Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Here’s the new CEMP research bulletin, the last of this academic year.CEMP bulletin July August 2014
As always, if you are interested in working with us to respond to any of the funding calls here, or if you have an idea for a project that CEMP could help with, please contact Julian, Richard or one of the CEMP Fellows (Milena Bobeva, Anna Feigenbaum, Richard Wallis, Neal White, Ashley Woodfall).
A Grading and Online Feedback with Turnitin Session is taking place over several dates; Thursday 10th July 2014 11:00-12:00, Monday 14th July 2014 10:00-11:00 & Tuesday 22nd July 2014 all in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham, Library Talbot Campus.
These sessions are aimed at academic staff who are using or considering using Turnitin online submissions and would like to know more about how to mark and provide online feedback using the tools available in Turnitin via a computer or an iPad.
No need to book, just come along on the date and time that suits you best.
For more information please visit the Staff Development and Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet
Ingenious, the Royal Academy of Engineering’s grant scheme for projects that engage the public with engineering and engineering have now opened applications for the next round of the scheme.
They are looking for projects that:
• inspire creative public engagement with engineering
• stimulate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise in innovative ways with wider audiences
• develop engineers’ communication and engagement skills
• create debate between engineers and people of all ages to raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering.
It is important that all Ingenious projects engage the public with engineering whilst also providing engineers with skills and opportunities in public engagement.
They are awarding between £3,000-£30,000 and accept proposals from engineers, universities, science and engineering communicators and engagement professionals, colleges and schools.
If you would like to find out more about the Ingenious grant scheme, please go to: www.raeng.org.uk/ingenious
The deadline for applications is 4pm on 22nd September 2014.
I recently travelled to Brighton for the annual Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Associate Conference. This conference is designed for all KTP Associates with a view to share experiences and celebrate successes.
The conference welcomed circa 50 delegates of both current and past KTP Associates and people like me who wanted to find out more about KTP. The day started with a series of presentations from past and current KTP Associates about their experiences and achievements. The scope of the projects talked about were broad and it was down to former Associate, Jugal Desai to open the conference and talk about his KTP experience and how it changed his life and made him reach his career goal.
Before lunch, 30 KTP Associates were given 2 minutes each to give an overview of their project and invite delegates to view their poster following lunch. This continued into a poster competition where delegates formed part of the judging panel to highlight the top 3 posters in a ballot. BU was represented by one of our KTP Associates, Neil Smiley who is working on a classic KTP with a local security company.
It was great to see the variety of topics supported by KTP and demonstrated the scope of innovation in this country.
The next KTP Associate conference will be held in Glasgow in 2015.
The Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education are hosting their Eleventh Annual Symposium on Tuesday 14 October 2014.
The event will focus on developments and activities around impact in healthcare research and education. It will explore impact from the perspectives of the public, the research funder, the university, the provider, the student and the medical educator.
Speakers include:
This symposium is suitable for primary and secondary doctors, allied healthcare professionals, academics and anyone with an interest in medical research and education. Interested staff from across BU are invited and very welcome.
You can register on Eventbrite here. For more information please contact Audrey Dixon.
Monday
The launch of University Alliance’s HELP UK proposals was picked up in the Conversation last week:
Social Mobility
The persistent focus on getting disadvantaged pupils into ‘top universities’ continues after research looking at the educational trajectories of disadvantaged children by the IFS is published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
The report suggests that “nearly 2,200 fewer poor children are attending elite universities than would be expected if they followed the same educational trajectory throughout secondary school as their better-off peers with similar levels of attainment at age 11.”
International & Immigration
HEPI have today released results of a survey which indicates that 78% of Conservative candidates think international students should be excluded from any target for reducing migration.
Sascha Auerbach, a lecturer in modern British history at the University of Nottingham comments in the Guardian that teaching at US universities is “broad and superficial compared with the UK.”
Teaching & Learning
A report, by scientific bodies including the Academy of Medical Sciences, says the quality of graduates is under threat by universities undervaluing the importance of teaching in academic careers.
Whilst an analysis of previously unpublished surveys of students and reveals that many tutorials and lectures are being taken by postgraduates rather than lecturers and professors.
Tuesday
Widening Participation
The Department of Education has released official date showing that disadvantaged pupils in inner London are more likely to go to university than much better off youngsters outside the capital.
Dr Sarah Lewthwaite, an independent researcher in disability, accessibility and higher education, warns in The Guardian that “cuts to the Disabled Students’ Allowance have repercussions for higher education as a whole, not just students.”
Research
Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice Provost of UCL argues, “for commercialisation to thrive it is vital that the UK invests appropriately in the entire pipeline of development, from early-phase frontier research through to technology development and thereafter commercialisation.”
Staff pay
Peter Scott, Professor of higher education studies at the Institute of Education, complains that “Universities have avoided financial crises by skimping on wages and outsourcing jobs while vice-chancellors’ pay has soared.”
Wednesday
Value for Money
A new survey by Which? Has found that nearly half of 1st and 2nd year students don’t think their degree is worth the money they’ll pay back, although nearly three-quarters say it will get them the career they want. University value for money questioned by students (Which?)
Election Policy
Lord Adonis has asked for a Labour government to set a science and research budget for the entire Parliament, and to give universities a bigger role in driving local growth. Labour should set science budget ‘for full Parliament’ (THE)
Women in STEM
A new study has revealed that women are massively underrepresented in the laboratories of the highest-achieving male biology professors in the US. Prize-winners’ labs ‘least likely to hire women’ (THE)
Careers Services
In a comment piece a 2nd year undergraduate has written about the need for university style careers services to be extended into schools. He also calls on other universities to follow the example of institutions such as Oxford Brookes and offer entrepreneurship focused modules. The ‘real world’ needn’t be so daunting (Telegraph Comment)
Comparison Test
Oxbridge and other UK universities are opposing attempts by the OECD to introduce Pisa-style tests to compare students from HE institutions around the world. Top UK universities oppose global comparison tests, says OECD (FT – Attached)
Thursday
NSS
The a HEFCE study of the NSS has shown that UK students in general are more satisfied with their university experience over the past decade, with overall satisfaction levels having risen by 5 percentage points between 2005 and 2013.
– Student satisfaction ‘is on the rise’, survey shows (BBC)
– Student satisfaction with university education on rise (Guardian)
The study was released alongside a review of the NSS which has recommended adjusting the NSS questions to counter a trend in students giving the same answer to every question. Spike in NSS ‘yea-sayers’ could weaken survey data (THE)
Student Visas
In a comment piece John Gill of THE argues that universities must take responsibility for oversight of international students. Leader: Visa issues at heart of problem (THE)
Fears that London branch campuses run by UK universities could have been targeted by criminals running visa scams have arisen as the Home Office investigation begins. Visa fraudsters ‘preying on’ London branch campuses (THE)
Government Policy
A survey of vice-chancellors has revealed striking levels of anger and frustration with the government and their policies. Vice-chancellors voice frustrations with policies (THE)
Future Graduates
David Sweeney, director for research, innovations and skills at HEFCE, has urged the sector to focus on producing graduates who will engage with society. University still a bastion of social elite, says Hefce official (THE)
Friday
Employment
HESA employment PIs, released earlier in the week, have shown that on average 92% of students were in employment 6 months after graduating. 8% of UK graduates still unemployed six months after finishing university (Independent)
Maths Education
A Nuffield Foundation report has found that changes to GCSE and A-level maths might put students off the subject. Maths changes ‘may put students off’, warns report (BBC)
Kelvin Trevett, Access Dorset citizen journalist (photo: Access Dorset)
Pioneering citizen journalism project, ADTV, involving The Media School’s Einar Thorsen, Dan Jackson and Ann Luce has recently been featured on BBC radio and BBC’s The Politics Show, for a full 8 minutes!
In a nutshell, ADTV is about empowering older people, disabled people and carers to gain a public voice through citizen journalism. Thanks to Fusion funding, we have been able to work with local charity, Access Dorset, who represents these groups locally. They have put together a fantastic video about ADTV on their website.
The project is now in its second phase. From November 2013 to January 2014, Ann Luce – together with BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism student, Nicolas Williams – led a five-week intensive training course for twelve Access Dorset volunteers on foundation principles of video journalism. This gave them the skills and confidence to develop a citizen journalism website alongside their other advice and support functions.
Since then, the volunteers (who now actively self-identify as citizen journalists) have thrown themselves into the project and pursued a range of different stories. They have made videos about living with cancer, anorexia, emergency medical treatment for older people, inaccessible footpaths for disabled people, and overcoming attitudinal barriers to disability to name a few.
One of the most high profile reports has been in support of their campaign to make Pokesdown railway station accessible for disabled people. The funny, playful yet powerful video they made shows Bournemouth resident and Access Dorset citizen journalist, Kelvin Trevett, being repeatedly told there is no way for him to access the station platform in his wheelchair. The film pretends to be shot over several decades, with creative use of a newspaper stand marking various landmarks in the development of disabled people’s rights since 1960.
The video and campaign has made local headlines, gained the support of local politicians, and has even been discussed in Parliament.
We are now working with Access Dorset and their citizen journalists on research interviews and ongoing evaluation of the project. The findings of these will be presented at the IAMCR annual conference in Hyderabad this July, and ECREA annual conference in Lisbon, November. Publications are also lined up to disseminate these research findings in books and journals. Building on the Fusion funded project, we are now pursuing external grants: to ensure the sustainability of the project and advance this model of citizen journalism beyond Dorset, and to explore new ways for marginalised groups to get their voices heard – both within grassroots initiatives and national media.
For further information, please contact:
Einar Thorsen: ethorsen@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dan Jackson: jacksond@bournemouth.ac.uk
Ann Luce: aluce@bournemouth.ac.uk
Brad Pitt’s new movie “Fury” which is soon to be released is based upon a story in the 2nd World War. Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank in this movie.
Some of the scenes of this movie were filmed in The Tank Museum Bovington mainly on two historically significant tanks the Sherman and Tiger 1. These are the same tanks which were subjects of SRDC widely published research by Adil Saeed (lead researcher), Zulfiqar Khan, Mark Hadfield and Richard (supervisors). These tanks can be seen in action in the movie trailer Brad Pitt – FURY in around 2 minutes and 26 seconds.
This movie reflects the importance of our research that “how can we preserve vehicles in a valuable state for the benefit of society for lengths of time that far exceed the basis any normal design intent”. As with the imminent centenaries of the First World War and the passing of the Generation that fought in the Second World War, the conservation of significantly degrading vehicle collections has taken on a new importance.
The Tank Museum at Bovington is arguably one of the largest museums in the world. There is a collection of over 300 historic military vehicles with historic significance. Structural deterioration through corrosion, corrosion fatigue, stress corrosion cracking and mechanical failures are a threat to these vehicles in terms of conservation.
Tiger and Sherman are some of the prominent collections. The only operational Tiger tank in the world is currently at The Tank Museum at Bovington. These artefacts had to be conserved sustainably while operating modestly to enthuse spectators during the annual Tank Fest, other events and engaging new generation in science, technology and maths through the interactive ingenuity of the early 20th century to develop mechanical engineering design solutions and above all conserve them sustainably for the future generations to come.
Team from the Sustainable Design Research Centre with The Tank Museum, academics from Oxbridge, Bath, Cardiff universities and stakeholders from industry met in 2008-09 at the Tank Museum to discuss/brain storm on how to develop a framework. This will allow to formulate sustainable methodology of conserving these vehicles.
These early discussions incubated The Tank Museum match funded (£25K + £3600) PhD programme in “Sustainable Methodology of Conserving Historic Vehicles”. The successful completion of the project provided an understanding of military vehicle conservation from a predominantly technical viewpoint.
The research between BU and The Tank Museum was focused to address increasing problems of corrosion and component failures in The Tank Museum military tanks including the Tiger 1, Sherman, Centaur, King Tiger, Wolverine M10 and BT – R 60, which have significant cultural, heritage and historical value.
This research has delivered immense impact through scientific findings and benefits to the British Heritage. Research led by Dr Adil Saeed with supervisory team Zulfiqar Khan, Mark Hadfield and Richard Smith has delivered a framework of condition monitoring and conservation of ageing military vehicles. This is the first kind of research which has resulted in the development of new conservation facility, installation of relative humidity and temperature monitoring sensors, live-corrosion condition monitoring sensors and the implementation of a control environment.
The findings have also attracted international industrial players in corrosion, structural deterioration and materials’ characterisation, who have been involved through in-kind support such as NASA Materials Testing and Corrosion Control Branch (joint research publication), Systems Technology, PANalytical Ltd, Analatom, PMI Analytical, Carl-Zeiss Cambridge and West-Dean Chichester (in kind support totalling £21Kl) in experimental resources.
The successful delivery of this project produced measurable significant societal and academic impacts. Defence Science and Testing Laboratories (DSTL), Ministry of Defence is match funding (£22.5K) PhD studentship in “In-situ corrosion health monitoring and prediction in military vehicles” (Dr Khan PI).
This work led to collaborative research postdoctoral research programme in “Polarisation and Coating Data research” with Wessex Institute of Technology. This work is led by Dr Adil Saeed as postdoc researcher, Mark Hadfield & Zulfiqar Khan (PI, Co-I) and Professor Carlos A. Brebbia and Dr Robert A Adey from WIT.
A first BU-Tank Museums EU Conference was held at BU on Monday 2nd July 2012. The following participated in a hugely successful conference
Sustainable Design Research Centre has developed advanced labs which will play a significant role in future research. This is a major source of raising BU profile as International leader in Structural Integrity.
Level C Design Methods & Projects (40 credit unit led by Dr Khan) in Design Engineering course benefits from research informed education through their live project (50% of course work) in collaboration with The Tank Museum.
A newly developed level M unit “Structural Integrity” (20 credit led by M Koohgilani) will benefit from this research.
If you would like to know more about this research or SDRC activities in research, education and professional practice please contact
Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)
Director SDRC
Research Councils UK (RCUK) has published its Statement of Expectations for Research Fellowships and Future Research Leaders, which sets out common principles for the support of all Research Council-funded fellowships and future research leaders.
The Research Councils want to ensure that the individuals funded as fellows or future research leaders are equipped and supported to be adaptable and flexible in an increasingly complex global research environment.
The document details what is expected of research organisations, including providing fellows with a named mentor, and the individual researchers, including a commitment to playing an active role in the wider research area through peer review. It also sets out what is expected of the research councils.
If you are interested in applying for an RCUK fellowship then please contact the RKEO team in the first instance.
The International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC) celebrated its fifth birthday on the first day of the 2014 conference on Wednesday, July 2.
The conference chair, Prof Tom Watson, was joined in cutting the celebration cake by Prof Don Wright (BostonUniversity), Associate Professor Meg Lamme (UniversityofAlabama) and Associate Professor Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo (UniversityofNavarra), who were members of an advisory panel consulted on the establishment of the conference in 2009.
The conference, which was opened by the Dean of The Media School, Stephen Jukes, has been attended by delegates from more than 12 countries. Some 33 papers and a Keynote Panel have been presented.
More than 150 papers have been offered by delegates from 30 countries in the past five years. The conference has established the field of PR history and spurred a big growth in journal and book publishing, with two more books launched at the 2014 conference.
Planning is already beginning for the 2015 conference to be held on July 7-8.
(L-R) Prof Don Wright, Prof Tom Watson, Assoc Prof Meg Lamme & Assoc Prof Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo
Further to the previous announcement (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/06/12/upcoming-seminar-from-dr-terry-haines-monash-university-australia/), a title and abstract is now available for the seminar:
Tuesday 8th July, 2pm, TA134, Talbot campus:
Dr Terry Haines, Monash University, Melbourne.
Reversing research and implementation science for practices that are widely provided, dogma heavy and evidence light.
Some widely provided health services have an absence of evidence for effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and/or safety yet persist in clinical practice. It is possible that these practices are wasting valuable resources, but alternately may be valuable assets to service provision. Provision of these services in the context of usual care is a considerable barrier to conducting a conventional trial. Our team has recently developed a novel research approach to conduct a trial for this context[1]. This approach turns a conventional stepped-wedge, cluster randomised controlled trial design on its head. This presentation will outline the strengths and limitations of the stepped-wedge design relative to other experimental designs, describes how this design was turned into a novel disinvestment research design, and then describe its first application in a clinical setting. The clinical example involves the withdrawal of weekend allied health services from acute medical and surgical wards across three hospitals in Australia. The early results of this trial run contrary to current initiatives to create a 7-day a week health service.
Reference
1. Haines T, O’Brien L, McDermott F, Markham D, Mitchell D, Watterson D, Skinner E: A novel research design can aid disinvestment from existing health technologies with uncertain effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and/or safety. J Clin Epidemiol 2014 , 67(2):144-151.
If you are able to attend the seminar, please let Samuel Nyman know by email: snyman@bournemouth.ac.uk
Thank you very much for all of you who attended today’s presentation of the joint project between the University of Aberdeen, Bournemouth University and the University of Stirling. For those who missed the session or who asked for a copy of the slides after the session, please find these included in the BU Research Blog.
The project was funded by National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme (09/127/01). Therefore, I must point out that “views and opinions expressed therein (and here) are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the HTA programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health.”
As with all HTA reports the final report and a ten-page summary are both freely available online, see:
www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health.
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Are you eager to have innovative ideas? Are you keen to find an effective method to solve your research problems? Do you want to speed up your research information collection? Cooperated among eight universities and companies around Europe, we are developing a virtual personal research assistant in our new European Commission funded project “Dr. Inventor – Promoting Scientific Creativity by Utilising Web-based Research Objects”.
Dr Inventor aims to develop an intelligent software system utilising machine-empowered search and computation to bring researchers extended perspectives for scientific innovation. By informing researchers of a broad spectrum of relevant research concepts and approaches, this system will help assess the novelty of research ideas and offer suggestions of new concepts and workflows for new scientific discovery. Dr Inventor will be the first web-based system that supports the exploration of scientific creativity via a computational approach, which will overcome a lot of human limitations.
If you would like our system to work the way you envisage to do, please join our user requirement study by finishing a short survey (taking about 5 minutes) at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/drinventor. You can tell us how you perform your research tasks, what is the most difficult part in your research, what you wish our system to do to help you. Your feedback will guide our design; your suggestions may steer the way how people undertake research in the next few decades.
Jian J Zhang & Xiaosong Yang
National Centre for Computer Animation, The Media School, Bournemouth University
Congratulations to SciTech’s Dr Neil Vaughan who has won the EPSRC’s ICT Pioneers ‘Transforming Society’ award. The accolade, which recognises the most exceptional UK PhD students, was awarded to Neil at a ceremony in Westminster last week for his innovative epidural simulator project.
The simulator uses software to replicate the epidural process, thereby assisting in training for this delicate procedure that is performed over 1000 times each day in the UK.
Neil’s supervisor Dr Venky Dubey said: “This is an exceptional achievement for BU and the collaborating partner Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Neil was up against stiff competition from top universities, including the University of Oxford, University College London and the University of Bath.”
The clinical project was proposed by the senior consultant anaesthetist at Poole Hospital, Professor Michael Wee, who also co-supervised the PhD.
Neil’s work was judged by a panel of technical experts from academia and industry. He triumphed through a rigorous selection process over a six month period, which included a written proposal, video and poster presentation. This culminated in a high-profile research showcase, where finalists pitched their project to representatives from the EPSRC, Hewlett Packard, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), BT and an audience of hundreds.
For more information about the project view the news item on the research webpages.
On Thursday 3rd July, the BU Cyber Security Unit (BUCSU) will be exhibiting at the National Security: Advancing Capabilities to Meet Current and Future Threats conference in London.
The conference will offer delegates an opportunity to investigate the key threats and risks to the UK’s national security. They will also learn of the latest developments in developing the UK’s cyber security and the role technology can play in protecting infrastructure and ensuring business and service continuity.
Facing the issue of developing the UK’s cyber security, there are two important areas which need to be tackled – the shortage of security practitioners and the increasing skills gap between existing knowledge and new cyber threats.
In response to these issues, BUCSU will be launching at the conference its ‘job retention through education plan’. The unit is already working closely with the Police and there is traction to work with other government agencies too; this conference will provide an excellent opportunity to engage with these agencies and UK businesses.
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:
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:
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.
I have recently returned from an amazing opportunity to go to Scotland and attend the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals Research unit (NMAHP-RU) at Stirling University for two days. I landed at 2200 at Edinburgh airport and was lucky enough to have a fantastic taxi driver that acted as tour guide on the 40 minute drive from the airport to Stirling University pointing out Stirling castle, Edinburgh Bridge and the kelpies monument that was lit beautifully against the dark skyline. I was staying at Stirling Management Centre which is onsite at Stirling University.
Day One
My first day on the 17th was a beautifully sunny and hot one. I had a meeting with Dr Helen Cheyne of the NMAHP-RU who is involved in decision making research, with interests and paper’s on interventions in labour, identifying labour and intrapartum care assessment to name but a few. The meeting was informal and involved a lovely walk around campus which is extremely large with its own woodland area and lake; home to beautiful wildlife. We discussed my study as well as the related work she had done in the field followed by a history of Scotland’s maternity care services and current practices around discussing place of birth. Overall a thoroughly thought provoking and useful meeting, Helen also put me in touch with a fellow Phd student with interests in my study topic who I have been in contact with. We then attended the Research Unit which was large and open planned where I met all of her colleagues, some of which I had meetings with.
Following lunch my second meeting was with Dr Julie Cowie a researcher interested in complex interventions, ehealth and mixed methodologies all related to my study. We sat outside and made use of the glorious sunshine whilst discussing my choice of methods and how to choose the most appropriate decision analysis framework. Again I received a lot of helpful advice and information to support my study, making the meeting an extremely valuable one.
Then came the time to give my presentation; the moment that I had been dreading since I knew I was going on this trip. Luckily everyone had been extremely welcoming and kind and my fears had subsided slightly. The presentation had gone as well as I could have hoped and what followed was a great discussion that yielded useful points to consider. Unfortunately technology wasn’t on my side and the link to the decision support tool wouldn’t open ….. Luckily enough my supervisors had warned me from their previous experience that this could happen and I had taken screen shots to input into the presentation so a massive crisis was averted! The high of the presentation ended my first day at the research unit, I returned to the hotel elated. I made use of their fantastic gym facilities and Olympic size swimming pool!
Day two
Yet another beautifully warm and bright day (I joke not) consisted of further meetings. The first with Dr Purva Abhyankar an expert in the field of decision making and the use / implementation of decision aids within health related settings. She has had numerous publications in the decision aid field and has a wealth of knowledge to access, providing me with a list of area’s to read into and books to further my knowledge. Followed by a meeting with Dr Pat Hoddinott who is a former GP and has a particular interest in the design and delivery of complex interventions such as a decision support tool to support health behaviours around childbirth, we discussed at length my chosen methodology with possibilities of adding some new ideas such as the ‘think out loud’ technique. I left the meetings with my head swimming with new knowledge and a new boost of excitement, ideas to research and consider.
Overall
Walking back to the hotel that afternoon I felt a sense of achievement, I had my first travel experience on my own without have a meltdown, I completed my first presentation to peers that new nothing of my study and left with some encouraging comments and a sense that my knowledge level had doubled with all of their expert advice and suggestions. Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking and memorable trip with not a cloud or drop of rain in sight.
I would like to thank the NMAHP-RU and all those that took the time out of their busy schedules to meet with me and again to Santander for the funding to make this trip possible.
BU staff can login below:
Book now – The supporting eating and drinking well with dementia at home event
BU ECRN seed fund success for Dr Sarah Hambidge
BRIAN drop-in surgery – Lansdowne
Postgraduate Research Summer Social – 1 week to go!
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published