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How to make the blog look colourful

Guidance

question-markQuick tip if you’re adding posts to the research blog: when adding an image within your post, remember to also click on ‘set featured image’ (bottom right-hand menu below ‘tags’) and select the image again.  This will show the image on the home page of the blog for your post summary (which may entice more people in to read it).

Keynote Speaker at BAM Marketing and Retail SIG Event on Sustainability and Ethical Consumption

Research themes

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Professor Juliet Memery was a keynote speaker last week at a British Academy of Management Event held at the Surrey Business School, University of Surrey. The event on Sustainability and Ethical Consumption was hosted by the BAM Marketing and Retail Special Interest Group and brought together academics and practitioners to discuss research in the area. The event aimed to make an assessment of sustainability and ethical consumption research by looking back at its original purpose, how it has developed, where it is now, and what it could or should develop into, so providing food for thought for future research in the area. The day was well attended with over 30 presentations being made and a lot of insightful discussions were held.

The event is tied to a special issue of ‘Management Decision’, a peer reviewed journal published by Emerald, on Sustainability and Ethical Consumption which will be edited by the co-organisers and keynote speakers. Details of the special issue will be advertised in the near future, and submissions are invited from researchers in the area.

RKEO Drop-in sessions – cancelled due to unpopular demand

Guidance

flyingIn response to positive feedback from academics about how much they benefit from face-to-face meetings with staff from RKEO, we set up monthly drop-in sessions for 2016.  Unfortunately, these were not as valued as we thought they would be, i.e. no academics chose to drop-in to the three held to date.  Therefore, all future sessions are now cancelled.

If there is a specific member of RKEO that you would like to meet with then please contact them directly to arrange a meeting.

Perspectives from an Early Career Researcher (ECR): Tips for Conference Engagement

PG research

Last week I attended the 20th European Congress of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM) in Estoril, which covered topics from functional gait analysis-to-household ergonomics. By the morning coffee break of day one, it came back to me that engaging in a conference is an art-form. In this brief report I hope to share some tips, based on my own experiences in academia.

Beforehand, workload-dependent, leave all mobile technologies and laptops in your room. Emails can wait until the day’s end and social media will only serve to distract (Quentin Tarantino bans mobile phones from his film sets, so there).

Firstly, register early and familiarize yourself with the layout of the conference centre. Stop for a coffee; premium-grade typically dispensed by the sponsor’s kiosk.

Secondly, take the time to read the programme, and map your ‘conference schedule’ (i.e., what sessions you intend to attend). Breakfast presents a fine opportunity for planning, on a day-by-day basis. Schedule planning is important for larger meetings, which can deliver many parallel sessions. Attend a conference with an aim(s). Be strategic; balance topics specific to, and outside your research area. For example, I attended i) functional mobility in older adults (subject-specific), ii) Cochrane Review/PGR development (non-specific, CPD), iii) cognitive dual-tasking (semi-specific, interest), and iv) Nordic walking (personal interest) sessions. Specialist workshops, such as ECR sessions, are gold-dust as you gain insight from international perspectives and practices. I also recommend not studiously attending every single session; I did this in my first conference and burnt out post-coffee break on day two. Don’t feel guilty missing a session if you feel it holds no relevance to you (or your personal development), otherwise you risk losing concentration on the sessions you are interested in. Stop for a coffee.

Thirdly, relax, enjoy yourself and don’t be afraid to talk. You can often learn more (and establish links) during coffee breaks, than in the sessions. Yes, you are at work, and yes, you may be abroad, but don’t fall into wi-fi hunting. Ultimately, you will check, and respond to, emails. You can do this back home. Engage with the academic and local cultures. Remember wi-fi may be omnipresent, but it wasn’t until about 6 years ago.

Finally, ask constructive questions. If presenting, welcome questions as they reflect an interested audience, and may highlight areas that you haven’t yet considered. Do not view negative/antagonistic questions as a challenge, they may not agree with your perspective and/or may have misinterpreted you. Data rigour and quality control are imperative, but findings may be serendipitous.

If you can master these, please tell me how, as I’m still learning.

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Dr James Gavin

Lecturer (Exercise Physiology)

Department of Sport & Physical Activity

jgavin@bournemouth.ac.uk

Research Professional – all you need to know

Funding opportunities

Research-Professional-logoEvery BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fuorth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:

24th May 2016

28th June 2016

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Committee inquiries: open calls for evidence

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

Joint Committee inquiries

Public Bill Committees

HE Policy Update

BIS cuts

A document ‘BIS 2020 – Finance and Headcount outline’ has outlined the department’s latest restructuring plan. The document reveals that some 265 jobs could be shed from the research councils (16 per cent of the workforce), with another 47 going from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (17 per cent of the workforce) and 12 jobs going from the Office for Fair Access (67 per cent of the workforce). BIS plans could see almost 5,000 jobs lost by 2020 (Research Professional).

Graduate Employment

BIS has published its latest figures on the graduate labour market for 2015. You can view the report here. The key statistics are as follows.

  • Graduate unemployment: 3.1%
  • Non-graduate unemployment: 6.4%
  • Young graduates: 56% in high skill jobs, 31% in medium and low skill jobs
  • Young non-graduates 17% in high skill jobs, 54% in medium and low skill jobs
  • Median salary for young graduates: £24,000 (£31,500 for all ages)
  • Median salary for young non-graduates: £18,000 (£22,000 for all ages)

Policy-making

An article in the Guardian looks into how scientists can impact policy. It discusses how scientists need to understand the policy process and the likely demand for and uptake of evidence, before working out how to produce evidence that would fit into the process. If scientists want to influence policymaking, they need to understand it (The Guardian).

Sutton Report                  

The Sutton Trust published a report on graduate debt with international comparisons. You can view the report here. The key points are as follows.

  • Those who graduated from English universities last year – under the £9,000 fees regime – owed an average of £44,000.
  • Average debts in other English-speaking countries ranged between approximately £15,000 and £29,000.
  • On average American graduates owe between $29,000 (£20,500), for students at public or private non-profit universities, and $32,600, for those at private for-profit universities.
  • The report highlights the growing complexity in arrangements in the UK nations, with different fee levels in Scotland and grants in Wales that enable Welsh students to take up places at English universities for less than £4,000 a year rather than up to £9,000.
  • The report argues that the abolition of maintenance grants this September will leave the poorest students with debts in excess of £50,000.

Anti-lobbying

An anti-lobbying clause that was due to come into effect on 1 May and which would have affected many researchers in the UK has been put on hold awaiting a review. You can view the statement here.

A-levels

Which? has reported that almost a third (28%) of more than 1,000 UK 18 and 19 year-old university applicants surveyed said they wished they had chosen different subjects. They also reveal that 41% wished they had considered which subjects would be of most use. Too many university applicants ‘pick wrong subjects at 16’ (BBC News).

HESA

HESA released their statistics on the finances of higher education providers in 2014/15. The figures show that medicine, dentistry and health were the biggest spending academics departments. Breakdown of £31 billion expenditure of UK HE sector. (HESA).

 

UG Physio students secure prestigious research post

Darel Evans and George Erskine has been chosen to be 2 of just 6 selected research internships with Arthritis Research UK. George will be working on the project entitled What are the illness beliefs and expectations of people with Psoriatic Arthritis? Analysis of qualitative data from focus groups under the supervision of Professor Sarah Hewlett at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Darel will be working on Optimisation of footwear choices in the management of knee Osteoarthritis (OA) at the University of Salford under the supervision of Dr Anita Williams.

As a Physio team we couldn’t be more proud of their achievements and wish them ever success. It is the first time undergraduates from the BU Physio programme have gone for such an acclaimed position and to have 2 accepted really is a triumph. Thanks to the team for supporting the applications and we hope their success will breed success in others.

ICERI2016 Announcement

We are glad to inform you that ICERI2016 (9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation) will be held on the 14th, 15th and 16th of November 2016, in Seville, Spain (http://iated.org/iceri)

It will be very interesting for professionals in the area of Education, Research, Innovation. After 9 years, ICERI has become an annual meeting point for lecturers, researchers, professors, educational scientists and technologists Every year, ICERI brings together over 700 delegates from 80 different countries.

It will provide the ideal opportunity to present your projects and experiences to an international audience. Also, it will offer participants an overview of the current situation of education and new learning technologies.The deadline for abstract submissions is July 14th, 2016.

Abstracts should be submitted on-line at http://iated.org/iceri/online_submission

ICERI2016 Proceedings will be reviewed for their inclusion in the ISI Conference Proceedings Citation Index (Web of Science). Previous editions are already indexed. Also, a DOI number will be assigned to each accepted paper.