Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
A Bournemouth team from the Faculty of Management, which included an MSc student, two PhD students, two early career researchers and two senior members of staff, presented 6 different papers at the First World Congress of Comparative Economics.
All were very well received! You see Sydney Sydney Chikalipah, Peter Howard-Jones, Khurshid Djalilov, Jens Hӧlscher, Rossella Trappa, Merima Balavac and Allan Webster, who also had a good time in Rome.
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If you are forward-thinking, attending a funder information event or conference can give you the edge when it comes to applying.
Looking at Horizon 2020 as an example, the following events are a sample taking place over the coming months:
Brussels, 14/09/2015 to 15/09/2015 – Info Day on the Horizon 2020 Work programme 2016-2017 ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’
Lisbon, 20/10/2015 to 22/10/2015 – ICT 2015 – Innovate, Connect, Transform
Events are added regularly to the Horizon 2020 pages.
If you attend an external funder event of this type, please remember to let your RKEO Facilitator or Officer know. It may be that we can help share information that you obtain with others at BU with similar interests or alert you to others who might be potential partners.
Creative Technology are hosting a Game AI Master Class on Tuesday 7th – Wednesday 8th July, 2015 at Bournemouth University, UK
Venue Day 1: Coyne Lecture Theatre
Venue day 2: Lawrence Lecture Theatre
Who can participate? Students, researchers, lecturers and professionals in computer games technology, games programming with interest in GamesAI can participate in the MasterClass.
Interested to participate? Participants register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gameai-masterclass-tickets-16145456495
For further information, please contact Prof Edmond Prakash, eprakash@bournemouth.ac.uk
If you are hoping to apply, then you MUST send us your Intention to Bid for this call by 13 July 2015 with one form per Fellow.
[Form now removed as deadline has passed]
It is essential that you do this so that RKEO can plan for the resources that will be required to support each application.
If you need to find out more about this call before submitting your Intention to Bid, please go to the dedicated website
The Institute Of Physics (IOP) has recently announced its Early Career Physics Communicator Award 2015. This is an amazing opportunity for an early career physicist to be acknowledged as a leader in their field, and also to win £250!
Eligibility:
Applicants do not need to be a member of the IOP, but should be one of the following:
Application:
Submission of a report of their communication activities which should be no more than 1500 words long.
Further details and the application form are available by clicking the ‘Group Prize’ tab here:
Application Deadline:
Monday 5th October 2015
The Prize
The winner of the 2015 IOP Physics Communicators Group award will receive £250 and an award certificate at an event to be held on Monday 23 November. As well as providing recognition of the winner’s work through the prize money, the process will also facilitate networking opportunities for all participants.
Award Ceremony:
Four finalists will present their work at the prize final on Monday 23rd November 2015 at IOP, Portland Place, London, W1B 1NT.
The prize will be awarded by materials scientist, engineer, broadcaster and writer, Mark Miodownik
For more details, please get in contact with the Physics Communicators Group Secretary, Chris Sinclair:
christopher.sinclair@ucl.ac.uk or click here to see a further breakdown of the results from the 2014 Prize Event.
Research impact and public engagement should be core parts of every skilled PhD, academic and researcher’s portfolio. To help you develop your portfolio, jobs.ac.uk is holding a FREE 60-minute live video event via a Google+ Hangout on Air called ‘Research Impact & Public Engagement for Career Success.’
The 60 minute live video event takes place on Wednesday 22nd July at 1pm and lasts 60 minutes. You can find the video online at the jobs.ac.uk’s G+ Events Page.
Attending this will enable you to learn:
What is a Google+ Hangout?
Google+ Hangouts on Air are live online video events of Q&A sessions with a group of expert panellists. As the video is streaming live online you will be able to watch and gain real insights, top tips and also have an opportunity to ask questions.
If you would like to register your place on #JOBSQ lived video hangout, please click here or alternatively click here to find out more information.
Are you presenting at the Festival of Learning?
Add more to your Festival of Learning event by attending our BRAD event hosted by Dr Steve Dorney, Principal Public Engagement Fellow at the University of Southampton, who will be leading this workshop on how to make the most of public engagement, a key part of demonstrating the impact of your research. 
The session runs from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday the 1st of July – can’t attend all day, we urge you to book in and attend for as long as you can as this event won’t be repeated for a while.
Steve is on Southampton’s Engaged University Steering Group and his activities extend to impact enhancement, student employability and outreach, as well as core support for Public Engagement with Research (PER) via a dedicated support unit www.soton.ac.uk/per
He co-ordinates the Bringing Research to Life Roadshow www.soton.ac.uk/roadshow and through this has collaborated previously with BU on public engagement activities.
What to expect from this workshop:
2 things you could bring to the workshop (completely optional but can be helpful):
– Any ideas for engagement projects related to your research that you would like to share/get some feedback on
– An object that is somehow related to your research
The workshop will allow time for you to consider your own research and will include refreshments and a networking lunch.
Book in now through Organisational Development: Public Engagement – Steve Dorney
The Newton Fund will be announcing a number of international opportunities on 13 July 2015. 
These include:
Make sure that you check the blog w/c 13/7/15 for more information as this is released to us.
Why not find out more about the Newton Fund and their current opportunities in preparation for the new calls?
How well do you understand your skills, values and motivations?
The Vitae website has a wealth of personal development resources and advice designed specifically for researchers, including self-assessment tools that allow you to explore your motivations and identify career path options. Visit the VITAE website and register using your BU Login.
Please note that BU BRAD training courses are running this week; there are still places available on most courses including a career trajectory seminar.
This time Dr. Steve McFarland visited us from the University of Tampa. Steve gave us a lot of interesting food for thought – I’d never considered before that maps historically have given more power to those who already have power. For example, city maps often included important landmarks and the houses of the wealthy, but slums were left as blank spaces. He then went on to describe some projects that have tried to redress this balance in the past few years. One project, ‘Queering the map’ , aimed to use maps to construct and affirm identities. Sometimes using maps has resulted in new concepts, such as environmental racism – through the work of Laura Pulido, who showed that toxic waste in LA tended to be released in areas inhabited by people of colour.
He then talked about some of his own work mapping the relative salaries of pthp lecturers in HEAs across America – rates of pay are very different across the country and it turned out that a pthp lecturer at his own university teaching 6 classes per year (as expected of a tenured academic) would just about make minimum wage. We had a very interesting discussion after the formal presentation, about the future of mapping crowdsourced information to help in disaster/crisis management. However, some people can be fearful of taking part in such projects as the maps could be subverted away from their originally intended use. For example, protestors could upload information to be mapped in real time to show where teargas is being deployed, and use this to stay away from police. However, the police could also potentially use these maps to target protesters. In this case however, the police are likely to have helicopter access, so the presence of a crowdsourced map would close the information gap between the two sides.
Ultimately, we discussed whether the growth in the use of maps has outpaced our ability to understand them. Going forwards, spatial literacy is likely to be just as important as numeracy, which is music to the ears of any geographer!
We would like to hear your thoughts on the GeoNet seminar series, please fill in our very short survey on https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSY29L6
The Newton Fund is actively inviting expressions of interest from senior and early career researchers to expand their pool of panel members for the Newton Fund initiative and, potentially, other British Council programmes.
Looking at the specialisms below, BU has significant expertise in many of these areas.
They are looking for early career researchers who would like to broaden their experience of peer review as a career development opportunity, and for senior researchers who are willing to share and use their experience to support the review panels. Please note that we can only consider researchers based at UK institutions.
By getting involved in funding panels, you will gain invaluable insights into how a funder functions, how they assess applications, build your network, raise your profile in your field and, potentially, give you the opportunity to influence future funding decisions.
For this particular invitation:
Eligibility Senior and early-career researchers. Early-career researcher is defined as being a
PhD holder + up to 10 years. For fields where a PhD is not a usual career requirement, sufficient research experience will be accepted.
Researchers with the following specialisms are eligible to apply:
In particular, the Newton Fund would like to hear from researchers who have the following subject specialisms:
Monday
Graduate Debt
The UK Graduate Careers Survey carried out by High Fliers Research, revealed that students leaving university this summer, who were among the first to pay £9,000-a-year tuition fees can expect much higher debts (an average of more than £30,000) than their predecessors, who had an average debt of £20,400 in 2014, £20,300 in 2013 and £19,400 in 2012. Graduates ‘now £30,000 in debt but more upbeat’ (The Daily Telegraph).
Value For Money
Four in 10 of the first students to pay higher fees do not believe their courses have been good value for money a survey carried out by ComRes reveals. The survey found there were differences of opinion between students doing different types of courses. Two-thirds of those studying science, technology, maths and engineering (subjects that require a lot of practical teaching and staff time) said their courses had been good value. 44% of humanities and social science students, which tend to receive less direct teaching time, said they felt their courses represented good value. Four in 10 students say university not good value – survey (BBC News).
Tuesday
Response to Anthony Seldon
A number of letters have been published in response to an opinion piece from Anthony Seldon (who becomes VC of Buckingham University in September) in the Times on Saturday saying that universities are lazy and ‘an ocean of complacency exists in the sector’. Respondents/defendants include David Willetts and Nicola Dandridge from UUK. Letters: Do UK universities need to raise their game? (The Times).
Wednesday
EU
Both academics and UUK are warning that leaving the EU would mean the UK would lose access to research funding provided by the European Union, and would also make it harder for academics to collaborate on international projects. They have also warned that it could lead to a decline in student numbers, as EU students would be recruited on the same basis as overseas students, leading to a rise in their tuition fees and inclusion in immigration figures. Leaving the EU would ‘damage’ UK universities (The Daily Telegraph).
Teacher Training
University initial teacher training (ITT) providers will be able to recruit as many students as they want under radical new plans being introduced by the government for the next academic year. Teacher training recruitment uncapped for universities (THE).
Thursday
International Students
A new survey commissioned by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) reveals that students believe they benefit in many ways from studying alongside people from other countries. However, the benefits are clearer to international students, the survey also suggests that international students work harder than British students. The Daily Telegraph has turned the survey on its head to say that one in three students believe international students detract from learning. Overseas students considered hardest workers, survey finds (THE).
Size of Research Groups
The trend among research funders to give out fewer but larger grants may not be the best use of resources, a study of scientific productivity suggests. Chasing big bang for bucks might be poor use of cash (THE).
Vocational Degree Awards
The government could be poised to rekindle a polytechnic-type model for awarding vocational degrees that could pitch them in direct competition with further education colleges. The plans which are outlined in a government consultation cites the role of the former Council for National Academic Awards, which awarded degrees when post-92 universities were polytechnics. This is said to have grabbed the attention of Jo Johnson, the new Universities and Science Minister, who is set to outline his major priorities for higher education in a speech this week. Polytechnic-type proposals alarm post-92 group (THE).
Friday
Value of HE
A critical article looks at the value of higher education in the Telegraph. It states that amid the austerity of government cuts, higher education is in fact witnessing a boom. Booming universities take taxpayers for a ride (The Daily Telegraph).
Destination of Leavers from Higher Education
HESA has published the first release statistics from the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education study. The top line figures show a slight increase in the numbers of graduates in work/further study six months after graduating.Graduate employment and salaries up, but gender pay gap remains (THE). Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education in the United Kingdom (HESA).
Work on our fusion-funded co-creation and co-production project heats up in July as students get to work with our partners on our project ‘Fusing ecology, engineering and genetics to deliver sustainable river management’.
Working with the Environment Agency, the University of Insubria, Italy, we are investigating how river management strategies in the UK can be more sustainable in relation to river engineering and fishery management. This is important given river management focuses mainly on delivering socio-economic benefits (e.g. via flood defence) that are detrimental to fish communities (e.g. due to habitat loss). These impacts are usually mitigated by releasing (‘stocking’) high numbers of fish reared in captivity. There is, however, little consideration given on the fate and impact of these fish, providing the basis for our work.
Work to date has included our research assistant, Caterina Antognazza, collating samples and information to enable our student teams to run their genetic and ecological analyses, and engineering projects that designed sustainable engineering solutions to restore river habitats. Consequently, teams of placement students will very soon be commencing work in Italy and BU to determine the genetic and ecological impacts of fish stocking, with particular focus on whether the policy of stocking farmed fish has resulted in genetic impacts for fish populations at a regional level. We are also running a workshop very soon to bring together external stakeholders to discuss these issues. Given the expected fast pace of progress in the next five weeks, we’ll report back on our outputs by the end of July so watch this space!!
Caterina prepares the samples for the students.
– Rob Britton, Demetra Andreou, Ben Thomas
Presenting for the first time at this year’s Festival of Learning: the first two Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures at Bournemouth University. The inaugural lecture will be given by Professor John Holmwood on Monday 13th July at 18.00. John is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham and founder of the Campaign for the Public University.
His lecture will centred on ‘The University, Democracy and the Public Interest.’ Following the election of 2010, the nature of the university was dramatically changed following the introduction of tuition fees and the removal of direct public funding from arts, humanities and social science subjects. This reduced public spending on higher education by 82%, shifting the costs on to students with increased revenues going into higher education. The lecture will suggest that the university has shifted from being at the service of democracy to being at the service of markets and their associated inequalities, such that it is now integral to a democratic deficit at the heart of wider public policy.
Tickets for John’s lecture can be booked at no cost here.
The second public lecture will be presented by Professor Judy Wajcman, Anthony Giddens, Professor of Sociology, at the London School of Economics on 16 July, 6-8.30 pm. Her lecture is based on her new book Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism. 
More, better, faster. That’s modern life. And it’s all driven by the very devices that were supposed to make our lives better—our communication devices, which, rather than easing our work and social lives, instead impinge, leaving us no refuge from our responsibilities. But what if it’s not the devices that are to blame? What if we turn that around, and remind ourselves that they’re just tools—and that we can decide how to design and use them. It is only by bringing a social science lens to such issues that we can begin to understand how we have remade time and remade ourselves in digital culture.
Tickets for Judy’s lecture can be booked at no cost here.
The Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lecture Serie is facilitated by BU Professor Ann Brooks.
This week is dementia and music therapy week. Although BUDI doesn’t do music therapy, nor do we or the musicians we work with subscribe to the notion of ‘therapy’ where music is concerned (therapeutic perhaps, but our work is not intending to provide therapy to people with dementia). However this week has allowed the work of the BUDI orchestra to feature in three arenas. First on Monday in a piece in the Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/22/breakthroughs-in-bournemouth-how-the-bso-is-providing-relief-for-people-with-dementia
Second at the Royal College of Nursing annual congress held locally this year at the BIC where we presented the project to a surprisingly full and room (as our session was 5-6pm after a long day for delegates) and met with great enthusiasm. Lastly, following a well received presentation featuring the BUDI orchestra work back in May at a UK collaborative meeting between Universities engaging in social research on dementia we were lucky enough to be invited to a roundtable discussion held at Westminster on Thursday 25 June. This discussion was attended by practitioners, academics, government agencies (e.g. NHS England, Public Health England) and care providers, where we had the opportunity to share our work with colleagues and also to learn more about other music projects; the majority of which largely fall under the umbrella of music therapy, but also a range of other creative initiatives designed to engage and improve the well-being of those living with dementia. The BUDI orchestra remains a unique initiative in that our approach is inclusive (students, musicians, people with dementia at all points in their journey through dementia, and family members working together to learn, rehearse, play and then perform) and designed to provide a social and fun experience for people with dementia living in the community. (By contrast much music therapy is only available in clinical and care settings). If you haven’t seen the BUDI orchestra in action yet we have two performances coming up in the next couple of weeks – 11th and 13th July. Do come along and support our nationally and internationally innovative and unique work!
Don’t miss out – BRAD week begins next week – there is still time to get yourself booked in to one of our BRAD sessions!
Taking place between Monday the 29th of June – Monday the 6th of July
Book into BRAD now – we have a rich variety of events including some new events waiting for you!
We hope to see you soon!
Over the last three years, the Sport & Physical Activity Department has consistently strengthened research and teaching links between the German Sport University Cologne and Bournemouth (e.g. see this blog article)
As part of the research links, Dr Sylvain Laborde, a sport psychology researcher from the German Sport University Cologne, recently visited BU. Amongst other, he gave a talk on Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and its uses within sport psychology.
Reflections from Emma Mosley (BU PhD researcher)
Emma, who ventured to Germany for one month in order to receive training at the renown Institute of Psychology last year (see blog article), reflects on Dr Laborde’s visit:
“The talk was extremely informative and insightful for myself as a budding researcher in the area. Later in the day Sylvain also ran a workshop which detailed how to use HRV equipment and how to interpret the data. This consisted of a practical based session to demonstrate the sensitively of the measures to both mental and physical stressors. This involved a mental arithmetic stress test, a physical excursion test and paced breathing – many thanks to Darren Britton for giving his body to science on this particular occasion!”
Reflections from Dr Sylvain Laborde (German Sport University Cologne)
Dr Laborde enjoyed his visit to BU and Bournemouth: “I visited Bournemouth University the first week of June 2015, during an Erasmus+ stay. My first contact with Bournemouth University was a very motivated PhD student, Emma Mosley, coming to me last year for an internship at the German Sport University in Cologne, to learn how to use heart rate variability (HRV) to investigate the role of athletes’ personality when performing under pressure. My goal for this week in Bournemouth was to focus 100% on the writing of a HRV theoretical paper, and I was provided with all the necessary conditions to achieve such goal: a silent office on Talbot Campus accessible 24/7 enabling deep focusing and allowing late evening thinking times; enjoying good food, good beer (always good for inspiration), and energising runs on the beach. I was very warmly welcomed and really appreciated the feedback provided by the multidisciplinary team after my talk on HRV in sport psychology.
I’d like to particularly thank Emma for all her efforts to make my stay as enjoyable and productive as possible, Dr Andrew Callaway for his input regarding HRV and shooting sports; Prof Remco Polman for his input regarding the links between HRV and coping; and finally Prof Alison McConnel for her input regarding HRV and inspiratory muscle training. Many ideas regarding future possible collaborations were born during this week, and I’m definitely looking forward to my next visit in Dorset and its wonderful coast!”
Processed with Moldiv
Grange-over-Sands in Lancashire was once again a beautiful setting from 15th-17th June for one of the most inspirational midwifery research conferences. Attracting a significant international attendance from eminent researchers, clinicians and user representatives from as far afield as Australia, China, Canada, Brazil and across Europe (many regular attendees), the conference is now in its 10th year. Hosted by Professor Soo Downe and her team from UCLAN, it brings together researcher across all maternity professions, to present and debate work primarily relating to physiological birth. Two members of CMMPH were presenting (and tweeting!):
Professor Vanora Hundley discussed ‘Do midwives need to be more media savvy?’, a presentation created with Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and Ann Luce, based on a previous FoL public debate at BU relating to the role media plays in creating fear in childbirth https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/engagement/fear-in-childbirth-are-the-media-responsible/ . She highlighted the need for midwives to be more aware of how to work with the media in order to harness the power to present positive messages, as well as understanding impact on women and health care providers. A paper on this presentation is accessible from: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21600/
Jenny Hall with Maltese midwives and other delegates
Dr Jenny Hall presented as part of a symposium with midwifery colleagues from Malta on an ongoing educational project relating to promotion of physiological birth in Malta. Malta has one of the highest Caesarean section rates in Europe and the team have been working together to develop midwives confidence in facilitating physiological birth as well as supporting them to educate women and families.
All delegates also received a copy of the book ‘Roar behind the silence: why kindness, compassion and respect matter in maternity care’, that includes chapters by two BU authors: Dr Jenny Hall and Consultant midwife, Katherine Gutteridge. ( see http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2015/02/28/stop-the-fear-and-embrace-birth/ for further information)
As usual the conference provided extensive opportunity for networking and developing links for future collaboration in a considerably relaxing environment.
A tweet storify and photographs of the whole conference are available which includes contribution from BU researchers:
https://storify.com/SagefemmeSB/normal-labour-birth-10th-research-conference
https://animoto.com/play/M21BCHDHihSqkH3LdxU0hw
BU staff can login below:
Six BU contributions 2025 Festival of Social Sciences
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MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
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Research Information Network
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published