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EURAXESS – November Newsletter

conferences, Funding opportunities, international

As notified in the November EURAXESS Newsletter, there are a number of research workshops open for registration under Researcher Links and the Newton Fund. The workshops give researchers the opportunity to form new international connections and Early Career Researchers may apply for grants in order to participate.
Some of the opportunities are:

Further opportunities are listed on the British Council website.

Why not sign up for the EURAXESS Newsletter so that these and further opportunities are delivered direct to your own inbox?Euraxess

Euraxess UK is a British Council hub, which aids researchers in their career development, supporting mobility and acting as a support mechanism for researchers moving abroad or moving to the UK. Their services include:

 

Spending review and autumn statement: Breakdown by department

Research-Professional-logoResearch Professional have provided a summary of the spending review and autumn statement by department.  View the article here for further details.  The article looks at what provisions it makes for science and research, broken down broadly by department.

Do also have a look at the CSR highlights for research and KE blog article posted by Julie Northam yesterday.

Fair Access Project Fund

Funding opportunities

BU’s Fair Access Agreement includes a project fund to support Fair Access (FA) and Widening Participation (WP) projects, research and innovation. Faculties and Professional Services are invited to bid for funding to support specific and targeted projects that will have FA or WP impact. The projects will contribute to and inform the growing evidence base on FA and WP work. We would also welcome applications for projects involving organisations external to BU where there is a clear link to WP and there is a BU staff member sponsor who holds a steering role in the project.

In addition, we invite colleagues to bid for research or activity based projects on the following priority themes:

A proportion of the available funding will be reserved to support projects specifically addressing the themes. Projects tackling WP or FA matters outside of these themes are also welcome.

Please note that projects must commence in 2015-16, however, they can extend into later years as the nature of a project dictates. Funds for 2016-17 are limited and we strongly encourage the majority of expenditure and activity to be completed by 31 July 2016.

How to submit a proposal
To submit a proposal for funding, please complete the application form by Friday 15 January 2016 and email it to Lukasz Naglik.

Please also contact Lukasz if you would like to discuss this opportunity further or if you would like to find out about current Fair Access and Widening Participation projects.

A special call of the Fusion Investment Fund – Hubs of Practice

You may recall from Dr Sonal Minocha’s email introducing Global BU to all staff in October that the first ASEAN Hub of Practice was supported through the last round of the Fusion Investment Fund. We are now looking to set up two more Hubs in India and China and welcome applications in support of this.

The deadline for applications is 12pm on Monday 18th January 2016. For all the updated strand policy documents, application form and more information please visit the FIF website, the Global BU pages on the intranet, and see the Global Engagement Plan.

The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Corrina Lailla Osborne and the Co-ordinators are Sue Townrow and Sarah Oliffe.

If you would like to discuss your ideas please contact globalbu@bournemouth.ac.uk. For enquiries about the application process please contact the Fusion Fund.

PG Researcher Development Programme

PG research

What’s coming up in December:

3 December – SPSS Workshop 8: Factor Analysis – Discriminant Function Analysis
7 December – An Introduction to Focus Groups
9 December – Academic Assertiveness
9 December – The Transfer Process
10 December – SPSS Workshop 9: Binomial/Binary Logistic Regression
10 December – Introduction to Nvivo (Day 1)
11 December – Advanced Nvivo (Day 2 ) – Limited Places and by invitation only. Attendance at Day 1 is mandatory
14 December – Interviewing in semi-structured interviews
16 December – Preparing for your Initial Review

Booking is via myBU Graduate School PGR Community (don’t forget to log on using your student username and password).

If you have any questions about the PGR Programme, please contact Clare Cutler, Research Skills Development Officer via email: pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk

Royal Society announces new Athena Prize Diversity Award

Royal SocietyThe Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has announced a new national award which recognises individuals and teams in the UK research community who have contributed towards the advancement of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in their institutions and organisations. The award aims to inspire innovation and leadership in diversity issues.

The Royal Society Athena Prize, to be awarded biennially, will join the Society’s prestigious set of medals and awards announced each summer.

Nominations for the inaugural 2016 round of the Royal Society Athena Prize will open in the new year, with more information on the selection criteria and nominations process to be provided nearer the time.

Speaking about the award, Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said, “It gives me great pleasure to be able to announce the establishment of the new Royal Society Athena Prize.

“I would like to encourage everyone in the research community to look around their institutions and organisations and think of who they might nominate for the Athena Prize. Do you know someone who has set up an innovative project that is contributing to the advancement of diversity in science, someone who is persistent in the face of adversity and limited funds, someone who is inspirational and has kick-started a culture change and should be recognised for their efforts? If so, we’d like to hear from you when we open up nominations for Royal Society Athena Prize in early 2016.”

The top project will receive a medal plus a cash prize of £5,000 and runners-up will receive a cash prize of £1,000. Prizes will be presented at the Royal Society’s annual autumn diversity conference, where the winners will talk about their projects.

The Royal Society is committed to promoting and increasing diversity in UK STEM. A diverse and inclusive scientific workforce draws from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences thereby maximising innovation and creativity in science for the benefit of humanity.

For more about the Royal Society’s commitment to diversity please visit their diversity pages.

Research Councils announce unconscious bias training for peer reviewers

RCUKlogoThe Research Councils have launched a new programme for all peer reviewers and decision-makers, to raise awareness and reduce the impact of unconscious bias.

Over a period of three years, beginning in January 2016, more than 1,300 people involved in peer review from all seven Research Councils will be given access to high quality training designed and developed by the Research Councils and the consultants Pearn Kandola (www.pearnkandola.com). Together, they will translate this training into an online application and make it available to their geographically dispersed peer reviewers.

Professor Jackie Hunter, Chair of the Research Councils’ Equality and Diversity Group and Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), said: “Raising awareness of unconscious bias strengthens the Research Councils’ commitment to addressing equality and diversity Together, the Research Councils invest £3 billion in research each year, covering all disciplines and sectors, to meet tomorrow’s challenges today. Ensuring that fair decisions are made in peer review and funding is of the utmost importance.”

Robust Semi-supervised Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

PG research

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.Robust_Semi-supervised_Nonnegative_Matrix_Factorization

 

Speaker: Jing Wang

 

Title:   Robust Semi-supervised Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: Clustering aims to organize a collection of data items into clusters, such that items within a cluster are more “similar” to each other than to those in the other clusters, which has been used in many fields, including machine learning, pattern recognition, image analysis, information retrieval, and bioinformatics. Clustering is usually performed when no information is available concerning the membership of data items to predefined classes. For this reason, it is traditionally seen as part of unsupervised learning. However, in reality, it is often the case that some data information (e.g. labels) is available and could be used to bias the clustering for producing considerable improvements in learning accuracy. Also, data have some new challenges, such as high- dimensionality, sparsity, containing noises and outliers, etc. This motivates us to develop new technology to deal with this kind of complex data. To address all these issues, we propose semi-supervised nonnegative matrix factorization approaches. Experiments carried on well-known data sets demonstrate the effectiveness.

 

We hope to see you there.

CSR – highlights for research and KE

george osborneOn Wednesday the government outlined their plans for spending over the next five years in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and Autumn Statement. The main points in relation to research and KE are:

Research councils:

  • The Nurse Review recommendations will be implemented (see an overview of the recommendations here).
  • Subject to legislation, the government will introduce a new body – Research UK – which will work across the seven Research Councils.
  • Innovate UK with remain and will be integrated into Research UK.

 

Budget:

  • The BIS budget will be cut by 17% (£2.2bn).
  • The science budget will be protected in real terms.
  • This includes a new £1.5 billion Global Challenges fund to ensure UK science takes the lead in addressing the problems faced by developing countries whilst developing our ability to deliver cutting-edge research

 

Research Excellence Framework:

  • The government will take forward a review of the Research Excellence Framework in order to examine how to simplify and strengthen funding on the basis of excellence, and will set out further details shortly.

 

Funding, priorities and investments:

Health and social care:

  • £5bn more to be invested in Health Research, key priorities being the genomes project, anti-microbial resistance and tackling malaria.
  • £600m additional funding will be available for mental health.
  • £150m will be invested in launching a competition for a Dementia Institute with the remit of tackling the progression of the disease.
  • Women’s Health charities/sector will be invested in, as will military charities.

Science and technology:

  • £1bn will be invested in energy research, with a key priority being the reduction in costs of low carbon energy.
  • Defence budget will be increased from £34bn to £40bn – emphasis will be on new equipment, capabilities and fighting cybercrime.
  • Investment in a new Cyber Innovation Centre in Cheltenham to supporting cyber excellence across south west.

Arts, sports and culture:

  • Arts and culture budget will be protected and £1bn will be invested.
  • The Arts Council will be invested in.
  • Funding in UK Sport will be increased in run up to the Olympic Games in Rio.

Knowledge exchange / enterprise:

  • £12bn invested in local growth fund.
  • 26 Enterprise Zones to be created including 15 in towns and rural areas. Two new zones are planned for the south west region.
  • Innovate UK will remain but based on a grant system with £165m in loans will be on offer. It will be integrated into Research UK (overarching body of the Research Councils).
  • Funding to Catapult Centres will increase.

NIHR Research Design Service Research Grant Writing Retreat

Funding opportunities

Do you have a great idea for research in health or social care?

Would your team benefit from protected time and expert support to develop your idea into a competitive funding application?

The NIHR Research Design Serice (RDS) are offering a unique opportunity for health and social care professionals across England to attend a week-long residential Grant Writing Retreat at Bailbrook House, Bath in June 2016. The purpose of the Retreat is to give busy professionals dedicated time to rapidly progress their research idea into fundable proposals. The Retreat will provide a supportive environment for teams of two or three people to develop high quality research proposals prior to application to national peer-reviewed funding streams. Find out more.

To apply for a place please contact your local branch of the NIHR Research Design Service based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us, call us on 61939 or send us an email.

 

HSS Writing Week 4th-8th January – How can Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit support you?

Publishing, writing

bucru identity

The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is holding a Writing Week between 4th-8th January 2016 aimed at supporting staff to find time in their busy academic diaries to prioritise writing grant applications and papers for publication.

The Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit offers methodological and statistical collaboration for all healthcare researchers in the area. It supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across Bournemouth University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. It incorporates the Dorset office of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service who offer free methodological support to researchers who are developing research ideas in the field of health and social care.

BUCRU will be supporting Writing Week in HSS by holding two drop-in sessions on Tuesday 5th January and Thursday 7th January 12-2pm in R508 Royal London House. We would also like to extend the invitation across the other Faculties for anyone who feels we may be able to support them. For those unable to attend the drop-in sessions, we would be delighted to arrange an alternative appointment.

Please see further information here, contact our adminstrator Louise Ward on 01202 961939 / bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or visit our website. We look forward to seeing you!

BU Research Staff Association develops

The second BU Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning took place today in the EBC café. This was a fantastic opportunity for research staff across BU to meet to discuss their work and share ideas for future collaborations. Members of RKEO were also on hand to provide research related advice and support. We will continue to hold the BU RSA coffee mornings in 2016 on the last Wednesday of each month, in the EBC café between 10-11am.

RSA coffee morning 25.11.15

To enable research staff to showcase their work internally and externally, the BU RSA also hopes to participate in a number of BU events in 2016. If any one has any ides or would like to help organise these events then please do get in contact with us.

See you on 27th January at the first coffee morning of 2016!

Kind regards, Michelle and Marcellus
Michelle Heward and Marcellus Mbah (BU RSA)

Connecting histories of welfare

Fusion

Profs Jonathan Parker and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree undertook their annual field trip to Sherborne Abbey and St Johns’ Almshouse (Yes! The apostrophe’s in the right place, it refers to two Johns.) on Monday. The trip is held for Sociology & Social Policy students studying the histories of social welfare.

This year was particularly valuable as the students are producing group narratives concerning a range of characters and scenarios from history involving research into policy, legislation and practices to contextualise their stories. Seeing at least six hundred years of active community welfare and care through the almshouses, and tracing back Sherborne’s history to the time of Alfred the Great – who initiated a precursor to the poor laws for his people – the students were able to see the lived experiences and histories written about in their own research. This was brought sharply into the present day when it was revealed that the Sherborne foodbank programme serving a population of little over 10,000 people is delivering in excess of 1,000 food parcels each year! Students gained great insight into the connecting strands of welfare at formal and informal, state and charitable/third sector levels.

Sherborne

COST Actions – supporting high-risk, innovative and emerging research themes

Funding opportunities

COST Actions are a flexible, fast, effective and efficient networking instrument for researchers, engineers and scholars to cooperate and coordinate nationally funded research activities. COST Actions allow European researchers to jointly develop their own ideas in any science and technology field. COST Actions are bottom-up  science and technology networks, open to researchers and stakeholders  with a duration of four years. They are active through a range of  networking tools , such as workshops, conferences, training schools, short-term scientific missions (STSMs), and dissemination activities.  COST does not fund research itself.

COST prides in its support for high-risk, innovative and emerging research themes. Importantly, COST does not set any research priorities. cost

Currently on the COST website is a report on Collecting research data to counter femicide worldwide

Femicide across Europe is the first pan-European research network investigating the causes and risk factors of a phenomenon killing thousands of women every year, worldwide.

Femicide refers to the killing of women and girls because of their gender. European researchers studying the  cultural, societal and psychological   causes  and  risks factors  behind femicide set up the network to fight the phenomenon through advocacy and research. One idea is to create a  European Femicide Observatory  gathering and comparing data from each of the 30 countries involved, of which half are Inclusiveness Target Countries . The goal is to come up with  new guidelines  and shape new EU public policies countering killings.

Specialists have been studying quantitative and qualitative data and ways to reduce discrepancies in country records. Such discrepancies are often due to the different definitions of femicide, which is sometimes seen as gender-based violence.

“When our COST Action was first proposed, the term femicide was not widely used. Everyone knew of homicide, but few had given thought to the fact that some women, particularly those involved in intimate relationships, were murdered simply because they were women. Today, two years within the COST Action, ‘femicide’ has become a buzzword, Action Chair Dr Shalva Weil explains.“

Network members have also been advocating for a more straightforward approach to lowering femicide rates in Europe. They have already addressed the Portuguese Parliament and the Parliament of Aragon in Spain. The network also took part in two United Nations sessions in Bangkok (November 2014) and New York (October 2015).

By participating in the network’s training schools and scientific exchanges, young researchers are also given the chance to better understand the phenomenon EU-wide. One outstanding result of the Action’s work is a  comparison of national statistics from 10 European countries .

The Action’s next annual meeting will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May 2016.

Why not take a look at the COST Action database to see if there is a current Action relating to your research? You can then consider joining an existing Action or submitting your own proposal.

Click on the tag COST Action (below) to see other BU posts on this topic, including  Edwin van Teijlingen’s report on his recent publication and his experience of attending a COST Action Training School.

If you are interested in applying for COST, please contact Emily Cieciura, Research Facilitator: EU & International of you Faculty’s Funding Development Officer.

Black British Academics Career Development Programme

DGabrielBU Academic, Deborah Gabriel, created Black British Academics in 2013.  Find out below what they offer to academics across the higher education sector.

“At Black British Academics we take a proactive approach to race equality both through the provision of specialised services to HEIs and through dedicated networks that provide support to members. In terms of career progression, we recognise that tackling institutional barriers should be a priority and therefore we are working both through our institutional (E&D members) and through the provision of consultancy services to develop a range of measures that includes the development of a culturally democratic leadership programme for senior university staff targeted at VCs/PVCs, HODs, deans, associate deans and other senior operational staff.

However, within our academic community there is a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise among senior staff who have developed strategies to successfully navigate raced and gendered spaces and who possess invaluable experiential knowledge that represents our collective social aBBAnd cultural capital. Our Academic Career Development Programme focuses on the four key areas of academic practice: Education, Research, Professional Practice and Enterprise and offers both online and offline resources including  podcasts, videos, e-guides, workshops and symposiums and promotes networking and inter-disciplinary collaboration on projects across the key areas of practice.”