
Innovation Brunch May 10th ‘Reimagining civic engagement in a digital culture’

Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Dorset History Centre is carrying out research to find out more about what local people think about archives and how Dorset History Centre can improve its services. As part of this research we are running four discussion groups, two in Bournemouth and two in Dorchester. Each discussion group will take up to 90 minutes and will involve an informal group discussion. Participants will receive £30 as a thank you for their time. We’re looking for people who have used or visited Dorset History Centre in the past and those who haven’t.
The discussion groups are scheduled to take place on Monday 8th May, 3pm and 6pm, Bournemouth Library (located in the Triangle, Bournemouth) ; and Tuesday 9th May, 3pm and 6pm, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester. We are currently collecting expressions of interest so if you’re interested in taking part please complete our short survey via this link http://research.audiencesurveys.org/s.asp?k=149155417809 . If you are selected to participate, our research agency will be in touch with more details.
If you have friends who also might be interested, then please feel free to pass it on to them.
As part of the Writing Academy, a series of writing days have been organised to help support BU authors work on their publications by providing some dedicated time and space, away from everyday distractions.
The days will have a collaborative focus on productive writing with other BU authors, the RKEO team will also be on hand to provide authors with help and guidance on all areas of the publication process.
Writing Days have been scheduled on the below dates:
Spaces are limited so please only book on if you are able to commit to attending for the whole day.
BRIAN is being upgraded and will be unavailable for use on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd May.
The main improvements from this upgrade include:
The new and improved features will make BRIAN easier and simplier to use for everyone, whilst also providing a valuable tool to academics helping them record the impact of their research
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:
With further dates planned. If you are interested to book on to any of these training sessions, please click here to book on!
In the meantime, if you do have queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
The fifth edition of Social Work Practice, BU professor Dr Jonathan Parker’s bestselling book, has just been published. The book takes readers through a step-by-step journey into the four main aspects of contemporary social work practice – Assessment, Planning, Intervention and Review – underpinning these in their relational contexts and stressing social justice and human rights. The book introduces readers to each process in a clear and accessible way, supporting readers to both reflect on and apply what has been learnt in practice across settings and service user groups. The book provides a theoretical foundation from which readers can explore other aspects of social work.
This new revised edition of the book introduces an ‘ethnographic approach’ to social work, fusing research, earning and practice. It focuses on the centrality of relationship and resilience, exploring these critically within the political context of contemporary social work
We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research.
Title: A Cloud-Based Collaborative Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Sultanate of Oman.
Speaker: Mohammed Al hajri
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM
Date: Wednesday 3rd May 2017
Room: PG11, Poole House, Talbot Campus
Abstract: It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the demand to migrate or to adopt cloud computing into not only companies but also educational institutions. New trends in this promising field have been playing significant and critical roles in delivering educational services and applications to stakeholders.
Oman and other developing countries could benefit from a cloud-based collaborative VLE where students and faculty members could have access to online facilities to collaborate effectively achieving the potential aims of their courses and programs. HEIs especially in Oman spend high portions of their budgets to establish and maintain IT systems while not all HEIs can afford to have their separate IT systems network due to its unaffordable cost.
This research critically assesses the current ICT infrastructure and any cloud-based collaborative initiatives used in Universities and Colleges in Oman and attempt to explore the existing VLEs in HEIs in Oman. Furthermore, the research will develop a framework which will adopt the contribution from analysing any related frameworks and models in the field or in adjacent areas. The proposed framework is aiming to make a unified and collaborative VLE that can be shared and utilised by several HEIs in Oman which will enable them to exchange and share educational resources among themselves and to reduce the cost of IT expenses in software, hardware and technical support. Thus, this research is aiming to get the maximum benefits of cloud computing to be applied in collaborative VLEs and use it as a model to improve the current IT infrastructure implemented in this environment. Also, the proposed framework can be adapted and adopted by similar developing countries.
We hope to see you there.
UUK have published International Research Collaboration After the UK Leaves the European Union. The information below summarises the main thrust of the document.
Benefits of Research Collaboration
International collaboration is vital as it enables individual academics to increase their impact through pooling expertise and resources with other nations to tackle global challenges that no one country can tackle alone. Cross-nation collaboration increases citations and combined talents produce more innovative and useful outcomes.
The paper emphasises that the researchers themselves need to drive the collaboration and have choice. Selecting ‘Britain’s best new research partners’ is infeasible as sectors have different needs and Britain needs to collaborate with the countries with the richest talent and expertise. Funding needs to be well-structured and flexible to allow this.
The foreword on page 2 states “We should look to developing new networks and funding arrangements that support collaboration with major research powers” both within Europe and internationally. “The primary focus should be on delivering excellent research”, the government should seek to access and influence the 9th Framework Programme (Horizon successor), alongside new funding sources to incentivise collaborations with high-quality research partners beyond the EU. UUK call for a cross-government approach to supporting international research and the drawing together of the current disparate funding mechanisms, including “promoting research collaboration opportunities as a central pillar of the UK’s offer to overseas governments and businesses.”
Collaborative Partners
While its important to work with both EU and non-EU partners the report notes that research with other EU member states collectively makes up the largest pool of collaborators. “Research undertaken with EU partners like Germany and France is growing faster than with other countries – hence while it is vital that the UK takes every opportunity to be truly global in their outlook, the importance of collaboration with EU partners should not be underestimated.”
Almost all the growth in research output in the last 30 years has been brought about by international partnership. In 1981 less than 5% of UK research publications had an overseas co-author. Whereas Figure 1 below demonstrates how collaboration has changed, illustrating how domestic output has plateaued and non-UK collaborations accounts for recent growth.
Figure 1: The trajectory of international co-authorship on research publications from Imperial, UCL, Cambridge and Oxford. (Data: source, Web of Science; analysis, King’s College Policy Institute).
Table 1 below highlights the UK’s major collaborative partners demonstrating a mix of EU and non-EU partners (non-EU partner in bold).
Table 1: Countries co-authoring UK output (2007-2016).
The UUK report reminds that research is a form of diplomacy leading to alliances and memoranda between national academies. The international links create esteem and demonstrate the wider engagement and status of an institution which is attractive to international students and staff.
Addressing Collaborative Barriers
Addressing the barriers to research collaboration is more than just funding, the report calls for:
The report states there needs to be better understanding and matching of research and innovation strengths between partners and potential collaborators, with clearer articulation of these and provision of contact points at the research organisation, funding agency and sector levels.
The circulation of people and ideas is fundamental to international research collaborations: National policy frameworks of all partners must be flexible enough to support international exchange, enabling critical human resources – including technical expertise – to flow between systems.
The report highlights South Korea and Taiwan as attractive collaborators because of their research-intensive economies, strong technology investment, excellent university system, and high-English speaking rate. However collaboration is challenged by geography, proximity and cultural differences. UUK report that communication problems are a key barrier alongside the uncertainty about research profiles of UK universities and significant differences in research governance.
Researchers working within different national contexts will have experience of different research cultures. These can be a source of strength and innovation, but also create challenges that must be understood, acknowledged and addressed. This requires time, but can be mitigated by the development of shared understandings, priorities and policy frameworks.
Stability, certainty and trust are required if successful international research collaborations are to be fostered. Partners need to have confidence that the policy and funding environment will not be subject to unexpected or dramatic change after they have invested the time and resources necessary to develop productive and beneficial partnerships. Stability and certainty in both policy and funding environment is a key facilitator.
The report effectively highlights the difficulties of ‘double jeopardy’ (Roberts, 2006) whereby all partners need to individually secure funding across a sustaining period to both commence and fully complete. Furthermore while countries commission and pay for the research it depends on individual motivation for success. Individuals make research choices that further their career and are fundable. EU links exist because researchers at well-funded institutions saw mutual net benefits, however EU collaboration proliferated because mutually assured Framework Programme funding supported it.
The report suggests a mechanism for effective research collaboration is to create more flexible agency-level bilateral agreements with associated secure funding. A Memorandum of Understanding should identify common priorities and mutual research standards yet this should be backed up by a research fund. Page 6 describes collaboration with Brazil as an example of this.
Furthermore, UK research funding beyond the EU is highly dependent on the ODA budget which limits research themes and fundable countries. Post Brexit the UK needs new money without ODA type restrictions to support collaborations with partners not eligible for EU funds.
Note: UUK have also released a second report on whether free trade agreements can enhance opportunities for UK higher education post Brexit.
References
Roberts, Sir Gareth. (2006). International partnerships of research excellence.
NERC is inviting the environmental science community to submit new ideas for highlight topics. NERC would welcome ideas from both researchers and those who use environmental science research. For more information please click here.
Ideas for highlight topics should be submitted by 16 May 2017.
If you have any queries, please contact idea@nerc.ac.uk.
Helen Haywood and Richard Scullion have had their paper titled ‘It’s quite difficult letting them go, isn’t it?’ UK parents’ experiences of their child’s higher education choice process accepted for publication in ‘Studies in Higher Education’, a prestigious 3 star journal. The paper derives from Helen’s doctoral research on parents’ experiences of their child’s Higher Education choice process. The main findings include that parents experience this process, not as ‘rational’ consumers, in the way that much government and HEI communication assumes, but primarily as parents whose main aim at this key stage in their relationship with their child is to maintain this relationship and to minimise any arguments and conflict. ‘Relationship maintenance’ is thus the main theme. In some cases, parents are prepared to go to considerable lengths in order to manage this process and to ‘keep the peace’ with their adolescent child and their experiences are vividly captured in lengthy quotations which derive from the qualitative, interpretive research undertaken with this under-researched group. The findings in this paper will resonate with parents and particularly parents of adolescents. It also has important implications for HEIs and government policies and focuses on an often neglected facet of choice – the role of relationships in making choices.
Abstract:
This paper challenges the dominant discourse that Higher Education (HE) choice is a consumer choice and questions assumptions underpinning government policy and HE marketing. HE choice is largely viewed as a rational, decontextualized process. However, this interpretivist study found it to be much more complex, and to be about relationships and managing a transition in roles. It focuses on parents, an under-researched group, who play an increasing part in their child’s HE choice. It finds that they experience this process primarily as parents, not consumers and that their desire to maintain the relationship at this critical juncture takes precedence over the choice of particular courses and universities. The role of relationships, and in this context relationship maintenance, is the main theme. This is experienced in two principal ways: relationship maintenance through conflict avoidance and through teamwork. These significant findings have implications for the way governments and universities consider recruitment.
To read the full article, please click on the below link:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2017.1315084
The ‘Migrant & Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ research project is focused on building research capacity to respond to social and cultural shifts in Dorset following Brexit with regard to migrant and refugee wellbeing. – See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2017/01/27/we-love-eu-migrant-refugee-leisure-spaces-and-community-well-being-project/
The project brings together academics and community partners, including b-side Arts Organisation, Poole Museum, Dorset Race Equality Council, Bournemouth & Poole City of Sanctuary and Bournemouth University STAR (Student Action for Refugees). In particular, we are interested in past and present migration flows and the inclusion of displaced peoples in Dorset, and we are keen to explore and document the positive ways individuals and groups make connections through leisure, including sport, art, heritage and culture.
One of the projects related to this research is this socially-engaged art work entitled: Shahre Farang by Farhad Berahman produced by b-side. Farhad and his art work will appear at Bournemouth University Festival of Learning in July as well as Refugee Week (June 19th – 25th) events and b-side Outpost Art Festival.
“If you could never return home, what would you do and where would you go if you were granted just one minute to be there?”
Iranian photographer Farhad Berahman presents the memories of 20 Iranian asylum seekers who are unable to return home. Look into the beautiful Shahre Farang (an Iranian peepbox used by wandering storytellers) and see their memories made real, meet the artist and join in with discussion and activities.
The Shahre Farang piece is touring Dorset visiting Bridgeport and Dorchester markets, Portland, Poole and Bournemouth University Festival of Learning:
Outpost, Portland 17 – 22 June
Poole Museum 24 June
Dorchester Market 28 June
Bridport Market 01 July
Bournemouth University 08 July
While we are very excited for the upcoming socially engaged art events, we are currently discussing how we can encourage members of Dorset refugee or migrant communities to attend the Festival of Learning at Bournemouth University. We are working with members of the newly formed network of community partners to extend invites to as many groups as possible.
Later this year, core academic members will attend the Leisure Studies Association (LSA) annual conference (July) and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) annual conference (August/September) to present work and chair sessions. The details are as follows:
Associate Prof. Jayne Caudwell and Dr. Katherine King are presenting in the ‘Leisure and Social Justice’ session at the LSA International Conference in Leeds. They will reflect on the development of the co-created, socially engaged arts event. In framing their critical reflection, they discuss the role of leisure spaces and practices in building connections between previously disconnected groups of people living in Dorset.
Dr. Jaeyeon Choe and Prof. Janet Dickinson are session organisers for ‘Migrant Leisure Spaces and Community Wellbeing’ at RGS-IBS International Conference in London. The session includes a number of diverse papers from the UK, Mexico, Canada and Australia addressing key issues surrounding migration, leisure and space. http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/12/22/cfp-rgs-ibg-annual-conference-2017-migrant-leisure-spaces-and-community-wellbeing/
If you are interested in our project, please follow us:
Project web-page: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/project/migrant-refugee-leisure-wellbeing/
Facebook: Migrant Leisure Spaces
Twitter: @migrantspaces
Many people see the ‘Justification of Resources’ document as another thing to quickly pull together and tick off the list, after having already completed a 70+ page funding application. As a result, it often doesn’t get the prior consideration needed to write a good one – even though applications are often rejected due to insufficient justification of resources.
As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, RKEO are holding a session on ‘Writing a Justification of Resources’. The session will provide an overview of the Justification of Resources document, and will offer tips for writing this section of the application form. Examples of effective Justifications of Resources will be provided.
Date: Thursday 4th May
Time: 10:00-11:30
Venue: Talbot Campus
Book your space via the RKE Development Framework page for this event.
For further information, please contact Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO Research Facilitator.
BRIAN will be upgrading to a new version next week, the main improvements from this upgrade include:
These new and improved features will make BRIAN easier and simplier to use for everyone, whilst also providing a valuable tool to academics helping them record the impact of their research
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:
With further dates planned. If you are interested to book on to any of these training sessions, please click here to book on!
In the meantime, if you do have queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
As I was about to leave home and head to Heathrow to travel to India as part of the Bournemouth University’s Global Festival of Learning, I checked my work email one last time. There was an email inviting me to be interviewed about FOMO, but with a caveat: the interview had to take place that day or on the morning of the following day. This is because the interview was for the documentary competition #docinaday organised by the London Documentary Network.
The competition involves giving a theme to participating teams on Saturday morning, and they then have 36 hours to plan, record and edit a film of up to 6 minutes that captures the theme. The theme was fear and the team decided to focus on FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. They googled for experts in the area and came across the research blog entry reporting my 14:Live presentation on 14 March (a BU event), precisely on that topic.
Given the urgency of the request, I immediately replied that I was unable to do it in person as I was about to leave to the airport. They suggested we met at the airport (they were based in London), which I agreed as I had a 3 hour wait. During the interview, I talked about some of the findings of the research we have carried out on FOMO in events.
The team has just notified me that they were actually runners-up!
I think they have captured the essence of FOMO well, and I shall be using the film as part of my consumer experience and behaviour lecture on the topic. While it is unlikely that the film will have a large viewing, this example shows how important it is to keep feeding the Internet with information about what we do. You never know when someone needs an expert in one of your topics of expertise, and having this information readily available on the Internet may lead them to you.
Dr. Miguel Moital, Department of Events & Leisure
Congratulations to CMMPH’s Dr. Jenny Hall, Senior Midwifery Lecturer, on the publication of her scientific paper ‘The Spiritual Journey of Infertile Couples: Discussing the Opportunity for Spiritual Care‘ in the journal Religions, see further details here! Jenny has co-authored this paper with academics from Portugal and Ireland.
CMMPH
Sara Stride ( Midwifery Lecturer Practitioner) and Associate Professor Susan Way from FHSS, travelled from the UK on the 18th April for a 5 day visit to the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. The trip was funded through Seedcorn (Bournemouth University) and ERASMUS teaching mobility fund (British Council) to extend research and education collaboration between the two Universities.
We received a warm welcome from the Head of Midwifery Education, Dr. Polona Misvek who had helped to arrange our visit. Polona has previously visited Bournemouth University and has co-authored a number of papers with Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen.
The Seedcorn funding enabled Sara to provide a key note lecture to an audience which included midwives, student midwives and midwifery lecturers. In attendance was also the CEO of the Nurses and Midwives Association of Slovenia, Anita Prelec. The lecture related to a recent project funded by the Wellbeing of Women charity where Sara was the Principle Investigator. Other team collaborators were Professor Vanora Hundley, Associate Professor Susan Way and Dr Zoe Shepherd. The topic was entitled, ‘Updating the Understanding of Perineal Practice at the time of birth (UUPP Study)’. It was well received and generated many questions.
We have also been able to agree with the support of Polona Misvek and Anita Prelec to repeat the survey element of the research with midwives in Slovenia.
For further details regarding the teaching mobility aspect of the visit please visit the HSS Blog.
(L-R) Sara Stride, Anta Prelec and Susan Way
Audience Invitation to Key Note Speech
There are new projects in the Student Project Bank from Bournemouth CVS and Midlands Workplace Wellbeing!
Short project briefs are listed below and full briefs available upon request.
SPB059: Bournemouth Young Volunteers (BYV) – Profile Building
Design and implement a marketing strategy to help raise the profile of the BYV awards through marketing materials and social media. There will need to be tailored promotion around ‘volunteer week’, a week long series of events and an award ceremony celebrating volunteering.
SPB060: Rebrand of workplace health and wellbeing company
Midlands Workplace Wellbeing Ltd works with employers to create happy and healthy employees through consultancy, training and health activities. Help Midlands Workplace Wellbeing Ltd rebrand the business as Mindful Workplace Wellbeing. They are looking to find a new identity that has impact whilst still remaining professional in order to increase their client base.
Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for their dissertation, assignment, unit or group work. Members of staff may also choose a project to set to their students.
We are looking for BU staff and students to help us test the accuracy and reliability of the newly developed NERVE device. Designed to monitor loss of sensation in the hands and feet, it is hoped that this device will eventually be used by patients in their own homes. Our research study will compare the accuracy and reliability of the NERVE device to a device currently used in clinical settings.
So as long as you’re over the age of 18, have 10 minutes to spare and don’t have overly ticklish feet, we need you! All you need to do is lie down and tell us at what point you feel a vibration on the finger, big toe, and possibly the ankle and knee.
For more information please contact Emma Frampton (eframpton@bournemouth.ac.uk) and arrange a time suitable for you!
Dr Paul Hartley, Senior Lecturer in Functional Genetics, Faculty of Science & Technology
The first instalment of the returning ‘Photo of the Week’ series features Dr Paul Hartley’s image of a Honey Bee Heart. The series is a weekly instalment, which features an image taken by our fantastic BU staff and students. The photos give a glimpse into some of the fascinating work our researchers have been doing across BU and the wider community.
In this image we can see the pericardial muscles and oenocytes of a honey bee heart- these are stained red and green. The oenocytes act as toxin-treatment and excretion plants, to help maintain clean blood – much as our livers and kidneys do. The pericardial muscles hold the heart in place so that it can contract properly. Research has shown that human and insect cardiovascular systems share similar genetics. Dr Hartley’s research is based on a simple premise- if something causes disease in one organism, it probably causes disease and can be studied in the other. Dr Hartley took this picture using a Leica SP8 confocal microscope.
If you’d like to find out more about the research or the photo itself then please contact Dr Hartley.
This photo was orginially an entry to the 2017 Research Photography Competition. If you have any other questions about the Photo of the Week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk