This is an open session for all BU ECRs and PGRs, to discuss any issues around career development, or the ECR experience with the peer network, and receive advice and guidance from the network’s academic leads.
This month’s session will also include tips and advice as highlighted at the recent ECR and Interdisciplinarity in Medical Humanities BA ECRN event.
ECRN: Surgeries – 13/03/2024, hybrid session
Book your placehere– under “ECRN: Surgeries – 13/03/2024 ” in the drop-down menu
For any queries regarding this workshop, please contact RKE Dev Framework
The Doctoral College is excited to bring you our first 3C event! This social event is a catch-up opportunity for all PGRs to meet informally with the PGR community, share your research and make new connections.
This is also a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have, particularly for any new starters. This is an informal session and it would be great to see you there.
BU hosted the British Academy’s Early Career Researcher Network for an event exploring medical and health humanities, addressing some of the challenges and opportunities of working within this varied and interdisciplinary field.
Early career researchers from across the South West came together to network and discuss topics including publishing, funding opportunities, and finding their research identity.
The event took place on BU’s Talbot Campus and was opened by Interim Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Knowledge Exchange Professor Sarah Bate, who spoke about the importance of supporting the next generation of researchers to grow and develop.
BU Professors shared their experiences and advice
Professor Sam Goodman (Professor of English & Communication), Professor Ann Hemingway (Professor of Public Health), Professor Chris Chapleo (Professor of Societal Marketing), Professor Ann Luce (Professor of Journalism and Health Communication) and Professor Edwin van Teijlingen (Professor of Reproductive Health Research) took part in a panel discussion, sharing their experiences of working across medical and health humanities and taking questions from the audience.
Advice included how to manage multiple stakeholders who may have different interests, publishing widely across different disciplines, how to deal with rejection, and the importance of building networks and contacts.
While the panel were honest about some of the difficulties and challenges of being an interdisciplinary researcher, they also spoke about the opportunities for applied interdisciplinary research and exploring different passions and interests. As Prof. Goodman put it: ‘Where’s the fun in colouring between the lines?’
Roundtable discussions took place as part of the event
Following a networking lunch, attendees moved into breakout groups to discuss opportunities and challenges around publishing, grant capture and bidding, and developing a research identity as an interdisciplinary researcher.
The event was organised by the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (BA ECRN) and Joelle Fallows and Katerina Kakaounaki of RDS, supported by Professor Sam Goodman and Professor Ann Hemingway who lead the ECR Network at BU.
The BA ECRN brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, supporting their development through events and workshops. BU is a member of the BA ECRN’s South West Hub.
There are growing calls for young people under the age of 16 to be banned from having smartphones or access to social media. The Smartphone Free Childhood WhatsApp group aims to normalise young people not having smartphones until “at least” 14 years old. Esther Ghey, mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, is campaigning for a ban on social media apps for under-16s.
The concerns centre on the sort of content that young people can access (which can be harmful and illegal) and how interactions on these devices could lead to upsetting experiences.
However, as an expert in young people’s use of digital media, I am not convinced that bans at an arbitrary age will make young people safer or happier – or that they are supported by evidence around young people’s use of digital technology.
In general, most young people have a positive relationship with digital technology. I worked with South West Grid for Learning, a charity specialising in education around online harm, to produce a report in 2018 based upon a survey of over 8,000 young people. The results showed that just over two thirds of the respondents had never experienced anything upsetting online.
Large-scale research on the relationship between social media and emotional wellbeing concluded there is little evidence that social media leads to psychological harm.
Sadly, there are times when young people do experience upsetting digital content or harm as a result of interactions online. However, they may also experience upsetting or harmful experiences on the football pitch, at a birthday party or playing Pokémon card games with their peers.
It would be more unusual (although not entirely unheard of) for adults to be making calls to ban children from activities like these. Instead, our default position is “if you are upset by something that has happened, talk to an adult”. Yet when it comes to digital technology, there seems to be a constant return to calls for bans.
We know from attempts at prevention of other areas of social harms, such as underage sex or access to drugs or alcohol, that bans do not eliminate these behaviours. However, we do know that bans will mean young people will not trust adults’ reactions if they are upset by something and want to seek help.
I recall delivering an assembly to a group of year six children (aged ten and 11) one Safer Internet Day a few years ago. A boy in the audience told me he had a YouTube channel where he shared video game walkthroughs with his friends.
I asked if he’d ever received nasty comments on his platform and if he’d talked to any staff about it at his school. He said he had, but he would never tell a teacher because “they’ll tell me off for having a YouTube channel”.
This was confirmed after the assembly by the headteacher, who said they told young people not to do things on YouTube because it was dangerous. I suggested that empowering what was generally a positive experience might result in the young man being more confident to talk about negative comments – but was met with confusion and repetition of “they shouldn’t be on there”.
Need for trust
Young people tell us that two particularly important things they need in tackling upsetting experiences online are effective education and adults they can trust to talk to and be confident of receiving support from. A 15 year old experiencing abuse as a result of social media interactions would likely not be confident to disclose if they knew the first response would be, “You shouldn’t be on there, it’s your own fault.”
There is sufficient research to suggest that banning under-16s having mobile phones and using social media would not be successful. Research into widespread youth access to pornography from the Children’s Commissioner for England, for instance, illustrates the failures of years of attempts to stop children accessing this content, despite the legal age to view pornography being 18.
The prevalence of hand-me-down phones and the second hand market makes it extremely difficult to be confident that every mobile phone contract accurately reflects the age of the user. It is a significant enough challenge for retailers selling alcohol to verify age face to face.
The Online Safety Act is bringing in online age verification systems for access to adult content. But it would seem, from the guidance by communications regulator Ofcom, that the goal is to show that platforms have demonstrated a duty of care, rather than being a perfect solution. And we know that age assurance (using algorithms to estimate someone’s age) is less accurate for under-13s than older ages.
By putting up barriers and bans, we erode trust between those who could be harmed and those who can help them. While these suggestions come with the best of intentions, sadly they are doomed to fail. What we should be calling for is better understanding from adults, and better education for young people instead.
Calling early career researchers (including practice-led) for two days of sparking ideas, discovering new project partners, and developing interdisciplinary funding bids!
30 April – 1 May 2024
Bournemouth
Day 1 begins at 1230, Day 2 finishes at 1630, to enable travel from external universities.
Participate in dynamic and interactive sessions to develop innovative research concepts addressing any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), leading to funding bids across institutions and disciplines. Your goal is to form an interdisciplinary project team and build a funding proposal in only two days.
This two-day sandpit will be supplemented with two online follow-up sessions (summer and autumn 2024) to share your project progress and experiences.
We welcome any South West-based early career (as you choose to define it) researcher, artist, practitioner or anyone with a general interest in sustainability and emerging interdisciplinary projects. You must be based at one of the South West Cluster Universities. You should be keen to work in a multidisciplinary team, and willing to commit to attending the full sandpit, on both days. No prior experience of research funding is required.
To secure your spot in the Sandpit, please complete and submit the following application – note that all participants must commit to attending both full days:
The event is facilitated by Dr. Catalin Brylla and Dr. Lyle Skains, with advisors to be drawn from senior Bournemouth University staff based on participant disciplines and interests.
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
The BU Research Staff Association (RSA) is a forum to promote research culture at BU. Research staff from across BU are encouraged to attend, to network with others researchers, disseminate their work, discuss career opportunities, hear updates on how BU is implementing the Research Concordat, and give feedback or raise concerns that will help to develop and support the research community at BU.
Recruiting FST and BUBS Faculty RSA Representatives
The Faculty RSA reps role is to support the Institutional reps with the running of the BU RSA, attending the Research Concordat Steering Group, and Faculty Research and Professional Practice Committee Meetings, to provide an update on the BU RSA and feedback any comments or concerns.
Eligible research staff are those on research-only contracts – fixed-term or open-ended employment (not PTHP/casual contracts) who have at least one year remaining on their contract at the time of recruitment.
If you are interested in the FST RSA rep or BUBS RSA rep role, please supply a few words to demonstrate your interest and availability in relation to the position. These should be submitted to the RDS Researchdev@bournemouth.ac.uk by 5pm on Thursday 14 March 2024.
Please contact your RSA reps to chat about it if you have any queries.
As a forum for the knowledge-sharing of cutting-edge advances and developments in Virtual Reality (VR) and related fields, ICVR 2024 will bring together an international community of experts to present the latest research results, future development outlooks, and innovative applications, encompassing not only VR, but also augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), 3D user interfaces (3DUIs), and their cross-cutting areas.
The sponsors and organisers of ICVR 2024 are inviting submissions of high-quality research papers describing original research and innovation, covering a wide array of topics, including but not limited to the following:
Topic Area #1 – Technologies and Applications(e.g. VR, AR, MR and XR applications; computer graphics techniques, immersive video streaming, analytics and data visualisations; software architectures, toolkits and engineering)
Topic Area #2 – Multi-sensory Experiences and Techniques (e.g audio interfaces; virtual humans and avatars; haptics and tactile interfaces; teleoperation and telepresence)
Topic Area #3 – Interaction (e.g. affective computing and design; ethical and moral issues; usage research, evaluation methods and empirical studies)
The closing date for submission of full papers is Friday 1st March 2024.
If you’re looking to have an impact on local, national and international policy with your research, you may find the BU policy influence digest email useful.
The policy influence digest highlights policy influencing opportunities and tips. The digests are usually circulated weekly and contain information on expert calls, specialist or committee advisor opportunities, areas of research interest issued by the Government departments, fellowship opportunities, the notable sector reports and Government announcements from the week, events and training as well as a range of other opportunities to share your expertise (including responding to consultations or select committee inquiries).
The next round of the Leverhulme Research Centres Competition is now open with a deadline of 7th June 2024. As BU is permitted to submit only one application as an institution, we are holding an internal competition for Expressions of Interest (EoI).
Those who are interested in making an application to the Leverhulme Research Centres Competition, are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to preawardenquiries@bournemouth.ac.uk , by Wednesday 20th March 2024. Application and guidance can be found here (I:\RDS\Public\Leverhulme Research Centres Competition 2024\EOI Documents). If you have further questions or queries please contact Eva Papadopoulou (epapadopoulou@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Kate Percival (kpercival@bournemouth.ac.uk).
Scope of call
The Leverhulme Trust invites applications for Research Centres that will not only conduct research of outstanding originality but also aspire to achieve a significant step-change in scholarship. The Trust’s aim is to encourage new approaches that may establish or reshape a field of study and so transform our understanding of a significant contemporary topic. Applicants are therefore invited to be bold in compiling their bids. The centres should have the capacity to become recognised internationally for excellence in their chosen area.
The Trust has a reputation for encouraging higher-risk research, which is therefore often fundamental or curiosity-driven – so-called ‘blue skies’ – and multi-disciplinary. The expectation is that centres will draw upon a range of disciplinary perspectives and expertise, perhaps bringing new disciplinary mixes to bear on a particular topic.
In this 2024 call, the Trust Board is looking for applications strongly led by the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Within this framework, the choice of topic is left open, in line with the Trust’s responsive mode of working. Please look at the Trust’s guidelines for areas of research, such as medical and clinical research, which are ineligible: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/research-we-do-not-fund.
The chosen topic should be sufficiently large-scale to support an ambitious but realistic research agenda for up to ten years.
Leverhulme Research Centres should not duplicate existing activity at a comparable scale, whether in UKRI-funded or university research centres. The Trust wishes to support research activity where it can be confident that the work will have substantial added value compared to smaller initiatives in the same area of research.
Value and Duration
£10 million for up to 10 years is available.
Further information is available from the Leverhulme Trust website, and interested applicants are advised to consider the eligibility criteria carefully.
Timeline
An indicative timeline is below for the submission of the EOI. A more detailed timeline can be found (I:\RDS\Public\Leverhulme Research Centres Competition 2024\EOI Documents).
Leverhulme Research Centres – Internal Expressions of Interest full timeline 2024.
20-02-2024
RDS advertise Expression of Interest (EoI)competition for call
20-03-2024
EoI deadline (EoIs to be sent to RDS)
20-03-2024
Papers (applications) sent to DDRs and Doctoral College (RDS to administer)
w/c 01-04-2024
DDRs panel meeting (virtual)
By 05-04-2024
DDRs panel meeting decision and feedback disseminated to applicants
05-04-2024
RDS to contact Leverhulme to provide the Trust with the principal applicant’s name, departmental affiliation and email address. Access will then be granted to the Leverhulme Trust Grants Management System
Apr-May
Applicants develop proposals with the support of RDS
We are pleased to announce that BU’s new seed funding scheme for public engagement with research is now open for applications
What’s it for?
We want to provide small amounts of funding (up to £500) to help researchers develop and incorporate meaningful, two-way engagement with beneficiaries and research users. The aim is to help support a more engaged research culture across BU and accelerate the impact arising from research.
Who can apply?
The scheme is open to researchers at all career stages, whether or not they have previous public engagement experience.
What are we looking for?
We would like to fund engagement activity that addresses any/all of the following:
reaches a new audience or community, or
tests a pilot activity to evaluate what works, with the aim of developing impact from existing research or securing further external funding, or
develops your own engagement skills and understanding of the value of public engagement with research.
The reviewing panel will assess applications on a rolling basis and aims to respond within one week.
Support & information
The relevant staff in the Research Excellence Team will provide support to deliver activities, and funds will be managed by the PI’s faculty finance and resources team. All activity and spend will need to be completed before 31 July 2024.
(Please note that this funding will not be awarded for attending conferences or networking events where the engagement with stakeholders is speculative.)
You may also be interested in the following training sessions, as you will need to demonstrate evaluation planning in the application form:
Researchers from BU will create a short film entirely using artificial intelligence (AI) to explore the creative and legal issues surrounding the use of these tools in media production.
The research project has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and will investigate the use of generative AI tools in media creation – focusing on collaboration, creativity, and representation. This includes concerns about copyright, job security, and other ethical and legal challenges.
“There has been a lot of thinking about responsible AI and the way it is used and implemented, as well as the implications for things like production and jobs and how roles in the industry will be affected,” said Dr Szilvia Ruszev, Senior Lecturer in Post Production, who is leading the project.
“We hope that through the discussions and the use of these tools, we can develop a more nuanced understanding of how we can still be creative and use AI in a responsible way.”
The BU research team also includes Dr Maxine Gee (Principal Academic in Screenwriting), Professor Xiaosong Yang (Professor of Computer Animation and Deputy Head of Department), Dr Tom Davis (Associate Professor in Music and Audio Technology) and Dr Melanie Stockton-Brown (Principal Academic in Law), as well as partners from the University of Michigan, USA and Zhejiang University, China.
They will use generative AI tools at each stage of the production process, such as the script writing, image creation, sound and music, and for the post production on the film.
They will also evaluate these tools from the perspectives of representation, collaboration and creativity as well as exploring key legal aspects, including copyright.
At each stage of the process, the team will hold workshops which will include talks about the issues being investigated and hands-on experience with helping to create the AI-generated film. The workshops will be open to BU staff and students, as well as industry stakeholders and policymakers.
Dr Ruszev said: “Fictional media has a history of shaping societal understanding of stereotypes through media representation but the data used to create content through AI is not objective and so we are looking at what sort of impact that will have on the representation of identities and groups.
“There are also issues around copyright to explore – such as who owns the idea, and the ethical and legal challenges that need to be addressed.”
The project has received over £170,000 in funding from the AHRC as part of the Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme, which will support the development of responsible AI and how it can be embedded across key sectors.
Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the AHRC, said: “The impact of AI can already be felt in many areas of our lives. It will transform our jobs and livelihoods, and impact on areas as diverse as education, policing and the creative industries, and much more besides.
“The research which AHRC announced today will provide lasting contributions to the definition and practice of responsible AI, informing the practice and tools that are crucial to ensure this transformative technology provides benefits for all of society.”
Join experts from Konfer for a Faculty-specific session, offering a guided tour of the platform and support to set up your profile or your Research Centre page for powerful research and knowledge exchange connections.
Konfer offers an efficient way to navigate around resources, technology and innovation capabilities that exist in the UK innovation eco-system. Through Konfer, you can discover and engage with experts beyond your typical reach and discuss new ideas and opportunities for projects.
This is an opportunity to meet with the Konfer team, have a guided tour of the platform and its full functionality, enabling you to create and connect to the UK research collaborations with other universities, businesses and other organisations. By the end of your session you will have set up your own profile, with guidance and support from Ranbir and Shivaun from Konfer, and be ready to post or respond to collaboration opportunities.
As well as a Faculty specific session, you can also attend the Konfer Drop-In Surgery in the afternoon.
The Coffee and Konfer event will take place on Wednesday 20 March 2024. The faculty specific sessions will take place from 9am. Rooms to be confirmed.
A networking lunch and light refreshments will be provided.
The Coffee & Konfer Surgery will take place from 2pm. Location to be confirmed.
Schedule
BUBS Workshop – 9:00 – 9:50am
FMC Workshop – 10:00 – 10:50am
HSS Workshop – 11:00 – 11:50am
FST Workshop – 12:00 – 12:50pm
Facilitators – Ranbir Jabanda and Shivaun Meehan – National Centre for Universities and Business/Konfer. Dr. Wendelin Morrison – BU Knowledge Exchange Manager
Networking Lunch – 1:00 – 2:00pm
For Deputy Deans, BEKES, Faculty and RDS Knowledge Exchange and/or Innovation Leads
Coffee & Konfer Surgery – 2:00 – 4:30pm
Aimed at academics from any faculty including those with no experience or some experience of using Konfer.
Drop in and join us for a coffee and support in:
Maximising your use of Konfer
Creating or developing your current Konfer profile
Creating a Research Centre Page as a ‘Window to the World’
Finding Funding or Collaborators on Konfer
Building Konfer into your research culture
Ranbir Jabanda and Shivaugn Meehan – National Centre for Universities and Business/Konfer
Dr. Wendelin Morrison – BU Knowledge Exchange Manager
Dear colleagues, are you involved in research which affects people who are homeless?
In the BU PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) Partnership, we have been collaborating on a community led project to engage with people who are homeless and vulnerably housed across Dorset on the enablers and barriers to having a voice in research and service development. The project is funded by NHS England through the Research Engagement and Network Development (REND) fund which is awarded to ICS’s (Integrated Care Systems). In Dorset, this is led by Dr Helena Posnett, Consultant in Public Health – Trust lead for Health Inequalities at Dorset Healthcare and is a collaboration between Dorset ICS, BU PIER Partnership, Bournemouth HealthBus and Lantern Trust (based in Weymouth) with PIER leading on the community led research strand. We have been using a community researcher model (engaging people with lived experience) to capture the views and experiences of those in their community.
We are hosting a stakeholder event on Monday 11th March at the Spire in Poole to share some of this work and to bring people together to co-design more inclusive ways that people can be heard and involved. We have two or three more places for BU colleagues to attend (we are seeking to carefully balance the attendees between people from the homeless and research communities). Having researchers involved would be really valued as we seek to co-design inclusive approaches to public involvement of marginalised and seldom heard groups.
If you are interested (and available on the 11th March), please get in touch
We are delighted to share the spring 2024 calendar for our Socio-Ecological Transition Seminars (SETS). This seminar cycle’s discussions will revolve around the global crisis of waste and the unsustainability of current modes of production and consumption, analysed across sectors and geographical contexts, in its societal, organisational, political, and ethical dimensions.
We have a confirmed calendar of international distinguished speakers:
April 3rd h 3 pm: A public sociology of waste, Myra Hird
Myra J. Hird, Professor in Environmental Studies at Queen’s University (Canada). Myra holds a PhD from Oxford University and is a distinguished interdisciplinary scholar researching the global waste crisis and will present her recent book A Public Sociology of Waste(2022, Bristol University Press).
April 24th h 3 pm: Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability, Manisha Anantharaman
Manisha Anantharaman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Center for the Sociology of Organisations, Sciences Po Paris (France). Manisha holds a PhD from University of California Berkeley, and her research focuses on the politics of ecological transition and sustainability. Manisha will present her recent book Recycling Class. The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability (2024, MIT press).
29th May h 3 pm: The Social Life of Unsustainable Mass Consumption, Magnus Boström.
SETS aims at reflecting with critical instruments and theories on socio-ecological transformations in times of crisis – with a special focus on everyday life and the sphere of social and ecological reproduction. In particular, the seminars aim at eliciting reflection on the different practices and “fields” where struggles and transformative action take place. The seminars are open to a diverse audience, including academics, students, practitioners, social movements, and non-specialist public.
UKRIO has announced details of a forthcoming Free Webinar “Social Media and Ethics” on Wednesday 21st February from 10:00 – 11:00 BST.
Research using social media data presents several ethical issues that researchers must navigate to ensure the responsible and respectful use of this data. Some of the primary ethical issues in research using social media includes privacy and informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, data ownership and terms of use, ethical use of algorithms and AI, sensitive topics and vulnerable populations, consent and minors, deception and online identity, unintended consequences, and transparency and reproducibility.
This webinar discusses these ethical concerns that require a combination of thoughtful consideration, adherence to research guidelines, and engagement with relevant stakeholders, including social media platforms and users.
Dr Nicolas Gold, Associate Professor in Computer Science will lead the webinar, which will cover:
The identification of some key ethics issues when using social media data.
An approach to constructing arguments for ethically defensible research in this space.
A brief “tour” of some platform terms and their potential impact on research.
This webinar is aimed at all researchers using social media and those involved in the ethical review process of projects.
As BU subscribes to UKRIO services, UKRIO webinars are free and open to anyone who may be interested in research integrity and ethics, good research practice and improving research culture and avoiding misconduct.
To register – please click here (takes you to external website).
Evaluation of Engagement
Mon 18 March, 1-4pm, Talbot Campus
Successful public engagement can benefit research, researchers and the public – but how do you go about demonstrating this change? This workshop will guide you through the best evaluation processes, showing you when, why and, crucially, how to use evaluation to provide reliable, clear data. It will highlight how to demonstrate success to funders, record impact for the REF, help improve your processes, and give you a better understanding of the people you are connecting with.
To book a place on this workshop, please complete the booking formunder Impact Essentials: Evaluating Public Engagement – 18/03/2024, in the drop down menu
Taking an in-depth look at evaluation, participants will explore data capture, analysis and reporting. From surveys to focus groups, you will learn how to format powerful questions and report meaningful data. Discover how to develop evaluation plans for even the most complex topics. You will also learn how to write evaluation reports for funders or for the REF. This workshop requires good base knowledge of evaluation, ideally from attending the previous Evaluation of Engagement workshop.
To book a place on this workshop, please complete the booking formunder Impact Essentials: Advanced Evaluation of Public Engagement – 19/03/2024, in the drop down menu
NB: While we recommend you attend both sessions, you may judge the first session on its own as appropriate for your needs. However, as the advanced session will build on the knowledge and skills gained in the first session, we do advise against only attending the second.
Early Career Researchers Network (ECRN) Surgeries
Two workshops coming up in March under the Post Award pathway
The BU 
Coffee & Konfer Surgery – 2:00 – 4:30pm
UKRIO has announced details of a forthcoming Free Webinar “Social Media and Ethics” on Wednesday 21st February from 10:00 – 11:00 BST. 
Conversation article: Wishcycling – how ‘eco-friendly’ labels confuse shoppers and make recycling less effective
Apply now to take part in the 2025 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Photo exhibition happening now at Talbot Campus – Ageing in a digital world
A compassionate approach to Simulation: new national blog post published
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Horizon Europe info days 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease