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HE Policy Update

Monday

International Students

Sir James Dyson has criticised Theresa May’s proposals (for the Conservative Party manifesto) to expel international students on graduation. He argues the proposals are a short-term vote winner that will harm the economy by losing valuable ideas from the brightest foreign minds. Dyson wipes floor with May’s student immigration plan  (The Guardian).

Tuesday

Student Funding Panel

The interim findings of the Universities UK’s Student Funding Panel, which was established last year to examine the current system, has said that raising tuition fees to £9,000 has not helped drive improvements in teaching despite the government’s insistence it would improve standards. It also reveals concerns around a drop in flexible places (i.e. part-time) and the level of support available to students in financial difficulties. Fee hike ‘has not driven teaching improvement’, says UUK panel (Times Higher Education).

Wednesday

International Students

The Chancellor, George Osborne has opposed Theresa May’s plan to deport foreign students after they graduate amid fears that it would damage the economy and universities’ finances. Osborne blocks May’s plan to deport foreign students (The Times).

Thursday

Independent Universities Group

A group representing non-profit and for-profit private providers aims to be “the Russell Group of the alternative sector” and to dissociate its members from “dodgy” for-profit colleges. The Independent Universities Group consists of eight institutions which have degree-awarding powers and/or university titles that are not funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.  Private providers create ‘Russell Group of the alternative sector’ (Times Higher Education).

Friday

NSS 

University teacher training students will be included in this year’s National Student Survey after HEFCE took the “exceptional” step of agreeing to fund their participation. The decision comes days after HEFCE revealed that the National College for Teaching and Learning – the Department for Education agency that funds teacher training, would no longer be funding initial teacher training students’ involvement in the survey. NSS to include teacher training students after funding council steps in (Times Higher Education).

Transdisciplinary Arts Practice: Moving Sideways to Move Forward

Transdisciplinary Arts Practice: Moving Sideways to Move ForwardWe would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Speaker: Bill Thompson (Video & Sound Artist, Lecturer in Music and Audio Technology, Bournemouth University)

Title: Transdisciplinary Arts Practice: Moving Sideways to Move Forward

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 14th January 2015

Room: P335, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

I’ll be discussing recent collaborative work with choreographer Ian Spink involving transdiciplinary practice across several projects in Scotland, as well as past work with choreographer Claire Pencak and archaeologists Antonia Thomas and Dan Lee at the Ness of Brodgar site in Orkney. I’ll also discuss  some of my work with / against technology in my solo and sound art practice as well my experience leading collaborative arts practice workshops with Ian Spink ( fast + Dirty ) and individually ( Fail Again, Fail Better ) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and elsewhere.

We hope to see you there.

 

Centre for Entrepreneurship student event with Business Mania

The Centre for Entrepreneurship continued its program of activities for BU students just before Christmas with a joint event with Business Mania, the BU student enterprise society.  We were delighted that CfE tenant and student entrepreneur Robin Humphries, from award winning Static Games, was able to give a presentation to a group of 70 students about his experience of setting up a business.  Robin gave the group an insight into the challenges he has faced and provided hints and tips for budding entrepreneurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Static Games has been a tenant in the Centre for Entrepreneurship since early 2014 and the CfE have been delighted to support the growing company, even assisting them to successfully pitch for £10,000 equity-free Creative England funding.  This business event is one of many forthcoming student activities the Centre for Entrepreneurship will be involved in. If you have any student entrepreneurs on your courses who would like to find out more please do contact us: nharvey@bournemouth.ac.uk

For the full write up and video please visit the BUCFE website

 

The Wessex Forum Event to be held at BU – – discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

Date: Wednesday 11 February

Location: Bournemouth University – Executive Business Centre

Time: Starting at 9.30am (all day event)

Event details:

The Wessex Conservation Forum aims to bring together representatives from NGOs, Universities and Government bodies for a free one day conference discussing ‘Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & the Green Economy’ in the Wessex region. The services which nature provides us with, such as clean water, clean air, fertile soil and food, are not only crucial for the well-being of human-kind, they also represent an astronomical value. It has been estimated by economists that the loss of biodiversity was costing the EU €450 billion annually, equal to 3% of GDP. Hence, halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services is now a UK and EU priority for 2020.

Confirmed speakers include representatives from organisations such as: the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the Freshwater Biological Association, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, the Dorset Local Nature Partnership, Wessex Water and the Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City Partnership. The conference will be centred around a series of talks in order to showcase research output, identify areas for further research and promote collaboration in order to fulfil these needs.

A complimentary lunch and refreshments will be provided on the day, and there will be plenty of opportunities to make and renew contacts throughout the day.

To book: This event is popular and places are limited.  Click here to register for your free place.

More information: We hope to see you at this event but if you are unable to attend and  want to find out more about the work that BU is involved in why not sign up to receive more information. The Wessex Portal (formerly the Poole & Purbeck Portal  has been developed with the assistance of  funding from the Higher Edication Innovation Fund – HEIF)  as an  online community to promote a better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.

Click here to  sign up to receive more information on jobs,  general news and projects taking place as part of this initiative.

RKEO Coffee Morning, 4th February

Coffee Morning

The next RKEO coffee morning is fast approaching and this one will concentrate on the wonders of the Project Delivery Team within RKEO, its personnel, the work they do and how they can help you.

The Team has three specialist areas: Finance, Outputs and Governance which feed into Faculty dedicated teams. So if you want to know more about managing projects, applying for ethics approval, how to use BRIAN, Open Access or anything else Research and Knowledge Exchange focused please come along and have a chat with us, or just to enjoy a coffee and cake.

 

The coffee morning will be held in the RKE Office on the 4th Floor Melbury House (Lansdowne Campus) starting at 9.30am on Wednesday 4th February.

 

We look forward to seeing you!

Launch of the Quick Guides to…

Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office have prepared a number of useful quick guides for applying to various funders and for certain activities.  These include the processes and procedures that need to be followed at BU.  You can access these either through the link above to the home page or by hovering over the ‘Research Toolkit’ menu option on the blog and all options will appear under the ‘Quick Guides to Funding and other useful information’. 

For a sneak preview of the individual funder or activity guidance, please click on the links below.

Quick guide to funders:

Quick guide to activities:

For further information on these guides, funding opportunties, activities and how we can help you, please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team.

£9.5m funding – Integrated supply chains for Energy systems

 

Innovate UK has launched a funding competition with up to £9.5m available to address the need for a diverse mix of energy sources and systems.

The aim of this competition is to encourage cross-sector supply chains that can deliver integrated energy solutions to meet the many energy systems challenges of achieving a low-carbon economy by 2050.Projects should focus on both the demand and supply side across the energy networks of electricity, heat and combustible gases. 

 This is a two-stage competition with a first stage of feasibility studies. Up to three projects will then be chosen for follow-on collaborative research and development (R&D) following a collaboration workshop on conclusion of the feasibility stage. At each stage, projects must be led by a business. 
 

Design Council Spark: a new kind of product innovation fund – up to £65K available

Funding opportunities

 

 

 

 

Have a great product prototype but not sure what to do next?

Design Council Spark is a new kind of product innovation fund to uncover the UK’s next great inventions. Apply now for a chance to win a place on this 20 week bespoke support program, as well as up to £65k investment to help bring your physical product prototype or idea to market.

Design Council Spark is a fund and accelerator that provides support and investment into product innovations which are primarily physical. It is looking to attract individuals/teams with revolutionary product ideas that offer brilliant solutions to everyday problems. 

The not-for profit programme is unique. Participants donate 5% of future sales revenue back into the fund, fuelling a movement of revolutionary products for the UK and beyond. The call for entries will last until  31 January 2015. 

Click the link for further details.

Book launch in Kathmandu

PG research, Publishing, student research

 

This week sees the publication of a new book co-edited by BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen.  The book The Dynamics of Health in Nepal is published for Social Science Baha by Himal Books in Nepal.  The lead editor Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti was awarded his MSc from the University of Aberdeen and his PhD from the University of Sheffield.  The second editor, Padam Simkhada is Professor of International health at Liverpool John Moores University as well as Visiting Faculty in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

This edited volume has 13 chapters written on various health-related topics that are topical in Nepal.  Many of the authors are from Nepal who completed their postgraduate studies at a UK university.   The chapters cover amongst other topics such as Maternity Care, Health of the Elderly, Road Traffic Accidents, HIV/AIDS and Non-Communicable Diseases.  The book will be formally launched in a hotel in Kathmandu on the morning of Sunday 11th January.

The book also includes a chapter by BU PhD student Sheetal Sharma.  She co-authored the chapter ‘Customs and believes surrounding newborn babies in rural areas’.  One of her collaborator was a PhD student registered at the University of Aberdeen and another at London Metropolitan University, whilst third collaborator is the founder of Green Tara Trust, a UK-based Buddhist charity.

Copies of the book are for sale from Himal Books in Kathmandu and all profits from the book will be donated to Green Tara Nepal.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences,  Bournemouth University

National Contact Point: Ian Holmes

Guidance

National Contact Points (NCPs) provide impartial advice regarding EU Funding within their specialist area of Horizon 2020.  The advice is free and confidential and tailored to your needs.  This is an excellent service for drawing on the experience and knowledge of someone who deals exclusively with a particular scheme or work programme.  If you are interested in testing out project ideas, checking scheme eligibility, discussing the direction of travel of a particular funding stream or just asking some questions on the practicalities of applications they are a great source of help. 

This week we would like to introduce you to Ian Holmes, who is the NCP for Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine and Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy.  Follow the link for further details on NCPs and Horizon 2020.

NEW BUDI Orchestra Coming Soon!

Do you know someone living with dementia in Dorset who likes music?

If so, BUDI would like to invite the person with dementia and their carer to become part of a new BUDI Orchestra starting this January 2015. We would like them to share their musical talents and take part in a music evaluation hosted by BUDI and professional musicians.

We hope to evaluate the effects of a novel music initiative on their daily lives. They will have the opportunity to learn a new instrument, sing, or showcase their existing musical talents to their peers.

No previous musical experience is necessary, we’re looking for people who are willing to come along and ‘give it a go’!

For further information, please contact: Laura Reynolds on 01202 962546, or email: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Please disseminate this notice to anyone who you think may be interested in the project. A PDF flyer can be provided – please email: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

ESRC turns 50!

Funding opportunities, PG research

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest organisation for funding on economic social issues. 

This year ESRC celebrates its 50th anniversary and will be holding a variety of exciting activities and events, such as a writing competition for ESRC-funded PhD students (May 2015), a look at 50 Years of Population Change (June 2015) and the ESRC Festival of Social Science (31 October to 7 November 2015).  For further details of events that they intend to hold as part of their anniversary celebration, along with details of potential funding opportunities, please follow the link.

Happy new year! BU’s research highlights of 2014

Awarded & submitted bids

2014 was another great year for research at BU.  Here are the fabulous highlights for your perusal, in no particular order:

REF logo1. REF results – Preparing for the REF submission was an enormous part of life for many at BU for many years and it was a long thirteen months waiting for the results to be published. But they were definitely worth waiting for! 61% of our research was recognised as internationally excellent, with 18% rated world-leading. 62% of our research environment was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, an increase of 32% since 2008  – this is the environment that BU has built and enhanced over the past five years and includes initiatives such as the Grants Academy, EUADs, Writing Academy, the Research Blog, Festival of Learning, Fusion Investment Fund, etc. The REF team were short-listed for one of the VC’s Staff Awards this year in the Collaborative Team category. Overall the results showed that BU rose between 6-12 positions in the UK league tables (THE Table of Excellence, Research Fortnight,  WonkHE). You can read a summary and they key headlines of our success here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/12/18/the-ref-results-are-in-bus-research-recognised-as-world-leading/.

 2. New look RKEO – The RKEO structure was reviewed in 2014 and we went live with a new one on 1st September. The process of the review and transition has been unsettling as well as exciting for many of us and I am pleased that the new structure is working so well and achieving so much already. Thank you for all of your patience and understanding throughout the change process. You can access a new structure chart and information about our new teams here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/contact/. We are determined to make the new structure a success and have embarked on a service excellence project that engages with over 60 colleagues across BU to reflect on and change our procedures and service provision.


3. Growth of RKE activity – Our annual RKE income at BU has continued to grow. In 2013-14 our income c. £6m, up 10% on the previous year. What’s particularly interesting is the change in where this income comes from: our funding from UK charities and UK government departments is decreasing and our income from ‘gold standard’ research funders, such as the research councils and EC, is increasing. For example, we received c. £1.13m income from the UK research councils in 2013-14 (an increase of 21% on the previous year and a whopping 122% increase since 2009-10). This indicates that the quality of our research proposals and ideas is maturing and our reputation growing. Our research council success rates for 2013-14 were impressive – BU’s overall success rate was 33% (12 bids submitted of which 4 were awarded) against a sector average of 30%. This is almost the highest success rate we have achieved, second only to 36% in 2007-08. We also submitted a record number of Marie Curie applications in 2014 – fingers crossed these will be awarded next year.

4. Significant grants/contracts awarded – There were a number of significant grants/contracts awarded to BU in 2014. These included:

  • Disaster management training contract with the Royal Office of Oman (Richard Gordon)
  • Significant number and value of NHS contracts (Clive Andrewes)
  • KTPs with Nautilus International Risk Consultants Ltd (Christos Gatzidis) and Chantacre Ltd (Andrew Main)
  • Stroke research project in collaboration with Cornell University, funded by Qatar (Ahmed Khattab)
  • BU hosted the 2014 Academy of Marketing Conference (Julie Robson)
  • Wellbeing and tourism grant from the ESRC (Heather Hartwell)
  • Communities in spaces of flow project from the AHRC (Janet Dickinson)
  • ESRC Seminar Series funding (Jens Holscher)
  • Two NIHR grants (Zoe Sheppard and Edwin van Teijlingen)
  • Wellcome Trust grant (Anna Feigenbaum)

5. Launch of new ethics structure – BU launched a new process and governance structure for research ethics in February 2014. This applies to all staff and students at BU. Ethical approval for projects that are considered above minimal risk is now provided by two discipline-based Research Ethics Panels, chaired by Prof Holger Schutkowski (SciTech) and Sean Beer (ST). Further details on ethics are available here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/researcher-toolbox/research-ethics/.

6. Festival of Learning 2014 – The second Festival of Learning took place in June 2014 and was a resounding success, attracting over 4,000 visits to more than 150 free activities/events and receiving excellent feedback across the board from attendees. The Festival is a now established as a major event in the RKEO and BU calendar and is a huge team effort. The Festival was nominated for a Heist award (national education marketing awards) and won a bronze award in the Best Community/Business/CSR Campaign category which is excellent recognition from the sector. Next year the Festival will take place in July and Naomi and Harry are already mid-way through preparations. Read more about the Festival of Learning 2015 here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/festival-of-learning-proposals/

7. Launch of sparkly new initiatives – We launched a number of amazing new initiatives this year, including: the KTP Academic Development Scheme, fast track, research lifecycle on the blog, Grants Academy external mentoring pilot, regular RKEO coffee mornings, Writing Academy, Open Access week, student engagement with research, undergraduate research assistantships. We also published a new Bournemouth Research Chronicle and are now preparing the next edition. We are currently reviewing the BRAD programme to make it much slicker and more useful to academics and we have increased the proportion of open access full-text in BURO to 17%.

Image sourced from The Academy of Medical Sciences

8. Recording of research outcomes and impact – Researchfish, the system for researchers to record the outcomes from their grants, was launched in 2014. This system is used by the UK research councils who required all RCUK funded researchers to enter all of their data by November 2014. BU’s compliance rate with this was 100%, compared to the sector average of 85%.

9. RKEO’s external engagement – RKEO have continued to engage externally to raise the profile of RKEO and BU, to further professionalise research management and to gain credibility and kudos within the sector. One of the main highlights of 2014 was Shelly Anne Stringer’s organisation a sector-wide open access event held at BU in May that attracted external delegates from around the country and featured high calibre keynote speakers, including HEFCE. RKEO staff have also presented at a number of key conferences this year: Jo Garrad, Jenny Roddis and Emily Cieciura at the Vitae conference in September, Naomi Kay, Harry Gibson and Barry Squires at the Engage conference in November, and Corrina Lailla Osborne and Julie Northam at the ARMA conference in June. Jenny Roddis and Julie Northam have taken on additional external roles as Qualification Assessors for ARMA this year – Jenny for the Certificate in Research Administration and Julie for the Certificate in Research Management. Julie was also appointed by Vitae as a peer reviewer for the EC HR Excellence in Research award.

Dr Dubey receiving the Hind Rattan Award10. Venky Dubey and Neil Vaughan (SciTech) – Venky Dubey and Neil Vaughan had an exceptional year in 2014. Their epidural simulator project (in collaboration with Poole Hospital) was short-listed for a THE Award (Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year). Neil won the much coveted EPSRC ICT Pioneers ‘Transforming Society’ award, and Venky was awarded the Hind Rattan Award from the NRI Welfare Society of India in recognition of outstanding services, achievements and contributions to the chosen field. Translated as “Jewel of India”, the award is one of the highest granted annually to a non-resident Indian and is considered to be equivalent to an OBE.

Roll on 2015!