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PGR Development Framework Programme – new workshops announced

An additional workshop – An Introduction to Case Studies – has been added to the March Programme:

An Introduction to Case Studies
This introductory session will provide a general overview of case methodology. Key questions to be discussed are: When should case studies be used? What characterises a convincing case study research? What criticisms are commonly put forward against case study research and how can they be addressed?”

Date: Wednesday 20 March 2013
Time: 14:00 – 17:00
Room: EB303, Executive Business Centre – Lansdowne
Facilitator: Dr Fabian Homberg
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

A full list of March workshops can be found here:  PGR Development Framework Prog _ March workshops

April Events

PGR induction (Repeat workshop)
Outline: Introduction to BU’s academic and professional support for your research degree.  The session will also include an introduction to the Research Development Framework and how to map your personal development.
Date: Wednesday 24 April 2013
Time: 10:00 – 13:00
Room: PG22 – Poole House – Talbot Campus
Facilitator: Graduate School
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk

Research Philosophy
Outline: The aim of this workshop is to examine the meanings of some key terms in the philosophy of science, with the objective of enhancing understanding of, and stimulating reflection on, some basic issues in research philosophy.
Date: Wednesday 24 April 2013
Time: 14:00 – 16:00
Room: PG22 – Poole House – Talbot Campus
Facilitators: Professor Barry Richards
Booking: gsbookings@bournemouth.ac.uk


 

 

Funding for meetings and networking activity available through COST

A Call has been launched under the European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) programme. You will know from my previous posts, that COST covers the costs of networking  activities such as meetings (e.g. travel, subsistence, support for the  organiser), conferences, workshops, short-term scientific exchanges,  training schools, publications and dissemination activities. To apply, you  must register online by 15/2/13 and  then apply by 29/3/12.

FIF SMN strand accepting applications

The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand has £45k to award from now until April 30th 2013.

The objectives , eligibility criteria and award limits are exactly as that found in the SMNPolicy document found on our  Fusion Investment Fund webpages.

Applications must be on this FIF Application Form and emailed to me when completed; as many people experienced problems with the online form, this format is no longer valid.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis by the Committee and the fund will close either when the fund expires or on April 30th 2013, whichever occurs first. You are encouraged to discuss your potential application with a member of the Committee to ensure it meets the remit of the scheme.

All vital information including policy documents, FAQs  etc can be found on the SMN webpage.

PhD Studentship Competition 2013 – 2nd Call for Matched Funded Studentships

Following the successful allocation of 39 PhD Studentships (fully and matched funded) under the 1st call, we are delighted to announce a 2nd call of the competition in which there are 5 matched funded studentships available for candidates starting in September 2013 as outlined below:

Matched-funding (50% equivalent to £24k over three years) may come from:

  • Industry/business partners,
  • Government and non-government organizations,
  • Academic Schools,
  • NHS,
  • Research Councils, or
  • Other external bodies.

Priority may be given to applications that involve supervisors from two or more Schools and/or those from early career researchers.

All proposals should match clearly to one of the eight BU Research Challenges:

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

Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with their Deputy Dean Research or equivalent within their School.

As with the 1st call, the PhD Studentships will be awarded to Supervisory Teams on the basis of a competitive process across the whole of BU led by Professor Matthew Bennett (PVC Research, Enterprise & Internationalization) and managed by the Graduate School.

Applications will be assessed and awards made by a cross University Panel. In selecting proposals for funding, emphasis will be placed on the excellence of the research and quality of proposal in the first instance.  Strategic fit with the REF and Societal Impact will also be assessed. The panel will individually score each proposal and meet formally to select the successful projects.

Only the best projects will be funded and proceed to advert. Full details and criteria are set out in the BU-Studentship-Competition-2013-Final-Policy (Rd2).  Staff are asked to check the eligibility criteria carefully before applying.

Proposals should be submitted on the Studentship-Project-Proposal-2013 (Matched Funding) to the Graduate School (phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk) no later than 5pm on Monday 18th March 2013.

All proposals must be completed fully, include all appropriate signatures and be accompanied by a supporting document from the matched funder (letter, email, etc).

Good luck!

 

Research Ethics training course coming soon!

You asked, we delivered! That’s right, due to popular demand BU has invested in an online research ethics training course. The course is mainly for post graduate research (PGR) students and academic staff. The course covers standard practice and recent changes in universities’ ethics relating to research that investigates people and their data. The course applies, for example, to the healthcare disciplines, to natural and social sciences, education and welfare services, humanities, law and media studies. Ethics standards apply very generally across many topics, methods and disciplines of research. This course has used several health research examples, because the ethics questions tend to stand out clearly in health research. Viewers working in other disciplines are invited to consider how the same questions apply to their own research.

The aims of the course are to help you to:

  • understand and use the frameworks and basic tools in research ethics debates
  • explain and justify your decisions about research ethics
  • know about resources for extending and updating your knowledge of ethics.

Please keep an eye on the blog for more information regarding when the course will go live. The course will be accessible via myBU.

EU Networking Fund still open!

The EU Networking Fund (EUNF) is open to any BU academics who want to network across Europe with a view to finding collaborators. We have a pot of money to support this scheme, and the fund will end when the pot is empty.
You can apply for support for a range of activities relating directly to networking, such as:
• Travel with the intent of networking
• Conference attendance with the intent of networking
• Attendance at external networking events leading to collaborative research proposals
• Meetings with external organisations to establish collaborations.

You can read more on this scheme in the EUNF Policy Document and make a submission using theEUNF Application Form; there is no deadline.

FIF – Staff Networking and Mobility Project- Visiting Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in South Korea

The University’s Fusion Investment Fund (Staff Networking and Mobility) has provided an excellent opportunity for building up international cooperation in research, education and professional practice. Over the years we have developed many international links with China, US, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey etc. These international links have played a significant role in our research activities through joint publications, developing research projects, submitting research proposal for external funding.

GIST is a world-class technical university which has recently started to focus on bridging art and technology, and is setting up a national research institute for art-technology fusion supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea. This matches extremely well with the ethos and practices of the NCCA that has been undertaking cutting edge research marrying art with technology.

Dr. Xiaosong Yang met Prof. Lee at SIGGRAPH2012 and had a long discussion exploring collaborative ideas. Prof. Lee has been working on physical simulation for many years, and has produced many quality publications on top journals, including SIGGRAPH (ACM Transactions on Computer Graphics). As we (Dr Yang and Prof Zhang) have been working on character animation for many years, both Prof Lee and us at the NCCA are strong players in our respective specialist subject fields and have complementary strengths. In order to consolidate our relationship and develop winning research projects, this proposed collaboration will start with joint research on physically based character animation.

Dr. Yang will give one week visit to Prof. Lee’s research lab at GIST around May/June 2013. The network activities, including guest lectures/talks, visits and meetings, will aim at promoting joint world-class research, exploring collaborations for joint-publications and future funding bids.

Researchers: Dr. Xiaosong Yang, Prof. Jian J Zhang (The Media School)

Xiaosong Yang   Jian J Zhang

Erasmus Mundus Call Open – INTERESTED?

 

The Erasmus Mundus 2013 call for proposals is now open!  Full details of the call can be found here and please note that this year’s call is for Action 2 and 3 proposals only.

We need to assess the level of interest across BU in submitting applications to this call in order to ensure we meet the guidelines re multiple applications.

If interested in applying, please contact Paul Lynch asap! –  plynch@bournemouth.ac.uk

Innovation Vouchers – work with local businesses, receive EU funds and get funding within a couple of weeks

The European Regional Development Fund ‘Innovation Vouchers’ provide funding for a business to work with an expert from BU, to gain new knowledge in order to help their business innovate, develop and grow.

There only conditions to obtaining this voucher is that the business:

  • Must not have worked with you previously
  • Must be a start-up, micro, small and medium-sized business (defined by the EC)
  • Must be located in the South West England Competitiveness Area
  • Must trade in an ERDF-eligible sector (i.e. not agri-food, textiles or retail)
  • Must have an innovative idea

The business will receive 40% support for projects ranging from £3,000 to £10,000 for the business to buy in external expertise from you to develop ideas and improve performance. The work must be undertaken between now and early 2015 and the best part is there is around a 2 week turnaround to tell you whether you have been successful. This truly is a great scheme.  

We have a visit from the ERDF representative who will give tips on applying and more details on the scheme in K101, 2-3 on Friday 1st February. There is also individual one to one time with the presenter 3-4pm. To book a place, simply email Emily Cieciura, RKE Operations.

 

 N.B. The Innovation Voucher  project is part financed by the Competitiveness European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs. For more information visit www.communities.gov.uk/erdf.

REF – Early Career Researcher

The University is currently preparing to take part in the first Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment, which is a national exercise to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

As part of this preparation, all REF eligible staff have been encouraged to disclose individual circumstances to HR (please refer to previous ‘REF’ blogposts for more information).  The first round of data collection closed in October 2012 and the next round of data collection is due to take place in May 2013. 

To help you to decide if you qualify as an early career researcher, please find below the official definition given by the REF team, extracted from the ‘Assessment framework and guidance on submissions’ document.

Early career researchers are defined as members of staff who meet the criteria to be selected as Category A or Category C staff on the census date, and who started their careers as independent researchers on or after 1 August 2009. For the purposes of the REF, an individual is deemed to have started their career as an independent researcher from the point at which:

a. They held a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater, which included a primary employment function of undertaking ‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’, with any HEI or other
organisation, whether in the UK or overseas, and
b. They undertook independent research, leading or acting as principal investigator or equivalent on a research grant or significant piece of research work. (A member of staff is not deemed to have undertaken independent research purely on the basis that they are named on one or more research outputs.)

For more information about the REF at BU, see the previous REF posts on the Blog by clicking on the ‘ref’ tag. You can also access additional information from the REF website.

Alternatively, you can contact myself or Rita Dugan in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development and Operations Team or leave a comment below.