School of Tourism’s Ivana Rihova – a PhD Student at the John Kent Institute in Tourism – certainly experienced what ‘getting stuck in’ with fieldwork can feel like at this year’s summer festivals. As part of her research project entitled “Consumers as producers: customer-to-customer co-creation in the context of festival experiences” Ivana is visiting five multi-day outdoor festivals in England and Wales this summer. Through participant observation and interviews with festival goers she aims to explore how value is co-created in the context of festival participants’ social practices and experiences.
Ivana’s research, supervised by Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, Dr. Miguel Moital and Dr. Mary Beth Gouthro (all based at the School of Tourism), highlights various issues related to customer co-creation in socially dense festival contexts. The findings will not only contribute theoretically to our understanding of how people co-create value with each other, but could also help turn event and festival experiences from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
/ Full archive
Seen but Seldom Heard – BU helps give young disabled people a voice through poetry

Students at the Victoria Education Centre in Branksome, Poole, have been taking part in poetry workshops and will be performing their work as part of the Paralympics celebrations in Weymouth.
Seen but Seldom Heard, is an on-going collaboration between academics from the Media School and the School of Health and Social Care, artists and the school using creative participatory methods to help young disabled students to find a voice through poetry.
The project, which has received funding from the BU Fusion Fund, BU Aim Higher and the BU Foundation, aims to give the students at the Victoria Education Centre the creative tools to explore perceptions and representations of disability within society using their own individual and collective experiences.

The students involved, working with Performance Poets Liv Torc and Jonny Flufflypunk, have produced some startling and surprising work drawing inspiration from Paralympic symbols and media portrayals of Paralympic athletes. This work will then be showcased at three major events via live performance and film:
1. Thursday 30 August, 7.30pm – Live performance at ICCI 360 Arena in Weymouth as part of the Paralympics celebrations in Weymouth.
2. Friday 21 September – Live performance and first public viewing of the documentary of the project. Allesbrooke Lecture Theatre, Talbot campus at Bournemouth University.
3. Wednesday 10 October– Live performance at the Bridport Open Book Festival 2012
Videos of the students performing their work as well as a blog detailing the workshops and a selection of poems can be found on the Seen but Seldom Heard website.
A poetry book will also be available for purchase from the end of August with proceeds going towards the funding of a Poet in Residence at Victoria Education Centre.
Seen But Seldom Heard Live featuring guest poet John Hegley will be held on Thursday 30th August – 7.30pm Weymouth Pavillion. Tickets are just £5 and are available now from the Weymouth Pavilion Theatre Box Office. Contact 01305 783225 or click here to purchase online.
Find out more about the Lifelong Learning Programme
The Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) is a great way to launch your EU career. It is run by the EC and provides opportunities for organisations, staff and learners involved in education and training across Europe to work together, learn from each other’s’ expertise, and widen their experience of other cultures and languages. The LLP is made up of several programmes, each aimed at a specific target group. The most relevant for BU staff are:
- Erasmus (focused on Higher Educaution)
- Leonardo (focused on Vocational Education and Training)
- Grundtvig (focused on non-Vocational Adult Education)
- Transversal (focused on Learning Professionals)
There is a useful free infoday being held in Brussels on November 12th which will provide info on the 2013 call for proposals and give practical advice on proposal preparation and submission. There will also be presentations from successful award holders and the infodays are always a key opportunity for networking with other interested academics from around the world so is a very valuable experience.
However, you may not be able to take time out of your schedule to attend so very helpfully the EC are also broadcasting this live online. You will also have an online ‘chat’ facility to search and get in touch with other people looking for partners to participate. If you aren’t free on the 12th of November, you will also be able to access the videos online afterwards.
Registration for both attending and receiving the webstream will be available in September; you can keep an eye on the EACEA webpage for this opening. You can also whet your appetite for this funding programme by reading our successful Leonardo grant holder Dr Christos Gatzidis’ experience of participating in his excellent blogpost.
The deadlines for the programme this year are 03/12/2012, 16/01/2013, 31/01/2013, 01/02/2013, 15/02/2013, 21/02/2013, 28/02/2013, 08/03/2013, 28/03/2013, 30/04/2013, 17/09/2013
Animating Stillness: The convergence of painting, animation and photography
BU’s very own Artist in Residence and Lecturer in the Media School, Susan Sloan, recently had her exhibition of motion capture portraits displayed on The Wall at The Photographers Gallery in London. Susan’s work raises issues in terms of data object relations and computer animation – or ‘animatography’.
Using motion capture data as the core material, Susan’s work explores the portrait through the medium of animation, focusing on the simple gestures and movements of her subjects. Framed as a single shot and composed around the head and torse of the sitter, the work refers to the traditions and conventions of portraiture, but raises questions concerning the convergence of painting, animation and photography.
Susan’s Me and Mrs Sloan (2007) – pictured above – explores data object relations in the form of a motion captured portrait of her mother synthesized with motion captured movement by herself. It is a work about the potential space itself. In this instance, Susan has modelled the head and upper torso of her mother, in 3-D animation software, and then animated the head and shoulders, based on subtle motion captured material of herself. In this way, the data object is her mother combined with herself in terms of the motion captured material. It is Sloan’s work, and therefore the dialogue with what is ‘not-me’ is a fascinating one. The motion captured material is also ‘not-my-mother’, and instead it is a record of Sloan’s slight movements. A full review of Susan’s show is available here.
Fusion Investment Fund allocates £362k in first round!
We were delighted to receive so many applications for each of the strands under the Fusion Investment Fund and want to give a quick update on how many applications were successful in the first round.
All BU staff will know that Fusion is the key concept that underlies Vision & Values 2018; it is our key academic strategy and central to the culture of BU. The Fusion Investment Fund is comprised of three funding strands which staff can apply to in order to support activities which will drive Fusion within BU. The three strands are:
The first competition under the Fusion Investment Fund was launched in April, with a closing date in July. Each application was reviewed by a panel dedicated to each of the strands (the hyperlinks above detail the panel membership). The three panels approved 13 applications under the Staff Networking & Mobility strand, 4 under Study Leave and 9 under Co-Creation and Co-Production were supported, totalling more than £362, 000.
Staff representing all Schools were successful in this first round of the Fusion Investment Fund and we will shortly be publicising the supported activities around both campuses.
The next round of funding will be available in December, and applications will be taken from October. We are currently revising some of the policy documents, but if you are thinking about applying why not take a look at the existing documentation using the hyperlinks above to get a flavour of what funding you can apply for under Fusion Investment.
Sam Furr in the Research Development Unit is the administrator for the fund and available for any questions you may have in the meantime.
Marie Curie Info and Proposal Writing Events
Registration is now open for the ‘Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) and Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) General Information and Proposal Writing’ events, organised by the Marie Curie National Contact Point. One is in Edinburgh on 17th September and the other in Warwick on September 27th.
The aim of the sessions is to provide participants with an overview of the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks scheme (ITNs), including the European Industrial Doctorate (EID) Programme and the Innovative Doctoral Programme (IDP), and Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways scheme (IAPP), and with a deeper understanding of the key issues they are required to address in planning and writing a proposal. The Marie Curie ITN call closes on 22 November 2012 and the IAPPs will open on 2 October 2012 and close on 16 January 2013.
KTPs need you!!
Now is the time to find out if your area of research interest can be applied in the work-place with the assistance of a government grant.
The Technology Strategy Board has just released figures from their recent Knowledge Transfer Partnership approvals meeting. In May 2012, 42 classic KTP proposals were submitted with 34 being supported. That is an 81% success rate. Only 12 Shorter KTPs were submitted, with 10 of these being supported. This gives an excellent 83% success rate. They are looking for over 100 per approval meeting. Consequently, the Technology Strategy Board is very keen to see more quality applications.
So, if you are thinking of engaging with the technology exchange process, now would be a good time to make the most of your industry contacts. The TSB offers support throughout the process via their KTP Advisors. You do not always need to submit a full proposal at the outset but can use an Expression of Interest application to ‘test the water’.
For those of you not familiar with KTPs, Classic KTPs are normally between 12 and 36 months and are broadly strategic in their outcomes. Shorter KTPs are between 26 to 51 weeks and have more tactical outcomes. Both employ a recent graduate as the project associate, supported by the company and academic supervisors, to complete a specific company-based project. For more detailed information on this successful and long-running funding scheme, please go to the KTP website or just search for ‘KTP’. There are resources specific to the needs of the academic, the company and the associate. Check out _connect and join one of the Knowledge Transfer Networks.
There is also help within BU. Peter Delgado (BU’s Commercialisation and KTP Officer) should be your first port of call (pdelgado@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961215). In addition, if you are visiting a company and think that a KTP might be just what they need, KTP marketing materials are available from Emily Cieciura (ecieciura@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 968241).
Grants Academy activities for 2012/13 – watch this space…..
The next round of Grants Academy applications is just around the corner and will soon be advertised on the Research Blog – be sure to watch this space !
We’ve also been busy planning sessions for the new academic year. Details will be advertised shortly, but we will be offering lunchtime sessions on a variety of topics: Sandpits (what are they? how can you get involved?), public engagement, building a collaborative bid, networking, ethics and more.
Another extremely useful element of the Grants Academy is weekly bid writing clinics – these are taking place from mid-September, again, a schedule of dates, places and times will be published v. soon.
What is the Grants Academy? The Grants Academy provides an excellent opportunity to develop the skills and expertise required to design, write and structure a competitive, fundable research proposal. Academics attend an intensive two-day training workshop delivered by Dr Martin Pickard which looks at how to write a winning grant proposal and then receive dedicated support afterwards for a period of 18 months to write research proposals.
If you have any questions, or would like to express your interest in joining the Academy then email Caroline O’Kane and she’ll provide further details.
Engaging the public: putting the people back into democracy


Regular blog readers will have heard me talk a lot about how, as academics, we can engage with a much wider public and the benefits of doing so.
However, questions around how to engage the public are not just for academics, but critical for our politicians, policy makers and proponents of democracy seeking to ensure our political system is representative.
At BU, researchers from the Politics and Media Research Group including Dr Richard Scullion, Prof Barry Richards, Dr Dan Jackson, Dr Shelley Thompson, Dr Darren Lillker, Dr Kris Erickson and Dr Ana Adi are exploring how politics can engage the public, excite them, interest them and involve them in a time of seemingly widespread disinterest, disengagement and distrust in our political system.
As a group, their research focuses on political communication and in particular understanding the political consumer, how to engage and mobilise members of the public using the latest technologies, and how to understand the impacts of communication.
The purpose of the event was to create a two-way dialogue between political communicators, members of the public and our researchers, with attendees including local politicians, local campaigners, MPs and members of the public recruited via social media.
The day was divided around brief, interactive presentations before lively and animated discussion took place. In particular, debate was focused around why the public show disinterest in our political system and how we might consider re-engaging the public, encouraging people to get involved in politics. Dr Ana Adi has put together a Storify of the day that capture some of this discussion, which you can find here.
The event was a great example of the importance of sharing research findings with a targeted audience, who in turn through the lively discussion have been able to contribute to the co-creation of knowledge around this key political issue of our time.
For further details about the event, please contact Dr Darren Lilleker or see his blog
Further materials that helped inform the debate can be found on Dr Ana Adi’s website, which can be found here
More information about the Politics and Media research group can be found on their microsite.
If you are interested in developing an activity to engage the public around your research, please contact Becca in the RDU on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk / 01202 961206.
Accessibility in Tourism funding available
The Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry has issued a call for proposals on mapping skills and training needs to improve accessibility in tourism services. The project must map the staff skills needed to improve accessibility and safety in tourism services, and analyse the availability of the corresponding training, either in EU states and Croatia or available for transference from other regions. The project must also produce a collection of best practices through a selection of case studies. Funding is worth an estimated €100,000 over 12 months.
Proposed Copyright Hub to Streamline Copyright Licensing
Recommendations for the establishment of a Digital Copyright Exchange, contained in a final report into its feasibility, have just been published following a Department of Business, Innovation and Skills funded study undertaken by Richard Hooper, click here.
Given the amount of digital material available and likely to be created in the future, it is essential to streamline the process of copyright licensing. Having easier mechanisms to obtain the appropriate copyright licences will benefit rights holders and potential licensees.
The report recommends the creation of a not-for-profit industry-led, industry-funded Copyright Hub, and the establishment of a steering group to drive forward and oversee the design and implementation of the Hub.
The Copyright Hub will have five main purposes, to:
- act as a signpost and be a navigation mechanism to the complex world of copyright
- be the place to go for copyright education
- be the place where any copyright owner can choose to register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted
- be the place for potential licensees to go for easy to use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing
- be one of the authoritative places where prospective users of orphan works can go to demonstrate they have done proper, reasonable and due diligence searches for the owners of those works before they digitise them
The Government’s response to these proposals is awaited.
Have you co-authored a paper with a student this year? If so we want to hear from you!
M&C are currently working on the BU Annual Review and are looking for information on outputs that have been published in the past academic year that have been co-authored between academics and students.
If you have co-authored any papers with students or know of any BU colleagues who have then Toby Horner in M&C wants to hear from you so this can be included in the Annual Review. Contact Toby by email (hornert@bournemouth.ac.uk) or telephone on extension 61328.
Erasmus for All update
You may remember that earlier this month I posted an update you on the latest Erasmus for All plans. Last week, the official draft of the Erasmus for All programme was published. It pretty much confirms what my previous blogpost suggested, but in case you want to read it in all its glory, you can do so here: Erasmus For All draft report 20.07.12
Finally just a reminder that the Erasmus Student Network survey is still open for responses until the end of the month if you wish to get involved, as per my previous blogpost.
Economic impact – UK universities contributed £3.3bn to the economy in 2010-11!
HEFCE announced last week that in 2010-11 UK universities contributed £3.3 billion to the economy through services to business, including commercialisation of new knowledge, delivery of professional training, consultancy and services, a rise of 7% from 2009-10.
Interestingly HEFCE note that despite wider economic uncertainty, spending on university services by large business increased by 7% indicating that universities are stimulating public growth and contributing to public services and society. Income to universities from facilities and services – such as digital media suites – increased by 12% from 2009-10 to 2010-11.
In addition collaborative research and contract research income also grew (by 16% and 7% respectively) showing an increase in the application of knowledge to solving real world problems.
You can read the full story on the HEFCE website here: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2012/name,73740,en.html
Kimberley and Susan at Eurochrie
Kimberley Kirk-Macaulay and Dr Susan Horner are to present a paper at Eurochrie Lausanne in October 2012. The paper that is based on Kim’s final year dissertation is entitled:
‘Status seeking consumer behaviour and its impact on the hospitality consumption of young professional females’
The paper considers the research that was carried out using a long focus group to elicit ideas, raise issues, and gain a greater understanding of consumer behaviour relating to hospitality decisions and finishes by making recommendations for the hospitality sector.
‘This is a very exciting development because it starts the process of publishing outstanding student work in the hospitality field’ says Dr Susan Horner, School of Tourism.
British Science Festival, Newcastle 2013

Do you want to take your public engagement activities to a much wider audience and be part of the UK’s premier science festival? In which case, you might want to think about putting in a proposal for the British Science Festival is 2013. Now is the chance to get involved!
The Festival theme for 2013 is ‘Making Waves’ – so if you will need to think about ideas that have impact and will have impact in the future! The British Science Association is also looking for lots of creativity and controversy, so get your thinking caps on – it would be great to see a BU presence!
You can propose events to take place in the main programme, the city programme and the young people’s programme. For full details, please click here
If you would like some help in thinking about what you could offer or preparing a proposal, please do not hesitate to contact Becca on 01202 961206.
Mind your head conference, 12th August, Kingston Maurward College
Colleagues with an interest in the Heath, Wellbeing and Ageing research theme, may be keen to hear details of this conference which is taking place locally on 12st August. Registration is required this week!

Mind Your Head Conference
Date/Time
Date(s) – 12 Aug 2012 10:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location
Kingston Maurward College
Discover how to increase your mental potential, improve your memory and enhance the well-being of your mind at this unique event.
You only have one mind and its well-being is intrinsically linked to the success of your future. By taking care of your mind now, you can maintain its vitality for longer. As a business owner, manager, student or individual, you need your brain to be working at its full potential to cope with the pressures and vast amounts of information of every day life.
£95 – Pay by PayPal or card
Businesses are built on brain power, so it is vitally important that you make the best use of this most important asset. If you increase the mental potential in your business by engaging your team emotionally and mentally, then you can gain a competitive edge.
This amazing conference is for anyone who wants to take a pro-active approach to maintaining and enhancing the phenomenal power of their own or their employees’ brains.
It brings four internationally renowned speakers to Dorset. They will deliver their expertise on how you can increase your mental potential and wellbeing. Tony Buzan will also dispel some of the myths about the ageing brain and encourage a more positive attitude to those working in their later years.
The conference will be chaired by Valerie Singleton
Speakers:
Tony Buzan: Older, Better and Still Working Brain
Creator of Mind Mapping and Founder/ President of The Brain Trust Charity
Dominic O’Brien: How to Unleash Your Memory
Eight times world memory champion
Wayne Bennett: The Benefits of Lifelong Learning
Director of Dillington House and Chair of ARCA
Leontxo Garcia: Chess, the Best Gym for the Mind
Spanish journalist, researcher, lecturer and Chess Master
TICKETS : Just £95 inclusive of conference, buffet lunch and entry to the Showcase.
Group discount for tickets are available on request. Ring 01305 261540
BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.
Fund Raising Event
Proceeds will be used to sustain the voluntary community project Mind Your Head Challenge, which is enabling older people to stay more mentally active. Dementia is estimated to increase by 93% in West Dorset by 2020. This is 23% higher than the UK average. Research suggests that the more brain cells are stimulated the impact of dementia can be reduced. For more detail, please visit www.mindyourheadchallenge.org.uk
As an attendee of the Conference, you will have access to the Mind Your Head Challenge Showcase, which is running alongside the conference and demonstrates a wide range of mind stimulating activities available in Dorset. This includes a special simultaneous Chess competition between Raymond Keene, OBE, Chess Grand Master and twenty local chess players.
If you can’t come to the conference, you could bring your family to the Showcase. Price is £3 per person on the day.
FP7 ICT Internet of Things and Digital Enterprise UK Info Day
