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HE Policy Update

UCAS

UCAS is considering a clearing overhaul which would allow students to reject their offers and throw their name back into the hat for a better course. The changes would apply to those applicants who have performed better than expected or changed their minds about where they want to study. Major changes to clearing could see students ‘throw their name back into the hat’ after A-level results. (The Telegraph).

Graduate tax

A blog on Wonkhe highlights the disadvantages of a graduate tax, including that many students would pay much more under this system. The post comes after Owen Smith, Labour leadership contender, proposed he would fund university education through a graduate tax system.  The graduate tax: higher education’s zombie idea (Wonkhe).

NSS

A post on Wonkhe looks into what we know about the new NSS. The post discusses the nine new questions on student engagement, optional banks, and the question on student unions. Information, information, information: how is the new NSS shaping up? (Wonkhe).

French universities

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has outlined the higher education reforms he would make if elected president in 2017. He has said that universities should be selective in choosing candidates for undergraduate and masters courses as well as being able to set their tuition fees without any limit imposed by government. Sarkozy proposes ‘explosive’ university reforms (Research Professional).

Recession

A HEFCE blog post looks at what it is like to graduate in a recession. The last recession in the UK resulted in the proportion of 2007-08 graduates in professional roles falling by 3 percentage points compared to the previous year. However, after a further 12 months of economic contraction, the impact on the graduates of 2008-09 was worse as the rate fell by 4 percentage points. What happens if you graduate in a recession? (HEFCE).

Visa applications

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics there has been a fall in the number of students from outside the European Union applying for visas to study at UK universities. Number of visa applications for university study falls (THE).

Brexit

The Times Higher reports that British universities will not immediately press the government to seek associated country status in European Union research programmes after Brexit, but will instead explore all options to find a politically acceptable solution. Brexit: UK considers alternative options to EU research association (THE).

NCCPE Engage Conference – Could you submit anything

The NCCPE’s Engage conference will be running 29th/ 30th November 2016 and they’re currently looking for content under the following key themes:

• Culture change: creating a culture where engagement is valued and supported
• Effective practice: sharing insights into high quality engagement practice
• Engaged research: creating impactful research
• Engaged students: the role of engagement within teaching and learning
• New ideas: taking our thinking forward about the role of engagement within higher education

If you think you could offer something take a look at the full call here and contact Naomi Kay in RKEO if you would like financial support to fund travel/ accommodation for the conference.

Widening Participation Fieldnotes: Emotional Work

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Knowledge Exchange

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BU’s Fair Access Research project concentrates on the idea of learning and working together to transform higher education. We are interested in how widening participation works differently in different institutions.

With this in mind, Maggie Hutchings and Alex Wardrop have been doing some fieldwork with colleagues in the north of England.

Widening participation is emerging as emotional work.  It is an emotional labour which sees personal stories intersect with and sometimes rub up against complex economic and political landscapes.

You can join us in this collective reflection and learning exercise by contributing to our survey. For more information about the organisational learning project, email Maggie on mhutchings@bournemouth.ac.uk

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

Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team Summer Sucesses

Over the past month or two the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team (KEIT) have had quite a few successes we’re #BUProud of so we thought we’d share them.

Firstly we’re delighted that HEIF5+1 has been extended to HEIF5+1+1 and that there will be a further 12 projects funded until August 2017  – to find out more take a look at Jayne’s post about it here

In case you haven’t spotted it Rachel has also been working hard with the PR team to do some comms around our Olympic themed research. This content was shared internally, externally & on social media and had some good engagement which led to Bryce Dyer and Osman Ahmed being interviewed on Wave 105 & Tim Rees being featured in the Independent.

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She’s also been working with Alex Wardrop to have her research on how to improve access to higher education featured in Times Higher.

Thanks to Charlene’s hard work the Student Project Bank is almost up and running! We will be launching to students in October and are planning a pilot event for September/October – more information to follow soon!

I’ve also been working hard with Genna to finish the wash up report for Festival of Learning and we’re pleased to say that event with less events we still had over 4,500 visits over the course of 5 days compared to 5,000 over a week with an additional 50 activities in 2015.  We’re already planning madly for next year when we’ll be running FoL from 8-12th July, mark the date in your diary and start thinking of your event ideas!

We’re also hugely proud to announce we’ve launched our impact toolkit aiming at supporting the academic community to develop and record impactful research.  This is available here on the blog and contains helpful tips and examples of case studies.  There is also a handy mini-guide available in a printed format floating around the campus or available from anyone in the team.

Finally we’re very pleased to greet our two newest members of the team, Joanna Pawlik and Hannah Jones who will be working as the Event Coordinator/ Student Engagement Coordinator (respectively) for the next 12 months.

 

Innovation defined? Outcomes and connections …

innovation

Innovate 2011v4

Following on from the  2 blog posts (Blog post 1/ Blog post 2)  earlier this week on  Innovation the next set of outcomes and connections introduces the concept:

Game changer 3 = UK innovators + crowding forward investment

A key criterion for public sector investment is that it is “additional”, that it doesn’t crowd out willing private sector investment.

Indeed, the goal of Innovate UK is quite the opposite – to crowd in private sector investment by building private sector confidence in tackling the markets of the future.

We shouldn’t, though, be satisfied with just simply crowding-in private sector investment; we should be proactively crowding it forward.

Leveraging the structure and robustness of Innovate UK’s competitions as a strategic platform through which the private sector (commercial and 3rd sector) can gain the confidence it needs to invest both earlier and more widely.

Game changing new connections to the ecosystem
Game changing new connections to the ecosystem

Read the blog post in full on Innovate UK’s website.

The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowships – funding available for post docs and recent graduates

Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

money and cogs

The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowships scheme is now open for applications. The scheme supports both post-doctoral academics and recent graduates.

Enterprise Fellowships stimulate excellence and encourage creativity and innovation in engineering by supporting the founders and leaders of tomorrow’s high-tech companies, be they spin outs or start-ups. The awards provide money-can’t-buy bespoke support and one-to-one mentoring from the Academy’s Fellowship, which is composed of some of the country’s most successful engineers from across academia and industry. Support is provided to both university-based academics wishing to spin-out a company, and also to recent graduates wishing to create a company.

Prior experience of commercialisation activities is not required, the desire and capability to succeed is more important and we will equip you with the necessary skills through a programme of training and mentoring.

Awardees receive up to £60,000 funding, 12 months expert mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, bespoke training and membership of the Enterprise Hub.

The Academy is a charity and does not take any equity stake in the companies formed.

So if you are a postdoctoral researcher at a UK-based university with an innovation or technology you wish to develop through a spin-out, or you have graduated within the last five years and are seeking to run a startup in the UK, then this scheme will be of interest to you.

The application deadline is Monday 17 October, and more details are available on the website, or contact the enterprise team.

Funding Competition: Commercialisation of Quantum Technologies (Innovate UK & EPSRC)

Funding opportunities, Info Days, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

money

Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are to invest a total of £19.5 million to support projects in Quantum Technologies. Projects may involve technologies belonging to one of the core groups defined in the UK’s roadmap for quantum technologies: clocks, sensors, imaging, communications or computing.

The call is now open, the registration deadline is 28th September and the call closes at noon on the 5th October.

Projects must be industry-led, but projects involving academics as partners are welcome, provided academic costs do not exceed 50% of the total.

Up to £6 million will be available for Feasibility Studies, which will fund the development of early stage devices, component technologies and for marketing studies. Projects will last up to 12 months and have total costs of £50k- £400k.

The Collaborative R&D call will seek to connect the supply chain, to deliver a demonstrator technology and must include an end user. A fund of £13.5 million is available. Total project values should be £500k – £2 million, but an addition 10% is available which can only be used for capital equipment, taking the maximum project value to £2.2 million.

The call brief is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-commercialisation-of-quantum-technologies

Networking and briefing events – click on the links for more information  as dates, times, venues and content of the events do vary.

6 September

8 September

13 September

If you are interested in this call  you must contact RKEO with adequate notice before the deadline. Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer.

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 you are thinking of applying, why not add an expression of interest on Research Professional so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

Wanted Post Doc: Eco Coding BU

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We are looking for a Post Doc to join our team utilising eDNA methods to inform ecological management for river fish and urban pollinators. Working closely in collaboration with Dr Elizabeth Franklin (Pricipal Investigator) and associated project leads (Professor Rob Britton, Dr Kathy Hodder, Dr Demetra Andreou and Dr Emilie Hardouin).

The successful applicant will be responsible for providing research support to a pair of eDNA meta-barcdong projects including their planning, execution and analysis.

The successful applicant will have a sound scientific background with technical experience in basic molecular biology including, eDNA extraction, PCR, electrophoresis and sterile working. Experience in eDNA meta-barcoding and bioinformatics would be advantageous.

For more information on the project see the Bournemouth University Research Blog:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/08/01/eco-coding-a-heif-funded-centre-for-dna-meta-barcoding-ecology/

To discuss this opportunity further please contact Dr Liz Franklin efranklin@bournemouth.ac.uk

Please find below the link to the advert for the above role:
https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/post-doctoral-researcher-edna-metabarcoding-fixed-term/

 

CoPMRE 13th Annual Symposium: Digital Healthcare: shaping the future 12th October 2016

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The Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) is pleased to announce the confirmed programme for the Thirteenth Annual Symposium, Digital Healthcare: Shaping the future. This symposium is suitable for primary and secondary care doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, Trusts board members, academics and anyone with an interest in medical research and education.

This year’s conference will explore the escalating scale and pace of digital technology in healthcare and the benefits and challenges of transformative technologies to advance care, improve clinical outcomes and enhance the patient experience.

The conference is free to attend but please register in advance to confirm your place.

Talks include:

Why Digital Healthcare? The national context and strategy
Cathy Francis
Director of patients and information, NHS England

Digital Healthcare and the Challenge of Interoperability
Theodoros N.  Arvanitis
Professor of e-Health Innovation and Head of Research, Institute of Digital Healthcare (IDH) at WMG, University of Warwick

Steps on the Dorset Digital Journey – The Dorset care record and beyond
Andy Hadley
Head of IT Development, NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group

Digital Clinical Pathways: harnessing the power of digital health service design
Nuno Almeida
Founder and CEO, Nourish

Using technology to deliver mental health at scale
Claire Harding
Head of Impact and Research, Big White Wall

For more details please visit our website or contact Audrey Dixon

Research in the news: ‘Making a difference in stroke care: the human aspects of care and practice’

Publishing

Research team at RBH BU researchers Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill and Dr Carole Pound, from the Centre for Qualitative Research have been working with a team of older people with experience of stroke and staff from the Royal Bournemouth Hospital stroke team to explore the human dimensions of stroke care.

In August the team launched a Humanising Care Toolkit in a celebration attended by service users, relatives, staff and Board members at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital Foundation NHS Trust. The toolkit is a flexible resource which can be used by staff members once they have been through their own humanisation development. It includes a DVD of stories of humanising care, a set of creative materials to use in workshops and a pack of humanising care cards as well as a user manual and electronically produced presentations and handouts. Feedback from the launch event suggests hospital staff and managers are keen to explore ways the framework and toolkit may enable different units and staff groups across the Trust to notice, value and reconnect with compassionate, human centred care and practice.

‘It’s absolutely fantastic work that is going to be crucial to developing an inclusive human culture in the Trust.’

 Service user stories also highlighted the value they placed on both humanising care and being part of a research team. For example, Wynn New one of the service user participants commented:

When I first joined the action research group I was terrified of having another stroke. I thought I would never go out by myself again.  Taking part in the group allowed me to share my experiences and feedback – what worked and what truly made a difference to my recovery. I finally have my confidence back and my fear has disappeared. I count my blessings everyday.’ 

Funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing and inspired by the ground-breaking work of Les Todres (Emeritus Professor of Health Philosophy at BU) and Kate Galvin (Professor of Nursing PractHumanising care treeice, Brighton University) the research team explored experiences of both stroke service users and providers in relation to a conceptual framework of humanising care. This framework, described in a seminal paper by Todres et al (2009) describes eight interacting dimensions that help capture the depth and breadth of being treated as human within complex, busy healthcare systems.  The work is part of a larger study led by Professor Kate Galvin.  A second site in Yorkshire worked with service users and NHS providers in a Dermatology out-patient department in order to look at the transferable aspects of humanisation theory and learning.

The project used action research methods with a focus on creative methods and collaborative sharing of stories and experiences. The team aimed to explore the relevance of the humanising care framework and get beneath the surface of what makes care feel more or less human. The stories, techniques and findings were then collated into a resource to support a new wave of busy NHS practitioners to understand and sustain humanising care in practice and become ‘Humanising Care Champions’.

For more information on the Humanising Care Toolkit contact Carole Pound cpound@bournemouth.ac.uk or Caroline Ellis Hill cehill@bournemouth.ac.uk

For further information about the breadth of work at BU inspired by the humanisation framework please visit the Humanisation pages of the Faculty for Health and Social Care.

The launch of the toolkit was reported in a number of local papers, including the Blackmore Vale magazine.

Innovation defined? Outcomes and connections ….

innovation, Knowledge Exchange

Innovate 2011v4

Following on from the blog post yesterday on  Innovation the next set of outcomes and connections introduces the concept:

Game changer 2 = UK innovators + regional priorities

It was as Minister for Universities, Science and Cities in December 2014 that the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP launched “Our plan for Growth: science and innovation“.

It was the first time that the importance of place was recognised in the science and innovation strategy and set in motion a series of new conversations and the development of a new set of connections.

Now, eighteen months on, Innovate UK has in place a team of Regional Managers to understand the intercepts between regional priorities and UK excellence and we will be opening shortly our first regional hubs.

Our UK-wide competitions, not only ensures that the best results are obtained for the public money invested but the approach raises the game of every business participating in them.

If you are competing globally, it is not sufficient that you are the best in your locality; you need an intensity of competition, which ensures you are up there with the best in the world.

There is a powerful opportunity now for Innovate UK to partner with other funders in order to combine UK excellence with regional priorities.

Innovate UK consistently receives more proposals over the quality line than it can fund itself.

Going forward we look forward to working with a wide range of funders to invest in many more proposals, which are both over the quality line and aligned to regional priorities. It’s an exciting way forward and is already in trial with Scottish Enterprise in the Biomedical Catalyst.

Read the blog post in full on Innovate UK’s website.

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships – launches today

Funding opportunities

The British Academy is due to launch its Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme today (24 August). These provide funding for outstanding early career individuals to “strengthen their experience of research and teaching”. This will then develop their CV and improve their chances of obtaining a permanent academic post. The BA state that “The primary emphasis is on completion of a significant piece of publishable research, which will be assisted by full membership of an academic community of established scholars working in similar fields.”

If you have are less than 3 years post-doc (your viva must have been held on or after 1 April 2014), or have extenuating circumstances, together with an excellent academic profile and the kind of project BA may be looking for, please have a look at the website at http://www.britac.ac.uk/british-academy-postdoctoral-fellowships and get in touch with a member of the RKEO Funding Development team.

 

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships – Submission deadlines

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

After this next KTP submission deadline on 7th September 2016, there is one further deadline in 2016 – 2nd November 2016.

Various aspects of the KTP submission and approval process have changed over the past few months and for a breakdown of what these changes are, please take a look here.

Future KTP submission deadlines for your planning are:

  • 18th January 2017
  • 8th March 2017

If you have any KTP ideas that you’d like support with, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser on 61347.

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EU AniM Workshop – Still time to register.

Team Photos 2

 

Professor Jian Jun Zhang, Dr Jian Chang and Hui Liang are pleased to announce the EU AniM Workshop.

Please click here to register.

The “AniM” www.euanim.org is an EU FP7 Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship funded project, which aims to improve the status quo by developing the “next generation computer animation techniques” and to answer challenges in handling computer animation data in an intelligent way to facilitate creativity and to encourage interaction among users through knowledge transfer and development.

project

The workshop is an intensive research meeting, aiming to provide new insights, approaches and methods of the next generation computer animation techniques and the intelligent animation data management to facilitate the growth of the computer animation industry.

Over 70 researchers based at UK universities and industry companies, will be invited for this workshop , which will be structured around the themes of “Enhanced Computer Animation technology” and “Intelligent Data Management for Computer Animation”.

You are invited to join us at the Executive Business Centre, Bournemouth University, on 2nd September 2016.  Registration will be open from 09.45 and the workshop will commence at 10.30.

Professor Jian Jun Zhang of the NCCA, Bournemouth University will chair the event, which will include an introduction to the research within the project EU AniM and a panel discussion.  Professor Nigel W John from the University of Chester, is confirmed to deliver a keynote on “Real Time Computer Graphics for Surgery Simulation”.  A buffet lunch and refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you in September, in the meantime if you have any questions regarding this event, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Innovation defined? Outcomes and connections ….

innovation

Innovate 2011v4

Everyone has a different definition for “innovation”.  Is the view of Kevin Baughan Director of Technology and Innovation at Innovate UK.  For him innovation defined simply as  “delivering better outcomes”.

It is broad enough in scope to reflect the importance of innovation in enhancing every aspect of our lives, whilst at the same time emphasising the criticality of delivery and the need for leadership and collaborations in order to achieve those better outcomes.

Better connections was a key theme of the new Secretary of State’s early speeches on introducing his new ministerial team The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, observed that: “[An industrial] strategy makes connections between what might otherwise be disparate forces; aligning them, rather than leaving them isolated or even opposed.”

So how do you use industrial strategy to make effective connections between what might otherwise be disparate forces and how do you then use those connections to deliver better outcomes? As part of a series of blog posts these ideas are introduced:

Game changer 1 = UK innovators + cross disciplinary science

Each sector of the economy is of course very different and the journey from concept to commercialisation is rarely a linear one but a clear industrial strategy fosters connections and alignment.

We have all experienced the powerful difference when you are in a team with a common purpose.

Following Sir Paul’s Nurse’s review, the government has set in motion legislation, which will bring together the Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England into a single organisation – UKRI. Creating new opportunities to build even stronger connections both between research disciplines and between cross-disciplinary research and innovation.

This not only fits well with the benefits demonstrated by the earlier automotive example, but it moves the entire game on, by ensuring that it’s cross disciplinary research teams, which are integrated into cross technology innovation initiatives which are in pursuit of our future industrial strategies.

Read the blog post in full on Innovate UK’s website.

EPSRC – Tackling global development challenges through engineering and digital technology research

Funding opportunities

EPSRC logoEPSRC have issued the following call:

Issue date: 23 August 2016
Opening date: 23 August 2016
Closing date: 15 November 2016 at 16:00
Status: Open
Tag: Invitation for proposals
Related themes: Digital economy Energy ICT

This call is supported through EPSRC‘s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) allocation. The aim of this activity is to support an internationally leading programme of research, centred around engineering and digital technologies, to tackle the challenges faced by the developing world. Exemplar areas are given under each heading below, but these should not be seen as exclusive. Proposals may also span both headings.

1) Tackling global development challenges through engineering research

  • Sustainable infrastructure development
  • Engineering for disaster resilience
  • Engineering for humanitarian aid

2) Tackling global development challenges through digital technology research

  • Access to digital services
  • Use of data for vital services
  • Secure and trusted digital infrastructures

The proposed research must be predominantly in EPSRC remit, although interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary proposals are welcomed. Proposals must also be compliant with Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines.

Please note that applicants may only be named as Investigator (either Principal or Co-Investigator) on one proposal to this call.

Overseas Co-Investigators from research organisations in low-/middle-income countries – countries on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – may be included on proposals through this call.

The call closes at 16:00 on Tuesday 15 November 2016. Up to £25 million is available from EPSRC for this call. We aim to support in the region of twenty research projects through this activity.

Resources – Full call document

If you are interested in applying to this call then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.