/ Full archive

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

The AHRC, working with the ESRC and other RCUK partners, is seeking to appoint a Leadership fellow for a three year period to provide intellectual leadership and strategic advice on the development of the new Conflict Theme within the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme). The Fellowship must start between 01/01/15 and 01/04/15. The deadline for applications is 16:00 on 30/09/14. 

The AHRC are inviting participants to attend a two day workshop  – Mixed Reality Game Design – part of the AHRC-funded Performance and Games Network, and will explore the collaborative space between performing arts and game design. The event is suitable for practitioners and researchers working in performing arts, game developers/designers, and researchers from other disciplines interested in this theme. Funding is available for travel and accommodation. The event takes place on 27th – 28th October 2014. Applications for assistance should be made as soon as possible.

Are you a scientist, technologist, engineer or mathematician who has had a career break of 2 or more years for family, caring or health reasons and wishes to return to research? If so the Daphne Jackson Trust may be able to help with a Fellowship. There are sponsored fellowships with closing dates given on the website or, if you have a host institution in mind, you can apply at any time.

The EPSRC in collaboration with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), supported by Department for Transport (DfT) invite research proposals working towards the following joint research call is to establish a number of cross-disciplinary consortia to conduct research into novel applications for materials to reduce whole life asset costs. It is anticipated that three to four proposals (in the region of £500,000 – 800,000) will be funded. Closing date – 09/10/14 at 16:00.

Funded by the EPSRC and co-ordinated by the University of Sheffield AMRC, High Value Manufacturing Catapult fellowships aim to strengthen relations between academics and manufacturers, and accelerate the transition of research from the laboratory to industry. The fellowships will enable academic staff to spend six-month research visits, spread over one to four years, in one or more of the HVM Catapult centres. The projects must be aligned to work previously funded by EPSRC. Applications should be received by the funder by noon on 29/08/14.

The EPSRC invites Expressions of Interest (EoI) from UK universities to join a consortium to establish an internationally-recognised Institute to lead in research, education and knowledge transfer in the data sciences: The Alan Turing Institute. Those considering an application to this call must register, by 20/08/14, to attend an open meeting on 24/09/14. The closing date for application is 30/10/14.

The EPSRC Resource Allocation for Archer call (Summer 2014) is now open. Top-ups for existing holders are also available. Both calls close on 15/09/14 at 16:00.

EPSRC Programme Grants are a flexible mechanism to provide funding to world-leading research groups to address significant major research challenges. Applicants must discuss their suitability for Programme Grant funding with an identified EPSRC contact before submitting an Outline application. There are panels throughout each academic year.

The EPSRC-funded Programme Grant “Silicon Photonics for Future Systems (SPFS)” includes an innovation fund to enable the inclusion of additional partners to bring additional value to the programme. Initial engagement will be via short research projects that support the aims of the programme. Therefore, proposals from UK‐based academic researchers are invited for projects valued up to £100k to support the research areas of the Programme Grant. Closing date 05/09/14.

Announced on the ESRC website, the Open Research Area in Europe (ORA) partners are pleased to announce that they expect the fourth joint call for proposals to open this autumn. Four countries participating in the fourth ORA call: UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France. Proposals will be accepted for research projects in any area of the social sciences involving researchers from any combination of two or more of the participating countries (excluding bilateral applications from French-German teams). In this call the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) will be collaborating with ORA as an associate partner and applicants to the ORA Joint Call may seek partnerships with Japanese researchers.

The ESRC is inviting Expressions of Interest for the post of Co-ordinator for ESRC’s new Urban Transformations portfolio. The appointment is for 12-18 months in duration, with the successful applicant offering a minimum of 50 to 60 per cent time allocation (FTE) over this period. The EoI should be submitted by 16:00 on 08/09/14 and the successful applicant should take up this post by 01/12/14.

The Joint POST–ESRC postgraduate fellowship scheme provides an opportunity for ESRC-funded postgraduate students to be seconded to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to assist in producing independent, balanced and accessible analysis of public policy issues for Parliamentarians. The start date of the fellowship will be between January and October 2015, to be agreed between the applicant, POST, the applicant’s supervisor and university. Applications should be received by the funder on 03/10/14.

The ESRC are looking to appoint an individual or team to review in detail the opportunities, issues, design considerations and short and long term cost implications of establishing a web-based probability panel  in the UK. A web-based probability panel offers transformative potential for social science research and should reduce data collection costs over time. The ESRC are seeking detailed advice and guidance to inform our decision-making and would expect the appointed individual or team to consult widely with the user community to establish the potential demand, options and design considerations for a UK web-based probability panel. Closing date 16:00 on 11/09/14.

The Leverhulme Trust is offering  Up to £125,000 over up to three years to allow a UK-based researcher to build a new collaborative research project with overseas institutions, to develop international networks. These collaborations enable a Principal Investigator based in the UK to lead a research project where its successful completion is dependent on the participation of relevant overseas institutions. First-stage outline applications can be submitted at any time.

The MRC and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in the Government of India  invite proposals to the UK-India Joint Centre Partnerships call via the Newton Fund.  This initiative seeks to build upon substantial pre-existing collaborations between high quality research teams based in the UK and India. Applications must relate to one of the following – Cancer biology, Translational regenerative medicine in neuroscience or Antimicrobial resistance especially resistance to antibiotics. Closing date 29/09/14 at 16:00.

The MRC Integrative toxicology training partnership (ITTP) PhD studentship scheme is an initiative with the aim of improving and boosting capacity in the toxicological sciences by sponsoring PhD studentships. Details for applications by potential supervisors for the next round of studentships to start Autumn 2015 has a deadline of 30/11/14 and there must be a representative at an Interactive meeting on 22/09/14.

NERC invites proposals to the new research programme Valuing Natural Capital in Low Carbon Energy Pathways (VNC), which will form a challenge for phase 3 of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Proposals should also include links to the new NERC Valuing Nature programme. The overarching aim of this research programme is to understand the implications for natural capital and the provision of ecosystem services of a range of future energy scenarios, including scenarios that are compatible with the UK’s energy policy goals of maintaining energy security, keeping energy affordable and cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by 2050. The closing date for this call is 16:00 on 18/09/14.

NERC and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), with the Technology Strategy Board, are running an SBRI competition with funding of £1.45m to develop new technology solutions for coordinating a suite of marine autonomous systems (MAS) enabling tracking of dynamic features. Recognising their common interests, and the potential for dual-use technology to enable tracking and sampling of dynamic features in the marine environment, the NERC and Dstl, together with the Technology Strategy Board, are seeking innovative solutions from industry. A briefing session will be held for all applicants to provide the opportunity to discuss the requirements of the brief with NOC. It is planned that this will take place on 02/09/14, with registration by 22/08/14 required. The competition will run in two phases with the closing date for phase 1 being 31/10/14. Phase 2 will be advised based on the outcomes from phase 1.
 
NERC, through its Strategic Environmental Science Capital Call, will invest in strategic capital priorities to provide a well-found research and innovation environment that will support existing and future world-class environmental science. Eligible Research Organisations are invited to submit proposals for capital assets (for science, innovation, estates, I.T, facilities), with a minimum value of £100,000 per proposal, but not exceeding a combined total value of £500,000. Proposals should demonstrate how the capital asset would support world class environmental science, aligned with NERC’s remit and strategic priorities, and have potential to stimulate innovation and economic impact. The deadline for submission of proposals is 13:00 on 22/08/14.

The Royal Society’s University Research Fellowships scheme is for outstanding scientists in the UK who are in the early stages of their research career and have the potential to become leaders in their field. The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine and any researcher addressing a direct biomedical research question. Closing date 11/09/14.

Round 9 of the Technology Strategy Board’s Innovation Vouchers is now open! This scheme is designed to help businesses gain the knowledge they need to innovate and grow. They are open to SME businesses looking to obtain expert advice from a knowledge supplier they haven’t worked with before (such as BU or a School / Faculty within BU). Up to £5,000 is available and the deadline for this call is 22/10/14.

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £3.5m in collaborative R&D projects to stimulate new ways of reducing energy consumption in computer systems. They are looking to encourage innovative approaches in hardware and/or software across all computer systems, including the internet of things (IoT) – and embedded systems. The aim of this competition is to accelerate the development of emerging technologies and to strengthen the focus of UK industry on the issue of energy consumption in computer systems. The funder is seeking proposals that show companies working together – particularly large with small – to scale up innovations in this area. Proposals must be collaborative and business-led. A briefing event for potential applicants will be held in London on 3 September 2014. The briefing will also be made available live as a webinar, which will be recorded for viewing subsequently. Consortium-building workshops will also be arranged.  This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 01/09/14. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 15/10/14.  The second stage deadline for invited applications is at noon on 04/12/14. 

The Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, working in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board, are to invest up to £10m in collaborative R&D projects to research further how driverless cars can be integrated into everyday life in the UK.   This call aims to establish the UK as the global hub for the R&D and integration of driverless vehicles and associated technologies into society and to attract future investment by identifying up to three urban test locations for further research, with projects expected to range in size from total eligible costs of £5m to £10m. All projects must be collaborative and business-led. Applicants must register by noon, 24/09/14 with submission by noon, 01/10/14.

Via the Technology Strategy Board, CRACK IT Challenges is a milestone-driven funding competition from The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). There are up to four Challenges this year with a total of seven Sponsors, with funding ranging from £100k to £1m and contracts from 1-3 years. The Challenges will be announced on Wednesday, 6 August. Further information is also available on the CRACK IT website.

The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £6m in an SBRI competition to develop innovative solutions that can help cities plan more successfully for the future. This SBRI competition aims to encourage new ways of achieving better integration of infrastructure and services across a city, by improving understanding of how elements of these systems interact with each other. Up to £6m is available to encourage companies to develop prototypes and to demonstrate how they would link up different city models. Solutions should enable users to interact with multiple models to tackle different city problems. Contracts will be awarded to single suppliers, who may sub-contract to other partners. This competition is open to all organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. The deadline for registration is noon on 07/01/15 and the deadline for applications is noon on 14/01/15.

The Wellcome Trust’s Strategic Awards in Biomedical Science provide flexible forms of support to excellent research groups with outstanding track records in their field. In particular, Strategic Awards support research to address the challenges outlined in the Wellcome Trust’s Strategic Plan for 2010-2020. Proposals which involve interdisciplinary research collaborations of basic scientists and/or clinicians (medical and veterinary) and/or non-biologists (e.g. mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers, social scientists) are particularly encouraged. Applications can be submitted on a rolling basis.

The Wellcome Trust and  National Institutes of Health PhD Studentships scheme provides opportunities for the most promising postgraduate students in Biomedical Sciences to undertake international, collaborative four-year PhD training based in both the UK/Republic of Ireland and USA at the National Institutes of Health campus. The deadline for applications is 03/11/14.

The Wellcome Trust’s People Awards and Society Awards are two related schemes supporting projects that encourage the public to explore biomedical science, its impact on society and culture, its historical roots or the ethical questions that it raises. The schemes are open to a wide range of people, including: mediators, facilitators and practitioners of science communication; science centre/museum staff; artists; educators; film makers; theatre producers; games developers; public participation practitioners; health professionals; and academics in bioscience, social science, bioethics and medical history and humanities. There are deadlines thourghout the year with the next three being:  15/08/14 (17.00),  14/11/14 (17.00) and  20/02/15 (17.00).

The Sir Henry Dale Fellowship brings together the Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust, two of the world’s most prestigious and influential scientific organisations, in their shared commitment to supporting the future leaders of biomedical research. The scheme is for outstanding postdoctoral scientists wishing to build their own UK-based independent research career addressing an important biomedical question. The scheme seeks to support individuals who would have previously applied for a ‘biomedical’ Royal Society University Research Fellowship or a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship hosted by a UK academic organisation. The preliminary deadline is 21/11/14.

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.

Surrogate mother producing faulty goods: commodification of childbirth

Publishing

Over the weekend an interesting story appeared on the BBC news and in the Sunday papers.  The story goes that an Australian couple left a Thai surrogate mother with a baby who is genetically their child.  The reason for this abandonment is that the baby is not perfect.  If that is not bad enough the couple has taken the healthy twin sister of this baby back home to Australia.  Some newspapers reported that the Australian parents knew that the baby had Down’s syndrome from the fourth month of gestation onwards, but that they did not ask until the seventh month  – through the surrogacy agency – for selective abortion of the affected fetus.    The surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, says that the couple were told: (a) that she was carrying twins and (b) that one of the twins had Down’s syndrome as well as heart problems. The surrogate mother refused the intervention on the grounds of her Buddhist beliefs.

Surrogacy is often a commercial transaction e.g. in the USA, although such a ‘business contract’ is not legal in the UK (Ireland 2011) and some parts of Australia as widely reported in the media.  However, in this case the Australian couple had paid Pattaramon Chanbua (a mother of two) to grow and carry the baby for them. She told the BBC that she had engaged in the surrogacy deal to get money to pay for the education of her other children.

This case epitomises several aspects of life that are of interest to sociology: (a) the commodification and commercialization of life (and health); (b) inequality and exploitation; and (c) globalisation.  Commodification refers to the process by which something that was not originally bought and sold becomes a good or service, i.e. a commodity that is for sale.  As we become more modern and with economic progress/the rise of capitalism, more and more parts of our lives become commodified.  Modernisation changes society and its social institutions and organisations. Economic development is based on industrialisation, but is also strongly linked to urbanisation, mass education, occupational specialisation and communication development, which in turn are linked with still broader cultural and social changes (Inglehart 1997).

The second key issue sociologists are interested in is inequality and the link between poverty and poor health.  In a global perspective where we, people in high-income countries, or so-called developed countries exploit people in low-income countries (or Third World, developing countries or under-developed countries).

Thirdly, globalisation refers to the world becoming a smaller place, both in terms of physical travel as well as the way we perceive it (Simkhada & van Teijlingen 2009).  It takes us less time to travel to London, Paris, Kathmandu than it took our parents’ or grandparents’ generation, and at the same time the information about a disaster or a  human tragedy story such as this one in Thailand reaches us more or less instantaneously.  At the same time, modernisation and globalisation, particularly in many low-income societies, are contributing to rapid socio-cultural changes.

Surrogacy as commodification

Surrogacy is the commodification of a couple having a baby themselves.  Other social solutions from the past to the problem of not being able to conceive include: (a) having more than one wife, a solution for men in a patriarchal society; (b) for women sleeping with their husband’s brother, to increase the likelihood that the baby ‘looks like’ the husband; and (c) adopting someone else’s child.

We must remember that aspects of maternity care have always been commodified.  Rich British families in the nineteenth century would have been paying a wet nurse to breastfeed their babies and a nanny to look after their children whilst instant formula baby milk bought from a shop has been replacing breastmilk supplied by the baby’s mother for nearly a century.

We don’t think surrogacy is the interesting issue here, we should ask ourselves the more basic question ‘What makes us think that every birth and every baby is going to be perfect or even okay?’

One explanation is, of course, that we have seen a rapid decline in the number and the proportion of babies dying in high-income countries such as the UK over the past century and a half.  Women having better nutrition, fewer children, having one’s first child later (but not too much later), better sanitation, and improved obstetric care have all contributed to making childbirth safer now for both mother and baby than ever before in the history of humanity.   However, these changes have also affected our ways of thinking about childbirth (Mackenzie Bryers & van Teijlingen 2010).

Social scientists recognise a social model and a medical model of childbirth (van Teijlingen 2005; van Teijlingen & Ireland 2013).  The former sees childbirth as a physiological event in women’s lives.  Pregnant women need psycho-social support, but not necessarily high-technology interventions by doctors.    The medical model stresses that childbirth can be pathological, i.e. every pregnant woman is potentially at risk.  The medical model argues that every birth needs to be in hospital with high-technology screening equipment supervised by expert obstetricians.  In other words, pregnancy and childbirth are only safe in retrospect.  In terms of social changes, we have moved from a more social model to a more medical model in a society which is more risk averse.

 

 

Edwin van Teijlingen1 & Jillian Ireland2

  1. Professor of Reproductive Health Research, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University.
  2. Visiting Faculty, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University; Midwife & Supervisor of Midwives, RCM learning Rep. Poole NHS Hospitals Trust.

 

 

References:

Inglehart R. (1997). Modernisation and post modernisation: Cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Ireland, J. (2011) Reflections on surrogacy-using the Taylor model to understand and manage the emotions in clinical practice, Essentially Midirs, 2(9): 17-21.

Ireland, J., van Teijlingen, E. (2013) Normal birth: social-medical model, The Practising Midwife 16(11): 17-20.

MacKenzie Bryers, H., van Teijlingen, E. (2010) Risk, Theory, Social & Medical Models: a critical analysis of the concept of risk in maternity care, Midwifery 26(5): 488-496.

Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E. (2009) Health: a global perspective, In: Alder, B. et al. (Eds.) Psychology & Sociology Applied to Medicine (3rd edn.), Edinburgh: Elsevier: 158-159.

Teijlingen van, E. (2005) A critical analysis of the medical model as used in the study of pregnancy and childbirth, Sociological Research Online, 10(2) Web address: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/2/teijlingen.html

 

CfE Welcomes a New Entrepreneur in Residence

The BU Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to welcome Arabella Lewis-Smith to our cohort of Entrepreneurs in Residence.

Jointly founding the Salad graphic design and digital consultancy in 2001 – aged 26 and with a background in fashion – Bella is living proof that, starting with just passion and a creative spark, anything is possible. The classic entrepreneurial success story, Salad has grown from humble beginnings to the award-winning agency it is today, with a team of 13 and working with the likes of Hall & Woodhouse, Olives et Al, Salomon and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Alongside Salad, Bella was instrumental in the launch in 2007 of another venture, Pasture Naturals – which has since shown significant growth and established itself in the luxury washroom product market.

That both businesses have flourished despite a lack of direct experience of either sector speaks volumes for the power of intuition, enthusiasm and sheer hard graft. Above all, though, Bella is convinced that the most important ingredient is people, “I love what I do… the secret has been finding – and putting faith in – lovely, talented people who share that passion. In the early years of Salad I tried so hard to be corporate, slick, polished…. basically, someone I’m not. When I relaxed and started simply being me everything just clicked.”

Whilst for Bella the commercial objective is success – it will never be success at any cost. As an agency, Salad has never espoused a late night working culture – and Bella’s firm in her belief that, in order to do their jobs to the best of their ability, people need to be happy, to be treated fairly… and to have fun.

It’s a message with which Bella hopes to inspire others – and a key reason why we’re so excited she has accepted our invitation to participate in Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme.

For more information about Salad follow www.saladcreative.com To see the profiles of all our Entrepreneurs in Residence please click on www.bucfe.com/entrepreneurs/

This week’s Policy Summary

Monday

University funding/philanthropy 

Universities targeted more than nine million of their former students with cold calls and spam emails over the past year as they increasingly adopt US-style tactics to raise funds.

Universities resort to cold calling ex-students (Independent)

Interesting piece in the FT (Money) on Saturday – How to…invest in university knowhow  It looks at a number of ways to invest including Buying into commercialisation specialists, choosing a fund and Venture capital trusts and enterprise investment schemes.

 

Tuesday

Student loan book

David Willetts has written a comment piece for the FT saying that we should give universities the opportunity to buy the debt that their graduates owe. To do so would be to give the universities a direct financial interest in ensuring their graduates secure well-paid jobs that enable them to pay back more of their debt sooner.  He was also interviewed on Newsnight last night with his comments (including that the policy is being considered by ministers and officials)

Let universities buy debt, says David Willetts, (FT)

COMMENT: David Willetts – Sell the student loan book – and let the academy buy, (FT)

Let universities underwrite student loans to reduce burden on taxpayer (Guardian)

Student debt should be ‘bought’ by universities, say ministers (Telegraph)

Student loan change ‘will put jobs in focus,’ says Willetts (BBC Newsnight – 28 July)

Scottish Independence 

Greg Clark has used one of his first speeches as Universities and Science Minister to warn Scottish researchers of the disadvantages of leaving the UK. He said that a vote for independence in September “is a vote to leave the UK’s institutions, such as the research councils”.

Greg Clark issues warning on Scottish independence (THE)

 

Wednesday

Data published on demand and supply in higher education subject areas

HEFCE has published a large amount of interactive data on the current and future supply of graduates and postgraduates in all subjects. For individual subject areas the data show:

  • numbers studying at A level
  • numbers accepted to, and studying in, higher education at undergraduate level
  • numbers studying at postgraduate levels.

Each subject area can be reviewed individually, which means the recent and potential flow of graduates in different subject areas can be considered. To read this item in full visit: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2014/news87870.html

 

Thursday

More students are staying on after their first year at university

The percentage of full-time students remaining in higher education after their first year is at an all-time high according to HEFCE figures published today. Low non-continuation rates have been a consistent feature of English higher education since the mid-1990s. The latest information shows that retention rates have improved, even though numbers entering higher education have increased and there are more students going to university from disadvantaged backgrounds. Successful participation for all students in higher education is critical to social mobility. While the overall figures are encouraging, the findings for 2011-12 reveal very different rates between particular groups:

  • Gender Women were less likely to leave HE during their first year than men: 5.9 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively in 2011-12. But men and women transferred to a different institution at similar rates: 2.1 per cent and 2.0 per cent respectively.
  • Ethnicity Black entrants had the highest rate of non-continuation of 9.4 per cent in 2011-12, and Chinese entrants had the lowest of 5.2 per cent in 2011-12.
  • School A higher percentage of state-school entrants were no longer in HE after year one than entrants from independent school: 6.5 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent in 2011-12.
  • Age Mature entrants were more likely to have left HE one year after entry. In 2011-12, 10.4 per cent of mature entrants left after one year compared with 5.7 per cent for young entrants.
  • Subject Computer science had the highest percentage of entrants no longer in HE in 2011-12 compared with other subjects at 11 per cent in 2011-12. Medicine and dentistry had the lowest rate at 1.9 per cent in 2011-12.
  • Disability Non-disabled entrants were less likely to remain in HE at the end of their first year, with 7.8 per cent not continuing in 2011-12, compared to disabled entrants at 6.2 per cent in 2011-12.
  • Social background Entrants from areas with low participation in HE were more likely than entrants in high participation areas to no longer be in HE at the end of year one: this is the case for both young and mature age groups.
  • Location London and the North West region had the highest percentage no longer in HE, while the South West had the lowest: in 2011-12 the percentages were 9.0, 7.7 and 5.3 per cent respectively. London had the highest percentage of entrants transferring, while the North East had the lowest.

To read this item in full visit: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2014/news87871.html

 

Friday

No specific update, but there are two current Government inquiries that might be of interest:

  1. All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration inquiry into the impact of the closure of the Post Study Work (PSW) visa route.
  2. Media, Culture and Sport Select Committee inquiry into Tourism – further information available here.

 

Research Professional – all you need to know

Funding opportunities

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.

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

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

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

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

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

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

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

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

26 August 2014

23 September 2014

28 October 2014

25 November 2014

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

NIHR funds research into community hospitals in England and internationally

Awarded & submitted bids

A research team comprising RAND Europe and Bournemouth University have been awarded a research grant from NIHR to study Community Hospitals. Community Hospitals form an integral part of the NHS in the UK, this study looks at their distinct contribution to patient care. Community Hospitals come in all sorts of shapes, and can be located in rural parts of the country as well as in inner-city areas.  In the UK community hospitals differ in the nature and scope of services on offer; some provide maternity care, others (also) A&E services or day-surgery or care for the elderly.  There are a range of different models of ownership and management or the level of integration with other services.

The study will also explore what comparable models of community hospitals exist in other countries high-income countries, and what the NHS can learn from it.  Community hospitals may offer advantages for selected patients over larger hospitals, but unless we produce the research evidence we would not be able to tell which types of patients would particularly benefit.  Community hospitals have a long tradition of providing more integrated care, perhaps something we can learn from to improve other hospital services and hospitals.

This new study builds on the systematic review of community hospitals Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (HSC) undertook with his colleagues in Scotland about a decade ago.1

For further details: http://www.rand.org/randeurope/research/projects/community-hospitals.html

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health

 

Reference:

  1. Heaney D, Black C, O’Donnell CA, Stark C, van Teijlingen E (2006) Community Hospitals – The place of local service provision in a Modernising NHS: An Integrative Thematic Literature Review BMC Public Health, 6(309).  Web address: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/6/309

Congratulations to Dawn Morley

PG research, Research assessment

Congratulations to Dawn Morley, senior lecturer in HSC, who is taking on leadership of the Post Graduate Certificate in Education Practice with immediate effect from Linda Byles, as she is leaving BU shortly. Many of you will know that Dawn is currently CEL theme leader for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity and is looking forward to this new role, which will be for semester one at this point. I’m sure you will all look forward to working with Dawn in this new capacity.

Thanks.

Gail

Professor B. Gail Thomas

Dean of Health and Social Care & Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning

Bournemouth University

Supporting Breastfeeding: it takes a whole community

In collaboration with the Anglo European Chiropractic College (AECC), the School of Health and Social Care hosted a conference on Saturday 12 July to raise awareness of the joint chiropractic, midwifery newborn feeding clinic. The conference was able to take place due to the successful Centre for Excellence in Learning Fusion Funding bid submitted by the project team, Dr Susan Way, Alison Taylor and Dr Joyce Miller. The day was attended by health care professionals from across the locality as well as student midwives, chiropractic students and members of the public who are passionate about supporting mothers to breastfeed successfully. The day started with an excellent presentation from the key note speaker Dr Margot Sunderland, Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health London and author of the world renowned book ‘What every parent needs to know’. Dr Sunderland tested our assumptions about the neuroscience and psychology of baby bonding.

Dr Joyce Miller, Senior Clinical Tutor, Chiropractic Paediatrics and Alison Taylor, Senior Lecturer Midwifery then shared with the audience the chiropractic and midwifery perspective of the innovative approach to supporting the breastfeeding mother / infant pair through the newborn clinic run at AECC. The talk was ably support by two students recounting their experience of being involved in the clinic and the unique learning opportunities it has afforded them to work in partnership with women in a real time practice environment. The interprofessional environment also offers an invaluable opportunity to work alongside different health professionals who would not normally come together.

Alison presented the final talk entitled, ‘letting off steam: video diaries to share breastfeeding experiences’, which was based on the continuing analysis of her doctoral data. This was warmly received and generated a number of questions requiring health professionals to reflect on and challenge their current practice.

The final session of the day was a workshop in the style of a World Café (www.theworldcafe.com) asking the audience to come together in smaller groups to explore a number of questions that could enable a community to support women to successfully breastfeed. By listening together, debating questions that mattered and connecting diverse perspective, the workshop generated much energy, noise, laughter and understanding of each other’s role.

Feedback from the day included:

“More than exceeded my expectations- such a wonderful buzz of enthusiasm, so good to be with such passionate people from different specialities lots of new information. Loved workshop” and “Really enjoyed the day. Excellent presentations and lots of interesting discussions. Impressed with the students giving presentations and facilitating”.

An excellent day was had by all and there was much confidence from the organisers that the newborn clinic will meet the needs of women and continue to be a successful enterprise.

For further information about the clinic please contact sueway@bournemouth.ac.uk or ataylor@bournemouth.ac.uk

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.