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NCCR Book Launch Next Wednesday

To celebrate the achievements of several Centre members who have had books published over the last year, we are holding a Book Launch next Wednesday 11 December in Fusion F104 from 4-6. Authors will be on hand to introduce their work and there will also be an opportunity to find out more about the work of the Centre.  Refreshments including mince pies will be provided.

 

Research Training Events into the New Year

We have some great RKEDF research training events coming up over the next few weeks to help support you in your research activities

December

Thursday 19th December RKEDF: Preparing Practice-Based Research Outputs for Assessment

January

Monday 13th January RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day
Tuesday 14th January RKEDF: Writing Academy
Wednesday 15th January RKEDF: Working with Industry
Friday 17th January RKEDF: Preparing Practice-Based Research Outputs for Assessment
Thursday 30th January RKEDF: Environment Narrative Writing Day

You can see all the Organisational Development and RKEDF events in one place on the handy calendar of events.

Please note that all sessions are now targeted, so look closely at the event page to ensure that the event is suitable for you. In addition, most RKEDF events now require the approval of your Head of Department (or other nominated approver). Please follow the instructions given on the event page and the template email for you to initiate the booking request.

If you have any queries, please get in touch!

Summary: Third Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) 21-22 November 2019

 

Stories to remember in Bournemouth

It has been wonderful to host the third transnational project meeting in Bournemouth bringing together the team from Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Romania, and the UK (pictured) to advance the Story2Remember ERASMUS+ project: Using drama and storytelling in dementia care.

Following an introduction from Professor Jan Wiener about the work of the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre at Bournemouth University, Andreea presented on activities and results from year one and talked the team through next steps for year two.

Intellectual Output 2: Story2Remember

Each team presented their results and outputs from delivering Story2Remember for both phase 1, delivering Story2Remember to people with dementia and phase 2, delivering the ToT training to professionals in the dementia field. The overall results across all the teams were extremely positive for both phase 1 and 2. Feedback will be used to finalise the Story2Remember handbook.

Intellectual Output 3: The Toolkit

Collaborative discussions brought about positive actions to set out our next steps for the toolkit and its layout and structure agreeing for both website, PDF and paper copy it should:

  • Focus on improving communication between carer and person with dementia
  • Be user friendly
  • Be easy to navigate and use
  • Be a supportive platform for carers

The key focus from now is to build the content for the toolkit with the aim of piloting to users in March 2020.

TPM3 was an extremely proactive and collaborative meeting with celebration on successful delivery of IO2 and tangible next steps agreed for IO3.

By Danielle Wyman (Research Assistant for ADRC, Bournemouth University).

 

Website: https://story2remember.eu/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/STORY2REMEMBER.EU/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Story2rememberE

Student fund launched for travel to Dorset History Centre

Funding opportunities, PG research

In order to assist students wishing to travel to Dorset History Centre for the purposes of accessing collections, Dorset Archives Trust has made a fund available for suitably accredited students to travel to Dorchester.  For more information and conditions, please see the information here.

Please share this information with students whom you may feel would benefit from this.

CoPMRE Visiting Faculty bi-annual event

Knowledge Exchange, NHS

Yesterday CoPMRE welcomed 30 colleagues to our Visiting Faculty bi-annual event showcasing the exciting medical developments at BU from the new Bournemouth Gateway Building to the Institute of Medical Imaging and Visualisation. The key priorities to support delivery of BU2025 were presented by Dr Clare Wedderburn, Interim Head of Department of Medicine & Public Health presented.  Juan Campos-Perez, Clinical Research Co-ordinator, BUCRU spoke about Biobanks which were highlighted in Professor Emma King’s research presentation on immunotherapy.  Professor Jeffrey Wale, Lecturer in Law encouraged innovative medical cross faculty collaboration demonstrated by his recent research collaboration with Professor Sam Rowlands, Visiting Professor resulting in four co-authored papers. The main focus of the meeting centred around Visiting Faculty engagement in research and education to help us achieve our aims.  The audience reported that they were ‘very excited’ about these new developments at BU and were keen to support this vision.

Photo of the week: ‘Through different eyes’

Telling a story of research through photography

The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.

These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community. 

This week’s photo of the week was taken by Chantel Cox and is titled;

‘Through different eyes’

‘My research is looking at how our identities are affected as we get older and how older people with frailty manage these changes. This image is of a great grandfather and great grandson looking out to sea in Poole. This is where my research is being carried out but it made me think how although they are both looking at the same scene they are looking at it through totally different eyes. This is the same as we get older and look at all aspects of the world’

If you have any questions about the Photo of the Week series or the Research Photography Competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU Bridging Fund

In summer 2015, we launched the BU Bridging Fund Scheme which aims to provide additional stability to fixed-term researchers who often rely on short-term contracts usually linked to external funding. This situation may impact on continuity of employment and job security and can result in a costly loss of researcher talent for the institution.

The Scheme aims to mitigate these circumstances by redeploying the researcher where possible, or where feasible, by providing ‘bridging funding’ for the continuation of employment for a short-term (maximum three months and up to six months, in exceptional circumstances) between research grants. It is intended to permit the temporary employment, in certain circumstances, of researchers between fixed-term contracts at BU, for whom no other source of funding is available, in order to:

(a) encourage the retention of experienced and skilled staff, and sustain research teams and expertise;

(b) avoid the break in employment and career which might otherwise be faced by such staff;

(c) maximise the opportunity for such staff to produce high-quality outputs and/or research impact at the end of funded contracts/grants.

The Scheme was updated in 2019 to:

  1. Increase the potential bridging period to a maximum of six months in exceptional cases (from the max of three months as it is currently).
  2. Update the application criteria so that applications will only be considered when one of the following conditions has been met at the point of application:
      1. Sufficient external funding has been secured to retain the researcher but there is an unavoidable gap (usually up to three months, but up to six months can be considered) between funding.
      2. The researcher is named on a submitted application for research funding and the decision is pending with an outcome expected before the end of the bridging period.

To find out more about the scheme, including how to apply for bridging funding, see the scheme guidelines.

The Bridging Fund Scheme is an action from our Athena SWAN action plan (which aims to create a more gender inclusive culture at BU) and our EC HR Excellence in Research Award (which aims to increase BU’s alignment with the national Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers).

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis will contribute to The European Conference on Aging & Gerontology EGen2019

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis will contribute to The European Conference on Aging & Gerontology EGen2019

December 07-08, 2019 University College London (UCL), London, UK

The European Conference on Aging & Gerontology (EGen) is run in partnership with The Bartlett Real Estate Institute at UCL, The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) at the University of Michigan, USA, and the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University.

This conference brings together all disciplines to discuss in a holistic way one of the greatest challenges humanity currently faces: the ageing of the population.

https://egen.iafor.org/speakers/ #EGen2019 #ageing

See the programme http://iafor.org/archives/conference-programmes/egen/egen-programme-2019.pdf

IRAS Central Booking Service closure

NHS, Research Ethics

Please note that the Central Booking Service (CBS; used to book in for review of “IRAS Form” applications and applications only requiring ethical review) will close at 4.30pm on Wednesday 18 December 2019 and will re-open at 9am on Thursday 2 January 2020.

If you need to book in your project for NHS REC review please take note of this Christmas closure.

Any queries please email Research Ethics.

CMMPH represented at The European Midwives Association (EMA) conference

BRIAN, conferences, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

EMA held its 6th triennial education conference in Malmo, Sweden from the 28-29 November 2019. Dr. Luisa Cescutti-Butler and Professor Sue Way had three abstracts accepted, two of which highlighted units of learning in our midwifery undergraduate programme (Evaluating the student experience of introducing newborn infant physical theory into a pre-registration midwifery programme in the UK and An evaluation of the student experience of peer facilitated learning) and a further one which was focused on a national collaborative project on grading practice (Developing a set of key principles to achieve consistency in assessing pre-registration midwifery competency in practice in the UK). The opening keynote speaker at the EMA Conference was Fran McConville – Midwifery Expert at WHO.  Fran presented on ‘Strengthening Quality Midwifery Education for Universal Health Coverage 2030’. Our takeaway message from her presentation was the following important statement: “When midwives are educated to international standards, and midwifery includes the provision of family planning……more than 80% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths could be averted”.

On the social side we were privileged to a hear a woman from the Sammi tribe in Sweden sing three traditional songs and a tradition adopted from Syracuse in Sicily which was the ‘Santa Lucia’ group of singers celebrating the start of Christmas who sang  Xmas Carols in Swedish. We were also able to network with some significant and contemporary midwifery leaders such as Gill Walton (CEO of the Royal College of Midwives), Fran McConville (WHO) and Grace Thomas, Reader and Lead Midwife for Education (Cardiff University).

Talk/session with the Wessex Clinical Research Network Study Support Service

Info Days, Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Research Ethics

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation’s largest funder of health and care research – the NIHR oversee 15 Clinical Research Networks (CRN) and these CRNs work alongside NHS Trusts, primary care providers and Universities. Each CRN has a dedicated Study Support Service.

The NIHR have a portfolio of research studies that are eligible for consideration for support from the CRN in England.  Portfolio status is usually vital to participating NHS Trusts when considering undertaking a proposed study.

Information on the NIHR portfolio is present on the research blog, but at this session our local CRN’s Study Support team will provide you with an opportunity to hear about and discuss the network and the service, and how it could benefit you.

This session is aimed at those planning on conducting clinical research.
It is also designed to raise awareness at BU about the benefits and importance of the NIHR portfolio, so if you’re just interested in learning more, please book on.

The session will take place next week on Tuesday 10th December at 2:30pm until 4:00pm on Lansdowne Campus.

To register your interest or if you have any queries, please get in touch with Research Ethics.

Checklist now available to support researchers undertaking clinical research

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor – Research Development & Support) and Juan Campos-Perez (Clinical Research Coordinator – Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit) have compiled a checklist (PDF and word formats) that can be used to support researchers through the process of applying for and conducting clinical research.

The document contains links to various documents and further resources to guide researchers through areas such as applying for external approvals, running the study and closing the study. The checklist clearly sets out what tasks are required, the support/resources available to complete this tasks, a space to write your own notes/how this task was resolved and the date it was completed. Using this document will help you ensure that all the required tasks are completed during your research journey.

The document is also here on the Clinical Governance blog.

Remember – support and guidance is on offer at BU if you are thinking of conducting clinical research, whether in the NHS, private healthcare or social care  – contact details for Suzy and Juan are on the checklist, and you can also take a look at the Clinical Governance blog for resources and updates.

New UK Standards for Public Involvement

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

Involving the public in your study is important, especially at the research design stage. This is called ‘Public Involvement’ (also known as ‘PPI’ [Patient and Public Involvement]). Public involvement in research means research that is done ‘with’ or ‘by’ the public, not ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.

By seeking the opinions and recommendations of the public, it is a great way to ensure that your study is designed and set-up in a way that will be relevant to participants, and of good quality.
This can also help to avoid any setbacks once the project is underway.

The new UK Standards for Public Involvement have now been released and were developed over three years by a country-wide partnership between the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Scotland, Health
and Care Research Wales, and the Public Health Agency Northern Ireland

They describe what good public involvement looks like and encourage approaches and behaviours that are the hallmark of good public involvement such as flexibility, sharing and learning and respect for each other.

You can see the six UK standards and supporting materials, as well as further details about the partnership, project and the piloting of the new standards, here.

Further guidance is available via the Clinical Governance section of the Research blog and via the Health Research Authority and NIHR pages.