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BU Studentship Funding Panel

Funding opportunities, PG research

This week, the BU Research Blog has focussed on the different internal funding panels. This final post focusses on the BU Studentship Funding Panel, which oversees the allocation of central funding for postgraduate research (PGR) studentships. The BU Studentship Funding panel consists of thirteen panel members from across Faculties and Professional Services, is chaired by Professor Katherine Appleton (FMC), with the support of Associate Professor Dan Jackson (FMC), Deputy Chair.

BU has been awarding PhD Studentships since 2006 when, to help realise its then research vision, the University created an unprecedented 80 fully funded PhD studentships to support outstanding students. The most significant development of the scheme was the introduction of matched funding in 2009, which not only maximised the use of internal funds but also helped academics, and PGRs, develop specialised research collaborations with local, national and international organisations (including other HEIs), businesses and communities.

The continued focus on matched funding fulfils a number of BU priorities including:

  • increasing the number of Studentships available;
  • increasing the opportunities within QR and other funding allocations; and
  • the building and strengthening of a greater number of external relationships.

In addition, most importantly the inclusion of external partnerships also provides a stronger Fusion learning experience for our PGRs. Where possible, the allocation of the BU Studentships is aligned to BU’s Research Principles particularly in encouraging interdisciplinary research, building critical mass and the mentoring of ECRs through the professoriate.

Over the last 5 years alone, the scheme has provided funding for more than 150 PGRs across BU. Projects in recent years have been wide ranging  and include:

  • Type 1 diabetes and eating disorders: developing best practice communication guidelines for healthcare professionals supervised by Dr Janet James in collaboration with Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch in collaboration with Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • The impact of the current delivery models of care for older patients at Christchurch Day Hospital supervised by Dr Michele Board in collaboration with Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Waterloo Uncovered: Using large-scale geophysical survey to investigate the world’s most famous battlefield supervised by Dr Stuart Eve in collaboration with Waterloo Uncovered
  • Modelling, prediction and control of the spread of aquaculture diseases supervised by Dr Marcin Budka in collaboration with Centre for Environments, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
  • Phenology and ecology of the critically endangered European eel during their marine to freshwater transition supervised by Robert Britton in collaboration with Environment Agency
  • Injury risk and performance: Towards a better understanding of the complexities and intricacies of load monitoring within an elite football club supervised by Professor Tim Rees in collaboration with AFC Bournemouth
  • Intellectual property, information rights and the regulation of the Digital Single Market supervised by Professor Maurizio Borghi in collaboration with Erasmus + Programme
  • Artificial Intelligence Based Approaches for Game Design and Development supervised by Professor Feng Tian in collaboration with Shenzhen University, China
  • Reducing free sugar intakes: Evidence for effective dietary recommendations supervised by Professor Katherine Appleton in collaboration with International Sweeteners Association

Not surprisingly however, the impact of COVID-19 has been challenging for all involved in the BU Studentships. Recruitment of new PGRs was put on hold whilst BU focussed on supporting our existing studentships holders through these unusual and difficult times. Going forward, BU is working on reviewing the BU Studentships scheme to ensure a more equitable allocation of projects across all Faculties and developing a sustainable financial model prior to announcing the next competition for projects to start in September 2022.

COVID-19: Should psychologists know how to deal with this?

Mental health psychology practitioners (MHPPs) are likely to experience stress related to the responsibilities of their role as it exposes them to other people’s traumatic life experiences, a phenomenon called “vicarious traumatisation”. This refers to the emotional and cognitive disruptions faced by therapists, as they engage in therapeutic relationships with survivors of traumatic events. During times of excessive stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to examine the factors that might enhance coping skills and resilience in this group of professionals, as their role in fighting off the negative psychological effects of COVID-19 is crucial. The term “resilience” refers to a group of factors that promote positive mental health and well-being in individuals exposed to threatening conditions, traumatic experiences, or severe adversity.

In a study conducted in the UK by researchers at BU (Dr Constantina Panourgia, Dr Ala Yankouskaya, Dr Agata Wezyk, and Miss Zoe Taylor) in collaboration with University of West London and UCLy in Lyon, participants were invited to talk about their reality, including the effects of vicarious traumatisation on their well-being and strategies they employed to sustain positive mental health and demonstrate resilience.

According to the MHPPs who participated in the study, the pandemic affected them and their clients in different ways. Frequent occurrence of relationship violence, the effects of unemployment, suicide attempts, loneliness, and increased use of alcohol were among the topics their clients highlighted as factors affecting their stress and well-being. Also, the unavailability of stress relief strategies that people usually employed rendered MHPPs’ roles in supporting their patients more vital than ever. However, many of them perceived this as an extra burden and reported feelings of inadequacy and anger. Sleeplessness, flashbacks of their clients’ stories, helplessness, vulnerability, identification with patients’ fears, as well as a tendency to question their abilities as practitioners, were among the symptoms MHPPs experienced.

The MHPPs who participated in this study also reported several mechanisms they employed to maintain positive well-being and develop resilience during these unprecedented times. The importance of frequent, systematic supervision sessions was described as the key factor affecting their well-being and helping them set boundaries between their personal and professional lives. Moreover, practising yoga, meditation, and using delta 8 carts were described as useful tactics in building stress resilience, along with taking up new hobbies and avoiding social media. Finally, seeking social support, having self-awareness, and being able to manage their emotions were reported as key factors in helping them distinguish among their different roles (parents, friends, and therapists) and perform their duties.

The need to train and prepare MHPPs for situations that can be described as collectively traumatic was highlighted by this study’s results. The development of strategies and follow-up care programmes to alleviate the symptoms of vicarious traumatisation might help this group of practitioners develop resilience and be less susceptible to occupational risks, resulting in better outcomes for service users.

For more details: https://uwlpress.uwl.ac.uk/newvistas/article/id/121/

RDS Academic and Researcher Induction – 19th May 2021

The Research Development and Support (RDS) invite all ‘new to BU’ academics and researchers to an induction.

This event provides an overview of all the practical information staff need to begin developing their research plans at BU, using both internal and external networks; to develop and disseminate research outcomes; and maximising the available funding opportunities.

Objectives

  • The primary aim of this event is to raise participants’ awareness of how to get started in research at BU or, for more established staff, how to take their research to the next level
  • To provide participants with essential, practical information and orientation in key stages and processes of research and knowledge exchange at BU

Online induction being done a little bit differently

As this will be the second induction to be held online, we’ve learned from the first one and are doing things a bit differently this time (to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’). RDS have prepared videos in advance so that attendees can watch these when suited to them before the induction day. There are nine videos in total (some are quite short, and the more important ones (on process) run to ~20 minutes) and all are available on Brightspace. The video topics are

  1. Overview of research at BU and Research Development and Support (RDS)
  2. Overview of the Funding Development Team
  3. Overview of the Project Delivery Team
  4. Overview of the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team
  5. Applying for Research Funding at BU
  6. Managing your awarded grants
  7. Research Outputs
  8. Research Ethics
  9. Research Impact

These will be sent in advance (aiming for three weeks’ beforehand) to those attending the induction.

On the day of the induction, we will run an interactive session where attendees can meet their RDS faculty-facing staff, and have the opportunity to ask any questions on any of the topics above, or anything else RDS related that they need more information on. There will be breakout rooms for each faculty, as well as a room for Research Outputs and Ethics, and a room for Research Impact and Knowledge Exchange. The main room will remain open for any questions on strategy and research at BU. This will be a great opportunity to meet your RDS colleagues and to get 1-2-1 advice.

The fourteenth induction will be held on Wednesday, 19th May 2021, 9.30-11am, online.

If you would like to attend the induction then please book your place through Organisational Development and you can also visit their pages here.

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.

Regards,

The RDS team (this photo was obviously taken pre-pandemic)

NIHR Supporting Social Care Research in South Central Workshop 26th May 2021

NHS

Developing a Strategy for Addressing NIHR Priorities

Our RDS colleagues at South Central are hosting a one-day workshop for those interested in social care research. If you are a social care researcher or practitioner, a user, commissioner or provider of social care services and have ideas about how to develop and support social care research in South Central, please join them for the day.

Find out more

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU)

We can help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

 

Research impact at BU: representation of para-athletes in the media & protecting the right to use parody

A series of posts highlighting BU’s impact case studies for REF 2021. (The full impact case studies will be published on the REF website summer 2022.)

Implementing a parody exception in the UK: shaping policy and innovating the creative sector

Research areas: Intellectual Property & Innovation Law, Media Regulation

Staff conducting research: Professor Dinusha Mendis, Dr Kris Erickson, Professor Martin Kretschmer

Background: The Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property in 2011 focused on a number of issues, including copyright and parody. Against this background, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) commissioned BU researchers to conduct a study supporting the UK government’s consultation on the Review. This resulted in BU researchers producing three reports for the government, reflecting a legal and empirical analysis to assess the economic effects of parody, and recommending the introduction of a parody exception.

The impact: In 2014, the UK government adopted a parody exception, with the UKIPO acknowledging that the research by the BU team was “instrumental in paving the way towards [its] implementation…”. Seven years on, the exception has benefited a range of stakeholders including artists, film and documentary makers, legal practitioners and wider society. Parody artists’ careers have been enhanced by the legalisation of their work, leading to increased income through greater exposure; the number of parody legal disputes has drastically reduced; the creative sector has been able to commission  parodies, increasing innovation and freedom of expression; and charities have generated income for worthwhile causes by using parody in fundraising campaigns.

Shaping para-sport policy and broadcast coverage

Research areas: Sport & Politics, Media & Education

Staff conducting research: Dr Emma Pullen, Professor Michael Silk, Dr Daniel Jackson, Dr Richard Scullion

Background: With the entry of Channel 4 as rights holder in the UK, the Paralympic Games has become an increasingly important site of disability representation. BU researchers undertook the largest ever academic project to examine the implications of the rapid commercialisation of the Games and the increasing visibility of (selected types of) disability in the media. The project aimed to capture the intentions and practices of Channel 4’s broadcasting of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the influence of this on the content of Paralympic coverage and mediated forms of disability representation, and the wider impact on public attitudes toward disability.

The impact: Findings from the AHRC-funded project ‘Re-presenting para-sport bodies: Disability and the cultural legacy of the Paralympics’ have been utilised by Channel 4, Paralympics GB and UK Sport to shape future broadcasting, policy, practice and the promotion of para-sport.  Channel 4, which will broadcast the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games later this year, stated that BU’s research will “underpin… future coverage of the Paralympics”. The insights from the research data will also frame the decision-making of Paralympics GB, the governing body for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the Paralympics. BU also collaborated with UK Sport to develop the UK Sport Public Attitudes Survey, focusing on public attitudes towards para-sport, the Paralympics, and media coverage of such events. The research team’s analysis of the initial results has helped shape UK Sport’s approach to parasport events, enabling them to “explore territory that we had never specifically entered into before and enhanced our knowledge accordingly”.

Charity Impact Funding Panel

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

This week, our series of blog posts focus on the internal funding panels. Today’s post shares some insights from the Charity Impact Funding Panel.

 

About the Charity Impact Funding Panel

 

The Charity Impact Funding Panel was established in Spring 2019 to support the development of collaborations with charities and associated impact development as documented in the BU2025 Research Principles.

 

Over 30 projects have been awarded funding during this time where the purpose of the funding is to:

  • Increase engagement with charities in order to further the impact of BU’s research
  • To increase the amount of research undertaken collaboratively with charities
  • Encourage future funding bids with charitable partners.

 

The Panel is Chaired by Professor Lee-Ann Fenge, with Dr Fiona Cownie as Deputy Chair.

 

Funded Projects

The Charity Impact Funding Panel have funded a wide variety of projects including small scale travel budgets to visit charity partners.

 

Here are excellent examples of research in action with charity partners from funded projects:

 

  • Catherine Gutmann Roberts (FST) and her team created a report titled “Fish movements in the River Severn basin, a multi species approach in an era of restoration”. This report was sent to the charity partner, Severn Rivers Trust. The report brings together movement analysis of 5 fish species that has been carried out by 3 PhD students over the last 5 years. The funding enabled Catherine and her team to hire one of the post-PhD students to create code to analyse all 5 species and to format the large datasets into a comparable format. This was the first collaborative grant that Catherine had managed with both internal and external partners and she learnt about leadership during the process. Due to Covid-19 and the shutdown of campus at a critical time in the project, the team were not able to deliver the digital animations that they had hoped BU students would create. However, they have since secured external funding to carry this out.

 

  • Dr Anna Feigenbaum (FST) adapted her original project plan due to Covid19 and with complementary Research Impact funding, Anna and her team delivered a number of projects including; Care in the time of COVID-19. This project produced a series of graphics with design partners, community partners and academic partners.

 

  • Professor Amanda Korstjens (FST) and her team completed a project titled Monitoring Tropical Forest Wildlife Recovery. The project changed a lot due to the pandemic, however despite this, the team still delivered excellent outcomes, including working in partnership with a charity partner to develop acoustic recording systems suitable for high quality bioacoustics recordings under the demanding conditions of the Indonesian Forest. Hardware & software details have been published open access.

 

Future of the Charity Impact Fund

The Panel are expecting to launch an open call in the 2021/22 academic year subject to funding. The planned open call for this year was unfortunately postponed due to Covid19 delays, however if you do have an idea of working with a charity and want to develop this further before the summer, please do contact us to discuss your idea as it may fit in with the HEIF small fund.

 

Research Impact Funding Panel

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

This week, our series of blog posts focus on the internal funding panels. Today’s post shares some insights from the Research Impact Funding Panel.

About the Research Impact Funding Panel

The Research Impact Funding Panel was established in Spring 2019 to support the development of impact and to gather evidence of the impact of BU’s research, in line with the BU2025 Research Principles.

Over 50 projects have been funded across three strands:

  1. To support the development of new research partnerships and networks, to lay the groundwork for future research projects.
  2. To provide support for emerging impact from existing underpinning research.
  3. For the development of impact case studies for REF2021.

The Panel is chaired by Professor Dinusha Mendis, with Dr John Oliver as Deputy Chair.

Funded projects

The Research Impact Funding Panel have funded a wide variety of projects, ranging from £10,000 for larger scale activities to just a hundred pounds for travel and networking.

Team based approaches

Successful projects have embodied BU’s research principle of developing teams, with 94% of funded projects including internal and/or external partners. For example, Amanda Korstjens (FST) worked with colleagues from BU’s Department of Life and Environmental Sciences and Department for Creative Technology, BU MRes and PhD students, as well as charities and community groups in Indonesia to create science-based artworks to assist local communities to curtail forest degradation and wildlife killing, and develop tourism engagement activities. You can read more about the project here.

Impact development

Almost half of the funded projects have contributed to impact case studies for BU’s REF 2021 submission, and the funding received has helped to increase the quality of the case studies. Here are just a few examples of how research impact funding has supported our REF impact case studies:

  • Ann Luce from FMC used funding to create the Suicide Reporting Toolkit for Journalists and Journalism Educators which is now used by journalists worldwide.
  • Jane Murphy from FHSS used funding to incorporate her research findings into a new resource developed by the National Association of Care Catering (NACC), and to disseminate at the NACC Training and Development Forum.  As a result, the recommendations from Jane’s research are now being used by the catering sector in the provision of food and nutritional care.
  • Vasilis Katos from FST and Maurizio Borghi from FMC used funding in to work with colleagues from the EU Intellectual Property Office to produce software tools to complement and accompany the Law Enforcement Guide for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) investigations, resulting in increased visibility and use of the guide.

The Research Impact Fund has also supported many fantastic examples of emerging impact. Anita Diaz (FST) and her interdisciplinary team, have used funding to work collaboratively with the National Trust to create a Habitat Management Spatial Database for the Purbeck Heaths National Nature Reserve (NNR). Relationships were built with Purbeck Heaths NNR Management Steering Group and the Wild Purbeck Partnership to facilitate use of the database among the wider community of conservation organisations and land managers. Over the coming years, this will benefit the conservation management and monitoring of the nationally important Purbeck Heath’s NNR.

External funding

Several of the funded projects have been successfully awarded external funding, following initial internal funding from the Research Impact Fund. For example, Anna Feigenbaum (FMC) was awarded UKRI/AHRC funding for a project entitled “Comics in the time of COVID-19” which built on the initial projects enabled by the Research Impact fund.

 Future of the Research Impact Fund

The Research Impact Fund has now reached the end of its agreed three-year funding. This continuation of the Fund will be considered as part of the development of the next three-year plan for research development (2021-2024).

Dr. Ann Luce to give Keynote at American Association of Suicidology Conference

conferences, Fusion

Dr. Ann Luce, Associate Professor in Journalism and Communication in FMC will deliver one of three Keynote addresses at the annual American Association of Suicidology Conference on Saturday 24th April, 9am EST, 2pm BST. The conference, the largest annual suicide prevention gathering in the United States, will host a hybrid event, with more than 2300 registered attendees, looking at the theme of “Social Contexts in Suicide.”

Luce’s Keynote is titled: “The RSR Model & The Suicide Reporting Toolkit:Putting media reporting guidelines into practice.”

Numerous guidelines on responsible reporting of suicide have been available to journalists globally for more than 20 years, offering advice on best practice regarding approaches and suitability of content. Whilst their advice is compelling and legitimate, their use is uneven at best.

With a suicide death every 40 seconds worldwide, it is imperative journalists understand and recognise the best ethical practices in order to report suicide responsibly. Luce will present the RSR Model, which is grounded in news-work and embeds media reporting guidelines within journalistic storytelling practices.

The accompanying Suicide Reporting Toolkit for Journalists and Journalism Educators helps journalists understand how to implement global guidelines. The toolkit is underpinned by 15 years of research into suicide in the media, including the new Responsible Suicide Reporting model. The suicide reporting toolkit embeds five sets of global guidelines on the reporting of suicide from the World Health Organisation (global), Society for Professional Journalists (USA), Samaritans (UK & Ireland), National Union of Journalists (UK) and the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s Editors Code of Practice (UK). Since its launch in August 2020, there have been more than 20,000 unique visitors to the site.

Luce will give an amended version of the paper at BU on Monday 26th April, 12-1pm as part of the Department of Communication and Journalism Research Seminar Series. Colleagues across BU are welcome to join via Zoom:

https://bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/88034420929?pwd=MTN0U0Q2TW5NMXNsQ3I4c3JQVjhQQT09

Meeting ID: 880 3442 0929

Passcode: FqeH6*.W

 

 

 

 

NIHR welcomes new vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery

NHS, Research Ethics

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and partner organisations across the health research ecosystem have welcomed the publication of a bold and ambitious vision for the future of clinical research delivery in the UK.

This UK-wide vision sets out the ambition to create a patient-centred, pro-innovation and data-enabled clinical research environment, which empowers everyone across the health service to participate in delivering research and enables people across the country to take part in research that is of relevance to them.

The vision has been developed through the cross-sector Recovery, Resilience and Growth programme, with NIHR working alongside the NHS, regulators, medical research charities, life sciences industry, the UK government and devolved administrations.

You can read more here.

Digital Society Research: a major funding opportunity alert

Funding opportunities

An Animation, Simulation, Visualisation “scramble” event will be held on Wednesday, 28 April, 1 – 1.45 pm (see Zoom meeting link below) around the following cross-disciplinary funding opportunity: UKRI (EPSRC): Develop digital economy research communities with NetworkPlus. These are the basic details:

  • Total Fund: £16,250,000
  • Maximum award: £3,250,000, but one can only apply for up to £2.6 million
  • Project duration: 5 years
  • Dates: opened 15 April, closes 29 July 2021 (Registration closes on 12 May for Webinar on 27 May)
  • Proposal must address one of the core priority areas:
    • Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security
    • Beyond a Data Driven Economy
    • Sustainable Digital Society
    • Equitable Digital Society
    • Content Creation and Consumption

There can only be one application per institution with max. 5 investigators (all must be UK-based).

As you can see, this is a highly competitive opportunity, and only 7 or 8 bids will be awarded. If you have an entirely novel, trail-blazing idea which speaks to one or more of these core themes under the ASV aegis, and you seek collaborators from other disciplines which complement yours and are necessary for the realisation of your research idea, do come along: you may well find your next BU collaborator and bidding partner. For more information on the grant, see https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/develop-digital-economy-research-communities-with-networkplus/

Zoom meeting link:

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85854390228?pwd=MFZNVnpMTVJZK2I0dUpaMUxiaWpsUT09

Meeting ID: 858 5439 0228

Passcode: HSq1Te

If you are interested in attending this event, kindly email Nicolette at nbliebchen@bournemouth.ac.uk

Call for experts

The Open Innovation Team has been commissioned by a government department to support a new programme of work. They are seeking suggestions of relevant experts in either futures methodologies in education or education system disaster recovery. Please send your name and hyperlink to your professional profile to Louis at the Open Innovation Team: louis.coiffait@openinnovation.gov.uk.

Deadline: 27 April 2021

Contact the BU policy team (policy@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like support with this.

Please would all colleagues who apply for this opportunity inform the policy team of their application.

Funding Development Briefing – Spotlight on Horizon Europe – Digital, Climate and Food Work Programmes

Funding opportunities

The RDS Funding Development Briefings occur weekly, on a Wednesday at 12 noon.

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 28th April, there will be a spotlight on Horizon Europe Work Programmes – Digital, Climate and Food (EU).

We will cover:

  • Overview of the programme
  • How to apply
  • Q & A

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

Please email RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk to receive the Teams invite for these sessions.

 

Focus on Fellowships – Academic Targeted Research Scheme

In recognition of the important contribution that early career academics play in driving research for the future, we launched the BU Academic Targeted Research scheme in 2019 to attract and recruit talented individuals in six targeted research areas, linked to the Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs).

We wanted to recruit a diverse cohort of individuals with the motivation to become future academic leaders in their field. Each post is offered a fully funded, fixed-term three-year Senior Lectureship together with a research grant of up to £10k per year for the term of the appointment. By September 2020, all six recruits were in post at BU. Each post has at least one research mentor and line manager to support them in achieving their career goals, and whilst they’re hosted in a Faculty, all posts are working collaboratively across Faculties, SIAs and Institutes.

Meet the ATRS Senior Lecturers:

Dr Adrian Galdran – Data Science for Medical Imaging, based in FST and working with the Institute of Medical Imaging (IMIV)

Adrian was the first ATRS Senior Lecturer in post, joining BU in Nov. 2019. Adrian’s research focuses on medical image analysis and computer vision with medical applications. He has researched gastrointestinal image analysis and segmentation, which has led to publications, research applications and securing first place in a competition, EndoTect 2021, in the segmentation track. In response to Adrian’s first blog post, Dr Paul Hartley has been collaborating with him in automating the analysis of histological kidney images to better understand protein expression on them at a fine level, and at a large scale. To address this problem with deep learning techniques, a preliminary implementation of a glomeruli segmentation algorithm (see pictures)

based on a double encoder-decoder network has been developed with promising results. Next steps will include the extension of this system to other structures of interest, addressing the challenges of high-resolution biomedical image segmentation in this context.

Find out more about Adrian’s research and how you can collaborate here.

 

Karen Reddin

Dr Karen Reddin – Immersive Environments for Disaster Management, based in BUBS

Karen joined BU in Dec. 2019. Karen’s research focuses on a review of current Disaster Management education, training and exercise methodologies and recognised practice and how technology enhanced learning platforms might be used to inform and add to current practice in Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management. Karen’s initial research has centred around looking at the potential of immersive environments, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality for preparing for pandemics and other high consequence infectious diseases (HCIDs) with the potential to cause pandemics. Karen has submitted a number of publications and joint research applications (with BUBS and FHSS) for funding, as well as submitted evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on ‘An Historic Background to Pandemic Contingency and Emergency Response Planning in the UK’. She is also building stakeholder networks for pandemic preparedness. Find out more about Karen’s research and how to collaborate here.

 

Dr Rafaelle Nicholson – Sport and Sustainability, based in BUBS

Raf started in her ATRS post in April 2020. Raf’s research focuses on the area of sport and social sustainability, aiming to inform the work of National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) in ensuring greater diversity on their boards, and to help create environments whereby women can fully and effectively participate in sports leadership. Her research aims are to examine policy impact and how we can learn from this. is creating a network which focuses on Sports Governance & Diversity, in order to bring together researchers in this area with key stakeholders including UK Sport, Sport England, NGBs, and charities like Women in Sport. Raf has submitted a number of research applications for funding, which included external collaborators, and spoken at a number of conferences and appeared on a BBC podcast ‘Commentary at home‘. See below for more information on how the ATRS has benefited her research. Find out more about Raf’s research and how you can collaborate here.

 

Georgia JonesDr Georgia Jones – Sustainability, Impact and Consumption, based in FST

Georgia joined BU in July 2020. Georgia’s research focuses on predator ecology and conservation and is specifically centred on the porbeagle shark. The UK has several species of shark that reside here for part of the year and are in need of conservation management. Highly mobile, migratory top predators like the porbeagle are important to understand and manage as they play vital roles in nutrient cycling, ecosystem linkage and maintaining food web stability. Georgia is also aiming to develop a suite of complementary projects alongside the above and she’s already won funding for a project on kestrel trophic ecology, using stable isotope analysis of feathers to update our understanding of their contemporary diet. She is also developing projects on small mustelids and big cats and has joined international project teams to work on genetic analysis of sharks. Find out more about Georgia’s research and how you can collaborate here.

 

Lars MarstallerDr Lars Marstaller – Technology for Behaviour Change, based in FST

Lars joined BU in July 2020. Lars research is focussed on developing a smartphone biofeedback app, with a focus on feedback from heartbeats. Through mindfulness exercises and biofeedback training, users will learn to regulate their breathing to maximise their heart rate variability, thereby activating cardiovascular homeostatic reflexes in the autonomic nervous system associated with rest and recovery. Empirical evidence increasingly suggests that biofeedback has positive effects on a number of psychological conditions, such as anxiety, stress and depression. Lars will use state-of-the-art machine learning technology to develop the app. He has published several papers since joining BU. Find out more about Lars’ research and how you can collaborate here.

 

Portrait - Lyle SkainsDr Lyle Skains – Health & Science Communication, based in FMC

Lyle joined BU in Sep.2020 and was the final ATRS Senior Lecturer recruited. Lyle’s research is centred in an interdisciplinary and ubiquitous communication method that can be employed for multiple UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: interactive digital narrative (IDN). IDNs can be used in schools, GP waiting rooms, on tablets and smartphones; interactivity significantly increases retention, particularly when incorporated into media that audiences voluntarily and eagerly devote attention to. Lyle aims to develop a model for health and science communication through reading and writing IDNs that can be implemented in a wide array of scenarios and topic areas. Lyle is actively building networks and is developing a couple of research funding applications. Find out more about Lyle’s research and how you can collaborate here. Lyle also has a request out for people to join a team in developing a proposal for Sustainable Storytelling for Science & Health as a game-changing concept supporting BU SIAs.

Benefits of the scheme

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it challenging for all to progress their research aims. It has also been difficult for those who have joined during lockdown and so have never held face-to-face meetings with their colleagues. Despite this, you will see above how they have adjusted their plans to ensure they can still progress with their research, and form new networks and relationships. Most are also contributing to teaching and supervising MSc students and involving them in their research. These achievements are contributing to BU2025’s research principles of building external and international engagement, which will lead to building our research environment and the quality and impact of BU’s research. These activities are enabling greater interdisciplinary research and enabling critical mass to be built at BU.

Raf Nicholson talks about her experience of being given this opportunity:

“12 months ago I had never submitted an external funding bid – but the substantial research time allocated as part of this post has allowed me to develop three so far, and counting! These have been for UKRI, the AHRC and Leverhulme Trust, all focused around the theme of sustainability and women’s sport. I hope more will follow. Covid-19 has created a number of issues with progressing some aspects of my research (I’ve been unable to visit any archives, for example), but I’ve found that it has made it easier to approach external partners, whose staff are generally working from home and are more amenable to discussing proposals for research which is of potential benefit to their organisation. Personally, I’ve been able to develop BU’s relationships with external partners including Women in Sport and the England & Wales Cricket Board, who have both served as project partners on grant bids. I hope this has laid the foundations for future joint research in years to come.”

Please watch the research blog for further updates from each of the ATRS post holders for details of how they’re progressing and how you can work with them on collaborative research activities.