BU Research Blog

Knowledge Exchange in Action

To follow on from my blog post earlier this week – here are some further examples of knowledge exchange in action; of particular projects that have been funded by HEIF.

These projects and initiatives demonstrate the breadth of knowledge exchange activities that take place across BU.

• Dr Anita Diaz led a project to develop a digital media solution to advertise volunteering opportunities within conservation across the country. The online network created, features volunteering opportunities from over 100 UK conservation organisations. The organisations can learn from volunteer feedback about which projects were most engaging and thus how to best position volunteering opportunities in future
• Matthew Bennett and Prof. Marcin Budka formed a team to develop the PalaeoGo! App. This project explored various paths relating to dinosaurs and potential uses within museums, national parks and schools, demonstrating the agility of the team exploring different markets for their product.
• The Student Project Bank is a HEIF funded project that has recently moved to the Careers and Employability team. The SPB is creating a series of advisory groups amongst the Faculties to help develop its structure. The main aim of the SPB is to ensure that students have external engagement and access to real life projects as part of their taught studies. For further information, please contact spb@bournemouth.ac.uk.
• Public Engagement with Research has still be active despite lockdown. The Public Engagement team have moved their regular Public Engagement events to an online format, such as Café Scientifique – of which, the next Café Sci event is on Tuesday 2 March. The topic is Restoring our Rivers – Removing Barriers to Fish Migration.
• And finally, our HEIF funding also is supporting our IP and commercialisation generation and exploitation, do get in touch if you have an idea to discuss relating to this.

HEIF has recently invested in these new projects:

• Dr Alain Simons – Medical Ward Simulation Game for medical trainees
• Dr Jane Henriksen-Bulmer – Trivial Privacy
• Dr Karen Thompson – Responsible Project Management Knowledge Exchange and Development of New Competencies using Virtual Reality
• Marcin Budka – ThyroidBuddy: Thyroid titration tool
• Dr Vedad Hulusic – Feeling the Unfelt (FUN): Assistive Technology accessible digital environments with a haptic interface
• Dr Xiaosong Yang – Neuravatar: Integrated augmented reality platform for medical education, postgraduate training and decision support

If this knowledge exchange work sounds appealing, read on….

Small fund

If these projects have enthused you for knowledge exchange work, perhaps they’ve sparked some ideas, reminded you of a potential project you could be involved with or have just highlighted some best practice that you want in on – here’s how HEIF can help.

The HEIF Panel have this week released a small fund for BU staff to apply for. You can apply for a maximum of £5,000 for knowledge exchange activities that will take place prior to 31 July 2021. This could be to get a knowledge exchange project off the ground, perhaps with some market research for an example, or to help complete a knowledge exchange project. Further information can be found in this blog post.