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New Research Project – Staying Active and Independent for Longer (SAIL)

Professor Ann Hemingway (FHSS) and Professor Adele Ladkin (FM) have recently been successful in gaining EU funding (2 SEAS strand) for a project entitled Staying Active and Independent for Longer (SAIL).  This is a three and a half year project piloting eleven different social innovations in three countries focused on helping older people to stay active and independent for longer. The project partners come from the public sector, third sector, universities and SME’s, and include the following.

Coastal regions in the 2 Seas Area have to deal with specific challenges in relation to ageing as they are confronted with a particular mix of ageing people. This not only includes local elderly, but also the influx of ageing newcomers and tourists of an increasing average age. As this population puts pressure on health and social care systems, it is essential to enable them to stay active and independent for longer, to improve their wellbeing and quality of life to reduce costs and pressures on care systems.

Professor Hemingway (FHSS) and Professor Ladkin (FM) at BU are running the international feasibility study for this multi million pound project.  This project represents cross-faculty research success combining public health and tourism expertise at BU.

 

Health & Wellbeing in the 21st Century – it’s your responsibility 23rd May 2017

On Tuesday, 23rd May 2016, BU’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) will be hosting a Sandpit event on Health & Wellbeing.

Which means…?

We’re seeking to come up with novel research which addresses challenges in health & wellbeing. With increasing pressure on the NHS, we need to consider how we can take responsibility for our own health & wellbeing. Potential areas to address this challenge may include but are not limited to, digital health & technology (apps, devices), sport, healthy diet & exercise, legal considerations (i.e. your body your choice), media, psychology, social care etc.

So, who should attend?

We want anyone who thinks they might have something to contribute. We will also be inviting relevant external attendees to contribute to the day.

What do I need to prepare in advance? What will the sandpit entail?

Absolutely nothing in advance. During the session, you’ll be guided through a process which results in the development of research ideas. The process facilitates creativity, potentially leading to innovative and interdisciplinary research ideas. These ideas will be explored with other attendees, and further developed based on the feedback received.

What if I don’t have time to think about ideas in advance?

You don’t need to do this but it will help. Attendees will come from a range of backgrounds so we expect that there will be lively conversations resulting from these different perspectives.

What about afterwards? Do I need to go away and do loads of work?

Well… that depends! The interactive day will result in some novel research ideas. Some of these may be progressed immediately; others might need more time to develop. You may find common ground with other attendees which you choose to take forward in other ways, such as writing a paper or applying for research funding.

What if my topic area is really specific, and doesn’t really relate to health?

Your contribution will be very welcome! One of the main benefits of this type of event is to bring together individuals with a range of backgrounds and specialisms who are able to see things just that bit differently to one another.

So, is this just networking?

Definitely not! It is a facilitated session with the primary intention of developing innovative research ideas, which also enables the development of networks. It gives you the opportunity to explore research ideas which you may develop over time, together with the chance to find common ground with academics from across BU and beyond.

So, how do I book onto this event?

To take part in this exciting opportunity, BU staff should complete the Application Form and return this to Dianne Goodman by Tuesday 2nd May. As places are limited, this will be assessed to ensure good mix of attendees with different perspectives. Places will be confirmed w/c 8th May 2017.

By applying, you agree to attend for the full duration of the event on 23rd May (c. 9:30 – 16:00). This event will be held in BU’s Executive Business Centre (EBC).

If you have any queries prior to submitting your application, please contact Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO Research Facilitator.

This event is part of the Research Knowledge Exchange Development Framework.

HE Policy Update w/e 7th April

international

Higher Education and Research Bill: the Bill passed its third reading in the House of Lords this week with little fanfare. An amendment relating to the ‘transparency duty’ (publishing further information on applicants’ backgrounds for better WP policy targeting and transparent admissions) was moved but withdrawn. This followed reassurance from the government that they will require the Office for Students to consult on the transparency duty. Eight minor government amendments were agreed, full details can be read in Hansard. The Bill will reappear in the Commons after the Easter recess, when as noted in last week’s update, the opposition and cross bench amendments are expected to be removed.

Brexit: The Commons Select Committee for Exiting the EU released their report The Government’s negotiating objective: the White Paper. Wonkhe report that not all members of the committee agreed with the conclusions in the report. Pages 68-71 cover science and research and reiterate previous calls from the sector for the immigration system to support researchers and students and for the UK to continue to participate in Horizon 2020.

Tuition Fees: In a non-binding debate in the House of Lords, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour) moved that the House of Lords regrets the 2016 changes to the tuition fee regulations and loan conditions which have worsened circumstances for some students, particularly WP and part time students. Lord Stevenson stated it is “virtually impossible to challenge what the Government are doing” and suggested that fee increases, the ending of maintenance grants, and introduction of income-contingent tax liabilities had not achieved what they had set out to do for the public purse whilst burdening students with ever-increasing debts. He asked for clarification on the “huge gap” in public finances the system was creating and explained that his motion would call on the Government to report annually to Parliament on the impact on the economy of increasing graduate debt, provide estimates of payback rates and an estimate of the annual cost to the Exchequer of the present system. Stevenson and other Lords also criticised the linking of fees to the TEF.

The voting was close and the motion to regret was agreed by the Lords.

Speaking for the Government Viscount Younger of Leckie expressed his disappointment about the vote and stressed that the Government’s policy intention remained to link fees to the quality of provision via the teaching excellence framework.

A second motion to regret has been tabled for Wed 26 April by Lord Clark of Windermere to move that the House of Lords regrets the introduction of tuition fees and removal of bursaries for NHS students.

Science Communication: The Science and Technology select committee have reported on their inquiry into science communication. The report notes that public interest in science is high and rising yet most people still lack a personal connection or understanding of science, and there is low trust in science journalism. The committee report concurs with the Stern recommendation for REF to synonymise impact with associated policy-making. Furthermore, the Government has abandoned the intended anti-lobbying clause in government contracts and grants because for research grants it sent the wrong message, discouraging instead of encouraging the widest and fullest possible science communication and engagement.

The full report examines communication of science, including through social media and reaching young people. It also tackles the misrepresentation of scientific results in the media. Highlighting inaccurate interpretations of statistics, and distortion of results to sensationalise the story as source of public suspicion. The report calls for government to ensure that a robust redress mechanism is provided for when science is misreported.

It also recommends exploring multiple aspects of diversity, instead of just gender, so young people have a wide range of role models to inspire them to pursue STEM careers. There is an interesting section (paragraphs 13-21) on outreach to schools and young people in relation to the STEM skills gap and whether science communication has a role to play in addressing the STEM gap particularly through redressing negative messaging.

Recruitment: The latest UCAS statistical release reconfirms the known drop in applications – UK students down by 4% (c.25,000), EU 6% down, international applications increase by 2%.

Apprenticeships: It’s been a busy news week for apprenticeships – the Apprenticeship Levy for business is now in force and the Institute for Apprenticeships was launched on Monday. It has been confirmed that degree apprenticeships will be regulated by HEFCE (QAA) through the Annual Provider Review process, with the quality of training provision inspected by Ofsted, except where the apprenticeship standard contains a prescribed HE qualification – this will be assessed through joint working (HEFCE/Ofsted).

A recent Commons select committee report on apprenticeships has criticised the government’s apprenticeship policy stating it will not resolve the skills gaps as it is not sufficiently focussed on specific sectors nor targets key regions where training is lacking. The Committee also warns that schools are still failing to promote non-university routes.

Technical and Further Education Bill: this Bill has been amended and passed by the Lords. The Lords debate noted improvements are needed in learner support when private providers fail, alongside clarity for targeting apprenticeships in the engineering, construction, IT skills shortage areas. The Bill will now return to the Commons. If you would like more

Other news:

The Times covers Exeter University’s online masters degrees – fees will be £18,000 (same fee for UK and international students).

Radio 4 broadcast A Degree of Fraud, which covered the contract cheating services that provide bespoke essays. UK Essays claim to have sold 16,000 essays during 2016. It is reported that students can purchase a guaranteed 2:1 essay within 12 hours for £450. The broadcast also recognises Lord Storey’s campaign for parliament to outlaw bespoke writing services. You may remember this was covered in an amendment to the Higher Education and Research Bill which was withdrawn following reassurance from Jo Johnson who has asked the QAA to take steps to combat the ‘essay mills’.

Wonkhe discuss Hobson’s potentially mobile international student survey and look at the positive and negatives of a branch campus with a nod to the Brexit context.

The Guardian presents case studies of two disabled students who are failing to complete their studies after the reduction in disability benefits. It highlights how the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a ‘gateway benefit’ meaning students that lose it are then ineligible to access other supports such as universal credit or carer’s allowance. It is recognised that students with mental health disabilities are particularly affected.

Lily Boulle, student at the University of East London, went to Citizens Advice for help and found she was “locked out” of the benefit system. “There’s absolutely nothing you can get as a student unless you have PIP. It doesn’t make sense.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said: “Disabled students… may be eligible if they need to take time out from studying due to their condition.”

The Equality Challenge Unit published experiences of gender equality in STEMM academia which expresses disadvantages experienced by women academics (more teaching and admin, less research time, less training, limitations due to caring responsibilities) and intersects the data with ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and age.

Deadline Extended: Machine Learning in Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis

conferences, international, open access, Publishing

The deadline has been extended to the 14th of April , 2017.

This is a call for papers for the Special Session on Machine Learning in Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis at IEEE CIBCB 2017.

The IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (IEEE CIBCB 2017) will be held at the INNSIDE Hotel, Manchester from August 23rd to 25th, 2017.

This annual conference has become a major technical event in the field of Computational Intelligence and its application to problems in biology, bioinformatics, computational biology, chemical informatics, bioengineering and related fields. The conference provides a global forum for academic and industrial scientists from a range of fields including computer science, biology, chemistry, medicine, mathematics, statistics, and engineering, to discuss and present their latest research findings from theory to applications.

The topics of interest for the special session include (but are not limited to):

  • Medical image classification
  • Medical image analysis
  • Expert systems for computer aided diagnosis and prognosis
  • Pattern recognition in the analysis of biomarkers for medical diagnosis
  • Deep learning in medical image processing and analysis
  • Ethical and Security issues in machine learning for medical diagnosis and prognosis

Up-to-date information and submission details can be found on the IEEE CIBCB 2017. The submission deadline is the 14th of April, 2017.

Please e-mail srostami@bournemouth.ac.uk with any questions.

What hospital catering could learn from the prison system – BU published in the Conversation

Knowledge Exchange

Jeff Bray, Bournemouth University and Heather Hartwell, Bournemouth University

Prisoners eat better than hospital patients in Britain. Our research found that prisoners consume around three times more calories than patients and their diet is more in line with government nutritional recommendations. The Conversation

Eating more isn’t always healthier, but when you consider that malnutrition is a big problem in hospitals, it can be. We found that the average male hospital patient consumes just 1,184 calories a day – even though the NHS recommends 2,500. Male prisoners, however, consume an average of 3,042 calories. The situation is similar for women. Female patients consume on average 1,134 calories (the recommended amount is 1,940). But female prisoners consume 3,007 calories, on average.

The patients’ food intake was measured three days before they were discharged from hospital, so we can be fairly sure that they weren’t consuming less due to ill health. And they weren’t consuming less because they were served fewer calories. All menus could provide for dietary recommendations, but it simply wasn’t eaten.

Malnourished patients have a weakened immune system, delayed wound healing and muscle wasting. There are also psychological effects from malnutrition including apathy and depression leading to loss of morale and the will to recover. Studies have also shown that inadequate nutrition can lengthen patients’ hospital stays by 50% (an average of six days) and triple mortality rates.

Hospitals face a number of difficulties in providing high-quality food. Dishes are prepared on a tight budget. They are cooked at a central hospital kitchen and often have to travel a considerable distance to the wards. But prison food is also prepared on a tight budget and often has to travel considerable distances from the kitchen to the prison wing.

Four years of data gathering

During our four-year study, we visited four prisons for men and two for women. In each, we carefully noted how food was prepared, delivered to the prison wing and served to the prisoners. We analysed the menu and interviewed prisoners and catering staff. We conducted four hospital studies with a similar method of data collection, which helped us to assess and compare the dietary intakes of hospital patients and prisoners. Through this we were able to identify the main differences in catering.

In hospitals, kitchen staff prepare the meals and hand them to porters who complete the delivery when they have time, between doing other tasks. Once the food reaches the ward, the responsibility for serving the food is handed to nurses. The various teams have to cooperate to ensure that food is delivered while it’s still fresh. However, providing food is not the main priority of a hospital. We noted tension between catering staff, who cared about food quality, and medical staff, who didn’t consider it a priority.

At least you’ll be well fed.
Adrian Reynolds/Shutterstock.com

We found that the food prepared by hospital and prison kitchens – although not fine dining – has a similar nutritional quality and is presented in a similar manner. (Typical fare might include meat and two veg, a pudding or yogurt, and a piece of fruit.) In prison, food was transported quickly and food quality was maintained up to the point of service to the prisoners. The food arrived hot, comparatively fresh and could be consumed immediately without distractions. By contrast, hospital food was delayed between kitchen and patient.

A fragmented process

In the hospitals that we studied, getting food from the kitchen to the patient was a fragmented and badly coordinated process. Meals were often delayed and disrupted by medical ward rounds, tests and treatments.

The result of these delays? Food was left for too long in warming trolleys prior to being served. Hot food cools down and cold food warms up to the temperature of the ward. Food dries out and discolours. Meat curls and gravy congeals. Compared with prisons, the temperature, texture and appearance of food were all worse in hospitals by the time the food was served. Nutrients may also have diminished and the food became less palatable. Differences that are likely to account, at least in part, for the marked difference in intake between prisoners and patients.

But this is not inevitable. Delays could be reduced. Hospitals could adopt a more coordinated approach and have a dedicated team responsible for the preparation, delivery to the ward and service to the patient. The team responsible for catering would not have the conflicting priorities that clinical teams have. Although a few hospitals do have a dedicated catering team that delivers food directly to the patient, this is the exception, not the rule.

In many hospitals, nutrition is often an afterthought. Priority is given to medical tests and treatments and often ignores the role that food plays in improving the patient’s health. One governor told us that if meals were delayed or missed in prison there would be a riot.

Jeff Bray, Principal Academic Consumer Behaviour, Bournemouth University and Heather Hartwell, Professor, Bournemouth University

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

*Spaces available – MSCA 2 day Bid Writing Retreat – 18th and 19th of April

Training

Places are still available for the two-day bid writing retreat on 18th and 19th April – book in now!

 

As the European Commission celebrates the support of over 100,000 researchers through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, RKEO are pleased to confirm our arrangements for supporting this high profile call in 2017.

Support

  • There will be a two-day bid writing retreat on 18th and 19th April and, subject to demand, this will be repeated on 4th and 5th July, with bookings now open
  • Materials are already available on the MyBU Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework Community and will be extended as more materials are made available for the 2017 call
  • External bid writing support, where appropriate
  • Timeline

    As this is a highly popular call, RKEO need to carefully manage the flow of work within RKEO but also for all your colleagues, who work together, to ensure that each application is approved and submitted correctly.

    The call will open on 11/04/17, when further information will be posted on this blog.

    Please ensure that the Intention to Bid is submitted to RKEO by 30/06/17. You can, of course, let us know earlier than this date that you intend to apply, so that we can provide you, and your potential fellow, with as much support as possible, right up to the closing date of 14/09/17. It is expected that early drafts will be sent to RKEO at the beginning of August, allowing time for all those involved to manage their workloads.

    Communication

    Once we know that you are thinking of applying, even before submitting the Intention to Bid, we can keep you up to date with announcements from the funder and other sources of help and support.

    If you are considering applying and would like to receive updates, please contact Dianne Goodman, RKEO’s Funding Development Team Co-ordinator, so that we can register your interest and provide useful information, such as  the indicative timetable for actions prior to submission. If you are ready to submit your Intention to Bid, you can do this now, via Dianne. The allocated Funding Development Officer can then contact you.

    If you have any queries or comments about this scheme, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International

     

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

The following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

NIHR

Clinician Scientist Award

The NIHR Clinician Scientist Award offers up to 5 years funding to undertake focused training and development in order to develop specific skills that will enable a transition from basic research into clinical research or from clinical research into translational and applied research.

Maximum Award: Not specified Deadline: 1 June 2017

Mechanisms of action of health interventions

The EME Programme invites proposals for hypothesis driven research into the underlying mechanisms of action of clinical and public health interventions.

Maximum Award: Not specified
Deadline: 4 July 2017

NERC

Marine Integrated Autonomous Observing Systems

Proposals are invited for a new research programme on improving understanding of shelf sea ecosystem function using integrated autonomous observing systems.

Maximum Award: £1.8 million
Deadline: 28 June 2017

Wellcome Trust

Investigator Awards in Science

The level of funding provided is flexible and can be anything from under £500,000 to around £3 million. Awards can last for up to seven years, if appropriate.

You should request a level and duration of funding that’s appropriate to your career stage, research experience and the proposed research programme.

Maximum Award: £500,000 – £3 million
Deadline: 27 July 2017

Cancer Research UK

Experimental Medicine Award

The scheme accepts investigator-led studies for highly ambitious translational research conducted in association with a clinical trial with the objective of optimising treatment and maximising patient benefit.

Maximum Award: £1 – £5 million
Deadline: 20 September 2017

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in  RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – give us your feedback

It’s been over six months since Bournemouth University launched its new Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, which was designed to offer academics at all stages of their career opportunities to develop their skills, knowledge and capabilities.

Since its launch, over 30 sessions have taken place, including sandpits designed to develop solutions to key research challenges, workshops with funders such as the British Academy and the Medical Research Council and skills sessions to help researchers engage with the media and policy makers.

The Research & Knowledge Exchange Office is currently planning activities and sessions for next year’s training programme and would like your feedback about what’s worked well, areas for improvement and suggestions for new training sessions.

Tell us what you think via our survey and be in with a chance of winning a £30 Amazon voucher. The deadline date is Friday 21 April.

Upcoming sessions:

  4 April Public engagement: an overview
  13 April Getting started on applying for research funding
  25 April How to update your Staff Profile Page using BRIAN
  9 May Writing Academy – Writing Day
  10 May Using social media to share your research
  18 May Targeting high quality journals
  18 May Writing an academic paper
  18 May Writing a good abstract
  18 May Dealing with editors
  24 May Research Data Management
  24 May Introduction to the Royal Society
  24 May My publication story so far… Prof. Tim Rees
  25 May Writing Academy – Writing Day

BRIAN Upgrade

BRIAN

We are happy to inform you that Bournemouth Research Information and Networking System (BRIAN) will be upgrading to a new version next month.

The main improvements from this upgrade include:

  • New Impact Tracking Module
  • New Homepage
  • More User Friendly Navigation

We do apologise for the inconvenience this upgrade will cause but we hope that these new and improved features will make BRIAN easier and simpler 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:

  • Tuesday 25th April 2017
  • Thursday 15th June 2017

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

*Spaces available – MSCA 2 day Bid Writing Retreat – 18th and 19th of April

Funding opportunities, international

Places are still available for the two-day bid writing retreat on 18th and 19th April – book in now!

 

As the European Commission celebrates the support of over 100,000 researchers through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, RKEO are pleased to confirm our arrangements for supporting this high profile call in 2017.

Support

Timeline

As this is a highly popular call, RKEO need to carefully manage the flow of work within RKEO but also for all your colleagues, who work together, to ensure that each application is approved and submitted correctly.

The call will open on 11/04/17, when further information will be posted on this blog.

Please ensure that the Intention to Bid is submitted to RKEO by 30/06/17. You can, of course, let us know earlier than this date that you intend to apply, so that we can provide you, and your potential fellow, with as much support as possible, right up to the closing date of 14/09/17. It is expected that early drafts will be sent to RKEO at the beginning of August, allowing time for all those involved to manage their workloads.

Communication

Once we know that you are thinking of applying, even before submitting the Intention to Bid, we can keep you up to date with announcements from the funder and other sources of help and support.

If you are considering applying and would like to receive updates, please contact Dianne Goodman, RKEO’s Funding Development Team Co-ordinator, so that we can register your interest and provide useful information, such as  the indicative timetable for actions prior to submission. If you are ready to submit your Intention to Bid, you can do this now, via Dianne. The allocated Funding Development Officer can then contact you.

If you have any queries or comments about this  scheme, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International

Student Research Assistant – awarded projects

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, student research

The following is a list of current awarded projects, complete with live job links, for the summer round of the Student Research Assistantship (SRA) scheme:

 

Prof Alan Breen – Spinal Image Processing Assistant

Prof Alison McConnell – Cardiorespiratory Physiology Research Assistant: Development and evaluation of a mobile device App to lower blood pressure

Dr Anita Diaz – Enhancing public engagement with co-creating science through our science co-creation website

Dr Ann Bevan – Understanding behaviour change towards healthy diet patterns in women of childbearing age

Dr Ann Luce – Student Research Assistant: Media and Midwifery

Dr Anna Feigenbaum – Building a Database on Housing in London

Dr Anya Chapman – Climate Change and Seaside Piers: Student Research Assistant

Prof Barry Richards – Research support for a book and for teaching on the psychology of politics

Dr Brad Gyori – Mobile Application Research Engineer

Dr Carol Clark – Exploring the evidence relating to intrinsic factors that predict falls

Dr Christa van Raalte – ‘Understanding Media Careers’ – Student Research Assistant

Dr Darren Lilleker – Post-Truth: the challenge to liberal democracy

Dr David Botchie – Gender and SME finance in Ghana

Dr Debbie Sadd – Digitisation of Volunteer Stories

Dr Desiree Tait – Exploring data relating to a pain beliefs questionnaire

Dr Desiree Tait – Self-monitoring in pregnancy: women’s views

Dr Donald Nordberg – Governing the BBC

Dr Elvira Bolat – ‘Investigating Forms of Leadership in a Digital Age’ – Student Research Assistant

Dr Elvira Bolat – Marketing industry competitions and their role in fusing research, education & professional practice

Prof Iain MacRury – Research Assistant: Global University Advertising Survey Data Project 2000-2017

Dr Ishmael Tingbani – SME Finance, Investment and Performance: Typology and Impact

Dr Jae Yeon Choe – Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces Research Assistant

Dr James Gavin – Daily Activities as Training Exercises for Orthopaedic Patients

Dr Janet Scammell – To co-create a systematic literature review for publication to support funded research study

Dr Janet Scammell – Qualitative data analysis from an education evaluation project and co-create project publication

Dr Jian Chang – Research Centre Web Developer

Dr Jian Chang – Virtual and Augmented Reality Content Developer

Prof Julian McDougall – Digital Outreach Research Assistant

Karen Thompson – Carbon Reduction Programme Analysis

Dr Katherine Curtis – A review of literature on the availability, use and impact of health Apps among an older people

Dr Lorraine Brown – Female Muslim tourists in the West

Dr Lucy Lu – Global Engagement Assistant

Dr Marcin Budka – Public engagement assistant

Mathew Charles – Digital Research Programmer

Dr Mehdi Chowdhury – Research Assistant: International migration and the trade in cultural goods

Dr Mel Hughes – Evaluating models of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in research

Dr Michael O’Regan – Dietary acculturation and Food Cultures at BU project

Dr Michele Board – ‘Evaluation of dementia training designed for hospital care staff’

Dr Michele Board – Student Research Assistant to review the literature on ‘What factors enable a more humanised approach to care in a residential setting

Dr Milena Bobeva – Research Assistant

Dr Milena Bobeva – Research Assistant in exploring the value of project-based experiential learning

Dr Nan Jiang – Optimising a web based decision making tool for cancer care

Dr Neelu Seetaram – An investigation of the types of tourism taxes imposed at destinations worldwide

Dr Nigel Williams – A visual tale of 3 Cities

Dr Rosie Read – From fieldwork to published article: Turning student ethnographic research co-produced publications

Dr Sangeeta Khorana – UK Trade Policy Post Brexit

Dr Shamal Faily – CAIRIS

Sharon Docherty – Visual perceptions and falls

Dr Shelley Thompson – Women, Science and Journalism Student Research Assistant

Simon Thomas – An investigation of the placement year on student’s career expectations

Dr Steven Trenoweth – A literature review of the factors affecting mental distress of Post-Graduate Research (PGR) student

Dr Tim Breitbarth – Sport and Society: Public Perceptions and Social Media Conversations about the Social Value of Sport

Dr Vanessa Heaslip – Mobile Web App for Migrants Project – Student Research Assistant

Dr Vanessa Heaslip – Supporting Educational Attainment, Progression and Aspiration of young, white disadvantaged males

Dr Viachaslau Filimonau – Food donations in the UK grocery retail sector – The role of local charities

Dr Viachaslau Filimonau – Tourism and (food) waste – a systematic literature review of an emerging research domain

 

Please promote these vacancies to students where applicable.  All jobs are live on MyCareerHub, our Careers & Employability online careers tool.  You will need to use your staff/student credentials to login.

Please do look out for SRA updates on the BU Research Blog.

If you have any questions about this scheme, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP and Student Projects) on 61347 or email sra@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

The strange science of odour memory – BU published in the Conversation

Knowledge Exchange

Andrew Johnson, Bournemouth University and Andrew Moss, Bournemouth University

Smell is a powerful sense. It can improve alertness, reduce anxiety and influence self-confidence. Certain odours can even prime people to have safe sex. The Conversation

Odours provide a richness to our perception of the world. But, despite the ubiquity of smell, we understand less about smell memory than we do about visual and auditory memory.

The classic example of smell memory is what has become known as a Proustian memory (or involuntary memory). For this phenomenon, mere exposure to a stimulus can automatically trigger a strong memory from the past. For Proust, it was tea-soaked madeleine that activated a detailed memory of his aunt’s house.

A simple madeleine plunged Proust back to his youth.
vm2002/Shutterstock.com

As a researcher of odour memory, people often tell me stories of smells that triggered vivid autobiographical memories. This might be the smell of hospital food, a certain alcoholic drink or the shampoo of a former lover. This strong relationship between odour and emotion is thought to result from the part of the brain involved in processing odours being positioned within the limbic system – an area of the brain integral to emotion.

Testing short-term memory for smells

Not all smell is stored in long-term memory, though. Some smells are only retained in memory for short periods. Imagine you’re shopping for a new aftershave or perfume. You wouldn’t smell two products at the same time as it would be difficult to distinguish between the two. To decide which one you prefer, you need to smell them one after the other. This means you have to temporarily store the smell and then recall it to make a comparison. We have been examining how people store odours in short-term memory and the extent to which odour memory works differently from other types of memory.

The simplest explanation is that people perform smell memory tasks by verbally labelling the odours (for example: “smells like cheese”). But using this kind of verbal strategy results in the memory task being a test of verbal rather than olfactory memory, because we’re storing the word “cheese” in verbal memory not the actual smell of cheese in odour memory. As researchers, we can limit the use of this strategy by selecting odours that are hard to name. For example, non-food odours are typically harder to label.

Another trick we use is asking participants to repeat words that are irrelevant to the task during the test; this is called “concurrent articulation”. Concurrent articulation disrupts the participant’s ability to name the odours and their ability to silently rehearse the names during the task. For example, if you’re repeating “the, the, the” while sniffing something that smells like new-mown grass, you won’t be able to store the words “new-mown grass” in your verbal memory. It’s a bit like trying to read a book while listening to the news.

It has been shown that people can perform short-term olfactory memory tasks when the odours are hard to name,
and when undertaking concurrent articulation. These findings suggest that while verbal labelling can improve the memory for an odour, people are also able to store the actual odour within memory. This is supported by research showing that different parts of the brain are activated when remembering easy-to-name and hard-to-name odours; specifically, the inferior frontal gyrus and the piriform cortex, respectively.

One method by which olfactory short-term memory has been compared with other types of memory is by examining how well people can remember a list of odours. Depending on the specifics of the memory task, people are typically good at remembering the first and last item on a list (a phenomena known as primacy and recency). There is some evidence that, for some tasks, smell memory produces different primacy and recency effects to that of other stimuli. These differences might indicate that your smell memory works in a different way to other types of memory.

Smell memory as a diagnostic tool

You might, quite reasonably, ask why you should be interested in testing smell memory, since most of the time we use our olfactory perception to make judgements about odours (that smell is nice/horrible). But research has shown that an impaired sense of smell memory is a predictor of developing dementia.

To further emphasise this link, people with the ApoE gene (a genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s), who show no signs of dementia, have impaired odour identification. These findings suggest that an olfactory memory test could potentially be used as part of the armoury in detecting the early stages of dementia. Early detection is important, as the earlier the intervention, the better the outcome.

Andrew Johnson, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth University and Andrew Moss, PhD Student in Cognitive Psychology, Bournemouth University

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

MSCA COFUND Call is now open!

Funding opportunities, Info Days, international

Would your research group benefit from a doctoral or fellowship programme?

Would you like to help support the careers of researchers?

Does your research have the potential to be of international significance?

If so, take a look at the funding available through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action COFUND scheme!

‘The COFUND scheme aims to stimulate regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence in researchers’ training, mobility and career development, spreading the best practices of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

This will be achieved by co-funding new or existing regional, national, and international programmes to open up to, and provide for, international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.’ (Participant Portal call page)

This call closes on 28th September 2017.

UKRO, as the UK National Contact Point for MSCA, is hosting the UK Info Day in the afternoon of 18th May, in London. This event is free or charge but you must register. Find out more on the UKRO website.

 

BU staff are strongly advised to register, via BU’s subscription, on the UKRO website, so that you can receive announcements concerning EU funding direct to your own inbox – make sure that you hear first!

If you are considering applying, please contact Emily Cieciura, REKO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, in the first instance.

Applying for funding from NIHR – Patient and Public Involvement – Resources Available

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, RKEO held a session on Applying for funding from NIHR – Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). Dr Louise Worswick, Research Fellow / former PPI Senior Programme Manager at the NIHR, outlined what is meant by PPI, and how this can be applied to health research. Helen Allen, Research Psychologist and RDS South West PPI Lead spoke about the importance of involving the public and patients in research, and how you can ensure you get the most out of patient involvement.

 

The resources from the session are now available on MyBU. To access them, please logon to the ‘Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework’ community, and under ‘Pathways’ select ‘National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)’.

 

Many thanks to Louise and to Helen for a fascinating insight into PPI. For further information, please contact Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO Research Facilitator.

Masterclass: Developing Interdisciplinarity

Fusion, innovation

Thursday 4th May 2017, 9.30-11.00 at Talbot Campus

In this session Professor Barry Richards will take us through the story of how intellectual and political interdisciplinarity established across both education and research, defined a new academic specialism which now has courses and departments in several universities, journals and a book series with major publishers and growing connections with professional practices.

This is part of the Leading Innovation Masterclasses series.

There are two other masterclasses in May: ‘Benchmarking your students’ digital experience’ with Jisc’s Sarah Knight, and ‘The clinical doctorate model – Enabling Practitioner Research’ with Professor Vanora Hundley.

Find out more about these and book a place at the following link:
Leading Innovation – Masterclasses