Skip to main content

/ Full archive

Launch Date of the *new* RKE Development Framework- 20th September 2016

BU research, Research Training

dev_frameworkThe new Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development framework will launch on September 20th.

Come join us at our information stands on launch day at the EBC Ground Floor (Lansdowne Campus) or in the Poole House Courtyard (Talbot Campus) between 9am-5pm on September 20th, 2016.

The Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework offers a range of opportunities for academics at all career stages to develop their skills, knowledge and capabilities in relation to research and knowledge exchange.

How to use the framework
• For further information and to book, please go to:
www.bournemouth.ac.uk/rke-development-framework
• Review the pathways available
• Discuss the pathways with your line manager as
part of your professional development planning
• Determine which pathways or individual sessions
are relevant to you.

 

Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework: Working with Business Pathway

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership

The Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Framework: Working with Business pathway focuses on developing interactions with a business audience.  Please see previous blog posts in the Development Framework for information on the separate pathways.

The aim of the ‘Working with Business’ pathway is to develop your skills to connect with the business community including networking, identifying project funding – including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and building project teams involving businesses.  Sessions have been planned with these key areas as a focus.

Further information on this pathway will appear on the OD website including booking links over the summer.  Updates on this pathway and the wider RKE Development Framework will appear on the BU research blog.

Technology in the hands

Small companies offered £1.2m to seek out global partners

Business Engagement, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

Global

 

Innovate UK has launched a fund to encourage small British firms to work with international businesses and to help them enter global markets.

UK businesses looking to create international business networks can apply for funding to enable commercial research and innovation partnerships. It will also help businesses explore ideas for future collaboration.

Innovate UK is funding this competition. It is open to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The funding will enable SMEs to carry out short feasibility studies and spend time abroad. The competition will encourage UK firms to create long term partnerships with overseas companies. It will also help them gain a better understanding of collaborative opportunities.

Competition information

  • The competition opens on 5 August 2016
  • The deadline for registration is noon on 21 September 2016
  • The deadline for application is noon on 28 September 2016
  • A UK SME must lead the project
  • A UK SME can carry out the project on their own or work with other UK partners
  • Only UK SMEs will receive funding
  • Innovate UK will fund projects with eligible costs of up to £30,000
  • Businesses may receive funding of up to 70% of their total project costs
  • Projects should last up to 4 months

Click here for further information and how to apply.

Multidisciplinary research: where Fusion meets REF

BU research, Fusion, PG research, student research

“We have developed multidisciplinary research within the Department of Design & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Technology at BU in collaboration with major international, national and regional industrial and HEI partners”, Associate Professor Zulfiqar Khan said. He added, “multidisciplinary research within NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling (NCEM) theme is a direct response to industrial needs in terms of enhancing design for durability & reliability, meeting the demands for generating energy from renewable sources and enhancing students learning experience through research informed education. New knowledge, created during this process, is shared with stakeholders and academic communities through relevant platforms.

Multidisciplinary research within NCEM is led by Zulfiqar and includes the development of nano coatings (nano composites and graphene; materials science and engineering) to increase service life of machines and equipment deployed in harsh operational and environmental conditions (design & engineering), understanding corrosion (materials science and mechanical engineering) issues to prevent structural failures within machines, automotive, locomotives, large structures & marine applications (preventative and predictive condition monitoring; MEMS, NEMS, Micro LPRs) and developing cutting edge solar thermal techniques to generate mechanical and heat energies from renewable sources (mechanical engineering; heat transfer and nano additives).

The objectives of this research are to develop state of the art novel and innovative energy efficient design for durability and reliability solutions applied in wide ranging industrial applications, bring about socio-economic benefits including impacts on cultural life via public engagement. This research is fully and match funded through a current portfolio of one postdoctoral research assistant and four PhD students by major industrial and HEI partners plus three PhD projects were completed early this year.

Majority of you would have had a chance to read through the Stern’s review of REF which was released in late July, “steps taken to promote interdisciplinary and other joint working internally and externally and to support engagement and impact, beyond that which is just the aggregate of individual units of assessment (para.88)”. “The proposal to allow the (tick-box) identification interdisciplinary outputs, as well as document the role of ‘interdisciplinary champions’ (para. 100)”

Zulfiqar said, “our vision of developing and engaging in multidisciplinary research which is industrially relevant, academically robust and has significant socio-economic value will play an important role in the REF 2021 and beyond and we are better positioned to lead in this area”. He has previously led the University Sustainable Design Research Centre between 2007-2015 and the centre received its REF14 Panel Feedback as, “Sustainable Design Research Group had the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent”.

Fusion of research, education and professional practice is a key to lead to multidisciplinary research. BU Fusion of research, education and professional practice is at the heart of BU 2018 strategy. Zulfiqar said, “we have been and are currently delivering research informed education through the delivery of several UG/PG taught courses. This is a major contributor in enhancing students’ learning experience and enabling them to be more employable both in the country and globally.

He previously led the final year Design Engineering, Advanced Technology & Innovation 40 credit unit. Students participated in research activities which led them to publish journal and international conference papers including an invited Springer book chapter.

He developed a 20 credit Thermo fluids & Heat Transfer unit, taught in the second year of BEng/MEng course. Education in this unit is research informed and the unit is supported by laboratory experimentations. This provides an opportunity for the students to bridge the gap between theory and practice. He has also developed two new units Fluids and Thermodynamics L5/Year 2 MEng (Hons) Mech Engg and Thermofluids and Energy Conversion L6/Year 4 MEng (Hons) Mech Engg for recent IMechE accreditation. Education in these units will be supported by state of the art experimental techniques with in kind support from industrial partner and informed by current research in renewable energy technology within NCEM.

Zulfiqar is also leading first year Design Methods & Projects a 40 credit unit in the Design Engineering course. This unit has several projects that allow students to solve real world industrial problems and engage in research within corrosion, contact mechanics and materials science through a live project with The Tank Museum Bovington.

Both Fusion and multidisciplinary research are benefiting students in terms of their learning experience, solving immediate and challenging industrial problems, improving standard of life and bringing economic impacts including impacts on cultural life.

Some latest research activities are documented in recent publications, for further information you may contact Zulfiqar Khan.

Security by Design through “Human Centered” Specification Exemplars

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Impact

IMG_2778-300x300

A year ago, we received Fusion funding to build the Bournemouth-Athens Network in Critical Infrastructure Security. The aim of this project was to build collaborative links between the BU Cyber Security Research group and the Information Security & Critical Infrastructure Protection Laboratory at Athens University of Economics & Business (AUEB). We built these links by working on a joint project, which we advanced through visits and other activities.

The aim of our joint activities was to build human-centered specification exemplars of Critical Infrastructure (CI) operating environments.
We depend on infrastructure associated with things like water, gas, electricity, or transport, but the criticality of such infrastructure is usually lost on us because it fades into the background of our everyday lives. The damage or loss of such infrastructure is only felt when it becomes unavailable, and its significance can range from mild annoyance if its means the trains are late, through to civil disorder and loss of life if we are unable to access clean water for a prolonged period. Despite their importance, there are no useful models of environments that people can use when developing or evaluating technology for CI. Our work aimed to remedy this by building specification exemplars for typical CI companies. In doing so, these would capture the human nuances associated with different aspects of CI, and help people identify possible security issues associated with new ideas before, rather than after, they are deployed in the field.

Together, a team of BU and AUEB researchers carried out work to build two specification exemplars of hypothetical CI companies. One of these was a UK Water Company (ACME Water). The other was a rail company in South East Europe (Balkan Rail). BU hosted researchers from AUEB and ran a number of workshops to identify different security aspects of these companies. In return, AUEB hosted BU undergraduate research assistants as they collected data from a Greek CI company, and ran workshops to develop and evaluate different aspects of the exemplars with AUEB researchers.

The exemplars have been made publicly available, and are modelled using CAIRIS – an open-source security design tool maintained by researchers at BU. To date, several publications have so far arisen from our preliminary work building [1] and applying the ACME Water exemplar [2, 3, 4]. We’re also using the exemplars as part of our teaching to provide case studies for Forensic & Computer Security lab exercises and seminars. Although the studies provided are hypothetical, they are grounded in real world data, and make visible to students the root causes of a variety of cybersecurity risks.

Looking forward, our work has gained the interest of a number of UK and international collaborators, and we’re looking for opportunities to build a library of human-cantered specification exemplars for many other, non-CI, environments. Such environments might include homes, and different types of ‘soft target’. Our long term aim is to make sure people don’t design security as an afterthought. Our work on BANCIS has made a small, but significant, step towards achieving this goal.

References

[1] S. Faily, G. Lykou, A. Partridge, D. Gritzalis, A. Mylonas, and V. Katos, “Human-Centered Specification Exemplars for Critical Infrastructure Environments,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers, 2016.

[2] S. Faily, C. Iacob, and S. Field, “Ethical Hazards and Safeguards in Penetration Testing,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016. 

[3] D. Ki-Aries, S. Faily, and K. Beckers, “Persona-Driven Information Security Awareness,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016. 

[4] A. Partridge and S. Faily, “The application of useless japanese inventions for requirements elicitation in information security,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016. 

HE Policy Update

Uncategorized

REF Review

The outcome of Lord Stern’s independent review makes 12 recommendations for the future of the REF. Notably, the report suggests that all research active staff should be returned in the REF and should be allocated to a unit of assessment. You can view the report here. Wonkhe has a piece which analyses how the sector has reacted to the recommendations.

Home Office

The Home Office released some updated guidance on Tier 4 of the points based system. The guidance reveals a two-year pilot scheme which eases visa rules for those applying to master’s courses at the University of Bath, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and Imperial College London.  The pilot means that students applying to study a Masters course for 13 months or less at these institutions will be allowed to stay in the UK for six months after the end of their courses to find a graduate job here. You can view the guidance here (pg 92).

TEF

Chris Husbands, the Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, has been named as the first chair of the Teaching Excellence Framework. Professor Husbands, will lead the assessment panel that will make decisions on university ratings in the second and third year of the TEF (2017-18 and 2018-19), which will decide whether universities are allowed to raise their fees in line with inflation in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Chris Husbands appointed as TEF chair. (THE).  

 The Department for Education

In the recent report by the Department for Education Widening participation in higher education: 2016, the government reveals that 85% of private school pupils went to higher education, compared with 62% of those from state schools by the age of 19 in 2013-14. The figures also reveal a drop from 66% to 62% in state school pupils progressing to university between 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. You can view the report here.

Party Conferences

 The 2016 Party conferences have been announced

  • Green Party of England and Wales – Friday 2 September to Sunday 4 September 2016 at the University of Birmingham
  • UKIP – Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 September at the Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
  • Liberal Democrats – Saturday 17 September to Wednesday 21 September at the Brighton Centre, Brighton
  • Labour – Sunday 25 September to Wednesday 28 September 2016 at the ACC Liverpool, Liverpool
  • Conservatives – Sunday 2 to Wednesday 5 October at International Convention Centre, Birmingham
  • Scottish National Party – Thursday 13 to Saturday 15 October at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow

 

ColLab Festival – Showcasing digital innovation, growth and collaboration across the UK

Events, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

 

ColLab Festival (19-23 September) is a jam-packed week of events , aiming to explore the current landscape of the UK’s digital economy.

During the week, you’ll get the chance to discuss where global tech investment lies, understand virtual reality opportunities, learn how you can work with the Catapult family and much more.

Click the link  below to see all  the  ColLab Festival events. Hurry – places will go fast for these sessions, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Click here for more information.

 

 

Dementia toolkit to help patients, carers and healthcare workers – now live!

Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Research news

dementia

The aim of this Dementia Evidence Toolkit is to make all information publicly that is publicly available, available in a form that is clear and easy to understand for dementia patients, their families and unpaid carers as well as for staff working in health and social care. It will also benefit academics and those involved in decision-making both locally and nationally.

Launched at the beginning of August , the toolkit devised by Adelina Comas-Herrera, David McDaid, Professor Martin Knapp and colleagues, is the first of its kind globally, and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The Dementia Evidence Toolkit brings together more than 3,000 journal articles and 700 reviews of research studies in one place.

The toolkit is in the form of a comprehensive online database featuring the latest scientific evidence on what works in dementia care and treatment has been developed by the researchers at the Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science (PSSRU at LSE).

Dementia is the fastest growing major cause of health-related disability across the world, and the health, social and economic impacts are increasing because of an ageing population. There are around 850,000 people in the UK with the condition, a figure expected to rise to 2 million by 2051. There are currently no cures for dementia which is associated with ongoing cognitive decline such as memory loss, problems with judgement and often some behavioural issues. Instead, the focus for healthcare services is on slowing down dementia progression using different care approaches.

Read the press release in full.

Creative Industries – new 5 year strategy

Business Engagement, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

BFX 0716

The Creative Industries Council’s new 5 year strategy proclaims amazing news for the Creative Industries. With the sector growing at 8.9% a year (making it the second fastest growing sector), the UK’s Creative Industries is vital to the UK’s economy.

The 2016 strategy refresh is demanding but attainable, with a focus on driving economic value, through support for business growth, job growth, exports and inward investment.  The sector seeks to build on existing trade relationships and to unlock the potential of the sector in international markets with a primary focus on the USA and key territories in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.  Review the Nesta/Creative England report on the Geography of Creativity . This includes rich content about  regional opportunities.

The Geography of Creativity in the UK

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

nesta_logo

In this report, in partnership with Creative England, NESTA have used the latest data and official definitions to map the creative industries in the UK. The  goal is to provide a data resource to demonstrate the economic significance of the creative industries across the country, and inform policies to strengthen them further.

Findings

  • The creative industries are becoming more important in local economies across the UK. Between 2007 and 2014 they became more important in local business population in 9 out of every 10 locations.
  • Identified 47 creative clusters across the UK. London and the South East are important components of the UK creative industries, but so are the North, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These clusters grew their creative employment by 28% between 2007 and 2014
  • The UK’s geography of creativity isn’t only about ‘hip creative cities’,  clusters in creative conurbations across the country have also been identifed.
  • Creative communities in different parts of the country are working together across cluster and administrative boundaries. The geography of the UK creative industries is an interconnected system.

Policy recommendations

  • Support the development of clusters outside of London and the South East
  • Continue efforts to share the benefits of London’s status as a global creative industries hub across the UK
  • Local Enterprise Partnerships and universities should consider what more they can do to address the strengths and weaknesses within their particular area, such as an over reliance on large firms or growing links between graduate talent pools and creative clusters
  • Networks of UK creative industries should strive to maintain their global reach.

(This work contains statistical data from ONS which is Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.)

Download the full report.

Events for innovators, entrepreneurs and investors

Business Engagement, Events, Info Days, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

events

Innovate UK supports many events that bring together innovators, successful entrepreneurs and investors. At the events information and advice  is available highlighting the type of support and funding that is currently available. Find and more and register for upcoming events:

Venturefest Manchester – Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, M2 3WS
Date: 21 September 2016
View speaker line up
Find out more & register >>

Venturefest Wales – SSE SWALEC, Cardiff, CF11 9XR
Date: 28 September 2016
View the full programme
Find out more & register >>

Venturefest Scotland – Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow, G51 1EA
Date: 1 September 2016
View the agenda
Find out more & register >>

New Scientist Live – ExCeL London, E16 1XL
Date: 22 – 25 September 2016
We will be attending the New Scientist Live event where our Chief Executive, Dr Ruth McKernan MBE, will be talking about Therapies of the Future on Friday 23rd September.
See what’s on
Find out more & register >>

Low Carbon Vehicle Event 2016 – Millbrook, Bedford, MK45 2JQ
Date: 14 – 15 September 2016
Our stand will showcase some of our many successful LCV projects and be an opportunity to meet the Innovate UK and KTN team.
View the Seminar Programme
Find out more & register >>

Innovate 2016  – Manchester Central
Date: 2 – 3 November 2016.
Innovate 2016 is  Innovate UK’s  flagship event showcasing the very best of innovation talent and global opportunities for businesses.
Find out more & register >>

Why not update  Innovate UK with your location so you can receive relevant communications including events in your area Update my location>>

 

Research in the news: do we all need a ‘digital diet’?

BU research, Research communication

A ‘digital diet’ is the practice of controlling the obsessive and excessive usage of digital media, explains Dr Raian Ali, Principal Academic in Computing at BU.

Digital addiction, to games in particular, is often associated with negative life experiences and sometimes serious consequences such as neglecting children and personal health and hygiene conditions. With games like Pokémon Go such addiction could be argued to take cyber-physical form resulting in physical harm such as car accidents and visiting risky places. This motivated us to think of a more responsible way of designing of technology, which would include intelligent and interactive digital addiction labels and warning messages.

Technology can also exacerbate problematic work styles, where people remain connected to their job all the time. We argue that online communication systems are not designed to help reduce preoccupation but indeed often facilitate it.

What is ‘Digital Diet Technology’? 
Digital Diet Technology denotes software applications meant to help people monitor and regulate their digital usage and reduce their digital addiction. The technology uses techniques like tracking the amount of usage and visualizing in some form of infographic, allowing users to set up limits of usage and enabling their digital devices to lock automatically and ask them to take a break, comparing their usage to an average user and so on.

Why is it questionable?
The lack of clear scientific background of such technology is what motivated our research. We suspected that ‘digital diet’ technology may have undesirable side-effects, similar to typical cases in utilizing persuasive technology to change behaviour.

As part of our Digital Addiction research and the work done in our ESOTICS research group at Bournemouth University in collaboration with StreetScene  Addiction Recovery, we conducted empirical research using diary study method followed by interviews involving participants with problematic usage of their mobile phones. They had to install and use popular commercial Digital Diet apps for two weeks.  The study indicated a number of issues.

 Misunderstanding and Misjudgement 
These apps monitor and evaluate the amount of usage time and frequency. However, digital addiction is not only, and not necessarily, about the time spent and frequency of use. Think of social network users who post a comment and keep thinking of the replies they could be getting even when they should be sleeping.

Lowering Self-esteem
This may happen when a user receives repetitively a message or a score indicating a failure of self-regulated goal or that others are managing to regulate their usage better. Hence, we need a more intelligent classification of users and their groups so that we issue suitable messages and comparisons.

Creating parallel addiction 
Some participants said they became more inclined to check their mobile phone to know how they compare to others and how much time they had spent so far which may cause further anxiety and lead them to check other apps. It is like “inviting someone to a pub to talk about their alcohol addiction.”

Lack of Interest and Unsustainable effect 
Despites of the usefulness of measuring usage, participants generally felt that the apps were too much of a one-size-fits-all and were too simplistic. The messages sent, the avatars used and the comparisons made do not tend to cluster users and recognize their personality, usage style and perception of their own usage.

For more information about Raian’s research, see his recent blog posts for the Huffington Post here and here.