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How to hunt a giant sloth – according to ancient human footprints

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: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University

By Matthew Robert Bennett, Bournemouth University; Katie Thompson, Bournemouth University, and Sally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University.

Rearing on its hind legs, the giant ground sloth would have been a formidable prey for anyone, let alone humans without modern weapons. Tightly muscled, angry and swinging its fore legs tipped with wolverine-like claws, it would have been able to defend itself effectively. Our ancestors used misdirection to gain the upper hand in close-quarter combat with this deadly creature.

What is perhaps even more remarkable is that we can read this story from the 10,000-year-old footprints that these combatants left behind, as revealed by our new research published in Science Advances. Numerous large animals such as the giant ground sloth – so-called megafauna – became extinct at the end of the Ice Age. We don’t know if hunting was the cause but the new footprint evidence tells us how human hunters tackled such fearsome animals and clearly shows that they did.

White Sands National Monument. Matthew Bennett, Bournemouth University, Author provided

These footprints were found at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, US, on part of the monument that used by the military. The White Sands Missile Range, located close to the Trinity nuclear site, is famous as the birth place of the US space programme, of Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars initiative and of countless missile tests. It is now a place where long-range rather than close-quarter combat is fine-tuned.

Tracking the footprints. Matthew Bennett, Bournemouth University, Author provided

It is a beautiful place, home to a huge salt playa (dry lake) known as Alkali Flat and the world’s largest gypsum dune field, made famous by numerous films including Transformers and the Book of Eli. At the height of the Ice Age it was home to a large lake (palaeo Lake Otero).

As the climate warmed, the lake shrank and its bed was eroded by the wind to create the dunes and leave salt flats that periodically pooled water. The Ice Age megafauna left tracks on these flats, as did the humans that hunted them. The tracks are remarkable in that they are only a few centimetres beneath the surface and yet have been preserved for over 10,000 years.

Footprint comparison. David Bustos, National Park Service

Here there are tracks of extinct giant ground sloth, of mastodon, mammoth, camel and dire wolf. These tracks are colloquially known as “ghost tracks” as they are only visible at the surface during specific weather conditions, when the salt crusts are not too thick and the ground not too wet. Careful excavation is possible in the right conditions and reveals some amazing features.

Perhaps the coolest of these is a series of human tracks that we found within the sloth prints. In our paper, produced with a large number of colleagues, we suggest that the humans stepped into the sloth prints as they stalked them for the kill. We have also identified large “flailing circles” that record the sloth rising up on its hind legs and swinging its fore legs, presumably in a defensive, sweeping motion to keep the hunters at bay. As it overbalanced, it put its knuckles and claws down to steady itself.

Plaster cast footprints. David Bustos, National Park Service

These circles are always accompanied by human tracks. Over a wide area, we see that where there are no human tracks, the sloth walk in straight lines. Where human track are present, the sloth trackways show sudden changes in direction suggesting the sloth was trying to evade its hunters.

Piecing together the puzzle, we can see how sloth were kept on the flat playa by a horde of people who left tracks along the its edge. The animals was then distracted by one stalking hunter, while another crept forward and tried to strike the killing blow. It is a story of life and death, written in mud.

Matthew Bennett, dusting for prints. David Bustos, National Park Service

What would convince our ancestors to engage is such a deadly game? Surely the bigger the prey, the greater the risk? Maybe it was because a big kill could fill many stomachs without waste, or maybe it was pure human bravado.

At this time at the end of the last Ice Age, the Americas were being colonised by humans spreading out over the prairie plains. It was also a time of animal extinctions. Many palaeontologists favour the argument that human over-hunting drove this wave of extinction and for some it has become an emblem of early human impact on the environment. Others argue that climate change was the true cause and our species is innocent.

It is a giant crime scene in which footprints now play a part. Our data confirms that human hunters were attacking megafauna and were practiced at it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cast light on the impact of that hunting. Whether humans were the ultimate or immediate cause of the extinction is still not clear. There are many variables including rapid environmental change to be considered. But what is clear from tracks at White Sands is that humans were then, as now, “apex predators” at the top of the food chain.

Professor Matthew Robert Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth University; Katie Thompson, Research Associate, Bournemouth University, and Dr Sally Christine Reynolds, Senior Lecturer in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Sunken Nazi U-boat discovered: why archaeologists like me should leave it on the seabed

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Sea War Museum

By Innes McCartney, Bournemouth University.

The collapsing Nazi government ordered all U-boats in German ports to make their way to their bases in Norway on May 2, 1945. Two days later, the recently commissioned U-3523 joined the mission as one of the most advanced boats in the fleet. But to reach their destination, the submarines had to pass through the bottleneck of the Skagerrak – the strait between Norway and Denmark – and the UK’s Royal Air Force was waiting for them. Several U-boats were sunk and U-3523 was destroyed in an air attack by a Liberator bomber.

U-3523 lay undiscovered on the seabed for over 70 years until it was recently located by surveyors from the Sea War Museum in Denmark. Studying the vessel will be of immense interest to professional and amateur historians alike, not least as a way of finally putting to rest the conspiracy theory that the boat was ferrying prominent Nazis to Argentina. But sadly, recovering U-3523 is not a realistic proposition. The main challenges with such wrecks lie in accurately identifying them, assessing their status as naval graves and protecting them for the future.

U-boat wrecks like these from the end of World War II are the hardest to match to historical records. The otherwise meticulous record keeping of the Kriegsmarine (Nazi navy) became progressively sparser, breaking down completely in the last few weeks of the war. But Allied records have helped determine that this newly discovered wreck is indeed U-3523. The sea where this U-boat was located was heavily targeted by the RAF because it knew newly-built boats would flee to Norway this way.

Identification

The detailed sonar scans of the wreck site show that it is without doubt a Type XXI U-boat, of which U-3523 was the only one lost in the Skagerrak and unaccounted for. These were new types of submarines that contained a number of innovations which had the potential to make them dangerous opponents. This was primarily due to enlarged batteries, coupled to a snorkel, which meant they could stay permanently underwater. Part of the RAF’s mission was to prevent any of these new vessels getting to sea to sink Allied ships, and it successfully prevented any Type XXI U-boats from doing so.

The Type XXI U-3008. Wikipedia

With the U-boat’s identity correctly established, we now know that it is the grave site of its crew of 58 German servicemen. As such, the wreck should either be left in peace or, more implausibly, recovered and the men buried on land. Germany lost over 800 submarines at sea during the two world wars and many have been found in recent years. It is hopelessly impractical to recover them all, so leaving them where they are is the only real option.

Under international law all naval wrecks are termed “sovereign immune”, which means they will always be the property of the German state despite lying in Danish waters. But Denmark has a duty to protect the wreck, especially if Germany asks it to do so.

Protection

Hundreds of wartime wreck sites such as U-3523 are under threat around the world from metal thieves and grave robbers. The British cruiser HMS Exeter, which was sunk in the Java Sea on May 1, 1942, has been entirely removed from the seabed for scrap. And wrecks from the 1916 Battle of Jutland that also lie partly in Danish waters have seen industrial levels of metal theft. These examples serve as a warning that organised criminals will target shipwrecks of any age for the metals they contain.

Detailed sonar scans have been taken. Sea War Museum

Germany and the UK are among a number of countries currently pioneering the use of satellite monitoring to detect suspicious activity on shipwrecks thought to be under threat. This kind of monitoring could be a cost-effective way to save underwater cultural heritage from criminal activity and its use is likely to become widespread in the next few years.

Recovery

The recovery cost is only a small fraction of the funds needed to preserve and display an iron object that has been immersed in the sea for many years. So bringing a wreck back to the surface should not be undertaken lightly. In nearly all cases of salvaged U-boats, the results have been financially ruinous. Lifting barges that can raise shipwrecks using large cranes cost tens of thousands of pounds a day to charter. Once recovered, the costs of conservation and presentation mount astronomically as the boat will rapidly start to rust.

The U-boat U-534 was also sunk by the RAF in 1945, close to where U-3523 now lies. Its crew all evacuated that boat, meaning that she was not a grave when recovered from the sea in 1993 by Danish businessman Karsten Ree, allegedly in the somewhat incredible belief that it carried Nazi treasure. At a reported cost of £3m, the operation is thought to have been unprofitable. The boat contained nothing special, just the usual mundane objects carried on a U-boat at war.

U-534 after the rescue. Les Pickstock/Flickr, CC BY

Similar problems were experienced by the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in the UK when it raised the Holland 1 submarine in 1982. In that case, the costs of long-term preservation proved much greater than anticipated after the initial rust-prevention treatment failed to stop the boat corroding. It had to be placed in a sealed tank full of alkali sodium carbonate solution for four years until the corrosive chloride ions had been removed, and was then transferred to a purpose-built exhibition building to protect it further.

The expensive process of raising more sunken submarines will add little to our knowledge of life at sea during World War II. But each time a U-boat is found, it places one more jigsaw piece in its correct place, giving us a clearer picture of the history of the U-boat wars. This is the true purpose of archaeology.

Innes McCartney, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Forensic Science, Bournemouth University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Registration open for 7th International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education (7OSME)

I’m the organising committee for the 7th International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education (7OSME). Yes, isn’t amazing that this is even a ‘thing’.

This two day event is on 5-7 September 2018 in Oxford. This is a rigorous academic meeting and welcomes educators and researchers across disciplines such as design, maths, engineering….YOU in fact! Further info and a link for registration is here. 

Please get in touch for origami related conversations: cscott@bournemouth.ac.uk

BRIAN Downtime – Monday & Tuesday

BRIAN

BRIAN will be unavailable to users on Monday 30th April and Tuesday 1st May for a scheduled upgrade.

All relevant guidance notes and video guides on the Staff Intranet will be updated in due course. If you need any help using the new system or if you encounter any problems after the upgrade, please do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.

BRIAN training sessions are also available every two months and are bookable through Organisational Development . The next session scheduled is:

  • Wednesday 20th June 2018

In the meantime, if you do have queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk

Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training – 15th May 2018

Research Ethics, Training

Are you thinking of undertaking clinical research, and wish to branch out into the NHS? If you are, then you will need Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training.

GCP training is the international ethical, scientific and practical standard to which all clinical research is conducted. Compliance with GCP provides public assurance that the rights, safety and well-being of research participants are protected and that research data are reliable.

GCP courses are free to book onto, and can either be done online or face-to-face. Luckily, the next face-to-face session is scheduled to take place at the Lansdowne Campus, on Tuesday 15th May, 08:45am – 16:30pm, room to be confirmed.

If you would like any more information about the training and its content, or wish to book on, please contact researchethics@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU’s ECR Network – Come to the pre-launch event, this week, on 25th April

TODAY! Come along if you are available:

BU will be launching a new network for Early Career Researchers later in 2018teamwork

If you are an ECR* or interested in the development of ECRs at BU, please sign up to attend this pre-launch meeting to discuss your ideas and expectation of this new network. Priority will be given to ECRs in the first instance, but whatever your role at BU, please join us as your input will be most welcome.

This session will take place on Talbot Campus in Fusion – FG04 on Wednesday, 25th April, from 13:00 – 15:00, with refreshments, but not lunch, provided. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

*an ECR, in this case, is defined as someone who started their research career on or after 1 August 2013. This is the point at which they held a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater, which included a primary employment function of undertaking ‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’, with any HE or other organisation, whether in the UK or overseas.

ICB Research Cluster Sandpit (Trust Repair, Food Waste, B2B Marketing)

REF Subjects

The Influences on Consumer Behaviour research cluster will be holding a small series of research sandpits over the coming months on key topics of research that have emerged from their work over the past 5 years.  The first of these on Wednesday 16th May 2018 3-4.30pm will focus on the areas of Trust Repair, Food Waste, and B2B Marketing. The aim of the event is to introduce the clusters work in these areas, discuss them further and share knowledge/expertise within the audience, before looking for opportunities for within- and cross-faculty collaborations in similar or complementary areas that could result in collaborative projects, papers, bids, etc.  All are welcome to come along and join in discussions, although tickets are limited.  Tea and coffee will be provided.  The event is free, but please sign up via Eventbrite by Sunday 13th May 2018 so we can manage refreshment numbers.

https://icbcluster.eventbrite.co.uk

ADRC and HEE showcase ‘DEALTS 2’ at ‘Dementia 2020: The Next Phase’ in London

On Tuesday 17th April 2018, the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) were invited to join Health Education England (HEE) to showcase the Dementia Education and Learning Through Simulation 2 (DEALTS 2) programme at ‘Dementia 2020: The Next Phase’ in London. The event, hosted by Govconnect, provided an opportunity to consider progress on the ‘Challenge Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan’ assessing whether commitments have been meet so far. Commitments of the plan aspire to make England the best country in the world for: dementia care and support; for people with dementia to live; and to conduct dementia research.

In 2016, HEE commissioned a team from Bournemouth University (BU) to develop and evaluate DEALTS 2. DEALTS 2 is a simulation-based dementia education programme for staff in acute hospitals across England. It is based on an experiential learning approach, placing hospital staff into the shoes of a person with dementia, to facilitate a positive impact on practice. The training is mapped against a selection of core competencies for staff with regular contact with people with dementia (Tier 2) and underpinned by the Humanising Values Framework a philosophical lens originally developed at BU. The team, Dr Michelle Heward, Dr Michele Board, Ashley Spriggs and Prof Jane Murphy, delivered DEALTS 2 as a train-the-trainer model across England in 2017 to 196 trainers from 13 HEE Local Education Boards, and are continuing to evaluate the impact on practice.

The DEALTS 2 programme was showcased as a case study at the Dementia 2020 event in a presentation given by Jan Zietara the Head of Programme Delivery for HEE. Dr Michelle Heward represented the ADRC at the event which provided an opportunity to connect with members of key organisations involved in delivering the Implementation Plan for Dementia 2020, as well as people with dementia, caregivers and individuals interested in dementia care and support more broadly.

The event was co-chaired by George Rook an advocate who himself lives with dementia, and Rachel Thompson the Professional and Practice Lead for Dementia UK. Throughout the event a range of speakers updated the audience on progress including: Jeremy Hughes CBE, Chief Executive, Alzheimer`s Society; David Nuttall, Deputy Director – Dementia Policy, Department of Health; and Dr Charles Alessi Senior Advisor and Lead for Dementia, Public Health England. It has to be said though that Suzy Webster who is a caregiver for her mother who has dementia gave the most heartfelt speech reminding us that policy is necessary but it is now time to see action on the ground to improve care and support for people with dementia – not a dry eye was left in the house!

Discussion on the day focused on celebrating the small steps forward that have been taken, whilst being mindful that there remains some way to go to meet the commitments outlined in the plan by 2020.

ADRC Research Seminar Series 25/04/18

You are cordially invited to this seminar which is open to all BU staff and students.

Wednesday 25th April 2018

2 – 3.30 pm

F307, Fusion Building, Talbot Campus

 

‘Representing Dementia in Film and Fiction’ Dr David Orr, University of Sussex and Dr Yugin Teo, Bournemouth University

From something that was ‘not really talked about’ publicly, the last two decades have seen dementia explode into the public sphere and contemporary culture’s creative imaginary. Cinema, documentary, theatre, art, memoirs, biography, poetry, literary fiction and genre fiction have all taken up dementia as a prominent theme. The gerontological humanities have been exploring what these works reveal of the experiences, preoccupations, dilemmas and misapprehensions to which dementia gives rise. This presentation discusses selected examples of engagement with dementia within (1) cinema and (2) crime fiction, asking how these narratives might reflect and shape audience perceptions of living with the condition.

Biographies

Dr David Orr is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Sussex, where his principal research interests focus on adult safeguarding and self-neglect, global mental health, and representations of dementia in contemporary films and fiction. He has worked on a number of knowledge reviews for the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and is co-editor of the Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health. Before entering academia, he worked in Community Mental Health Teams in the areas of Adult Learning Disability and Older Adult Mental Health.

Dr Yugin Teo is Lecturer in English and Communication at Bournemouth University. He has previously taught literature and film at the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex where he completed his doctorate. His research on the representation of memory in literature and film has been published in the journals Critique, Medical Humanities and Science Fiction Film and Television. His research monograph Kazuo Ishiguro and Memory was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.

 

‘Ethnography of the Environment of Hospital Wards for Patients with Dementia, and the Role in which Music Can Play Within this’ Rosanna Mead, University of Exeter

Rosanna Mead discusses her PhD research exploring how music can play a role within acute hospital ward environments for patients with dementia, with a specific focus on agitation and methods to measure levels of agitation in patients with dementia, in relation to environmental factors. She draws on findings from her ethnographic study conducted within two acute hospital wards for patients with dementia, exploring the link between environments and health, considering health/illness states as something which can fluctuate in relation to the environment, and within this gaining a grounded understanding of the interaction between agitation and the environment.

Biography

Rosanna Mead is a PhD Candidate at the University of Exeter in the Sociology Department, under the supervision of Professor Tia DeNora and Dr Hannah Farrimond. She is also the Director of Dorset based social enterprise Musica Music and Wellbeing.

 

 

BRIAN Upgrade – Next Week!

BRIAN

BRIAN will be upgrading to a new version next week, so will be inaccessible to users on Monday 30th April and Tuesday 1st May.
The main improvement for this upgrade is the introduction of a new Assessment module to enable more efficient REF preparation. However, we hope to also introduce more user friendly reporting over the next few months. 

All relevant guidance notes and video guides on the Staff Intranet will be updated in due course. If you need any help using the new system or if you encounter any problems after the upgrade, please do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.

BRIAN training sessions are also available every two months and are bookable through Organisational Development . The next session scheduled is:

  • Wednesday 20th June 2018

In the meantime, if you do have queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk

SciTech PGR Aishah Selamat awarded with UK Data Service Data Impact Fellowship Award

PG research

In September 2017, the UK Data Service (UKDS) announced the appointment of its second Data Impact Fellows for 2017-2018. Aishah Selamat from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Creative Department, was amongst the selected researchers from the United Kingdom universities.

An open competition for Ph.D. and post-doctoral researchers, the UKDS Data Impact Fellows programme is outlined to support the usage of UKDS data (and its resources) from the new generation of scholars. Each year, UKDS received high qualities of applications, making the selection a tougher job for the judges.

Aishah Selamat is BU first PGR to be awarded the competitive UK Data Service Impact Fellowship Award. The value of £2000 grant would provide Aishah Selamat the opportunities to carry out impactful public engagements, cover the course of her article publication or participate in an international conference. Over the course of two years, Aishah Selamat role as UKDS Data Impact Fellow includes blogs contribution to UKDS blog, develop an impactful case study contribution and becomes a data citation practitioner.

Read Aishah’s first blog post contribution on UKDS here.

PGR supervisory team consist of Dr. Simant Prakoonwit, Dr. Reza Sahandi & Dr. Wajid Khan

 

CEMP research for Samsung published in Learning, Media and Technology.

CEMP’s research into Digital Capabilities, funded by Samsung, has now been published in the journal Learning, Media and Technology.

 Julian McDougall, Mark Readman & Philip Wilkinson (2018): The uses of (digital) literacy, Learning, Media and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2018.1462206

ABSTRACT
This article shares research facilitated by a multinational technology provider, converging mobile networked technology (tablets) used across school and home, a technology enhanced community ‘third space’ providing workshops for students aged 6–9 with their parents/carers. The approach taken avoids the instrumental measurement of functional digital literacy competences, but instead seeks to negotiate a more nuanced and complex understanding of the ‘uses of literacy’ [from Hoggart, R. 1957. The Uses of Literacy. London: Pelican] in digital contexts and in a deeply situated, specific local setting. Working with our findings, we later put Amartya Sen’s concept of capability [Sen, A. K. 2005. “Human Rights and Capabilities.” Journal of Human Development 6 (2): 151–166; Sen, A. K. 2008. “Capability and Well-Being.” In The Philosophy of Economics, edited by D. M. Hausman, 3rd ed., 270–293. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to work on our data in order to provide a discussion on how the digital literacy community might distinguish digital competences as functionings from the ‘uses’ of such competences for a broader range of capabilities.
KEYWORDS: Technology, digital literacy, third space, community

Lunchtime Seminar Wednesday, 25th April: Impact case studies? – Lessons from REF 2014

Training

You are cordially invited to this lunchtime seminar which is open to all students and staff.

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

Wednesday 25th April 2018

1.00 pm – 1.50 pm

Studland House, S217

So you are interested in developing an impact case study? Lessons from REF2014

by Prof Vanora Hundley, Prof Alison McConnell and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen

Impact case studies have become an important part of research assessment; in REF2021 impact case studies will account for 25% of the overall score for an institution. This session will provide an overview of case studies; focusing on how to build a strong case study and, perhaps more importantly, how to avoid some of the pitfalls of REF2014. The session will draw on an example from Brunel’s submission and one from BU. The presenters aim to promote discussion on the nature of impact (REF or otherwise) and potential among FHSS academics to promote the impact of their research.

CIPPM Co-Director Professor Dinusha Mendis and Team Secures European Commission Funding for Research into 3D Printing and IP Law

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion themes, REF Subjects

A project exploring the ‘Study into the Intellectual Property Implications of the Development of Industrial 3D Printing’ was awarded by the European Commission to the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) in April 2018.

The project led by Co-Director of CIPPM, Professor Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator), also includes Dr. Julie Robson, Associate Professor, Marketing (Co-Investigator), Dr. Marc Mimler, Lecturer in Law (Member of Advisory Board), Dr. Sally Weston, Senior Principal Academic in Law (Member of Advisory Board) and Mr. Dukki Hong, PhD Candidate, CIPPM (Research Assistant).

Apart from members of CIPPM, this one-year project also includes partners from UK (University of Glasgow; Added Scientific Ltd), Austria (Technopolis Group), Finland (University of Lapland) and Germany (Boehmert & Boehmert).

The project aims to provide an overview of the past and current industrial applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in selected sectors whilst identifying potential challenges and opportunities in need of clarification. In essence, the Study will aim to formulate a clear picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) framework that could enhance the competitiveness of the AM sector in Europe.

Apply for LIFE funding

Funding opportunities, Info Days, international

The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value.

In April 2018, The LIFE programme has launched its 2018 call for project proposals. This year, they are investing close to €400 million in nature conservation, environmental protection and climate action. They are also introducing a streamlined application process to make it easier to request LIFE funds.

As a bottom-up funding instrument, LIFE provides applicants with flexibility to truly innovate. The LIFE Programme supports projects that are either tackling climate change, or protecting nature and the environment.

See more funding information – “Traditional Projects” under the LIFE sub-programme for Environment and the LIFE sub-programme for Climate Action – various calls with concept note closing dates of 12th / 14th June and 12th September, depending on the call guidance.

LIFE are also hosting an Information Day in Brussels on 4/5/18, with registrations open until 2/45/18.

For the UK perspective, please go to the UK LIFE website.

BU staff wishing to apply should contact the relevant member of RKEO for their faculty.

British Academy Small Grant Call – NOW OPEN

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants is open. The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018.

The British Academy have provided updated guidance on the small grants – BA scheme notes for applicants and BA FAQs . They have asked that all applicants read the documentation carefully before starting their application.

Due to the expected high demand, we ask that if you are interested in applying to this call then please send your intention to bid form to your Funding Development Officer by 2nd  May, after this date no new applications will be accepted.

Timeline

The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018.

11th April 2018 Call Opens – start reading guidance
2nd May 2018 Intention to bid forms to be submitted to your faculty funding development officer.
31st May 2018 Nominated referee supporting statement to be completed via FlexiGrant
30th May 2018 Your final application must be submitted on FlexiGrant  by this date at the latest.
31st May -6th June 2018 Institutional checks to take place by RKEO