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Dog Facial Animation (CTRC Guest Seminar)

Speaker: Professor Andres Newball
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia
Date: Thursday 30th October 2014   
Time: 15.00-16.00pm
Venue: P335

Abstract: Several human facial animation models have been developed in the last 30 years. In contrast, less attention has been given to animal facial models. Animal facial anatomical features are usually humanised, oversimplified, cartoonised or ignored. With Londra, our dog facial animation model, we successfully synthesised dog facial expressions such as anger, affection, attention, fear, happiness, yawning and smelling without displaying anthropomorphic features. A preliminary validation suggested that most expressions were recognised consistently. Our contributions include: a simplified model inspired by anatomy; a new bottom up form of the layered approach for the bone, muscle, complementary, skin and fur layers; a Dog Facial Action Coding System to synthesise the expressions; and the Tabulated Sphere Subsets to provide a fast way to approximate collisions between objects with constrained motion. This project was funded by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali; The University of Otago and Colfuturo and had the collaboration from the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Games & Interaction (CTRC Guest Seminar)

Speaker: Professor Andres Newball
Pontificia University Javeriana, Cali, Colombia
Date: Wednesday 29th October 2014   
 Time: 11-12
Venue: Lawrence LT

1. Chimú Interactive: We aimed to make accessible knowledge about the Chimú culture. In this project, we integrated an interactive immersive application on site, an augmented reality mobile application and a database to create a narrative where the player is an archaeologist. For the virtual reality based immersive environment, we required a system that allowed, according to a set script, viewing and exploring the pyramid of Tantalluc and to explore three of its tombs, excavating, cleaning, taking and observing objects and artefacts.

2. Talking to TEO– assisted speech therapy: It is a video game developed and based on verbal therapy and educational objectives, aimed at the rehabilitation of children with early diagnosed hearing disability, and who use aids such as cochlear implants. The software integrates speech recognition for user interaction and benefits from visual feedback.

All are invited

Shaping European Social Work: BU Hosts Erasmus SOCNET 98

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree & Jill Davey

 

For the first time in April 2013 BU hosted the SOCNET International University Week (IUW). This is a high profile international event held rotationally at host European universities drawn from across the 19 Higher Education Institution (HEI) members of the SOCNET community. This important annual event brings together a wide range of European academics and students with an interest in social work and social welfare.

It also provides an opportunity for HSC Social Work and Sociology & Social Policy students to interact with international academics and accompanying European students with educational, cultural and social aims in mind. During the IUW a busy series of workshops and lectures are offered based on a particular chosen theme, to which both academics and students contribute as pedagogic peers. Learning through active scholarly participation is the pedagogic approach that has proved very popular and successful over the years.

The theme of each IUW, alongside other organisational business vital to the continuation and the expansion of Erasmus SOCNET initiative, is managed at each host university in the month of October.  Consequently, the Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy was proud to host this year’s organisational event, represented by HSC Erasmus Coordinator, Jill Davey, and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Deputy Director of the Centre.

Attendees included academic representatives from across the SocNet-work at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria; School of Social Work, Leuven, Belgium; University College Lillebaelt, Denmark; Hochschule Bremen – University of Applied Sciences, School of Social Work, Germany; Ernst-Abbe Fachhochschule University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany; Department of Social Science and Care Social Work and Nursing Management, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic; Faculty of Social and Health Studies, Telemark, Denmark;  University College, Department of Social Studies, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, Netherlands; Humak University of applied sciences, Finland; University of Malaga, and finally, Bournemouth University.

A highly productive and sociable set of meetings took place over the course of several days, where, alongside discussing the European Masters in Social Work (where a UK partner is currently being identified for collaboration), the issues of venue and theme for this year’s International University Week were discussed. Since then invitations from the following four universities have been issued to academics and their students across the SOCNET community to attend the IUW (April 20th – 24th 2015) hosted by four international HEIs:

  • University College Lillebaelt – Department of Social Work. Theme: Trends in social work in the year 2015.
  • Ernst-Abbe Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences Jena. Theme:  Diversity and Innovation in European Social Work and Welfare States.
  • Telemark University College – Department of Social Studies. Theme: Diversity in Social Work.
  • Hochschule Bremen. Theme: Methods and Methodologies of Social Work – Reflecting Professional Interventions.

While the IUW clearly emphasises teaching and learning initiatives, together with internationalisation, the research element has been less publicly evident; although scholarship has always fed into the programme through the synergies between education and research.

However, over the past few years BU has altered the SOCNET landscape and is influencing the development of future trends here; where BU academics advocated for the need for high quality publications to be developed from the important lectures and workshops being annually produced in the IUW events.

Accordingly BU input has been instrumental towards developing robust academic output, which also serves to meet the BU Fusion agenda and KPIs. Thus, from the 2012 IUW at the University of Malaga, which carried the theme of ‘Active Ageing’, Professor Maria Luisa Gómez Jiménez and Professor Jonathan Parker developed the first edited SOCNET publication under London publishers, Whiting & Birch’s innovative social science monograph series, ‘Critical Studies in Socio-cultural Diversity’.

Following fast on the heels of this success, in 2013 Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, proposed and developed the second edited volume from the BU event.  Moreover, in Volume II, and in keeping with the sprit of SOCNET, strong chapter contributions have featured from students from Bremen and BU (Samineh Richardson neé Hall, BA Sociology & Social Policy and PhD candidate, David Galley).

The next SOCNET publication will be forthcoming from the IUW held at Hochschule Bremen under our esteemed colleague, Professor Christian Spatscheck and colleagues. This will continue an exciting precedence, first initiated and supported to-date by BU under the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy; a fact that we are quietly very proud of.

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First issue Journal of Asian Midwives

CMMPH would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly established Journal of Asian Midwives on publishing its first issue.  Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM) is the first regional online midwifery journal launched by the South Asian Midwifery Alliance (SAMA).   Prof. Rafat Jan based in Pakistan at Aga Khan University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery is the lead editor.  JAM aims to give a voice to midwives, nurses-midwives, women’s health clinicians, and reproductive health professionals as well as social scientists.

CMMPH proudly announces that one of our Bournemouth University PhD students, Ms. Sheetal Sharma, is on the new journal’s Associate Board.  Sheetal’s research is on maternity care in Nepal.

The journal is Open Access and free.  JAM does not charge subscription fees so it is free for readers nor does it charge a submission fee so it is also free for authors!  The journal can be found at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/jam/

 

Edwin van Teijlingen & Vanora Hundley

CMMPH

Ever launched a CR@B? We did!

Yesterday was the first meeting of the Consumer Research @ BU group (CR@B) and it turned out to be a busy and energising meeting of minds from a wide variety of disciplines from across BU.  As we listened to each other’s presentations and compared notes the opportunities for working together in new ways unfolded.

Our aim in bringing the group together is to foster inter-disciplinary research, provide a platform for interaction with industry, and a forum for ideas.  Given the success of our first meeting, we will now be holding informal coffee and cake meetings every 4-6 weeks with time for CR@B research bites (short presentations about our research) and discussion.  We will also be planning a series of high profile public research talks and workshops designed with research and industry application in mind.

Anyone who is doing consumer research is welcome.  This might include researchers working in:-

  • Consumer cultures
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Retail and marketing
  • Visual cognition and consumption
  • Food consumerism and consumption
  • Consumer neuroscience
  • Advertising

and almost certainly more.

So … if you think you might be a CR@B, and are out there hiding under a stone, please crawl out and come and join us.

Our next meeting is at 3pm on Wednesday 3rd December in D234, Dorset House, Talbot Campus.  If you would like to come along or would simply like to find out more please email either Jeff Bray in Tourism who is hosting our next session or any of the other contacts below so that we can get a feel for numbers.

 

Jeff Bray (Tourism; jbray@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Juliet Memery (Business School; jmemery@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Janice Denegri-Knott (Media School; JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Siné McDougall (SciTech; smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk

New SBRI Competition Inclusive Technology Prize

Are you working with start-ups, micro and or SMEs? Please encourage them to consider if they have any concepts or technology that could be applied to this challenge.

Designers, makers and entrepreneurs are being challenged to apply for the chance to gain a contract worth £50k and to develop the next generation of products, services and technologies that will make a real difference to the 1 in 6 of us living with limiting long term illness or disability in the UK.

The UK’s innovation foundation, Nesta, is working with the Office for Disability Issues, Innovate UK, Business Innovation and Skills and Irwin Mitchell to champion the issue of assistive technology through the Inclusive Technology Prize. The challenge will encourage innovation through co-creation with disabled people, meeting needs as defined by the users themselves and challenging people to use lived experiences of disability to develop life changing technology. 

 The competition is using the SBRI competition process, (Small Business Research Initiative) which offers opportunities for businesses, especially early-stage and SMEs to develop and demonstrate technology to public sector funded challenges.

 Interested organisations and individuals should visit www.inclusivetechprize.org to apply. The deadline for applications is 16 January 2015

 

Research Cluster Conflict, Rule of Law and Society is holding a Workshop on ‘Contemporary Issues in International Law’ on Tuesday 28th October 2014, 10-13.00 in EB206

 

 

The commitment and role of the international community in fighting Islamic State (IS/ISIL) are a daily item on the news. Therefore the Cluster for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society is holding a Workshop on ‘Contemporary Issues in International Law’ on Tuesday 28th October 2014, 10-13.00 in EB206.
The workshop brings together Undergraduate and Postgraduate students studying International Law and those interested in the issues of terrorism and the use of force in general. It will be a forum for discussion and debate on

  • the situation in Ukraine/Russia (including the annexation of Crimea and the downing of Malaysia Airline MH17)
  • the situation involving IS/Iraq/Syria, and
  • will ask what the status quo of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) doctrine is.

 

The workshop will be led by Dr. Melanie Klinkner and Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law.

There will be tea, coffee and biscuits and interested staff and students are very welcome to join.

£2.5m funding available – SBRI Healthcare Autumn 2014

SBRI Healthcare Autumn 2014

The National Health Service England and the NHS Academic Health Science Networks have opened multiple new SBRI competitions with a total of £2.5m funding available in Phase 1 to develop technologies and innovative solutions that can provide better health outcomes in the areas of:

  • Innovation in child & adolescent mental health
  • Improving care of diabetic foot ulcer
  • Medical imaging
  • Improving efficiency & experience of outpatient services
  • Brain injury healthcare

Phase 1 is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept. Development contracts will be awarded for a maximum of 6 months and £100,000 (inc VAT) per project.  Projects that have completed Phase 1 successfully will be eligible for Phase 2 later in the year. Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units from the more promising technologies in Phase 1.

More information including briefs for the challenges can be found on the website.

Application process

For further details, including the application process click here. The deadline for applications is 9 December 2014

 

 

 

Money available for you to publish your articles Open Access! – International Open Access Week

Back in April 2011 we launched the BU Open Access Publication Fund. This is a dedicated central budget that has been launched in response to, and in support of, developments in research communication and publication trends. The fund is also to support research in complying with some of the major funding bodies who have introduced open access publishing requirements as a condition of their grants.

The fund is available for use by any BU author ready to submit a completed article for publication who wishes to make their output freely and openly accessible.

If you are interested in applying to the fund then you need to email Pengpeng Hatch in RKEO with the following information:

  • Name of the open access publication
  • Confirmation this will be a peer reviewed paper
  • A short justification (1 paragraph) of why it is beneficial for your research article to be published open access
  • The cost of the open access publication
  • Likely publication date
  • Likely REF Unit of Assessment (UOA)
  • A copy of the paper

If you have any questions about the Fund then please direct them to Pengpeng via email.

Further information: BU Open Access Fund policy

R&KEO Coffee Morning at The Retreat

 

 

R&KEO

Here to support you

Come and meet us for coffee, cake and discuss how we can help you

 Monday 17th November 2014

The Retreat 9.30-10.30am

 

Undertaking research is not always straightforward

So much more is required

finding funding

engaging with the public

putting together great proposals

and much, much more …..

 

Come and get to know us

who we are and what we do

have a chat about your plans

 R&KEO

Offering help and support

VeggieEat Research Assistant Vacancy

Research Associate Vacancy: An opportunity to work within the School of Tourism

Despite extensive guidance about good eating habits at both national and European level, research shows that too often people are not eating enough vegetables to maintain a healthy diet.  VeggiEAT is an exciting, European-wide collaborative research project designed to address the problem of poor diet and unhealthy eating.  By exploring the barriers to healthy eating, the project aims to challenge existing policy and business practices, as well as encouraging people to eat a more balanced diet.

 An exciting opportunity to support the project has arisen.  VeggiEAT is looking for an enthusiastic research associate to work with academics at BU on a short term contract.  The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the work of VeggiEAT through undertaking research activities, supporting academic colleagues and assisting with writing for publication. 

A full job description can be viewed here Research Assistant Job Description This is a five week, full-time position, beginning on, or around 3 November and ending on 19 December.  It pays an hourly rate of £16.37.

 To apply, please send your CV and cover letter to Charmain Lyons,  clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk,  by 5.00 pm on Wednesday 29 October 2014.

Applicants must be available for an informal conversation with Professor Heather Hartwell on either Thursday 30 October or Friday 31 October 2014.

 

LOVE your drafts, DON’T delete them, ADD them to BRIAN! – International Open Access Week

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceDon’t delete your drafts!  You will hear this A LOT over the next couple of years as the open access movement gathers even more momentum and the role of green open access and institutional repositories is moved to the fore of the next REF (likely to be REF 2020).  HEFCE have confirmed that all journal papers and conference proceedings submitted to the next REF will have to be made freely available in an institutional or subject repository (such as BURO) upon acceptance (subject to publisher’s embargo periods).

Therefore:

  • A journal paper / conference proceeding that was not made freely available in a repository, such as BURO, from the point of acceptance will not be eligible to be submitted, even if it is made available retrospectively.
  • The version made available in BURO should be the final accepted version but does not have to be the publisher’s PDF
  • This is applicable to outputs published from April 2016 onwards.

It is excellent to see the Funding Councils promoting the open access agenda and embedding it within the REF.  Making outputs freely available increases their visibility and is likely to increase their impact, not only within the academic community but in the public sphere too.  It ensures research is easily accessible to our students, politicians and policy-makers, charities and businesses and industry, as well as to potential collaborators in other countries which can help with building networks and the internationalisation of research.

Talking to academic colleagues around the University it is apparent that the normal practice is to delete previous drafts, including the final accepted version, as soon as a paper is approved for publication.   This needs to change!  Many publisher’s will already allow you to add the final accepted version of your paper to BURO (just not the version with the publisher’s header, logo, etc) and this is set to increase in light of the HEFCE consultation.  Rather than deleting the final version, add it to BRIAN so it will be freely available to everyone in the institutional repository, BURO.

We need to get into the habit now of doing this now.  BRIAN is linked to the Sherpa-Romeo database of journals so you can easily check the archiving policy of the journal.  All you need to do is:

1. Log into your BRIAN account and find the paper.

2. One of the tabs is named ‘full text’.

3. If you click into this tab you will see a link near the Sherpa-Romeo logo to check your ‘publisher’s policy’.

4. Click on this and you will see the archiving policy for this particular journal, clearly stating which version of the paper can be uploaded. Ideally you are looking for your journal to be a green journal which allows the accepted version or (even better but quite rare, unless you have paid extra to make it freely available) the publisher’s version/PDF. See the screen shot.

5. Click ‘back’ and then click on the ‘full text’ tab again and you will see a link (in a blue box) to ‘upload new file for this publication’.

6. Upload the file and follow the onscreen instructions.

7. Your full text will then automatically feed through to BURO and be available open access in the next few days.

 

In point 4 I mentioned about paying extra to the publisher at the point of acceptance to make it freely available upon publication.  This is often referred to as the gold route to open access publishing and at BU we have a central dedicated budget for paying these fees.  You can find out about the GOLD route to open access publishing here: Gold route

So the overriding message is:

LOVE YOUR DRAFTS – DON’T DELETE THEM – ADD THEM TO BRIAN!

Festival Fever – Inspiration for your Festival of Learning 2015 event!

Stuck for event ideas for the Festival of learning in 2015!?

Well don’t worry! In this blog post Festival Fever will take over and show you events which have worked well in the past and possibly a few stand-out ideas you may wish to build upon for this year.

Let us take you through a countdown of ‘Hit’ topics and stand out events of last year’s festival as well as eye catching events at the British Science Festival and stand out events you could run in the future!

Hits at last year’s Festival of Learning

5. Marketing and business skills

Have you thought of creating a business event which focuses on marketing? Well if last year’s attendance at this event is anything to go by you will attract a very strong turnout. This event was fully booked last year and is a safe bet to draw in business professionals and members of the public alike! If you can use group discussions in your event this will also enhance the experience for individuals who are attending.

4. Gaming, computers and coding

These topics proved highly popular throughout the festival. Key examples of this success were ‘Is gaming the new reading?’ and ‘Hour of code.’ It really does seem that computers are becoming vital organs in modern life; this means the potential to interest large numbers will always be there when choosing an event of this genre.

3. Everyday professional skills

Teamwork,time management, or the magic of mailbox management.  Is there an event you could run that would tap into helping people develop these skills? If you have a clever way to engage the audience in a workshop that can enrich their professional development your event will be in high demand as well as an interesting way to give back to the community.

2. Health and fitness

Health related topics have shown to be popular both in the past at the festival, but also at other UK science festivals. Fitness is something that is at the forefront of many of our minds and if you’ve got an interesting take on this you’ll be sure to get the public onside.

1. Topics involving real-world current issues

Tying your event into current issues can help inspire debate in panel sessions, as well as draw in big audiences.  They are also more likely to be picked up for press coverage and could help to boost your event numbers even further.

 

Eye catching events at the British Science Festival

As you may have seen in an earlier series of blog posts, we recently attended the British Science Festival to get some inspiration on what to include in our own Festival of Learning.  You can read the full post of hot events from the festival here, but these were two of our favorites:

-The Huxley debate (As seen at the British Science Festival)

A debate which puts the spotlight on the security flaws of companies such as Facebook and Google can really entice a large number of people, “why is this?” you may ask, the reason is that the companies Facebook and Google touch the lives of the majority of us. This in the media spotlight with recent scandals SnapChat and Icloud storage!

-Your Astonishing Liver/ Health related topics

A further hit from the British Science Festival was ‘Your Astonishing Liver’ this proved to have a very strong turnout, with an audience of varying demographics. The clear strength of all health related topics is their ability to create very strong debates with the audience. In “Your astonishing liver” the panel facilitated a health debate around the right for non-registered organ donors to receive donated organs through the use of electronic voting. By using the response pads and looking at the results on a screen this is an engaging way of illustrating the discussion and capturing data from your event.

Other ideas to set your event apart from the crowd

 

Take your event offsite to a unique venue – what about approaching the aquarium to find out if you could run your event there?

Run your activity as part of the Festival of Learning On Tour so people get a taster for it in advance?

In more general terms, what can really add to the experience for the general public are events that are uniquely wacky and involve free samples as well as hands on activity. By having a strong blend of these ideas in your event, you can really stand out from the crowd and get your event noticed.

 

For help and support in developing your event email Naomi Kay, Public Engagement Officer in R&KEO.

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

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

Wellcome Trust

University Awards in Society and Ethics

This scheme allows universities to attract or retain outstanding research staff at an early to mid-stage in their careers by providing support for up to five years, after which time the applicant takes up a guaranteed permanent post in the university. Up to five years’ support is available, providing your full salary for three years, 50 per cent in the fourth year and 25 per cent in the fifth year. Travel expenses to attend meetings are provided for five years, but research expenses are provided for the first three years of the award only.

Closing Date for preliminary applications: 23/1/15  at 17.00

Closing Date for Full application: 02/4/15 at 17.00

 

Innovate UK

Detection of clandestines

This call for proposals is seeking to achieve a step-change in UK Border Security through new technologies for detecting people hidden in vehicles. Funding will be provided by the Home Office’s Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST) and Border Force. CAST exists to protect the public using science and technology by providing high quality, impartial advice, innovative solutions and frontline support to the Home Office and its partners. Border Force is a professional law enforcement command within the Home Office and is responsible for securing the UK border and controlling migration at 138 ports and airports across the UK and overseas.

Award: £400k for all Phase1 contracts 

Registration Closes: 07/1//2015

Closing Date: 14/1/2015

 

Wellcome Trust

Short-term Research Leave Awards for clinicians and scientists

This scheme enables clinicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals to undertake up to 6 months (FTE) of research at a centre or department with academic expertise in medical humanities, to explore the wider determinants and contexts of their own medical and scientific work. Awards can last for up to six months. We will provide the salary of a locum or replacement lecturer for the duration of the award, and a set amount for travel to conferences.

Closing Dates for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing Date for full applications: 2/4/2015

 

Art and Humanities Research Council

Collaborative Doctoral Awards and Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Collaborative Doctoral Awards are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships between Higher Education Institution (HEI) departments and non-HEI organisations and businesses. These awards provide opportunities for doctoral students to gain first hand experience of work outside the university environment. The support provided by both a university and non-university supervisor enhances the employment-related skills and training a research student gains during the course of their award. The studentships 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.

Closing Date: 10/12/14 at 16.00

 

Wellcome Trust

Senior Investigator Awards in Medical Humanities

We will support researchers who have an international track record of significant achievement, who have demonstrated the originality and impact of their research, and who are leading their field. Senior Investigator Awards provide flexible support at a level and length that is sufficient to enable exceptional researchers to address the most important questions about medicine in its social, cultural, and historical contexts. The Medical Humanities funding scheme supports bold and intellectually rigorous research applications that address important questions at the interface of medicine, health-related sciences, and the wider humanities. While we encourage interdisciplinary work, our principal aim is to fund the best research by the brightest scholars at all stages in their academic careers.

Typical Senior Investigator Awards are for up to five years and provide a generous and flexible package of funding.A Senior Investigator Award might be in the range of £100k to £200k per year, depending on the needs of your research and your ability to justify the proposed costs.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

 

Wellcome Trust

New Investigator Awards in Medical Humanities

Researchers should be able to articulate a compelling vision for their research and demonstrate the talent, track record and originality to achieve it. New Investigator Awards provide flexible support at a level and length that is sufficient to enable exceptional researchers to address the most important questions about medicine in its social, cultural, and historical contexts. The Medical Humanities funding scheme supports bold and intellectually rigorous research applications that address important questions at the interface of medicine, health-related sciences, and the wider humanities.While we encourage interdisciplinary work, our principal aim is to fund the best research by the brightest scholars at all stages in their academic careers.

Typical New Investigator Awards are for up to five years and provide a generous and flexible package of funding. A New Investigator Award might be in the range of £100k to £200k per year, depending on the needs of your research and your ability to justify the proposed costs.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

Wellcome Trust

This scheme allows universities to attract outstanding research staff by providing support for up to five years, after which time the award holder takes up a guaranteed permanent post in the university. Up to five years’ support is available, providing your full salary for three years, 50 per cent in the fourth year and 25 per cent in the fifth year. Travel expenses to attend meetings are provided for five years, but research expenses are provided for the first three years of the award only.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

Wellcome Trust

Research Fellowships for Health Professionals

This scheme is intended for practising health professionals who wish to carry out research in any area within the remit of the Society and Ethics Programme, either full-time or part-time, while maintaining their work commitments. The research should address a real-life issue in the candidate’s professional practice that is relevant to the Programme. Part-time fellows will be expected to spend at least 50 per cent of their time on their research. This scheme can be used to enrol on a PhD for those who have little or no humanities or social science experience. The scheme can also be used to undertake postdoctoral research. It is particularly aimed at people who intend to pursue a long-term academic career exploring the ethical or social aspects of biomedical research or health interventions.

The fellowship will enable successful candidates to pursue their social and ethical research interests in one or more appropriate departments or research facilities.

An award will not normally exceed £250 000, exclusive of any standard Wellcome Trust allowances. The fellow’s salary is provided, plus appropriate employer’s contributions. Essential research expenses, including travel and fieldwork, are available, as is a set amount for travel to conferences, seminars and other meetings of a scholarly nature. If enrolling for a PhD, an agreed salary will be provided, together with PhD registration fees, research expenses and a contribution to travel and general training costs. The maximum duration of the award is three years full-time. Candidates wishing to apply for a part-time award will be handled on a case-by-case basis, but awards will typically not be longer than four years in duration. The time permitted for professional activities or other non-research activity during the fellowship is normally restricted to a maximum of eight hours or two programmed activities per week.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

 

Arts & Humanities Research Council

This highlight notice, open until the end of July 2015, seeks to encourage research networking applications that explore innovative areas of cross-disciplinary enquiry that straddle the remits of the AHRC and other Research Councils and which involve significant boundary-crossing engagement and exchange between arts and humanities researchers and researchers/ practitioners in emerging areas of science and technology (broadly defined, including social science, engineering and medicine). We hope that the networking awards funded under the highlight will help to bring distinctive arts and humanities perspectives and approaches more centrally into these emerging fields of cross-disciplinary enquiry. The highlight notice also provides an opportunity to build networks to explore, through inter-disciplinary dialogue, how arts and humanities research might play a leading role in the development of research agendas in a number of areas (see below for further information) of potential future collaborative working across the Research Councils.

We will welcome proposals which are more exploratory or speculative in nature in terms of developing the potential for future cross-disciplinary engagement in areas where there may have been limited previous engagement between different research communities and recognise that in some cases this may generate increased risks or uncertainty around the research outcomes. Proposals which draw on a range of perspectives and subjects from within the arts and humanities will be strongly welcomed but proposals which are only or primarily cross-disciplinary within the arts and humanities will not fit this highlight notice (though of course will be welcomed under the networking scheme more generally).

Closing Date: 31/07/2015

 

Arts & Humanities Research Council

AHRC & Cheltenham Festivals: call for events at Music and Jazz

To mark its tenth anniversary in 2015, the AHRC is looking to extend its partnership with Cheltenham Festivals by inviting applications from researchers to present their research at one of a series of six engaging public events at the Cheltenham Jazz and Music Festivals in 2015. Cheltenham Festivals is the charitable organisation behind the town’s internationally acclaimed Jazz (opens in a new window), Science (opens in a new window), Music (opens in a new window) and Literature (opens in a new window) Festivals. Through cutting edge and creative programming, Cheltenham’s four festivals have provided a platform for debate and commentary from scholars across the world.

Up to twenty successful applicants will have a chance to develop their event ideas with experienced Cheltenham Festival producers and members of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement at a dedicated workshop. Of these, up to six will have the chance to hold their event at either the Jazz or Music Festivals. An initial workshop to be held on 6th January 2015 will focus on these festivals. The selected researchers will benefit from a unique opportunity to work closely with the Cheltenham Festival producers to create interactive and engaging events, invite high profile speakers, where relevant, and ultimately share their research with a public audience. We welcome applications from individual researchers or project teams with one lead applicant, working in all areas of the arts and humanities. The topics of the proposed events should fall within one of the disciplines within the AHRC’s remit, and should fit into the themes of the Festivals.

Closing Date: 1/12/2014

 

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Fellowships for the Future of Manufacturing: Challenges from the Manufacturing Foresight Report

The Manufacturing the Future Theme is looking to establish a number of Fellowships that will act as a response to the Manufacturing Foresight report, focussing on the Manufacturing research opportunities around the key technologies that are likely to, when integrated into future products and networks, collectively facilitate fundamental shifts in how products are designed, made, offered and ultimately used by consumers. Successful Fellowships for the Future of Manufacturing will be expected to not only undertake leading research but also inform the research agenda around the challenges highlighted in the Foresight report, linking with the key activities required to enable this.

These Fellowships are intended to be analogous to the prestigious Dream Fellowship award, enabling talented researchers to take time out from their everyday activities, to give them the freedom to gain new knowledge of novel creative problem solving techniques, explore new radical ideas and develop new ambitious research directions, but in this case concentrating on key research issues for the UK that were identified in the Manufacturing Foresight report

Closing Date: 9/12/2014 at 16.00

 

Innovate UK

Improving food supply chain efficiency

Innovate UK, together with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) are to invest up to £11m in business projects to improve the resource efficiency and resilience of the food and drink supply chain.
The aim of this competition is to help companies develop innovative ways to: reduce the production of waste, use resources such as energy, water and raw materials more efficiently, improve the productivity of food manufacturing and processing operations, improve the resilience of the food supply chain by making better use of resources and reducing environmental stresses on food systems.
Proposals must be collaborative and business-led. We expect to fund mainly industrial research projects in which a business partner will generally attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs). We expect projects to range in size from total costs of £250k to £1m, although we may consider projects outside this range.
The deadline for expressions of interest is  3/12/2014 at 12.00
A webinar briefing for potential applicants will be held on 15/10/2014. 
Economic and Social Research Council

What Works Wellbeing

The interest in wellbeing is growing both nationally and internationally and the UK is regarded as one of the leading countries in this area. International focus has been on how societies, governments, communities and populations measure their progress, economic and social – including the UK’s Legatum Institute’s Commission on Wellbeing and Policy. In November 2010, David Cameron launched a national ‘measuring wellbeing’ programme undertaken by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) driven by public consultation. ONS now publishes regular wellbeing reports and data at a national and local level and has developed a measurement tool for wellbeing comprising 10 domains. A recent All Party Political Group has published a report on translating wellbeing evidence into policy.

Decisions about good public services are made on the basis of strong evidence and what works. The government has established a number of What Works Centres to enable evidence to better inform decision making and ESRC has invested heavily in these. ESRC is now embarking on a joint three year investment with Public Health England, Arts and Humanities Research Council and a number of government departments and other partners to further progress the understanding and application of wellbeing evidence.

Closing Date:  2/12/2014 at 16.00

 

British Academy

British Academy Conferences in 2016

The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, is currently inviting outstanding proposals for our 2016 conference programme. This presents an exceptional opportunity for UK scholars who can demonstrate academic leadership and vision to run a landmark conference featuring leading-edge research as part of the Academy’s events programme. (Lists of recent British Academy Conferences). Any UK-based scholar is eligible to submit a proposal. If successful, you will be the academic convenor of the conference, and the British Academy’s staff will handle the administration of the conference, so that you can focus on ensuring the quality of the scholarship presented is of the highest possible calibre.

We are inviting proposals for conferences to be held in 2016. British Academy conferences:

  • are held at the British Academy’s premises at Carlton House Terrace (in central London close to Westminster and Piccadilly Circus, and easily accessible by train from each of London’s five airports)
  • are ideal for up to 135 participants
  • offer the opportunity to bring together a large number of academics from different subject areas
  • include the possibility that a themed volume of essays arising from the conference might be published in the Proceedings of the British Academy series
The deadline for the submission of proposals (including the references) is 27/2/2015.

 

Wellcome Trust

Research Fellowships

This scheme supports individuals at all stages of their career not in established academic posts, wishing to undertake a period of research. Strong preference is given to applicants with a good prospect of achieving an academic career as a specialist in medical humanities. The maximum duration is three years. The awards are full-time but can be tenable on a part-time basis if a case can be made that personal circumstances require this. Fellowships provide research expenses and a salary, plus appropriate employer’s contributions. Research expenses include travel to libraries and archives or overseas fieldwork, and a set amount for travel to conferences, seminars and other meetings of a scholarly nature.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

 

Wellcome Trust

Four-year PhD Programmes

The Wellcome Trust wishes to provide support for four-year Basic PhD Programmes in academic institutions in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (RoI). Wellcome Trust Four-year PhD Programmes were introduced in 1994 and are noted for the high-quality postgraduate training they provide.

The Trust hopes to continue to support the best graduates in leading academic research environments, where they will receive high-quality, specialised and innovative training that will ensure they can meet future challenges in their chosen field of biomedical or public health research. There are currently 28 recruiting PhD programmesbased at UK and RoI institutions.

Support for each PhD programme will be for a period of five years, with an annual intake of typically not more than five students, reflecting the availability of high-quality training opportunities within the programme.

Preliminary application deadline: 8/12/2014 at 5pm

Full application deadline: 27/4/2015 April 2015  at (5pm)

 

Wellcome Trust

Research Fellowships

This scheme is for individuals not yet in established academic posts, who wish to undertake a period of postdoctoral research. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of research on the social and ethical aspects of biomedicine and healthcare, Research Fellowships may provide postdoctoral researchers with support to enable them to obtain research training, either in a new discipline or in a new aspect of their own field, e.g. a humanities scholar who wishes to be trained in social science.

In such cases, the requested training must form a substantial component of the proposed research and should not normally be available via the standard funding routes, e.g. by learning new skills as a postdoctoral researcher on a project grant. The requested training should also include methodologies and skills that are new to the applicant. Research training provision can include participation in taught courses, and periods spent in other research groups gaining practical, technical or other skills for introduction to the sponsor’s or individual’s own group.

The maximum duration is three years. An award will not normally exceed £250 000, exclusive of any standard Wellcome Trust allowances. The awards are full-time but can, in exceptional circumstances, be tenable on a part-time basis if a case can be made that personal circumstances require this. Fellowships provide a salary, plus appropriate employer’s contributions.

Closing date for preliminary applications: 23/1/2015

Closing date for full applications: 2/4/2015

 

Chist-era

Call 2014 Announcement

CHIST-ERA is looking for transformative and highly multidisciplinary research projects in Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies (ICST). They should explore new ideas with potential for significant scientific and technical impacts in the long term. Each year, CHIST-ERA launches a call for research proposals in two new topics of emergent scientific importance. Between 2010 and 2013 the following topics were supported: Quantum Communication, Autonomic Systems, Knowledge Extraction, Low-power Computing, Intelligent User Interfaces, Adaptive Communication Networks, Adaptive Machines and Distributed Computing. In the Call 2014, two separate topics are addressed, namely:

  • Resilient Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems (RTCPS)
  • Human Language Understanding: Grounding Language Learning (HLU)
Closing Date: 13/1/2015

 

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on ResearchProfessional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

7TH ANNUAL POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE 2015

All BU postgraduate researchers and masters students are invited to submit an Abstract to present their research project or research journey at the 7th Annual Postgraduate Conference on 20th and 21st January 2015. There are 3 categories of presentations – oral, academic poster or photography. We look forward to receiving your Abstract soon – the closing date for entries is Monday 10 November 2014. Visit the Graduate School website for more information on how to submit your Abstract and register for the Conference. Or email: pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk with any questions.

Knowledge Should Not Be Trapped Behind A Paywall – International Open Access Week

(article originally published on http://www.eff.org), 2 October 2014)

Now in its eighth year, Open Access Week is an international event that celebrates the wide-ranging benefits of enabling open access to information and research–as well as the dangerous costs of keeping knowledge locked behind publisher paywalls.

From October 20 to 26, academics, researchers, and curious minds everywhere will be encouraged to learn about the various hurdles to open knowledge and share stories of positive advancements in the effort to make open access the norm in scholarship and research.

Whether you’re looking to learn more, to champion open access policies, or to raise awareness in your community, there are plenty of ways to get involved in Open Access Week. Read on to find out why we fight for open access to knowledge and how to take part in Open Access Week activities.

Why Open Access?

When we say “open access” we are referring to the practice of making scholarly research available online for free upon publication (or soon after). Open access policies should aim to remove barriers and encourage scholarly and educational reuse of research. Copyright restrictions sometimes undermine scientific ideals of openness and collaboration; good open access rules help to bypass traditional copyright limits by encouraging full use of open licensing systems that enable sharing.

Reasons for supporting open access policies abound. From maximizing taxpayer funded research to increasing the exposure and use of publications, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration, and enhancing the overall advancement of scholarship, the need for open access is more important now than ever. As tuition prices continue to rise and Internet adoption is at an all time high, trapping knowledge behind prohibitively expensive paywalls is a disservice to scientists and problem solvers across the world. Progress is stifled.

Research institutions, academics, and the intellectually curious are increasingly embracing the open access model for research worldwide. Open Access Week is about keeping the dream of easy-to-access knowledge alive. And we have a chance to connect this global momentum toward open sharing with the advancement of constructive policy changes on the local level.

This year’s theme is Generation Open. We’ll be focusing on the importance of students and early career researchers embracing open access, and exploring how changes in scholarly publishing affect academics and researchers at different stages of their careers.

What You Can Do

There are all kinds of ways to get involved. We invite you and your community to join us for this exciting week of action. Here’s how:

  • Write a blog post or place an op-ed in your local newspaper or on-campus publication. Find out if your campus has an open access policy and tell your story about why open access is important to you. Let us know if you write something.

  • Share on social media: simply spreading the word is important … and easy! Post your thoughts about open access and share articles and media that EFF will be posting throughout the week. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

  • Host a screening and discussion about the film The Internet’s Own Boy, a powerful documentary that tells the story of activist and innovator Aaron Swartz, who also was a passionate and outspoken advocate for open access. Here is our guide to help you organize a screening of this important film. Be in touch if you decide to organize a viewing.

  • Print and share handy guides to help people in your community get up to speed on why we demand open access to research. There’s one on Diego Gomez’s case and one on the open access movement more broadly.

EFF has long been a leader in the open access movement. The Internet should be a place where we can share ideas and get educated, unimpeded by unfair paywalls. We are thrilled to join forces with dozens of organizations across the world for this year’s Open Access Week to spread message loud and clear: research should be free, available, and open for everyone’s benefit. Generation Open, here we come.

Call for papers – International Conference on Innovation Through Knowledge Transfer 2015

InnovationKT15 will be of interest to all knowledge professionals – those academics, business people, managers and researchers working within innovation, enterprise, knowledge transfer, exchange and sharing. This event is running from 15 to 17 April 2015 at Staffordshire University.  For submission dates please click here for more information.

Featuring world-class speakers, oral presentation sessions and interactive workshops, the InnovationKT 2015 conference will provide an excellent opportunity to publish a paper in journal and book form, and at the same time disseminate, share and discuss the impact of university-business and business-business interactions. Papers on relevant topics are invited to be evaluated for the conference under peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings.

Click here to view past events and find out more.   

 

 

 

 

 

peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings.

 

 

 

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Conference Scope

 

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InnovationKT15 covers the following topics (although this list is not intended to

 

be exhaustive) :

 

 

 

– Case studies of successful university-business

 

– Examples of best practice in respect of innovation and knowledge transfer from

 

practitioners

 

– Innovative innovation and knowledge transfer mechanisms

 

– The outcomes and results of university-business and business-business projects

 

– Management of projects and development of applicable policy

 

 

 

Applicable knowledge transfer mechanisms and paradigms include, but are not

 

limited to:

 

 

 

– The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)

 

product

 

– Spin-out companies

 

– Incubators and entrepreneur schemes

 

– University-industry contracts and consultancy

 

– Licensing of university-originated intellectual property

 

– Other modes of knowledge transfer and technology transfer, e.g. work-based

 

learning projects

 

– The knowledge transfer, knowledge origination and knowledge exchange process

 

 

 

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Invited Sessions

 

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An invited session consists of a presentation session of 6 to 12 or more papers on a

 

specific conference topic, organised as half or full day mini-conference. We invite senior

 

specialists who have an interest in a specific conference topic to take responsibility for

 

an invited session, gathering papers from a range of research expertise around the world.

 

If you would like to arrange an Invited Session please contact: admin@kesinternational.org

 

 

 

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Dates & Deadlines

 

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General Track

 

 

 

Submission of Papers: 19 Jan 2015

 

Notification of Acceptance: 16 Feb 2015

 

Upload of Files for Programme / Proceedings: 16 March 2015

 

 

 

Early Registration Deadline: 1 March 2015

 

 

 

All deadlines are provisional and subject to change.

 

 

 

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Location

 

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The collaboration between Staffordshire University and UK partners includes

 

excellent relationships with local and national companies as well as 17 further education

 

colleges plus charitable organisations such as the Institute for Children, Youth and Mission

 

and Oasis College.

 

 

 

Staffordshire is world renowned for its pottery and there are many beautiful attractions around

 

the area where you can immerse yourself in British culture. Take a tour around various pottery

 

museums, galleries and attractions, maybe visit Stoke Minster and round it off with a nice cup

 

of English tea at Gladstone Tea Room overlooking their famous cobbled courtyard!

 

 

 

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Further information

 

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For general enquiries email us at: contact@innovationkt.org. Please do not reply to

 

this email as the account is not monitored. You can also follow  @IKT_Talk and @KESIntl on

 

Twitter for updates. All rights reserved by KES international.

 

 

 

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If you wish to stop receiving email from us, you can simply remove yourself by visiting:

 

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In case of problems, contact: admin@kesinternational.org