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Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2024 – 2 WEEKS LEFT

PG research

The Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) has launched

Have your say – 2 weeks till the deadline!

Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey so far. If you have not already completed it, we would really appreciate if you could find a few minutes to respond and tell us about your experience this year.

We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying with us. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a university we could do better. This is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at Bournemouth University. We also kindly ask that all supervisors encourage their PGRs to participate in the survey.

Thank you to all PGRs who completed the 2023 PRES survey – we listened to you and your feedback has helped us to enhance your PGR experience in a range of areas.

The survey will close on Thursday 16 May 2024. Upon completing the survey, PGRs will automatically entered into a free prize draw. Four winners will be able to claim a £50 shopping voucher. Terms and conditions apply.

In addition, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

Once you have completed the survey, you are entitled to claim a voucher worth £3.20, from the Doctoral College to use at any BU Chartwells outlet. Please come to the Doctoral College (DLG08, Talbot Campus) to collect your voucher. You will need to show a screen shot of the final page of the survey in order to claim your voucher.

How do I take part?

PGRs should have received an email from the Doctoral College on Monday 15 April 2024 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.

What will I be asked?

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential, and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research community, progress and assessment, skills and professional development and wellbeing.

Why should I take part?

Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.

More information

If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2024.

We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

For any PRES related queries, please email: PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk

Working with The Conversation: online training session – Wednesday 8th May

Would you like to build a media profile and take your research to a global audience?

Find out more about writing for The Conversation and hear directly from one of their editors in an online training session from 2-4pm, Wednesday 8th May.

The Conversation is a news analysis and opinion website with content written by academics working with professional journalists. Since we first partnered with The Conversation, articles by BU authors have had over 10 million reads and been republished by news outlets across the world.

In this interactive session, you’ll find out more about communicating your research to the public, what The Conversation is looking for, and have the chance to discuss your research with a Conversation editor and pitch potential story ideas.

It is open to all BU researchers and PhD candidates who are interested in finding out more about working with The Conversation.

Sign up now via Eventbrite

ADR UK Event – Better Data-Better Research-Better Policy

University of the West of England, Bristol–Tuesday May 21st 2024-10:00-16:00

Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) is transforming the way researchers access the UK’s
wealth of public sector data.

By joining up the abundance of administrative data being created by government and public bodies across the UK, and making it available to approved researchers in a safe and secure way, ADR UK is enabling vital research. These datasets are already supporting the production of world-class academic studies, while leading to better informed policy decisions and more effective public services in areas such as education, healthcare, and crime.

There is no fee for attending.

You can register for the event via this link

Contact details: For further information, please contact damian2.whittard@uwe.ac.uk

RKEDF May Digest – Training opportunities for YOU!

R & KE Operations, Training

Have you you heard the news????  

We are excited to share some great RKEDF training opportunities coming up in May 2024!  

Click on the titles to find further details and book your place!!!!  

Innovate UK Marine and Maritime Launchpad Future Funding 

Wednesday May 8, 8:00 – 12:00 – DG06, Dorset House, Talbot Campus 

This event is a must-attend for Dorset-based marine and maritime businesses looking to innovate and grow, if your business involves Clean Maritime, Digital Oceans, and Marine Autonomy, this event is tailored just for you. 

 Early Career Researchers Network (ECRN) Surgeries  

Wednesday, May 8, 13:00 – 14:00 – Hybrid: Talbot Campus & MS Teams  

This is an open session for all BU ECRs and PGRs, to discuss any issues around career development, or the ECR experience with the peer network, and receive advice and guidance from the network’s academic leads.  

 Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE                                                               

Wednesday, May 8, 14:00 – 15:00 – Lansdowne Campus   

This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project.   

ECRN – The Conversation Media Training   

Wednesday, May 8, 14:00 – 16:00 – Zoom – link provided on sign up   

Are you an academic, researcher or PhD candidate who would like to build a media profile and take your research to a global public audience by writing for The Conversation?   

Introduction to RED – The Research & Enterprise Database   

Thursday, May 9, 10:00 am – 10:30 am – Online   

This session is aimed at all academics to provide an overview of the Research & Enterprise Database, including how to access the system, the information available to view, budget management via RED, and how to use RED to identify your supporting pre and post award officers.  

——————————————————————————————  

Please assist us in avoiding any waste of resources; make sure you can attend or cancel your booking prior to the session. 

For any further information, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk   

Fifteen years at BU

international, PG research, writing

Fifteen years ago I started as a professor in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.  I have had three different job titles without moving jobs, starting in 2009 with ‘Professor of Maternal & Perinatal Health Research’, which, after a few years, changed to ‘Professor of Reproductive Health Research,’ and again then a few years later dropping the ‘Research’ to my current title of ‘Professor of Reproductive Health’.  During these 15 years there have been major changes especially in terms of research in our Faculty.  There has been a growth in quantity as well as quality as reflected in our REF scores in 2014 and 2021!  We also have a much higher proportion of staff with a PhD then when I started.  Currently, I am the Research Culture Champion for our Faculty, tasked with a small team to strengthen our research culture and profile even further.

At a personal level, I have supervised 17 PhD students to completion at BU in the past 15 years, plus an additional nine students registered elsewhere.  The latter were mainly PhD students from the University of Aberdeen whom I continued to supervise.  Interestingly, two of these Aberdeen PhD students ended up working for BU.  I counted 42 PhD viva as external examiner in this period as well as five as internal BU examiner.  Some of my experiences at BU were captured last year when I was interviewed by the editors of a sociology journal based in Nepal. [1]

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH (Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health)

 

References:

  1. Subedi, M., & Khattri, M. B. (2023). Interview with Professor Edwin van Teijlingen. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 17(01), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v17i01.61149

New Nature paper by IMSET researchers

BRIAN, Fusion, open accecss, open access

An internationally significant and ground-breaking paper has appeared in the journal Nature, led by Dr Phil Riris of the Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions.

The work investigates 30,000 years of population resilience, with contributions from collaborating scholars from 14 institutions in 7 countries. The paper marks a watershed in our understanding of how people in the past adapted to, and overcame, disturbances. It is available in open access.

A schematic diagram of disturbances and population responses

Left: A sketch of an archaeological population time series with downturns and metrics obtained during the analysis. Right: Example types and groups of disturbances noted in the literature.

The key finding of the paper is that land use – the kinds of subsistence practices, mobility regimes, and extent of infrastructure investments – enhanced both how often a population experienced downturns and their ability to recover from them. In particular, agricultural and agropastoral societies in prehistory were especially likely to suffer demographic busts. However, they also displayed an improved ability over time to “bounce back”.

This result has wide-ranging implications for the development of sustainable land use practices, as traditional lifeways may have intrinsic rates of failure “baked into” their function and operation. The paper speculates that, similar to resilient ecosystems or ecological communities, such localised, small-scale, or short-term failures in human socio-environmental systems may contribute to building improved long-term resilience for the system as a whole.

Artistic impression of some of the types of disturbances experienced by ancient societies.

Importantly, these patterns only reveal themselves in the macro-scale comparison of independent case studies, and take multiple decades or even centuries to unfold. Archaeology is the only field able to tackle these timescales systematically, and underscores the value and contribution of the historical sciences to resilience-building and sustainability challenges in the present.

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07354-8

The research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/X002217/1).

 

New eBook published in April

international

Two weeks ago our eBook Evidence-based approaches in aging and public health was published online by Frontiers Media [1].  This ebook is co-edited by BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Brijesh Sathian (based in Qatar), Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at the University of Huddersfield) and Prof. Edwin van Teijingen in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) as well as Drs. Russell Kabir and Hanadi Al Hamad.  This eBook started life as a Special Issue for the journal Frontiers in Public Health.  We wrote the accompanying editorial for 15 selected articles in this Special Issue [2].  This publication raises the interesting question when does a Special Issue become an eBook.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH

 

References:

  1. Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Al Hamad, H., Kabir, R., eds. (2024). Evidence-based approaches in aging and public health. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. doi: 10.3389/978-2-8325-4780-9
  2. Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Kabir, R., Al Hamad, H. (2024) Editorial: Evidence-based approaches in Aging and Public Health, Frontier in Public Health 12 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1391432

RKEDF: Innovate UK Marine and Maritime Launchpad Future Funding

     

Join us on Wednesday 8th May – 8am – 12pm – DG06, Dorset House, Talbot Campus.

For the Innovate UK Marine and Maritime Launchpad Future Funding event, tailored specifically for Dorset’s marine and maritime businesses. The event will delve into the latest funding opportunities and initiatives aimed at businesses involved in Clean Maritime, Digital Oceans and Marine Autonomy in Dorset.

Who should attend?

This event is a must-attend for Dorset-based marine and maritime businesses looking to innovate and grow. Whether you’re a seasoned industry player, a start-up or a support organisation looking to collaborate on projects, if your business involves Clean Maritime, Digital Oceans, and Marine Autonomy, this event is tailored just for you. Connect with like-minded peers, industry and academic experts plus funding specialists to explore the opportunities available.

Why should I attend?

Discover opportunities to secure funding and support for your innovative projects.

Gain invaluable insights into future funding opportunities and learn how to navigate the funding landscape effectively.

Forge strategic partnerships, access tailored guidance and position your business for accelerated growth.

Don’t miss out on this chance to drive innovation, sustainability, and success in Dorset’s marine and maritime sectors.

Spaces are limited so reserve your spot here

 

 

RKEDF: Introduction to RED – The Research and Enterprise Database

Post-award, Training

This 30-minute session is aimed at all academics to provide an overview of the Research & Enterprise Database, including how to access the system, the information available to view, budget management via RED, and how to use RED to identify your supporting pre and post award officers.

Wednesday 9th May 2024 – 10:00-10:30      Online session

Book your place here under ‘Introduction to RED – The Research & Enterprise Database – 09/05/2024 – in the drop-down menu.

RKEDF: Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE

Post-award

Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE – Wednesday 8th May – 14:00 – 15:00

This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project. Topics covered include:

• What is post award?
• Roles and responsibilities
• Systems
• Key policies
• Starting your awarded project
• Making changes to your project and reporting
• Hints and tips

By the end of the session, attendees will have a strong foundation of what to expect when being responsible for their awarded projects.

Book your place here – under “Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE – 08/05/2024 – in the drop-down menu

For any queries regarding this workshop, please contact Alex Morrison, Post Award Programme Manager RDS morrisona@bournemouth.ac.uk

RKEDF: ECRN – Drop in session – May

PG research

Early Career Researchers Network (ECRN) Surgeries – Wednesday 8th May – 13:00-14:00

This is an open session for all BU ECRs and PGRs, to discuss any issues around career development, or the ECR experience with the peer network, and receive advice and guidance from the network’s academic leads.

 

Book your place here – under “ECRN Surgeries” in the drop-down menu

For any queries regarding this workshop, please contact RKE Development Framework

REF role: opportunity to champion the impact of BU’s engineering research

REF Subjects

We are looking to recruit an impact champion to help support our REF submission in UOA 12 (the Unit of Assessment for Engineering). The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 24th May 2024.

This role is recruited through an open and transparent process, which gives all academic staff the opportunity to put themselves forward. Applications from underrepresented groups (e.g. minority ethnic, declared disability) are particularly welcome.

We are currently preparing submissions to thirteen UOAs. Each UOA has a leadership team with at least one leader, one output champion and one impact champion. They are supported by a panel of reviewers who assess the unit’s research, including both outputs and impact case studies.

All roles require a level of commitment, which is recognised accordingly, with time to review, attend meetings, and take responsibility for tasks.

Undertaking a UOA role can be enjoyable and rewarding, as one of our current impact champions can testify:

“I work closely with the UoA 17 impact team to encourage the development of a culture of impact across BUBS… Sometimes it can be tough to engage people with impact – understandably; everyone is busy – so it’s important to be enthusiastic about the need for our BU research to reach the public. Overall, the role is about planting the seeds to get researchers thinking about the impact their work might have in the future (as well as the impact they have already had, sometimes without realising!)”

Dr Rafaelle Nicholson – UOA 17 Impact Champion

How to apply

All those interested should put forward a short case (suggested length of one paragraph), explaining why they are interested in the role and what they believe they could bring to it. This should be emailed to ref@bournemouth.ac.uk by Friday 24th May 2024.

Further details on the impact champion role, the process of recruitment and selection criteria can be found here:

Role Descriptor

Process and criteria for selection

For more information, please contact ref@bournemouth.ac.uk, or UoA 12 Leader Professor Zulfiqar Khan.

Health Innovation Wessex and UoS Intellectual Property Event

Understanding Intellectual Property to Create Health Impact (in-person)

Hosted by Health Innovation Wessex and University of Southampton

Axis Centre, Southampton Science Park, SO16 7NP

9am – 5pm

Friday 17 May 2024

Book your place here

Join us for a whole day in-person free event discussing Intellectual Property (IP) and applying it to health and medtech researchers. Expert speakers will explore how to protect IP and how to discuss inventions with unprotected IP. They will also cover implications for entrepreneurs and how to work within organisational requirements and the local support available.

Teaching will include tailored workshops. The event is funded by University of Southampton and organised by Health Innovation Wessex, and is open to:

  • Academic staff and researchers
  • Clinical staff, operational leads, and researchers from healthcare organisations within Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Dorset, who either hold or whose work may result in creation of IP.

Book your place here

Any further questions, please contact claire.martin@hiwessex.net

Dr Rachel Arnold on Appreciative Inquiry

In March of this year I had the pleasure of announcing in a BU Research Blog the publication of Dr. Rachel Arnold’s contribution to the book Appreciating Health and Care: A Practical Appreciative Inquiry Resource for the Health & Social Care Sector  [1].  There is also a supplementary eBook, called Appreciating Health and Care: AI in practice [2], which introduces more professional experiences of using AI (not Artificial Intelligence, but Appreciative Inquiry) in the health and care sector.  Rachel is the lead author of the contribution ‘Let’s get messy! Where to start with using Appreciative Inquiry’ and her co-authors are Dr. Jo Hartley, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Preeti Mahato.  ‘Let’s get messy! Where to start with using Appreciative Inquiry’ is a case study which reflects on our experiences of using Appreciative Inquiry to explore staff well-being in an NHS maternity service during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explain how we adapted and overcame some of the challenges, strategies that worked, and practical ideas for anyone interested in using Appreciative Inquiry in health or social care.

 

References:

  1. Hodgkiss, D., Quinney, S., Slack, T., Barnett, K., Howells, B. (2024a)  Appreciating Health and Care: A practical Appreciative Inquiry resource for the Health and Social Care sector, Forres: Appreciating People; ISBN: 978-1-9160267-6-6
  2. Hodgkiss, D., Quinney, S., Slack, T., Barnett, K., Howells, B. (2024b) Appreciating Health and Care: AI in practice, Forres: Appreciating People.

 

 

Read and sign up to BU’s Policy Influence Digest

If you’re looking to have an impact on local, national and international policy with your research, you may find the BU policy influence digest email useful.

Read the latest edition on our Sharepoint site to get a sense of what is included.

The policy influence digest highlights policy influencing opportunities and tips. The digests are usually circulated weekly and contain information on expert calls, specialist or committee advisor opportunities, areas of research interest issued by the Government departments, fellowship opportunities, the notable sector reports and Government announcements from the week, events and training as well as a range of other opportunities to share your expertise (including responding to consultations or select committee inquiries).

If you’d like to receive the digest by email, sign up in two clicks or scan the QR code below (BU login required).