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Emerald Literati Network 2012 Awards for Excellence

BU research, Research assessment, Research Integritiy, Research news, Uncategorized

Professor Jonathan Parker

Professor Jonathan Parker, Deputy Dean for Research in the School of Health and Social Care has been chosen as an Outstanding Reviewer at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012. Each year Emerald names and rewards the Outstanding Reviewers who contribute to the success of the journals.  Each journal’s Editor has nominated the Reviewer they believe has been that title’s most Outstanding Reviewer.

The most Outstanding Reviewers are chosen following consultation amongst the journal’s Editors, whom are eminent academics or managers. Professor Parker was selected for the very impressive and significant contribution he made as a Reviewer to The Journal of Adult Protection throughout 2011.

Two useful Health Funding publications from the EC

EU

The EC has published two documents on successfully funded projects you may want to take a look at if you are interested in applying for future rounds of Health calls for proposals.

Health for the EU in 20 success stories is selection of successful projects funded by the EU Health Programmes, covering a wide range of health topics (e.g.  nutrition and healthy lifestyles, health inequalities, health information.)

EU Health Programme: working together to improve public health in Europe is an overview on public health projects with an important impact for the EU. It contains examples of good practice and case studies.

 

Transport Research and Innovation Portal updated

EU

The EC has launched an updated version of its online Transport Research and Innovation Portal. The website gathers information about over 7,000 transport research projects carried out in Europe and funded by national governments, the EU or other international bodies. Its aim is to promote the results of this research and to improve the links between transport research and policy. Check it out for yourself on the TRIP Portal.

Fusion Investment Fund surgery on 28th May – book your place now!

Fusion

The Fusion Investment Fund exists to support a range of practical initiatives and pump priming funds around Fusion.

Last month we launched three strands of the Fund:

We are currently finalising a series of events and workshops to support those interested in applying to this round of the FIF. These dates will be advertised next week however booking is now open for the first event.

28th May – FIF surgery – this is the first of three surgery sessions that will provide academics preparing proposals for one of the FIF strands with the opportunity to bring their ideas and drafts to discuss with Matthew Bennett and a team of experienced academics and to test out what makes a good, fundable proposal with a competitive edge. The session will be from 12:00-14:00 and will be held in PG146, Thomas Hardy Suite, Poole House.

If you would like to attend the session please complete the booking form on the Staff Intranet (link only works whilst you are on-campus).

BURO and Academic Staff Pages to become read-only

Guidance

The new publications management system, BRIAN, will be available from 22 June.  In order to migrate current data into BRIAN (Bournemouth Research, Information & Networking), the BURO and Academic Staff Pages will only be available in read-only mode from Monday, 28th May 2012.  Staff will be able to modify their profile using BRIAN from the 22 June.

I would advise you to stop inputting any further information into BURO from today, which will enable the BURO team within the Library to complete any outstanding actions.  From the 22 June staff will be able to use BRIAN to manage their BURO records.

You can update your Academic Staff Pages up until Sunday, 27th May 2012.  This information will migrate across to BRIAN and so any amendments made this week will be imported into the new system.

For those who have never heard of BRIAN – watch this space for a series of articles on the BU Research Blog and staff portal over the coming weeks.  We recently published details  link on a series of demonstrations for staff about the new system.  If you have any concerns or queries then please contact Jo Garrad in the Research Development Unit who is coordinating the BRIAN launch.  

I appreciate your cooperation over the next few weeks while we make the necessary transition.

Best wishes

Matthew

Thinking of making a Marie Curie submission this August…?

EU

Just a quick reminder of the excellent Marie Curie related resources we at BU to help you with a submission this August:

  • A summarised version of the key points from the draft work programme which also has the evaluation criteria for the call to help you write your submission  in a very targeted way I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Marie Curie Summary
  • Copies of previously awarded Marie Curie proposals on the I drive I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Rudy Gozlan’s Successful Marie Curie Grant applications
  • Tips on writing a proposal from our successful award holders as Rudy Gozlan and Bogdan Gabrys 
  • A specialist Internal Peer Review Panel process for Marie Curies (from successful grant holders) at BU in July
  • There is a EC Marie Curie Info day being hosted by the European Commission in June.
  • Expert Grantwriter Martin Pickards presentation slides on writing a Marie Curie bid I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Marie Curie Training Slides
  •  

I also wanted to remind you that if you are thinking of making a submission, it is imperative to let your R&KEO Senior Officer know as early as possible to enable them to complete the relevant documentation, obtain signed contracts and provide costings etc.

 

Increasing publication impact – Using social media, e.g. Twitter, blogs, YouTube, social networking, etc.

Guidance

Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as ‘tweets’. Academics are increasingly promoting their research papers via Twitter, which are then picked up by other researchers and practitioners. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Twitter allows you to set up search terms to enable you to monitor what is being talked about in your areas of interest. You can then comment on the relevant conversations. The more you engage, the more people will follow you to listen to your comments and recommendations. As followers come to you, rather than you approaching them, Twitter is an ideal way to reach new audiences.

Research indicates that highly tweeted articles were 11 times more likely to be highly cited than less-tweeted articles. Top-cited articles can be predicted from top-tweeted articles, with 93% specificity and 75% sensitivity (Eysenbach, 2011).

There are some excellent guides available on how to use Twitter for research projects, such as:

SAGE’s guidelines for how to use Twitter are available here: http://www.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdfs/twitterguidelines.pdf

BU guidelines on how to use Twitter are available here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/01/19/get-tweeting-using-twitter-for-research-projects/

LSE Impact of Social Sciences guidelines on using Twitter are available here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/

Paul Hughes from our M&C department is currently offering workshops to BU academics on how to get started with Twitter – read more here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/05/16/twitter-for-research-academics/

 

Blogs – Academics who blog about their research regularly report positive outcomes, such as networking and collaboration, finding new audiences and opportunities, disseminating research more widely, increasing citations and downloads, and building reputation. Bloggers argue that far from diluting scholarly success (as has been suggested by some academics), online writing can be a serious tool for academic practice. Blogging should be seen as part of a programme of dissemination and collaboration, and is best used alongside traditional academic outlets (such as journals) as a means of amplifying the reach, and potentially the significance and future direction, of the research. Research indicates that blogging about a research paper causes a large increase in the number of abstract views and downloads in the same month (McKenzie and Ozler, 2011).

Rather than setting up a personal blog, BU academics can add posts about their research to the BU Research Blog. The BU Research Blog is visible to a global audience and is searchable by search engines, such as Google. Good post topics could include:

  • Your area of research and papers that you have published – and/or other related papers in your field of research. Link to the full-text article/DOI for maximum impact.
  • Conferences and training events that you’re due to speak at.
  • Your last conference – were there any interesting questions that came up?
  • Your opinions about any recent press coverage of your subject area.
  • You can also ask your colleagues and co-researchers to add posts to the Blog and comment on your own posts to stimulate debate.

 All staff at BU can have access to add their own posts to the Research Blog. Just email me and I will set you up with access.

 

YouTube – Visual content accessed on sites such as YouTube is increasingly popular, particularly with students. The publisher Sage reports seeing an increasing amount of traffic to their journal sites via YouTube as students use video as an initial way of researching a topic. Many publishers are now embracing YouTube, for example the Sage YouTube channel is a collection of videos, primarily by academics, about Sage journal articles. BU has a YouTube channel and M&C are able to film short videos of academics discussing their research. These videos can then be used in multiple places to maximise impact. Watch Alan Fyall’s video below as an example:

httpv://youtu.be/RvR3fFDrTLQ

 

Join academic social networking sites – Academics are increasingly using social networking sites to meet and converse with people who share similar research interests. Examples include: MyNetResearch, Academia and Academici. On these sites you can see what other people are discussing and what issues are pertinent in your field of research. If you have undertaken research in these areas then you can contribute and share your research findings, which in turn should increase the citations/downloads of your work.

Tourism’s Richard Shipway wins award for Outstanding Reviewer

Featured academics

BU’s School of Tourism Richard Shipway has been chosen as an Outstanding Reviewer at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 .

Each year Emerald names and rewards the Outstanding Reviewers who contribute to the success of the journals.  Each journal’s Editor nominates the Reviewer they believe has been that title’s most Outstanding Reviewer. This year Richard received this nomination due to his role as Reviewer for the International Journal of Event and Festival Management throughout 2011, his efforts described as ‘very impressive’ and making a ‘significant contribution’.  

Well done Richard!

 

4th Annual PGR Conference – Thursday 28 June 2012

PG research

A Celebration of BU PGR Research

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

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

Call for Abstracts

We are inviting abstracts for oral and poster presentations from Post Graduate Research students at any stage of their research degree. 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 and oral presentations. Please be aware that the sessions for oral presentations are fully subscribed now but we continue to welcome abstracts for poster presentations before the extended deadline (see below).

We are also looking for volunteers to help organise the conference and chair sessions. If you are interested please email the Graduate School.

How to Register

All conference attendees, including contributors, will need to complete the booking form (Conference booking form (Word doc 83 Kb)) and send via email to:graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk

Deadlines

For submitting abstracts for poster presentations: Thursday 7 June
For attending the conference: Monday 14 June

Further details on presentation formats and programmes from previous conferences are available here.

DEFRA Call: Pesticides research and development requirements

Uncategorized

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs invites expressions of interest for its pesticides research and development requirements. The aim of this programme is to provide the science and evidence to underpin and develop the sustainable use of pesticides in the UK based on a robust pesticides regulatory system. The pesticides R&D programme is broken down in to the following high-level themes:

•human health (PS26 and PS20);

•analytical chemistry (PS25);

•ecotoxicology (PS23 and previously PS24);

•environmental fate and behaviour (PS22);

•pesticide resistance (PS27);

•alternative plant protection methods (PS21);

•specific policy support (PS28).

The budget for 2012/2013 is £3.3 million. CTX 1129.

  • Closing date 29 Jun 12
  • Deadline information Deadline time: 4pm.
  • Award type Directed grants to institutions, research groups etc; Tenders; Directed grants for individual investigators
  • Award budget total £3,308,000

All documentation can be found under ‘Call for Expression of Interest’.

Please provide 3 hard copies and 1 electronic copy of the Expression of Interest form to Julie Howarth:

Julie Howarth, R&D Co-ordinator, Policy Implementation Team (R&D)

Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD)

Health & Safety Executive (HSE)

214 Mallard House

Kings Pool, 3 Peasholme Green

YORK, Y01 7PX

Tel: 01904 455737 (GTN 5138 5737)

Email: julie.howarth@hse.gsi.gov.uk

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

Info day reminders!

EU

Info days are key opportunities to find out more on calls, ask questions and most importantly… to network! Take a look at some forthcoming ones and see if there are any you could make to help boost your list of potential collaborators.

ICT FP7 Info Days: There are 2 info days coming up. The first is at the University of Wolverhampton on 13.06.12. This event is aimed at  the research and business communities who are interested in submitting project proposals to FP7 ICT Call 2013. The aim is to provide information to UK organisations on the FP7 ICT theme calls, i.e. to help participants better understand the work programme and criteria for the evaluation of proposals, to facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences, and to meet potential partners for project consortia. You will need to register on the FP7 ICT Information Event booking site to attend. The second day is organised by the EC  in collaboration with the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Polish National Contact Point, is organising the ICT Proposers’ Day 2012, to be held in Warsaw on 26 and 27 September 2012. This two day event will provide networking opportunities for researchers interested in submitting proposals to the 2013 Work Programme calls. The event will also offer the chance to present your project ideas, provide first-hand information from European Commission officials, guidance on how to present a successful proposal and much more. The event will be free of charge, but attendees must register in advance. Online networking and registration will open at the end of June.

Health FP7 Info day: The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will host the UK Open Info Day for the 2013 Health Call on the 16th of May. The event, organised jointly between the NPL, the Healthtech and Medicines KTN and FP7UK, is open to academic researchers, SMEs, Industry, NHS, charities and public bodies, and anyone interested in finding out about the opportunities in this year’s call.Places are free but on a first come first served basis so register quickly if you want to attend!

Environment FP7 Info Day:  booking isn’t yet open but the info day is likely to be 11.06.12 and not 12.06.12 as originally planned.

Social Sciences and Humanities FP7 Infoday: This is a training and information day by the UK’s expert advisors (National Contact Points) on FP7- Social Sciences and Humanities, FP7 – Science in Society and HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area).  Each session will include a presentation, case study and Q&A. If you wish to attend the event complete the form below before and return it to Depcoord@soton.ac.uk before 25th May 2012:

Your Name  
Email Address  
University  
Will you be staying for lunch?  
Do you want to arrange a 1:1 with a speaker? If yes please advise details  
Do you have any special dietary requirements?  

KBBE (Food, Agriculture, Fisheries & Biotechnology) FP7 Info Day: An open information day and brokerage event will take place on 16 July 2012 in Brussels, Belgium.  The programme will consist of plenary sessions and several parallel workshops on participating in FP7 KBBE. Participants will also be able to exchange information and network at a special session where various service providers will be present.  The conference will bring together research stakeholders, from both the public and private sectors from the EU and Third Countries, together with the Commission, to provide information and to find partners for projects to be funded under the upcoming FP7-KBBE-2013-7 call.

Space FP7 Info Day: COSMOS, the EU Space National Contact Point (NCP) network, will deliver the International Information event on the 2013 FP7 Space Call. This event will take place on 20 and 21 June at the University of Surrey.Participants will be provided with: 

  • first-hand information on the Call content and on future EU Space funding under Horizon 2020;
  • pre-organised as well as spontaneous matchmaking opportunities via face-to-face meetings;
  • short presentations on project ideas and the competencies of potential partners;
  • profile poster session; and
  • spontaneous networking opportunities in a relaxed environment.

It is expected that potential applicants from all over Europe will attend this event. People interested in attending this event are required to register and submit their ‘co-operation profile’ before 10 June.

European Maritime Day 2012: The 2012 edition will be held in Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden – for the first time in Scandinavia and in the North Sea area. The theme of this year’s conference is “Sustainable growth from the oceans, seas and the coasts: Blue growth”. The purpose is to highlight the importance of the seas and oceans and the challenges facing maritime regions and sectors.

TurKey Enabling Technologies 2012 International Brokerage Event (Istanbul, 25.05.12): This high-level event – which is organised under the scope of TUBITAK’s Turkey in FP7 project – will bring together 300 researchers and organisations involved in: Biotechnology; Advanced Materials; Advanced Manufacturing & Processing; and Space Technologies; with the desire and capability to help overcome a wide range of challenges.

Public Private Partnerships Info Day on 2013 Calls for Efficient Energy Buildings, Green Cars and Factories of the Future: The European Commission will be holding an information and brokerage event on the next (and final) calls under FP7. The event on these 2013 calls, which are funded through various themes within the FP7 Co-operation Programme, will take place on the 9-10 July 2012 in Brussels. The agenda includes roundtable discussions on future outlook of these three PPPs under the EU’s next research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. You can register on the Event website.

Would you like to travel? Categories for the latest round of Winston Churchill Fellowships have been announced and there is something for everyone

Funding opportunities, PG research

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust is looking for people who:

  • Would benefit from experience overseas so that their effectiveness in their career or field of interest was enhanced
  • Are in a position to disseminate their new knowledge and examples of best practice for the benefit of their communities and the UK

In the past the School of Tourism has been particularly successful in obtaining these fellowships with 4 members of staff (and 2 spouses) gaining awards. The funding is good, and being a fellow opens you up to a range of networks and opportunities that are often not normally easily accessible.

The categories for this year are listed below, and seem to cover most areas of interest in the University.  It is important to pitch you application correctly, and there are qualifications as to who may apply (you need to be a British Citizen), so please feel free to come and have a chat.  Closing date is 2 October 2012. 

Science, Engineering & Technology: Applications are welcome from right across this wide field, especially with respect to the popularisation of science, reverse innovation and smart growth. 

Environment, Food & Rural Affairs: Those involved in the countryside, food production, environment and conservation, including those interested in the natural environment and biodiversity and waste management. 

Education: Applications are sought from those working to improve the achievement of students aged 5-19, with particular emphasis on English, Maths, Science and Technology. We are also seeking applications from Deputy Head Teachers who are future Head Teachers, in a joint project with the Farmington Trust. 

Business, Industry & Commerce: We are especially interested in those running Social Enterprises who wish to learn from models overseas, particularly in emerging markets. We’re also keen to receive applications for projects focussed on making Corporate Social Responsibility more effective.  

Medical and Health: Applications are welcome from across this wide spectrum, especially from those with an interest in alcohol-related health issues and continuity of care, both medical and management.  

Communities that Work: This category is for those working in all areas of developing stronger and more effective communities. (This is the second year of a joint project with The Rank Foundation). 

The Creative Industries: Applications are welcome from anyone in this wide field wishing to research new and innovative ideas from overseas.  

The Arts and Older People: Those providing opportunities for older people in all aspects of music, dance, drama and the fine arts. (This is the second year of a joint 3 year project with The Baring Foundation). 

Prison & Penal Reform: Those involved in prison and penal reform and related sentencing issues, who are interested in projects that reduce re-offending and contribute to a just, humane and effective penal system. (A joint project with The Prison Reform Trust and supported by the ICPS) 

Open: Anyone with an appropriate project not covered by other categories, including Exploration (expedition leaders only), and Music Education (a joint project with The Finzi Trust), should apply here.

Further details at: http://www.wcmt.org.uk/

 

 

 

Increasing publication impact – open access publishing

Publishing

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceResearch indicates that articles published via open access outlets normally achieve higher citation counts and increased downloads. Open access publishing typically has much shorter publication times, often only 2-3 months between submission and publication. This means your research findings can be in the public domain while they are still novel, which makes them more likely to be picked up by colleagues. Research by David et al. (2008) found that open access articles were associated with 89% more full text downloads, 42% more PDF downloads, and 23% more unique visitors than subscription access articles in the first six months after publication.

BU staff have access to a dedicated central budget – the Open Access Publication Fund – to meet open access publishing costs.

European Technology Platforms set for a revamp

EU

The industrial partners of the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) are exploring how they can revamp ETPs to create a better fit with Horizon 2020.

There are currently 36 ETPs, which were created in 2003 as industry-led thematic groups that define research agendas for Europe in their respective fields. Joining ETPs in your research area is an important strategic move as you will meet academics and businesses leaders with complimentary research interests, allowing you to form consortiums to bid for EU research funding your ETP has recommended.

We know for Horizon 2020 that industry, academia and users will need to work closely together to speed up innovation. With this in mind t is possible that the ETPs will be broken down into more targeted clusters which address Horizon 2020’s focus on tackling problems and exploiting opportunities.

I would advise joining an ETP so you can keep up to date with how these new clusters may operate. Instructions for joining can be found on this previous blogpost.

 

Fusion Investment Fund – call deadline 1 July 2012!

Fusion

The Fusion Investment Fund exists to support a range of practical initiatives and pump priming funds around Fusion.

Last month we launched three strands of the Fund:

We are now seeking applications to each of the strands. The deadline is 1 July 2012.

The panels have been appointed and are meeting in early June to agree specific criteria and FAQs for each of the strands.

Sam Furr joined BU today as the FIF Administrator and will be promoting the Fund over the coming months.

We are currently arranging a number of proposal writing sessions to support staff writing applications to the Fund. Further details on these sessions will be added to the Blog shortly.

If you have any queries about the Fund please email FusionFund@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Interesting Talk Next Wednesday: Evolving Simple and Complex Structures To Combine Predictors

Featured academics, Uncategorized

Our next speaker of the STRC seminar series will be Dr Athanasios Tsakonas. The talk will take place next Wednesday, 23rd of May in Lawrence Lecture Theatre at 16:00 h (please click for a map)

In my personal view, this is a very interesting talk for those of us working on any kind of predictive approaches. Please find below more details.

Title:
Evolving Simple and Complex Structures To Combine Predictors

Abstract:
The popularity of ensemble systems in real-world problems is a natural result of their effectiveness for a range of tasks, where single predictors or classifiers can overfit or provide weak solutions. A primary property in ensemble systems, contributing to their ability to generalize better is a combination of individual performances and diversity among individual learners. This lecture presents effective approaches for the generation of multi-level, multi-component combined predictors, through a grammar driven evolutionary framework. Several grammar schemes are presented for the production of hierarchical and fuzzy rule based ensembles. Candidate architectures are investigated in terms of data resampling, and different training approaches are tested, involving ensemble diversity measures

This is a short curriculum of our speaker:

Dr. Athanasios Tsakonas received his M.Eng in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and his M.Sc. and Ph.D from University of the Aegean. His Ph.D thesis was “Computational Intelligence in Complex Managerial and Financial Domains – The Evolutionary Neural Logic Network Paradigm”. Athanasios has gathered strong experience in the analysis, design and development of specialized computational intelligence systems, with applications in the financial and medical sector. His experience includes participation in European and domestic research projects (such as BOEMIE, SHARE, EUNITE, INFER, etc.), occupation of related research positions in top research centers (such as N.C.S.R. Demokritos) or in the private sector (banks, software development companies, etc.), as well as teaching related courses in universities (Aristotle University of Salonica, Demokritus University of Thrace, etc.). His research interests include computational intelligence, data mining, genetic programming and complex systems. He has published 1 book and more than 45 articles in total, in international scientific journals, conferences, or as book chapters. He is with the Smart Technology Research Centre, Bournemouth University, since January 2011.

Best Wishes, Emili