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LAST REMINDER – Don’t Miss Out… Still Some Space on the Marie Curie and Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info Sessions?

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Training

 

Just curious or planning to put in an application to the Marie Curie scheme – don’t miss out….. pick a lunchtime session and get yourself booked in NOW via staff development – first session tomorrow!! Click on the links below or send them a quick email with the details of the session(s) you would like to attend

To learn more about the Marie Skłodowska Curie calls, please book NOW via staff development:

Thinking about other EU schemes? To learn more about Horizon 2020 as a whole, please book NOW via staff development:

If you are already developing a Marie Skłodowska Curie proposal and would like a one-to-one Dr Martin Pickard after one of the information sessions, please contact me Dianne Goodman. I only have the following 3 appointment slots left on the 20th of March at the Lansdowne Campus:

1000 – 10:45am, 14:30 – 15:15pm or 15:15 – 16:00pm

Remember the Marie Curie calls under FP7? Well, they are new and improved under Horizon 2020 and have been renamed and revised…

Dr Martin Pickard, the trainer says: “The new Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes within Horizon 2020 have considerable relaxed rules enabling even greater opportunities for participation; from individual research fellowships to medium term collaboration exchange. Presenting Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie as a whole, the workshop also focuses on the opportunities for individual fellowships to highlight these opportunities and presents how to approach them to ensure a maximum chance of success (typically better than 1 in 3)”.

And don’t forget that BRAD offers a range of additional training opportunities which are very helpful to developing proposals for EU funding. These include:

Why not come along to all the available training sessions and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the European Union?

Website & BRIAN Training Sessions

Guidance, Research themes, Training

Screen shot of new website

Due to popular demand we are hosting  training sessions for the new research webpages together with BRIAN training.

These sessions are open to all BU academic staff, post graduate research students and those supporting researchers in their communications activity.

During the session you will learn the following:

Research Webpages

  • Why BU has new research webpages
  • How you can upload content to the website
  • How the site can be used most effectively to maximise exposure of BU research.

BRIAN

  • What is BRIAN and why is it important
  • How to set up and maintain your BRIAN profile
  • How to ensure your details are correct
  • How to request a photo is uploaded
  • How BRIAN links to your external staff profile

To book on one of the following sessions please use the links below…

Thursday 27th March 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus

Thursday 17th April 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus

We hope to follow these with a session at the Lansdowne Campus (room pending). If you would be interested in a Lansdowne session or you have any queries, please  email Shelly Maskell on smaskell@bournemouth.ac.uk

What happened in HE last week…

Monday

Labour have accused the coalition of “complete confusion” after Vince Cable said the write-off estimate on student loans will be revised downwards. Vince’s comments, in the House of Commons, appear to contradict recent remarks made by David Willetts. Coalition in ‘complete confusion’ over RAB, says Labour (THE) 

Immigration policy
The Financial Times argue, in an editorial, that the UK will have to abandon its myopic policy on immigration for one that maximises the contribution that skilled foreign workers can make to the UK economy. UK should scrap its migrant targets (FT)

Student compensation
The OIA is expected to reveal that it ordered more compensation to be paid to students in 2013 than the £1m it demanded in 2012. Surge in student complaints about poor-value universities (Sunday Times)

Tuesday

Immigrants to Britain are better qualified than the existing population — and many of those who settled here generations ago are considerably outperforming their white neighbours in education, according to a new study.

Rankings
As the Times Higher Education releases its 2014 Reputation Rankings, Ben Jackson advises prospective students to take league tables with a pinch of salt. He speaks to Dan Seamarks, a prospective journalism student, who thinks league tables are an outdated form. “I was constantly told that I must look at league tables and use them when making my final decisions,” he said. “However, all of my universities’ strengths lay in different places.” No league table is perfect: Why you shouldn’t worry about university rankings (Independent)

Student recruitment
Universities are allocating more time and money to marketing open days, engaging with students on social media, improving their prospectuses and developing their university websites, a Guardian survey finds. Of those polled, 57% of marketers said open days were more important than five years ago, alongside external digital advertising (72%) and marketing on social media (98%). Have traditional student recruitment campaigns lost their bite? (Guardian HE)

Advice and guidance
Michael Gove’s decision to marginalise careers professionals and hand legal responsibility for careers guidance to schools, with no extra resources to back it up, has united a diverse array of voices in opposition. Gove faces criticism as delays to careers guidance jeopardises students’ futures (Guardian)

Wednesday

The CBI has said that the government needs to do more to make careers in STEM more attractive. It recommends cuts in tuition fees for some STEM subject courses and better training for existing workers.

Destination data
A ‘pioneering school’ set up in a poor area of London, under the free schools policy, is celebrating news that 100 of their students have received offers to study at Russell Group institutions. The Department for Education will certainly be happy. Let’s just hope the students have had the right advice and guidance from the school. New academy offered 100 places at top universities (Times)

Thursday

HE policy
Student places: David Willetts has cautioned universities that they may not fill the tens of thousands of extra undergraduate places, being made available over the next two academic years, at least in the short term. Sector’s challenge is to fill the gap when the cap comes off  (THE)

Two-year degrees: The Conservative party in Wales has floated the possibility of cutting degree courses from three to two years to help cut student debt and get youngsters into the workplace more quickly if it wins power in Cardiff. This is similar to the work currently underway by John Denham MP in England. Welsh Conservatives float idea of two-year ‘fast-track’ degree courses (Guardian) 

Student attitudes: Most students still feel positive about their investment in their education despite the higher tuition fees faced by first- and second-year students at university in 2013-14, the Sodexo-Times Higher Education University Lifestyle Survey reveals. How has debt from higher fees changed students? (THE)

Connecting research and growth
Catapult Centres: Vince Cable has commissioned Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Acorn Computer, to look at how the catapult centres might be further developed. Technology research centres face entrepreneurial scrutiny (FT)

N8 Research Partnership: The N8 Research Partnership of universities is investigating the possibility of pooling its academic expertise for a major research project, according to the organisation’s new chair, Sir Alan Langlands. N8 to pool research to make a big splash (THE)

RCUK grants: Women are less successful than men in securing research council grant funding, according to new data. The analysis by Research Councils UK suggests that female scientists lag behind men in terms of grant success rates at almost every stage of their careers. Women trail men in securing research council grants (THE)

Research and development: UK spending on research and development as a proportion of gross domestic product fell in 2012, according to new figures. This ranks the UK 12th in terms of research and development expenditure in the EU-28 group. R&D spending drops as share of GDP, new statistics show (THE)

International
Student visas: Some universities could lose their licences to recruit overseas students if the government goes ahead with plans to further tighten visa rules, a former Home Office official has warned. The plans were outlined in a speech given last week by James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, in which he said the Conservatives would plough on with their drive to cut net migration to the “tens of thousands” by 2015 – despite the figure having risen recently to 212,000. Licences to recruit overseas students at risk (THE)

Expansion: “Visionary” vice-chancellors are pushing universities to expand overseas in ways that are not properly thought through and lack an “analytical” rationale, according to a consultant who has interviewed a number of senior university leaders. V-cs urged to put data first in race to expand overseas (THE)

The weird world of the Daily Mail
Don’t hire any staff: A bit of a strange article from the Daily Mail. Why does Open University chief on £400,000 need a speech writer? (Daily Mail)

Friday

The Times is looking at possible reasons behind the growing number of Russell Group Vice-Chancellors who are leaving their posts. They have apparently learnt that “governing councils are being urged to be tougher in making vice-chancellors justify their performance.”  University heads roll in drive to justify salaries (Times)

Applications
The OFT published today the outcome of its call for information on higher education in England, launched in October 2013 to see “how choice and competition were working” in the sector. The report recommends that the Competition and Markets Authority – the OFT’s successor body which takes over on 1 April – undertakes a “compliance review” of the sector. 

STEM
Industry is being starved of highly-skilled workers because of a shortage in the number of teenagers studying subjects such as science and maths to a high level, business leaders warned today. Semta – the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies – warned that it was facing a shortfall of 80,000 workers within the next two years alone. Telegraph challenge to show science and engineering are the way ahead (Telegraph)

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

The BBSRC‘s Bioinformatics and Biological Resources (BBR) Fund aims to: support the bioscience research community with the establishment, maintenance and enhancement of infrastructures; support high quality bioinformatics and biological resources that align with otheir updated Strategic Plan: The Age of Bioscience; supply long-term funding and provide a stable environment for resource development and provision. The indicative budget for the call is £6.5M, subject to the quality of applications received, and will incorporate capital investment in software infrastructure. Full applications must be submitted using Je-S by 08/05/14 16:00.

The BBSRC Enterprise Fellowships aim to increase exploitation of ideas with commercial potential from BBSRC supported research.  The Enterprise Fellowships are designed to enable an individual to advance the commercialisation of existing research results or technological developments and are tenable for a period of one year.  The Fellowships enable the holder to concentrate on developing the commercial potential of their research, whilst also receiving formal training in relevant business skills. The Enterprise Fellowship programme provides entrepreneurship and business skills training through the participating Training Provider, currently the Entrepreneur Business School (EBS), which will be directly relevant to the Fellow as they seek to build their new business. Closing date 16/05/14.

The British Academy receives a generous grant from the Sino-British Fellowship Trust (SBFT), established by the late Dr Elizabeth Frankland Moore, to support individual or co-operative research projects. Research may be conducted either in Britain or in China, or in both countries, and must involve person-to-person contacts. Up to £10,000 is available. The closing date is 16/04/14.

Through the British Academy, the Ancient Persia Fund was established in 1988 in memory of the distinguished Russian scholar Vladimir G Lukonin. The aim of the fund is to encourage and support the study of Ancient Persia and related areas including Central Asia, in the period before the coming of Islam. Activities supported by the Fund include research grants for the study of Ancient Iran and neighbouring areas, covering the travel costs of students and scholars. Applications should be submitted by 16/04/14.

In both the recently published EPSRC E-infrastructure roadmap and the EPSRC Software as an Infrastructure strategy, the importance of software development and the need to invest in people and training in this area has been strongly highlighted. EPSRC has therefore made a long-term commitment to support software development, ensuring that funding continues to support leading scientific research and key codes used by the Engineering and Physical Sciences community. Subject to quality, up to £4M of funding is available for projects focused on the development of software that is used in computational science and engineering. All proposals submitted to this call must fall within the EPSRC remit. Closing date 28/05/14.
 
In a fourth call, EPSRC is looking to support a number EPSRC Fellowships in Manufacturing who have the potential to be future research leaders in their field in Manufacturing Research. The call is to support either academics who have recently moved from industry, or people in industry, involved in innovation, looking to move into academia. The aim is to offer up to 5 years of support for suitable candidates who not only have an appropriate background but can also articulate their vision for utilising their industrial experience to inform their future research direction. Applicants must register to apply by 17/04/14 with full submission by 01/05/14.
 
The BioProNET (Bioprocessing Network) is one of the Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (NIBBs) jointly supported by EPSRC and BBSRC. In order to aid members of BioProNET in the development of project teams for making bids to the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst (or other competitive network funding streams), BioProNET has made available resources to support workshops to consolidate project discussions. This is an open competition, however anyone who applies will be required to register as members of the network and expected to engage fully with other network events. Up to £2,000 is available in funding. Applications must be submitted by 21/03/14.
 
EPSRC is inviting proposals from UK academics for projects which will support visiting Fellows from India, Israel or Japan to carry out cyber security research in, and build collaborative links with, the UK. Proposals are welcome in any area of research directly relevant to cyber security, including less well-represented domains such as the social, economic and mathematical sciences. Closing date 28/08/14

The Leverhulme Trust are inviting university applications to their new Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships scheme which was announced  in January 2014 as a means to support doctoral studies in UK universities and to nurture the future generation of aspiring young researchers. At a time of growing undergraduate debt, the Board wishes to ensure that increased indebtedness does not discourage graduates from undertaking doctoral study. The initial investment in the scheme is over £10 million, providing for 150 scholarships over the next three years. Closing date 11/09/14 at 16:00

NERC seeks proposals to host a new Centre for Doctoral Training specialising in risk and mitigation; using big data. Funding for ten studentships will be awarded per annum, and the CDT award will provide funding for three years of new student intake from 2015-16. Closing date 16:00 on 26/06/14

NERC and BBSRC invite proposals from consortia of research organisations interested in hosting a new Centre for Doctoral Training, specialising in the training of scientists with a high level of rounded skills and knowledge to tackle current and future challenges in soil science. Funding for eight studentships will be awarded per annum, and the CDT award will provide funding for three years of new student intake from 2015-16. Closing date  16:00 on 26/06/14

NERC is inviting proposals to its International Opportunities Fund (IOF). The IOF scheme provides resources to NERC-supported researchers to allow them to forge long-term partnerships with overseas scientists that add value to current NERC-funded science. IOF grants are pump-priming, to help stimulate novel research collaborations. up to £40,000 is available. The closing date is 16:00 on 22/04/14.

The Wellcome Trust is offering funding for accommodation and travel for ‘Gathering Intelligence: A free seminar regarding Thomson’s life and work’ to be held at Edinburgh University Library on 16th May 2014. Applicants must apply by 28/04/14.

 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.

Dementia Friends Training open to all BU Staff and Students

Do you wish to become a Dementia Friend?  Janet Scammell, Dementia Champion  is running an introductory session which will last from 50 mins to 1 hour on Thursday 20 March at 12 noon in TA131 (Tolpuddle Annex, Talbot Campus).   This training is open to all staff and students. At the end of the session, participants are invited to become Dementia Friends (which basically means promoting positive thinking about living well with dementia in their own communities).  You also get a lovely dementia friends badge!

If you wish to attend please let Michelle O’Brien know by either email mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk or call 01202 962771.

REMINDER – Book Now! Marie Skłodowska Curie and Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info sessions?

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Info Days, Training

Marie Curie Lunchtime sessions:

20th of March at Lansdowne Campus 12-2pm

26th of March at Talbot Campus 12-2pm

Horizon 2020 session:

2nd of April at Talbot Campus 12-2pm

Remember the Marie Curie calls under FP7? Well, they are new and improved under Horizon 2020 and have been renamed and revised…

Dr Martin Pickard, the trainer says: “The new Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes within Horizon 2020 have considerable relaxed rules enabling even greater opportunities for participation; from individual research fellowships to medium term collaboration exchange. Presenting Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie as a whole, the workshop also focuses on the opportunities for individual fellowships to highlight these opportunities and presents how to approach them to ensure a maximum chance of success (typically better than 1 in 3)”.

To learn more about the Marie Skłodowska Curie calls, please book NOW via staff development:

If you are already developing a Marie Skłodowska Curie proposal and would like a one-to-one Dr Martin Pickard after one of the information sessions, please contact Dianne Goodman.

Thinking about other EU schemes? To learn more about Horizon 2020 as a whole, please book NOW via staff development:

And don’t forget that BRAD offers a range of additional training opportunities which are very helpful to developing proposals for EU funding. These include:

Why not come along to all the available training sessions and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the European Union?

2014 sees a surge in engagement with eBU

PG research, Publishing

Through immediate internal publication and open peer review, eBU is ideally placed to support the developmental needs of authors at any career stage, and I’m pleased to say that, so far, the 2014 issue has seen a levels of engagement from across the career spectrum. eBU has had two working paper submissions so far in 2014 (and there are plenty more in the archived 2013 issue!).

Firstly, under the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing theme, Sheetal Sharma (HSC) and colleagues submitted a paper titled Eliciting Nepali women’s views on childbirth and the newborn. A full text file of this paper has been openly reviewed and can be viewed here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/17.  I understand Sheetal has just submitted this paper to an external journal, so best of luck and we await with great excitement to hear the outcome!

Secondly, under the Education, Learning and Practice theme, Jonathan Williams (again HSC) has submitted a paper titled Is student knowledge of anatomy affected by a Problem-Based Learning approach? A full text file of this paper can be read here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/24.

eBU was also delighted to be able to support outputs from the 2014 PGR conference, and a number of PGRs have decided to use eBU to showcase their work. Why not take a look at the following abstracts and posters:

Business, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth

Alice Bonasio – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Customer Engagement Through Crowd-Funding and Social Media: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/21

Lifelong Health and Wellbeing

Ben Hicks – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Using commercial computer game technology to benefit men with dementia residing in rural areas of Dorset: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/19

Sheetal Sharma – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Pregnant and ‘dirty’ for 40 days: A qualitative study of childbirth practice, beliefs and myths in Nepal: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/20

Jonny Branney – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Is spinal manipulation associated with changes in cervical inter-vertebral motion?: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/23

Research Methods and Practice

Jenny Roddis – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Experience of interviewing: face-to-face vs. telephone: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/22

Technology & Design

Manuel Salvador – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Automating Data Pre-processing for Online and Dynamic Processes in the Chemical Industry: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/18

Book Now! The Leverhulme Trust are visiting BU on Wednesday the 19th of March 2014

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy

Following on from our well attended visit from the AHRC and the British Academy I am pleased to remind you that the Leverhulme Trust will be visiting us next on the 19thof March – it is not too late to get yourself booked in….

Working on a variety of initiatives in R&KEO over the years, one element of development which we receive consistently excellent feedback, is the events we arrange where funders come to BU and present their organisations funding priorities and give advice on making an application. We have arranged for several funders to visit BU in 2014, we have already hosted visits from the AHRC and the British Academy and are pleased to announce our next arranged visit is with the Leverhulme Trust.

This will be taking place on Wednesday 19 March 2014, and Jean Cater (Mrs) The Assistant Director from the Leverhulme Trust which funds all academic disciplines will be visiting to discuss their grants and give advice on making an application.

Spaces on this event are becoming limited due to the room available so booking is essential!

Grants Academy members can be guaranteed a space by emailing Dianne. Or by emailing Staff Development

The booking hyperlink is:

Leverhulme Trust  funder visit

This is taking place mainly over the lunchtime period (12 midday until about 1pm -1:30pm ish) so please feel free to bring your lunch with you

We look forward to seeing as many of you who can make it.

BUDI – Lunch time seminar

BUDI welcome 
Associate Professor Elaine Wiersma to deliver a lunch time seminar

Date:     Tuesday 8 April
Time:     12 Noon until 13.00
Venue:  EB203

Limited places available:  email mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk to reserve your place.

Engaging People Living with Dementia in the Development of Services: Lessons Learned from a Canadian Context
This presentation will explore the ways that a Canadian research team is engaging people living with dementia in the development of services. Specifically, two projects will be discussed—the development of a self-management program for people living with dementia, and a dementia journey mapping project. The engagement of health and social care providers with researchers and people living with dementia will be described within those two projects. Lessons learned about people, relationships, and process will be described and discussed.

Bio:
Elaine Wiersma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She is the Advisor for the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Dementia Studies, the lead of re-THINKing dEMENTIA, the division of Dementia and Seniors’ Mental Health at the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health, Lakehead University, and the chair of the North West Dementia Network. Her work has spanned community and long-term care sectors, using qualitative and participatory methodologies to examine the social dimensions of aging and dementia. Currently, her work is focusing on the development of self-management in dementia and exploring the context of aging and dementia in rural northern communities in Ontario. Elaine is engaged in a number of initiatives, both research and community initiatives, that seek to engage people living with dementia and care partners as equal partners, recognizing that the involvement of these groups is vital to creating more effective services and programs.

Open Access Event

Guidance, Info Days, Publishing, Research assessment

On Wednesday 7th May, Bournemouth University will be hosting a sector-wide Open Access Event looking at the benefits of Open Access from both the green and gold perspectives, as well as, focusing on how Open Access can support the achievement of research impact. 

So far confirmed external sessions are as follows:
 
open access logo, Public Library of ScienceThe Benefits of Open Access
Alma Swan – Director of Advocacy Programmes, SPARC Europe
 
Open Access and Implications for REF2020
Ben Johnson – Higher Education Policy Adviser, HEFCE
 
The Twitter Effect and How Social Media Can Promote Engagement with Research
Jane Tinkler – Manager, LSE Public Policy Group
Sierra Williams – Managing Editor, LSE Impact of Social Sciences Blog
 
The Open Access Framework
Catriona MacCallum – Advocacy Projects Manager, Public Library of Science (PLOS)
 
Case Study: Successful Implementation and Best Practice
Catriona Cannon – Assistant Director, Bodleian Libraries University of Oxford
 
There will also be sessions delivered by Bournemouth’s BURO team and Bournemouth academics talking about their own open access experiences.
 
Places are limited so if you’re interested, please register here!

Bournemouth European Network in Cyber Security (BENICS)

Fusion

In recent years, the field of Cybersecurity has attracted researchers and practitioners from academic fields ranging from Computer Science and Design, through to Psychology and Business Studies. To date, however, these communities have not been influenced by each other. Their research are disseminated in a variety of workshops and conferences across these fields. As a result, there is a misunderstanding of the role these different fields play in improving cybersecurity. For example, some researchers describe people are “the weakest link” and encourage designers to build systems that “Homer Simpson” can use safely. Unfortunately, treating users as a problem limits opportunities for innovation when people are engaged as part of a solution. Similarly, treating practitioners like cartoon characters disenfranchises the very people that a design is meant to support. Bournemouth University is one of the few institutions in the world with interests across the disciplines contributing to Cybersecurity, a small enough size for academics across these disciplines to engage with each other, and the vision necessary to fuel this engagement. To take advantage of the opportunities afforded to Bournemouth, an interdisciplinary seminar series in cybersecurity was launched in September 2013. The seminar series has attracted both staff and students from across the university, together with practitioners from local industry with interests in cybersecurity. So far, this has led to connections forming across the Faculty of Science & Technology, and the Media and Business schools. Resulting collaborations with our seminar speakers have also led to prospective KTP and Horizon 2020 proposals, and invitations to deliver guest lectures at other universities.

To build on this momentum in interdisciplinary cybersecurity activity at Bournemouth, we have created the Bournemouth European Network for Interdisciplinary Cyber Security (BENICS): a FUSION funded SMN activity. Over the coming year, BENICS will bring five invited European cybersecurity academics to Bournemouth to engage in short (one-week), focused collaborative visits. These visits will introduce invited academics to Bournemouth’s cybersecurity capabilities, allow them to share their interests with us as part of the cybersecurity seminar series, and engage in short and focused proposal building, research, or teaching resource creation activities.

Following each visit, Bournemouth and the visiting academic will engage in pump-priming activities; these will refine deliverables produced to sustain the momentum created during the visit. These deliverables will form the basis of a joint publication at an agreed international conference or journal.

Watch this space for more information about these visits, and please get in touch if you’re interested in engaging with BENICS and our cybersecurity research in general.