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Free event on ICT in Horizon 2020!

EU

Any information at this early stage as to what is coming up in Horizon 2020 is very useful and any events where you can meet with others in your field to build relationships and potential collaborations is invaluable. You can combine both of these by attending an ICT in Horizon 2020 half day event in Bristol on October 7th.

In partnership with the ICT Knowledge Transfer Network, the ICT National Contact Point and Deloitte UK, the  completely free information event will provide an introduction and update on funding support for R&D in the ICT sector under Horizon 2020.  You will to receive an overview of the proposed ICT Work Programme for 2014 and hear from speakers with extensive experience in EU funding participation so this looks to be a super event! You can find out more and book your place by clicking here.

Find out more about the Ageing, Society and Dementia research theme

Research themes

The 2013/14 academic year sees the launch of a new BU research theme, Ageing, Society and Dementia.  This new theme brings together the ageing component of the previous Health, Well-Being and Ageing theme with the body of work that has been emerging from the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute. This new theme is not just a result of internal activity and interest in the subject but reflects the external policy drive, nationally and internationally, to respond appropriately to the ever increasing numbers of people who will be affected by dementia worldwide. Thus, this new theme is a direct response to one of society’s big challenges – an ageing demographic and a shrinking pool of family members and paid workers who will be available to support this population.

To give a very brief overview of the considerable activity in the 2012/13 academic year in the area of dementia is challenging, mainly as the cross-school and inter-disciplinary Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) team  have secured 25 externally funded projects since its launch in May 2012, as well as several internal awards for projects via BUs Fusion Investment Fund and 6 dementia PhD studentships. All BUDI’s work  falls under five sub-themes of Service Improvement; Dementia Friendly Environments; Dementia Friendly Leisure; Education and Leadership; and Public Awareness and Knowledge Translation. One of the key areas of public awareness raising activity was featured at the Festival of Learning via an art exhibition collating 600 stories from people with dementia and the general public about their experiences and perspectives on dementia.  We were lucky enough to secure the support for this event from one of the Alzheimer Societies ambassadors, Angela Rippon.

Improving public awareness about dementia is a challenge, and at BU our unique team, many of whom have approached the study of dementia for the first time in the last few months and who bring alternative ideas and approaches to the table, is key to our future success. We are working in partnership with EU colleagues via ERASMUS MUNDUS funding to develop a new Masters programme ‘Innovations in Dementia’; we have multiple ongoing projects to see through to a successful completion, and many planned events and several new doctoral students and researchers joining the team in the next few months. However our key challenge for the next academic year is to secure high quality research grants and other income streams to ensure we continue our fused approach of education, research and knowledge exchange/practice development to enable this theme to flourish from its successful but very small beginnings.

Prof Anthea Innes

School of Health and Social Care

 

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    Find out more about the Technology and Design research theme

    Research themes, Uncategorized

    Renewable Technology cross-School events were held during last academic year (January 2013 and Feb 2013), these were well attended. Presentations were led by academics and Local Government Representatives including from Poole Borough Council. Additional meetings took place in the area of medical engineering in collaboration with local Health Trusts with excellent attendance cross school and the medical professions. Internal cross school meetings were also organised in the area of creative design and design business. During BU’s Festival of Learning a number of public engagement events were held in June 2013. These events provided a networking opportunity for public engagement, local/regional businesses, government, community and local council representatives, academics and researchers. This included a “question time” activity, one day course in sustainable design and “let’s take pride in design and engineering”  In addition the theme exhibited with cross-school academics at the GovToday Carbon Reduction 2012 event in November 2012 at London and delivered a master class. Attendees included representatives from relevant government departments, agencies and other public sector organisations.

    Future plans include international networking and extending our public engagement activities at the next BU Festival in 2014. In addition we will develop initiatives around the computing/engineering interface. This will include autonomous systems, robotics and intelligent manufacturing. 

     

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      Thinking of applying for the British Academy Small Grants scheme…?

      BU research

      The British Academy Small Grants call was announced on September 4 and has a closing date of October 16. Our academics are always attracted to this call, but our success rate is not good; in the last round of calls BU submitted seven and none were funded.

      With this in mind we want to encourage you to use the RPRS to help improve your submission (the deadline to get this to me would be next week) or if you are interested in making an application to this call, to utilise all of our wonderful grant craftsmanship resources (such as the Grants Academy and our training sessions) and the RPRS to get your application perfected for the next round of calls in April 2014.

      If you do want to submit to this round, a gentle reminder that as this is requires Institutional Approval, the final deadline to submit to R&KEO is October 10th.

      PGR Development Fund 2013/14 – REMINDER

      PG research

      Don’t forget that the PGR Development Fund is now open for applications

      Applications will be considered at two points during 2013/14 and the deadline for the first round will be 17:00 on Monday 30th September 2013.

      The PGR Development Fund is open to BU postgraduate researchers (PGRs) irrespective of the mode of study (full-time/part-time) or funding status (BU studentships/externally funded/self-funded/ VC PhD Scholarship).

      Individual awards will provide financial support of normally up to £1,000 for research activities related to an individual PGR’s research project or personal development.

      Examples of research activities covered by the Scheme include:

      • Conferences (to present – either poster or oral and you must provide evidence that you have submitted either a poster or oral abstract for consideration);
      • Research development e.g. attending external training events specific to your research project;
      • Personal development e.g. attending external personal development training events;
      • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants;
      • Attendance at external networking events leading to advance of the research;
      • Meetings or networking events linking to publications or dissemination of research.

      You should also map the proposed activity onto the relevant sub-domains of the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

      Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities A1 – Knowledge base A2 – Cognitive abilities A3 – Creativity
      Personal Effectiveness B1 – Personal qualities B2 – Self-management B3 – Professional & career development
      Research Governance C1 – Professional conduct C2 – Research management C3 – Finance, funding & resources
      Engagement, Influence & Impact D1 – Working with others D2 – Communication & dissemination D3 – Engagement & impact

      Awards will only cover direct costs including travel, subsistence, training or development costs and all applications will need to include a precise breakdown of costs.  Applications should be supported by your Supervisory Team and the relevant Deputy Dean (Research & Enterprise) of your Academic School.  This year the Graduate School is keen to assist as many PGRs as possible and due to the competition for funding, will favour applications that can demonstrate good ‘value for money‘.

      PGRs wishing to apply must submit a completed Application Form and email Graduate School Funding (gsfunding@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 17:00 hrs – Monday 30th September 2013.

      Applications to the Scheme will be reviewed independently and all decisions on funding will be made by the Graduate School.

      For further information please read the PGR Development Scheme Policy

      Fusion Investment Fund: A Cooperative Journey in China

      Fusion

      In the early August 2013, I was supported to visit Universities in China by a  successful fusion SMN bid application. The first objective of this trip is to develop a collaboration with a famous China university in Chongqing, i.e.,  Chongqing University, the top 5% universities in China, located in Chongqing, the biggest city in China with a population of 38 million.The second aim is to visit and cooperate with some senior researchers in China, in the area of distributed systems and information fusion.

      In Chongqing University (CQU), I provided a seminar on distributed systems, and also  showcased the research in DEC, as well as advertising our MSc programme (MSc in Applied Data Analytics), Research Master programme to attract students in CQU. Also, I met the associate Dean of the college of compute science in CQU, discussing about possible collaborations between DEC and this college, including staff/student exchange, joint PhD co-supervision, visiting scholarship, etc. We also discussed our concerns on undergraduate student degree programme. The associate Dean introduced the their advantage on big data storage and mining, which are useful for research in the DEC computing school.

      During this journey, I’ve also visited senior researchers in other universities. I had discussed researches on uncertainty reasoning, event reasoning and their applications with researchers from Peking University and Renmin University (both are top universities in China, located in Beijing), and they had expressed their interest in collaborations for possible funding opportunities.

      In Xi’Nan University (in the 211 list), which is also located in Chongqing, I visited a key laboratory and met the chief, Prof. Yong Deng and his colleagues and students. We talked about our research proposals and possible future collaborations. I had also recommended BU’s projects to the students and they had showed interest.

      In the future, I will advance the collaborations with these universities /senior researchers for educational and academic involvements. For the educational part, I will work with BU’s international development team and the DEC school to promote BU’s UG and PG courses. For the academic part, I will work with these researchers, trying to work with possible funding applications and joint papers.

      BU is open to international cooperation, and any staff in BU should have an international perspective.   And indeed, the world is full of chance, for whoever prepared. I really appreciate the FUSION schema that helps BU staff to go outside and attract international collaborations.

       

      New Term, New Research Themes!

      News from the PVC, Research themes

      I posted earlier in the summer to let you know of the changes to the research themes (Looking to the Horizons).  We are about to launch them on the world so I thought it would be worth saying a few more words about them.  The themes were used to categorise events that ran as part of the Festival of Learning in June and the themes icons also formed part of the design and branding of the Festival.  You may also have noticed that the themes have been used in the new Postgraduate Prospectus and they will be used to structure the revised research pages on the web; yes, finally we are getting some revised pages after several false starts!  The revised pages are due to be launched in the autumn to tidy things up in time for our REF submission which is submitted in November.  We are also deep in planning for next year’s Festival of Learning and hope that each theme will showcase their work through a series of engaging events.

      On Tuesday to Friday this week there will be an update each day from two of the Research Themes detailing activities that have taken place within the themes over the past twelve months and what the theme aims to do in future.

      The Research Themes part of the Blog has now been redesigned with the new themes (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/research-themes/) and I encourage you to take a look.  If you’re not already a member of one or more of the themes then you can sign up using the form at the bottom of this post.

      It would be a great help if you could let me know of a few choice examples of projects under each theme; things that you would like me to use while promoting the themes in the coming weeks.  Just drop me a line with the project and a short paragraph, it would be a great help!

       

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        MeCCSA Annual Conference, Jan 2014: Final call for papers and registration open

        BU research

         

        In January 2014 The Media School at BU is hosting the MeCCSA Annual Conference. MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education.

         

        We have two announcements!

         

        1. The deadline for abstracts is almost upon us. Colleagues must submit abstracts by 16 September 2014. See the full call for papers for more info.

        2. For those who are either uber-confident of abstract acceptance, or just uber-keen to attend, registration is now open via the conference website.

         

        We look forward to seeing you there!

        See the new ‘Expressions of interest’ feature in action

        Guidance, Research news

        Research Professional logoFollowing on from my blog post this week, Research Professional will be giving an online demonstation of their new ‘Expressions of interest’ functionality and how it can benefit you.

        This will take place on Wednesday 11th September at 11.30 AM BST (UK). The session is open to anyone at a subscribing institution (this includes BU), and you can register at the link below:

        https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/481929816

        Expressions of interest allow users to register their interest in a funding opportunity on the site, either to make research staff aware of their intention to apply, or to advertise their interest to potential internal collaborators.

        Bangkok conference plans progressing well

        Fusion, Uncategorized

        Planning for the 1st International Corporate and Marketing Communication in Asia Conference to be held in Bangkok on November 18-19 is progressing well, reports Prof Tom Watson.

        He has just returned from meeting his co-organisers Assoc Prof Jirayudh Sinthuphan and Assoc Prof Saravudh Anantachart of Chulalongkorn University.

        The conference, organised in collaboration by Chula’s Faculty of Communication Arts and BU’s Media School, has attracted interest from across Asia and the Middle East. BU’s involvement is supported by FIF.

        The international review panel has chosen 30 abstracts from ten countries with a broad range of topics and approaches.

        “At our meeting in Bangkok, the conference schedule was finalised and other arrangements confirmed. The facilities at Chula are very good and enable us to run parallel streams of papers on both days”, said Prof Watson. “We are really pleased with the response which is far more positive than expected. Already almost all speakers are confirmed to attend and registered.”

        The audience will also include Thai and regional academics and representatives of the national advertising, marketing communications and public relations sectors. The conference schedule will be published shortly on the conference website: http://cuprimcconference.net/

        Tom Watson (l), Saravudh Anantachart (c) and Jirayudh Sinthuphan (r)

         

        Conference venue at Chulalongkorn University

        Advanced Notice! 2014 PhD Studentship Competition

        BU research, PG research

        At the end of September the Graduate School will be launching the 2014 PhD Studentship Competition. The Competition will open for project proposals (from Academics) seeking funding for projects to start in September 2014, as part of the Fusion Investment Fund.

        This year there will be approximately 50 studentships available across two parallel strands

        1. Matched Funded Projects
        2. Fully Funded

        There will be two rounds for proposals with the first round launching on Monday 30 September 2013 which will close on Monday 6th January 2014.  In the event that not all studentships are allocated in the first round, a second round will be run subsequently for projects starting in January 2015.

        To assist academics, a one day workshop will be organised, by Staff Development, to cover topics such as how to target and develop relationships with external organisations; networking and project costings etc.  This workshop will take place in October and further details will be available when the Competition is launched.

        Further details about the 2014 PhD Studentship Competition, including the policy document and project proposal forms, will be available when the competition is launched on the 30th September.

         

        Dr Fiona Knight
        Academic Manager
        The Graduate School

         

         

        Bournemouth Research Chronicle

        BU research, R & KE Operations, Research news

        Just under a year ago we published the second edition of the Bournemouth Research Chronicle (BRC). It went to print after the start of my maternity leave, meaning I got out of stuffing envelopes and posting hundreds of copies!

        It was definitely worth my colleagues’ efforts though. Academic peers, research partners, potential business collaborators and journalists were among the recipients and the feedback was really positive.

        Front cover of Bournemouth Research Chronicle 2012The BRC is a glossy magazine highlighting a range of BU research projects, presented within our eight societal themes. We’ve just begun preparations for the next edition, which will focus specifically on some of the fantastic impact-led work being carried out across BU.

        Where work is at, what we call the ‘interim impact’ stage, the right effort and energy can propel it towards phenomenal impact in the future. The BRC is just the sort of vehicle to help achieve that. Featured research could land on the doorstep of a business eager to apply your findings, or in the inbox of an influential opinion leader or policy maker in your field. That’s why communications activity is such an important part of the life cycle of a research project. Often it is the bridge between the research and societal impact.

        So please tell us about your impact-led projects. There is some space left in the next edition of the BRC, as well as numerous other communications opportunities to reach the audiences that need to hear about your work. My contact details are in the BU address book, so do get in touch with me (Sally Gates).

        Incidentally, Bryce Dyer, pictured on the front cover of the last edition, is presenting one of the award lectures at next week’s British Science Festival in Newcastle. Congratulations Bryce and good luck!

        And who’s up for being on the front cover of the BRC this time round…?

        NIHR Research Design Service Grant Applications Workshop

        BU research

        The Research Design Service South West (RDS SW) is running a one-day grant applications workshop on 7th November 2013 at Taunton Racecourse, Somerset.

        The grant applications workshop is directed at researchers who are considering applying to peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research, and is intended to allow them to turn good applications into excellent ones.

        If you are interested in attending the workshop you will need to submit an application form and the latest draft of your research proposal by 1pm on Monday 14th October 2013.

        For more information and to download an application form please go to http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/gaw.htm.

        How to create the perfect profile

        BU research, Guidance

        BRIAN

        The academic profile in BRIAN can hold a wide range of information about professional activities, publications and (shortly) grants.  As the information in BRIAN is used to populate the profile page which is available to anyone on the web, it is important that there is a minimum set of information that everyone maintains.  This minimum set of information will ensure that everyone’s academic profile contains entries for the same types of data, ensuring a consistent level of information across all profiles within the University.

        The profile pages are displayed whenever anyone from inside or outside the University seeks information on a member of academic staff.  The external viewers include other academics who may be seeking collaboration partners, potential students, commercial enterprises investigating research or enterprise possibilities etc.  It is particularly important that those who are potentially being put forward for the REF have full external profiles.

        To attain the minimum standard that has been defined for BRIAN, please ensure you have entries in the following areas.

        • Biography
        • Research theme
        • Keywords
        • Qualifications
        • Publications

        In line with the new version of BRIAN, we have prepared a document ‘BRIAN – Minimum data requirements‘ containing examples of the information required.  This is especially relevant for the biography where recent examples of engaging biographies demonstrate what can be achieved.

        Once the new version of BRIAN is deployed, we will add some more areas to the minimum standard.  These are:

        • Research
        • Grants
        • Photograph

        In the new version of BRIAN, you will be able to maintain your photograph yourself.

        Academic staff are encouraged to go beyond this minimum level and to record and maintain as much of their academic lives in BRIAN as possible.  We encourage you to use BRIAN as a living academic CV and to ensure that your research information and publications are always up to date.

        There is no need to delay in adding and updating your information in BRIAN.  All the information you add to the current version of BRIAN will be carried across to the new version at the end of the month.

        At last! Grant records on BRIAN

        BU research, Guidance

        BRIANAnother feature of the new version of BRIAN, when it is released later this month, will be the ability to record details of grants.

        What makes a grant suitable for inclusion in BRIAN?  Well, it must have been awarded but you can include those that have been completed.  It is advisable to only include grants that are significant such as those from prestigious funders, of significant value, etc.  Courses and conferences are not suitable and so should not be included. 

        The reason for the above is that the grant information that you put into BRIAN will be displayed in the new staff profile pages (live in October). 

        Another useful feature is that you can mark a grant as a favourite.  Grants marked in this way appear on the home page of your external profile and have increased visibility.

        Grant information can be added to BRIAN in the same way as you add publication or professional activity information.   The mandatory information required to enter a grant consists of: PI name, project title, funder name, start and end date, value and status (awarded, in progress or completed).  Other information can also be captured.  Grants can be linked to other BU staff and also to your publications.

        More guidance will be provided at the launch of the new version of BRIAN.  In the interim, please give some thought to any grants that would be suitable for your BRIAN profile.

        Academic writing workshop in Bangkok

        Fusion, Training, Uncategorized

        As part of his visit to Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to plan the FIF-supported conference that will be held in November, Prof Tom Watson of the Media School delivered a well-attended workshop on Academic Writing.

        Four leading universities – Chulalongkorn, Assumption, Mahidol and NIDA – sent over 40 academic staff and doctoral students to the workshop held in the host’s Faculty of Communication Arts building on September 3.

        “There is a strong push to develop research and publication outputs in Thailand, so the workshop was well-timed to catch that wave,” said Prof Watson. “Our colleagues at Chulalongkorn did a first-rate job in organising and promoting the event.

        “The workshop was also excellent public diplomacy by BU to support so many academics in such a targeted manner. It helps build our reputation in Thailand which is sending more Masters and doctoral students to the UK. Previously Australia and the USA were the main destinations.”

        The workshop also gave an opportunity to experience one of the venues to be used by the 1st International Corporate and Marketing Communication in Asia Conference on November 18-19.

         

        Working with TV production students in Mumbai and Poole

        Fusion, Training

        As part of the Fusion Fund Study Leave strand, my company, Sequoia Films, took on ten BU students on broadcast production work experience while at the same time updating my professional practice.

        “As a camera specialist in my final year, I was very exited to be selected to take part in this Fusion Project. Having the opportunity to work abroad on an international broadcast project, such as this, was a fantastic experience. Being able to work alongside an industry professional (Sue Sudbury) and see how they operate was fascinating, especially seeing the relationship between filmmaker and contributor, a relationship that I have only ever experienced at a student level. This is something especially useful to me as I hope to work in documentary in the future” –   Oliver Clubb, BA (Hons) Television Production.

        • A cut from the Indian shoot was then screened to international broadcasters (VPRO, NHK, SVT, NRK, SBS) in June at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival. This is the link to the film – password is space2014 http://vimeo.com/68954605. The actual satellite launch has been delayed so the finished film has been too but you should see it on your screens in 2014 or 2015!

        It was great to be back in the industry actually practicing what I teach – producing and directing documentaries. I was asked to sit on London’s BVE  EXPO exhibition panel session “Ground-breaking documentaries: techniques for gaining access, dealing with cultural difference and how to approach sensitive subjects to uncover and capture the unknown” – It was great to be on the panel with Jessie Versluys, one of our ex-BATV students, now a BAFTA award winning producer/director, who self-shot Katie My Beautiful Face and most recently, C4’s The Murder Workers. We managed to get in a plug for the TV Production degree at Bournemouth! Afterwards, I was able to be on the BU stand at the EXPO so prospective students really saw Fusion in practice with genuine links between academic staff and industry.

        The session was chaired by multi BAFTA-winning Brian Woods (MD of True Vision) and this has led to us working together on developing a new project. Will post about this when have more news.

         

         

         

         

         

        Being Creative?

        Uncategorized

        Some would say, me included, that BU has until recently been rather insular and not very well embedded within its region.  We have often viewed with suspicion requests to collaborate and seen our region simply as a source of enterprise income rather than a source of fruitful collaboration.  During the last year we have spent a huge amount of time and effort in changing this and embracing the true concept of knowledge exchange as a real, meaningful and two-way exchange of information.  As a result our influence within the region is growing and we are seen by many key stakeholders as crucial to generating regional economic growth, something which is a mirror of current government policy.  As a Member of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), where I represent both our region’s Universities, I have used my position to promote a more open and accessible HE sector willing to engage and invest in our region’s growth.  The LEP is currently working on its Local Growth Strategy, along with a regional Skills Plan and a strategy to underpin its future management of EU Structural Investment Funds (EUSIF).  Graduate retention and the creation of high skills jobs are keys to continued economic growth within Dorset.  BU believes that the Creative and Digital, along with the Health and Social Care sectors are crucial to achieving this and we are actively promoting these areas along with more traditional ones like advanced manufacturing and big data. 

        By way of illustration, in June this year we helped to orchestrate the signing of a regional Manifesto for the Creative and Digital Economy which brought together private and public bodies, as well as the regions’ politicians, in a commitment to support and grow the creative and digital sector.  The long-term vision is to establish Dorset as an international hub for creative and digital businesses.

         A key outcome from the manifesto was the creation of a working group tasked with turning the manifesto’s vision into a reality.   The working group, chaired by David Ford, Chief Executive of Bright Blue Day, is made up of senior representatives from business, the public sector and education.   BU is wholly committed to driving delivery of the manifesto’s vision and we have made a number of commitments (both financial and in-kind) to support the work.  One of these was a commitment of staff time from BU and Samantha Leahy-Harland from OVC is spending half her working week supporting David Ford on taking forward the manifesto.  Currently the team are finalising the brand for the initiative which I hopefully will be able to share very soon.  Another commitment made by BU and Bournemouth Borough Council was to support Matt Desmier, a creative consultant, in the creation of Think Create Do, an online portal to support the creative and digital media economy locally.  Think Create Do will include a jobs board with opportunities for students, a news feed, events diary and a directory of local businesses.  The site goes live in the autumn and I’ll post with more details in due course.  Matt Desmier is of course also behind the annual Silicon Beach Conference [http://www.siliconbeach.eu/index.html], now in its third year, and of which BU is proud to again be a sponsor.  Longer term we hope to support the creation of Dorset’s own creative and digital village.  I will keep you posted and would be happy to discuss our regional agenda with groups of interested staff over the next few months.