, if there is content which needs to appear on the new research website, and doesn’t already, you will be able to access the old material to create something new for the new research website.

What will happen to our research centre?

Each approved research centre will have its own page which can be designed and updated in a way which is most suitable for that community. New research centres needs to be approved by R&KEO in advance – please contact Rebecca Edwards in the first instance if you have a query about this.

Some research centres will retain a separate microsite and some new microsites will be created, subject to one of the following four criteria:

  1. Existing sites that can demonstrate an exceptional level of traffic
  2. Existing sites that already have a wealth of relevant content which is frequently updated
  3. Where a research grouping has external recognition, such as a national centre (e.g. the NCCA)
  4. An externally funded project where a separate microsite is part of the impact/dissemination plan

If you are unsure as to whether your microsite will be closed, please contact your Deputy Dean for Research. If you require a new microsite, please log a job with M&C in the usual way, and they will contact R&KEO to confirm a new microsite is permissible.

How will I add content to the new research webpages?

The new research website is built in WordPress, like the research blog. Therefore, you’ll be able to log into the site and add your own content. R&KEO will double check that the content is correctly tagged (to ensure everything appears in the right place on the new site) and it will be publicly available within one to two working days.

If you have not used WordPress before or would like to learn more about how the new research website will work, there are training sessions available (see above) to help familiarise you with the new the new system.

 

 

 

 

How can you use your research to build partnerships and entrepreneurial capacity in the Creative Economy?

BU research

The AHRC has committed to ensuring that the research it funds can be properly exploited and applied in areas where it can make a difference.  In particular, the AHRC’s new delivery plan puts KE, external engagement, collaboration, partnership working, public and policy engagement and impact at the very heart of all that it does.

The AHRC has made a huge investment of £20m fEC to establish four ‘Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy’ over the next 4 years. The purpose of these hubs will be to build new partnerships and entrepreneurial capacity in the ‘Creative Economy’ and in addition increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange.

Take advantage of this investment  and look at how you can engage with the creative economy; perhaps through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)?  An excellent example of knowledge exchange, KTPs are run by the Technology Strategy Board and are co-funded by a range of bodies such as the AHRC.

KTPs provide academics with the opportunity to:

  • Apply knowledge and expertise to important problems facing businesses
  • Develop relevant teaching and research material
  • Identify new research themes and undergraduate and post graduate projects
  • Publish high quality journal and conference papers
  • Gain an improved understanding of business requirements and operations
  • Contribute to the (REF)
  • Participate in rewarding and ongoing collaboration with innovative businesses
  • Supervise and act as mentors for past graduates working on business based projects

Why not consider the benefits of knowledge exchange and use your research to move forward in building partnerships and entrepreneurial capacity in the creative economy……

How do I write a successful research grant?

BU research

…is a question I hear all the time. It’s really tough to know how to do this if you haven’t ever received training in it so you are not alone if you too have asked this.  If you are curious as to how you can write a winning research proposal but haven’t been able to join the Grants Academy or EU Academic Development Scheme, then we have a session  aimed at you as part of the BRAD framework.

On the morning of Wednesday November 27th an external expert bid writer will give some fantastic tips in a condensed 3 hour session on how to write a research grant. You will learn some of the tricks involved in writing a proposal for any funding body and will get an invaluable insight into what reviewers look for.

Spaces for this session are limited, so you will need to book via the Staff Development webpage.

All you need to know about the AHRC review process

BU research

What is the review process?

As anyone submitting a proposal to a research council at BU knows, once you hut the Je-S ‘submit’ button, the proposal then gets sent to R&KEO to undertake final checks. These are all done to ensure your proposal has the best chance of success.  This is also a critical stage in the process, as we know from our contacts in the Research Councils that reviewers won’t even see an application if the proposal has not adhered to the guidance criteria.

Stage 1 of the process is where proposals are sifted by a group of staff who reject immediately any which do not meet the published eligibility criteria; either related to documentation requirements or where it does not meet the aims or criteria of the scheme.  When we return your application to you before submitting in Je-S, it is to ensure your proposal gets through this team of sifters and makes it to Panel.

One element which we often find have been overlooked in applications is matching the Case for Support headings on the attachments, with those outlined in the guidance. The sifting process may reject your application for this reason and it is therefore important you make sure they match up. The headings have been developed based on feedback from peer reviewers and so following this structure will also put you in a favourable position with them. The other stages for most grants can be found in the diagram below.

 

What do reviewers looking for in proposals?

Quality & Importance of Research Proposed

  • the proposal meets the specific aims of the scheme to which the applicant is applying
  • the project is significant and important and the  contribution it will enhance or develop creativity, insights, knowledge or understanding of the area in a national or international context
  • the research questions, issues or problems that will be addressed are defined and their importance and appropriateness specified
  • the research context and specification of why it is important that these particular questions, issues or problems are addressed is articulated
  • the appropriateness, effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed research methods and/or approach is outlined
  • the quality and importance of the applicant’s work to date is demonstrated
  • the applicant is able to monitor the project and bring it to completion as demonstrated in the application

Research Team

  • the level and balance (in terms of time and seniority) of the proposed staffing on the project is appropriate and opportunities will be made available for less experienced researchers
  • the other named participants have the appropriate experience and expertise to deliver the project.
  • the lines of responsibility and accountability are clearly articulated.
  • a realistic timetable, incorporating milestones is presented which will achieve the project’s aims and objectives within the proposed timescale
  • the applicant has demonstrated that they understand the amount of work to be involved, allocated sufficient time and resources to achieving each aspect.

Value for Money

  • the likely outcome of the research will represent value for money, and in particular the relationship between the funds that are sought and the significance and quality of the projected outcomes of the research
  • the resources requested are reasonable in the context of the proposed research.

Outputs, Dissemination & Impact

  • the dissemination methods are appropriate and effective
  • the research process is documented or recorded in a way to enable dissemination of research outcomes to the widest possible audience
  • the outputs and outcomes of the project will be highly valued and widely exploited, both in the research community and in wider contexts where they can make a difference
  • plans to increase impact are appropriate and justified, given the nature of the proposed research
  • sufficient attention has been given to who the beneficiaries of the research might be and appropriate ways to engage with them throughout the project.
  • the research and its outcomes are disseminated to as wide an audience as possible, and where appropriate to engage in communication, dissemination and exploitation activities throughout the period of the project.
  • the audiences to whom their research could be of interest are specified, and how they propose to engage with those audiences about their research.

 

How can I increase my chances of success?

Firstly, let your RKE Operations Officer know as soon as you want to apply for a scheme. They have many years’ experience of reading the eligibility criteria and guidance and can help you make sure you tick all of these boxes. They will also cost your proposal and get it approved by Legal and through the APF Quality Approval Process as well as submitting it via Je-S when the time comes.

Your proposal will automatically go through our internal peer review process (RPRS) and you will receive useful feedback on how to really strengthen this. We have a number of AHRC award holders and a reviewer on our database which will be a huge help for you. If you are a member of the Grants Academy you also have access to our successful applications to help you write yours as well as unlimited support from Dr Martin Pickard in creating a fantastic application. 

If you haven’t won much funding before, then team up with more experienced academics in your field to make a submission that way.

Finally, the best piece of advice is to dedicate enough time to writing a great application. Many of the big schemes don’t have deadlines, and those which do have these dates announced usually quite far in advance so you have plenty of time to prepare. With so many areas to cover in your proposal and to do so better than your competition in other institutions, you really can’t write these applications in a week.  A Research Grant is a very prestigious one to have on your CV and is worth dedicating the time and energy to get.

Breastfeeding poster presentation at Royal College of Midwives conference

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

Dr. Catherine Angell, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery attended the annual RCM conference on November 13-14 in Telford.  Catherine presented an academic poster to highlight some of BU’s key research in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health.  The poster (Fig. 1) reported findings of a survey of users of the Healthtalkonline webpages on breastfeeding.  These webpages are based on breastfeeding research conducted at BU can be found here.  BU research has fed into research-based training modules for midwives, lactation consultants and other professionals.  Currently the breastfeeding webpages receive around 37,000 hits each month, representing around 1,500 individuals.

The problem with clicks on webpages is that it suggests interest but it does not constitute evidence of changing knowledge or behaviour.  Dr. Angell teamed up with BU colleagues Prof. Vanora Hundley, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and Senior Lecturer Alison Taylor as well as Prof. Kath Ryan from La Trobe University Australia to study the effect of the webpages.

To ascertain the impact of the webpages the team developed and conducted an online questionnaire survey of users of the breastfeeding webpages between Nov.2012- Feb. 2013.  A questionnaire study was administered after ethical approval had been granted. The survey was completed by 159 people, mainly from the UK, but also from other parts of the world such as Australia and New Zealand (12.6%) and the USA/Canada (2.5%).

BU was also represented at the RCM conference through BU Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland.  Jillian is a community midwife working for NHS Poole, who presented a poster on the benefits to mothers and staff of the RCM Bournemouth & Poole Community choir.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

 

‘all professions are conspiracies against the laity’ George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor’s Dilemma, 1906

Uncategorized

British social services, without doubt, represent one of the best systems of social work throughout the world for protecting children, supporting families where circumstances and experience make them vulnerable and ensuring people with mental health problems are appropriately sustained. That notwithstanding, social work services in Britain, and in England in particular, have journeyed towards a more individualistic model of care and treatment promoted primarily in the US, and the roots of community action and practice that are truly ‘social’ have become less visible. This places our social work services, excellent as they are in key areas, on the margins of international understandings of social work.

Perhaps the changes articulated above are understandable given our affaire de Coeur with neoliberal philosophies and our celebration of the cult of the individual derived from Margaret Thatcher’s governments, perpetuated by Tony Blair and continued aggressively by the Coalition government of the day.

These changes have significant impact on people and their communities, reassigning blame from social structure to the individuals themselves. Also, there remains a potentially negative impact on social work globally. Many countries have followed the US and British social work models to develop services, sometimes as a direct result of colonialism, sometimes because of implicit global power relations. There is a legitimate concern that adoption of an individualistic approach reflects a neo-imperialist agenda, with problems resulting for those communities and groups made invisible within this process.

Our new book Professional Social Work (edited by Jonathan Parker BU & Mark Doel Sheffield Hallam) seeks to address some of these challenges. We suggest there is such a thing as ‘professional’ social work, that it must be distinct from ‘unprofessional’ social work. Our thesis is that it is imperative that we reclaim social work and its former radicalism and iconoclastically confront governmental established priorities, emphasising humanity’s social condition rather than its atomisation. In the book, we grapple with the fraught and complex definitions, practices and understandings of ‘professionalism’, exploring how the concept can be used to justify differing perspectives.

Including the work of some of the foremost thinkers in contemporary British social work (Stephen Cowden & Gurnam Singh, Pat Higham, Graham Ixer, Ray Jones, Malcolm Payne, Gillian Ruch, Steven Shardlow, Roger Smith, Neil Thompson, Sue Whist, and Marion Bogo from Canada) we promote professional social work practices that are relational, critical and reflexive, that challenge and help people and their communities to reconstruct themselves in their chosen ways.

Can We Sell Security Like Soap? A New Approach to Behaviour Change

BU research

Our next Interdisciplinary Cyber Security Seminar will take place on Tuesday, 19th November at 5pm. Our seminars are approachable, and require nothing more than a general interest in security, and an enquiring mind.

Our speaker will be Debi Ashenden, who is a Reader in Cyber Security and Head of the Centre for Cyber Security and Information Assurance at Cranfield University, based at the Defence Academy of the UK, Shrivenham. Prior to taking up her post at Cranfield University she was Managing Consultant within QinetiQ’s Trusted Information Management Dept (formerly DERA). She has been working in cyber security since 1998 and specialises in the social and behavioural aspects of cyber security. Her research is built on a socio-technical vision of cyber security that sees people as solutions rather than as the problem. Debi is the co-author of, ‘Risk Management for Computer Security: Protecting Your Network and Information Assets’, Butterworth Heinneman (2004).

Talk Abstract: Many organisations run security awareness programmes with the aim of improving end user behaviours around information security. Yet behavioural research tells us that raising awareness will not necessarily lead to behaviour change. This talk examines the challenge of changing end user behaviour and puts forward social marketing as a new paradigm. Social marketing is a proven framework for achieving behavioural change and has traditionally been used in health care interventions, although there is an increasing recognition that it could be successfully applied to a broader range of behaviour change issues. It has yet to be applied however, to information security in an organisational context. This talk will explore the social marketing framework in relation to information security behavioural change and highlight the key challenges that this approach poses for information security managers. We conclude with suggestions for future research.

The seminar will take place in EB202 in the Executive Business Centre, and will be free and open to all. If you would like to attend, we encourage you to register at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/interdisciplinary-seminar-in-cyber-security-tickets-9336229915

Sustainable Design Research Centre – Research Seminar

BU research, PG research

Wednesday   20-11-2013

Room:   P302 LT (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

Start: 12:00 Finish: 13:00

APPLICATIONS OF CORROSION MODELLING IN THE PETROLEUM, DEFENCE AND AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES

There have been major developments in computer modelling of galvanic corrosion processes over the last twenty years which have resulted in modelling being widely used to simulate the performance of cathodic protection systems which are used to protect structures from corrosion both offshore and onshore. These physics based models represent the electrode kinetics on the metallic surfaces as well as the current flow through the electrolyte. In recent years similar technology has been developed to simulate galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals in structures which are exposed to thin electrolyte films. For example aircraft and automobiles subject to humid atmospheres and splashing of de-icing fluids.

The work will present applications of the modelling technology in the Oil & Gas industry and describe recent developments in modelling aircraft structures.

The above work will be presented by Professor Carlos A. Brebbia and Dr Robert A Adey, external speakers from the Wessex Institute of Technology.

Professor Carlos Brebbia is Director of the Wessex Institute. After obtaining his PhD at Southampton, he worked at a major UK Research Laboratory before taking an academic appointment at Southampton University where he rose from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer and Reader.  During his time at Southampton he took leave to become Visiting Professor at many other universities, including Princeton. After having been appointed full Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, he decided to return to the UK to set up the Wessex Institute in the New Forest.

Professor Brebbia is renowned throughout the world as the originator of the Boundary Element Method, a technique that continues to generate important research work at the Wessex Institute.  He has written numerous scientific papers and is author or co-author of 14 technical books and editor or co-editor of more than 400 volumes. He is also Editor of several journals.

Carlos’ interests span from the analysis of advanced structures such as shells to the modelling of environmental problems, dealing with a wide variety of methodologies.  His most recent efforts have been concentrated on the development of Wessex Institute as an international centre of excellence.

Dr Robert A Adey (Bob) is Director Strategic Development at C M BEASY Ltd.  He has a PhD and MSc from Southampton University. UK.  He has over twenty years’ experience in the development and application of computer modelling software for corrosion and CP applications in the Oil & Gas, Defence and Aerospace industry. He is currently manages BEASY Collaborative R&D projects and major engineering services projects.

INTRODUCTION TO THE WESSEX INSTITUTE

Brief description of the objectives of Wessex Institute as a knowledge transfer organisation. This includes work in the field of computational modelling with a wide variety of applications, training and scientific meetings organisation, and the publication of scientific and technical literature.

 Wessex Institute collaborates with many institutions around the world and acts as a focus for the dissemination of the latest advances in a variety of fields.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about this seminar or any general inquires about research, enterprise or professional practice activities within Sustainable Design Research Centre please contact:

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)

Director SDRC

e-mail: zkhan@bournemouth.ac.uk

Doctoral Open Days at the British Library

PG research

 Students listening

Have you just started your PhD?  The British Library hosts Doctoral Open Days enabling new PhD students 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.

You will learn about our collections, find out how to access them, and meet our expert staff and other researchers in your field. The events are aimed at first year PhD students who are new to the Library.

29 November Music

2 December Social Sciences

13 December Social Sciences 2

Booking will open in November for the following events. Sign up to our Higher Education newsletter to get an email when booking is available.

13 January – Environmental Science

17 January – Digital Research

20 January – History

31 January – History 2

3 February – English

14 February – English 2

24 February – Media and Communication

Palgrave Macmillan publish their first open access monograph funded by the Wellcome Trust

Research news

You may be aware of the recent HEFCE consultation on the role of open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework.  In this consultation HEFCE asked HEIs whether they agreed that the criteria for open access should apply only to journal articles and conference proceedings for the post-2014 REF or should this be extended to monographs.

The Wellcome Trust, who are committed to open access, has now extended its open access policy to include all scholarly monographs and book chapters written by its grantholders as part of their Trust-funded research – the extended policy became effective for holders of grants awarded after 1 October 2013 and for existing grantholders from October 2014.

Today Palgrave Macmillan have published their first open access monograph, funded by The Wellcome Trust.  Read the full press release here.

Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States 1850-2000, by Dr Aya Homei and Professor Michael Worboys, is now available as a free ebook to download from Palgrave Connect and online retailers such as Amazon Kindle.  It will also be added to the BU Library Catalogue.

 

Horizon 2020 Climate Action calls and info day slides!

EU

The orientation paper for Societal Challenge 5: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials call has been published!

If you work in this area, reading this document will provide you with the expected main topics of the 2014 work programme so is a key resource at this early stage! The presentations from the info day which recently took place in Brussels are also available for anyone who couldn’t make it.

Demand management works says RCUK

BU research

I have heard one of two grumbles over the years over our mandatory internal peer review for Research Council (RCUK) proposals and this can sometimes seem like an ‘additional hurdle’ to get through in making a submission. BU is not alone in having a mandatory review process for RCUK grants and we implemented this, as did others around the UK, on the back of demand management measures initiated by some of the Research Councils (such as the EPSRC who will ban repeatedly unsuccessful applicants from making further submissions for 12 months). To help ensure no one at BU is unable to bid for the calls they wish to, we want to offer this extra support to our academic community in helping them submit the best possible application that they can.

At BU we have seen success rates with RCUK funders increase due to the utilisation of the RPRS. Today Times Higher Education announced that due to initiatives taken by BU and other institutions in reviewing applications before submission, across the board RCUK success rates for funding have risen. The ESRC responsive mode scheme for instance has gone from a 14% success rate in 2011-12 to a 16% success rate in 2012-13.

Helping ensure fewer numbers of lowe quality bids are submitted to RCUK funders facilitates a reduction in administration costs, which can then be redistributed into funding calls. This is great news for the funders and for applicants and potential applicants.

We are reviewing how the internal peer review process works at BU to make it even more useful and ever less bureaucratic to help any RCUK applicants and indeed applicants for any funding bodies. More details on this will be placed on the blog soon!

BOOK yourself into our last FUSION Awareness Session or our Bid Writing Workshop – Get as much help as you can…

BU research, Fusion, Training

For those of you who missed out on our valuable Fusion Awareness session yesterday Wednesday the 13th of November do not panic we are holding one more more session on:

Monday the 18th of November at 2-3pm in The Casterbridge Room (THS) Poole House – Talbot Campus

For any questions that you may have on Fusion specifically or for more information on the scheme and application process we would recommend you attend this last session (before the deadline – 13th of Dec at 2pm) where the manager of the Fusion Investment Scheme (FIF) Sam Leahy-Harland will be on hand with some of the Fusion panel committee members to answer your questions and to run through some useful information on applying to the scheme.

We also have some spaces on the Fusion Awareness Workshop Targeting the Fusion Fund with Martin Pickard on:

Wednesday the  20th of November from 9:30 – 12 midday in Christchurch House (CG04) on Talbot Campus 

This Workshop is an ideal opportunity to get some tips and advice from our expert bid writer and to further improve your chances with your own Fusion bid applications 

If you wish to book into either the Fusion Awareness Session on the 18th of November or the Fusion Workshop on the 20th of November with Martin please would you send me an email Dianne Goodman ASAP and I’ll get you booked in.

Don’t delay and give yourself the best chance !!!       

With three funding strands available for staff there are a wealth of opportunities for both academic and professional support staff to take advantage of:                                                                                                                     

 In the July round:

  • the Staff Mobility and Networking (SMN) strand committee  funded 18 applications in July totalling £73K. 
  •  the Study Leave strand (SL) committee awarded £107K.
  •  the Co-Creation and Co-Production (CCCP) strand was the most popular of the three in round one with 47 applications. A total of £92K was awarded to successful applicants.

 For all the updated strand policy documents, Fund FAQ’s and information about applying, please visit the FIF intranet pages.