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The use of technology to provide physical interaction experiences for cognitively able young people who have complex physical disabilities

BU research, PG research, Research communication, staff profile pages

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Title: The use of technology to provide physical interaction experiences for cognitively able young people who have complex physical disabilities

ShivaSpeaker: Mark Moseley (a post graduate researcher from the Centre for Digital Entertainment (CDE) based in the Faculty of Media and Communication)

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 17th February 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

Young people who have severe physical disabilities and good cognition may face many barriers to learning, communication, personal development, physical interaction and play experiences. Physical interaction and play are known to be important components of child development, but this group currently has few suitable ways in which to achieve this.

 

Technology can help to facilitate such experiences. This research aims to develop a technology-based tool to provide this group with the potential for physical interaction and physical play, in order to develop their knowledge of spatial concepts. This tool will utilise eye-gaze technology, robotics and haptic feedback (artificial sensation).

 

This presentation will explain the rationale behind this research as well as the aims and approach used in the development of a proposed tool.

 

 

We hope to see you there.

 

New taskforce launched to combat fraud across the UK

Research news

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge – Deputy Director NCPQSW
lfenge@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Home Office is setting up a new taskforce to combat financial fraud which will include banks, the police and government officials http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35536322

This is a response to the growing recognition that financial fraud is undermining business and the wider economy. There has been a growth in particular types of financial fraud in the last year including online banking fraud which rose by 48% in 2014. Another growth area for fraud has been the CEO or ‘bogus boss’ fraud, where staff are instructed to transfer money for a specific reason out of a company account, believing the instruction to come from a senior member of staff. Although the development of a national taskforce is positive and to be welcomed, the emphasis of this taskforce appears to be on financial fraud affecting business, and the risk is that the impact of financial scams which affect the general public might get overlooked.

Financial scams and in particular mass marketing fraud is a growing problem and can affect anyone. These types of financial scams are often targeted at older people and vulnerable groups, and the risk of becoming a victim of fraud can increase if the individual is lonely or socially isolated. The National Scams Team have identified that victims of scam mail have an average age of 74 and have typically lost more than £1,000 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34489206

Victims of mass marketing type fraud are often placed on so-called “suckers lists” and their details are then sold on to other fraudsters, increasing their risk of becoming a victim of fraud again. Those who become victims of mass marketing fraud often do not report it and therefore the true scale of the problem is unknown. However scam involvement can cause long lasting damage to an individual’s health and well-being.

Lee-ann blogsmaller

The NCPQSW is undertaking research with the National Scams Team into the problems posed by mass marketing fraud, and in particular ways of protecting those most at risk. The Care Act (2014) has recognised the risks posed by financial abuse/crime on individuals and places a statutory responsibility on local authorities to take a lead in safeguarding those at risk. This requires collaboration from key agencies involved in identifying and protecting victims of financial scams, including the police, trading standards, the financial sector, local authorities and health care.

We believe it is important that certain groups are recognised as being at increased risk of scam involvement, and those with dementia find it difficult to understand risk and apply caution to decision making due to their cognitive deficits and reduced financial capability. This makes people with dementia at increased risk of responding to scams. Therefore banks and other financial institutions should have a ‘duty to care’ for those with cognitive impairments who may make an ‘unwise decision’ a result of their cognitive state rather than simply an unwise decision.

If you want to find out more about the work of the NCPQSW please visit our website http://www.ncpqsw.com/

Publications

Olivier, S., Burls, T., Fenge, L., Brown, K. (2015) “Winning and losing”: vulnerability to mass marketing fraud, The Journal of Adult Protection, 17:6, 360 – 370.

Olivier, S., Burls, T., Fenge, L., Brown, K. (in press) Safeguarding Adults and Mass Marketing Fraud – perspectives from the Police, Trading Standards and the Voluntary Sector, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law.

What’s the importance of the funding submission process?

BU research, Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) Funding Development Team (FDT) are here to help academics apply for external funding. There are so many funders out there with so many different guidelines that it’s not always easy to find out how, who and what you should be applying to.

There is huge kudos in obtaining external research funding for the academic and BU. It not only enables you to progress your research ideas and potentially build centres of excellent in your area at BU, but knowing that your research has made a benefit to society has to be the greatest achievement.

How can FDT help?  The competition is tough out there and so we want to ensure that you are fully supported at BU to submit a winning application.  The costing of all proposals (including those that we are not the lead on) need to be undertaken by FDT before proposals reach the submission stage. Costings are undertaken by FDT to ensure that a) they are complete and include full costs, b) that they include indirect and estates costs at current BU rates and c) that they include inflation at the BU rate. Proposals need to be added to our grants system RED in order to track our bidding activity, which is in turn reported on and used for KPI’s, REF, HEBCI and HESA returns; and RED generates the APF (Activity Proposal Form explained below). The costs need to be added to our costings system, pFACT, for accurate costings and audit purposes.

In addition to this, Legal Services need to check whether we are agreeing to any terms and conditions in advance of submitting the bid – and, if so, what these are. We also need to check for any potential financial issues in advance of submission that need to be noted (for example, the risk of exchange rate fluctuations, if match funding is required, etc.). The APF (Activity Proposal Form from RED detailing the costs and income) and CAF (Contract Agreement Form from Legal Services detailing any legal or financial risks) need to be signed by a BU authorised signatory before the bid can be submitted; this gives approval for submission. This approval ensures that the appropriate senior staff (DDRPP/DoP/Dean/UET members/Board members) are aware of the risks and commitments which arise from us undertaking the project, assuming it were to be awarded. All proposals will also have to go through your Faculties agreed Quality Approval process.

The FDT will need to complete all of the above processes before the approval process can be completed. In addition, an intention to bid form needs to be completed at the beginning to establish what processes an application may need to go through and the timescales required. If you are intending to bid then please contact the Funding Development Officer for your Faculty to obtain a form (they have been tailored for each Faculty).

Why do we need to go through these processes?  The purpose of having a centralised group is that we connect all the necessary processes for academics (Finance, Legal, Faculty signatories) and we’re there to help ensure that the application has the best possible chance of being funded. If academics are successful then they will receive a contract and that contract has to go through certain processes in order to obtain the money and ensure it goes to the correct place. Most importantly, if this information is never recorded on RED then it has a knock on effect on several things. BU receives additional money from HEFCE based on the funding that we have received throughout the year and this also improves our REF submission. Small pots of money add up to large sums and if these are never recorded then we lose out on additional funds from HEFCE. Also, there are KPI’s with targets for R&KE funding to be obtained by academics in each of the Faculties. By not recording funding this will have a detrimental effect on the faculties targets for meeting the KPI’s.

The FDT also have Research Facilitators available to help you develop your research ideas at an early stage of your application.  We have also provided a number of pages to help you identify which funder would be appropriate for your research.  There is a wealth of information that can be found in the Research Funders’ Guide.  We have also put together an application submission timeline and have provided sample costs to aid you drafting out your costs.  More details can be found here.  Finally, there is a comprehensive list of all RKEO’s activities that support you in the Research Lifecycle.

Do get in touch and see how we can help you acheive your goals.

Stern review of the REF – contributions welcome

Research assessment

ref-logoBIS have initiated a review of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), chaired by the President of the British Academy, Lord Nicholas Stern.

The review aims to ensure that future university research funding:

  • is allocated more efficiently;
  • offers greater rewards for excellent research; and,
  • reduces the administrative burden on institutions.

The call for evidence was published on 28 January and BU will be submitting an institutional response to the review. You are invited to contribute to this response.

The call for evidence, question set and timeline are available on the I-drive: I:\R&KEO\Public\Stern Review of the REF

If you wish to contribute, use the ‘questions’ document to frame your responses. The internal deadline for sending your feedback to Julie Northam is Wednesday 17 February. The draft response will be discussed by the REF Committee on 29 February, and the final draft shared with UET on 10 March.

When considering your responses please bear in mind Bournemouth University’s response to the green paper on HE which contained similar questions on the future shape of the REF. You may find it helpful to consider other responses to the green paper to understand the range in perspectives provided by institutions and groups. You can search for responses online. Suggested responses you may wish to read include:

I look forward to receiving your feedback and suggestions. Any queries, please let me know.

Julie

Leisure Studies: Call for Papers – Human Rights in Events, Leisure and Sport

Publishing

leisure studies journalJayne Caudwell joined Bournemouth University in November 2015. She is Head of Research and Professional Practice in the Department of Events and Leisure. Jayne is one of the guest editors for forthcoming Leisure Studies journal Special Issue: Human Rights in Events, Leisure and Sport. See web link for details of the Call for Papers. Please forward to colleagues who might be interested.

http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/pgas/rlst_cfp_humanrights

BU study seeks participants with autism

Uncategorized

Back in September 2015, Dr Helen Bolderston and I from the Department of Psychology, were awarded a Fusion Investment Fund award to examine social cognition and visual attention in people with autistic spectrum disorders and borderline personality disorder.

The study is now well under way and we are seeking participants between the ages of 18- 50 years with an autistic spectrum disorder to take part. Students and staff with such a diagnosis would be most welcome to be involved. It should go without saying that participation is confidential and responses are anonymous. The sessions take around 1.5 hours to complete and we can reimburse your local travel expenses if required. We are also always on the look out for “neurotypical” control participants too, particularly  men!

The study uses eye tracking technology to record where participants look on a computer screen whilst they watch a series of social scenarios. Afterwards, we ask participants questions about what happened in the scenes. There a several additional tasks which form part of the study which include questionnaires about social and communication skills and some verbal and non-verbal reasoning tasks.

Anyone interested in taking part should contact me, Dr Nicola Gregory, at ngregory@bournemouth.ac.uk

Is bid writing a waste of time and money

Uncategorized

Writing for the Alternative Democracy Research website Jan Blommaert offers a very interesting and controversial perspective on bid writing. His claim is that it is large a waste of time and public money. His case relates to his participation in a Horizon 2020 bid consortium, the production of the bid he estimates having taken hundreds of man hours, but the stream could only fund two projects. The fact that 147 were submitted meant that independent of quality 145 of which could be deemed excellent but could not be funded.

One might consider this argument as sour grapes on the part of a member of a team whose project was deemed excellent but could not be funded. But there is a serious point here. If the hours taken up by bid writing were re-channelled, would more valuable research be done. In other words if the 100+ hours of manpower devoted to writing bids were monetized would this be seen as an ineffective way to expend resources and instead the funds were used to support actual data gathering. It is an interesting thought. Much research entered into the REF in the UK is deemed excellent, what percentage of that is funded research is unknown. If research does not have to be funded to be excellent, and if bid writing detracts from research in order to meet arbitrary targets is this a misallocation of valuable resources. This argument may be particular prescient for social science where funding is less available yet no less important.

The thought here is whether academics explore ways to minimize costs of research that still answer important research questions rather than constantly seeking funding. It is a thought.

 

Call for Papers: Geographies of Religion and Spirituality

Uncategorized

RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2016: Nexus Thinking
London, 30th August – 2nd September 2016

RGS CFPs

CFP: Geographies of Religion and Spirituality: Beyond the ‘officially’ sacred

Session Convenor(s):
Jaeyeon Choe (Bournemouth University, UK)
Michael Di Giovine (West Chester University, US)
Michael Hitchcock (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Michael O’ Regan (Bournemouth University, UK)

Religious spaces facilitate not only historical and traditional rituals and practices, but also social activities such as festivals, games, feasts, travel, sports as well as weddings and funerals (Chick, 1991). In greater and complex societies, religion has become secularized as religious options, personal choice and quests outweigh religious obligation (Graburn, 1983; Possamai, 2000; Turner & Turner, 1978). There has, for example, been increased participation in spiritual activities among tourists at pilgrimage sites (Timothy & Olsen, 2006). Whilst many of people at the sites are motivated by devotion, a large number of sites are shared by tourists and touristic processes. Indeed, many pilgrimage sites have often themselves become secularized (Di Giovine & Picard, 2015). Thus, the distinction between pilgrims and secular tourists has been diminishing, and “not only pilgrims not be easily separated out from secular tourists in this (post-) modern and ‘post-traditional’ age wherein sacrality is often divorced from pure religion” (D’Agostino & Vespasiano, 2000, p. 5). Pilgrims often “share many of the physical infrastructures and service providers as secular travelers…pilgrimage trails and destinations have been given new life through modern, secular tourism” (Di Giovine, 2011, p. 249). As such, pilgrims and tourists exist on a continuum of sacredness and secularity (Smith, 1992), and the distinction between tourism/pilgrimage, tourist/pilgrim, and secular/sacred is rather complex.

While there have been ongoing discussions about categorizing ‘pilgrims’ and/or ‘tourists,’ it is still challenging despite frequent attempts (Afferni, Ferrario & Mangano, 2011; Collins-Kreiner & Gatrell, 2006; Di Giovine, 2011; Poira, Butler & Airey, 2003; Sharpley, 2009). This panel session aims to recognize how religious spaces are central to the lives of pilgrims, and how these religious spaces have meanings to tourists. This panel also seeks to explore discourses on how the two groups experience, interpret, co-exist and perform religious space. Beyond the ‘officially sacred,’ this panel will explore the meanings of religious space to pilgrims and tourists so as to provide a blueprint for how work in the geography of religion and the field of religious tourism may move forward (Brace et al, 2006). We are inviting contributors with papers in the following areas (but not limited to):

– Pilgrim culture
– Pilgrimage and ritual
– Intersection of pilgrimage and heritage
– Pilgrimage and nationalism
– Popular vs. authorized pilgrimage movements
– Religious (space) tourism management
– Pilgrimage trails and destinations
– Trends/Motivations of spiritual tourists
– Conflicts between pilgrims and tourists at pilgrimage sites
– Religious/spiritual tourism and sustainability
– Religious tourism and regional development
– Future directions

Di Giovine, M., & Picard, D. (2015). The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

Please submit abstracts to Jaeyeon Choe (jchoe@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 15th February 2016. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and include your contact details.

Please see the following link for more details on the CFP, conference and registration details:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm

British Science Association’s Media Fellowship scheme

BU research, Research news

Applications are now open for the British Science Association’s Media Fellowship scheme.

To apply for 2016’s placements, please fill out the online application form by the 18th March at www.britishscienceassociation.org/media-fellows-applications

The Media Fellowships provide a unique opportunity for practising scientists, clinicians and engineers to spend two to six weeks working at the heart of a media outlet such as the Guardian, BBC Breakfast or the Londonist.

Every year up to ten Media Fellows are mentored by professional journalists and learn how the media operates and reports on science, how to communicate with the media and to engage the wider public with science through the media.

After their media placement Fellows attend the British Science Festival in September, which provides an opportunity to gain valuable experience working alongside a range of media organisations from all over the UK in our dedicated Press Centre. The Festival also offers opportunities to learn from a wide range of public engagement activities and network with academics, journalists and science communicators

Any queries, please e-mail mediafellows@britishscienceassociation.org

Research Publication Clinic – Face your fear!

BU Challenges, BU research, Publishing, writing

write

Does the thought of writing a research publication make you feel queasy?

Do publication targets bring you out in a cold sweat?

Are you sick of journal editors and referees?

Maybe our publication clinic can help! This event, facilitated by Professor Adrian Newton, is provided for anyone who has experienced difficulty in producing research publications or getting their manuscripts published. The idea is to provide a forum for discussing such challenges, in an informal and supportive environment. Please bring along your symptoms for diagnosis, or relevant case histories, so that we can explore potential remedies!

Title Date Time Location
Research Publication Clinic Wednesday 17 Feb 2016 12:00-13:30 Lansdowne Campus

To secure a place at this publication clinic, please email OD@bournemouth.ac.uk.

For more info, please refer to – Research Publication Clinic

Creative England – Interest free business loans now open for applications

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

creativeengland1_0

Creative England would  like to hear from creative digital companies who need anything from £50k – £200k in order to grow their business.

Eligible companies include those across content creation, games, tech and digital based in any of the English regions outside of Greater London. The interest-free loan is repaid over 3 years, and must be matched 50:50 with an alternative source of finance.

For more information please read the  FAQ’s and application guidelines.

You can also get in touch with kate.adam@creativeengland.co.uk for any further questions.

If you’re not sure if a Business Loan is quite right for the stage your company is at, then take a look at the  Equity Investment Programme, offering £40k – £100k of equity investment for digital SME’s.

FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series Wednesday 10 February 2016

Research news, Uncategorized

FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16

The Faculty of Media and Communication at BU  

Venue: CG17, Christchurch House, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB  

Wednesday 10 February 2016, 3pm-4pm, CG17 

Pollyanna Ruiz, University of Sussex 

Twitter, Transparency and Surveillance

Transparency is central to an understanding of the public sphere as a universally accessible arena characterised by reason, inclusivity and sincerity (Habermas, 1974). Consequently, the refusal to be seen is invariably interpreted as a threat to the principles that underpin the democratic process (Engles, 2007). However, if one experiences the public sphere not as a utopia of transparency (Johnson, 2001), but as a nightmare of surveillance and coercion then the desire to evade surveillance can be read very differently (Foucault, 1995). These dynamics are especially fraught in socio political environments in which the power relations that usually construct the relationship between the individual and the nation state are being blurred and eroded by criminal forces.

These complexities will be illustrated by a case study from Mexico in which a citizen journalist used a pseudonymous Twitter account to crowd source information about the movements of the drugs cartels in the state of Tamaulipas. Within this context Twitter can be read as a technological mask concealing the identity of multiple dissenting voices whilst also seeking recognition for the injustices being suffered by a people left unprotected by their state. As such ‘Felina’, who used a masked cat woman as her avatar, drew upon of long history of semi-folkloric figures who have used the protective qualities of the mask to speak to power (Ruiz, 2013).

However in January of this year ‘Felina’ was publically unmasked. Her Twitter account was commandeered by the cartel, her cat woman avatar was replaced by an image of her dead body and her followers were warned of retributions to follow. The brutal murder of Felina and the dissemination of threats through her social network is part of a cartel led counter offensive, which uses the fear of transparency to repress an emerging culture of sousveillance in cartel held territories. Consequently this paper will conclude by arguing that the optimism that characterised the rise of citizen journalism in oppressive regimes is being modified by the realisation that while online dynamics can be socially and politically productive, they can never disembody acts of dissent.

Bibliography

Engle, K. (2007) The face of a terrorist. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies. Vol. 7 p.397-424.

Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York Vintage Books.

Habermas, J. (1974) ‘The public sphere: an encyclopaedia article’, New German Critique, Vol. 3, pp.49-55.

Johnson, J.H. (2001) Versailles, meet les Halles: masks, carnival and the French revolution. Representations, Vol. 73 pp. 89-116.

Ruiz, P. (2013) ‘Revealing Power: Masked Protest and the Blank Figure.’ The Journal of Cultural Politics. Dukes Journals.

Pollyanna Ruiz is interested in the media’s role in the construction of social and political change. Her research focuses on the ways in which protest movements bridge the gap between their own familiar but marginal spaces, and a mainstream which is suspicious at best and downright hostile at worst. In doing so, she looks at the communicative strategies of contemporary political movements, such as the anti-globalisation movement, the anti-war movement and coalitions against the cuts. Her new project Protest, Technology and the Dynamics of Intergenerational Memory extends these dynamics over time.

Pollyanna is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Sussex. Her recently published book Articulating Dissent; Protest and the Public Sphere examines the ways in which coalition movements access the mainstream media. 

Wednesday 10 February 2016, 4pm-5pm, CG17 

Dr Lincoln Geraghty, University of Portsmouth 

Constructing Childhood Memories: Nostalgia, Fandom and the World of LEGO Collecting

LEGO’s shift to producing product tie-ins has been supported by a very popular range of video games (eg. LEGO Star Wars) and the creation of online fan clubs aimed at both children and adults. One of them, the VIP Program, boasts a members’ only website, special offers and a point rewards system, specifically targeting grown-ups and encouraging them to collect LEGO rather than play with it, display it rather than pack it away. This convergence of popular fandom, new media, nostalgia and contemporary toy culture suggests that the lines between past and present, technology and culture, childhood and adulthood are increasingly porous. Memory is an important component of being a fan and the remediation of childhood toys like LEGO through video games, animated television shows and online communities helps to reconstruct memories of youth that are subsequently used to negotiate digital collaborative spaces shared by other fans. These spaces also serve as the means to add to and promote the often vast collections of adult collectors. In these web spaces personal memories and official histories of children’s culture are constantly negotiated and reshaped, taking on new meanings, as collections grow and collectors determine the subcultural and economic value of old and new LEGO sets. LEGO, a children’s toy originally based on the physicality of construction, has taken on new significance in contemporary media culture as it allows adult collectors/fans to reconnect with their past and define a fan identity through more ephemeral and digital interaction. Now that the LEGO “system” incorporates global franchises like Star Wars it means collectors/fans of one brand crossover to become collectors/fans of the other. The LEGO Star Wars universe develops a fandom of its own with the minifigure versions of Han Solo and Darth Vader (animated with comic effect in the video games and TV episodes) becoming just as iconic and desirable amongst collectors as the “real” toy originals. Therefore, I argue in this presentation that LEGO’s shift from educational children’s toy to transmedia adult collectible is characteristic of contemporary convergence culture. It highlights the importance of nostalgia in the influencing of what childhood media and commodities get collected but also how nostalgia acts to limit the original potentials of those remediated texts and commodities. There is an inherent conflict between how childhood texts are rebranded by producers and how fans choose to remember and negotiate those texts online. As a consequence, this presentation will also consider the reconstruction of personal and public memories of childhood in the digital sphere and assess the difficulties associated with the archiving and collecting of children’s media. 

Lincoln Geraghty is Reader in Popular Media Cultures in the School of Media and Performing Arts at the University of Portsmouth. He serves as editorial advisor for The Journal of Popular Culture, Reconstruction, Journal of Fandom Studies and Journal of Popular Television with interests in science fiction film and television, fandom, and collecting in popular culture. He was recently appointed as a Senior Editor for the new online open access journal from Taylor Francis, Cogent Arts and Humanities. He is author of Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe (IB Tauris, 2007), American Science Fiction Film and Television (Berg, 2009) and Cult Collectors: Nostalgia, Fandom and Collecting Popular Culture (Routledge, 2014). He has edited The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture (McFarland, 2008), Channeling the Future: Essays on Science Fiction and Fantasy Television (Scarecrow, 2009), The Smallville Chronicles: Critical Essays on the Television Series (Scarecrow, 2011), and, with Mark Jancovich, The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on Labeling Film, Television Shows and Media (McFarland, 2008). He is currently serving as Editor for multi-volume Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood from Intellect Books (2011 & 2015), and his most recent collection, entitled Popular Media Cultures: Fans, Audiences and Paratexts, was published by Palgrave in 2015. 

About the series

This new seminar series showcases current research across different disciplines and approaches within the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU. The research seminars include invited speakers in the fields of journalism, politics, narrative studies, media, communication and marketing studies.  The aim is to celebrate the diversity of research across departments in the faculty and also generate dialogue and discussion between those areas of research. 

Contributions include speakers on behalf of 

The Centre for Politics and Media Research

The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community

Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre

Public Relations Research Centre

Narrative Research Group 

Journalism Research Group

Advances in Media Management Research Group

Working with start-ups and small businesses?

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

Technology in the hands

Innovate UK’s 5 tips to secure funding for start-ups and small businesses

Innovate UK have just launched their essential advice and tips on securing funding. Whether a start-up, small business or SME this video is worth watching. This can be found on you tube and worth bookmarking this for further advice on funding coming soon. Stay tuned, more essential selections videos will be published soon including networking, grants, pitching, business planning and more.

Click here for the video.

Check out the Innovate UK website for competitons and funding calls listed by sector.

14:live – ‘Clone Wars’: The Rise of 3D Printing and 3D Scanning and its Implications for Intellectual Property Law

BU research, Research news

Hello!

14:live will be returning on the 9th of February 14:00-14:45 at Poole House Refectory, next to Papa Johns. This is open to all staff and students and I am pleased to welcome Dinusha Mendis.

3D Printing and 3D scanning allows for replication of physical objects – which in turn raises questions relating to intellectual property (IP) laws. For example, what are the implications of modifying someone else’s Computer Aided Design (CAD) file or scanning an existing object to create a new product, thereby replicating it? What IP rights of the creator would it infringe? How much ‘modification’ is needed to create a new and non-infringing product? For businesses, IP issues could arise when replacement parts are 3D printed, perhaps through a third-party supplier. These questions demonstrate that whilst the technology has significant potential for the future it raises some very important questions relating to IP law.

This talk will explore such issues whilst also considering new business models for the protection and exploitation of IP. The talk will be based on the research carried out for a Commissioned Project for the UK Government (UK Intellectual Property Office) which was led by the Speaker and published in April 2015.

It would be great to see you all there to listen to what’s going to be a very interesting talk with Dinusha, and just to give you that little bit more incentive to come along, there will be 30 x tokens for the first 30 audience members to be exchanged for a FREE individual Papa John’s Pizza at the end of the talk, plus lots of free tea & coffee, don’t miss out! If you have any questions about this event or would like to hear about any other upcoming student engagement with research events, contact me on ocooke@bournemouth.ac.uk

Supporting you to support students: a survey

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Research news

As part of the Fair Access Research project we would like academic staff to complete this survey to help us understand how students are supported at BU. The area we are focusing on is support for students’ health and wellbeing, as this is becoming increasingly important for students and staff in universities. Your responses to the survey will help us find ways to support you in supporting students to succeed at BU.

hands

Questions of access to higher education do not end (or start) at the university gates. Widening participation involves an engagement with long and complex cycles of learning.

The Fair Access Research project seeks to understand the experiences of students from different backgrounds in order to develop practical solutions to enhance outcomes and maximise opportunities. This includes understanding how students are supported at BU.

In the words of Vincent Tinto: “Access without support is not opportunity”. If we are committed to opening up higher education, we must be committed to supporting all students to succeed across the university learning journey.

A recent survey by the NUS found that 78 per cent of students said they experienced mental health issues over the last year. More than half of the students said that they sought no support.

In a report to HEFCE by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Researching Equity, Access and Partnership (REAP) it was found that students with mental health and social/communicative impairments (such as autism) have doubled since 2008-09. These significant increases are impacting the structures of support that institutions have in place, including academic support

Living with challenging health and wellbeing needs, and not always seeking support, shapes whether or not you stay and impacts upon attainment. It re-orients (or, perhaps, disorients) your whole student experience. And that includes your interactions with academic staff.

With all this in mind, we are surveying academic staff to find out more about how they understand their role in supporting students’ health and wellbeing.

We have developed a short survey for you all to complete. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and we hope that it will lead us to develop ways to support you with your students:

To complete the survey click here

Please complete the survey and share with your colleagues from across the university. Your responses will help us to find ways to support you to better support your students, particularly those most in need.

If you want any more information about the survey please email Alex on awardrop@bournemouth.ac.uk

For more information about the Fair Access Research project please email the Principal Investigators, Dr Vanessa Heaslip (vheaslip@bournemouth.ac.uk) and Dr Clive Hunt (chunt@bournemouth.ac.uk)

The Research Lifecycle

BU research, Research news

If you haven’t checked out the BU Research Lifecycle yet then you most definitely should! Our Research Lifecycle diagram is a jazzy interactive part of the BU Research Blog that shows the support and initiatives that are available to staff and students at each stage of the research lifecycle. The information is general enough so as to apply to all disciplines and you can use it to organize and identify the many activities involved in your research. You can explore the Research Lifecycle to find information on how to get started with:

1. Developing your research strategy

2. Developing your proposal

3. The research process

4. Publication and dissemination

5. Impact

RKEO will be adding to the Research Lifecycle to ensure it always contains the most up to date information to support you with planning, organising and undertaking your research.

You can access the diagram from the links in this post or from the menu bar that appears on all screens in the Research Blog.

Committee inquiries: open calls for evidence

Uncategorized

Below is a list of committee inquiries with current open calls for evidence. Please contact Emma Bambury-Whitton if you would like to discuss submitting evidence.

Commons Select Committee inquiries

Lords Select Committee inquiries

Joint Committee inquiries

Public Bill Committees