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Publish Open Access in Springer Journals for Free!

Guidance, open access, Publishing

Open-Access-logoBU has an agreement with Springer which enables its authors to publish articles open access in one of the Springer Open Choice journals at no additional cost.

There are hundreds of titles included in this agreement, some of which are – Hydrobiologia, European Journal of Nutrition, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Climatic Change, Marine Biology and the Journal of Business Ethics. A full list of the journals included can be found here

To make sure that your article is covered by this new agreement, when your article has been accepted for publication, Springer will ask you to confirm the following:

  • My article has been accepted by an Open Choice eligible journal
  • I am the corresponding author (please use your institutional email address not your personal one)
  • I am affiliated with an eligible UK institution (select your institutions name)
  • My article matches one of these types: OriginalPaper, ReviewPaper, BriefCommunication or ContinuingEducation

Springer will then verify these details with us and then your article will be made available in open access with a CC BY licence.

Please note that 30 Open Choice journals are not included in this agreement as they do not offer CC BY licensing.

If you have any questions about the agreement or the process, please contact OpenAccess@bournemouth.ac.uk

Subtropical Florida – an excellent place to study microbes.

conferences

Ph.D. Student Hunter Hines, supervised by Prof Genoveva Esteban of SciTech’s Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, presented their research earlier this month in USA: Florida’s tropical ciliates; novel records and new species. The conference, American Society of Microbiology (Florida Branch) was attended by about 200 scientists, covering all aspects of microbiology. Hosted by Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS), University of Miami, the meeting took place on beautiful Key Biscayne, an island off the coast of the city of Miami. Hunter presented the highlights of his PhD project thus far; including the discovery of several first records for the Americas of some (unicellular) ciliated protozoan species.  Also included was a species Hunter discovered recently which is likely new to science, and the focus of current research.  These novel single-celled organisms help to advance theories of microbial ecology and dispersal, and the presentation received excellent feedback.  Prof Peter McCarthy (Hunter’s co-supervisor in USA) of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) was also in attendance for the conference, along with his HBOI lab group.

 

New projects in the Student Project Bank

There are new projects in the Student Project Bank! Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for their dissertation, assignment, unit or group work. They are also available for extra-curricular experience. Members of staff may also choose a project to set to their students. New projects are listed below, these will be added to the list of available projects on the website shortly.

SPB017: Next Economy Project: How can the resources, assets and influence of historical organisations with social purpose be unlocked to support the growth of a new economy?

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Research project exploring how the resources, assets and influence of historical organisations with social purpose, especially churches, could be ‘unlocked’ to support the growth of a new economy that is sustainable, resilient and more equitable.

 SPB018: Produce a series of articles exploring the challenges facing the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE)

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Dorset Community Action is working with Dorset Communities Forum to raise awareness of the challenges facing the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE) through a series of stories/ case studies linking the work of local VCSEs, and relating the challenges they face, with public sector service cuts, and the importance of the role of VCSE organisations in how public services will be delivered for years to come. There is potential these articles will be published in local magazines and online.

SPB019: Create a brand identity for Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign to raise awareness of challenges facing Dorset’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Create a brand identity than can be used to promote Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign. This will be used to influence the look and feel of their website and marketing materials.

SPB020: Create a website for Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign to raise awareness of challenges facing Dorset’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Create a website than can be used to promote Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign. The website will host a series of articles and case studies about Dorset’s VCSE sector.

SPB021: Create social media campaign strategy for Dorset Community Action and Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign to raise awareness of challenges facing Dorset’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Design a social media campaign to raise awareness of challenges facing Dorset’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector

SPB022: Create an evaluation strategy for Dorset Community Action and Dorset Communities Forum’s campaign to raise awareness of challenges facing Dorset’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     A series of articles will be published in local magazines, as well as a social media campaign and a website to raise awareness of the challenges facing the VCSE sector. Create a strategy to evaluate the reach, impact and efficacy of this campaign.

SPB023: Create a short promo video introducing Ododow and The Community Pledge

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Ododow is an interactive community map that aims to make it easier for people in crisis to find the right support at the right time. Create a short (approx. 3 minutes) two-part promo video introducing Ododow and The Community Pledge. The video will be able to be split into two sections, one for introducing Ododow and one for The Community Pledge.

 SPB024: Develop a marketing campaign to raise awareness of Ododow and The Community Pledge

Suitable for:     Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Description:     Ododow is an interactive community map that aims to make it easier for people in crisis to find the right support at the right time. Develop a marketing campaign to raise awareness of Ododow and The Community Pledge.

Apply now

If you would like to find out more and apply for one of the above projects, send us an email to request a project brief and an application form.

Royal Academy of Engineering – SME Leaders Programme

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Training

Royal Academy Engineering

 

Are you working with engineering companies that would be interested in this funding opportunity?

Why not send them this information in order that they can consider making an application ?

The Royal Academy of Engineering, sponsored through the Enterprise Hub, invites applications for its small- and medium-sized enterprises leaders programme. This supports promising leaders of high growth engineering SMEs. Recipients receive a grant of between £10,000 to £15,000 towards the cost of training courses and executive education for themselves.

This scheme is open for applications  by SMEs until 4pm on 24 November 2016. For further details on the scheme click on this link.

 

 

 

Using flow cytometry to monitor harmful algae in coastal waters: establishing a regional testing arena in Poole Harbour with national benefits

Awarded & submitted bids, BU Challenges, HEIF, Knowledge Transfer

This innovative HEIF-funded project aims to test the use of flow cytometry for its ability to replace outdated and labour-intensive ways of working (microscope assessments) for the detection of harmful algae in coastal waters. This is a research need currently under consideration by U.K. Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) government scientists but is not a service offered commercially by any environmental consultants. The societal need is food safety: harmful algae can accumulate in shellfish and cause human poisoning, resulting in conditions known as amnesic, paralytic and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (ASP, PSP and DSP). Harmful algae are therefore monitored by both shellfish producers and public health scientists. Shellfish production is a significant part of the regional economy of Dorset (Poole Harbour is a major national site of oyster and mussel production for example) and harmful algae have been detected locally, sometimes resulting in shellfishery closures which can have major economic impact. The project is funded until summer 2017 and the core team is composed of Ian Chapman and Dan Franklin in the Department of Life & Environmental Sciences, with support from other LES colleagues via a project board.

Open Access in Horizon 2020

BRIAN, Guidance, open access, Publishing

horizon 2020Open access to peer reviewed publications has been anchored as an underlying principle in the Horizon 2020 and is explained in the Regulation and the Rules of Participation. If you are a beneficiary or hoping to be a beneficiary of a Horizon 2020 grant, you need to be aware of your obligations to publish open access. Below are some of the key points taken from Horizon 2020 guidance which can be accessed in full here.

Are you supposed to deposit?

All Horizon 2020 beneficiaries are required to deposit and ensure open access.

What to deposit

  • A machine-readable electronic copy of the published version publisher’s final version of the paper, including all modifications from the peer review process, copyediting and stylistic edits, and formatting changes (usually a PDF document)

OR

  • A final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication final manuscript of a peer-reviewed paper accepted for journal publication, including all modifications from the peer review process, but not yet formatted by the publisher (also referred to as “post-print” version).

Where to deposit

Researchers should deposit in a repository for publications of their choice. In order to manage and monitor open access compliance, BU request that all authors publish in our institutional repository (BURO) this can be done easily through BRIAN. Further information on how to do this can  be accessed here.

When to deposit

Each beneficiary must deposit as soon as possible. To comply with HEFCEs Open Access policy this should be on acceptance of the article.

Open-Access-logoWhen should Open Access be provided

Each beneficiary must ensure open access to the deposited publication — via the repository — at the latest: (i) on publication, if an electronic version is available for free via the publisher, or (ii) within six months of publication (twelve months for publications in the social sciences and humanities) in any other case.

For open access publishing, researchers can publish in open access journals, or in journals that sell subscriptions and also offer the possibility of making individual articles openly accessible (hybrid journals).  Where the case, the Author Processing Charges (APCs) incurred by beneficiaries are eligible for reimbursement during the duration of the action. For APCs incurred after the end of their grant agreement, a mechanism for paying some of these costs will be piloted. In the case of open access publishing open access must be granted at the latest on publication.

Beneficiaries must also ensure open access to the bibliographic metadata that identify the deposited publication. The bibliographic metadata must be in a standard format and must include all of the following:

  • the terms [“European Union (EU)” and “Horizon 2020”][“Euratom” and Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018″];
  • the name of the action, acronym and grant number;
  • the publication date, and length of embargo period if applicable, and
  • a persistent identifier.

In all cases, the Commission encourages authors to retain their copyright and grant adequate licences to publishers. Creative Commons offers useful licensing solutions in this regard (e.g. CC-BY, see Creative Commons Licenses).

In the context of the digital era, the notion of’ publication’ increasingly includes the data underpinning the publication and results presented, also referred to as ‘underlying’ data. Beneficiaries must aim to deposit at the same time the research data needed to validate the results presented in the deposited scientific publications, ideally into a data repository, and aim to make open access to this data. But there is no obligation to do so.

Tags:

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:

Academy of Medical Sciences

SUSTAIN pilot programme

This programme enables female researchers to thrive in their independent research careers by providing interactive career development workshops, a peer support network and one-to-one mentoring. The programme covers travel to London as well as hotel accommodation and optional childcare support during the first regional workshop.

Maximum award: Unknown

Closing date: 02 Dec 16

British Academy

Conference Program

This supports conferences on subjects in the humanities and social sciences held at the British Academy’s premises in London, UK. Funding covers the costs of administration, catering, preparation of delegate packs and promotional material, and contributes to travel and accommodation costs for speakers, chairs and convenors.

Maximum award: Unknown

Closing date: 24 Feb 17 (recurring)

Economic and Social Research Council

Celebrating impact prize

The Celebrating Impact Prize, now in its fifth year, is an annual opportunity to recognise and reward ESRC-funded researchers and ESRC associates. It celebrates outstanding ESRC research and success in interdisciplinary, collaborative working, partnerships, engagement and knowledge exchange activities that have led to significant impact.

Maximum award: £10,000

Closing date: 01 Dec 16

Wellcome Trust

Research career re-entry fellowships

These fellowships provide postdoctoral scientists with the opportunity to re-establish their scientific careers after a continuous break from research of at least two years. Fellowships are tenable for four years and cover salaries, research expenses, materials and consumables, animals and travel and subsistence.

Maximum award: Unknown

Closing date: 04 May 17

Sir Henry Wellcome postdoctoral fellowships

These fellowships enable newly qualified postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to start independent research careers, working in some of the best research environments in the world. Fellowships provide £250,000 over four years, covering the basic salary determined by the host institution, and research expenses such as materials and consumables, animals, travel and overseas subsistence.

Maximum award: £250,000

Closing date: 04 May 17

 

Seed Awards in Science

Seed Awards in Science help researchers develop new ideas to make them competitive for larger awards (from us or other organisations).

Maximum award: £25,000 – £100,000

Closing date: 16 Mar 17 (recurring)

 

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.

Welcoming Dr Caitlin Potter to the BU Eco-Coding team

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

ecocoding-with-subtitle

We would like to welcome Dr Caitlin Potter who joined our Eco-Coding team from Bangor University on the 31st October. Her previous work has been on microbial communities of peatlands using metagenomic techniques and she will bring expertise and experience to the Eco-coding project.

Now that Caitlin is with us we look forward to the next stage of the project; discovering what our urban pollinators have been feeding on.

Click here for more information on this project and check out our new project page on the BU Research Website.

CaitlinPotter

European Research Council – Consolidator Grants

Funding opportunities

ercWhat are ERC Grants?

The ERC Work Programme 2017 sets out the objectives and principles of ERC funding. ERC Starting and Consolidator Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal. ERC grants are open to researchers of any nationality, who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country .

The ERC’s frontier research grants operate on a ‘bottom-up’ basis without predetermined priorities. Applications can be made in any field of research with particular emphasis on the frontiers of science, scholarship and engineering6 . In particular, proposals of an interdisciplinary nature, which cross the boundaries between different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research or proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions are encouraged.

The next call for the Consolidator Grant closes on 9th February 2017. Consolidator Grants can be up to a maximum of EUR 2,000,000 for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration).

Are you at this stage?

  • Have you been awarded your first PhD > 7 and ≤ 12 years prior to 1 January 2017 – cut-off dates: PhD awarded from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2009 (inclusive)?
  • Can you demonstrate research excellence?
  • Are you starting or consolidating your own independent research team or programme?
  • Do you have several important publications as main author or without the participation of your PhD supervisor?

The ERC guidance for Starting and Consolidator grants guidance has recently been updated.

What next?

If you are considering applying to this scheme, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, as soon as possible.

 

Research Professional alerts are changing

Funding opportunities

Research-Professional-logo‘Research Fingerprinting’ is a new development on the Research Professional platform that delivers highly relevant funding opportunities to researchers.  This will go live at BU on Tuesday, 8th November.

How does it work?

Using advanced, highly-targeted algorithms, in combination with their extensive industry knowledge and refined discipline taxonomy, Research Fingerprinting generates personal funding alerts for the majority of the researchers at our institution, based on publicly available information about your research interests and published work.

Once deployed, fingerprinting will perfectly match our researchers with their research interests and help deliver the most relevant funding opportunities into your inbox every week. You will be able to edit your fingerprint if you find that the some of the disciplines do not match your research interests.

You will already have alerts set up and so when this is switched on, you will receive two alerts on a Friday. You can compare these to see which is finding the most relelvant funding opportunities. This should be the Fingerprint and so you can then remove your previous selected alerts. The fingerprint will update as your research interests grow.

When will we get it?

Research Fingerprints will go live on Tuesday, 8th November.  All academics with an account will also receive an email directly from Research Professional explaining what ‘research fingerprints’ are.  If you have any queries about the changes then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team.

Patient and Public Involvement – the findings of a pilot programme run by Parkinson’s UK

HomeThe findings of a pilot programme run by Parkinson’s UK to explore the difference patient and public involvement (PPI) can make to research are now available. Both researchers and those involved valued the contribution made by members of the public to the research process, with particular benefits relating to written information about the research, and to the study design. Both a two-page summary and the full report of the findings can be found at the link above.

If you’re interested in PPI, we’ll be running a session as part of the RKE Development Framework, targeted particularly at NIHR applications. More information will be made available as soon as possible here.

Stern review of the REF – what next?

Guidance, REF Subjects

ref-logoThe Stern review of the REF was published in July 2016. The government have accepted the main recommendations, and we are expecting in November a HEFCE technical consultation on implementation – to affect the next REF exercise (probably in 2021). It is expected that the new arrangements will be settled by the summer of 2017.

So what did Stern recommend – and what is likely to be in the consultation?

  1. The main thing that Stern might have done, but did not do – following widespread concern in the sector – was move to a metrics-based approach for the REF. Peer review and case studies will remain and there will be an opportunity to celebrate success wherever it is found in the REF – not a metrics based ranking. There may be new metrics, and a new Forum for Responsible Research Metrics has been launched, but the key is that these metrics should be used responsibly and carefully.
  2. All research active staff should be returned in the REF (and allocated to a unit of assessment).
  3. Outputs should be submitted at Unit of Assessment level with a set average number per FTE, but with flexibility for some faculty members to submit more and others less than the average. A total cap should be set based upon two outputs on average per FTE with an individual cap (e.g. six) and a minimum per FTE (potentially 0).
    There has been some concern expressed about these changes – Maddalaine Ansell (University Alliance) via Wonkhe and James Wilsdon in The Guardian, 29th July 2016. At BU, our strategy is that all academic staff should be active in research as part of Fusion, so we will not be moving towards teaching only contracts. We hope the sector will not do so either – we will consider pressing for all staff to be included and remove any risks around the definition of “research active” to avoid this
  1. The total number of outputs per UoA should be adjusted so that it does not significantly exceed the 190,000 reviewed in REF2014. This may require the average number of outputs submitted per faculty member to be below two.
  2. Outputs should not be portable. The review proposes that outputs should be submitted by the HEI where the output was demonstrably generated and that work should be allocated to the HEI where they were based when work accepted for publication. There may be some flexibility around maximum numbers when staff have moved- e.g. maximum three outputs from those who have left.
    Concern has been expressed that this will restrict employment options for early career researchers, e.g. Paul Kirby. James Wilsdon again “the broader move to reduce output numbers and decouple them from individuals should reduce pressure on those at the start of their career, or who take time out of research because of childcare, illness or caring responsibilities” Other views: – it might be fairer to early career researchers who will be recruited on potential not previous publications
  1. Institutions should be given more flexibility to showcase their interdisciplinary and collaborative impacts by submitting institutional level impact case studies
  2. Impact should be based on research of demonstrable quality. However, case studies could be linked to a research activity and a body of work as well as to a broad range of research outputs
  3. Guidance on the REF should make it clear that impact case studies should not be narrowly interpreted, need not solely focus on socioeconomic impacts but should also include impact on government policy, public engagement and understanding, cultural life, academic impacts outside the field and impacts on teaching – the report recommends that research leading to impact on curricula and/ or pedagogy should be included. BU welcomes these changes and we look forward to seeing more details of these plans.

So watch this space – once the consultation is launched the Research and Knowledge Exchange team will be working with the policy team to prepare a BU response. You can read more about BU’s policy and public affairs work on our intranet pages.

Interested in helping bees and other pollinators thrive in our towns and cities?

Business Engagement, HEIF, Knowledge Exchange

pollinator-logo-vector-1

The newly launched Pollinator Exchange is your one-stop resource

With pollinator numbers in decline in rural areas, there has been increasing focus on the many ways in which towns and cities can be made more pollinator-friendly. Urban green spaces such as amenity grassland in parks, gardens, verges or roundabouts offer plenty of opportunities for pollinators, provided they are managed correctly.

While much academic research has gone into this field in recent years, this is not always readily available to the people in charge of managing urban green spaces. Local councils, highway agencies and other authorities need clear, evidence-based practical advice to turn our towns and cities into places abuzz with pollinators.

The Pollinator Exchange website, www.pollinatorexchange.org developed by Bournemouth University, fulfils this role. It provides an interactive database of the latest research, practical guidance and projects connected to pollinators in urban areas. All resources come with a brief summary of their main points, allowing those with limited time to follow recent developments and implement key recommendations. Website users can browse the existing catalogue and also add their own resources, thereby contributing to ongoing knowledge exchange on this important topic.

Gill Perkins, Chief Executive at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, was one of many staff from conservation and land management organisations who generously gave their time to help test and develop the website. She said: ‘Bumblebee Conservation Trust recognises that urban environments are becoming crucially important to reverse the decline in pollinators. The Pollinator Exchange site will facilitate communication and knowledge exchange between groundsmen and contractors, biodiversity officers and everyone who influences decisions on what to grow, making it a vital resource for all to learn best techniques.’

The Pollinator Exchange was funded through the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s knowledge exchange programme: the Higher Education Innovation Funding scheme. (HEIF 5+1 August 2015 – July 2016.)

Please visit www.pollinatorexchange.org for a closer view.

For more information on this project please contact the  Project Lead Kathy Hodder.