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BU’s ECOSAL Team visiting Northern Ireland to investigate the coastal salt working site at Ballycastle, Co Antrim

BU’s ECOSAL Team recently visited Northern Ireland to investigate the coastal salt working site at Ballycastle, Co Antrim. ECOSAL is a multi-national EU-funded project that is recording the archaeological evidence for salt working around the Atlantic Coast of the UK, France, Spain and Portugal. It is also recording the ecology and biodiversity of these sites, many of them located in fragile environments such as lagoons. Key sites will be included on a European Salt Route, linking sites from all four countries while telling the story of salt production, the uses of salt, its economic history, etc.

The photo shows that it’s not all sunshine and celebrity media events, but on this occasion we found some excellent evidence for the 17th to 19th century salt-workings at Ballycastle, a once thriving industry now completely gone.

From left to right in the photo: David Cranstone, Wes Forsythe, Mark Brisbane, Michael Fradley and Danny McGill.

You can find out more about ECOSAL at our BU website: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/applied-sciences/research/ecosal-atlantis/index.html

Erasmus opportunities

 Erasmus intensive programmes facilitate student mobility for studies and placements and staff mobility. Projects funded under this programme will encourage education, vocational education and training. The Erasmus programme enables students to study abroad and supports collaboration between higher education institutions. The following are available with a closing date of March 2013:

•intensive programmes: lasting for between 10 continuous days and six weeks, to bring together students and teaching staff from higher education institutions of at least three participating countries

•student mobility for studies: lasting for between three and 12 months, enabling students at higher education institutions to spend an integrated study period in another participating country (see BU website for Erasmus student exchanges)

•student mobility for placements: lasting for between two and 12 months, enabling students at higher education institutions to spend a placement period in an enterprise or organisation in another participating country  (see BU website forErasmus work placements)

•staff mobility: lasting from one day to six weeks, enabling staff to spend a teaching period at a higher education institution in another participating country  (see BU website for Erasmus staff mobility)

 •staff mobility: lasting from five working days to six weeks, enabling teaching and other staff of higher education institutions to spend a period of training in an enterprise or organisation, such as an HEI, in another participating country  (see BU website for Erasmus staff mobility)

Research Professional – Training

Funding opportunities, Guidance, Training

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:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • 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.

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 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.

School of Tourism’s Lorraine Brown on her upcoming Study Leave

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

I am very pleased to be able to to share the first blog post for Fusion Investment Fund Projects.

Our research has shown that posts by our academics sharing their projects are our most widely read posts.  So the coming weeks are set to be packed with stories our successful applicants will share in the lead up to and during their funded projects.  I hope this post will spark your interest in applying for Study Leave and in Dr Brown’s two trips abroad starting in November.    

Dr Lorraine Brown from the School of Tourism has won funding from the Fusion Investment Fund Study leave strand to do research on literary tourism in both Paris and Berlin, She has been invited to visit the prestigious Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University as a visiting researcher in France’s leading tourism research centre (IREST), where she will based to do her primary research and where she will also network with colleagues in IREST’s interdisciplinary research centre.

In Berlin, she will be based in the Geography Department of the world-leading Humboldt University. A qualitative approach will be undertaken, involving observation and interviews over a six-week period at key literary tourist sites in Berlin, one of the top three literary tourism destinations in the world. In line with the Fusion agenda, findings will be published in top tourism journals; they will be disseminated to practitioners; and will inform the syllabus of one of the MSc units that the proposer leads.

At both Universities, Lorraine will explore opportunities for ongoing research collaboration.

If you would like further information on the fund please do get in touch by email with me.

Best wishes,

Sam

Engineering Research Exchanges with China and India – funding available now!

The Royal Academy of Engineering have announced their next round of Research Exchanges with China and India scheme funding. The scheme promotes collaboration between high quality engineering researchers in the UK and China/India and facilitates the expansion of networks of excellence in engineering research between the UK and China/India. It enables academic engineering researchers at Universities to travel to a Chinese or Indian academic Institution, and for China/India-based academic researchers to spend between 3 and 12 months at a UK Institution. Visits should be part of longer-term efforts to build UK-China/India relationships and to advance joint research. Funding of up to £24,000 per annum is provided (or part thereof for shorter visits). The deadline for applications is 12 October 2012.

School of Tourism’s Dr. Debbie Sadd undertaking an ethnographic study of volunteering at the Olympics

Dr. Debbie Sadd, from School of Tourism, had the fantastic opportunity to work as a volunteer with the world’s photographers and journalists covering the basketball at the London Olympic Games. Her duties varied from day to day but involved sitting court side with the photographers making sure they don’t stray from their allotted areas to working ‘backstage’ ensuring all the required technical material is available for them to transmit their stories/photos back to their respective editors. Some days the sports specialists rang through whilst the transmissions were live on US television asking for facts and figures, which have to be available immediately for broadcast in the US. Debbie’s group had their own system called info+ which contained all the necessary information and they were required to be proficient in its use pretty quickly.

In Debbie’s own words, the experience was “quite stressful and tiring but gosh have I seen some exciting games and met some wonderful people and I even got to see my hero Kobe Bryant!”

The International Early Labour Research Group

Early labour Group

Photo (L to R): Dr Helen Cheyne (University of Stirling), Dr Mechthild Gross (Hannover Medical School), Dr Mary-Ann Davey (La Trobe University), Professor Patti Janssen (University of British Columbia), Professor Helen Spiby (University of Nottingham), and Professor Vanora Hundley (Bournemouth University). Not shown Gillian Hanley (University of British Columbia).

Researchers from across the globe met in Stirling last week to discuss early labour research and to plan an international collaborative study. The meeting was the result of a successful Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) planning grant to bring together researchers from Canada, Australia, Germany, England and Scotland. We have met on a number of occasions in the last couple of years, but usually at a conference when time is limited, so it was a real luxury to have two full days to discuss early labour care and to plan a possible intervention for women in the latent phase of labour. Although we have all conducted studies in this area, developing a complex intervention for use in five countries raises many novel challenges. Discussion focused on the varying models of care and current guidelines – the NICE and KCND guidelines used in the UK were much appreciated by our international colleagues. We left the meeting invigorated, but also aware that there is much to do. The first step will be a special issue of Midwifery later this year dedicated to early labour and guest edited by two of the team.

Grants Academy 2012/13 – now open to new applicants!

Guidance

What is the Grants Academy?  The Grants Academy is an excellent opportunity to develop the skills and expertise required to design, write and structure a competitive, fundable research proposal.   The Grants Academy is open to all academics – regardless of seniority or discipline.

How does it work? Academics initially 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.

What do current members have to say?  “I think I speak for all of us when I say that this has been the most valuable research-focused ‘training’ the university has offered so far and it is definitely an initiative that should be encouraged.”

How to apply?   We have scheduled the 2-day intensive training for  2012/2013 as follows:

  • 17th – 18th October 2012
  • 23rd  – 24th January 2013
  • 24th – 25th April 2013  

To apply you will need to:

  1. Complete the form at the bottom of this post.  If you are available for more than one of the training dates,  please state any preferences (if applicable).
  2. Forward to Caroline O’Kane an email from your line manager or DD R&E, which states their support for your application.

Applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.   There is availability for 15 participants for each 2 day training session.   Grants Academy membership begins with the 2 day session.  All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application during the week of the 23rd September.

Want to find out more?  Find our more from the Grants Academy page on the blog.

Still have questions? Please contact Caroline O’Kane

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Which of the following date/s can you attend?:

    a) 17th+18th October 2012b) 24th+25th January 2013c) 24th+25th April 2013

    If you have selected multiple dates, please specify your preference:

    EU tenders announced for tourism, mental health, digital agenda and globalisation

    Transnational Tourism Products Based on Cultural and Industrial Heritage: DG Enterprise and Industry, has launched a call for proposals with a deadline of 28.09.12 for the provision of co-operation projects to create transnational tourism products based on cultural and industrial heritage. The final goal of the present call for proposals is to complement regional and national policies by supporting transnational cooperation and joint initiatives aiming at designing innovative transnational products in the fields of cultural and/or industrial tourism, with a view to:

    • Contributing to differentiate the European tourism offer by capitalising on and giving value to the shared cultural heritage; and
    • Contributing to economic regeneration and job creation in declining (post) industrial regions through interregional and transnational cooperation projects in the field of tourism.

    Mental Health in the Workplace: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, has published a call for tenders for the provision of a study on mental health in the workplace with a deadline of 24.08.12. The study envisaged under this call for tenders has three main objectives:

    • To provide the European Commission with information on the situation in the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries of Mental Health in the workplace. This will require an in depth checking of the current EU legal framework on workers health and safety protection;
    • To develop a range of scenarios, and identify the pros and cons of each with the ultimate objective of providing a robust information base on which the Commission may rely in order to consider policy options aiming to ensure that workers are effectively protected from risks to their mental health arising from workplace related conditions and/or factors; and
    • Produce a guidance document to help employers and workers alike fulfil their obligations and to include mental health considerations in occupational safety and health implementation.

    Digital Agenda for Europe – Engagement for Growth and Jobs: DG Information and Society, has published a call for tenders regarding the Digital Agenda for Europe and the engagement for growth and jobs. The overall purpose of this call for tenders is to mobilise efforts and stimulate commitment around the use of ICT to deliver growth and jobs in Europe and to promote the digital single market. Deadline 19.08.12

    International Dimension and Impact of Globalisation: DG Enterprise and Industry, has published a call for tenders regarding the international dimension and the impact of globalisation. The objective of this service contract is to study the international dimension of the e-skills strategy (especially the efforts to promote ICT professionalism) and to assess the impact of globalisation on high-level e-skills requirements (ICT practitioners’ skills and e-leadership skills), as well as to analyse major policy initiatives and best practices in the world. This should help to understand better the international dimension of e-skills in order to better anticipate change, envisage possible future co-operation and improve efforts to develop e-skills for Europe. Deadline 28.09.12

    Open Data?

    News from the PVC

    Following on from the recent posts on Open Access Publishing I wanted to pick up on something else that appeared recently in a similar vein, specifically the call by the Royal Society for Open Access Datasets in their report Science as an Open Enterprise: Open Data for Open Science.  The report argues that open inquiry is at the heart of research and that ‘publication of scientific theories – and of experimental and observational data on which they are based – permits others to identify errors, to support, reject or refine theories and to reuse data for further understanding and knowledge.  Science’s powerful capacity for self-correction comes from this openness to scrutiny and challenge.’  These are very fine words and are applicable to all areas of research whether it be scientific or not, but they also go against the inherent element of human nature epitomised by the school kid crouched over their exercise book in case their neighbour should steal an advantage!  Protecting ones sources and ones data is a natural instinct in the competitive research culture in which we live.  The report argues for a culture of change in which we open up our data to other scientists and to the public at large and that by being more open we can increasingly maximise the value of that data for the research community and crucially for society as a whole. 

    On a personal level as someone who has had a line of research and a field site stolen from them by petty academic politics and rivalries the ability to gain access to data held by others is very appealing especially when you have something valuable to add.  It is why in my current research grant I gave a commitment which I will honour later this year to make all my data – thousands of digital footprint scans from sites across the World – available via a project website.  The pleasure in doing so lies in knowing that the data will be used by others to explore new ideas and agenda in the future, long after I have moved on to other topics.  This ideal is not without some challenges however.  Issues of data security and accessibility are considerable, as is the need to future proof such archives against changes in technology.  These are the challenges faced by any long term archiving project.  As a real illustration of these challenges I draw your attention to a local example.  Around ten years ago Bournemouth University was a partner in a Heritage Lottery project entitled the Dorset Coastal Digital Archive, a resource of digitised and geo-rectified maps and charts from along the Dorset Coast supported by a range of learning packages.  This web-based archive was hosted by the University and was recently subject to a malicious cyber-attack corrupting both the site and the data back-up and as a result the site has had to be taken down for the time being while a solution is sought.  I also know from personal experience the difficulty and frustration involved in extracting raw data linked to publications several decades old that was deposited in national data repositories.  But despite these issues the benefits are clear or at least they are to me.  There has already been some discussion here at BU in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Forum about whether to establish our own data repository similar to BURO and while this debate has yet to conclude it is an idea which would be in line with the proposals from the Royal Society. 

    The working group at the Royal Society behind the report was chaired by Professor Geoffrey Boulton who just happens to be my former PhD supervisor but notwithstanding this association it is a really fine document and makes six clear recommendations:

    • Scientists need to be more open with respect to their data among themselves, with the public and media.
    • Greater recognition needs to be given to the value of data gathering, analysis and communication for example through recognition in future research assessment exercises or in the promotion criteria for academics.
    • There needs to a drive towards common standards for sharing information so that it can be accessed by all.
    • They argue that publishing data in a reusable form to support findings should be a mandatory part or a pre-requisite for publication and a requirement of all the main funding bodies.
    • They suggest that we need more experts in managing and supporting the use of digital data to maximise the potential that it provides to researchers and society as a whole.
    • Finally they recognise that new software tools need to be developed to analyse the growing amount of data being gathered.

    Interestingly it is the reference to the role of datasets in research assessment’s such as REF that was picked up in the news, particularly by the THE.  According to this article, if REF panels were to treat datasets on a par with publications there would be a huge revolution in open data access.  Interestingly REF criteria does not currently exclude datasets and 132 datasets were evaluated as part RAE-2008.  This is an interesting and important idea and is no different from the evaluation of artefacts or similar outputs.    Whether we will see datasets more explicitly mentioned in future exercises will be something to watch for with interest.  As an aside I remember a conversation with my former supervisor about defining key research questions; his reply was that there are lots of questions but very little good data available!  The other observation that I would make here is that our own Smart Technology Research Centre is leading the way in the production of new software tools to deal with the ever growing amount of data available. 

    So in conclusion I would encourage you to read the report by the Royal Society and would welcome your thoughts and suggestions about how we could incorporate these ideas into our research strategy here at BU.

    Work in Social Sciences? Have contacts in India and the EU? Then this could be for you!

    The first awards under the India-Europe research grants scheme for the social sciences have been made.

    The Open Research Area (ORA) scheme is a multi-funded (including the ESRC) EU focused programme which supports collaborations between researchers in India and Europe. This year, the three-year research projects will each include an Indian partner alongside researchers from UK, French, German or the Netherlands. They will study areas such as ageing and wellbeing, the global accessibility of medicine and the cultural authority of science. You can read about the funded projects on the DFG (German funders) website.

    The funding scheme is designed to provide top-up resources to established working groups, to enhance collaborative efforts as part of a cross-continent social sciences network. A new call for proposals will be launched in September and close in January 2013.

    School of Tourism’s Ivana Rihova gets ‘stuck in’ with her research fieldwork at this year’s summer festivals!

    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.

    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.