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Research Professional – all you need to know

Funding opportunities

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:

23rd January 2018

27th February 2018

27th March 2018

24th April 2018

22nd May 2018

26th June 2018

24th July 2018

28th August 2018

25th September 2018

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Have you noticed a new box appear on the BU Research Blog homepage?

By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.

Research Professional – First Round-Table Discussion on: “Successful Strategies for Deploying Research Professional”

Funding opportunities, Guidance

BU subscribes to Research Professional (RPro), which is a funding opportunities search engine and higher education sector news compiler.

RPro ran its first Round-Table Discussion in London for its client universities on 12 September 2017 on the topic of “Successful Strategies for Deploying Research Professional”.

The aims of this Discussion meeting were to:

  • Share experiences of use of RPro by each university’s academic cohort;
  • Pick and discuss different ideas of implementation;
  • Network with staff of other research support offices;
  • Gauge various institutional approaches for academic engagement with RPro.

To spark discussion around the table, an officer from the Grants & Funding Unit in the University of Central Lancashire was invited to present the strategies they have implemented to roll-out the use of RPro and the monitoring/evaluation they have conducted on RPro usage. Tom Walters from RPro facilitated the discussion.

The presentation slides can be found here.

RKEO at BU has been and is continuing to deploy most of these strategies, with varying levels of success in academic engagement over time.

The first tension is to increase academic access and use of RPro – many methods have been used to deliver this such as RPro training for new academics, webinars, references in academic inductions, monthly Blog posts and so on.

The second tension is to increase effectiveness of use by the academic at each point of access – ie. that he/she will find a relevant hit and submit an application to that call.

Effectiveness of use is difficult to measure and is reflective of the use of RPro for different reasons by its users – in general:

  1. Senior level academics may use the ‘precision’ strategy to do focused, targeted searches which hone in on the specific; whilst
  2. Early career academics may use the ‘recall’ strategy which is to acquire as many hits with funding opportunities as possible to see what is out there.

Tom Walters’ concluding question to the Round-Table for reflection was “What does success look like?” in relation to research activity in our universities. The general agreement on what success looked like was:

  • Measuring increase in submissions rather than awards;
  • Spreading out applications over a wide range of funders, rather than targeting a few;
  • Empowering academics to do their own funding opportunities searches; and
  • Widening the number of academics engaging with / using RPro.

Discussion continued to what universities typically requested their RPro consultant to do during their (usually) annual ‘consultation’ visit to their client university and some ideas were shared. BU will be arranging a RPro consultation day in 2018, keep an eye on this space!

RKEO is always working to ensure that the RPro service is suitable for the purposes of each academic at BU. Regardless of whether you are a RPro newbie or in need of refresher training or may need more help on advanced functionality, please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team and we’d be happy to help you.

Research from Bournemouth University animation lecturers forms part of Paisley’s 2021 City of Culture bid

A new digital artwork created by two animation lecturers from Bournemouth University, Paul Smith and Vicky Isley, has been featured as part of Paisley’s 2021 City of Culture bid. The project linked together Paisley’s history, cultural and natural environment through the creation of a digital Paisley Pearl for each resident of the town. The project was commissioned by the University of the West of Scotland, as one of a number of cultural activities taking place in Paisley during its application for the City of Culture 2021.

The duo, known as boredomresearch, developed an art project which created a new Paisley form for each resident of the town via a digital loom. The loom and creative software have the potential to create a Paisley Pearl for each of the 7.4 billion people on earth at the time of the artwork’s launch. The unique forms were based on both the Paisley pattern and the freshwater pearl mussel, once indigenous to the area.

Paisley Pearls Print

“We wanted to produce an art project which reflected Paisley’s industrial past, natural biodiversity and show how creativity can make a difference to its future,” explains Paul, “Paisley is famous for its connections with the textile industry, but its natural history is much less well known. The White Cart River was once a thriving habitat for the freshwater pearl mussel, which is now extinct in the area, partly because of the success of the local textile industry damaging its natural habitats.”

A key part of the project for Vicky and Paul was this link between science and art. By working with researchers from the University of Glasgow, they developed a better understanding of the ecological importance of the fresh water pearl mussel, which they reflected in their art.

“Over half of the world’s fresh water pearl mussels are found in Scotland’s waters, so it’s an important location for a now critically endangered species,” says Vicky, “We worked with researchers who are trying to better understand the species and local staff from Pearls in Peril a conservation project who are trying to protect the mussel’s river habitat. The mussel’s pearls inspired our Paisley Pearl exhibition and the community workshops we delivered as part of the project.”

As part of their digital art commission, Paul and Vicky led three workshops in the local area, with very different groups of people. The first saw undergraduate animation and game students from the University of the West of Scotland dissecting common mussels to learn more about the shapes and textures that could be used to form part of the new Paisley inspired forms.

Mussel workshop with students from the University of the West of Scotland

“The session took them very much outside of their comfort zone,” says Paul, “Dissection doesn’t often take place in animation classes! We felt it was an important session to do, as it highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of our research and gave our students a much better understanding of the kinds of shapes and textures they could work with.”

“Once they’d dissected the mussels, we asked them to take digital images of the different parts and textures that they’d discovered. These fed into the kinds of shapes and patterns that we later used to form our unique Paisley Pearls.”

Two further workshops saw the team teaching programming to local secondary school children at Johnstone High School and working with Roar: Connections for Life (a community group of retired residents) to explore the lifecycle of the freshwater pearl mussel, in relation to their own lives.

Workshop with members of ‘Roar: Connections for Life’

“The group of retired residents, learnt how environmental changes are recorded in the growth rings of the mussel shell,” says Vicky, “These can tell you something about the age of the mussel and their environment; whether it was nutrient rich or not. We ask participants to map their own life experiences, marking out significant events on their own growth ring drawings. This helped us to facilitate in-depth conversations about the ecological significance of the mussel.”

“It was important for us to work with the local community as part of our commission,” continues Vicky, “Through the process of creating our final artwork, we wanted to work with local people to link Paisley’s past with its future.”

The decision about which city will become the 2021 City of Culture is expected in December.

For more information about Vicky Isley and Paul Smith’s research, visit their website or watch a short video on their Paisley project.

Health and social care project available!

Are you or your students looking for health and social care projects? The following project is available in the Student Project Bank:

SPB038: Benefits of Assistance Dogs for Children with Autism and Down’s Syndrome

Research and document the benefits an assistance dog can provide to a child with Autism/Down’s Syndrome and provide theories as to why the benefits occur, financial benefits for the NHS, Education Authorities and Social Services. The objectives of the project are to increase understanding of why benefits occur, to document benefits achieved through the provision of an assistance dog, potential financial benefits for local communities and promoting greater understanding and inclusion of Autism and Down’s Syndrome.

Apply now:

Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for dissertations, assignments, unit, or group work. Send us an email to request a project brief and application form.

BU Academic’s success at Chartered Body for the Project Profession Awards Night

Karen Thompson,  Lecturer in the Faculty of Management, recently attended the annual Awards Ceremony of the Chartered Body for the Project Profession, the Association for Project Management.   TV icon and renowned editor John Pienaar was our host for the evening.  The venue was Old Billingsgate, a lovely old building that was formerly the London fish market.

Karen was delighted to receive the Herbert Walton Award for her research.  This award, “awarded at the discretion of the judges, recognises an excellent PhD dissertation submitted during the year at Doctorate level”, and the criteria reflect relevance to the practice of the profession.

Karen would like to pay tribute here to her two supervisors Profesor Brian Hollocks and Dr Paul Freedman for their tireless support and encouragement that led to this success.

In the photo with Karen is Russel Jamieson, co-chair of the APM People SIG and past Chairman of the Wessex Branch, who has been pivotal to collaboration between BU and the APM. Long may the fusion of project management professional practice, education and research continue!

Comrades and Curators by Professor Julian McDougall

I saw that the lanternist indulges in transformations, in magical transformations and I saw him transforming himself …. the transforming showman. (A Conversation with Bill Douglas, Bridport Film Society, 1987).

 

The research I am working on with The Bill Douglas Museum concerns Bill Douglas’ film Comrades, representing the story of the Tolpuddle Martys, with a magic lanternist character telling the story. My academic ‘angle’ is to trace ‘third spaces’ in and around Comrades, an idea so far not presented, to my knowledge, by either the director, film commentators, or academics.

The place of the Tolpuldde story in British social history has a particular resonance with me, for personal and political reasons. I spend a lot of time in the Dorset region and attend the Tolpuddle Festival every year, which homours the martyrs as the beginnings of the trade union movement in Britain. In my youth I spent time on Miners’ picket lines. I’m now a media adademic. So the film brings together my personal, political and professional ‘selves’ and the role of the lanternist in the narrative adds another layer to this.

When I saw the research stipend advertised, I wondered if my interest in Bill Douglas’ film, Comrades, would be a little peripheral to the museum’s research focus. Whilst the film features a magic lanternist and was directed by the museum’s benefactor, I assumed that researchers specializing in all of his work (and particularly his better known ‘My Childhood’ trilogy) or in the pre-cinema artefacts housed in the Exeter museum, would be more central to the work of the museum and the University. Fortunately the museum is keen to explore all aspects of Bill’s work as well as his copllection and has a full productrion archive on Comrades, which they see as key to his career. So I was thrilled to receive the stipend and, whilst I am still no specialist in optics, spending time with the collection is adding a new dimension to my research, as so often happens.

This third space idea comes from several theorists, including Bhabha (1994) and I’ve recently published a book (with John Potter) on digital third spaces in education. It’s quite a simple idea, really – it’s a space in between other spaces. It can be a real place or a way of thinking, but the important thing is that it’s transformative – it sets up new ideas. For this research, I’m combining physical locations (museums) and ways of seeing and thinking about history and politics, through and with film.

So, with this as my theoretical approach, I’m exploring the ‘in between’ relationship between four things (although it’s increasing as I visit the collection and carry out interviews, so it could be more). First, Comrades as a film. Second, the curation of the director’s collection of magic lanterns and other optical artefacts at the museum in Exeter. Third, the role of the magic lanternist character in Comrades as pivotal to the representation of social history in the film. And fourth, the curation of this social history in other museums in Tolpuddle (the Martyrs’ Museum itself) and Dorchester (the Shire Hall living history project).

So my thinking about Comrades in the context of the Bill Douglas collection, the curational narrative of the Tolpuddle Martyr’s Museum (and its annual TUC festival) and the social history project housed in Shire Hall, Dorchester set ups another third space, between politics, film, art and physical objects. When I visit the museum (twice so far), I spend time mainly with the objects and Peter Jewell’s research notes. I’m interested in the contextual archives – press cuttings, shooting scripts, financial records, but for the research itself it’s the interplay of thinking about history – of cinema and of people (in Unions) that I’m immersed in. But the physical objects are also texts, so I see a magic lantern donated by Bill and a pamphlet about the Martyrs that Peter acquired in a shop in London in the same way.

The Lapierre magic lemtern belonging to Bill and Peter’s collection, which was used in Comrades.

Perhaps not being a pre-cinema scholar nor a historian gives me a different way of looking at these things. My project is a media audience study, building on mixed methods approaches I’ve used on work with The Wire and Benefits Street. But my own thinking, as I visit the museum and read the materials in the collection, is progressing from thinking about the lanternist as a narrative device (nothing new there) to understanding the hope (probably unrealized) for cinema to democratize representation ‘for the people’ and the advent of trade unions as being impossible to re-create / curate neutrally. In other words, could these stories be told without politics? 

So far I have made two visits to the museum. The first trip was devoted to exploring the collection and being with the artefacts. The second included interviewing Phil Wickham and Peter Jewell about historical and political narratives in both Comrades and Phil’s curation. Following these visits, I interviewed Tom de Wit, curator of the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum and I ran a workshop at the Tolpuddle Festival with the Radical Film Network, during which participants drew ‘maps’ of each others’ engagements with films, history and politics in the same way as I’m doing with Comrades. Getting people to draw maps, or other visual representations of the connections they make, helps us understand how our interpretations of films can bring to life history, politics and our own personal life stories.

Workshop at the Tolpuddle Festival

For me, Comrades sits in a space between my own political views and trade unionism, some deeply personal things to do with my late father, my working life and then the connection between all of those in my current geographical location when I’m at work. When I ask people to choose a film with political and historical meaning for them and then think about similar connections, usually they come up with rich, deep and personal stories. I use some ‘distancing’ techniques, putting people together in pairs and then groups, so that by the time they share their stories, they are combined into themes arising from several people. Then, with people’s consent, I photograph the ‘maps’ and use them as data for the research.

Next, I’ll be visiting the Shire Hall in Dorchester and finally bringing the curators from the three museums together for a discussion and another ‘mapping’ exercise back at the Bill Douglas Museum. Following that, I’ll be presenting the findings at conferences and writing up for a journal – whether my findings will be something I can generalize about – ie whether I find something out about films, history, politics and people more broadly, or whether what I discover is more specific to Comrades is, is at moment in time a ‘known unknown’.

#TalkBU presents… Still no freedom: From North Korea to being ignored

#TalkBU is a monthly lunchtime seminar on Talbot Campus, open to all students and staff at Bournemouth University and free to attend. Come along to learn, discuss and engage in a 20-30 minute presentation by an academic or guest speaker talking about their research and findings, with a Q&A to finish. 

North Korean women are routinely subject to systemic sexual violation. But for the many who successfully escape their country to also overcome hunger, the search for freedom is just as tough, as they are frequently abducted, sold and exploited by traffickers.

Dr Hyun-Joo Lim will be discussing her research on North Korean female defectors living in the UK and the systemic human rights abuse they experienced both inside and outside their homeland.

When: Tuesday 5 December at 1 – 2pm

Where: Room FG04, Fusion Building

Register here to attend

Click here to find out more about our future and previous #TalkBU events.

Tourism, hospitality and events project available!

Are you or your students looking for tourism, hospitality and events projects? The following project is available in the Student Project Bank:

SPB083: The Shine Project health and wellbeing event

The Shine Project ran their first Health and Wellbeing Event in June 2017. The aim of the event was to inspire girls to think positively about themselves and encourage good physical and mental health. The event was held at Bournemouth Pavilion and had exhibition stands from 22 different organisations including local charities, youth services and businesses. In addition to the stands, the girls were encouraged to take part in one of the many different timetabled workshops such as drama, dance, music or mindfulness. Over the course of the day over 200 girls from 12 different schools attended and 99% of the girls said that they would do it again.

The Shine Project would like to run the event again in February 2019. There are a variety of opportunities available including event management, marketing and communication, media production and audio visual.

Apply now:

Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for dissertations, assignments, unit, or group work. Send us an email to request a project brief and application form.

 

Young Life Scientists’ symposium: Frontiers in Musculoskeletal Health, Ageing and Disease

Coffee Morning, conferences

The past Saturday I was given the opportunity to present my pilot study titled “The influence of inspiratory muscle training on balance and functional mobility in healthy older adults” at the Young Life Scientists Symposium (YLS) held in Derby (see related poster).

 

Purpose of the pilot was to gain an understanding of the effect of 8 weeks inspiratory muscle training upon balance and functional mobility outcomes (including Five-Sit-To-Stand, Time Up and Go, Mini-Best test and others) in older adults (65 and over). The results have led to a double-blind random control trial which will be completed by the beginning of 2018.

The YLS is organised by PhD students and Post-Doc’s for other PhD students and early career researchers it aims to give the opportunity to network and discuss research matters via poster and oral communication in a positive and constructive environment.
This year symposium was focusing on three major sections: nutrition, exercises for ageing and metabolic disease in ageing. Speakers from all the UK discussed their works, and I had the chance to collect feedbacks explaining my methods and methodology.

I would like to thank Bournemouth University and my supervisors who helped me to achieve this opportunity.

Thank you for reading.
Francesco.

 

Focus on an Inclusive Research Environment

Focus on: an inclusive research environment

Vitae have launched their latest ‘Focus on’ theme: ‘an inclusive research environment’. With useful resources and reading covering:

  • Women in research
  • Part-time/flexible working
  • Supporting disabled researchers
  • Preparing for your professional development conversations around equality and diversity

The vitae blog during this ‘Focus on’ theme will explore issues relating to supporting the wellbeing and mental health of researchers as well as the challenges of juggling caring responsibilities with research commitments.

Concordat community consultation

As part of the current ‘Focus on’ topic Vitae would like to invite you to take part in the Concordat community consultation. The consultation has been commissioned by the Concordat Expert Review Panel who are conducting the ten-year review of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. In order to develop the pipeline of research talent globally, the well-being of researchers is clearly of paramount importance so take part and let them know your views. To take part in the consultation click here.

The survey will close on Friday 1st December.

 

 

 

Research Staff Association coffee morning 29/11/17 – theme career pathways

The next BU Research Staff Association coffee morning will take place on the 29th November, 10-11 am in F105, Fusion, Talbot Campus. The focus is on career pathways for researchers within and outside of academia. These coffee morning are open to all staff at BU, and we particularly welcome those on research specific contracts including PGRs.

We are delighted to welcome guest speaker Penny Ballyntyne, Careers Adviser, BU Careers Service to share her knowledge and experience in this area.

We look forward to seeing you there.

BU Research Staff Association

 

Conference notification – Marie Curie Alumni Association

international

On 2nd February 2018, MCAA Annual Conference will take place at the University of Leuven, Belgium. This event is open to non-members.

Topics on the agenda include:

  • Innovation
  • Career choices and career development
  • Careers in science communication
  • Writing a successful IF and ERC application
  • Future leadership programmes in industry
  • Protecting intellectual property
  • The perspective of humanities and social sciences researcher
  • Mentoring
  • Balancing professional and personal life in research career development
  • Open Science

If you are able to attend and have funding to do so, please register on their website.

Current and previous holders of MSCA awards should review the MCAA website to consider the benefits of membership, which includes regional chapters and groups.

The General Assembly (open to registered alumni only) takes place on 3rd February.

Sciences project available!

Are you or your students looking for projects in the sciences? The following project is available in the Student Project Bank:

SPB037: Evaluate the effects of companion planting of Brassicas with Mint and/or Nasturtium

Set up and monitor a field trial exploring the effectiveness of companion planting of Brassica species with a mixed regime of Brassica and Mint and/or Nasturtium in reducing pest-related crop damage. Produce a report on your findings.

Apply now:

Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for dissertations, assignments, unit, or group work. Send us an email to request a project brief and application form.

Wellcome Trust – on schemes, remits, developing competitive applications & the application review process

RKEO was invited to a Humanities and Social Science (HSS hereafter) Research Offices Afternoon, organised by the Wellcome Trust, with a view of establishing relationships and improving the strength and diversity of research they receive and fund.

We were briefed on the HSS funding remit and available funding schemes; on developing competitive applications; the application review process, etc.

Some of the highlights include the following:

ᴥ Wellcome trust funds health, social, cultural and economic research.

ᴥ Theme-based seed awards help researchers to develop compelling and innovative ideas that will go on to form part of larger applications.

ᴥ When applying for funding, it’s important to state:

  1. Your experience & contribution
  2. What you want to achieve
  3. How your planned activities link to achieve the overall aims
  4. Who – partners, stakeholders, etc
  5. Your budget

ᴥ When developing your funding proposal, it’s important to work Wellcome Trust key messages and strategies into it.

ᴥ Funding decisions and recommendations are decided by multi-disciplinary committees. It is therefore important to ensure that your proposal can be understood outside of your field/ discipline.

ᴥ It is highly recommended for proposals to have pre-submission input from colleagues within and beyond your own field.

ᴥ Small grants, seed awards and studentships go through a one-stage application process.

ᴥ Research fellowships and research awards for health professionals go through a three-stage application process:

Expression of interest → Triage → Full application

ᴥ There is currently no requirement for the pathways to impact statement/ document on grant applications.

ᴥ Non-academic impact is viewed positively on applications.

ᴥ Wellcome funds ambitious, innovative and high quality research. Innovative and ambitious means:

  1. The use of interdisciplinary methods
  2. Genuine interdisciplinary research

ᴥ At the preliminary stage, it’s important that applications/proposals be treated as a summary of the full application, with careful considerations for research ethics and data management (avoid depending on generic text)

ᴥ The use of generic text is strongly advised against – the letter of support from the Uni should be personalised to better fit the context of the proposed research

ᴥ What makes a successful application from a reviewer’s point of view?

  1. Innovative
  2. Unusual project
  3. Methodologically rigorous
  4. Sound
  5. The right person doing the right project at the right place
  6. A project fails when jargons and key terms are not explained successfully
  7. Must detail = why this is an important project; why they are the right people to do it; why the location
  8. Research ethics carefully considered; timetable is realistic; costing not outlandish