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Last Week’s Policy Update

Monday

Labour Manifesto

Labour’s manifesto gave further insight into their plans to reduce tuition fees to £6000. The manifesto revealed the policy would be funded by restricting tax relief on pension contributions for the highest earners and clamping down on tax avoidance. Labour alters funding proposal for fees plan (THE).

Horizon 2020

More than 50 UK University leaders have travelled to Brussels to lobby against the EU diverting some Horizon 2020 research money to a more broadly based strategic investment fund. UK university leaders lobby Brussels on research cuts (BBC).

Pensions

An annual survey of university pension costs showed that costs rose slightly last year to 10.2% of total staff costs, but may increase significantly in 2016 as USS reforms take effect. Pension cost rise looming for universities (THE).

Tuesday

Tory Manifesto

The Conservatives have unveiled a number of policies with potential impact on HE, including a fresh toughening of student visa rules and an apparent goal for a teaching research excellence framework. Tory manifesto promises ‘framework on teaching quality’ (THE).

GuildHE

GuildHE’s next Chief Executive will be Gordon McKenzie, currently deputy director for higher education strategy and policy at BIS. Mr McKenzie will take up his post in early July. BIS civil servant to be new GuildHE chief (THE).

Medical Education

Experts from across the sector have written about how universities can improve medical training and what impact the election may have on the subject. Training future doctors: how does medical education need to adapt? (Guardian).

Wednesday

Green Manifesto

The Green Party has committed to a policy to abolish tuition fees, as well as to cancel student debt. Green Party commits to abolishing fees and student debt (THE).

Liberal Democrat Manifesto

The Liberal Democrats have pledged in their manifesto to hold a review of higher education and to introduce legislation on the sector’s regulation. Lib Dem manifesto pledges regulation and review for higher education (THE).

UKIP Manifesto

UKIP’s manifesto has pledged that the party would waive tuition fees for students in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine. The manifesto also reveals the party would review which educational institutions are eligible to enrol international students. UKIP would make STEM tuition-fee free, and revise net migration count (THE).

Thursday

NUS

The NUS have launched a ‘payback time’ campaign against the MPs who broke their 2010 election promise over tuition fees. Students warn tuition fees pledge MPs of ‘payback time’ (BBC).

Friday

Leadership Foundation

The new Chief Executive of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, Alison Johns, will prioritise addressing the structural barriers that stop more women reaching senior roles in higher education. Leadership Foundation targets hurdles stopping women (THE).

Participating in 13th BNAC Study Day – 16th and 17th April

BNAC Study DayThe 13th BNAC Study Day was organised by SOAS at the University of London on 16th and 17th April 2015. The conference focused on presentations of work conducted in Nepal in many different academic fields: health, education, politics, art and so on. A variety of participants took part in the conference including academicians, students, researchers and artists not only from Nepal but also from UK and other European countries. The aim of this conference was to establish a forum to present the research conducted in Nepal which focussed to discuss about Nepalese lifestyle, tradition, culture, politics, education, art, health and other aspects of Nepal.

BU visiting fellow Prof. Padam Simkhada and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented a paper ‘Health and Welfare of Nepali Female Returnees from Gulf Countries: A Mixed-methods Study’ in collaboration with two Nepal based co-authors. I also had submitted my abstract to this conference and was accepted to discuss my proposed research project with a dedicated ‘Study day Tutor’, Dr. Ben Cambell from Durham University. It was a great opportunity for me to attend this conference and meet other PhD students, researchers, peers including one of my supervisors Prof.Edwin van Teijlingen and external supervisor Prof. Padam Simkhada. Besides it was very helpful to meet Dr. Campbell and get feedback regarding my proposal. This experience was helpful for me in many ways as I found myself benefited from the variety of presentations which gave idea on how to present before a mass of audience and also I got a chance to interact with many researchers from various fields. In addition I was able to meet a researcher at the conference whose article I quoted in my literature review.

Preeti Mahato

PhD student, CMMPH, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

International conference in Copenhagen

Ann Hemingway Professor of Public Health (BU, Chair of the European Academy of Caring Science) was co convener of an international conference in Copenhagen in March. The two organisations who came together to run the conference were the European Academy of Caring  Science and the Nordic College of Caring Science. The conference venue was the beautiful Diakonissestiftelsen Education Centre for health and philosophy students in Copenhagen (see photo) which provided a relaxing and  comfortable environment for the 90 delegates and speakers. Our excellent thought provoking key note speakers included Professor Kate Galvin (University of Hull) and Professor Les Todres (Emeritus Professor BU) and their session, Exploring care: Directions for the head, hand and heart of dignity. Associate Professor Maria Kristiansen (Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health, University of Copenhagen) and her session, Opinions of care in a multicultural perspective  – Caring Science in multicultural Europe, and Professor Elisabeth O C Hall (Emeritus Professor Aarhus University Denmark, Adjunct Professor University of the Faroe Islands) and her session A Big Picture of Caring Science. Several BU staff presented papers at the conference including Dr Liz Norton, Dr Ann Hemingway, Dr Maggie Hutchings, Dr Anne Quinney, Dr Caroline Ellis Hill and Dr Carol Pound. Many thanks to everyone involved particularly those on the organising and scientific committees.

Caring Science is the study of the health and wellbeing of humans in different life situations, and has as it’s basis respect for human dignity and integrity. Both these organisations are working to improve the quality of health and social care provision. For more information please contact aheming@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Fusion Investment Fund

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

The next round of the Fusion Investment Fund launches on 11th May.

The Fusion Investment Fund provides staff with the opportunity to develop and pursue their fusiongoals by bidding for and drawing on these ‘pump-priming’ resources. FIF is part of BU’s investment in intellectual capital.

Fusion is central to BU2018 and with this in mind we are embedding fusion within our Global Agenda as we enter the next exciting phase of shaping BU’s global footprint. Taking our internationally respected fusion of education, research and professional practice to a global audience increases BU’s global profile and underscores the excellent performance already achieved and recognised through the recent QAA and REF 2014 results. To drive our vision forward the competitive strands of Fusion (Co-creation and Co-production, and Staff Mobility and Networking) have been aligned to help staff (particularly those new to bidding, or new to BU) make BU become a truly global institution.

Watch out for more details soon about how the fund can support your work.

Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

Kan Tong Po visiting fellowships

Royal Society, GB

This scheme is for scientists in the UK who want to stimulate new collaborations with leading scientists overseas through either a one-off visit or bilateral travel. This scheme is not intended to support continued research between a UK applicant and co-applicant who was a former colleague or PhD student or to support other existing or recent collaborations between the applicant and co-applicant. Rather, the scheme is intended to stimulate new collaborations between scientists in the UK and overseas.

Eligibility requirements

The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine.

Both the UK applicant and overseas applicant must:

  • have a PhD, or be likely to have a PhD by the time the funding starts
  • hold a fixed or permanent contract at an eligible organisation for the duration of the project (ineligible organisations include industrial, private and commercial organisations, university spin-out companies, government bodies and research institutes and research councils)
  • be based in the respective countries at the time of the application

The funding available is dependent upon the length of the visit. Applicants may request:

  • up to of £3,000 for one-off travel lasting up to 3 months
  • up to £6000 for multiple visits to be completed within 1 year (including a maximum of £1000 for research expenses)
  • up to £12,000 for multiple visits to be completed within 2 years and cost share projects fixed at 2 years (including a maximum of £2000 for research expenses)

Closing Date: 01/June/2015

 

Newton mobility grants

Royal Society

The Royal Society offers Newton International Exchanges as mobility grants to provide international researchers with funding towards travel, subsistence and research expenses for either a one-off short visit to explore opportunities for building lasting networks or for bilateral visits to strengthen emerging collaborations. Successful candidates may wish to consider subsequently applying for a Newton International Fellowship or Newton Advanced Fellowship to consolidate partnerships.

The skills and knowledge gained should lead to changes in the well being of communities and increased economic benefits.

This award is currently available to international researchers that want to strengthen the research and innovation capacity by visiting or sending staff and students to the UK. The aims are to:

  • Strengthen research capacity of the partner countries – by facilitating training and skill transfer from the UK to partner countries.
  • Support excellent research – by linking the best researchers in the UK with the best researchers and their groups in partner countries and providing support for initial exploratory research.
  • Establish long term research links – between both partners to ensure sustainable research capacity in partner countries and benefit to the UK research community in the longer term.

This scheme is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of the Newton Fund.

Applicants must have a PhD or equivalent research experience and hold a permanent or fixed-term contract in an eligible university or research institute, which must span the duration of the project. Collaborations should focus on a single project involving overseas-based scientist (“the Applicant”) and UK-based scientist (“the Co-applicant”).

The funding available is dependent upon the length of the visit and the partner country.  Applicants may request:

  • up to £3,000 for one-off travel lasting up to 3 months
  • up to £6,000 for multiple visits to be completed within 1 year (including a maximum of £1,000 for research expenses)
  • up to £12,000 for multiple visits to be completed within 2 years (including a maximum of £2,000 for research expenses)

Closing Date: 3/June/2015

 

National Centre for Research Methods call for methodological research projects

Economic and Social Research Council

We are pleased to invite proposals for projects that will undertake cutting-edge methodological research development, within the context of substantive research problems. Projects must be focused in one or more of the following strategic areas:

  • Digital devices and mobile technologies for data collection
  • Participatory approaches
  • Analysis of online digital and Big Data
  • Bio-social data analysis
  • Policy relevant research synthesis
  • Small area estimation

The call is issued in partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID) which will co-fund in the Policy Relevant Research Synthesis area.

The aim of the call is to increase the quality and range of methodological skills and techniques used by the UK social science community, to enable new or existing social science research questions to be addressed more effectively. A total of £5 million (100 per cent fEC, ESRC contribution £4 million) is available. The maximum budget for an individual Research Project is £825,000 (100 per cent fEC, ESRC contribution £660,000) over a maximum of 36 months. Projects will need to commence on 1 January 2016.

Closing Date: 16/June/2015

 

Early-career fellowships for researchers in India

Wellcome Trust

This scheme provides a unique opportunity for the most promising postdoctoral researchers to carry out research in India. Applicants are expected to identify an important biomedical research question and design a project that would help answer this question. The proposal would also suggest how the proposed work would help develop the applicant’s future independent research program. Submitted proposals are expected to be globally competitive. Applicants may wish to set up long term training or collaborative visits (work outside Host Institution) for up to 24 months. These visits may be to other leading laboratories, anywhere in the world.

The fellowship is for five years, full time and provides:

Personal Support for the fellow.
Research expenses (materials and consumables; animals; support to attend scientific meetings; and small items of equipment, e.g. laptop)
Additional allowances (travel and overseas subsistence) for work outside the Host Institution; these are scientifically justified visits of up to 24 months to an external laboratory either in India or abroad.

Support funds for research staff or large equipments are not typically provided. It is expected that applicants will choose appropriate laboratories/ environments where majority of the necessary equipment and facilities are already available. To complete a preliminary application use our online system, IASys. Please ensure that the form is submitted by the published deadline.

Your preliminary application will normally be assessed within one month of the submission deadline. If successful, you will be invited to submit a full application. Your full application will be peer reviewed and considered by the appropriate Selection Committee and, if successful, you will be short-listed for interview. Short-listed candidates will be notified two weeks before the interview date. Applicants are not permitted to apply to multiple Fellowship schemes within the India Alliance in parallel. Only one application to one scheme will be entertained, at a time.

Preliminary application deadline: 15/June/2015

 

Supply chain integration in construction

Innovate UK

Innovate UK is to invest up to £2 million in feasibility studies to explore new ways of increasing collaboration and improving the flow of information throughout the construction supply chain. Our aim is to address problems arising from the fragmented nature of the industry. With so many layers of sub-contractors and suppliers, construction clients too often find themselves divorced from those who deliver projects on-site.

This lack of integration within the supply chain is leading to lost opportunities for innovation. We are therefore seeking proposals that will encourage the creation of more integrated, collaborative supply chains in this sector. These feasibility studies must be business-led. Projects are open to companies of any size working in collaboration. Small businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.

We expect projects to last 6 to 12 months with total costs ranging from £50,000 to £150,000, although we may consider larger projects. This competition opens on 9 March 2015. The deadline for registration is at noon on 22 April 2015and the deadline for applications is at noon on 29 April 2015. A briefing day for potential applicants will be held in Bristol on 19 March 2015.

 

Collaborative doctoral awards

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs) provide funding for doctoral studentship projects, proposed by a university based academic, to work in collaboration with an organisation outside of higher education.  They are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships providing opportunities for doctoral students to gain first-hand experience of work outside the university environment and enhance the employment-related skills and training a research student gains during the course of their award.

The projects also encourage and establish links that can have long-term benefits for both collaborating partners, providing access to resources and materials, knowledge and expertise that may not otherwise have been available and also provide social, cultural and economic benefits to wider society.

The AHRC are keen to see innovative applications that build diverse relationships with the non-HE sectors and would like to encourage further proposals to work with businesses, regional museums, regional arts organisations and community groups.  Any topic within the AHRC’s subject domain is eligible. Selection of successful applications will not be subject to quota systems and there are no priority areas, however, PhD proposals which address AHRC’s research themes are encouraged. In 2013 AHRC named 12 Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) organisations through which a fixed number of CDAs are also available.

Closing Date: 7th/July/2015

 

 

 

BUDI Open Public Meeting 2015: Dementia-friendly Communities

To coincide with Dementia Awareness Week (18-24 May 2015), on Wednesday 20 May 2015 from 12 – 3pm, Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) are hosting their fourth Annual Public Open Meeting. This free event will showcase work that is being undertaken locally to make our community dementia-friendly.

There will be an overview of local progress in the following areas:

  • Becoming dementia-friendly in Dorset and Somerset
  • Dementia-friendly GP Surgeries
  • Home fire safety for people affected by dementia.

Alongside updates on the following creative community involvement projects:

  • Intergenerational IT Club
  • BUDI Orchestra
  • Gardening
  • Care Farming

Anyone interested in dementia-friendly communities is welcome to attend, for more information or to register for your free place:

Call us on: +44 (0)1202 962771

Book online at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/budi-2015-open-public-meeting-dementia-friendly-communities-tickets-14377261777

How to become an integral part of ESRC’s strategy and peer review

Guidance

The ESRC are looking to appoint new members to its committees and grant assessment panels.  Find out below how you can get involved.

ESRC committee appointments 2015

ESRC have recently undertaken a review of their current structure of committees to ensure that they are well placed to deliver the commitments outlined in their Strategic Plan 2015.

As a result of these changes they are inviting applications from suitably experienced persons to be members of their renewed and modified Research Committee and their Capability Committee.

The new committees will enable them to deliver:

  • enhanced horizon scanning to identify their focused priorities and opportunities for innovation – within social science and boundaries of other science areas
  • more integrated thinking and advice about priorities, across all areas of activity
  • better use of evidence in decision making
  • improved administrative efficiency.

For further information on the vacancies, please see the vacancy specification. For questions or queries that are not covered in the vacancy specification, please email: committeerecruitment@esrc.ac.uk

Application forms, with a short curriculum vitae (no longer than two A4 pages) and a supporting statement from a suitable referee, should be submitted to committeerecruitment@esrc.ac.uk no later than 17.00 on 24 April 2015.

An induction day for new members is planned for 9 July 2015, and applicants are requested to hold this date in their diaries pending the outcome of the recruitment process.

Grants Assessment Panel (GAP) recruitment

ESRC are currently recruiting for GAP members, as well as a chair for Panel A.

Closing date for all applications is 17.00 on 8 May 2015.

Staff Profile Pages to be updated – 16 April 2015

 

 

 

 

There will be a planned update to the Staff Profile Pages (SPP) by the IT team on 16 April 2015 around 3pm. This update is expected to fix a few known bugs and to improve overall performance of the site.

Whilst we are not expecting much disruption and interruption caused by the update, please bear in mind that certain functions of the Staff Profile Pages, especially the search function, may not operate normally.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Interdisciplinary Research Week 2015: Inspire, Include, Invent – book your free place now

Join us to celebrate the breadth and excellence of Bournemouth University’s research across its many disciplines during our inaugural interdisciplinary research week, taking place 11th-15th May.

Events are open to all and include turning numbers into narratives: an introduction to digital storytelling with data, transforming conflict after war: memory, heritage and digital media and human navigation: a cognitive neuroscience approach, amongst many others.

To see all the events listed as part of Interdisciplinary Research Week and to book your free place, please see our website: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/interdisciplinary-research-week-2015/.

Save the date now for the Festival of Learning, which this year will run 11th-17th July. With over 150 free events to choose from, there are events for everyone to have some fun, learn something new or enhance their business. Visit the Festival of Learning website to sign-up for updates to be one of the first to hear when bookings open: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/fol.

Is interdisciplinarity the future?

There is a lot of talk in the sector at present about the benefits of interdisciplinary research. But what exactly does this mean? The best definition I have found is from a report by The National Academies (2004) – “Interdisciplinary research is a mode of research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice.” (download the full report for free here).

At the HEFCE REFlections event last month there was a lot of talk about interdisciplinary research. Apparently most of the high-scoring impact case studies and outputs submitted to REF 2014 featured interdisciplinary research, and HEFCE are considering making interdisciplinary research a feature of the next REF assessment in which it could carry additional marks. They have commissioned Elsevier to conduct a review of interdisciplinary research with a view to the data feeding into the review of the REF and informing future exercises (read the sides here).

This seems a surprising turn of events, considering REF 2014 took so much flack in the months and years leading up to submission from academics who feared it would disadvantage interdisciplinary research. Ismael Rafols (University of Sussex), for example, claimed there is a systematic bias against interdisciplinarity in journal rankings, with the top-ranking journals covering a few specialist disciplines (read the full article here). In the run up to the REF submission there was concern that it wasn’t REF that was disadvantaging interdisciplinary research but institutions that were choosing not to submit it due to it being ‘too risky’ (see this article in The Guardian). But later articles started to look at how the REF actually benefited interdisciplinary researchers (for example, see this article in The Guardian).

The word from the HEFCE camp is that interdisciplinary research contributes to more world-leading research, as evidenced by it featuring in the highest scoring case studies and outputs, and that further interdisciplinarity is therefore beneficial and to be encouraged. Interdisciplinary research is one of the government’s research priorities and was listed, for example, as one of the UK research landscape’s strengths in the BIS science and innovation strategy.

Major funding initiatives are now more frequently interdisciplinary in nature, guided by the strategic priorities of major research funders, for example the Research Councils UK cross-council themes and the Horizon 2020 societal challenges.

There are inherent advantages to interdisciplinary research that are well known. Findings indicate that it is often in the spaces between disciplines from where innovative perspectives, collaborations and solutions emerge. Interdisciplinary researchers frequently speak of being more interested, engaged and stimulated by their work.

In support of interdisciplinarity, BU’s inaugural Interdisciplinary Research Week is taking place from 11-15 May. It includes a programme of lectures, demonstrations, discussions, and a film, all aimed at showcasing examples of the fantastic interdisciplinary research being undertaken at the University. It is open to staff, students and members of the public so please do come along.