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Successful FST Santander-funded networking and conference visit to Spain, February 2015

Dr Daniel Franklin (FST) recently visited colleagues from the University of Malaga in Spain, a Santander Partner University, and also attended the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography meeting in nearby Granada. This meeting had 2,500 delegates from 65 countries and used a parallel session format to present cutting-edge science from across the myriad disciplines involved in the study of aquatic systems.
During the visit Dan discussed research ideas with Dr Maria Segovia of the University of Malaga and met members of her research group. Discussion focused on the measurement of phytoplankton dynamics during large-scale ecosystem manipulations (mesocosm experiments) which are designed to test the response of the microbial food web to CO2 enrichment. Dan also discussed the possibility of student and staff research exchanges with Dr Segovia and this will form an ongoing process.
At the conference BU FST PhD students Ian Chapman and Dave Hartnell gave excellent presentations to leading lights in the fields of cyanobacteria management and phytoplankton assessment. The conference was excellent in the range of opportunities it provided to meet with and discuss research with world-leading specialists. We are now planning a submission to a high-impact factor journal which will publish proceedings from the conference. Overall, a very successful visit. Thanks to Santander for the funding.

An invitation to share my PhD research at University of Canterbury

PG research

by Samreen Ashraf – Postgraduate Researcher – Faculty of Management

After receiving funding from The Graduate School, I presented my paper at British Academy of Management Conference (BAM) held in Belfast last year.  As a result of my interaction at BAM, I was invited by the University of Canterbury to present my research to them. As a PhD student it was a great opportunity to disseminate my research. I am studying consumer multiple identities in the context of the banking industry. Although the concept of identity is studied through different academic lenses, in marketing studies, the concept has been acknowledged in relation to consumption decisions. However, in financial industry (most specifically banking) this topic is not given enough attention and there is a gap in understanding the implications of the concept especially in the context of consumer’s bank choice. My presentation was well received with constructive feedback from a range of academics with varied research backgrounds accompanied by some good networking opportunities. Not to mention the amazing Canterbury Cathedral, this was beautiful even on a freezing day.

2015 Call for Participation. Being Human-A festival of the humanities

Funding opportunities

 

Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the British Academy, Being Human is the UK’s only national festival of the humanities. It engages the public with innovative research taking place across the humanities and in collaboration with other disciplines. Demonstrating the role the humanities play in our everyday lives, Being Human aims to make humanities research accessible to the public.

Funding has been made available for universities and Independent Research Organisations to bid for support to stage events during the festival week. The festival runs from 12-22 November 2015. It is anticipated that  each award will be a maximum of £2000. Funding up to £5000 may be considered for proposals of exceptional quality or where institutions will coordinate more than one event. The deadline for applications is 17/04/15. Further details can be found here

 

 

Student-midwife-run postnatal clinic: FUSION example

Fusion, PG research, Publishing

FHSS staff and students published their latest article ‘Would a student midwife run postnatal clinic make a valuable addition to midwifery education in the UK? — A systematic review’ now out on line in Nurse Education Today 35 : 480-486.   The paper is written by Wendy Marsh, Dana M. Colbourne, Susan Way & Vanora Hundley.

We are pleased to inform you that the final version of your article with full bibliographic details is now available online.  The publishers are providing the following personal article link, which will provide free access to this article, and is valid for 50 days, until April 17, 2015:  http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1QcG5xHa50bEa

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Cake Sale for Alzheimer’s Society

Sarah and I will be hosting a bake sale in the Talbot Campus Atrium on Thursday 5th March, from 1-3pm, in aid of our 54km trek along the Isle of Wight coastal path this May Bank Holiday weekend. We’re taking on this test of endurance to support the valuable work of Alzheimer’s Society, and to help to make a difference for people living with dementia.

We would like to raise £295 each and we’ve been challenged to reach 50% of our fundraising target by 23rd March 2015. In order to achieve this goal, we would like to invite you to indulge your sweet tooth in aid of a good cause, and join us in the Atrium this Thursday afternoon for cakes and treats!

We’ll have a wide variety of cakes, biscuits, chocolates, and other treats available, along with vegan-friendly, gluten-free, and sugar-free options. If you would like to donate some baked goods for our stall, please contact us at snoone@bournemouth.ac.uk or lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk to make arrangements.

We’re not putting any prices on our cakes. We want people to donate however much they would like to (loose change also welcomed!). Alternatively, if you would like to donate to our fundraising efforts online, please visit our JustGiving team page at http://www.justgiving.com/teams/IOW2015-BUDI

To give you an idea of what your generosity could mean for people with dementia:

  • £5 could pay for one person to attend a half hour session at a monthly Dementia Café, providing information and support for people with dementia and their carers.
  • £20 could pay for 100 copies of Understanding and respecting the person with dementia – one of the Society’s most requested factsheets
  • £50 could fund a PhD researcher for one day to continue vital research into understanding the causes of dementia, how it can be treated and, ultimately, to find a cure.
  • £100 could pay for 4 weekly visits by an experienced Dementia Support Worker to someone affected by dementia offering them one-on-one support to help them feel less alone and to identify the services that could help them.
  • £120 could pay to run Talking Point for one day – the Society’s 24/7 online community for all people affected by dementia.

We have already received some very generous donations following our last blog post, and we would like to thank you for your support so far. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

ESRC-DFID Education and development: Raising learning outcomes in education systems programme – 2015 pre-call announcement

Funding opportunities

 

ESRC and DFID  will be inviting applications to a second call under the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems programme in March 2015. The aim is to provide policymakers and practitioners with concrete ideas on how to improve learning, and understanding of how these will translate to their specific contexts and institutions.

The 2015 call will focus on the theme of ‘challenging contexts’ – where education systems face particular challenges, what enables or inhibits the raising of learning outcomes. An overview of the thematic focus and scope of call two, and eligibility and application requirements, are set out in the documents below. This pre-call announcement is being made to enable interested researchers to begin discussions with potential research partners and research users in advance of the formal call for proposals.

The deadline for proposals will be in May 2015 and further information can be found here.

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

BBSRC, GB

The Animal Welfare Research Network call aims to foster multidisciplinary collaborations that add benefit to animal welfare research by creating links between animal welfare researchers and the broader academic community. The focus is on research that contributes to the welfare of managed animals, including farmed, laboratory and companion animals, as well as on both vertebrates and relevant invertebrates, such as bees. The network encourages links to researchers working on non-managed species.

Maximum award: Unspecified.  Closing date: 24/03/15

EPSRC, GB

EPSRC invites proposals for its Fellowships in Manufacturing. The Fellowship will support those who have the potential to be future research leaders in their field in Manufacturing research; either academics who have recently moved from industry, or people in industry, involved in innovation, looking to move into academia. The aim is to offer up to five years of support for suitable candidates who not only have an appropriate background but can also articulate their vision for utilising their industrial experience to inform their future research direction.

Maximum award: Unspecified. Mandatory registration: 31/03/15. Closing date: 14/05/15.

 EPSRC, GB

EPSRC invites submissions of intent for its network and multidisciplinary research consortia call under the towards engineering grand challenges scheme. This supports multidisciplinary research consortia that can further advance engineering grand challenges in the following areas: Sustainable engineering solutions to provide water for all; Future Cities: engineering approaches that restore the balance between engineered and natural systems; Engineering across length scales, from atoms to applications. This call will support three consortia.

Maximum award: Approximately £12 million is available for three consortia for up to five years. Mandatory submissions of intent: 26/03/15.  Full proposals: 28/04/15.

EPSRC, GB

The EPSRC, under its themes of engineering, manufacturing the future and physical sciences, invites expressions of interest for its call on the future formulation of complex products. Supporting a series of projects addressing challenges in formulation science, the goal is to develop and improve manufacturing processes for the production of complex structured products, based on interdisciplinary research in fundamental and applied science.

Maximum award: Unspecified. Closing date: 23/04/15

 Wellcome Trust/Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, GB

The Wellcome Trust, in collaboration with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, invites applications for its Fellowship in Society and Ethics. This scheme enables a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD student or junior fellow to undertake a three-month fellowship. It is intended to help the Fellow develop an awareness of policy environments and processes, and to raise an issue relevant to the Trust’s Society and Ethics programme among a parliamentary audience.

Maximum award: Fully funded three-month minimum extension to your PhD or fellowship award. Closing date: 02/04/15

Wellcome Trust, GB

The Wellcome Trust invites proposals for its intermediate fellowships for researchers in India. This is a five year fellowship supporting excellent scientists who wish to undertake high-quality research and to establish themselves as independent researchers in an academic institution in India.

Maximum award: Unspecified. Closing date: Preliminary applications due 02/04/15

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your  RKEO Funding Development Officer

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.

Research Professional – all you need to know

Guidance

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.  The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional.  To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional 

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional.  They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional.  The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat.  Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month.  You can register here for your preferred date:

24th March 2015

28th April 2015

29th May 2015

23rd June 2015

28th July 2015

25th August 2015

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Launch of the summer round of the BU Undergraduate Research Assistantship programme

I am delighted to announce today the launch of summer round of BU’s Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) programme. Funded by the Fusion Investment Fund, this programme offers paid employment opportunities for approximately 40 BU undergraduate students per year to work in clusters, centres and institutes, under the guidance of experienced academics, in a research position that is directly related to their career path and/or academic discipline. This enables the students to assist academic staff with their research whilst also gaining valuable research experience themselves.

Research shows there is a direct link between student satisfaction and research-based learning, particularly when the opportunity is in their field of study[1], and that the undergraduate student experience is improved by engaging them with research early and often.[2] URA programmes are common in North America and are offered in a significant number of universities, for example Harvard University, Northern Illinois University, Kent State University and Cornell University.

In 2015 BU is offering two modes of the URA programme:

  1. semester-based programme (c. 20 part-time positions running for eight weeks in semester 2)
  2. summer programme (c. 20 full-time positions running for six weeks in June/July 2015)

There are two stages to the application process: 1) Faculty application stage whereby BU academic staff can apply for URA positions, and 2) student selection stage whereby Faculty staff recruit to the positions.

We are now accepting applications from academic staff for URA positions for the summer-based programme. The deadline for applications is Friday 20th March 2015. All applications received will be reviewed by a panel comprising two Deputy Deans (Research and Professional Practice) and the Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange. Decisions on which positions to fund will be announced at the start of April.
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Further details, including the application form, are available here: Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) programme

[1] For example: Healey and Jenkins (2011) Linking discipline-based research with teaching to benefit student learning, available from: http://www.mickhealey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Linking-RT-Handout-Website1.doc

[2] For example: Madan, C R & Braden, D T (2013) The Benefits of Undergraduate Research: The Student’s Perspective, available from: http://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2013/05/undergraduate-research-students-perspective/

Innovative Industry-based Cyber Security Masters kicked off last week!

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

The all new MSc Cyber Security & Human Factors course kicked off last week with students eager to embark on their 18-36 month journey! This exciting part-time Masters in Cyber Security has been developed to meet the skills and education required by most digital enabled organisations whilst adapting the content and delivery to meet today’s student’s work-life balance. This innovative industry based MSc has taught modular elements followed by a period of research and reflection. Each module has an intensive 3 day program of lectures delivered at the University followed by 8 weeks of research activities, directed reading and reflection.

Cyberspace is a vast, complex and still evolving community that presents enterprise, industry and governments with ongoing security management challenges, as it grows on an exponential scale. The security of data is fundamental to any business, and IT professionals are increasingly aware of the complexities involved in protecting information, assets, knowledge and intellect. As cyberspace stores more and more information, specialists in security who are ahead of the game will become a critical element in reducing risk.

On this course, students will gain an understanding of the psychology of cyber security by investigating threat, vulnerabilities and impact risk; the contagion of fear, uncertainty and doubt; managing human factors in security; trust management and information assurance. Students will develop a deep and holistic awareness of Cyber Security and Human Factors.

Students will have access to a suite of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics laboratories with state-of-art simulation and analytical systems to discover, evaluate and educate the use of Intrusion Detection, Incident Management, Forensic analysis and System Penetration testing as well as incorporating Industry based skill training material and practices.

The next enrollment opportunity for this course is September 2015 (both part-time and full-time). If you’d like more information on the course please visit BU Cyber Security Unit or email the team.

Two BU authored chapters in new book on childbirth

Publishing, student research

BU Ph.D. student and Consultant Midwife Kathryn Gutteridge and Hannah Dahlen Associate Professor of Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney contributed a chapter to the book ‘The Roar behind the Silence: Why kindness, compassion and respect matter in maternity care’.  Kathryn Gutteridge and Hannah Dahlen wrote under the title ‘Stop the fear and embrace birth’.  BU’s Dr. Jenny Hall also wrote a chapter called ‘Spirituality, compassion and maternity care’.

The  volume edited by Sheena Byrom and Soo Downe was published this week by Pinter & Martin (London).   I received my copy of the book yesterday, but didn’t have a chance to look at it until today.  The Roar Behind the Silence is both a practical and inspirational book, which likely to be of interest to people working in maternity care (midwives, doctors, managers), local and regional maternity-care policy-makers as well as politicians and funders and, of course, to many pregnant women and maternity-care pressure groups.  The book highlights examples of good practice, and offers practical tools for making change happen, advice on how to use evidence and real-life stories.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Matt Bentley’s Fusion Fund Research – South Africa Update

Fusion

Friday marked a successful visit to Abagold in Hermanus. Hermanus is famous for whale watching where the Southern Right whales can been seen close to the shore from September to November. The visit to Abagold by Matt and Carol Simon was hosted by Stoffel van Dyk who is their Operational Director. Abagold is one of the world’s premier abalone aquaculture farms producing the highest quality abalone for the export market. Abagold’s operation is sustainable and helps protect the wild abalone population from poaching activity. Abagold is also the industrial partner in the Fusion Investment Fund project. The farm will offer facilities for BU students who will trialling novel technologies for controlling shell-boring pests of the molluscs.