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CIPD Research Showcase Event

The Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour in The Business School held a successful Research Showcase for members of the CIPD (the professional body for HR practitioners) on Wednesday 13th March.  The event focused on highlighting to the wider business community the research and knowledge exchange work of the HR/OB team. 

The event included a networking buffet, poster presentations showcasing the areas of identity at work (Dr Anne Benmore), leadership practice (Dr Lois Farquharson), false performance (Dr Gbola Gbadamosi), HR and ethics (Dr Louise Preget), health and wellbeing management (Dr Davide Secchi), cross-cultural HRM and diversity (Dr Huiping Xian) and two interactive presentation/discussion sessions covering ‘docility’ in hiring practices (Davide Secchi) and High involvement HR practices and work attitudes (Hong Bui). 

The event was ably chaired by Dr Fabian Homberg.  In addition, the opportunity was taken to launch the CIPD Approved MSc Professional Development (HRM) course which begins at the EBC in September 2013 (link: BU Link to MSc PD (HRM) Course details).  Thanks is extended to all those who contributed to the event and attended the event.  We look forward to delivering more research events in the future.

5th Annual PGR Conference @ BU – REMINDER

PG research

A Celebration of BU PGR Research

Our annual conference is designed to showcase the best of BU’s postgraduate research and to provide a unique opportunity for you as PGRs to present your work within a safe learning environment. Our multi-disciplinary conference will allow for cross-school interaction as well as opportunities for collaboration, where appropriate.

The 2013 conference will build on the great success of the previous PGR Conferences held in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Call for Abstracts

We are inviting abstracts for oral, poster presentations AND new for 2013, a photography presentation – no matter at what stage you are in your Research Project. Presentations may focus on:

  • Research area
  • Specific methodological approach
  • Initial findings
  • Experience of your research journey e.g. transfer

There will be prizes for the best poster, oral and photography presentations. Please be aware that there are limited number of oral presentation slots.

We are also looking for volunteers to help chair sessions, so if you are interested please email the Graduate School.

Guidelines

Please see

How to Register

You will all need to register, whether you are contributing or just attending.  Please complete the booking form (conference booking form) and send via email to: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk

Deadlines

For submitting abstracts: Monday 25 March 2013
For attending the conference: Friday 12th April 2013

Revision to the Activity Proposal Form Process

Guidance

Currently all research and knowledge exchange bids require an Activity Proposal Form (APF) to be signed off by the applicant, Dean and depending on the value members of UET and the Board.  To date the APF has focused on financial issues, primarily the financial recovery of a proposed bid or grant.  Currently the APF process has been a paper based system rather than one which allows for electronic approval.  This is about to change with one important addition!

The APF has to date not required any sign-off with respect to bid quality, yet submissions of poor quality endangers both personal and institutional reputations. In future all bids will require a dual sign-off one focused on financial issues and one focused on quality.  The quality will be determined by a senior academic within a particular school, typically the Deputy Dean for Research/Knowledge Exchange and other nominated assessors.  This will all be wrapped up in a new paper-free system. 

The redesigned APF process will introduce a formal three stage approval process which will work as follows:

Stage One: An Intention to bid form will be completed by the Principal Investigator (PI) in conjunction with RKE Operations and approved before the PI can progress with the bid.  As part of this process, the PI will nominate a quality approver from a School’s approved list.  Out of curtsy the PI is expected to inform the nominated Quality Approver that they will receive the bid in due course.   Once the form is completed and RKE Ops have entered the details on RED, the Authorised School signatory will be sent the bid electronically, which they will receive in the form of an email containing a link.  Clicking on the link will direct them to the APF Approval Screen to make their decision.  If UET/Board Member approval is required then it will follow the same process and they will receive the link also.

Stage Two: Each School’s Deputy Dean Research/Knowledge Exchange has provided a list of Quality Approvers.  Training is being provided to the Quality Approvers during February and March.  When the bid is ready the Quality Approver will be sent the bid electronically to confirm that it is of sufficient quality to be submitted for external funding and they will approve the bid via link as per Stage One.  Sufficient quality is defined as ‘without causing reputational damage to the individual or BU’.  The Quality Approver will be required to justify their decision and may also provide feedback to help the applicant fine tune the final bid.  If a bid has been through the Internal Peer Review Process this step will be largely automatic.  Quality approval is only required for: (A) competitive research bids (e.g., RCUK, Charities etc.) regardless of value; and (B) competitive knowledge exchange bids such as tenders and contract research bids where the value is in excess of £50k.  If a bid is declined by a Quality Approver RKE Ops will inform the Dean and RKEDO Internal Peer Review Team to trigger support and guidance to the PI to improve the quality of the bid if there is sufficient time.  The Dean will be responsible for informing the PI that their bid has been declined on the grounds of ‘Quality’ and will provide them with feedback.  Appeal can be made directly to the PVC who will adjudicate differences of opinion on the basis of their own review of the bid. 

Stage Three: Final approval is only required if finances within a bid have changed  significantly changed from those set out in Stage One.  RKE Ops will decide whether this is the case and whether re-approval is required. 

For all stages of approval, all approvers will be sent an email containing a link to the bid; relevant documentation will be provided in the link; comments can be added to say why a decision was made (these will appear on the APF); and no log-in to RED is required.

The APF Process is being piloted in HSC throughout March and the official go-live date for all Schools will be 2 April.  The RKE Operations team will provide the PI with the Intention to Bid form.  Jo Garrad, RKE Operations Manager, will provide a user guide explaining the new process once the pilot has been completed.

A Conference for South West Postgraduate Students – Representations of Modernity 1850-1960

PG research

When and Where: Saturday 2nd November 2013  – Plymouth University

Keynote Speaker Dr Daniel Katz , University of Warwick

A one-day all-inclusive interdisciplinary conference inviting postgraduate students studying in the South West to present ideas on and discuss the significance and impact of Modernity. We welcome anyone studying or researching within the fields of Literature, History, Art History, Architecture and Cultural Studies.

Call for Papers deadline: 1st July 2013 | 250 word abstracts

Email abstracts to: RoMPUenquiries@gmail.com

Possible topics could include but are not limited to:

  • New City, New Tourism
  • Warfare
  • Industry and Industrialization
  • Trauma and Narration
  • Urbanization and Suburbanization
  • Modernism
  • Conceptualisations of Space
  • The Avant-garde
  • Material and Visual Cultures
  • Marginality; the Periphery
  • Nature; the Rural
  • Revivalism
  • Technology
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • The Body and Machine
  • Cinema

For further information check out the Conference Flyer – Nov 2013

HEFCE is looking to appoint new members to its Strategic Advisory Committees

HEFCE logo

 

HEFCE wishes to appoint new members to three of its four Strategic Advisory Committees. These positions provide a unique opportunity to contribute to higher education at a time of significant change in the sector. We are keen to recruit new members from education, business and the professions, as well as from individuals who can represent the interests of students.

Enhancing the diversity of the membership of the committees is important to us and we welcome applications from under-represented groups including women, disabled people and people from an ethnic minority background.

Further information and a person specification are available from the appropriate committee contact:

One-page application statements addressing the person specification should be sent to the appropriate committee e-mail address above by midnight

on 12 April 2013.

Congratulations and Good Luck

News from the PVC

February had a good deal of activity around bids being submitted and awarded, with Schools winning consultancy contracts, research grants and organising Short Courses.

For Applied Sciences, congratulations are due to Richard Stillman for his consultancy contract with the Welsh Government, to Mark Maltby for his consultancy contract with Central Bedfordshire Council, to Andrew Ford for his two consultancy contracts with WPA Consultants and Axent Embroidery, to Ralph Clark for his consultancy contract with the Environment Agency, to Phillipa Gillingham and John Stewart for their award from Natural England.  Good luck to Daniel Franklin with his application to the Marine Management Organisation, to Emilie Hardouin for her application to FSBI, and to Rob Britton and Richard Stillman for their proposed consultancy with DEFRA.

For DEC, good luck with the applications submitted by Katherine Appleton to the Humane Research Trust, by Simon Thompson to the Royal Society, and by Tania Humphries-Smith to the HEA. 

For HSC, congratulations are due to Anthea Innes for her award from the NIHR and also good luck with her application to Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, as well as her consultancy training for Gracewell Healthcare together with Michele Board, Vanessa Heaslip and Sue Barker, and finally, for Anthea and Michele Board’s short course with RBCH.  Good luck also to Edwin Van Teijlingen for his application to NIHR.

Congratulations to the Media School for Liam Toms consultancy contract with Kestrel Medical Ltd, to Rebecca Jenkins for her consultancy contract with Craft Strategy Ltd.  Good luck to Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen for their application to ESRC, and to Darren Lilleker, Dan Jackson, Richard Scullion, Einar Thorsen and Shelley Thompson for their application to ESRC, to Julian McDougall and Kris Erickson for their application to The Spencer Foundation, to Carrie Hodges and Janice Denegri-Knott for their application to the British Academy, to Iain MacRury, Chris Williams and Steve Harper for their consultancy bid to SKILLSET, and to Liam Toms with his consultancy bid to Work Research Limited.

For the School of Tourism, congratulations go to Richard Gordon for securing funding for his short courses with the MoD and NEMA, and good luck to Jon Hibbert with his contract to Liz Lean PR Ltd, to Christian Lemmer and Crispin Farbrother with their short course to Wuhan City Vocational College, to Lisa Stuchberry for her contract to NHS Dorset, to Stephen Calver with his contract to Bournemouth Borough Council, and to Nicky Pretty and Lisa Stuchberry for their contract to Godolphin Company.

For applications and bids submitted, a number of people have submitted applications to the European Commission and so good luck to Adrian Newton, Kathy Hodder, Elena Cantarello, Judith DeGroot and Chris Shiel from Applied Sciences who are investigating Bio-regional approaches to sustainability transitions, to Jon Williams, Luciana Esteves and Christos Gatzidis also from Applied Sciences. To Ian Swain who is researching the Mediterranean diet against depression, to Katherine Appleton, Emili Balaguer-Ballester for their separate applications,  all from DEC, and to Abdelhamid Bouchachia (DEC) and Hammadi Nait-Charif (MS) for their application, to Anthea Innes and Michele Board from HSC with their Erasmus application, to Edwin Van Teijlingen also from HSC, to Stuart Allan from the Media School, and to Dimitrios Buhalis, Alessandro Inversini and Katherine King, all from the School of Tourism.

Finally, good luck to Jian Jun Zhang, Xiaosong Yang and Lihua You (all MS) with their application to EPSRC for an award in Human Robot Symbiosis in a shared Nervebot for phantom limb pain, to Jonathan Williams (HSC) for his contract to the International Tennis Federation concerning Lumbo-pelvic-hip motion sharing in tennis players.  In HSC, good luck goes to Keith Brown who is applying for two separate KTPs with Brent Council and Dorset County Council.  Good luck to Venancio Tauringana in the Business School, who has submitted an application to the British Academy’s International Partnership and Mobility Scheme.

Don’t miss the ‘Festivity Mashup’ – today at 5pm in the Loft (food and drinks available)!

Research themes

You are invitied to join the Leisure and Recreation research theme for their Ideas Cafe, titled “A ‘Festivity Mashup'”!

When: 20 March 2013, 5pm – 7pm

Where: The Loft, Poole House, Talbot Campus

‘Festivity’ is an expanding and critical phenomenon that is impacting on all areas of life from events, technology and gaming, health and wellbeing, media and digital culture, to tourism, fashion and food.  ‘Festivity Mashup’ is an informal ‘eat, drink and discuss’ session that explores these areas, their research and practical applications as well as future. Don’t be worried, not all festivity is about ludic behaviours, role inversion and communing in liminoid environments. So, if you like research with a difference, where casual sociability and soft engagement mingles critique and a hint of intrigue join us in the Loft on March 20th, starting at 17:00….

Potential themes:

·         Gamification of the Live and Lived Fantasy

·         Mediated Lifestyles: Communities of Convergence

·         Wellbeing and Wonder: Edutainment in Action

·         Festivalization of the Everyday

·         Festive Identities from Parade to Protest

·         Journeys of Emotioneering & Imagineering

.         Meanings, Value and C2C Co-creation

·         Globalising Cultural Policy: Place Wars

·         Festival for Whom?: the Politics of Place

·         Experiential Dreams in the Age of the McFestival

·         Consumerism, Sustainability and Post-Festivity

·         Digital Brandscapes: New Worlds of Performative Play

If you are interested in attending please let Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Julia Hastings Taylor (jhastingstaylor@bournemouth.ac.uk) know.

Academic Profile Pages

Guidance

Please accept our apologies whilst the Academic Profile Pages are still incorrect.  IT are working on correcting the pages.  There are issues around random question marks and brackets being added to text, as well as names.  Please bear with us whilst the work is carried out on the profile pages and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

BU research to feature in BJOG’s international Twitter Journal Club

A recent paper by Professor Vanora Hundley is receiving significant interest and is to feature in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology’s Twitter Journal Club. For the last two years the BJOG has provided questions and slide sets to help readers evaluate selected papers in their local Journal Club. However, the introduction of the new Twitter Journal Club allows readers across the world to engage in online critical review and discussion. In addition to the paper, participants are provided with a scenario, background to the clinical issue, helpful details about the paper and discussion points. Journal club members participate in the discussion via Twitter using a specified hashtag (#BlueJC).  The discussion session starts on 20 March 2013 at 17:00 GMT and is open to anyone to join. For further details see: http://www.bjog.org/details/news/4459851/Blue_JC.html

My Swedish visit

For the past couple of years those of us in the Centre for Media history have been building up our relationship with Lund University where Media History is taught and actively researched.  The connection owes a lot to my colleague, Kristin Skoog, who is Swedish but specialises in BBC radio history.

Although I have visited Lund a number of times I have only now spent a week here and in my role as a Visiting Fellow I was asked to contribute to the teaching and research programme.

So I found myself talking to a group of possibly bemused second year undergraduates about BBC radio broadcasts during the second world war.  Maybe this was a bit reckless because, as you may know, Sweden was officially neutral during the war and I did wonder how they would respond to the rather gung-ho nature of BBC war reporting.  In fact they were very interested and perceptive in their comments.

My next task was to interview two media history PhD students with their supervisors present.  Despite not really knowing much about their subjects the conversation seemed to be productive and I certainly learned a lot (about the history of A4 (!) and ‘balloonings’ in Stockholm).

My main challenge was to address the impressive media history research seminar and this time I was prepared with my latest, not entirely legally obtained, audio from the BBC sound archive on the Suez crisis of 1956. Surprisingly I saw in the audience Bente Larsen, a leading figure in Danish radio archives who had popped over ‘the bridge’ (yes, that bridge) to listen.  I followed the very impressive and calm young Danish academic, Heidi Svømmekjær, and all went well.

I should add that I do not speak a word of Swedish and so could not use the library.  But everyone in Sweden seems to speak very good English.

It has been an extremely stimulating and valuable experience and I would be happy to talk to anyone out there who is interested in building Swedish links.

One final comment; as a guest I was given my own profile page on the Lund University website  http://www.kom.lu.se/en/research/mediehistoria/guest-researcher/  What a shame we at Bournemouth are not able to design web profiles of this standard!

 

Hugh Chignell, Professor of Media History, The Media School.  15.3.2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New mandatory institutional timeframe for EC and RCUK submissions

As of Monday 25 March 2013 two new institutional changes will be implemented for European Commission and Research Council grants.

 European Commission submissions

A new 4-week institutional timeframe will be imposed for all European Commission application submissions. This timeframe has been created to ensure academics wishing to apply have the appropriate level of support from RKEO needed for their application. This timeframe is outlined on the right.   

As European Commission deadlines are announced at least 3 months in advance this should not have a significant impact on any staff wishing to apply as a Principal Investigator on a grant. For academic staff approached to be a Co-Investigator on a project less than 4 weeks before the submission deadline can make an appeal by email to their Deputy Dean of Research (or equivalent) and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation.

In order to help you gain the best possible support in terms of grant-writing, partner-searching, funding-call information and other useful help, please let the RKEO EU Pod know you intend to make an EC grant submission. Paul Lynch and Sarah Katon in the EU Pod will be happy to provide further information.

 

  

Research Council Submissions

As of Monday, it will be mandatory for all Research Council submissions to go through the Research Proposal Review Service (RPRS). This move is in response to the demand management measures imposed by Research Councils such as the EPSRC and NERC. Many institutions have similar measures to protect academic staff.

You can select whether your application will be peer-reviewed by two internal members of staff only or if you would like an external RCUK grant holder or expert bid writer to also review this. You will be advised on aspects to incorporate into the final proposal after review, which will give it the maximum chance of success.

To start this process, just notify RKEO of your intention to submit an application to one of the Research Councils. Please note that the RPRS can take up to three weeks, so you will need to factor this in to any proposal writing timescales. If you wish to make an application and do not have sufficient time to go through the RPRS, then an appeal by email must be made to your Deputy Dean of Research (or equivalent) and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation.

Book now for the Digital Economy Sandpit

Feedback from BU staff who have participated in academic sandpits is always positive: “Sandpits stimulate creative thinking and encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone. They are an opportunity to learn from others whose approaches to research may be different from your own” – Prof. Adele Ladkin, School of Tourism, EPSRC Sandpit Participant

Sandpits provide an intensive, interactive and free-thinking environment. A group of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds use this space to get together to become immersed in a collaborative thinking processes in order to construct innovative approaches to issues or questions.

As sandpits involve diverse participants, they force catalysation, collision and collaboration. This produces unique and innovative outputs and fosters new partnerships.

We are facilitating with expert bid writer Dr Martin Pickard of GrantCraft, three 1-day sandpits at BU which focus around relevant Research Council UK cross-thematic areas. The next Sandpit is on Digital Economy Sandpit is being held on 17.04.13

Attending one of the sandpits will:

  • facilitate you networking with other researchers across BU who you wouldn’t normally come in to contact with
  • allow you to get a fresh perspective from a different discipline on the same issue
  • enable you to be part of a multidisciplinary team who potentially bids for Research Council funding
  • give you a truly unique experience

Spaces are limited for each of the sandpits and you can register for a place on the Staff Development website.

The research collaboration with Cambridge on the emerging strategic management scheme- Business Ecosystem

Post-award


I (Dr.Ke Rong) as the principal investigator have received an award from the Bournemouth Small Grant scheme. This project  has set up the collaborative research partnership with Dr.Yongjiang Shi (ys@eng.cam.ac.uk), the director of centre for international manufacturing of University of Cambridge. We have explored a new strategic management territory- business ecosystem in a multidisciplinary working environment by integrate the research methods from operation management (Dr.Yongjiang Shi’s expertise) and strategic management (Dr.Ke Rong’s expertise).

After ten months, we successfully completed the project. Specifically, our pilot research explored the evolution and construct of a business ecosystem. This pilot project also led to a funding bid by combining ideas in a multidisciplinary working environment ( strategic management and operation management) and fostering new and long term collaboration with prestigious universities like University of Cambridge. Two journal papers on the business ecosystem have been published and two others are submitted.

Besides,  the co-investigator and I also organized a research seminar on ‘Shanzhai business ecosystem’ in the Academy of Management Annual conference in Boston, 08/2012. More than 20 worldwide scholars attended and they recognized that our business school had dedicated to this emerging research theme- Business Ecosystem.

 

Rufus Stone to screen Monday 18th March at Kimmeridge

“Love, sexual tension, betrayal, abandonment, anger, sadness all simmering under the façade of British politeness”. –previous audience member.

The award-winning short film, Rufus Stone, will be featured by the Media School’s Narrative Group with a screening on Monday, 18th March at 1 pm in Kimmeridge (KG 03).  All are invited to attend.

Rufus Stone is the culmination of three years of Research Councils UK funded New Dynamics of Ageing research at Bournemouth.  The project, ‘Gay and Pleasant Land? was led by HSC and the Media School’s Kip Jones with a team of researchers and an Advisory Committee made up of older LGBT citizens and their service providers.

The film stars well-known actor, William Gaunt (“The Champions“) in the title role, with Harry Kershaw (“One Man, Two Guvnors“) playing young Rufus.  Rufus Stone was directed by Josh Appignanesi (“The Infidel“) with a story by Kip Jones.

Appignanesi describes the plot:

  • “Rufus Stone dramatises the old and continued prejudices of village life from three main perspectives. Chiefly it is the story of Rufus, an ‘out’ older gay man who was exiled from the village as a youth and reluctantly returns from London to sell his dead parents’ cottage, where he is forced to confront the faces of his estranged past.  Of these, Abigail is the tattletale who ‘outed’ Rufus 50 years ago when he spurned her interest.  She has become a lonely deluded lush.  Flip, the boy Rufus adored, has also stayed in the village: a life wasted in celibacy (occasionally interrupted by anonymous sexual encounters) and denial (who is) looking after his elderly mother.  But Rufus too isn’t whole, saddled with an inability to return or forgive”.

This screening (30 minutes) will be followed by a discussion by Jones on the use of biography, narrative and auto-ethnography in building the story for the film.

Trailer for the film. All are welcome!

Squeezing the pips from a conference with social media

Please forgive the self-publicity, but I would like to share my recent use of social media to promote BU, research, a conference and papers.

Last week, I attended the annual International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) in the US, where I presented three papers, one with a US co-author. It’s the largest conference in the field, drawing 101 papers over three days and attendance in the order of 150-175 academics, graduates and some practitioners.

To broadcast involvement in the conference, I used my personal blog to present a daily summary of interesting papers:  http://fiftyonezeroone.blogspot.co.uk/. The blog posts have had over 210 visits so far and were also circulated on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. There have been many re-tweets (RTs), plus appreciative emails and direct messages via Twitter.

A short summary of “top 10 research tips” was written for the prmoment.com website which has around 30,000 users, worldwide. It was posted on the site’s blog and is included in this week’s publication: http://blog.prmoment.com/ten-pr-research-tips-from-bournemouth-universitys-professor-tom-watson/

The outcomes of this type of activity will be long-term and hard to measure, but as I was the only UK delegate at IPRRC this year, it has given BU, our research and industry knowledge an international platform of expertise and insight to present ourselves. The capital cost was almost nil, as I used my own netbook, Wi-Fi was free and the time component was less than an hour a day. Try this approach at your next conference or internal event.

Tom Watson presenting at IPRRC 2013