BU Research Blog

The Early Career Researcher Network at BU was launched at a full day event on 12th September.

The event was attended by many of BU’s Early Career Researchers, from across all four faculties, and other academics with a passion for supporting the career development of our ECRs.

The day opened with a rousing welcome to all attendees by Prof Jens Hölscher, Head of Department in Accounting, Finance & Economics (Faculty of Management) and elected Academic Staff Member on the Bournemouth University Board. The joint academic leads, Prof Ann Hemingway and Dr Sam Goodman (himself an ECR), then led the audience through the rest of the day hosting sessions where ECRs discussed what they would like to see in their Network and how they, themselves, can contribute to the delivery of sessions.

In the afternoon, all six of the BU ECR Acorn Award recipients for 17/18, presented to the audience, all keen to ask questions and engage with developing their research further:

• Dr Kathryn Collins – Return to Work after Stroke
• Dr Deborah Gabriel – Enhancing Educational Practice Through 3D Pedagogy Workshops
• Dr Charalampos (Babis) Giousmpasoglou – Training prisoners as hospitality workers: The Clink Charity case
• Dr James Gavin – Building BU-Brazil partnerships: self-managed breathing training for falls prevention
• Dr Michelle Heward – Minimising disorientation in care homes: Experiences of care home staff
• Dr Ben Hicks –  Virtual Reality for supporting dementia care (Virtual Café)

Other ECRs, including recipients of the smaller Acorn Awards also showcased their research, as the attendees took the opportunity to network and discuss their research experiences informally:

• Dr Joyce Costello
• Dr Daisy Fan
• Dr Humaira Hussain
• Dr Sarah Hodge
• Dr Jill Nash
• Dr Yumei Yang

A final panel comprising Prof Ann Hemingway, Dr Sam Goodman, Prof Jonathan Parker, Prof Iain MacRury and Elaine Sheridan (BU’s HR Reward Manager) gave their personal reflections on the importance of networking for all academics, but especially ECRs.

Going forwards, the schedule for the monthly 18/19 events will be announced shortly, based on the feedback received from participants at the launch event.

The event also saw the launch of the ERCN area on Brightspace. All those attending are being added to this network – please check that your access has been given.

If you do not yet have access and would like to join this network, please request this via RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk. It was agreed at the launch that this network would be open to all those at BU who identify themselves as ECRs (including Part-Time Hourly Paid staff) and other staff with a desire to support ECRs in their career development.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this day a great success!