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Bells, Offices & Rejection

News from the PVC

I can’t admit to having had a good morning so far; the fire alarm was being test continuously for over 30 minutes when I first got in, my emails are down and I have a long day of meetings in front of me!  Anyway, I hear you all asking about the great ‘office-less experiment’, well I would if it was not for the bells ringing in my head!

In fact it is going very well.  I had three productive days last week working in the various coffee shops around campus and met a lot of people I wouldn’t normally have and performed a few introductions to connect people up afterwards.  The feedback has also been very positive and the support fantastic.  On a personal level I have found it quite hard work and have to admit to being a bit tired at the end last week.  The laptop screen is a bit small, our IT systems did not cover themselves in glory and the phone reception in the atrium is frustrating, but despite these slight irritations I had a very productive week.  So far this week I had a day solid of meetings Monday and a ULT away day in Christchurch, but the atrium beckons again later today.

On a different note, yesterday was not the greatest of days – the away day was fine, but then I got the news that a paper I had submitted a couple of weeks ago to Science had been bounced.  Rejection is never easy to deal with, even when you are half expecting it and is the norm with the most prestigious journal of them all.  Somehow I had convinced myself that this paper stood a chance, but no it was dammed by the phrase ‘most suitable for a specialist journal’.  I shouldn’t be that surprised, to stand a chance in Nature or Science one has to have something that is truly headline grabbing – goldfish eats boy!  But still rejection is not great and I thought I would share my feeling on it.

I used to do these sessions on the Releasing Research & Enterprise Potential on dealing with paper rejection in which I used to say that the true test is ‘how one deals with things in adversity’.  I do believe that this is true and within half an hour of circulating the rejection letter to my co-authors we had agreed a new destination for the paper and I will start the task of re-formatting the paper this evening.  Despite this I must admit to having a bit less bounce today than usual even if the set back in the greater scale of things is trivial.  Perhaps it is the prospect of the having to do more work to re-cast it for the new destination, or the memory of the early mornings and late evenings (working around the day-job) at the end of August spent shaping the paper.  No doubt by lunch time when the bells have stopped ringing in my ears I will feel more positive.  Rejection is part of academic life, you win some and you lose some, but let’s be honest it is the bit that sucks!

ApSci’s Genoveva Esteban and Andrea Galotti get ‘stuck in’ with their research fieldwork!

BU research, Featured academics

Dr Genoveva Esteban collecting water samples at East Stoke Fen (Wareham).  This research is in partnership with the Dorset Wildlife Trust to link science with conservation. Dr Esteban’s investigates ‘cryptic’ biodiversity, i.e. the biological diversity that is invisible to the naked eye, which includes microbes and other small-sized organisms that constitute the basis of food chains.

 

Dr Andréa Galotti is investigating a new biological tool to control nuisance insects (e.g. midges) that grow in drinking and other water systems.  The research in is partnership with SembCorp Bournemouth Water.

Book your place on the BU EU Showcase Event

EU

I am really looking forward to the forthcoming EU Showcase Event; last year’s event was a tremendous success and this year’s will be even bigger and better!

We all know the importance of getting involved in EU funding as national funds dwindle, greater importance is placed on international collaborations and of BUs strategic focus on internationalisation. This event will celebrate our successful EU award holders who will share their tips for engaging in EU funding.

We have presentations on schemes to help you start your EU career (Christos Gatzidis on the Leonardo scheme of the Lifelong Learning Programme and Bogdan Gabrys and Rob Britton on Marie Curie schemes) and schemes for those already engaged (Anthea Innes on applying for an FP7 grant and Adrian Newton on being a Partner in an FP7 consortium). We also have top tips on how to network effectively to become involved in EU funding (from the very experienced Dimitrios Buhalis and Cornelius Ncube). Finally I will be launching 3 very exciting internal EU focused funding competitions at this event to help you engage in EU funding and we have presentations from those who won funding through 2 of these schemes last year.

The informal and informative event will be opened by Matthew Bennett in Kimmeridge House  on 14th November. Plenty of coffee, tea, lunch and cake provided and due to the restriction of room size, registration is essential. This takes only 10 seconds on the Staff Development website.

The event will be finished in plenty of time for you to drive/ catch the uni bus to the Executive Business Centre (EBC) to hear the Inaugural Lecture Dementia: personal journey to policy priority by HSC’s Prof. Anthea Innes.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen visits Nepal for further fieldwork on the maternity care project!

BU research, Featured academics

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (School of Health & Social Care) visiting Nepal again in june 2012 for further fieldwork for the maternity care project funded by Greer Tara Trust (http://www.greentaratrust.com/).  As part of this project in the rural areas of Daichhinckali and Chhaimale, Green Tara Trust promotes education and understanding in all aspects of maternal and child healthcare to over 10,000 people.

Bournemouth Univeristy in close collaboration with the University of Sheffield is involved in the evaluation of this health promotion intervention.  The photos show Prof. van Teijlingen conducting fieldwork in rural communities.

New Library Resource: full text access to Nature.com

Guidance, Research news, Training

You will be delighted to discover that The Library have been able to make funds available to purchase a site licence to the full text of the journal Nature at Nature.com.  Full text access is current year plus a rolling 4 year archive.  This is complemented by access from 1997 to date (with a 12 month embargo) on Academic Search Complete and Medline Complete.

Notes on access:

  • on-campus access is IP-authenticated (therefore automatic);
  • off-campus
  • via mySearch
    • for the latest 12 months the user will need to follow the LinkSource link and if off-campus login by following the Institution login links
    • earlier content back to 1997 there will be a pdf link to the content on Academic Search Complete.

For help using e-journals, e-books, bibliographic databases (such as Scopus and Web of Science), bibliometrics and reference management contact the Library Subject Team for your School.

Fusion Investment Fund: Strengthening the Links of Bournemouth University with China

Fusion

The University has provided 360 degree of support to encourage staff to participate in various research activities. The Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) is a brilliant opportunity to seed future research development projects and forge collaborations with internal and external partners.  I was inspired to apply the FIF through a number of interesting discussions with Prof. Jian J. Zhang looking at the evidence of the increasing influence from China in both economic and scientific worlds. Links with Chinese institutions will no doubt benefit Bournemouth University through various education and scientific research activities. I also owe my gratitude to the continuous support and encouragement from Dr. Corrina Dickson, Prof. Barry Richard and Prof. Mathew Bennett during the preparation of my FIF application.

 

The FIF allows me to develop network activities leading to the establishment of a strategic partnership between the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) of Bournemouth University (BU) and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), and to create opportunities in joint research, enterprise and education endeavours. UESTC has been among the top ranked Chinese universities, and has been the best educational base in China for computer science and electronic engineering. It is located in Chengdu, one of the largest cities in Western China. The formation of the strategic partnership will strengthen the link of BU to China and in particular will bring BU’s influence that is currently absent to the western part of China.

 

I have been in contact with Prof. Zhiguang Qin (UESTC), Dean of School of Information and Software Engineering and Dean of School of Computer Science and Engineering, and the international office of UESTC to discuss possibilities on collaboration at various levels since 2010. Strong interest has been identified on the development of hardware and software algorithms of haptic devices for virtual reality applications, where the research excellence of UESTC in computer science, as a complementary element, matches well with the expertise of the NCCA in virtual reality and computer animation. The collaboration can be further extended to cover other research topics based on the mutual interest of both institutions.

Christina Koutra visits Peru and Vietnam to conduct her research fieldwork on Corporate Social Responsibility

BU research, Featured academics

Business School’s Christina Koutra took these photos during her fieldwork in Peru and Vietnam in 2010 and 2011 successively. Christina’s research is part of a research monograph which is currently in press and it incorporates three case studies a) Ghana, b)Vietnam, and c) Peru. The book is entitled: More than Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Implications of CSR for tourism development and poverty alleviation in less developed countries: a Political Economy Perspective. The fieldwork, which was funded by the Business School, was used to discuss two of the three case studies.

The picture above was taken during Christina’s fieldwork in Peru. Specifically in the Village of St Francisco which is based  in the Ucayali region in the basin of Amazon. The Shipibo people, a Peruvian ethnic minority lives there. Tourism is developed around the ethnic minority and also ethno-medicine and Shamanism.

The other photos were taken in Vietnam in the village of Ta Phin, which is based in Sa Pa, Vietnam. The Red Dao (pronounced as Zao) and the Black H’mong ethnic minorities live there. Tourism is developed around the ethnic groups.

 



Challenge: Collaborate with fellow researchers across BU…Solution: Join one or more of BU’s Research Themes

BU research, Fusion, Research themes

The BU Research Themes were launched in December at the first of the BU-wide Fusion events. The Themes are society-led, encourage cross-School working and collaboration, and will be the main vehicle through which BU research is presented externally in future.

We’re now encouraging staff and postgraduate research students to sign up to one or more of the Themes! This is a great way to get involved in the BU research environment and to meet other academics and students from across the University. Many of the themes are now starting to hold meetings to determine how to move the themes forward and this is your chance to get involved.

There are eight BU Research Themes:

  • Creative & Digital Economies
  • Culture & Society
  • Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth
  • Environmental Change & Biodiversity
  • Green Economy & Sustainability
  • Health, Wellbeing & Aging
  • Leisure & Recreation
  • Technology & Design

If you would like to join one or more of the Themes, then complete the form below and I will add you to the list.

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your School / Professional Service (required)

    Staff or PGR student? (required)

    StaffPGR

    Please select the themes that you are interested in (required)

    European universities need improved mobility strategies

    EU

    The European University Association (EUA) has announced that EU universities need a better strategy for mobility. The EUA assessed current practice as part of a 2 year project and released their findings in Mobility: Closing the gap between policy and practice. Key findings were that:

    • academic staff are unaware of mobility strategies in their institution
    • mobility is especially important for doctoral students
    • mobility of administrative staff is not highly prioritised
    • mobility programmes for staff, students, and researchers tend to be fragmented within each institution

    The report recommends that universities collect comprehensive data on the different types of mobility going on in their institution and use that data to develop mobility strategies. It also recommends that data collection should be coordinated on European and national levels.

    The Maunimo project provided a self-assessment tool for universities with the aim of improving mobility programmes. Among the issues examined are mobility strategies, collection of data on mobility, the influence of external factors on mobility, and how mobility is perceived across the institution.

    As part of the International Task Force at BU I will be recommending this is undertaken.

    BURO Stats – who’s downloading your open access research?

    BU research, Publishing

    What’s your impact?  Did you know that you can access statistics for your open access research outputs in BURO?

    Simply go to BURO, browse your items by author and view a variety of statistics about your individual full text research outputs, including:-

    • Number of full text downloads (daily and monthly)
    • Top ten search terms that led people to your research
    • Number of unique visitors

    To run a variety of other searches on your research outputs use the BURO IRStats Dashboard

    Remember – to add your full text items to BURO you need to submit them via BRIAN.

     

     

    Anybody been to Prison?

    Uncategorized

    I mean in the capacity of a researcher or simialr? Why… because in a final year option I teach called Scoail Communication I am organising a student visit to Dorset based Prisons (Dorchester and Portland)as part of an assessed project. I have the ‘bones’ of the project idea but wondered if others might be able to share brief thoughts on what might be a fruitful angle(s) to take linking prisons to communication issues around marginality and voicelessness – cheers

    BRIAN latest

    BU research, Guidance

    Now that the summer has been (did you notice?) and gone, many of you are now turning your attention to your external profiles and how to make them look as impressive as possible to the outside world.  This has meant an increase in queries about how to use BRIAN and so I have created a list of answers to FAQ’s and these can be found in the link below.  Before I get on to this though, have you read the Blog article advertising the ‘Scopus and BRIAN Workshops’ that Matthew Bennett will be running shortly?  If not, click here for more details.

    BRIAN FAQ‘s

    There are a number of developments that are underway to improve BRIAN and so keep your eye on the Blog for more updates.

    My FIF Study Leave Strand Success

    Fusion

    The University has provided an excellent opportunity for staff to engage in Fusion through the University FIF (Fusion Investment Fund) initiative. I found FIF an excellent chance to take advantage for furthering my research, education and professional engagement with my international partners. Over the years I have developed international links in the US, India, China and Pakistan. These international links have played a significant role in my research activities through joint publications, developing research proposal(s) and submitting for external funding.

    I met Professor Ramesh Chinakurli, a professor at PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India in the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) Conference in the US in 2010. Our shared research interests are in the characterisation of aluminium based composites/ electrocomposites, surface engineering, in particular HVOF (high velocity oxy-fuel) coatings and premetallic coated sheets (thrust-automotive industries) and mutual interests in PGT, PGR and U/G students’ research informed education. This provided a catalyst for us to publish 2 conference papers this year, the nomination of Professor Ramesh as BU visiting professor, develop a proposal for external funding (DST-EPSRC) and application to FIF.

    Through the BU FIF initiative Fusion will be showcased as a global entity by strengthening existing cross-continent collaboration in education (introducing an international perspective and pedagogy), research (further research ideas to bid for external funding founded on existing work in nano-tribology) and professional practice (existing BU, PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore and industrial partners links will be further strengthened). This process will significantly benefit BU students, staff, existing industrial partners, myself and the co-Investigator.

    There are two visits planned, a visit to India later in October to conduct joint research in nano-materials for tribological applications and identify further opportunities of collaborations in all areas of Fusion. There will be a visit from an Indian Visiting Professor in November, to participate in teaching activities and research seminars aimed at both staff and students.

    The Fusion application has provided an excellent opportunity to further strengthen international collaboration with our Indian partners and showcase our research, education and professional practice activities, resources and capabilities to them. Also further increase collaborative work in terms of all areas of fusion.

    Finally I would like to thank Professor Jim Roach and Professor Mark Hadfield who provided their continued support and encouragement for this application.

    Clearing and all that

    Uncategorized

    I am in the early throws of writing a paper on the promotional activity of HE’s during this year’s clearing period. My likely approach is to analyse the advertising that took place on University home pages and in the press (all raw data has been captured) taking a perspective in terms of ‘responsible communications’ a theme for next year’s corporate and marketing communications conference. Anybody interested in informal chat or even co-writing something – drop me a line or two.