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BU: Working towards becoming a Dementia-Friendly University

The number of people living with dementia is set to increase as the population ages. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, a dementia-friendly community is a ‘place where the community acts consciously to ensure that people with dementia (along with all its citizens) are respected, empowered, engaged and embraced into the whole’. Nationally this agenda is being led by the Dementia Action Alliance and the Alzheimer’s Society who have have recently launched a formal dementia-friendly recognition process to ensure that communities are accountable to people affected by dementia.

BU becoming a dementia-friendly university is an essential part of our preparation for an increasingly ageing society. A number of staff and students have already spoken out, in confidence, about concerns for family members, close friends and themselves. Sadly, this is a real welfare concern for staff and students and is likely to develop at a fast pace. BU therefore needs to ensure that all staff and students are aware of dementia, understand what it is like to live with the condition, and know where to turn if they need further advice and guidance about dementia.

A Steering Group made up of staff from across BU has been created to take forwards this work. The Steering Group are working towards an action plan to enable BU to apply for recognition that we are ‘working towards becoming dementia friendly’. To achieve this recognition we are working on four areas:

1. Developing new buildings and refurbishments to take account of dementia-friendly design principles as part of the general accessibility principles guiding new build, lead by Estates.
2. Ensuring that policies and procedures support staff who might be concerned about their memory, or who are caring for family members with dementia, lead by HR.
3. Providing training to raise awareness of dementia and enable staff to accommodate the needs of people affected by the condition, lead by BUDI.
4. Ensuring that communications are dementia-friendly, lead by Marketing and Communications

As part of this work we are running a number of dementia awareness sessions for all staff, please sign up for a session here: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/ddeevents/budementiaawarenesssession/

We will continue to keep you up to date with our progress, but in the meantime if you have any questions or for more information please contact budi@bournemouth.ac.uk or call 01202 962771.

BU Dementia-Friendly University Steering Group

Online Resources for Principal Investigators

Guidance, Post-award, Training

Leadership Development
Not too long ago HEFCE funded a project to provide online resources to help principal investigators develop their skills, these excellent resources are hosted by Vitae. This collaborative project involved colleagues at a number of universities across the UK, RCUK, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, ARMA and Universities UK.

The resources can be found here and include some fantastic sections on:

Reminder, talk by Dr Sarah Collard today, Royal London House, R301, 1-1:50 pm.

All staff and students welcome,

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

How do you exercise with epilepsy? Insights into the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy

Dr Sarah Collard,

Research fellow, FHSS

 

Abstract: Research examining the connection between epilepsy and exercise has seen a surge in recent years, specifically examining the benefits to exercise on seizure control and overall well-being for a person with epilepsy. However, the barriers to exercise and methods of exercising currently employed by people with epilepsy have yet to be explored within depth. This presentation will provide a background to the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy and what barriers stand in the way for people with epilepsy in feeling the benefits of exercise. Discussing findings from an exploratory qualitative study investigating possible barriers and coping strategies already in place for people with epilepsy in regards to their exercise life, this presentation will further our insight into the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy as well as discuss how we might move this research forward in encouraging more people with epilepsy to exercise.

 

For more information on Social Science Seminar Series, please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (FHSS).

Become an EU Expert to further your experience of research submissions

Research assessment, Training

One important way to learn more about how a funder manages the process of accepting, evaluating and awarding grants is to act as an expert reviewing applications. It may also help you meet with other experts in your field or promote interdisciplinary working.

For the EU, there is a section on Participant Portal dedicated to experts where you can find out more about the commitment required and how to register. Experts for the EU are involved in:image001

  • evaluation of proposals
  • monitoring of actions

In addition, experts assist in the :

  • preparation, implementation or evaluation of programmes and design of policies. This includes the Horizon 2020 Advisory Groups.

There are also opportunities to become a Business Innovation Coach for the SME instrument.

Interested? Why not take a look at the resources made available for evaluators for the Innovative Training Networks call? This page shows how much support is made available to experts and how this can be a valuable addition to your research CV.

You might also like to take a look at the various videos on the YouTube channel – Innovation Union.

If you are already an expert, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International so that you can share your experiences with others at BU.

 

 

Call for Ideas – Your view counts!

BU Challenges, innovation

The European Commission has launched a Call for Ideas for a European Innovation Council to support Europe’s most promising innovators.question mark

Commissioner Moedas launched the Call for ideas at the Science|Business Annual Conference in Brussels. He said that “Europe has excellent science, but we lack disruptive market-creating innovation. This is what is needed to turn our best ideas into new jobs, businesses and opportunities.” While the number of start-ups created in Europe is on a par with competitors such as the United States, Europe lags behind in disruptive innovation and in scaling start-ups into world-beating businesses. A European Innovation Council could contribute to solving this problem.

To find out more and to participate in this survey, please go to the European Innovation Council website, where you can also view background documents and position papers.

The deadline for survey completion in 29 April 2016.

 

Involving patients and the public in your research. Registration for NIHR webinar now open!

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Training and Coordinating Centre will be hosting a live one hour webinar about involving patients and the public in research on Tuesday 23 February at 11am.

This is an introductory webinar for researchers with little or no experience of patient and public involvement (PPI). This webinar is aimed at aspiring NIHR trainees and early career researchers.

This webinar will include:

  • An overview of what PPI is and why it is important in research
  • Why PPI is important to the NIHR and how best to demonstrate PPI in an application – including signposts to NIHR resources around PPI
  • Q&A session

The webinar will be presented by Philippa Yeeles, Director of Involvement and Engagement at the NIHR Central Commissioning Facility alongside Anne-Laure Donskoy, an NIHR Panel Member and independent researcher.

You can register for the webinar via the following link:

bit.ly/PPIwebinar2016

RKEO Drop-in Session 24th February

Guidance

research lifecycleAs previously posted, RKEO will be holding monthly drop-in sessions throughout 2016. The full schedule of sessions can be found here.

The first session will be held on 24 February 2016 between 2-4pm in Bournemouth House Cafe. Anyone can attend with any queries for RKEO. The following RKEO staff will be available for the session:

You don’t need to be from these faculties as staff will help with any queries they have and if they’re not able to answer your query then and there, they’ll ensure you receive a timely response from RKEO. Basically, come along and have a chat. These are also great opportunities for us to gather feedback from you on the service that we deliver to you.

RKEO look forward to seeing you.

Bridging Business and Research

Business Engagement, Info Days, Knowledge Transfer

Companies do not necessarily have the facilities, financial resources or human capital to run their research projects as they would like to. Thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), it is now possible for SMEs or other Logo_Marie-Curiecompanies to collaborate with academic research organisations, have access to their equipment, and integrate some of their highly skilled researchers within the research projects of the firm.

Transferring cutting-edge science and technology from creative academic groups to SMEs is a key element of successful innovation.

The European Commission knows that well-trained, entrepreneurial-minded researchers, who can move between academic and other settings, are essential to this successful collaboration. This is why the MSCA are promoting Business-Academic collaborations that focus on giving researchers adequate skills and opportunities to contribute to SME and other business growth.

In order to give more practical information on how to get involved in these actions, and to present the latest business opportunities under Horizon 2020, the MSCA have launched a promotional campaign across Europe.

The next event in the UK is in Cardiff on Friday, from 12:00 – 18:00 (sorry, no rugby in Cardiff that weekend). If you wish to attend, please check the programme and register. If you cannot make this date, please refer to the events schedule for more events across Europe.

 

2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition – only 1 week left!

Funding opportunities, PG research

2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition

Call for submission of up to 20 matched funded Postgraduate Research Projects now OPEN

The Graduate School is delighted to announce the launch of the 2016 BU PhD Studentship Competition, with up to 20 matched funded projects available.

At this stage, Academic Staff are invited to submit proposals for studentship projects which, if successful, will be advertised to recruit PhD candidates for a September 2016 start.

Full details can be found on the Graduate School Staff Intranet where the following information can be found:

Submission Deadline:

Applications should be submitted on the Studentship Proposal Form to the Graduate School via email to phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk no later than 9am on Monday 22 February 2016.

The Graduate School will manage the recruitment process along the following timetable:

Date Action
Wednesday 13 January 2016 Launch PhD Studentships Internal Competition – development of proposals
Monday 22 February 2016 Closing date for submission of proposals
Tuesday 15 March 2016 Panel meeting
Late March 2016 Feedback to supervisors and preparation of adverts
March – June 2016 Launch PhD Studentships External Competition – recruitment of candidates
September 2016 Successful Candidates start

CALL FOR PAPERS: SUSTAINABLE EARTH 2016

CALL FOR PAPERS: SUSTAINABLE EARTH 2016

earth
A global forum for connecting research with action

23 and 24 June 2016, Plymouth University

Key note speakers include:

Craig Bennett – CEO, Friends of the Earth

Wendy Darke – Head of the BBC’s Natural History Unit

Sir Mark Walport – Government Chief Adviser in the United Kingdom

You are invited to participate in Sustainable Earth 2016 – a global forum for connecting research with action taking place on 23 and 24 June 2016 at Plymouth University.

Plymouth University are inviting papers from the academic community on sustainability research and also organisations interested in highlighting their sustainability related activity and where Universities can help in the future. Submit your abstract.

If you are interested in profiling your sustainability research or initiative and connecting with like-minded people then this forum is for you!

Submission Deadline: 28th February 2016

forum

FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16 17 February 2016

Communicating Research
FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16
The Faculty of Media and Communication at BU

Venue: CG17, Christchurch House, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB
Wednesday 17 February 3pm CG17

A Journalism Research Group Guest Lecture
Glenda Cooper, City University

Hurricanes and Hashtags: The Power Dynamics of Humanitarian Reporting in a Digital Age
Who tells the story of today’s humanitarian disasters? Twitter, Instagram, SMS messages have entered into the defining images and texts of humanitarian disasters, theoretically allowing survivors to play a role in the framing of such crises.

Yet research suggests both mainstream media and NGOs – whose symbiotic relationships traditionally framed such stories – have cloned and absorbed such content, potentially restricting the voices that are heard. Issues around privacy and copyright are yet to be resolved in the mainstream media, while NGOs have turned to Western bloggers rather than beneficiaries to mediate their message.

This seminar will draw on the recent collection Humanitarianism Communications and Change, co-edited by the author, and also 50 semi-¬‐structured interviews she has conducted with a) those whose content was used by UK mainstream media; b) journalists from the main broadcast and print outlets in the UK; and c) members of each of the 13 UK Disaster Emergency Committee aid agencies who responded to recent crises including the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. It aims to look how voices of citizens in crises are being mediated and mediatized, as well as what issues the use of this content raises around the contextual integrity of privacy. It concludes by examining whether NGOs’ engagement online allows the voices of the marginalised to emerge?

Wednesday 17 February 4pm CG17

A CMC – Politics and Media Guest Lecture
Laura Sudulich, University of Kent

Not all that glitters is gold: Assessing the (absence of) impact of social media on preference voting in the 2014 Belgian elections
A growing number of studies address the relationship between candidate use of social media (particularly Twitter) and candidate voting, suggesting that those candidates who embedded social media in their campaign strategy attract more votes than those who have not. This holds across a variety of countries and political systems. We use data from the May 2014 Belgian to estimate the effects of social media campaign on preferential voting. This election is of particular interest because on the same day Belgian voters chose their representatives to the regional, federal and European parliaments (allowing us to examine ‘who’ would benefit most from Twitter). We captured candidates twitter feeds during the campaign and we merge this with information about the ballot position of the candidate, incumbency status and demographics. We control for traditional media coverage of each and every candidate to isolate social media effects. We find little evidence of social media directly leading to vote gains. Twitter adoption is correlated to better electoral performances but when taking a closer look at the dynamics of usage we find that usage is more symbolic than strategic.

Laura Sudulich is a Senior Lecturer in Politicas at the School of Politics and International Relations of the University of Kent. She is also affiliated to the Centre d’étude de la vie politique (Cevipol) Université Libre de Bruxelles. During the academic year 2012-2013 Laura was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. Laura holds a PhD in Political Science from Trinity College Dublin.

To date, her research activity has looked at the effects of new media use on electoral behavior and public opinion, electoral campaigns and their effects on vote gains, Voting Advice Applications, election forecasting and processes of politicization. Laura is also interested in survey design, quantitative methodologies and in making innovative use of existing data about elections and campaigns

About the series

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

Contributions include speakers on behalf of

The Centre for Politics and Media Research
The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community
Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre
Public Relations Research Centre
Narrative Research Group
Journalism Research Group
Advances in Media Management Research Group

Kind Regards,
Brian

Brian McNulty
Research Development Co-ordinator
Faculty of Media & Communication
The Loft (P181), Poole House, Talbot Campus
Fernbarrow, Poole
BH12 5BB

NERC scopes new areas for strategic research

Funding opportunities

nerc-logo-50thNERC will scope three new areas for potential large-scale strategic research investments over spring 2016:

  • fundamental ecological research for sustainable resource exploitation in the deep ocean
  • Southern Ocean’s role in the Earth system
  • subsurface-surface coupled processes associated with UK unconventional hydrocarbon extraction.

These potential ‘strategic programme areas’ (SPAs) have emerged from the ideas process for strategic research, where NERC captures and builds on ideas for excellent strategic science coming directly from the environmental science community.  2015 saw the second cut-offs for ideas for strategic research, with 21 ideas received for SPAs.

NERC’s Strategic Programme Advisory Group (SPAG) reviewed the ideas and used a number of them to generate the proposals for SPAs that were considered by NERC’s Science Board.  NERC will shortly publish open calls for community members to join the SPA scoping groups, which will develop full cases for assessment and funding decisions in summer 2016.

They do not expect to be able to fund all three potential SPAs, and any potential SPA must meet NERC’s criteria for a strategic programme, so it is possible that none of these three potential SPAs will result in funded programmes.  Open announcements of opportunity for research proposals will follow, for any strategic programme that is approved.

RKEO faculty-facing staff – when and where?

RKEO has a number of posts that directly support colleagues in the Faculties with bid preparation and submission and the post-award management of grants and contracts. These staff members spend approximately 50% of their time based in the Faculty offices. Information on when and where you can expect to find them when they are working in your Faculty is available here on the Research Blog here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/contact/faculty-facing-staff/.

New NHS article by BU Visiting Faculty Minesh Khashu

open access, Publishing

FileLaptopImageDataManagement-1024x1024Minesh Khashu (BU Visiting Faculty and clinician in Poole Hospital) and Jeremy Scrivens published their third instalment of a series of online papers on the NHS.  This contribution is called ‘Can We Heal an Ailing Healthcare System? Part 3’.  They deep dive into this idea of transformation through a strengths-based approach.   They consider how we can build an NHS Social Movement by bringing the whole system together to inquire into and extend NHS’s Positive Core.  The blog (online paper) can be accessed here!

For more information you can also follow the two authors on Twitter: Minesh Khashu(@mkrettiwt) & Jeremy Scrivens (@jeremyscrivens)

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH