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Talk by Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers cancelled

conferences, Fusion, PG research, Research Ethics, Women's Academic Network

Unfortunately we are cancelling the talk: Ethnographies of Memory – the cultural reproduction of militancy in Kosovo by Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers. We apologise for the late notice. This is because the Women Academic Network talk has been rescheduled this morning for the same time slot (see below). Dr Schwandner-Sievers will give her talk at a later date to avoid some people having to make a choice.

Polly Trenow (Fawcett Society)
‘Feminism in practice – does activism really work?’
Wednesday 18th November
TAG22
2-4pm (with networking 3-4pm)

For any questions, please get in touch with Dr Masi Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Team BU shortlisted for Sports Technology Awards

innovation

photoWell done to Team BU who has been shortlisted for Sport England Sports Technology Hackathon Awards 2016.

The team developed a location based game app called ‘Nudge’ and incorporated social gamification strategies to encourage sustained physical activity adherence. We also sought strategies to help those who are already active in this age group encourage their inactive peers to participate.
The winning team will be announced at the Sports Technology Awards in April 2016 and awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.
Well done Team BU and good luck for next April!

Interesting academic impact stats from Scopus

Publishing

Scopus logoI wanted to share with you some interesting academic impact stats based on BU’s publications. Looking at the period 2012 to date:

  • BU academics have published 1,888 outputs indexed in Scopus
  • These have received a total of 4,093 citations (2.2 per publication)
  • 20.6% were published in the top 10% of journals (based on the SNIP ranking) (UK average is 26.8%)
  • 39.7% were co-authored with colleagues at institutions in other countries (UK average is 46.8%)
  • 9.7% were in the top 10% of publications most cited worldwide (UK average is 18.9%)

Although BU is tracking below the UK average on these measures, it is not far below and BU’s performance is increasing significantly each year.

For advice on publishing you can speak with Pengpeng Hatch in RKEO or your Faculty Librarian.

Publications

 

Development for New and Aspiring Principal Investigators

Guidance, Post-award, Training

Leadership Development
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:

Chancellor sets out vision to protect Britain against cyber threat

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced in a speech from inside GCHQ plans to make Britain the best protected country in cyber space.

cyber eyeThe Chancellor announced that he is prioritising security in his Spending Review next week.  He has committed to increasing spending on cyber security to £1.9 billion by 2020, 1,900 new staff across the three intelligence agencies and the first National Cyber Centre, which will be home to the country’s first dedicated ‘cyber force’.

Osborne announced an Institute for Coding that will offer university and business collaborations the chance to compete for a capital prize of £20 million to enable training of “the nation’s next generation of coders”. Training in coding at schools and apprenticeships will also be increased, said Osborne.

You can read the full press release here.

The government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, due to be published on 23 November, is also expected to have a strong focus on cyber security.

Reminder – EUADS closing date is 30th November 2015

BU Challenges

If you wish to apply for the next EU Academic Development Scheme (EUADS), your application must be with us by 30th November 2015. The previous blog post text is given again below, just in case you missed that announcement….
euads logo
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 RKEO Funding Development Co-ordinator, Dianne Goodman.

EUADS Policy 2016

EUADS-Application-Form_2015

Keeping Secrets

alison

Staff in Additional Learning Support (ALS) were especially proud to receive a grant from FAAMG as opportunities for professional and support staff to undertake academic research are not readily available. Anecdotal evidence gained in tutorials suggested that students with dyslexia and dyspraxia were not disclosing their learning differences before or during work placements. Often, this led to a poor experience for both employer and undergraduate. Our research confirmed that students feared stigmatisation while many employers had little awareness of learning differences and minimal knowledge of the types of reasonable adjustments that can be easily implemented. Findings have been disseminated nationally in conference and an academic paper written by Alison Green is published in the current edition of The Journal of Inclusive Practice in Further and Higher Education. ALS manager, Chris Scholes, has produced new guidelines for employers and two self-help handbooks for students. ALS staff are currently working with colleagues from Careers and Placement Development Advisors to improve the placement experience for all students with dyspraxia and dyslexia.

Nuffield Foundation – Research and Innovation Grants (UK)

Funding opportunities

NuffieldThe Nuffield Foundation have seven grant programmes that support research and innovation.  The call is now open for outline proposals with a closing date of 11th January 2016.  The programme areas are as follows:

Children and Families: funds projects to help ensure that social policy and the institutions governing family life in the UK are best adapted to meet the needs of children and families.

Early Years Education and Childcare: funds projects in our priority areas of educational attainment and child development outcomes, tackling social disadvantage, parental and family contexts, wider societal impacts, and public policy mechanisms.

Economic Advantage and Disadvantage: funds projects on the distribution of all aspects of individual and household economic well-being, their causes and consequences.

Education: funds projects in our priority areas of primary education, secondary education transitions, science and mathematics.

Finances of Ageing: funds projects related to all aspects of finance, economics, and transfers related to individual and population ageing.

Law in Society: funds projects designed to promote access to, and improve understanding of, the civil and family justice systems.

Open Door: for projects that improve social well-being, and meet Trustees’ wider interests, but that lie outside the programme areas above.

Grants are mainly for research (usually carried out in universities or independent research institutes) but are also made for practical developments or innovation (often in voluntary sector organisations).

As an independent Foundation, they are well placed to deal with sensitive issues, to challenge fashions and tacit assumptions. They support people with creative ideas to identify change or interventions which will have a practical impact for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

They do not fund the ongoing costs of existing work or services, or research that simply advances knowledge. See a full list of what they do not fund.

Information on how to apply can be found here.  You must read the Guide for Applicants if you are considering applying and you must contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

 

Open letter highlighting the need for more women in science

Sex Discrimination Act 1975

Open letter to the Financial Times and the London Evening Standard

12 November 2015

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act being passed in the UK. We applaud the progress that has been made since.

But in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), progress remains slow. Women make up just 14 per cent of the UK’s STEM workforce. We want to see this be nearer 30 per cent by 2020.

It’s not the quality of our female scientists or engineers that’s the issue. Girls are outperforming boys at school in STEM subjects, but we’re losing girls at every stage between the classroom and the boardroom. The challenge is attracting, retaining and promoting female talent in the workforce.

We need to inspire more girls to choose STEM qualifications as a route into fulfilling careers that benefit themselves, future employers and our economy. Changing the messages we give girls about STEM at school and at home, and identifying more positive role models, is the first step to achieving this.

But to be successful, this must be backed by strong public policy. We challenge the government to provide a clear commitment to accelerate diversity in our STEM industries.

We cannot afford to wait another forty years to achieve this change.

Signed:

Christine Flounders
Research and Development Manager in London, Bloomberg

Naomi Climer
President, Institution of Engineering and Technology

Trudy Norris-Grey
Chair, WISE Campaign

Catherine Mayer
Co-founder, Women’s Equality Party

The HE Green Paper and research – what does it tell us?

green paperNot much. The primary focus is on teaching excellence and social mobility, however, it does reiterate and propose the following about research:

  • Government is committed to the Haldane Principle, and therefore peer review and decisions on funding made by researchers.

 

Dual support system:

  • Government is committed to the retention of the dual support system (allocation of research funding via block grants (currently via the REF) and competitive calls (currently via Research Councils)
  • It is proposed to abolish HEFCE. HEFCE’s current remit in terms of research includes policy development and management of the REF and the allocation of research block grant funding.
  • The Paper provides some options for replacing HEFCE and delivering the dual support system in future:
    • Via separate bodies (as per now, i.e. a replacement for HEFCE’s research function and the Research Councils)
    • Via one overarching body (i.e. one super research body that controls both parts of the dual support system)
  • Neither of these are perfect. With option 1, one could argue that this would cause significant disruption in the sector and achieve no benefits to the current arrangement. With option 2, having one super research body calls into question how the integrity, transparency and fairness of dual support could be maintained?

 

Research Councils:

  • Sir Paul Nurse led a review of the Research Councils in 2015 and this is due to report soon. The Green Paper states that this will be critical in informing the final decisions made about research funding in future.
  • The Triennial Review of the Research Councils 2014 noted a number of efficiencies that could be made to the work process of the councils and the Green Paper proposes that these are addressed.
  • Government wants to ensure that discipline specific leaders remain a key part of the landscape.

 

Research Excellence Framework (REF):

  • The next REF will be held by 2021.
  • The review process itself will be reviewed with the aim of retaining the strengths of the current system (such as peer review), build on the successes (such as impact), and challenge the cost and bureaucracy associated with running such an exercise.
  • There is likely to be a greater emphasis on metrics.
  • There is the suggestion of running two types of REF exercise – a full peer review exercise periodically (e.g. every 6-8 years) with a mini REF held between full exercises (every 3-4 years) for which the focus would very much be on metrics.

 

You can read the full document here: Fulfilling our potential: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice

The Green paper is open for consultation with the sector until 15 January 2016.