Yearly Archives / 2022

Participants needed for a study on faith-based organisations and the climate change crisis in the UK

  • Are you a Christian and do you identify with at least one religious organisation?
  • Do you live in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole?
  • Is your place of worship in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole?
  • Can you please take 10 minutes to fill out a survey?

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, we would like to invite you to participate in a survey to access the roles of faith-based organisations in mitigating the climate change crisis in Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole.

Please click here to participate in the survey.

Be assured that all answers you provide will be kept strictly confidential and you will not be identified in any way in the data.

Your participation will be appreciated.

If you have any questions, please contact one of us at:

 

Introducing ProGRess the new ResearchPAD


The Doctoral College are pleased to announce the imminent introduction of ProGRess the new research degree progression monitoring system.


ProGRess will go live in the next few weeks.  The new improved online system will be replacing ResearchPAD and will be available to postgraduate researchers (PGRs), supervisors, and administrators.

The benefits of the new system include:

  • Integrated progress documents and status forms with key details pre-populated
  • Automatic email reminders to PGRs, supervisors, and academics involved in the process
  • Automatic recalculation of milestone dates in case of any changes
  • Greater reporting functionality.

What is happening to ResearchPAD?

IT Services will migrate all user data from ResearchPAD to ProGRess. The date for this will be selected to limit any potential impact and IT Services will work diligently to make the transition as smooth as possible. Once all migration and archive activities are successfully completed, ResearchPAD will be permanently decommissioned.

What next?

PGRs and supervisors, please keep an eye on your email for updates and important information leading up to ProGRess going live including details on how to access the system, user guides and training sessions.

In the interim, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Many thanks

The Doctoral College

Research Professional – all you need to know

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to Research Professional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using Research Professional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of Research Professional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on Research Professional. They are holding two monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with Research Professional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the second Tuesday of every other month. You can register here for your preferred date:

13th September 2022

8th November 2022

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you. Previous recordings can be found here if you can’t attend a session.

Have you noticed the pink box on the BU Research Blog homepage?

By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.

New volume on skyscape archaeology edited by Dr Fabio Silva

A new volume on skyscape archaeology, co-edited by Dr Fabio Silva of IMSET and the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, has been published this week.

Solarizing the Moon: Essays in Honour of Lionel Sims (Archaeopress, 2022) gathers contributions from thirteen anthropologists, archaeologists and cultural astronomers that delve into three key areas: (1) Anthropology and Human Origins, (2) Prehistory and Megalithic Monuments, and (3) Theoretical Developments. These represent the research interests of our colleague Prof Lionel Sims (Emeritus, University of East London), who passed away in 2021, and which this volume celebrates.

More details, including a free download of the introduction, can be found here.

 

Would you like to be involved in research that uses new, exciting digital health technologies?

Would you like to be involved in research that uses new, exciting digital health technologies?

If this sounds appealing, then we would like to invite you to become a participant in our research, which is organised in conjunction with Xim Ltd. developers of the Lifelight app.

You will be asked to attend Bournemouth Gateway Building on 1 occasion for 30 minutes and receive a £5 lunch voucher to be used at any BU catering outlet. If you don’t know your blood pressure we will require another 5 minute session for pre-screening, but if you work in one of our BU buildings we may be able to come to you for the pre-screening.

Please see the attached research poster for more details. If you would like to know more, then snap the QR code to read the full participant information sheet or contact Malika Felton

(mfelton@bournemouth.ac.uk) to be emailed a copy. Should you wish to take part, then please contact the research team expressing your interest.

July update on Horizon Europe

According to UK Research Office (UKRO), ​the UK Government has announced a new package of measures to support applicants to Horizon Europe affected by the delays in association. The measures aim to ensure the stability for UK researchers and businesses and their European partners.

The measures will only come into force if the UK is unable to associate to Horizon Europe and will ensure that there is no funding gap. The UK government remains committed to a strong research collaboration with Europe and has reiterated that association remains its preferred outcome. The UK Government is ready to formalise association to EU programmes at the earliest opportunity.

Full details about the new measures are available on the dedicated page of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) website.

The main message from the Government to the UK academics and research institutions remains the same – UK organisations can continue to apply to Horizon Europe in line with the European Commission’s ‘Q&A on the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe’ document.

The General Annexes attached to the main Horizon Europe work programme (2021-2022) ensure that UK applicants are treated as if the UK is an associated country throughout the process, from admissibility and eligibility to evaluation, up until the preparation of grant agreements. However, grant agreements can only be signed by UK participants if the association has come into force. Before that, normally, UK organisations will receive grant funding from the UK Government.

To finish this update and the whole academic year on an optimistic note, I am glad to tell you that in July 2022 BU academics have been awarded two Horizon Europe collaborative grants. This is amazing – congratulations!

UPDATE: just after publication of this blog we received information the from European Commission that the third Horizon Europe grant has been awarded to BU in July.

I wish all academics to enjoy the rest of the summer and keep promoting their research ideas in way of developing and submitting external grant applications. Majority of RDS pre-award staff will also be enjoying summer holidays in August to continue providing support after their return.

P.S. the recording and presentation from this year’s last funding briefing (Horizon Europe: Searching for funding opportunities and finding a call) is available on Brightspace. See you in September funding briefings again!

New paper by Dr. Orlanda Harvey

Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Dr. Margarete Parrish both in the Department of Sociology and Social Work on the acceptance of their latest paper ‘Mixed-methods research on androgen abuse – a review’ by the journal Current Opinion in Endocrinology & Diabetes [1]. Orlanda was invited to write this review on the basis of her PhD research project.  Her PhD used a mixed-methods approach with people using un-prescribe /recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) in several high-income countries including the UK.  Anabolic Androgenic Steroids are synthetic drugs mimicking male sex hormones, especially testosterone, and are often used for their anabolic effects, for example, increasing muscle and strength.  This PhD study resulted in several high-quality academic publications [2-4] as well as a feature article in HED Matters under the title ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [5].
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
  1. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2022) Mixed-methods research on androgen abuse – a review, Current Opinion in Endocrinology & Diabetes (accepted)
  2. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E, Trenoweth, S. (2021) Libido as a reason to use non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 29:3,276-288,DOI10.1080/09687637.2021.1882940
  3. Harvey, O., Keen, S., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Literature Review into what they want and what they access. BMC Public Health 19: 1024 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7288-x https://rdcu.be/bMFon
  4. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S. (2020) Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 27:5, 377-386. DOI 10.1080/09687637.2019.1705763
  5. Harvey, O., (2019) ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying SteroidsHED Matters 2(2):16-19.

A review paper published in a highly influential journal Materials Science and Engineering R (impact factor 36.21)

Dr Yi Huang from Department of Design and Engineering of FST recently published a review paper with several international collaborators. The team including the collaborators from City University of Hong Kong, São Paulo State University, Universitat Politècnica de València, UC Santa Barbara, University of Southampton worked together to publish a high quality review paper in a highly influential journal, Materials Science & Engineering R (impact factor 36.21).

The review paper explores the possibility of combining corrosion resistance and biocompatibility with the outstanding mechanical behaviour of heterostructured stainless steel into a promising option for usage as a low-cost yet highly-effective advanced material. This review paper will play a vital role in acting as a future reference for further understanding and designing new multi-functional heterostructured stainless steels.

 

Dealing with difficult reviewers

This week saw the publication of another Bournemouth University paper on academic writing and publishing.  This latest paper ‘Struggling to reply to reviewers: Some advice for novice researchers‘ has been published in the scientific journal Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health.  This  journal is published in Nepal and it is Open Access, hence freely available across the globe.

Peer review is the process by which academic journals assess and regulate the quality of content they publish, by inviting academic experts to review your submitted manuscripts.  It is a process of quality control. Once you have submitted your paper to a journal the editor will select potential peer reviewers within the field of research to peer-review your manuscript and make recommendations. In many case the peer review process can be a positive experience for you as it allows you to develop your skills and improve your written work.  For example, good reviewers may notice potential imbalances, point out missing key references or highlight different potential perspectives, and thus help you to enhance the overall quality of the paper.  On some occasions, however a reviewer can be a complete pain in the neck!

The paper is written by a multidisciplinary team based in the Department of Nursing Sciences (Dr. Regmi), the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work (Dr. Harvey), and the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences (Dr. Taylor & Prof. van Teijlingen).  The authors bring their combined expertise in midwifery, social work, health education, sociology and health services research to offers the readers advice how to deal with the more difficult reviewers.

 

Reference:

  1. Harvey, O., Taylor, A., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Struggling to reply to reviewers: Some advice for novice researchers Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 21(2):19-22

Your Feedback can help support PGR Recruitment

We’re always looking at what we have capacity to do in the Doctoral College to support PGR recruitment across all four faculties. Across 2021/22 the PGR Admissions team:

  • Introduced a new 1-2-1 Teams appointments service for potential applicants to discuss their application with us
  • Held PhD Studentship drop-in sessions for current BU students to come and chat to us about our list of studentship projects
  • Created a new Visiting PGR process and BU website page
  • Delivered an improved weekly PGR admissions report for faculties to identify areas for targeted growth
  • Started a new working relationship with the International Recruitment team to create updated PGR marketing & communications content

To help us consider PGR Admissions activities across the 22/23 academic year, we’d like to invite our academic staff involved in PGR recruitment to provide us with some feedback. We anticipate this survey will take no more than 5 minutes to complete

This short survey is split into two parts – your thoughts on the current PGR admissions process, followed by a chance for you to tell us how we can best support recruitment in your field. We’ve provided some ideas for what the Doctoral College might have resource to do this year, but we are excited to hear what you might consider to be the best ways to bring in new PGRs to your research area.

You can help us improve PGR Admissions by completing this survey.

Funding Development Briefing – Spotlight on…Horizon Europe: Searching for funding opportunities and finding a call

Horizon Europe: New opportunities for international cooperation | EURAXESSThe last funding RDS Funding Development Briefings for the academic year will be on Wednesday, the  27th of July at 12 noon. These will restart again with a new programme in September.

Each session covers the latest major funding opportunities, followed by a brief Q&A session. Some sessions also include a spotlight on a particular funding opportunity of strategic importance to BU.

Next Wednesday 27th July, there will be a spotlight on the Horizon Europe: Searching for funding opportunities and finding a call

We will cover:

  • Overview of Horizon Europe Funding 2023-2024
  • Internal process
  • Q & A

For those unable to attend, the session will be recorded and shared on Brightspace here.

Please join the briefing by clicking the link below.

Click here to join the meeting