Yearly Archives / 2016

Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team: How we’ve been flying the KEIT high this month.

Business Engagement, Festival of Learning, HEIF, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, student research

After a cracking start to 2016 in January, the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team (KEIT) within RKEO have been working hard and continuing with the successes this month.

Public Engagement

The Festival of Learning is fast approaching us (25-29 June) and Naomi and Katie have been busy scheduling in the events that will make up the festival.

Business Engagement

Rising to the challenge of “What will Marty McFly may need in 25 years?” as part of interdisciplinary research week held in January, members of KEIT worked closely with the facilitators to deliver a successful sandpit that involved a number of local businesses including Bournemouth Borough Council, We Are Base, LV= and Barclays Digital eagles. With some great ideas evolving in terms of future collaborations amongst academics and business partners this provided a great networking opportunity for those that attended.

As the current HEIF funding round completes its half way milestone of 12 months funding (1/8/15 – 31/7/16), a number of the 13 projects are beginning to generate potential impact case studies alongside further UK and EU funding proposals. HEIF projects continue to feature in the news with Dr Sarah Bate’s research on super recognisers being published in Scientific American being one of the latest. HEIF projects are also gaining presence on BU’s research website with a project on Roman Britain being the first to go live with more planned.

For the March submission date, we have two potential KTPs.  Both SciTech and the Faculty of Media are working towards each submission, respectively.

NEW – Student Project Bank

We have a new recruit this week within KEIT.  Charlene Steele has joined us from SciTech specifically to work on the new Student Project Bank initiative.  If your students work with organisations as part of the modules they take, please do contact Charlene to find out more about this initiative and how we can help.

Student Engagement with Research

The student engagement page is now live on the Research website, it can be found here. It explains all student facing research activities from the Research Spotlight feature to 14: Live the monthly research talk.

Research Communications

New research project pages are now avaliable on the research website and are a great place for academics to add content about their latest research projects e.g. staff lists, project background and latest news.

Team KEIT (RKEO)

If you’re feeling inspired by this blog post and would like to get involved with some of our projects then feel free to get in touch:

Genna West – Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager

Rachel Bowen – Research Communications Manager

Rachel Clarke – Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP)

Jayne Codling – Knowledge Exchange Adviser

Naomi Kay – Public Engagement Officer

Charlene Steele – Project Co-Ordinator (Student Project Bank)

Katie Breadmore – Public Engagement Event’s Organiser

Oliver Cooke – Student Engagement Coordinator

To find out more about us and what we do, take a look at our team page.

Kites

URA Academic Applications – FINAL CALL

Funding opportunities, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Transfer

The deadline for the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) programme is Sunday 21st February.

The application form to apply for funding to recruit a student to work on your research full time for six weeks during the summer can be found here.

The programme is funded by the Fusion Investment Fund and aims to support undergraduates to undertake paid work under the guidance of an experienced academic in a research position that is directly related to their career path and/or academic discipline.

The summer programme is for students to work full-time (37.5 hours per week) for six weeks over the summer. This programme will have the capacity for approximately 20 placements.

If you have any questions relating to the programme, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk 

CfPs: Emerging Tourism in the Changing World, Chiang Mai Thailand (Nov. 12-13)

Dear BU Researchers:

My colleagues at Center for Asian Tourism Research, Chiang Mai University is organizing an interesting conference, ‘International Conference on Emerging Tourism in the Changing World’ on November 12-13, 2016. Please see the following link for more details:

http://www.emergingtourism.com/

If you have any questions, please contact: DR. PLOYSRI PORANANOND (EMERGINGTOURISM@GMAIL.COM)

Thank you for your interest in advance.

Jaeyeon

Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning 24 Feb EBC Cafe area

The next Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning will be taking place on Wednesday the 24th February, in the café area of the EBC (Lansdowne Campus) from 10 to 11am. This is an informal opportunity to meet other research staff over coffee and cake, discuss your work and share ideas for future collaborations. We would also like to share how our plans for the RSA in 2016 are shaping up – so it’s not to be missed!

For catering purposes please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk to confirm your attendance.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards, Michelle Heward and Marcellus Mbah (RSA Staff Representatives)

BU: Working towards becoming a Dementia-Friendly University

The number of people living with dementia is set to increase as the population ages. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, a dementia-friendly community is a ‘place where the community acts consciously to ensure that people with dementia (along with all its citizens) are respected, empowered, engaged and embraced into the whole’. Nationally this agenda is being led by the Dementia Action Alliance and the Alzheimer’s Society who have have recently launched a formal dementia-friendly recognition process to ensure that communities are accountable to people affected by dementia.

BU becoming a dementia-friendly university is an essential part of our preparation for an increasingly ageing society. A number of staff and students have already spoken out, in confidence, about concerns for family members, close friends and themselves. Sadly, this is a real welfare concern for staff and students and is likely to develop at a fast pace. BU therefore needs to ensure that all staff and students are aware of dementia, understand what it is like to live with the condition, and know where to turn if they need further advice and guidance about dementia.

A Steering Group made up of staff from across BU has been created to take forwards this work. The Steering Group are working towards an action plan to enable BU to apply for recognition that we are ‘working towards becoming dementia friendly’. To achieve this recognition we are working on four areas:

1. Developing new buildings and refurbishments to take account of dementia-friendly design principles as part of the general accessibility principles guiding new build, lead by Estates.
2. Ensuring that policies and procedures support staff who might be concerned about their memory, or who are caring for family members with dementia, lead by HR.
3. Providing training to raise awareness of dementia and enable staff to accommodate the needs of people affected by the condition, lead by BUDI.
4. Ensuring that communications are dementia-friendly, lead by Marketing and Communications

As part of this work we are running a number of dementia awareness sessions for all staff, please sign up for a session here: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/ddeevents/budementiaawarenesssession/

We will continue to keep you up to date with our progress, but in the meantime if you have any questions or for more information please contact budi@bournemouth.ac.uk or call 01202 962771.

BU Dementia-Friendly University Steering Group

Online Resources for Principal Investigators

Guidance, Post-award, Training

Leadership Development
Not too long ago HEFCE funded a project to provide online resources to help principal investigators develop their skills, these excellent resources are hosted by Vitae. This collaborative project involved colleagues at a number of universities across the UK, RCUK, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, ARMA and Universities UK.

The resources can be found here and include some fantastic sections on:

Reminder, talk by Dr Sarah Collard today, Royal London House, R301, 1-1:50 pm.

All staff and students welcome,

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

How do you exercise with epilepsy? Insights into the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy

Dr Sarah Collard,

Research fellow, FHSS

 

Abstract: Research examining the connection between epilepsy and exercise has seen a surge in recent years, specifically examining the benefits to exercise on seizure control and overall well-being for a person with epilepsy. However, the barriers to exercise and methods of exercising currently employed by people with epilepsy have yet to be explored within depth. This presentation will provide a background to the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy and what barriers stand in the way for people with epilepsy in feeling the benefits of exercise. Discussing findings from an exploratory qualitative study investigating possible barriers and coping strategies already in place for people with epilepsy in regards to their exercise life, this presentation will further our insight into the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy as well as discuss how we might move this research forward in encouraging more people with epilepsy to exercise.

 

For more information on Social Science Seminar Series, please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (FHSS).

Become an EU Expert to further your experience of research submissions

Research assessment, Training

One important way to learn more about how a funder manages the process of accepting, evaluating and awarding grants is to act as an expert reviewing applications. It may also help you meet with other experts in your field or promote interdisciplinary working.

For the EU, there is a section on Participant Portal dedicated to experts where you can find out more about the commitment required and how to register. Experts for the EU are involved in:image001

  • evaluation of proposals
  • monitoring of actions

In addition, experts assist in the :

  • preparation, implementation or evaluation of programmes and design of policies. This includes the Horizon 2020 Advisory Groups.

There are also opportunities to become a Business Innovation Coach for the SME instrument.

Interested? Why not take a look at the resources made available for evaluators for the Innovative Training Networks call? This page shows how much support is made available to experts and how this can be a valuable addition to your research CV.

You might also like to take a look at the various videos on the YouTube channel – Innovation Union.

If you are already an expert, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International so that you can share your experiences with others at BU.

 

 

Call for Ideas – Your view counts!

BU Challenges, innovation

The European Commission has launched a Call for Ideas for a European Innovation Council to support Europe’s most promising innovators.question mark

Commissioner Moedas launched the Call for ideas at the Science|Business Annual Conference in Brussels. He said that “Europe has excellent science, but we lack disruptive market-creating innovation. This is what is needed to turn our best ideas into new jobs, businesses and opportunities.” While the number of start-ups created in Europe is on a par with competitors such as the United States, Europe lags behind in disruptive innovation and in scaling start-ups into world-beating businesses. A European Innovation Council could contribute to solving this problem.

To find out more and to participate in this survey, please go to the European Innovation Council website, where you can also view background documents and position papers.

The deadline for survey completion in 29 April 2016.

 

Involving patients and the public in your research. Registration for NIHR webinar now open!

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Training and Coordinating Centre will be hosting a live one hour webinar about involving patients and the public in research on Tuesday 23 February at 11am.

This is an introductory webinar for researchers with little or no experience of patient and public involvement (PPI). This webinar is aimed at aspiring NIHR trainees and early career researchers.

This webinar will include:

  • An overview of what PPI is and why it is important in research
  • Why PPI is important to the NIHR and how best to demonstrate PPI in an application – including signposts to NIHR resources around PPI
  • Q&A session

The webinar will be presented by Philippa Yeeles, Director of Involvement and Engagement at the NIHR Central Commissioning Facility alongside Anne-Laure Donskoy, an NIHR Panel Member and independent researcher.

You can register for the webinar via the following link:

bit.ly/PPIwebinar2016

RKEO Drop-in Session 24th February

Guidance

research lifecycleAs previously posted, RKEO will be holding monthly drop-in sessions throughout 2016. The full schedule of sessions can be found here.

The first session will be held on 24 February 2016 between 2-4pm in Bournemouth House Cafe. Anyone can attend with any queries for RKEO. The following RKEO staff will be available for the session:

You don’t need to be from these faculties as staff will help with any queries they have and if they’re not able to answer your query then and there, they’ll ensure you receive a timely response from RKEO. Basically, come along and have a chat. These are also great opportunities for us to gather feedback from you on the service that we deliver to you.

RKEO look forward to seeing you.

Bridging Business and Research

Business Engagement, Info Days, Knowledge Transfer

Companies do not necessarily have the facilities, financial resources or human capital to run their research projects as they would like to. Thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), it is now possible for SMEs or other Logo_Marie-Curiecompanies to collaborate with academic research organisations, have access to their equipment, and integrate some of their highly skilled researchers within the research projects of the firm.

Transferring cutting-edge science and technology from creative academic groups to SMEs is a key element of successful innovation.

The European Commission knows that well-trained, entrepreneurial-minded researchers, who can move between academic and other settings, are essential to this successful collaboration. This is why the MSCA are promoting Business-Academic collaborations that focus on giving researchers adequate skills and opportunities to contribute to SME and other business growth.

In order to give more practical information on how to get involved in these actions, and to present the latest business opportunities under Horizon 2020, the MSCA have launched a promotional campaign across Europe.

The next event in the UK is in Cardiff on Friday, from 12:00 – 18:00 (sorry, no rugby in Cardiff that weekend). If you wish to attend, please check the programme and register. If you cannot make this date, please refer to the events schedule for more events across Europe.

 

2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition – only 1 week left!

Funding opportunities, PG research

2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition

Call for submission of up to 20 matched funded Postgraduate Research Projects now OPEN

The Graduate School is delighted to announce the launch of the 2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition, with up to 20 matched funded projects available.

At this stage, Academic Staff are invited to submit proposals for studentship projects which, if successful, will be advertised to recruit PhD candidates for a September 2016 start.

Full details can be found on the Graduate School Staff Intranet where the following information can be found:

Submission Deadline:

Applications should be submitted on the Studentship Proposal Form to the Graduate School via email to phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk no later than 9am on Monday 22 February 2016.

The Graduate School will manage the recruitment process along the following timetable:

Date Action
Wednesday 13 January 2016 Launch PhD Studentships Internal Competition – development of proposals
Monday 22 February 2016 Closing date for submission of proposals
Tuesday 15 March 2016 Panel meeting
Late March 2016 Feedback to supervisors and preparation of adverts
March – June 2016 Launch PhD Studentships External Competition – recruitment of candidates
September 2016 Successful Candidates start