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Fertility Control – An Interdisciplinary Approach

Professor Sam Rowlands (FHSS)* and Jeffrey Wale (FMC)** have published a paper ‘Sterilisations at delivery or after childbirth: Addressing continuing abuses in the consent process’ in the international journal, Global Public Health.

This is the first output from an interdisciplinary and cross faculty research project addressing fertility control on the global stage. Specifically, the research examines the regulatory, ethical and medical issues associated with reversible and irreversible forms of fertility control. Future publications will address the use of State incentivised sterilisation in India and the promotion of long-acting reversible contraception.

* Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research & Education, Bournemouth University  ** Centre for Conflict, Rule of Law & Society, Bournemouth University

Training opportunity – completing and submitting your IRAS application

NHS, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Training

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, RDS)  will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House – Lansdowne Campus, room 102 Thursday 28th March at 09:30am – 12:30pm.

Get in touch with Research Ethics if you would like to register your interest and book a place.

4th Annual Conference, Society of Indian Physiotherapists, Delhi, India 15th – 17th February, 2019

4th Annual Conference, Society of Indian Physiotherapists, Delhi, India 15th – 17th February, 2019

The Society of Indian Physiotherapists (SIP) is a professional organisation representing qualified Physiotherapists across India that provides a platform that enabling members to share knowledge, exchange information and ideas to improve clinical practice, education and research. The vision for this conference was to connect, collaborate and innovate. The event was supported by Prime Minister of India, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, the Governor of Delhi and the Chancellor of GD Goenka University. Dr Carol Clark was an invited speaker, providing a lecture on the Self-management of chronic pain, contributing to a panel discussion on the use of technology in education and collaborating on the Scientific Networking session. There were over 350 delegates from 11 countries in attendance.

Forthcoming RKEDF events

We have some great events coming up over the next few weeks to help support you in your research activity within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF).

We have also grouped the RKEDF events around your needs, so if, for example, you are an Early Career Researcher or need to know about external funding, you can click on the link to find all the RKEDF sessions that may assist you. You can also find related events by using the link on each session’s page.

March

Friday 1st March RKEDF: Introduction to the Logframe Approach
Monday 4th March RKEDF: Technical Bid Writing Workshop
Wednesday 6th March RKEDF: Achieving Policy Impact in the UK Parliament
Friday 8th March RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day
Monday 11th March RKEDF: Writing Academy – Day 1 of 3
Wednesday 13th March RKEDF: Introduction to NVivo: Setting up your qualitative data
Thursday 14th March RKEDF: Advanced NVivo: Analysing your data
Wednesday 20th March RKEDF: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Guidance Session
Wednesday 27th March RKEDF: EndNote Desktop for Managing References and Writing for Publication
Wednesday 27th March RKEDF: Research Data Management

April

 Tuesday 2nd April RKEDF: Advanced Literature Search Techniques
Wednesday 3rd April RKEDF: Measuring the Impact of Your Research with Advanced Citation Tools
Wednesday 3rd April Understanding how Students with ADHD Learn
Monday 8th April RKEDF: Writing Day – Systematic and Scoping Reviews
Thursday 25th April RKEDF: Research Impact and the Research Excellence Framework (REF): An Introduction

 

The above list does not include events where attendance requires faculty nominations / applications or are part of the Early Career Researcher Network schedule for 18/19. The BU Research Council Development Scheme and the Career Pathway will both be commencing shortly – Heads of Department are advising us of nominations for both these schemes.

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, 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!

As if 15 years of oil price volatility was not enough… energy markets now need to deal with Brexit

The next in our series of Fusion inaugural lectures will take place on Tuesday 26 March in the Executive Business Centre on Lansdowne campus.  Professor George Filis from the Faculty of Management will be speaking.

During the course of this inaugural lecture, Professor George Filis will present recent developments relating to energy markets (with particular focus on the oil market). This will include some of the potential drivers behind the increase in oil price volatility over the last 15 years. Professor Filis will also look at the political economy of the oil market, with particular emphasis on the current status of the “petrodollar system”, the developments in Venezuela and whether Brexit could signal the onset of another turbulent period for the oil market.

Professor George Filis is a specialist in energy and financial economics. Currently, he is working towards the development of new modelling frameworks for forecasting energy prices. In particular, he looks at the predictive information of different asset classes on oil prices and oil price volatility. Professor Filis has also served as a consultant for the US Energy Information Administration and the Bank of Greece.

You can book your free tickets here.

Informed consent training – sessions available

PG research, Research Ethics, Training

When conducting research with human participants, it is essential that participants are fully informed as to the details of the study and what is expected of them by participating.

Participants’ informed consent is imperative, and should be in place prior to any data collection activities.

Sarah Bell (Research Governance Advisor) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor) will be running sessions on informed consent procedure, scheduled for Tuesday 26th March. These sessions are open to staff and postgraduate researchers conducting research/hoping to conduct research with human participants.

We will be running two sessions on this day –

Talbot Campus (P425, Poole House) – 09:30am – 11:00am
Lansdowne Campus (B242, Bournemouth House) – 2:00pm – 3:30pm

If you are interested in attending one of the above sessions, please email Research Ethics.

INTERREG 2 SEAS NEWS AND EVENTS

The 2 Seas Programme has launched Call 8 for project applications across all specific objectives, with stage 1 Concept Notes due by the 8th April.  There is a UK step 1 seminar for organisations interested in the programme being held on the 6th March 2019 at the University of Greenwich, register here to attend, if you are new to the 2 Seas Programme you will need to set up an account first.  (there is a slight error on the website, with the seminar date of 06/06, please be assured on the registration page the 6th March date is correct.)

The seminar is a great chance connect with potential partners in the UK and learn about how the programme works and the application process.  There is also a very useful feature on the 2 Seas website for connecting with partners in the other member states and finding out about project ideas,  Cooperation Corner https://www.interreg2seas.eu/en/cooperation-corner , you will need to set up an account in order to post to the site.

The https://www.interreg2seas.eu/en website holds a wealth information, the various factsheets in the Programme Manual set out the various elements that each project needs to address. Some parts of the programme can be highly technical so please get in contact if you have any questions.

There is a conference on sustainable energy in June in Brussels, details can be found at: https://eusew.eu/about-conference

Enter the Innovate UK Funding Zone – by improving your Technical Bid Writing

PG research, Training

 

You are invited to a half day technical writing workshop where the art of writing successful grants will be unpacked by a successful bid writer who has won them, spoken with the assessors to learn how to win even more of them, and is almost in daily contact with the funder Innovate UK.

After the workshop attendees will have the opportunity to have a one-to-one session with the bid writer to discuss project ideas and to explore suitable grants.

The workshop is being held on Monday 4th March on the Talbot Campus from 09:30 – 16:30. Booking is essential.

HRA help guides – data and technology

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

An updated Code of Conduct for the application of data-driven technologies in the NHS was published on Tuesday of this week – the code ‘sets out what the NHS expects from companies who are developing new technologies for the health system, and what they can expect in return.

In order to assist applicants and researchers, the HRA have created new pages that set out the approvals process for data-driven technology research.

The section incorporates two pages of support –

The help pages will be added to the Clinical Governance section of the blog, for ease of access.

Research transparency – HRA response to the Science and Technology Committee

Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Research Ethics

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee released a report last year on clinical trials transparency, as it was evident that a nearly half of clinical trials fail to publish their results. In their report, the committee made a number of recommendations to the Health Research Authority in order to rectify the situation.

At the time the HRA issued a response but today have published a further statement which sets out their commitment to research transparency. This is especially pertinent given the article published simultaneously in BMJ Open, which details the numbers of clinical trials that are publicly registered, compared with those that have received favourable opinion (approval) from a UK NHS research ethics committee.

BU has access to the ClinicalTrials.gov system so get in touch if you would like access. This is a great opportunity to register your study and study results in the public domain. It is free to register your study.
Despite the name, the system may be used for other clinical research projects.

NIHR – Making a difference: Improving treatment for advanced prostate cancer

NHS

The NIHR have recently published an article on the STAMPEDE trial which is helping to improve the prognosis and quality of life of those diagnosed with prostate cancer.

This is a research study that’s supported by the NIHR, and has been up and running since 2005, with more than 10,000 men having taken part. 125 UK sites are conducting the research, with local NHS Trusts amongst those 125.

The trial is multi-arm, so compares different treatments amongst the participant group – it is also ‘randomised’, so participants are allocated their treatment at random, reducing any bias in allocation.

The results to date from the trial have also influenced the NHS treatment for men with high risk, locally advanced metastatic prostate cancer. More STAMPEDE related news can be found on their website.

You can read the article here, which contains a testimony from a trial participant whose condition and quality of life have been vastly improved.

Get an insider’s view on how to influence policymakers in Parliament

Knowledge Exchange, Training

If you would like your research to have a real impact on policy decisions at a national level, you may want to book onto Achieving Policy Impact in the UK Parliament – a special workshop run by Sarah Foxen of the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST), the UK parliament’s knowledge exchange unit.

This event takes place on Wednesday March 6 on the Talbot campus and there are only a few remaining places left. You’re advised to book promptly, using this link here, as the room capacity is only 30. We are delighted Sarah is able to come to Bournemouth for this one-off training event – her role as POST’s Knowledge Exchange Manager means she is perfectly placed to offer an insider’s view on how to get your research taken up by policymakers in Parliament. The workshop aims to:

  • demystify the process by which academic research can influence public policy
  • explain how policy impacts can be evidenced
  • examine what it is that policymakers are looking for in terms of academic research.

There will also be an opportunity in the afternoon session for participants to prepare and deliver a pitch to Parliament and gain invaluable advice on what policymakers are looking for and what is the most effective way of achieving policy impact for your research.

You can read a recent article Sarah wrote for the Wonkhe blog here:  (How to have REF-able policy impact). In it, she outlines a joint initiative between Parliament and Research England which aims to ensure a shared understanding of what parliamentary impact is, and how it can be evidenced in REF 2021.

For any further information on the workshop and details of the programme, please contact Amanda Edwards, Impact Officer, RDS on x61308 or by email: aedwards@bournemouth.ac.uk.