/ Full archive

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!

Funding opportunities

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.

Grants Academy activities for 2012/13 – watch this space…..

Guidance

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.

 

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

Publishing, Research Integritiy

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!

Publishing

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.

FP7 ICT Internet of Things and Digital Enterprise UK Info Day

An free to attend infoday on funding opportunities under ICT Call  in the areas of the Internet of Things and digital enterprise will be held in London on 12 September 10am-4pm. It will  offer attendees the opportunity to network and share ideas as well as providing an overview of funding available in ICT Call 10 and future calls, including ongoing research, road mapping activities and collaborative groupings in Europe. While the event is free, you have to register in advance on the  the event webpage.

Should the Finch Report have gone for green not gold?

Publishing

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceLast week Matthew added a post (Decisions, decisions: where do I publish?) about the long-awaited Finch Report into expanding access to published research findings. The Report advocates a move to Open Access publishing for all government-funded research, a view which has been embraced by the Government. Open Access publishing is something that BU fully supports and encourages academics to undertake and just over a year ago we launched a central, dedicated budget specifically for paying Open Access publication fees on behalf of our academics (BU Open Access Publication Fund). Even so I am somewhat disappointed with the decision of the Finch Report and the reason for this is because the Report isn’t green, it’s gold.

The Report supports the gold open access model of publishing – this is where authors pay publishers for the privilidge of having their work published which, upon publication, is made freely available to anyone (no need for a subscription) on the internet. The green open access model on the other hand describes the situation where articles are published in subscription based journals as now, but a peer reviewed final copy is placed in an open access repository (such as an institutional repository like BURO). Unfortunately the gold model simply redistributes the costs of publishing by charging authors publishing fees up front rather than readers on a subscription basis, and by so openly supporting gold over green the Report is clearly supporting the commercial interests of publishers over the interests of UK research, universities and the general public. It could be argued that a better outcome of the Finch Report would have been support for green open access publishing by increasing the number of UK institutions and funders with green open access mandates from 40% to 100%.

At BU we are lucky that we have the BU Open Access Publication Fund to meet the fees of open access publishing (i.e. gold model) but what about if this budget cannot keep up with demand during a fast transition to gold open access publishing? And what about authors who don’t have access to similar funds and who can’t pay? Many PGRs and ECRs in the UK might fall into the latter group and a lack of published articles could put them at a disadvantage when applying for jobs and progressing their careers.

Last week the THE ran an interesting article on the Finch Report (Staggered open-access gold run ‘won’t break bank’) reporting that the move to gold open access publishing will be a steady transition rather than an immediate change. However the speed at which the Government adopted the Report’s main recommendations and promoted the benefits of the gold model, coupled with RCUK’s publication of a final version of their new open access policy (in which researchers are required to publish in gold open access outlets or self-archive outputs within 6-12 months, depending on discipline) and news that the four funding council’s (including HEFCE) intend to consult over plans to require all papers submitted to the next REF to be published in open access journals, gives the impression that the transition may be more imminent that the THE article suggests.

Overall it can only be a good thing that the Finch Report and the sector at large is so supportive of open access publishing – however I wish the Report had been a little less biased in its outcome and hope that universities are given the time required to make the transition smoothly. Thankfully BU is ahead of the game with the BU Open Access Publication Fund and we will continue to keep up with external developments to ensure BU staff are fully supported with open access publishing. We will also continue to support colleagues with making published outputs available via the green model of open access, i.e. self-archiving on BURO. Our new system BRIAN will tell you the publisher’s rules on self-archiving when you click through to add an output to BURO (via BRIAN). This will also be checked for you by the Library prior to the output going live in BURO.

If you’ve published a paper via a gold open access outlet we’d love to hear about your experience – do you think this has increased the impact of your research and has making your findings available quicker to a larger audience made a difference?