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Parliamentary Science Committee want science budget protected

Research news

parliament-uk-logoThe House of Lords and House of Commons Science Committees have written to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to ask him to protect the science budget.

An excerpt from the letter reads:

“The rumoured 40% cuts to your department’s budget pose a serious threat to Britain’s position at the cutting edge of science. We are writing to urge you to increase investment in research and development in the upcoming Spending Review and not to rush reorganisations of funding structures that could have unforeseen and long-term negative consequences.

The UK already invests significantly less of its GDP in R&D than our international competitors. We cannot afford to fall yet further. Cuts to the research base would send a very worrying signal to investors and could lead to a brain drain of our top academic talent.    

The Government’s aims to rebalance the economy and support high-value job creation are laudable, but they cannot be achieved without investment. Real-terms increases in the science budget and support for innovative businesses will leverage inward private investment and pay dividends for years to come through a healthier and happier society, and a stronger economy.”

Further comment on the letter can be found in this Research Professional article.

Wellcome Trust aims to increase spend to £5 billion over next 5 years

Funding opportunities, Research news

strategy - SMThe Wellcome Trust aims to invest £5 billion over the next five years to improve health, as it launches a new strategic framework focussed on advancing the best ideas in science and research, seizing opportunities as they arise and taking advantage of our independence to drive reform.

This marks another step forward for Wellcome, the world’s second highest spending charitable foundation, which has invested £6 billion over the last ten years and £11 billion since it began in 1936.

Wellcome’s new framework consists of three complementary approaches across science, research and engagement with society:

  • Advancing Ideas. Wellcome will continue to respond to great ideas and inspired thinking that address the fundamental health challenges of our time. Last year we unveiled our new funding framework to enhance our ability to support excellent research in the UK and worldwide.
  • Seizing opportunities. Wellcome brings ideas together to make a big difference, providing intensive support that creates real change. We identify times when our concerted intervention can accelerate progress towards better health.
  • Driving reform. Wellcome changes ways of working so more ideas can flourish, leading by example and campaigning for wider reform. Our record in areas like open access to research results, public engagement, and research careers has earned us the credibility to challenge ways of working, and to propose better alternatives.

The success of Wellcome’s £18 billion investments portfolio, which funds all of their work and is managed by an in-house team, has already given them the independence and resources to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, their free venue that explores medicine, life and the arts.

“The Wellcome Trust has a long-standing record in science and research of which we are very proud,” says Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. “We are able to build on that legacy with an increased commitment to supporting people and teams with great ideas in basic science and applied research, social science and the humanities, which will remain at the core of our work. But we can now also bring additional focus to some of the biggest health challenges of our time. We responded swiftly to Ebola but there are other serious issues where we believe that we can help bring about change for the better.”

Their priorities will evolve as new challenges arise, drawing on insights from a rich history of achievement and a network of experts from different disciplines around the world. Their initial priorities include:

  • Drug-resistant infection. Growing resistance to antibiotics and other drugs threatens many of the benefits of modern medicine. Wellcome will explore how best to use and protect the treatments we have, and to encourage the development of new ones.
  • Vaccination. Too many lives are still lost to diseases that could be prevented by vaccines, mostly in low and middle-income countries. Wellcome will investigate how best to stimulate research, technology development and policy to address this critical unmet need.
  • Our Planet, Our Health. Human health is intimately linked to the environment in which we live. Wellcome will build understanding of how global food systems and urbanisation connect to health, improving the evidence base for public policy.
  • Science education. An appreciation of science, for the future scientist or the informed citizen, begins with learning in school and beyond. Wellcome will help give young people an engaging, relevant and inspiring science education.

Wellcome’s new Chair, Eliza Manningham-Buller, says: “It is an exciting time to be assuming the chair of the Trust. The organisation has a great record of achievement, working with others to improve human health. We now have the means to develop even higher ambitions. The long-term funding of discovery science will remain at the core of what we do but we are also determined to act quickly when we see other opportunities to make a real difference to health.”

View the full details of the Wellcome Trust’s Strategic Framework.wellcometrust_logo

Research Councils pledge to work together more

Research news

RCUKlogoResearch Professional have summarised an email received from Philip Nelson, chairman of Research Councils UK, which says that the councils will act as a “single, collective organisation”.

All seven research councils have signed up to ‘Research Councils Together’ where they will be discussing wider changes for a more collective way of working across the research councils, leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness.  This does not equate to the creation of a single research council.  Find out more in the Research Professional article.

The use of VectorPixels to represent Photographic images

Featured academics, Research news

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

 

Speaker: Alain Simons

 

 

Alain is new lecturer at Bournemouth University, teaching on the Games Technology/Games Programming courses, and this is an opportunity to learn about his PhD research.

 

Title:   The use of VectorPixels to represent Photographic images

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 28th October 2015

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: Photographic images are represented by a grid of pixels. Each pixel has a colour value (3 different ones for RGB colour Images) so that computations are very easy to do.   However the number of pixels that are available is increasing at a faster rate every year. Images also need to be transported as in every other digital information. Two problems are arising with the growing amount of pixels. How can 4K images will be transported over the internet? How long will it take to compute 8K images? Those questions are tackled for the moment with better compression techniques and faster CPUs, but they have their limits. VectorPixels want to start from scratch, a new approach, a new algorithm to visualize images on screen. No hardware is available at the moment to capture VectorPixels so for creating VectorPixels ordinary pixel information will be used. Our algorithm is made up of three components namely trace, calculate and save. A VectorPixel is a vector based pixel as the word itself indicates.

 

We hope to see you there.

Open Access Success Story #2

BU research, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Science and Technology Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, Shelly Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

In conjunction with the International Open Access week, Dr. Zulfiqar Khan shares his experience of Open Access.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has led the University Sustainable Design Research Centre (now cluster) since 2007. The centre has grown its research and professional practice portfolio with significant international collaborations.

SDRC received its REF14 Panel Feedback as, “Sustainable Design Research Group had the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent”. He is current lead/champion of REF 2020 UoA 12.

SDRC currently has thirteen PGRs (3 to be recruited soon), two postdoctoral research assistants (one to be recruited soon), three visiting professors, five visiting fellows and twelve academic staff. Majority of research is externally funded/match funded. Some of major funders include Ministry of Defence, Schaeffler, Future Energy Source ltd, National University of Science & Technology, SKF and WIT etc. for more information please visit SDRC.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has established a significant research portfolio in corrosion, corrosion condition monitoring & simulation in collaboration with The Tank Museum and Ministry of Defence.

Recent publications from current research have been published in open access. Open access provides an opportunity of making research findings available to a wider audience especially those who do not necessarily subscribe to the journal itself or the database which include (the) specific journal(s).

HEFCE sets out post 2014 REF open access policy as, that in order for certain research to be eligible for submission to REF, their outputs should be made open access. There are several identified routes, e.g. gold open access or uploading to institutional repository where the material should be freely available for downloading or reading for anyone with an internet access. The output should also be easily discoverable.

The open access also works as a PR vehicle for research activity. Dr Zulfiqar Khan and his PhD student (Hammad Nazir) recently published in the Journal of Adhesion Science & Technology, Taylor & Francis, an SCI indexed journal. Taylor & Francis publish a list of twenty most read articles. Majority of top twenty most read publications are available since 2012. A recent paper which was published through the open access route entitled “Modelling of metal-coating delamination incorporating variable environmental parameters” is now the top most read paper in the list with 1620 views/downloads. This paper was available since December 2014.

Similarly “Optimisation of interface roughness and coating thickness to maximise coating–substrate adhesion – a failure prediction and reliability assessment modelling” was available since April 2015, has made it to the top most read publications with 586 views/downloads and is placed 8th (dated 18/09/2015).

While a third, recently published paper “A unified mathematical modelling and simulation for cathodic blistering mechanism incorporating diffusion and fracture mechanics concepts” which was available from Mar 2015 is now the 12th (dated 18/09/2015) most read publication with 496 views/downloads.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan said, that open access is an efficient vehicle to make our research outputs more widely available to bring significant benefits in terms academic, industrial and societal impacts.

 

Realise your European ambitions with EUADS

BU Challenges, EU, Training

The EU Academic Development Scheme (EUADS) is a unique scheme developed to kick start your career in EU research; it’s open to all BU academic staff seeking to gain EU funding.  The EUADS will help you build up to submitting a proposal to any of the H2020 schemes by providing unlimited 1-2-1 support from an expert EU bid writer, group mentoring and unlimited assistance with writing your application over a 9 month period.
 
The scheme involves four separate development workshops over nine months starting in January 2016 and ongoing assistance and support in developing EU proposals during that period.   A useful budget of £1K  per participant (with additional funds up to £2,250 in total) is provided to fund activities supporting bid development, such as:
 

• Travel with the intent of networking
• Conference attendance with the intent of networking
• Pilot research work
• Fieldwork
• Attendance at external networking events leading to collaborative research proposals
• Meetings with external organisations to establish collaborations
• Preparation of specialist material or data
• Replacement teaching

The workshops will all take place in 2016 on 13th January, 27th April, 20th July and 28th September.  Application forms are available below and must include endorsement from your Faculty Deputy Dean for Research, who should be approached before beginning a submission.  Places are limited and applications may be reviewed internally to decide on the final cohort; please complete the form with enthusiasm and care.

We are seeking individual applications but applicants may collaborate within and across Faculties and pool their individual budgets, where appropriate – please indicate in your application if you would like to be considered as a ‘team’ along with other applicants.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 30th November 2015.  Applications and any questions should be submitted to the Funding Development Co-ordinator, Dianne Goodman, dgoodman@bournemouth.ac.uk

EUADS Policy 2016

EUADS-Application-Form

 

Look our for further posts on EUADS in the coming weeks

 

Open Access Success Story #1

BU research, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Management Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, EB708, at the Executive Business Centre in Lansdowne.

Dr. Fabian Homberg will share with the audience his experience of Open Access especially in dealing with various publishers, his personal thoughts on advantages of open access and the long term sustainability of open access publishing.

 

I am back – Kaska Musial-Gabrys

BU research, Uncategorized

K Musial-GabrysOver a month has passed since I re-joined Bournemouth University. As some of you may remember, I first joined BU in 2010 but then went to King’s College London for almost four years. Now I am back in my new role of Principal Academic in Computing (what a mystery that job title is!). Living at the sea side cannot be overrated!

Main areas of my research are complex networked systems, and analysis of their dynamics and evolution, as well as predictive, adaptive modelling of networked systems. I have recently started research in a new direction – the application of machine learning approaches to networked, dynamical systems. So, if you have some data for analysis, please keep in touch.

As for my experience, I received my MSc in Computer Science from Wroclaw University of Technology (WrUT), Poland, and an MSc in Software Engineering from the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, both in 2006. I was awarded my PhD in November 2009 from WrUT, and in the same year I was appointed a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Bournemouth University (BU), where from 2010 I was a Lecturer in Informatics. I joined King’s College London in November 2011 as a Lecturer in Computer Science and I worked there till the end of August 2015. At Bournemouth I work in the Faculty of Science and Technology and together with my colleagues we try to develop Data Science Institute that is a cross-disciplinary initiative at BU.

I hope that I will be able to meet you in the future, maybe over a cup of coffee? Please do let me know if you think that my research work may be relevant to what you do.

Best,
Kaska

Conference on Citizenship and Education – 3 November

BU research, international, Research communication

In association with the British Sociological Association, BU is hosting the conference “Citizenship and Education“. The event will take place in Bournemouth House on the 3rd of November, and is organized by the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

The program includes a Policy and Politics: Citizenship and Neo-Liberalism panel, and sessions on Comparative Contexts, “Britishness” and Faith, Faith and “Cohesion” and Policy Processes and Relations where experts from around the world will present and discuss their most recent results. Dr Bridget Byrne and Professor David James will open and conclude the event with keynote speeches.

The complete program is available here.

For more information or to book to attend the conference, please visit the British Sociological Association website.

02/11/15 Reminder for our next- European IPR Helpdesk Webinar

BU research, EU, Funding opportunities, Info Days, Research Training

European IPR webinarsThe European IPR Helpdesk is running a number of webinars over the next few months and RKEO are promoting those relevant to EU Horizon 2020 activities. Coming up we are holding the following webinar events:

02/11/15 IP Management in H2020 – with a special focus on MSCA Casterbridge – Talbot Campus

02/12/15 Impact and Innovation in H2020 – a Guide for Proposers The Octagon – Talbot Campus

16/12/15 Maximising the impact of H2020 projects B325 – Bournemouth House – Lansdowne Campus

Please arrive at 9:15am for a prompt 9:30 start with the webinar duration being one hour (45 minutes presentation with 15 minutes for questions). We have the room booked for a longer time so that we can have a post-webinar discussion afterwards, if appropriate. Please only register on the European IPR Helpdesk link if you will be joining the webinar(s) from your own desk rather than joining us. You can also check the European IPR Helpdesk Calendar for all their events.

If you would like to attend any of these, please email Dianne Goodman stating which webinars you will attend. If they prove very popular, we may need to change the room, so pre-booking is essential.

BU International Open Access Week : 19 – 25 October 2015

BU research, Info Days, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

Open Access Week, a global event now entering its eighth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

WHAT IS IT?       Open access is free, unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly research literature and data.

WHY DO IT?       Publicly-funded research should be made freely available to the community who support it

BENEFITS

To the members of public

  • Allows access to journal articles without restrictions of costs and time delay
  • Reveals the latest medical discoveries and breakthroughs (which may save your life)
  • Gives crucial information  freely to medical professionals, students and nurses in developing countries so saving thousands of lives
  • Enriches the educational experience of millions of students and teachers around the world (who otherwise cannot afford subscriptions to prestigious journals)

To the academics

  • Removes  barriers  to networking and sharing research
  • Increases exposure and use of publications
  • Facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration and new discoveries
  • Increase usage, citations and impact

Please visit the links below to hear from our academics about some of the Open Access research that is available to you:

Celebrate Open Access at BU and join us at these exciting events.

oa

NB: Please email Charmain Lyons (clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you wish to join the Faculty Open Access Lunch so that lunch can be ordered for you.

For more information about

  • The International Open Access Week and how you can get involved or help out;
  • Open access in general;
  • how to publish your article open access

Please get in touch with Pengpeng Hatch (pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk, tel: 01202 963154).
All logo and colour scheme attributed to : www.openaccessweek.org