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Influencing Public Policy Workshop

Calling all researchers! Would you like your research to influence policy?

BU’s Policy Advisor, Jane Forster, will be running a workshop this Thursday 27 October to help you to use your research to influence policy makers.

Working alongside policy makers is a useful tool to get your research recognised and used by professionals in your relevant field, which can then have an impact on society.

Influencing policy is a great way of raising the profile of the research, this can also help benefit society and help raise the profile for the academic behind the research. This also creates room for new partnerships and future collaborations, for both the research and the academic.

Research is a useful tool to influence policy, as this provides evidence based change or amendment to legislation. This is a powerful way of developing research impact. As this can be a complex process, Jane Forster will explain the process of influencing policy and how your research can influence policy makers.

The workshop will run from 09:30-11:30 on Lansdowne Campus. You can find out more information here or you can complete the booking form here.

 

UKRO Visit TODAY 25th October 2016

UKRO logoIf you are thinking of applying for EU funding in the coming year, you need to be at this event!

This session will be delivered by the UK Research Office’s BU account manager, Maribel Glogowski.

UKRO is the European office of the UK Research Councils. It delivers a subscription-based advisory service for research organisations (in the main UK HEIs) and provides National Contact Point services on behalf of the UK Government. UKRO’s mission is to maximise UK engagement in EU-funded research, innovation and higher education activities. As a BU member of staff, you can sign up to receive email alerts direct to your inbox.

The annual visit with take place from 12:30 – 15:15 in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham Library on Talbot Campus on Tuesday, 25th October. There are still some places free for the afternoon session only  – if you find that you are now free and wish to attend, please come along but seating is prioritised by those who have pre-booked and then first come first served.

This event has been developed with UKRO to include up to date information about EU funding relevant to BU’s current and future bidding activities.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

  • To find out about current EU funding thinking
  • To raise personal awareness of funding calls with relevance to BU

Within the update, the afternoon session will specifically include:

  • Creative Europe and Erasmus+
  • Accessing the Societal Challenges

Maribel is based in Brussels, along with the rest of the UKRO team, so is BU’s perfect partner for keeping us up to date with funding developments in the EU.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Emily Cieciura (RKEO, Research Facilitator: EU & International) or Dianne Goodman (RKEO, Funding Development Team Co-ordinator).

N.B. If you have pre-booked, the event will start at 11:30, as previously stated.

Business Engagement and Networking

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

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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.

You will have the opportunity to hear from both internal and external speakers as to how they have developed networks to facilitate collaborations and engage with the university.

The next session: “Business engagement and networking” will be running on Wednesday 2 November from 2.00pm – 4.00pm and bookings are being taken now.

If you want to put your networking skills to the test there are a number of events running during November that involve the chance to meet with external organisations during the Festival of Social Science and Festival of Enterprise.

Please feel free to contact Jayne Codling or Rachel Clarke if you have any questions regarding knowledge exchange at BU. Both Jayne and Rachel are based within RKEO.

This session forms part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Framework.  Please see previous blog posts in the Development Framework for information on the separate pathways. rkeo-rke-working-with-business

 

 

 

 

Nine Dots Prize – a new prize for creative thinking in the social sciences

Funding opportunities

nine-dot-prizeFriday saw the launch of the Nine Dots Prize – a new prize for creative thinking in the social sciences. It is sponsored by the Kadas Prize Foundation and supported by CRASSH at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Press.

The Prize will be awarded to the best response to its inaugural question: “Are digital technologies making politics impossible?” Applicants are asked to respond in 3,000 words. The Prize will be judged anonymously by its Board of 12 distinguished academics, journalists, authors and thinkers. The winner will receive $100,000 to support them in writing up a short book based on their response. They have the opportunity to spend a term as Visiting Fellow at CRASSH at the University of Cambridge and the book will be published by Cambridge University Press in an open access format. More details can be found at their website or via twitter @ninedotsprize, including closing and decision dates, and how to submit.

The Guardian have written the following article, which puts the prize in context.

New projects in the Student Project Bank

Student Engagement

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. Members of staff may also choose a project to set to their students.

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New projects are below, these will be added to the list of available projects on the website today.

SPB012: Promotional video for The Grove Hotel, part of Macmillan Caring Locally

Suitable for:                 Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Brief description:         Create a 2-3 minute video capturing the people The Grove Hotel supports and promoting the idea of a holiday for people with life limiting conditions that is light hearted and fun.  The Grove Hotel is part of Macmillan Caring Locally, a local charity whose objectives are the relief of cancer and life limiting conditions.

 SPB013: Marketing strategy for The Grove Hotel, part of Macmillan Caring Locally

Suitable for:                 Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Brief description:         Create a marketing strategy for The Grove Hotel that will promote their services to a wider audience in order to attract a broader customer base and increase the potential for repeat visits.

 SPB014: Plan and deliver an event for The Pantry Partnership to raise awareness of their work

Suitable for:                 Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Brief description:         Plan and run an event for The Pantry Partnership to help them raise awareness in the local community of their work and to secure a permanent venue. The Pantry Partnership uses food to create social momentum, helping people out of food poverty, enhancing life skills and reducing social isolation.

 SPB015: Annual report animated showreel for Bournemouth 2026 Trust

Suitable for:                 Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Brief description:         Create an animated showreel of less than four minutes in length presenting key information from the Trust’s annual report. This project has a short turnaround time and the film is required for the Trust’s Annual General Meeting on 23rd November.

 SPB016: Design and implement a marketing strategy for The Fusion Café juice bar

Suitable for:                 Undergraduate/ postgraduate

Brief description:         Design and implement a marketing strategy for The Fusion Café juice bar on the third floor of the Fusion Building that will raise awareness of the café and increase the number of customers.

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.

Community organisations

Do you have an idea that could benefit the community or society but need some help to make it a relaity? The Student Project Bank is still open for project proposals from community organisations, charities, not-for-profits and corporate partners. Find out more and download a proposal form on our page for external organisations.

Event: The Game Changer: Reloaded

Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

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Date: Wednesday 16 November

Location: The Fusion Building, Bournemouth University

Event information:

Building on the successful Game Changer event held earlier in the year, Bournemouth University and NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group present The Game Changer Reloaded – promoting innovation and fostering collaboration across Dorset. Join Richard Dolan, Dr Phil Richardson and Professor Jim Roach and a diverse collection of speakers to learn more about the art of the possible and the power of innovation to transform health services within the region.

Timings:

Session 1 – 9.00 am -3.00 pm: Speakers from BU and external organisations share their innovation journeys throughout the day providing inspiration and ideas to those attending as to how to get involved.

Session 2 – 3.15 pm  – 4.15 pm: Facilitation and networking: This session offers the opportunity to share ideas and develop future collaborations. There’s also the chance to begin to consider research ideas that could subsequently be progressed in order to obtain external funding in the future.

Each session will need to be booked separately.

Throughout the day there’s a pop-up innovation exhibition for guests to enjoy and to share and refine ideas.

It’s free: book now for The Game Changer Reloaded 

This event forms a number being run at the university as part of the Festival of Enterprise.

Need help with networking? – why not book onto the business engagement and networking session on 2 November for some hints and tips that you can put into practice.

The ‘Knitted midwife project’: a political statement

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At the Royal College of Midwives conference in Harrogate over the 19th and 20th October a strange ‘art’ installation appeared formed of, in the region of, 500 knit and crochet midwives. The purpose of the display was to highlight the current shortage of midwives throughout the UK and started as a light hearted conversation on twitter between Dr Jenny Hall from the midwifery team in Bournemouth University and midwifery lecturer Lindsay Hobbs in the University of Bradford. (More information is here https://knittedmidwife.wordpress.com/)

When the conversation took place the statistics showing the number of midwives required was 2600 (by the time the project had commenced it had risen to 3500). To highlight the situation, the @knittedmidwife was born, encouraging midwives and others to ‘knit a midwife’ to solve the problem in time for the RCM conference. Instructions for a simple pattern were placed on a blog and participants were encouraged to create their own clothes. The campaign caused some amusement and inspiration with non-knitters persuading friends and family to knit one for them. Some midwife teams had ‘knit-evenings’. They arrived in batches from as far afield as Texas and Germany. The display at the conference was well received but the knowledge that the number presented was only 500 of the 3500 missing midwives gave impact. A final twist was that each was sold in aid of the RCM benevolent fund; midwives being sold to aid other midwives.

As an adjunct to the project the ‘knitters’ were asked to send with their midwife a message as to why they had done so. At the conference itself questionnaires were also present to inquire about the impact of the display. This ‘knitted midwife’ project will therefore live on as the lecturers mentioned will now be evaluating the messages and questionnaires.

And here is the mini-me midwfery lecturer, complete with pinards stethescope and tablet computer….. More will follow as the project develops.

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Deadline for applications 9am Monday 24th October: funds to support global staff mobility

Global staff mobility – including training, teaching, research or networking – brings huge value to BU and our students, whilst offering invaluable personal career experience.

We are pleased to announce that staff can apply for funds to support these activities through Erasmus and Santander, under the revised Staff Mobility scheme.

Erasmus

Erasmus funds are a great way to build networks and gain experience.

Erasmus staff mobility funds can be used to support travel, accommodation and other costs of academic and professional support staff attending training at an organisation or institution in Europe. It can also be used for academic staff wishing to teach at a European university.

There’s more information and guidance in the application form, including: Funding amounts; duration of visits; priority institutions.

Santander

Santander staff mobility funding can be used to support travel, accommodation and other costs for staff wishing to develop research, education and professional practice projects. This fund is ideal to support academic staff travelling to an international university in order to develop a collaborative relationship.

More information, including advice and how to apply, can be found on this dedicated webpage.

The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 24th October 2016.

Student Research Assistantship – Applications closing 24th October

Student Engagement, student research

The Student Research Assistantship (SRA) programme is closing for academic applications on Monday 24th October.

 

Each academic application will be marked against the following criteria:

  • Student-centred
  • Co-creation and co-production
  • Fusion
  • External engagement
  • Impact
  • Cross-Faculty

We are currently inviting academic applications for the semester-based programme – if you would like to apply for the summer programme now, please do note that in your application.

Semester-based programme

This placement is for successful students to work for 15 hours a week for a total of eight weeks between 16th January 2017 and 7th April 2017. This programme will have the capacity for approximately 45 placements.

The SRA programme is coordinated via RKEO and the Faculties.

Academics will apply for the funding via an application form. A Faculty based panel will review all staff applications and decide which applications to continue to the student recruitment stage of the scheme.  The application deadline for this round is 24th October 2016.

 If you have any queries, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP and Student Projects) –  sra@bournemouth.ac.uk