Yearly Archives / 2019

NERC standard grants (July 2019 deadline) – internal competition launched

Funding opportunities

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures at: http://intranetsp.bournemouth.ac.uk/policy/BU Policy for NERC Demand Management Measures.docx.

As at January 2019, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available standard grant round is 16th July 2019. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 29th March 2019.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\RDS\Public\NERC Demand Management 2019.

NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RDS submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RDS will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RDS, and will work closely with the Research Facilitator and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Access to external bid writers will also be available.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Lisa Andrews, RDS Research Facilitator – andrewsl@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RDS Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

#TalkBU with Jayne Caudwell

We will be joined by Jayne Caudwell at March’s #TalkBU session, who will be discussing racism and sexism in sport and why we need sport feminsim!

A recent report identified that 40% of women in the sport industry face gender discrimination (Women in Sport, 2018). Black and minority ethnic (BME) sportswomen face increased levels of prejudice because of the dual effects of sexsim and racism. 

In this talk, Dr Jayne Caudwell will discuss the cases of UK footballer Eni Aluko and US tennis player Serena Williams, and the unjust treatment of these athletes to demonstrate the level of sexism and racism in contemporary sport culture. She will be referring to feminsim (theory and activism) in order to call out racism and sexism, and to explore how we can challenge oppression.

We hope to see you in CG11, 1-2pm on the 7th March, with lunch provided! You can register for free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talkbu-with-jayne-caudwell-tickets-56879367720

National Research Landscape Survey

Research England is interested in understanding how researchers think the research landscape (i.e. research outputs, impacts and the research environment) might change over the next 5 to 10 years, in order to inform their planning for future research assessment (post 2021). This survey is intended to collect information on these issues and is part of a wider study being conducted by RAND Europe on behalf of Research England.

This survey is for researchers within English Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

It should take 8-12 minutes to complete and can be accessed here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/nationalresearchsurvey/

If you have any questions about the survey please contact the RAND Europe project team at research_landscape_survey@rand.org.

Clinical Research Transparency – Responsibilities

NHS, Research Ethics

‘Researchers, sponsors and funders have responsibilities – that may be legal requirements or ethical and moral expectations within an accepted governance framework of best practice and standards – to participants in research, patients and the wider public and research communities.’

The HRA have recently released a page of useful links and guidance that encompasses areas such as ‘top tips for transparency’, making your research results public, and also registering your study.
Related to this, hopefully you will have seen a recent blog post regarding the HRA’s commitment to ensuring research transparency. This has been a hot topic lately, and the subject of a recent House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report.

Take a look at the HRA guidance here.

BU has access to the ClinicalTrials.gov system so get in touch if you would like access. This is a great opportunity to register your study and study results in the public domain. It is free to use.
Despite the name, the system may be used for other clinical research projects.

1000th Google Scholar citations

Congratulations to Dr. Miguel Moital from the Department of Events & Leisure for his 1000th citation on google scholar.

Many of these citations are for papers co-authored with undergraduate and masters students.

The h index is 13 (it means that 13 papers have at least 13 citations), and the h10 index is 18 (it means that 18 papers have at least 10 citations).

Narrative Research Group Seminar on Transmedia Historiography as Educational Practice 13 March

The next NRG seminar will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 13th March in F108, where Dr Matthew Freeman (Bath Spa) will be speaking on ‘Transmedia Historiography as Educational Practice: Narrativising Colombian Cultural Memory Across Media’. Abstract and biography are attached below. All welcome. To find out more about NRG please visit https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/centre/journalism-culture-and-community/

Biography

Dr Matthew Freeman is Reader in Multiplatform Media at Bath Spa University. He is Deputy Director of the University-wide Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, Co-Director of the Centre for Media Research, and leads the University’s Communication, Cultural and Media Studies submission to REF2021. His research examines cultures of production across the borders of media and history, and he is the author/editor of seven books: The World of The Walking Dead (2019), Transmedia Archaeology in Latin America(2018), The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Storytelling(2018), Global Convergence Cultures(2018) Historicising Transmedia Storytelling (2016),Industrial Approaches to Media (2016), and Transmedia Archaeology (2014). He has also published over 30 journal articles and book chapters, is Series Editor for the Routledge Advances in Transmedia Studies book series, and sits on the editorial board of the journal Convergence. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the International Journal of Creative Media Research, a new journal which aims to push forward the potentials for publishing creative and practice-based research.

Abstract 

People now engage with media content across multiple platforms, following stories, characters, worlds, brands and other information across a spectrum of media channels.Yet both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for understanding transmediality – itself the use of multiple media technologies to tell stories and communicate information – is the sheer breadth of its interpretation. Though primarily still seen as a commercial practice, this talk explores the application of transmedia practices to the communication of history across multiple media platforms, questioning what this approach means to our understandings of transmediality. More specifically, the talk furthers discussions of the contribution that transmedia storytellingcan make to educational practices, identifying new strategies for how transmediastorytelling is now being used to capture and narrativize historical memories, as media-based educational resources. To do so, the talk focuses on the Colombian armed conflict and the Desarmados project, for which I served as a member of the project team, and for which in this context to theorise how transmediality can work as socially progressive and emotionally supportive form of historiography. Desarmados is an internationally-funded research project which aims to harness commercial ideas about digital platforms and transmedia storytelling as tools for documenting the Colombian citizens of Medellín and for narrativizing their memories of the Colombian armed conflict as an educational resource. A transmedia project supported by the Colombian Ministry of Culture and the Colombia Government, Desarmados seeks to reconstruct the cultural memory of the Colombian armed conflict, and develop workshops with secondary schools in Medellin to help test out new transmedia materials as modes of social enterprise between survivors and civil society.

As such, this talk will interrogate not the history of transmedia storytelling, but rather how the working practices of transmedia storytelling can deal with history, creatively and socially. Desarmados, I argue, exemplifies not only a new way of experiencing and remembering Colombian history, but as that which reshapes said Colombian history for the better.

Research Skills Master Programme from Epigeum

PG research

Postgradaute Researchers – did you know you have access to 18 online modules covering topics such as research methods and skills, ethics and career planning?

Epigeum’s Research Skills Master Programme provides postgraduate researchers with a broad range of essential skills.

Access all modules on the Doctoral College: Researcher Development Programme on Brightspace via the online modules tab.

To find out more, watch this short video.

If you have any questions about what is avaiable to you as part of the Researcher Development Programme please contact your Research Skills and Development Officer.

Athena SWAN – February Newsletter

In the latest Athena SWAN newsletter you can read the news and events relating to gender equality, as well as why Athena SWAN is important to everyone at BU. There are lots of interesting articles in this edition, including information on the key institutional SWAN actions planned for 2019, an introduction to Professor Sarah Bate (the new chair of BU’s Athena SWAN Steering Group), and a link to BU’s career development fact sheet.

Nursing news – nursing degree apprenticeships: in poor health?

NHS

In December 2018 The Education Committee reviewed nursing degree apprenticeships and produced the report Nursing degree apprenticeships: in poor health? The Committee warned that the uptake of nursing degree apprenticeships has been too slow (only 30 started last year) and that the DfE won’t meet their target of 400 nursing associates progressing to degree apprenticeships from 2019. The Committee stated that nursing degree apprenticeships was more of a ‘mirage’ than a successful and sustainable route into the profession unless delivery barriers are resolved. You can read the recommendations from the Committee’s report here.

The Government have now responded to the Committee’s report (Government response here) largely agreeing with several of the Committee’s recommendations. The response:

  • Agrees with recommendations 1 and 2 on maintaining support to  develop a sufficient number of quality nursing apprenticeships. It outlines intent of current reforms in achieving this.
  • Agrees with recommendation 3  that Nurse Degree apprenticeship cannot act as the lone route to train the nursing workforce and adds “that has never been the intention”. Further outlining reforms in place to achieve this.
  • Agrees with recommendation 4 on the need to incentive the NHS to spend time and resource building nursing apprenticeships and outlines the case and plan for making sure “apprenticeships to meet the needs of employers, as well as apprentices and training providers.”
  • On recommendation 5 and the NMC’s consultation on whether nursing associate students should remain supernumerary,  Government outline that the NMC agreed in 26th September “they have approved proposals for an additional approach to nursing associate training, which is a different choice for employers to the supernumerary approach to training. This alternative option will enable employers to work in partnership with approved education institutions, to identify the proportion of time the organisation will be able to support protected learning time for the trainees.”  State the NMC will consider whether to extend this training model to the other professions they regulate once they have undertaken evaluation and review.
  • On recommendation 6 and 9, response outlines the incentives for employers to invest in workforce and the role of the levy.
  • Does not agree with recommendation 7, on the funding band for nursing degree apprenticeships remaining at a minimum of £27,000 and the IfA should consider increasing. Government say nursing degree apprenticeships are in the highest funding band and “The Institute for Apprenticeships is responsible for regularly reviewing standards to make sure they are high quality, continue to meet the needs of employers, and are value for money.”
  • Agrees with recommendation 8 on investment in CPD and state this was recognised in the NHS long-term plan.

(more…)

Informed consent training – sessions available

PG research, Research Ethics, Training

When conducting research with human participants, it is essential that participants are fully informed as to the details of the study and what is expected of them by participating.

Participants’ informed consent is imperative, and should be in place prior to any data collection activities.

Sarah Bell (Research Governance Advisor) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor) will be running sessions on informed consent procedure, scheduled for Tuesday 26th March. These sessions are open to staff and postgraduate researchers conducting research/hoping to conduct research with human participants.

We will be running two sessions on this day –

Talbot Campus (P425, Poole House) – 09:30am – 11:00am
Lansdowne Campus (B242, Bournemouth House) – 2:00pm – 3:30pm

If you are interested in attending one of the above sessions, please email Research Ethics.

SURE: book your free ticket

The SURE (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence) conference is returning for its fourth year, taking place on 20 March.

Over 90 submissions have been received on a wide range of subjects, including discrimination and minority groups, business management and diabetes in public health, so there is something to cover all interests.

Both students and staff are encouraged to attend, whether it’s to support your friends, your students, or just hear more about the research being carried out by students at BU.

The SURE conference is an annual event which gives undergraduate students the opportunity to showcase the work they are carrying out throughout their studies at BU, whether it’s their dissertation, coursework or research carried out during their placement year. They share this either in the form of a poster, 10 minute speech or an installation. It’s a great opportunity for them to be involved in as it allows them to develop their public speaking as well as their general approach to research.

Register for your free tickets via Eventbrite.