Yearly Archives / 2018

Political News (w/e 4 May 2018)

 

Environment Minister  Thérèse Coffey made an announcement on funding for microplastics research

Digital media experts discuss internet regulation

The Commons Select Committee have opened an inquiry into the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  Contact the Policy Team if you’d like to contribute to BU’s response to this inquiry.

The Foreign Affairs Committee held an evidence session questioning academics on the responsibility to protect and humanitarian intervention.

 

Key personnel changes:

Which? – Peter Vicary-Smith to stand down as Chief Executive.

Cancer Research UK – Michelle Mitchell to replace Harpal Kumar as Chief Executive in the summer.

Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards – Stuart Dollow appointed as Chair from 1st June for three years.

Care Quality Commission – Ian Trenholm to replace David Behan as Chief Executive in July.

 

Have a lovely weekend!

British Academy Small Grants – Update

Many thanks to everyone who sent RKEO their completed Intention to Bid (ITB) forms by the internal deadline of 2 May yesterday. Your Funding Development Officers will work with you in the pre-award process up to the submission deadline of 6 June 2018.

If you are interested in the British Academy Small Grants scheme, but have not yet sent us your ITB form, we are not accepting any more ITB forms for this round. The internal deadlines were set in anticipation of an exceptionally large volume of bids to this call and we want to provide equal, optimal support to all academics who have notified us by 2 May.

We look forward to hearing from you for the next round, with a submission deadline in around September/October 2018.

Beyond Snapchat: unaccompanied refugee children’s media experiences in Sweden

Sweden in March: snow, wind and temperatures of 2-3 °C. The perfect time for doing field work. “How do you cope with this weather?” – I asked the president of the Ensomkommandes Förbund organisation, a 23-year old young woman from Afghanistan. „Well, if one has to choose between being safe or being cold, I’m sure that most people will choose this freezing weather”- she replied with a smile. I couldn’t have agreed more.

We met at the community center of her NGO that was opened for unaccompanied refugee youth in Southern Sweden. The center is managed mostly by unaccompanied young refugees, and it offers a range of courses, from Swedish to photography or modern dances. It is also a popular place to meet with friends after school.

I was in Sweden for the second phase of the EU-funded Marie Curie project on how displaced children (aged 14-18) use digital technology and (social) media. If during my first trip to the Netherlands, I got to know the work of guardians/mentors and Eritrean music and cuisine, in Sweden I could pinpoint better the impact national and local policies have on asylum-seeking young refugees. Sweden has been in the spotlight recently as it was criticised by international organisations for not enhancing enough the protection of asylum seekers. Moreover, its Finance minister recently declared that she regrets her government’s decision to let more than 160,000 refugees into Sweden, as integration is not working. While the migration debate is quite heated, one has to acknowledge the type of support given to unaccompanied refugee children. From access to digital technologies, private and public housing and a myriad of services/programmes offered by NGOs and volunteers, probably many other EU countries would have a lot to learn from this Nordic country.

As in the case of the Netherlands, I was overcome by the dedication of the mentors and the volunteers who work tirelessly for these children. I also learned a lot from the young people themselves: about ambition, hope and hard work in trying to build up a new life. We talked about apps and social media, and meanwhile we shared stories about food and home and sometimes, struggles.

The next phase of the research will take place in Italy, the country with the biggest share of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

I am much indebted to Patrik and his team, Mahboba and Malmö municipality for their support.

Photo credit: the author and Ensomkommandes Förbund.

GDPR: What you need to know for your research

Research Professional have interviewed Sarah Dickson, Head of the Medical Research Council Regulatory Support Centre, on what researchers need to know about the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which comes into force on 25th May.

Click on the RP article to find out about who is affected, what data we’re talking about, how GDPR affects you as a researcher, consent, fairness and transparency, and who you should talk to.

BU information on the GDPR can be found here.

BU’s GDPR Chief Data Officer is James Stevens.  Legal Services provide a quick guide to Legal and Regulatory Issues for Researchers, which covers the GDPR.

Reminder of BU’s Bridging Fund Scheme for researchers

In summer 2015 we launched the BU Bridging Fund Scheme which aims to provide additional stability to fixed-term researchers who continue to rely heavily on short-term contracts usually linked to external funding. This situation sometimes impacts negatively on continuity of employment and job security and can result in a costly loss of researcher talent for the institution.

The new Bridging Fund Scheme aims to mitigate these circumstances by redeploying the researcher where possible, or where feasible, by providing ‘bridging funding’ for the continuation of employment for a short-term (maximum three months) between research grants. It is intended to permit the temporary employment, in certain circumstances, of researchers between fixed-term contracts at BU, for whom no other source of funding is available, in order to:

(a) encourage the retention of experienced and skilled staff, and sustain research teams and expertise;

(b) aconcordat to support the career development of researchersvoid the break in employment and career which might otherwise be faced by such staff;

(c) maximise the opportunity for such staff to produce high-quality outputs and/or research impact at the end of funded contracts/grants.

To find out more about the scheme, including how to apply for bridging funding, see the scheme guidelines.

This is a great step forward for BU and for BU’s researchers and is an action from our EC HR Excellence in Research Award which aims to increase BU’s alignment with the national Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (further information is available here: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/research-environment/research-concordat/).

East Asian Mothers in Britain: An Intersectional Exploration of Motherhood and Employment by Hyun-Joo Lim

I’m delighted to say my book ‘East Asian Mothers in Britain’ has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of its Family and Intimate Life Study series.

It was nine years ago when I began my research project on East Asian mothers living in Britain as a PhD student. As an East Asian migrant woman myself who was hoping to have a child one day, I wanted to explore how migrant women with children construct their identity and how they manage childcare and employment in a context where they are forging a ‘new’ life with limited social networks. As much research is often connected with personal stories of researchers in one way or another, for me it was a journey to learn about myself, where I come from and where I have chosen as my ‘home’ country.

The last eight/nine months were intense, anxiety-ridden and at times agonising. Carving out time to read, think and write was a real challenge. Also, the fear of being rejected overwhelmed me often and I spent many days and nights worrying about the outcome. Nonetheless, I loved the process and the deeply focused time that I immersed myself in something that I love. After going through this anxiety, getting accepted for publication was such a relief. Now holding fresh copies in my hands and giving a signed copy to my son seem surreal.

The publication of this book is significant for me personally. I feel writing it has helped me to overcome the psychological barriers that prevented me from enjoying writing for a long time. Since working on the book, writing has become a routinised activity for me. It has also provided me with a significant scholarship platform upon which I can expand further. I also hope it is a welcome addition to the existing studies around ethnic minority women, given the dearth of work that examines East Asian women’s experiences in the UK.

My book is a feminist analysis of East Asian (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) migrant women’s stories in terms of their identity construction of motherhood and employment, along with gender relations at home. Women’s roles are changing throughout the world. Over decades we have witnessed rising educational levels and the growing economic as well as political participation rates of females in many countries. However, gender remains a central marker of social division, and women’s lives in both the West and East continue to be moulded by their gender status, especially in conjunction with their race/ethnicity and class. In order to highlight the complex and multi-layered characteristics of identity construction, it deploys an intersectional framework. The book illuminates that intersections of multiple categories create different outcomes for identity (re)configurations between Chinese, Korean and Japanese women. As such, the book will appeal to those who are interested in intersectionality, identity, gender, ethnicity and migration studies, as well as narrative methods.

Chapter 1 outlines key themes in the book whilst situating the stories of East Asian migrant women within the broader debates around identity, subjectivity, detraditionalisation and individualisation. Chapter 2 discusses the question of identity with specific reference to East Asian migrant women in Britain. Chapter 3 explores intersectionality and storytelling in analysing East Asian women’s stories. Chapter 4 focuses on the stories of stay-at-home mothers, mostly from South Korea and Japan, which suggests a strong support for an intensive motherhood ideology. Chapter 5 shifts to the stories of employed mothers, which indicate the importance of employment for their identity, especially among those from China. Raised in the era of post-Mao gender equality, which encouraged women’s participation in the labour market, Chinese women tended to show strong worker identity, espousing the positive impacts of their employment on themselves and their children. Chapter 6 explores the gendered division of household labour. Whilst a minority of the Japanese women who married British men claimed to have a gender egalitarian division at home, the majority of women bore the brunt of domestic chores and childcare, regardless of their employment status, national/ethnic origins and financial status. The book highlights the persistent influence of their gendered beliefs, mostly rooted in their cultural/national heritage, simultaneously intersected by other factors, such as the location of settlement and their husband’s gender beliefs linked to their national/ethnic backgrounds.

Further details of the book can be found from: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319756349

ADRC welcomes speakers from the University of Sussex and Exeter

On Wednesday 25th April, the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) welcomed external speakers to present their dementia focused research as part of the ADRC Research Seminar Series.

In the first talk, Dr David Orr (Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Sussex) and Dr Yugin Teo (Lecturer in English and Communication at Bournemouth University) discussed their research exploring the representation of dementia in crime fiction and film in their presentation ‘Representing Dementia in Film and Fiction’.

This was followed by a second talk from Rosanna Mead (PhD Student at the University of Exeter) who explained how her research is examining the role of music to alleviate agitation for people with dementia in hospital environments, in her presentation ‘Ethnography of the Environment of Hospital Wards for Patients with Dementia, and the Role in which Music Can Play Within this’.

We were delighted to see staff and students from the different faculties across BU attending this seminar, demonstrating the multidisciplinary nature of dementia. Please email Michelle Heward if you have suggestions for speakers for next year’s ADRC Research Seminar Series.  

For more information about the ADRC.

Virtual Problems STEAMLab

innovation, Knowledge Exchange

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, 6th June 2018, BU’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Office will be facilitating a STEAMLab event on Virtual problems.

Which means…?

We’re seeking to come up with novel research which addresses the challenges of new immersive technology.

So, who should attend?

We want anyone who thinks they might have something to contribute, and who is available all day on Wednesday 6th June to come along. We will also be inviting relevant external attendees to contribute to the day.  We welcome academics, NGO/business/government representatives/SMEs who wish to contribute to having a positive impact through addressing the challenges.

What do I need to prepare in advance? What will the STEAMLab entail?

Absolutely nothing in advance. During the STEAMLab, you’ll be guided through a process which results in the development of research ideas. The process facilitates creativity, potentially leading to innovative and interdisciplinary research ideas. These ideas will be explored with other attendees, and further developed based on the feedback received.

What if I don’t have time to think about ideas in advance?

You don’t need to do this. Some inspiring speakers with a range of backgrounds will be coming along to give your ideas…

What about afterwards? Do I need to go away and do loads of work?

Well… that depends! The STEAMLab will result in some novel research ideas. Some of these may be progressed immediately; others might need more time to think about. You may find common ground with other attendees which you choose to take forward in other ways, such as writing a paper or applying for research funding.  Support will be available to progress project ideas after the day.

What if my topic area is really specific, such as health?

Your contribution will be very welcome! One of the main benefits of a STEAMlab event is to bring together individuals with a range of backgrounds and specialisms who are able to see things just that bit differently to one another.

So, is this just networking?

Definitely not! It is a facilitated session with the primary intention of developing innovative research ideas, which also enables the development of networks. It gives you the opportunity to explore research ideas which you may develop over time, together with the chance to find common ground with academics from across BU and beyond.

So, how do I book onto this event?

To take part in this exciting opportunity, all participants should complete the Virtual Problems-challenges-STEAMLab-Application-Form and return this to RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk by 25th May. Places are strictly limited and you will be be contacted to confirm a place place on the STEAMLab with arrangements nearer the time.  The event will be held in Bournemouth at the Fusion building.

By applying, you agree to attend for the full duration of the event on 6th June (c. 9:30 – 16:30). Spaces will be confirmed on 1/6/18.

If you have any queries prior to submitting your application, please contact Alexandra Pekalski RKEO Research Facilitator.

 

Do you have any Big Ideas??!?!!?

EPSRC logoIf you have any Big Ideas that you would like to share – the EPSRC would like to hear about them here. Unlike other announcements, this is not a call for proposals but rather a request to help develop the research strategy of the EPSRC through a number of community led ‘Big Ideas’ related to engineering or physical sciences.

Please contact your faculty Funding Development Officer for help with the processes for submitting your idea or Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Rachel Clarke (clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like to develop your idea further before submitting it.

BU PGR Aishah Selamat selected for S2DS London Summer Programme 2018

PG research

picture source: www.S2DS.org

Picture Source: S2DS (www.S2DS.org)

Science to Data Science (S2DS) is one of Europe’s largest data science training programme. The S2DS is a five-week intensive programme where exceptional analytical PhDs are selected to tackle commercial data science projects. A list of past participating commercial companies includes KPMG, Barclays, Infosys, Hortonworks, British Gas and many more.

SciTech PGR Aishah Selamat is amongst the 90 individuals chosen to participate in the upcoming S2DS London Summer Programme this August 2018. To join the 2018 cohort, participants are to submit their written application and CV. Successfully applicants will then be invited for an interview before acceptance to the programme. Apart from theoretical and practical learning opportunities – the programme will groomed the PhDs professionally for a Data Scientist role.

Aishah is a third year PhD student in the Creative Department. A UK Data Service Data Impact Fellow also, her research is co-funded by Bournemouth University and County Coaches (UK) LLP. Her research aims to develop an Intelligent Transportation Analytical Model for SMEs in the private coach industry.

Aishah would like to express her gratitude to her supervisory team (Dr. Simant Prakoonwit, Dr. Reza Sahandi & Dr. Wajid Khan) for their continuous support throughout her PhD journey.

Look out for Aishah blog post (and Twitter) on her S2DS experiences this summer!

If you would like to know more about her research, Aishah can be reached via aishah@bournemouth.ac.uk

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Scheme

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) scheme to support early career researchers and innovators with outstanding potential in universities, UK registered businesses, and other research and user environments including research councils’ institutes and laboratories has been launched.

 

The UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship scheme is a single scheme across the entire UKRI remit that will:

 

–  develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK

–  foster new research and innovation career paths including those at the academic/business and interdisciplinary boundaries, and facilitate movement of people between sectors

–  provide sustained funding and resources for the best early career researchers and innovators (up to seven years support available on a 4+3 model)

–  provide long-term, flexible funding to tackle difficult and novel challenges, and support adventurous, ambitious programmes

 

This is scheme is additional to existing Research Council fellowship schemes and is distinct as the Future Leaders Fellowships;

 

–  are available across the entire UKRI remit,

–  are open to individuals based in business as well as those based in universities,

–  provide long term support of up to seven years (on a 4+3 model with review at 4 years),

–  come with additional expectations of host organisations in their support to the fellow, for academic host organisations this includes tapered salary commitment from year 3 of the fellowship and commitment to an open-ended position for the fellow during or at the end of their fellowship.

 

There will be six calls for these fellowships; two calls per year between 2018-19 and 2020-21 (financial years), typically awarding at least 100 fellowships per call across UKRI’s remit (with the initial round being smaller, aiming to award ~50 fellowships).

 

The key dates for the first call are:

 

–  Thursday 7 June – host organisations must submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for each of the applicants they intend to submit in the first round

–  16:00 on Tuesday 3 July 2018 – first round full application deadline

 

The second call deadline will be on 31 October 2018 (EOI deadline 4 October 2018). Dates for subsequent calls will be published on the UKRI website.

 

For further information visit the Future Leaders Fellowships call page.  If you wish to discuss this opportunity in more detail and/or find companies to work with then please contact Ehren Milner.

If you are interested in applying then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

 

Innovate UK visit- Health & Care at Innovate UK and Mini-STEAMLab 30/5/18

Knowledge Exchange

The M3 Network welcomes Chris Sawyer, Innovation Lead for Health & Care at Innovate UK, to speak at Bournemouth University on the 30th of May, 2018, 12:00-14:00. This event is an opportunity to gain not only information about Innovate UK and funding opportunities but to discuss the challenges facing health and care technology innovation.
Following the presentation there will be lunch and a facilitated workshop designed to bring forward ideas from academic and industry collaboration.
Academics from the M3 network and those from industry working with health and care technology are encouraged to attend. To book onto this session please e-mail RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk with your name and organisation.

NIHR Grant Applications Seminar & Support Event – 26 June 2018

Funding opportunities

 

 

 

Are you planning to submit a grant application to NIHR?

We are holding a one-day event in Bournemouth that is aimed at helping you to improve your chances of success.

The morning seminar session is open to anyone to come and hear Simon Goodwin, RfPB Programme Manager for the South West, and RDS advisers give presentations on what makes a good grant proposal. Topics covered will include:

  • what does the NIHR (and in particular RfPB) look for?
  • the application as a marketing document: selling the topic, selling the method, and selling the team
  • the team
  • clarity of description and explanation
  • feasibility issues
  • identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls.

The afternoon support session of one-to-one appointments is for those who would like to discuss their own proposal with an RDS adviser.

This event is FREE and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Places are limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. In order to secure your place please register using our online form by 1pm, 18 June 2018. Find out more.

And don’t forget, your local branch of the NIHR 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, call us on 61939 or send us an email.

Modelling the ageing kidney.

We all get old. Whilst this can be graceful, it’s often associated with an increased incidence of physiological complications. Loss of kidney function in ageing may be mitigated against if we could identify changes at the earliest opportunity. However, studying this process in humans at a molecular and cellular level is extremely difficult, so model organisms are required.

British Heart Foundation funded research conducted at BU and led by Dr Paul Hartley has recently contributed to this field by looking at how fruit fly nephrocytes grow old. These cells, despite millions of years of evolution, share the same ‘filtration genes’ as human kidney cells called podocytes.

The research indicates that fruit fly nephrocytes grow old in a manner similar to podocytes and other kidney cells. This now sets the stage for future work aiming to identify biomarkers of failing kidneys.

The image shows different filtration proteins (denoted by different colours) on young (1 week) and old (6 week) nephrocytes. As the cells age, these filtration proteins are no longer maintained (arrow and asterisk) and the cells lose function. Scale bar = 25 microns.