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Horizon 2020: Forthcoming Funding Opportunities for Creative Businesses

Research themes

The Horizon 2020 programme is the major funding opportunity for research and innovation initiatives across Europe, and in 2015 there is nearly 600 million Euros available. If this is an area that interests you, it’s worth bookmarking the European Creative Business Network website .

Save the date!

Creative industries will benefit from some of this funding in the next round of calls published on the 15 October 2014, as the topics have already been announced. Here are some of the highlights for creative businesses:

ICT 19: Technologies for creative industries, social media and convergence
This funding aims to support Research and Innovation Actions, or Support for the development of, new or emerging technologies for digital content creation and to unlock complex information and media and interacting with them.

ICT 20: Technologies for better human learning and teaching
The development of digital technologies for learning are crucial to boosting innovation in education. This call will therefore focus on innovative technologies for learning, on underpinning interoperability standards and on the integration of different components into smart learning environments.

ICT 10: Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation – Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies.
By Collective Awareness Platform, the call basically means website or ‘portal’. They are interested in calls that pioneer crowdsourcing/crowdfunding or other forms of social innovation. They want to fund technological solutions to real world problems and are looking beyond the financial impact of the project towards the difference it makes to society.

More details of all of these calls are in the Draft Work Programme.

What makes a great website? We need your opinion! – Call for volunteers for an on-line website study

The future is arriving and we are becoming ever more dependent on accessing the Internet with over 36 million people in the UK going online on a daily basis. There are quite literally thousands upon thousands of different websites out there, but how many of them do you know and what do you think makes a great website?

Daniel Bradley is a postgraduate researcher, working with Professor Siné McDougall in the Psychology Department, who is looking for volunteers to take part in an online study where you have the chance to have your say. Whether you are a super-surfer or rarely visit the Internet, we would value your opinion.

What’s Involved?

In an online study, which you can do from any computer with an Internet connection, you will be asked to give your opinion about a selection of websites and indicate how familiar they are to you. This should take about 15 to 20 minutes.

Ethical Approval

This study has ethical approval from Bournemouth University.  All data will be held anonymously and no individual will be identifiable from their data.  The data will only be used to generate scientific results and publications.

Find out more

If you would like more information before starting the study please email Daniel Bradley at dbradley@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Alternatively, skip straight to one of the following links where you will get instructions about what to do next.  Please choose the link that applies to you:

If your surname starts with the letter A through to F please click:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visawi1a

If your surname starts with the letter G through to K please click:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visawi1b

If your surname starts with the letter L through to P please click:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visawi1c

If your surname starts with the letter Q to Z please click:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visawi1d

HSC student Jonny Branney’s main PhD findings published –

PG research, Publishing, Research themes

HSC PhD student Jonny Branney and his first supervisor Professor Alan Breen have had a paper published in the open-access online journal Chiropractic & Manual Therapies. It is entitled, “Does inter-vertebral range of motion increase after spinal manipulation? A prospective cohort study.” This is an important question in the field of manual therapy where the mechanisms behind the clinical effects of manual treatment are often poorly understood. This PhD aimed to shed some light on the mechanism of this particular therapy commonly utilised by chiropractors, physiotherapists, osteopaths and some doctors. It is hoped that improving our understanding of the mechanism will ultimately improve the targeting of spinal manipulation to those expected to benefit from it.

Please click on the link if you’d like to read the study:

http://www.chiromt.com/content/22/1/24

And email Jonny if you’d like to find out more!

jbranney@bournemouth.ac.uk

This PhD was funded by a grant from the European Chiropractors’ Union and Jonny is also very grateful to the BU Graduate School for a PGR Development Award and a Santander Mobility Award that allowed him to present his work at international conferences. His supervision team included Professor Jenni Bolton (AECC) and Dr Sarah Hean (HSC).

Reading this week’s policy tea leaves…

 

Monday

Student loan book sale U-turn 

Vince Cable has announced plans to scrap a proposed sale of student loans – worth an estimated £12bn. The reversal could squeeze the number of university places offered to school leavers. The sale was announced originally by the Chancellor with the proceeds funding the early years of the growth in student numbers when the university student cap is lifted in 2015-2016. Now it is unclear how the expansion will be bankrolled with undergraduate recruitment for 2015 to begin in less than two months.  The BIS secretary told the Social Liberal Forum that the government was considering the sale of student loans on the basis that it would reduce government debt. Recent evidence suggests this will no longer be the case.

·  Student loans sell-off abandonment raises tension in cabinet (Guardian)

·  Privatisation of student loan book to be scrapped (Independent)

·  Cable ‘scraps’ sale of student loans (THE)

Tuesday

Student Loans

Lots of coverage about the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee’s report warning that the Student Loans system is at ‘tipping point’ and accuses the government of failing to get accurate forecasts on how much of the loans need to be written off. The committee reckons the sale off of the student loan book would raise approximately £2bn at the moment, not £12bn. Incidentally, Downing Street downplayed Vince Cable’s claims the Liberal Democrats were blocking the privatisation of the plan, saying it was “not aware of any change to the policy”.

·  Student loan system reaches ‘tipping point’, warn MPs (BBC)

·  Student loan system is almost financially unworkable, says MPs (Guardian)

·  Aditya Chakrabortty – Student loans: not even Cameron could privatise the unprivatisable (Guardian)

·  Leader – The Guardian view on collapsing plans to sell off student debt (Guardian)

·  Student loan system ‘needs urgent review’ says MPs (THE)

·  Nearly half of students will not pay back government loans warn MPs (Telegraph)

·  Student loan system ‘at tipping point’ says MPs: call to overhaul ‘fragile’ regime to prevent ‘black hole’ in funding (Daily Mail)

·  Funding for more student places thrown into doubt   (FT)

·  Student loan write-off losses cause alarm (The Times)

·  Billions lost in ‘black hole’ of student loans (Daily Express)

Graduate employment 

A summer report published today by the Association of Graduate Recruiters reveals there is a 17 per cent increase in the overall number of graduate vacancies, when comparing 2014 with the last recruitment season. The survey also shows that graduate starting salaries are set to improve, with the median rising £500 from last year to £27,000.

·  Graduate vacancies and salaries rise (THE)

·  UK graduate jobs ‘recover but posts left unfilled (BBC)

·  Jobs vacancies are rising, but graduates lack the right skills  (The Times)

Wednesday

Access

A report by the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that ethnic minority students are less likely than their white British peers to receive offers from UK universities. The only exceptions were mixed white/Asian and Chinese university candidates, who did not have a significantly lower chance of getting an offer.

‘Fewer university offers’ for minority groups’ (BBC News online) 

Ethnic minority applicants to university ‘less likely to receive offers’ (THE)

Ethnic minority students get fewer university offers, research shows (Guardian)

Student loans sell-off

Further coverage after Graham Parker, from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), told the Treasury Select Committee that it was a “reasonable assumption” that cancelling the student loan book sell-off would cost the Treasury £12 billion over five years and the move would add to public sector debt. It may also jeopardise Mr Osborne’s plan to remove the cap on student numbers which was due to be funded by the proceeds of the loan book sale. 

Scrapping of student loans sale could raise public sector debt   (Guardian)

Axing student loan book sell-off leaves £12bn hole  (The Times)

 

Thursday

University Alliance making the case for urgent need for a more sustainable HE funding system

In the Hepi blog, Prof Steve West, Chair of the University Alliance, responds to HEPI’s new report on ‘Only Connect’: Is there still a higher education sector?,  written by Prof David Weston. Read it here 

The Wonkhe blog was an opportunity to explore the issue in even more depth  Read here. 

Access

There’s considerable coverage following the publication of OFFA’s access agreements for 2015-2016.  

UK universities spending more on outreach and less on bursaries, report shows (Independent)

More universities to charge maximum tuition fees of £9,000 (Telegraph)

Millions spent helping poor students pass (The Times)

Ethnic minorities

Several more pieces on how ethnic minority students are less likely to win a place at university following the publication of research from LSE.  The study looked at 50,000 UCAS applications from 2008.

Universities give fewer places to ethnic minorities – still? (Channel 4 news)

Black And Ethnic Minority Students Far Less Likely To Receive Offers, New Study Reveals (Huffington Post)

Ethnic minority students less likely to win a place at university, finds research (The Upcoming)

 

Friday

Widening Participation

UCAS analysis has shown record numbers of disadvantaged teenagers applied for university allaying fears that higher fees would deter less wealthy candidates. Poorer students apply to university in record numbers (Times)

The recent OFFA report has shown that universities are moving away from bursaries and are diverting money into outreach and employability work. Universities woo poorer students with mentoring not cash (Guardian)

University Funding

A letter calling for government to resist the urge to re-cap student numbers has been published in the Times and the Guardian.

·         It is time to think again about how we are funding higher education and student loans (Times)

·         Sustainable funding for students (Guardian)

Visiting Spanish historian researches PR archives

Since June 30, Professor Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo of the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain has been a visiting scholar at BU, based in the Corporate & Marketing Communications academic group in The Media School.

During a four-week period, she has undertaken detailed research in the archive of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), which was the first major PR association established in Europe in 1955. The IPRA archive was developed by Professor Tom Watson in 2011.

It is an important source of information about PR’s evolution in the immediate post-World War 2 world and the field’s international expansion in the second half of the 20th century.

“Archives like that of IPRA are always difficult to find and provide essential material for PR historians,” said Professor Rodriguez Salcedo. She has also undertaken research at BU’s Library, including its special collection of historic PR books. As a result of her research, she and Professor Watson are exploring future research collaboration on the development of the PR sector in Europe, especially philosophical and practices approaches that evolved separately from the US.

Professor Rodriguez Salcedo also observed Professor Watson’s editorial and reviewing roles in developing a six-book series, ‘National Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations’ which is being published by Palgrave-Macmillan. She will be a contributor to the fifth book of the series, ‘Western Europe Perspectives’, with a chapter on the history of public relations in Spain.

During her stay Professor Rodriguez Salcedo, who is a member of the European Public Relations History Network, attended the 5th International History of Public Relations Conference at BU on July 2-3, at which she delivered a paper on the formation of the first Spanish PR consultancy and chaired a conference session.

Professor Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo discusses the IPRA archive with its founder, Professor Tom Watson

 

NERC announces inaugural Impact Awards

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, NERC is pleased to announce its inaugural Impact Awards.

There are four award categories:

  • Economic Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional economic benefit.
  • Societal Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional social, cultural, public policy or service, health, environmental or quality of life benefits.
  • International Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional economic and/or societal impact outside the UK.
  • Early Career Impact Award
    Recognising an early career researcher who has achieved exceptional economic and/or societal impact within the UK or internationally.

A winner from one of the four categories will be selected to receive the Overall Impact Award, in recognition of the outstanding impact of their research.

The winner of each category will receive £10,000 and the runner-up £5,000, to further the impacts of their research. The Overall Impact Award winner will receive an additional £30,000.

The closing date for applications is 16:00 Wednesday 10 September 2014.

Click here for more information including eligibity and the application process.

Developing web-based interventions at BU

On the 17th July we hosted an Introduction to developing online interventions workshop in the Psychology department at BU. The aim of the workshop was to introduce colleagues to LifeGuide, free open-source software that allows researchers to develop, modify and test behaviour-change interventions (http://lifeguideonline.org). This is part of plans to eventually create BU’s Centre for e-Health, Internet Research and Practice (CHIRP) a multidisciplinary group of researchers in health, computing and behaviour change. The overall aim of CHIRP is to support researchers to create high-quality, high impact digital interventions that will work in practice.

Workshop attendees included staff and PhD students from Nursing, Health Promotion, Psychology and Computing as well as researchers from Dorset Healthcare NHS University Foundation Trust and the University of West of England. Attendees learnt how to use LifeGuide through talks, examples and hands-on experience of using the software. Discussions also led onto future uses of LifeGuide including ideas for collaborative research projects into obesity, exercise motivation in osteoarthritis and projects for computing students to build on the open-source aspects of the software. Overall, it was a successful morning.

The workshop was led by Dr Sarah Williams, psychology lecturer at BU who is using LifeGuide for her MotivATE intervention. MotivATE has been co-developed with the local Eating Disorder Service, the i*eat charity, students at BU and colleagues in HSC, Psychology and Loughborough University. It aims to provide early intervention to people referred to an eating disorder services and motivate them to attend their first appointment. A large multi-site trial of the effectiveness of MotivATE is planned and funding will be sought in January 2015.

The workshop was also facilitated by Dr Leanne Morrison form the University of Southampton and Kathy Walker a third-year student at BU. Dr Morrison has been working on the LifeGuide project at Southampton since its inception 5 years ago and is keen to continue building links with CHIRP. Kathy has been using LifeGuide as part of her role on the research apprenticeship scheme in psychology where she has been instrumental in building the MotivATE intervention. Kathy presented on her experience of using LifeGuide and provided support to attendees as they got a chance to try out the software. Kathy says of the workshop:

“​I feel that the workshop was able to provide an insight for many people and gave them the opportunity to try out a software which could be potentially useful to the attendees. It was really wonderful getting to meet so many different people and engage with them, and present to them my experiences of using Lifeguide. It was a really warm and friendly atmosphere and everyone seemed to enjoy it.”

If you were unable to make the workshop and would like a copy of the slides or would like to get in touch about using LifeGuide or getting involved in CHIRP please get in touch with Sarah Williams at swilliams@bournemouth.ac.uk  Regular CHIRP meetings will be resumed after the summer for all researchers with an interest in the area.

Research Data Management (RDM)

With increased interest from funders and government policy about open access data the recent DCC seminar sponsored by R&KEO about Research Data Management helped explain the data cycle leading to open access.

So what is data? Several definitions exist but in essence anything collected, created, observed and used for your research, e.g. sketches, recordings, social media.

RDM is the process covering the creation and stewardship of materials for use “as long as they retain value”. Well managed and shared data raises research profile and impact, potentially adding to reputation. Clearly we need to maintain careful consideration of sensitive or personal data.

RCUK and many other research funders have an expectation that Data Management Planning (DMP) will be integral to project development and increasingly funders are asking to see your DMP with applications.

The DMP process looks at what data will be created, how it should be managed and includes sharing and presentation considerations. RCUK expect existing data sets to be checked to avoid duplication and Horizon 2020 covers exploitation, access and preservation, see the Research Blog for further information, also DCC offer a multitude of resources including DMP Online which will guide you through creating a DMP step-by-step.

So why share my data? Well the funders’ are asking for this as they see data as a public good and having paid for it they want to maximise their investment (mindful of privacy, security and commerciality interests). Also your data will be safely stored and available when you next require access. Others researchers can scrutinise and enhance the data resource leading to scholarly communication, with suitable citations to you.

Project feedback suggests that collecting data as you progress makes life easier towards the conclusion of the project. Additionally it is worthwhile considering your file naming conventions early on, e.g. name, structure, version. Storage and back up of data is important during the research process and afterwards, you may need the data again and others may have access also. With the latter point to mind some consideration to maintaining data in a repository is sensible, mindful of the economic versus value added conundrum. For example, keeping data available in newer formats to increase data mining in the years ahead. Further advice from DCC can be found here.

Rescheduled: Influences on Consumer Behaviour research cluster ‘Hands-on Information Sharing Session’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the ‘Hands-on Information Sharing Session’ due to be held on Wednesday 10th September 2014 by the Business School’s ‘Influences on Consumer Behaviour’ research cluster has had to be rescheduled until later in the year (original blog post: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/07/23/calling-all-consumer-behaviour-researchers/).  Many apologies for this change.  A new date will be published via the Research Blog in the near future, and the cluster look forward to meeting and sharing research activities with others interested in consumer research at the rescheduled event.

Want to know how you target high impact journals?

Guidance, Info Days, Post-award, Publishing, Research assessment

My Publishing Experience: Prof. Matthew Bennett

Wed 23rd July 12:30-14:00 Russell Cotes Museum, Bournemouth

On Wednesday 23rd July, Prof. Matthew Bennett will be hosting a Writing Academy lunchbyte session at the Russell Cotes Museum.

In this session, Matthew will talk about his personal publishing experience, his approaches to research and writing, how to develop a publication strategy and the challenges of working with colleagues and dealing with both reviewers and editors.  He will talk about all type of publishing from journal articles, to books via edited compilations.  Drawing on personal experience he will also focus on how you target high impact journals.   After the presentation, attendees are invited to stay and discuss the topic with the speaker over lunch.

To book a place on either of these workshops, please email staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you have any questions relating to these sessions then please contact Shelly Anne Stringer

A last chance to attend the Appraisal Workshops this academic year!

A last chance to attend the Appraisal Workshops this academic year!

Setting and Reviewing Academic Appraisal Objectives & Personal and Professional Development Planning for Academic Staff Workshops; are both taking place on Thursday 24th July 2014 from 09:00am, on Lansdowne Campus.

Both of the above workshops are facilitated by: Linda Amor, Organisational and Staff Development Manager and aimed at; All Academic Staff appraisers and appraises.

To book a place and for more information please visit the Staff Development and Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet.

 

 

 

The virtual and the field: enhancing visualisation in archaeology using serious game technologies

Fusion

Forensic Experiemtn Level 1The FIF funded collaborative project between the Creative Technology and Archaeology Frameworks has produced its first output.

 

The aims of the project are to:

  • Initiate collaboration between the Creative Technology and Archaeology and Anthropology academic groups.
  • Enable Games Technology students to perform interdisciplinary projects with Archaeology students (e.g. the creation of virtual 3D environments or 3D artefacts).
  • Provide Archaeology and Anthropology students with 3D research, teaching and learning resources produced with serious game technologies.

 

In the first of a series of projects a Games Technology student has collaborated with a Forensic Archaeology student to produce 3D environments for use in experiments investigating how individuals interpret and respond to features in the environment. We are now looking to participants to perform the experiment. Please email djohn@bournemouth.ac.uk or i7208298@bournemouth.ac.uk if you want to take part in the experiment.

HE in the news last week

Courtesy of University Alliance.

 

Monday

Reshuffle speculation

Speculation is growing ahead of an rumoured government reshuffle, with the PM expected to inform sacked ministers this evening of his decision.  The usual Tuesday morning Cabinet has reportedly been shelved. Universities and Science Minister David Willetts is reported as among those expected to be reshuffled in Paul Waugh’s Room Memo which suggests that the shape of a Cabinet reshuffle is forming with focus on bring in more women and new faces.

“David Willetts’ Cabinet-attending post as Universities Minister could be an option for the Prime Minister to bring up somebody from a lower ministerial rank, with the Telegraph reporting that this could be the route for Liz Truss to become the youngest-ever female Tory Cabinet member. ”

Old pals axe The Sun

David Cameron ‘open to all-women shortlists on eve of reshuffle The Guardian

Old guard fail to jump before they are pushed from cabinet The Times

Cameron’s youthful, woman-friendly reshuffle is a ‘last-minute worry about votes’ says Labour (Independent)

Scottish Independence

The Law Society of Scotland is questioning whether their government had fully researched the planned policy of continuing to charge students from other parts of the UK in the event of a ‘yes’ vote. It warned that such ‘discriminatory fee structures’ were illegal under EU law.

Scottish tuition fees for English students could be illegal under independence, lawyers warn (Telegraph).

University finance

An interesting piece exploring how changes in generating finance to pay for expansion or new campus buildings by issuing bonds could create a new elite set of universities.  Eight English universities have been awarded credit ratings which are awarded on academic reputation, track-record in student recruitment, financial health and leadership. These could be used by governments to allow universities with the strongest rating to launch their own student loan schemes.

Credit where it’s due as universities borrow millions (The Times)

Languages

The APPG on Modern Languages warns the UK is missing out on almost £50bn a year in lost contracts because of poor language skills among the workforce. They warn the study of languages was in ‘deep crisis’ at A-level and languishing at a ‘record low in universities. 44 universities had scrapped language degrees since 2000.

English youths ‘Europe’s worst at languages’: Just 9% of pupils have basic mastery of French compared with 42% elsewhere  (Daily Mail)

University role ‘crucial’ for languages recovery (THE)

 

Tuesday

Reshuffle shenanigans – you have already received these updates.

 

Wednesday

Government reshuffle

Top story for most papers although they do focus on the motivations behind Gove’s departure from the Departure of Education and the appointment of several women to ministerial posts.

Greg Clark universities minister as Willetts steps down (BBC News) – quoted UA.

Steve West, Chairman of University of Alliance, said: “The coming months will be critical in thinking about the long-term sustainability and global positioning of UK higher education.”

Greg Clark appointed universities and science minister (Guardian HE blog)

David Willetts quits as university minister (THE) and Greg Clark takes over from Willetts (THE)

Science sector praises David Willetts (Daily Mail)

Science Minister Greg Clark supports ‘homoeopathy‘ (Huffington Post)

Further coverage in sector magazines including Science, Chemistry World, Laboratory Talk

 

Thursday

Widening Participation

HEFCE/OFFA have published a report today – Outcomes of access agreement, widening participation strategic statement and National Scholarship Programme monitoring for 2012-13’.  The report (available here) focuses on all universities, but Prof Les Ebdon has commented separately on how there has been less progress in boosting the number of poor students attending the most selective universities. This may have influenced coverage to focusing on what the Russell Group is doing to change this (especially in The Times, Telegraph)

Bursaries are bigger but few get them (The Times)

Top universities ‘must do more’ for poor students (Daily Telegraph)

Rise in university spend to attract poorer (BBC News)

Outreach activity ramped up at dawn of £9000 fees (THE)

There is a live chat happening today between 9am and 11am on widening access in UK and Australia on Guardian’s HE Network webpage on

Has the expansion of higher education helped to widen access? (Guardian) which may make interesting reading.

David Willetts

Interviewed on his “reflections” following his resignation as Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts predicts that his successor will need to face down Labour’s policy to reduce fees to £6000.

Few regrets for David Willetts (THE)

 

Friday

Skills gap/Job readiness

Catherine Hobbs, head of engineering at the University of the West of England (UWE), argues that part-time postgraduate study can help ease industry’s skills problem but only if universities prove to businesses the direct benefits of investment.

Universities must prove they can help close the skills gap (The Engineer)

A-level reform 

Russell Group universities want ministers to provide schools with more funding, teacher training and resources to ensure that reformed A-levels are taught properly – and ensure students can take fourth A-levels in crucial subjects. They wrote a letter to Michael Gove before his move.

A-level reform: Top universities want more money for schools (TES)

International Students 

Interesting interactive graphic on the Guardian HE Network page demonstrating which countries get the most overseas students.

International students – where do they go to study?

Writing English as a Foreign Language

On Wednesday 23rd July 2014, 12:30-14:00, taking place at the Russell Cotes Museum, in Bournemouth.

A Writing Academy Lunchbyte session where Prof. Matthew Bennett will talk about his personal publishing experience, his approaches to research and writing, how to develop a publication strategy and the challenges of working with colleagues and dealing with both reviewers and editors.  He will talk about all type of publishing from journal articles, to books via edited compilations.  Drawing on personal experience he will also focus on how you target high impact journals.   After the presentation, attendees are invited to stay and discuss the topic with the speaker over lunch.

Facilitated by: Professor Matthew Bennett

To book on please visit our Staff Development & Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet.