/ Full archive

HE Policy Update

Monday

TEF

The BIS select committee has published its report on The Teaching Excellence Framework: Assessing quality in Higher Education following its recent inquiry. The report recommends that government should provide further detail on the balance between qualitative and quantitative assessment in the TEF. The report also supports the principle of linking differentiated levels between teaching quality and fee level. The report argues that the quality assurance of universities should remain administratively and visibly independent from Government or the new regulator.

Higher Education Bill

The government looks set to introduce a higher education bill, possibly following a White Paper in May, with David Cameron said to be convinced of the need for legislation. Higher education bill ‘odds-on’ after Cameron backs legislation. (THE).

EU Referendum

The Observer has looked at how a Brexit would affect different aspects of society, including HE and research. What would Brexit mean for everyday life in the UK? (The Guardian).

Tuesday

Widening Participation

An article in the Guardian HE network looks at why white working class boys are put off going to university. The article reveals that the large amount of debt they will have is the main reason which is putting them off considering university. What puts working class boys off university? (Guardian Higher Education Network).

Wednesday

EU Students

The government is to make it harder for students from other European Union countries to get financial support for their living costs in England by extending UK residency requirements from three years to five years.

Crackdown on EU students’ support funding (BBC).

Thursday

Women in Higher Education

Many more women are taking leadership positions in universities but still remain heavily outnumbered by men in higher education’s top jobs. More women in senior university jobs, says report (THE).

Friday

International Students

Vivienne Stern, Director of the International Unit, writes for WonkHE about the strengths and weaknesses of the UK HE system from the perspective of international students. We need to keep the UK’s competitive advantage (WonkHE).

Religion at Universities

It has been reported that Jewish students are avoiding universities due to perceived growing campus anti-Semitism. We cannot allow British universities to become bastions of religious segregation (Telegraph).

 

EU Referendum update

On 15 April the official “referendum period” begins and campaigning limits and restrictions are put in place.  The EU Referendum Act also compelled the Government to publish two reports by this date. The first, setting out the renegotiation outcomes and the Government’s opinion of it, was published last week. The second requires the Government to publish a report setting out the rights and obligations of UK citizens as members of the EU and provide examples detailing the arrangements of European countries that are not in the EU.

 

Purdah begins on 27 May. After this date, publically funded institutions are not able to publish any information promoting a view point on the referendum or the issues associated with it. This covers Westminster and Devolved ministers and departments and local authorities.

 

The BBC are televising three live debates on 19 May, 15 June and 21 June with the referendum taking place on 23 June. Results will be announced on 24 June.

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

coins money

The following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

British Council

Newton Fund: Researcher collaboration workshop – supporting sustainable ecosystems for poverty alleviation in the Amazon

The British Council and FAPEAM will be holding a workshop on the above theme. It is now inviting Early Career Researchers from the UK or Brazil to apply to attend this workshop. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Researcher Links programme.

Maximum Award: Not specified Deadline: 20 March 2016

Ministry of Defence

CDE enduring challenge competition

The enduring competition is continually open to all highly innovative research ideas that challenge existing conventions and have a high potential benefit for the defence and security end user.

Maximum Award: £40,000 – £150,000 Deadline: 22 March 2016 and recurring through the year

Medical Research Council

Biomedical catalyst – developmental pathway funding scheme

The DPFS scheme is a key part of our Translational Research Strategy and supports the translation of fundamental discoveries toward benefits to human health. It funds the pre-clinical development and early clinical testing of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics, including “repurposing” of existing therapies.

DPFS is an ongoing scheme, with outline deadlines every 4 months.

Maximum Award: Not specified Deadline: 27 July 2016

Wellcome Trust

People awards

People Awards are two related schemes supporting projects that encourage the public to explore biomedical science. The schemes are open to a wide range of people, including: mediators, facilitators and practitioners of science communication; science centre/museum staff; artists; educators. Project activities and outputs may include:

  • workshops, events, debates and discussions
  • exhibitions and museum outreach
  • films, games, websites and cross-platform projects.

Maximum Award: £40,000 Deadline: 20 May 2016, with 3 other deadlines in the year

Humanities & Science Small Grants

This scheme is for small-scale humanities and social science research projects, scoping exercises or meetings in any area of human or animal health, including projects relating to research resources.

Maximum Award: £10,000 Deadline: Open

Nuffield Foundation

Grants for research & innovation

This funder has seven programmes that fund research and innovation in areas of social policy and education. These are all open to applications.

The programmes are: Children and Families, Early Years Education and Childcare, Economic Advantage and Disadvantage, Education, Finances of Ageing, Law in Society, and Open Door.

Maximum Award: £350,000 Deadline: 18 April 2016 and other dates

British Tinnitus Association

Large research project scheme

Applications are actively encouraged in the following areas, although all applications will be considered:

  • Mechanisms of tinnitus/identifying potential therapeutic targets
  • Existing and novel practice/treatment
  • Prevention
  • Population/demographic/epidemiology/economic studies

Maximum Award: £75,000 Deadline: 30 April 2016

Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Small research grants

The Research Grant programme provides members of the Society with the opportunity to bid for financial support for carrying out research on any topic that is relevant to fish biology and management.

Maximum Award: £5000 Deadline: 1 May 2016

British Psychological Society

Research Seminar competition

The Competition provides grants to enable institutions to co-operate to hold a series of at least three scientific seminars.

The proposed seminars should have tangible goals and should focus on developing and extending the understanding of a psychological process in any field of scientific psychology.

Maximum Award: £3000 Deadline: 1 July 2016

Sections Initiative Fund

This Research Board fund is for Sections of the British Psychological Society. It provides grants of up to £15,000 to support scientific initiatives that promote or advance psychology.

Examples of initiatives include:

  • innovative or pioneering Conferences, one-off seminars or Workshops
  • research experience – for undergraduates or non-psychologists
  • specific short-term research on a topic falling under one the Society’s thematic priorities

Maximum Award: £15,000 Deadline: 1 September 2016

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, 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 thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

BRAD Week coming soon…..watch out for details!

BRAD wordleJust to advise you details of our next BU Researcher/Academic Development (BRAD) events programme will be coming out very soon….watch out for our announcements on the Research BLOG and BU Intranet and get yourself booked in via Organisational Development.

BRAD  sessions be held from the 4th of April – 11th of April 2016.

Pop these dates in your calendars and get ready!

CfP: Lifestyle and communities: sharing in the digital era

conferences, international

ID-100267211It’s with great pleasure that we invite you to submit an abstract to a special track on “Lifestyle and communities: sharing in the digital era” of the ATLAS annual conference. It will take place in Canterbury, Kent, UK, 14th-16th September 2016.

Please see below for details, or click here… and share!
Led by: Lenia Marques, Jules Hecquet and Dimitrios Buhalis (Bournemouth University, UK)
Supported by: ETourism Lab

The leisure and tourism landscape has been subject to rapid changes in a world where internet and technologies have contributed to shape experiences, relationships, practices and lifestyles. In the network society, the sense of community is also varied and we can interrogate different meanings, values and practices at the heart of changing social interactions. The boundaries between online and offline communities seem to be blurred and they present new societal challenges, which also affect the industry, namely with sharing economy / collaborative consumption practices and communities (such as AirBnB, Uber, Couchsurfing, Meetup, Mealsharing, etc.).

The causes and consequences of such platforms in terms of lifestyle and the sense of community is yet to be studied. Therefore, we welcome papers which may explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Online/offline communities and lifestyle
  • Sharing economy / collaborative consumption and lifestyle
  • Social interaction in the digital era
  • Leisure digital practices
  • Events as online/offline communities of practice
  • Digital technologies in the tourism experience
  • Lifestyle challenges in leisure and tourism
  • Impacts of sharing economy / collaborative consumption in conventional industry production systems
  • Research methods in the context of sharing economy / collaborative consumption

The convenors are looking at possibilities for publication.

For more details, click  here or contact Dr Lenia Marques, lmarques@bournemouth.ac.uk .

http://www.atlas-euro.org/event_2016_canterbury/tabid/248/language/en-US/Default.aspx#track6

*Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Event Studies – theory, research, and policy for planned events

Professor Stephen Page in the Faculty of Management has just published his 40th book, Event Studies with Routledge, a collaboration with one of the top scholars in the field of events research, Professor Don Getz from the University of Calgary, which is a third edition of this major student text.

Event Studies is the only book devoted to developing knowledge and theory about planned events. It focuses on event planning and management, the experience of events and the meanings attached to them, the dynamic processes shaping events and why people attend them. In essence it is a synthesis of the different disciplines that have contributed to the development of events research, also highlighting important discourses on event management, event tourism, and the study of events within various disciplines that are able to help understand the impacts of events in society.

Dissertations For Good – helping students to pick a research topic that makes a difference

Centre for Excellence in Learning

New opportunity for your students to contribute to environmental, economic and social sustainability

As part of helping our students to make a difference to the world, BU has signed up to an NUS initiative called Dissertations for Good (DfG). The initiative  connects students with external organisations who then work collaboratively to complete research projects into social, economic and environmental sustainability. The outcome is a piece of student work that contributes in a tangible way, a report that is useful for their partnered organisation and a project that forms their dissertation.

DfG helps students to improve their communication, interpersonal, problem-solving and organisation skills, as well as developing their ability to use their initiative and self-motivate. It also provides valuable CV-enhancing experience of working in the outside world.

All students looking to undertake a research project at BU can register at www.nus.org.uk/dfg and create a profile. This allows them to search the organisations participating in DfG. They then request to be partnered with the organisation and organise a planning meeting. The student, their supervisor and a representative from the partner organisation meet to discuss the project and work together to make the project a success.

Details will be circulated to students via the portal. We shall be monitoring and will seek to evaluate engagement.

Science groups gear up for and against Brexit

European IPR webinarsWith just four months to go until the referendum on British membership of the EU on 23 June, academics are lining up on either side of the debate. Scientists’ lobby groups on both sides will register with the government as parties to the vote in the next two weeks.

Research Professional have written an interesting article which sets out both sides of the camp.  Click here to read more.

Research Funding in the words of a 7″ single

Guidance

RecordsI recently received 45 45’s (7” singles or if you’re still too young, small records) for my birthday (guess how old I was?). I thought I would make a shameless attempt to cram some of the records into a research focussed blog post. Here goes!

I fall to pieces (by Patsy Cline) – most funder success rates are lower than 20% and so don’t be disheartened when that rejection email pops in your in-box. Statistically, you only have a one in five chance of being successful and so do ‘try and try’ again. RKEO are here to support you and our Facilitators can review your unsuccessful applications and funder feedback to see how your next application can be stronger and successful.

You don’t miss your water (till your well runs dry) (originally by The Byrds but I have it by The Triffids) – don’t wait until your last grant has finished to apply for your next; start planning your next applications a year before your grant ends. Have a chat about your research plans with RKEO and submit your next intention to bid form to your Funding Development Officer.

Monotony (by Sauna Youth) – it can sometimes seem like you’re on a research funding treadmill but remember why your research excites you and why it should excite others. Think about the impact your research can have to society and find inspiration with the KEIT team.

Dancing in the dark (by Bruce Springsteen) – sometimes it can feel like that as an academic in the competitive world of research funding, but as Bruce said in the song – ‘you can’t start a fire without a spark’ and so make sure you are a ‘gun for hire even if you’re just dancing in the dark’. We have lots of opportunities to interact with other academics and RKEO can help you make those connections and collaborations. We also hold ‘sandpit’ events where you can form interdisciplinary teams to submit new and exciting research ideas for external funding. Check out our research blog for the next sandpit.

Here comes the summer (by The Undertones) – well, it’s almost here and a good time to really think about those research plans as you set your objectives for the next academic year. Have a chat with the RKEO team about how we can support your plans and what development opportunities we have available to you, particularly to support your application writing.

Complete control (by Clash) – you do have control over your research career and RKEO are here to help. Get in touch and see what we can do for you.

Hey ho, let’s go (by Ramones) – as Joey said ‘they’re all revved up and ready to go’. I hope you are feeling this way by now and that this will lead to Success – (by Iggy Pop).ramones

 

Food research? Public Engagement Opportunity – Christchurch Food Festival

Festival of Learning

Are you involved in research around the topic of food?

We are looking for anyone interested in running a food related activity at the Christchurch Food Festival as part of our “Festival of Learning on Tour”. We have a stool booked at the Family Fun day on Sunday 8th May where we’d like to run some food related research activities that families, children, members of the public could get involved with when passing by.

Could this be of interest to you? If so please contact Katie Breadmore (kbreadmore@bournemouth.ac.uk/ 61356)

 

 

BRIAN Upgrade

Guidance, Post-award, Publishing, Training

BU BRIAN logo

 

 

 

 

 

We are happy to inform you that Bournemouth Research Information and Networking System (BRIAN) will be upgrading to a new version. The current system will be offline from 8.00am on Thursday 10th March 2016, and will hopefully be restored and functioning fully on Friday 11th March 2016.

Some of the improvements from this upgrade include:

  • Performance improvements to the list pages
  • Publication summaries
  • Pagination

We do apologise for the inconvenience but we hope that these exciting new features will be up and running for you to use on the 11th March 2016.

All relevant guidance notes on the Staff Intranet will be updated in due course. If you need any help using the new system or if you encounter any problems after the upgrade, please do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.

Monthly BRIAN training sessions are also available:

  • Tuesday 8th March 2016
  • Tuesday 5th April 2016
  • Wednesday 25th May 2016

If you are interested to book on to any of these training sessions, please get in touch with OD@bournemouth.ac.uk (dates are subject to change)

Please watch out for announcement on future dates on the RKEO Research blog.

In the meantime, if you do have queries relating to the upgrade, please feel free to get in touch with Pengpeng Hatch at pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk (01202 961354).

‘Meet the Entrepreneur’ Event

The EBC hosted the second in a series of ‘Meet the Entrepreneur’ events on Wednesday 2nd March.

This seminar featured Peter Czapp, co-founder of The Wow Company, a proactive accountancy practice that advises small creative businesses across the UK. Peter and his team are committed to helping their clients make more profit and pay less tax, whilst at the same time having more fun.

The event attracted staff and students from across the University and they heard Peter share his experiences as an entrepreneur and the valuable insights and lessons he has learned along the way.

Organised by Mark Painter, Business Development Manager for The Business School, this series of events aim to provide students and staff the opportunity to hear about the personal journey of the profiled entrepreneur, learn about their experiences as a business owner and their approach to founding and growing a successful business.

Mark Painter said, ‘as one of our valued Entrepreneurs in Residence I am delighted that Peter has been able to visit us and share his experiences’. Mark added, ‘during his presentation Peter stressed the importance of being focussed, clearly defining your targets, and doing the tasks that really matter – something for us all to think about, regardless of our own personal goals and ambitions.’

The next event in this series will be on Wednesday 20th April and will profile Simon Phelps, founder of Fluvial Innovations Ltd. For more information and to book a place, stuents and staff should follow the link to www.bucfe.com/events

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regional Digital Business Drop-in – Bournemouth

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

InnovateUK_LogoA_Interim_RGBx320govuk[1]

The next monthly regional drop in session run by the Knowledge Transfer Network for the creative, digital and design community is to take place in Bournemouth. The event involving the KTN and Innovate UK is aimed at all digital innovation companies across various sectors in the region, looking to access funding and grow. A great networking opportuntity on your doorstep!

Date: Thursday 17 March

Location: Bournemouth

For more information and to register  – check out this link

 

GenPort – Gender issues in EU funding

BU Challenges, Women's Academic Network

Magnifying-GlassSerendipity can be a wonderful thing. 

Some months ago, I signed up for all the Horizon 2020-related groups that I could find on LinkedIn. Most of the time, the notifications I receive are of passing interest or not directly relevant but one received this week took my attention – it was notifying group members of an upcoming e-discussion of gender in climate actions within Horizon 2020 funding. One thing lead to another and, within a few clicks, I was signing up to join GenPort (which is funded by the European Union FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2012-1 programme):

GenPORT is a community sourced internet portal for sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science.GenPort

A developing online community of practitioners, policy-makers and researchers is served by the GenPORT portal, and made up of organisations and individuals working across the globe for gender equality and excellence in science, technology and innovation. This covers all sciences – natural and social sciences, and humanities.

The GenPORT community and internet portal provide an arena for organisations and individuals to showcase and act as a gateway to a wealth of research resources, policy information, practical materials, and much more. Constantly evolving online information and services are shaped by the activities and contributions of community members. The portal aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and to foster collaboration, and so to support continuing policy and practical interventions in pursuit of gender equality.

GenPORT offers…

  • Searchable resources and online documents on the topics of gender, science, technology and innovation
  • Information and support in the development of gender-sensitive research design, and gender-equal research structures and processes
  • Links to relevant institutions, resource centres, large-scale databases, projects, and networks
  • Additional services to support diverse activities on gender and science – news and announcements, events calendars, reviews, discussion groups, and more.

It is important when bidding for European Commission funding to consider their cross-cutting issues – one of which is gender. GenPort has  over 700 items in their Resources section, which includes a link to the 2011 Toolkit Gender in EU-funded research. Although this guide was written for FP7, the examples of how you can embed this particular theme into your proposal are still relevant. Bringing this up to date for Horizon 2020, the paper For a better integration of the gender dimension in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017 indicates how gender can be included to the enhancement of the research proposal.

The GenPort also contains links to further relevant groups, including the GENDER NET Net ERA-NET.

If you want to ensure that gender is addressed creatively within your EU proposal, GenPort appears to be a good place to start this journey and link with other like-minded researchers.

FHSS’s publication on public health interventions and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal

Nepal is approaching to one year of the occurrence of massive earthquakes without much progress on reconstruction and restoration of health facilities in severely affected areas, thus, priority health services such as immunisation and antenatal care are still seriously affected. Consequently, a significant proportion of Nepali population has no access public health services. Such destruction has a huge impact on health care delivery in the earthquake-affected areas because these health care service providers are the first point of access for basic health services.

This forthcoming paper ‘Priority public health interventipaper proofons and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal’ [1] which has been accepted by South East Asia Journal of Public Health will be freely available in April this year, talks in detail around impact of the Nepal’s earthquake on population health and health system infrastructure. This is a collaborative work among researchers of universities in the UK, Nepal and New Zealand. FHSS’s Dr Pramod Regmi (lead author) along with BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen, BU visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University, UK), Nirmal Aryal (University of Otago, New Zealand), Dr Puspa Raj Pant (University of the West of England, UK) and Professor Bhimsen Devekota (Tribhuvan University, Nepal) have contributed to this paper.

Through this paper, the authors suggest very important disaster-related national health research agenda coverin issues around: a) mental health, psychosocial needs, post-traumatic stress disorders; b) neonatal and child health; nutritional intake, immunisation coverage; c) cardio-pulmonary conditions; d) outbreak of communicable diseases; e) injuries/management of trauma; f) sexual and reproductive health: utilisation of antenatal care, delivery care, post-natal care, availability of family planning, sexual abuses in make-shift shelters; g) TB and HIV (service provision and adherence); h) disaster response plan and existing coping capacity and resilience among health care institutions. They have argued for a shift in health service motives to the management of long-term disabilities and disaster preparedness; so that acquired learning during this earthquake are utilised to strengthen evidence-based public health practices in the country. These experiences will also fill the loopholes in the post-disaster recovery strategies. The authors strongly recommend that Nepal should integrate community disaster reduction programs into routine public health service delivery in order to ensure sustainability. BU researchers have previously published around public health issues in post-earthquake Nepal [2, 3].

Pramod Regmi, PhD

References

  1. Regmi P, Aryal N, Pant P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P, Devkota B. Priority public health interventions and research agendas in post-earthquake Nepal. South East Asia Journal of Public Health (Article in press)
  2. Mahato P, Regmi P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P, Angell C, Sathian, B. 2015. Birthing centre infrastructure in Nepal post 2015 earthquake. Nepal J Epidemiol, 5 (4), 518-519.
  3. Simkhada P, van Teijlingen E, Pant P, Sathian B, Tuladhar G. 2015. Public Health, Prevention and Health Promotion in Post-Earthquake Nepal. Nepal J Epidemiol, 5(2); 462-464.

Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network (CHAIN) Demonstration 23rd March 2016

CHAIN – Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network – is an online mutual support network for people working in health and social care. It gives people a simple and informal way of contacting each other to exchange ideas and share knowledge.

The online Directory can be used to identify and communicate with other members. You might wish to do this to draw from their experience, or to elicit an opinion on an issue or something you are doing. Or you might wish to find collaborators or liaise with fellow-travellers or people with specific skills or interests for a wide range of purposes. You can do this quickly and easily with CHAIN, and part of the advantage is that the people you find will usually be happy to help you if they can.

A representative from CHAIN will be visiting BU on 23rd March at 2:30pm in Wollstone Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth House (BG10) to demonstrate how to make the most of being part of the network. All staff are welcome to attend, and please pass the invitation on to your final year students who may be interested in learning more about what CHAIN has to offer.

Contact Lisa Gale-Andrews at lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk to book your place.

RKEO Academic and Researcher induction

Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) invite all ‘new to BU’ academics and researchers to an induction.

Signpost with the words Help, Support, Advice, Guidance and Assistance on the direction arrows, against a bright blue cloudy sky.This event provides an overview of all the practical information staff need to begin developing their research plans at BU, using both internal and external networks; to develop and disseminate research outcomes; and maximising the available funding opportunities.

The primary aim of this event is to raise participants’ awareness of how to get started in research at BU or, for more established staff, how to take their research to the next level.  The induction will also provide participants with essential, practical information and orientation in key stages and processes of research and knowledge exchange at BU

The fourth induction will be held on 5th April 2016 on the 4th floor of Melbury House. The format of the day is as follows:

9.00-9.15 – Coffee/tea and cake/fruit will be available on arrival

9.15 – RKEO academic induction (with a break at 10.45)

11.25 – Organisational Development upcoming development opportunities

11.30 – Opportunity for one to one interaction with RKEO staff

12.00 – Close

There will also be literature and information packs available.

If you would like to attend the induction then please book your place through Organisational Development here. We will directly contact those who have started at BU in the last five months.

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.

Regards,

The RKEO team

RKEO

Alan Breen: 0.2 FTE Professor of Musculoskeletal Research in the Faculty of Science & Technology

I am delighted to have joined the Faculty in a part-time capacity in January of this year to help develop a new Impact Case Study related to spinal patient stratification based on biomechanics.   It is a privilege to now be a part of the team, some of whom I have already worked with as a PhD supervisor.

As some of you know, I come from the AECC, the College of Chiropractic, which is an Associate College of the University.  I have already participated in some unique collaborative studies with BU researchers over some years.   My new post will enable me to continue such collaborations, but now as an actual member of BU staff.

My particular research focus has been on a novel technology called ‘Quantitative Fluoroscopy’, which I invented in the 1990s and have worked to develop and use in research ever since.  This technology is becoming the gold standard for detecting strains between the vertebrae of the spine – and its use is expanding in the diagnosis of problematical spinal pain conditions.

With colleagues from BU, we have now begun to link these devices with other technologies and with modelling techniques to more thoroughly represent the integrated function of the spinal bones and tissues in a spectrum of disease conditions.

I look forward to meeting all of you and sharing these ideas and research activities.

Best wishes,

Alan