German organisation DFG is to finance a pilot project that will digitalise archives across Germany in an attempt to save data and make it easily available for researchers which is great news if you have German collaborators. The pilot project will distribute just under €200,000 to each participating archive to test different ways of data digitalisation and access. The projects vary in length depending on each archive’s needs, but should last for over a year. The archives are supplying about a third of the costs from their own resources, and are in turn setting their own areas of interest. The state archive of Saxony, for example, will focus on the digitalisation of microfiches and microfilms. Hopefully this will pave the way for the UK archiving system too!
/ Full archive
A jar of moles!
I took the day off on Wednesday last week and did some really cool stuff in London, including watching Oscar Pistorius in the 100m semi-finals at the Olympic Stadium, having a lovely veggie lunch in Neal’s Yard, learning about Londinium at the Museum of London, and visiting a street art exhibition by Mr Brainwash. A fabulous, if not quite bizarre, day!
We also visited the Grant Museum of Zoology at the UCL campus at Euston which was amazing. This is a tiny museum, only one room, but it is jam packed with skeletons, pickled things in specimen jars and taxidermied animals, all housed within a Victorian-era style room. You almost have to blow the dust from the exhibits! Particular highlights were a jar stuffed full of moles (both repulsive and fascinating), a domestic cat with half its skin peeled back, a selection of elephant skulls, a display of pickled animal brains, and a badly taxidermied owl (why can they never get the eyes right?!). I also noticed a number of iPads set up around the museum for visitors to engage in dialogue about the exhibits either by adding comments or by answering questions about the museum, conservation policy, the role of science in society, etc. Apparently the responses are used to help the museum to make decisions about how it should be run and the information gathered is routinely shared with other museums. The museum was free to get in and I thoroughly recommend it as an excellent way to spend an hour in London.
So you may be wondering why I am writing about this on the BU Research Blog. Those of you who are regular readers of the blog may remember a post I added last summer about the amazing La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles (Excellent example of public engagement in research, resulting in societal impact) in which I discussed how the museum has made research part of the exhibition and visitors can see researchers at work and discuss the excavation with them. Well the Grant Museum of Zoology was similar and is no doubt doing wonders for UCL’s public engagement and research impact work. Not only does visiting the museum give members of the public the opportunity to venture onto UCL’s campus, the researchers work on-site and visitors can engage in dialogue with researchers at work. Each week a team of PhD students from disciplines across UCL spend time in the museum to engage with visitors – discussing their research as well as student life. The museum also features work from UCL researchers who are invited to co-curate exhibitions and installations about their current research with the aim of giving visitors a glimpse of what happens inside the University’s labs and workshops. The museum also regularly hosts activity sessions for school children from across London giving them the opportunity to learn from the collection.
This struck me as an excellent example of public engagement and research impact on many different levels and theimportance of generating a two-way dialogue with public audiences around research. I wondered how we could replicate this at BU and my immediate thoughts were that we can’t – we don’t own any prime real estate in London that we could convert into a museum for starters! However there are a number of key features that make this museum a success in terms of public engagement and research impact – including the crucial role of PhD students in public engagement activities, the benefits of presenting research findings in non-traditional academic outlets, inviting members of the public onto campus, encouraging feedback and discussion, and working with schools to engage school children with research and life at a university.
We already do some of this at BU and have significantly invested recently in support for public engagement, which is one of the enablers underpinning the BU2018 strategy. The BU Festival of Learning scheduled for June 2013 provides a fabulous opportunity to showcase the breadth of activity from across the University, and RKE Development and Operations are always happy to work with colleagues on developing ideas for public engagement / impact activities. If you have any ideas for public engagement activities or would like support from us in developing ideas, then contact my colleague Rebecca Edwards who will be be happy to talk your ideas through with you.
EU acknowleges need for single framework for professional development of researchers
A study part-funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and tested the professional development framework developed by the UK’s Vitae in different European settings has released some very interesting findings. The study into the feasibility of implementing a professional development framework for researchers across Europe has found that there is demand for such a framework, although nations vary in their readiness to participate in it. Now that this recognition has been gained, expect a framework to follow!
Intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves eye-witness identification: RDF grant report
In 2011 myself and Ben Parris from the Psychology Research Centre were awarded a small RDF grant to investigate whether intranasal inhalation of the hormone oxytocin can improve eye-witness identification. We designed an experiment where participants viewed a short video-clip of a perpetrator stealing a wallet from someone’s bag. Participants then inhaled either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray, and after a 45 minute interval to allow central oxytocin levels to plateau, were presented with a line-up of ten faces from which they had to either select the perpetrator or state that he was absent. To date we have tested 70 participants and found a facilitation in the oxytocin condition. In a second experiment, we asked participants to complete the ‘One-in-Ten’ task, a test of spontaneous eye-witness memory that has been well-used in previous work. Again, we found a clear facilitation in performance in the oxytocin condition.
These findings follow recent work that has demonstrated that oxytocin can improve face recognition performance in standard cognitive tasks in lab-based settings. In addition, work from our lab is currently under review for publication demonstrating that oxytocin can improve face recognition in individuals with prosopagnosia (face blindness). This RDF grant has therefore given us the funding to carry out key investigations demonstrating novel applications of oxytocin inhalation in more applied settings.
I also presented findings from the oxytocin project at the April meeting of the Experimental Psychological Society, and was delighted to meet Dr Markus Bindemann from the University of Kent who is something of an expert in eye-witness identification. We are now collaborating with Markus, and have plans to develop a bid to the Leverhulme Trust on the back of the publications that we hope will result from these investigations. We are also about to welcome a new PhD student to our lab, who will be further developing the forensic aspect of this work in more real-world national security settings.
The pump-priming that was made available to us via the RDF scheme has provided us with the opportunity to collect the initial data and publication basis that we need to develop a large external bid, and we hope that this is the beginning of a fruitful line of research for our laboratory.
BU EU Showcase Event date announced!
I am very excited to announce the date for this year’s EU Showcase Event! Last year’s event was a tremendous success and this year’s looks like it 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.
Women in Research
The University is in the process of applying for membership of the Athena SWAN Charter a processing being led by Professor Tiantian Zhang (Head of Graduate School). Athena’s aims for- the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in science, engineering and technology in higher education and research and involves the University accepting six key charter principles, namely:
i. To address gender inequalities requires commitment and action from everyone, at all levels of the organization
ii. To tackle the unequal representation of women in science requires changing cultures and attitudes across the organization
iii. The absence of diversity at management and policy-making levels has broad implications which the organization will examine
iv. The high loss rate of women in science is an urgent concern which the organization will address
v. The system of short-term contracts has particularly negative consequences for the retention and progression of women in science, which the organization recognizes
vi. There are both personal and structural obstacles to women making the transition from PhD into a sustainable academic career in science, which require the active consideration of the organization
This development is a welcome one and an important step forward for a modern and progressive University such as ours. The need to support and promote women in research is clear and I am sure that few would argue against this but if in doubt the need was elegantly made by a recent report published by the Royal Society of Chemistry on the ‘Chemistry PhD: the impact on women’s retention’. One of the striking figures from this report is that only 12% of third year female PhD students want a career in academia and that young women scientists leave academia in far greater numbers than men. This set me thinking about the issues more generally and much of what is identified in the report based on a review of Chemistry Department is no doubt relevant across all research sectors. In particular I was struck by the phrase ‘women do not wish to pursue an academic career . . . because they perceived the rewards on offer insufficient to overcome the challenges and compromise entailed’. The career being: to all-consuming, leading to compromise and sacrifice in other aspects of life; overly competitive and insecure in terms of tenure especially while post-docing; and poorly supported in terms of sound and fair advice which is often unduly negative. It was the last point that made stop and think most; what sort of advice do we provide, what sort of role models do we project and how do we encourage, mentor and support future academics of whatever gender? There is a lot in this and I would be interested in your views on this subject, especially from our own graduate students.
Royal Society Industry Fellowships
This scheme is for academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry and for scientists in industry who want to work on a collaborative project with an academic organisation.
It aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between those in industry and those in academia in the UK. The scheme provides a basic salary for the researcher and a contribution towards research costs. The scheme is funded by the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, Rolls-Royce plc and BP plc.
Eligibility requirements
The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine. The applicant must:
- have a PhD or be of equivalent standing in their profession
- hold a permanent post in a university, not-for-profit research organisation or industry in the UK
- be at a stage in their career when they would particularly benefit from establishing or strengthening personal or corporate links between academia and industry as a foundation for long-term collaboration and development
Applications involving spin-offs or small companies are encouraged. Applicants should clearly state how the fellowship will benefit the not-for-profit research organisation, especially in cases where the applicant has financial involvement within the company. Applicants should also state which complementary skills the employees at the company can offer.
Applicants should ensure that they meet all the eligibility requirements, which are explained in the scheme notes (PDF).
Value and tenure
The scheme provides the applicant’s basic salary while on secondment. The employing organisation continue to pay national insurance and pension contributions. Research expenses may be claimed up to the value of £2,000 per year. Awards can be for any period up to two years full-time or a maximum of four years pro rata, i.e. an award could be held at 50% part-time for four years enabling fellows to maintain links with their employing institution more easily.
Application process
Applications are initially assessed by Industry Fellowship panel members and a shortlist is drawn up. Shortlisted applications are then sent for independent review and are finally considered at a panel meeting, together with their nominated and independent references.
It is expected that applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application 4 months after the closing date of 5th October 2012.
The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
RCUK Digital Economy Theme: ‘Telling tales of engagement’ Competition 2012
The RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET) is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of your research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience. Closing date is 10th October.
Research Councils UK defines impact as ‘the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy’. Impact embraces all the diverse ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. These include (but are not limited to):
- Fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
- Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy
- Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
A key aspect of this definition is that impact must be demonstrable. It is not enough just to focus on activities and outputs that promote impact, such as staging a conference or publishing a report. Evidence of the research impact is required, for example, that it has been taken up and used by policy makers or has led to improvements in services or business.
Following on from the DE Impact Review conducted earlier this year, Digital Futures 2012 provides a great opportunity for digital economy researchers to not only demonstrate the academic impact of their research but also show the wider impact.
For full information, please visit the website.
If you would like to explore public engagement and impact around your research, please contact Becca on 01202 9(61206)
British Academy Calls
The British Academy have a number of funding opportunities available at present. To find out more details, please follow the links below:
Mid-career Fellowship – Deadline 2/9/12
Skills Acquisitions Awards– Deadline 31/10/12
Small Research Grants – Deadline 7/11/12
If you are interested in any of the above then the RKE Operations team can help you with your application.
Good Luck and Congratulations!
Congratulations to Venky Dubey (DEC) for securing funding from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA)/Obstetric Anaesthetists Association (OAA), Christos Gatzidis (DEC) for securing funding from the European Commision – Leonardo programmes, Crispin Farbrother (School of Tourism) for the implementation of the Hospitality Services – WSET Short course series
Good luck to Venky Dubey and Alexander Pasko (DEC) for their application for funding from the Wellcome Trust and Julie Robson and Chris Chapleo (Business School) for their application to the Technology Strategy Board
Munchausen by Internet
Online health forums offer much needed support, advice and friendship for people suffering with illnesses. But within this supportive atmosphere, unwelcome visitors sometimes lurk; a breed of malicious, hurtful Internet trolls masquerading as real group members.
Munchausen by Internet (MBI) sees people faking illnesses and fabricating serious health conditions in online support groups, building relationships with genuine sufferers and generating sympathy for their invented condition.
In one case documented in 2011, a brother and sister posed as relations of a multiple sclerosis sufferer on a social networking website and created an elaborate narrative, which included diagnosis of terminal cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a baby miscarriage, pneumonia and the death of a loved one through a heart attack. They trapped their victim – a genuine MS sufferer called Elizabeth – into providing half a year of time-consuming and emotionally draining interaction with themselves and their fake personas.[i]
Events such as these can have devastating effects on online health communities, destroying trust when the hoax is exposed and sometimes damaging the communities beyond repair. But what can be done to manage this more effectively?
Andy Pulman and Dr Jacqui Taylor from Bournemouth University are the authors of a recent article on MBI and its motivation, opportunity, detection, effects and consequences. They suggest that MBI trolling should be formally acknowledged: “This will help patients, caregivers and practitioners to more effectively identify cases of MBI and minimise the growth of this behaviour as more and more people seek reassurance and support about their health in an online environment,” they explain.
Pulman and Taylor also suggest that more research is required in order to provide victims of suspected MBI trolls with the right advice and for facilitators of discussion groups to effectively manage interactions. “There is a clear, compelling need to recognise that in addition to MBI being classed as a condition in its own right, there is a subsection of people currently tagged as MBI sufferers who are MBI trolls intentionally harming well intentioned support groups and abusing members for their own pleasure or enjoyment. It is this area which needs urgent attention and action either by group users or the creators of the software that host them.”
‘Munchausen by Internet (MBI): Current research and future directions’ is published by the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). Read it online here.
[i] Case documented in Cunningham JM, Feldman MD. Munchausen by Internet: current perspectives and three new cases. Psychosomatics 2011 Apr;52(2):185-189.
Research Professional
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
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Self registration and logging in
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Building searches
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Setting personalised alerts
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Saving and bookmarking items
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Subscribing to news alerts
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Configuring your personal profile
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
25th September 2012: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/156092065
23rd October 2012: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/864991824
27th November 2012: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/326491841
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
Cafe Scientifique: Prof Jeff Bagust – “Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – The Cardiac Foxtrot” – 7pm, 2nd October, Cafe Boscanova
W
ith only 4 weeks to go until the launch of Cafe Scientifique at Cafe Boscanova (don’t forget to put Tuesday 2 October in your diary!), we are pleased to announce that our first speaker will be Prof Jeff Bagust who will be giving a talk entitled:
“Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – The Cardiac Foxtrot”.
This fascinating and entertaining talk will light footedly glide us through the world of heart rate rhythms, how they are influenced and why our hearts need to respond to changing conditions.
The short talk will start at 7pm, followed by plenty of time for discussion. Cafe Boscanova will be selling their usual drinks and a small snack menu.
For those of you who missed our earlier post, Cafe Scientifique at Cafe Boscanova is a new public engagement venture being run jointly by Bournemouth University and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic. It will run on the first Tuesday of every month (starting in October) and over the next few months we will be bringing you a diverse range of speakers and subjects. All of this for the price of a coffee/glass of wine! Watch this space for more information on upcoming events.
Anyone interested in giving a talk should contact Becca Edwards for more information.
Festival of Learning – update
Many thanks to all those of you that submitted a proposal to run an activity during the Festival of Learning. I am delighted to report that we have received over 100 proposals for inclusion at the Festival. This indicates fantastic support from colleagues across all schools, which I believe will really help us showcase the best of BU next summer.
Given the volume of proposals that we have received, we are still in the process of reviewing and allocating funding for all these events. In some cases, this will mean developing the proposals directly with you in-order to ensure accurate costings and marketing. An internal steering group has been convened in-order to help us do this and regular updates on progress will be made available.
There is considerable work going on behind the scenes, and I am delighted to announce that Naomi Kay has now joined us a dedicated Events Co-ordinator for the Festival. I will be back in touch in the next few weeks to discuss the next steps relating to your event. After we have agreed how to progress with you, Naomi will contact you directly with regards to your availability and space requirements. However, if you require further information sooner, please do feel free to contact Becca directly on 01202 961206.
External Staff Profile Page to be updated
The BU External Staff Profile pages are being updated on Thursday, 6th September and will be unavailable from 16.00 to 22.00 hours.
The URL links for individual staff pages will be shortened and will reflect the ‘link’ icon within a staff page. The ‘link’ icon will then become active.
Missed the FP7 Capacities info day? See the presentations here!
Sometimes it just isn’t possible to get out of the office to attend events. Thankfully, the EC acknowledge this and post many of their presentations online! The FP7 Capacities info day was held a number of weeks ago and all presentations are available here
At an early stage in your research career? Then come to one of our ECR Forums!
Over the next six months we are running a series of forums for academic colleagues who are at an early stage in their research career. The first forum, held in July was a success and you can find out more about this session here.
The forums will be open, informal sessions where you can meet with a group of experienced academics and Julie Northam and Julia Taylor from the R&KEO to discuss anything you like to do with research. From publications to projects to funding to research strategy we will be on hand to help and advise. Lunch / refreshments will be provided.
The forums will be held at the following times and you will need to book to confirm your attendance (this is so we can order enough food and refreshments in advance)
17 September 12:30 – 15:00 The Octagon, Talbot Campus
19 November 12:30 – 15:00 EB702, The Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne
11 December 12:30 – 15:00 Casterbridge, Talbot Campus
BU Centre for Face Processing Disorders featured in the Independent
Bournemouth University’s new Centre for Face Processing Disorders (supported by HEIF and Fusion funds) was recently featured in an article in the Independent newspaper, together with quotes from BU’s Dr Sarah Bate.
Sarah’s work to date has explored the cognitive presentation and treatment of face processing deficits in adults and children with a range of neuropsychological conditions, such as developmental or acquired prosopagnosia (face blindness), autistic spectrum disorder, and Moebius syndrome. The Face Centre was launched in response to the large amount of media attention generated by Sarah’s research. After Sarah’s work was featured in The Guardian newspaper and in a BBC1 documentary last year, she has been contacted by over 700 people who believe they have prosopagnosia and would like to participate in her research. Given that most investigations into prosopagnosia to date have examined relatively small numbers of cases, Sarah now has the unique opportunity to develop large-scale academic and societal impact by having the resources to test this large patient group.
You can read the full article in the Independent here.
Follow the events in the Centre on their webpage or via Twitter (@BUfacecentre).
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