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The impact of sustainable tribology

I authored a paper with colleagues from the General Engineering (Unit of Assessment 15), including Prof. M. Hadfield, Dr. B. Thomas, S. Martinez Noya, and our research sponsors Mr. I. Hensaw (Energetix Group PLC) and Mr. S. Austen (RNLI). The publication is titled “Future Perspectives on Sustainable Tribology” and was submitted to Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Journal. It has recently been accepted (22 Feb 2012) for publication. The article is the result of a two-month support for impact (REF) exercise which took place last summer (June-July 2011) and was sponsored by the Research Development Unit (R&KEO) of Bournemouth University.

The interesting fact about the article is that the particular journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews has an impact factor of 5.367 (last five years) and is 9th out of 2009 Engineering Journals Worldwide (according to 2011 impact factor rankings) while its overall Ranking Worldwide among any Journal Indexed on Scopus is 268 out of 18854 Journals.

I would like to post this success on the Research Blog in order to show that support for impact at least in my case was worthwhile as it triggered my interest to write this “impact” paper with colleagues from Sustainable Design Research Centre (SDRC). The paper highlights the future perspectives of Sustainable Tribology by examining the economic, environmental and social impact of three tribological case studies worldwide. Each case study highlights one aspect of a number of ongoing interlinking research strands developed by the SDRC at Bournemouth University. The importance of Environmental Engineering through Sustainable Tribology solutions in our epoch is emphasized, showing that sustainability can be achieved to a significant extent through effective sustainable and environmental friendly engineering solutions, stimulating sustainable development and providing stability to our world embracing an anthropocentric and viable growth to our societies through effective sustainable solutions (figure 1).

To conclude, I would like to thank all the co-authors for their valuable help and contribution to the specific article while I would also like to express my regards to Prof. Mark Hadfield for the position he offered to me as a research assistant for REF support during that period and for his valuable guidance. I strongly believe it was a really beneficial project for myself as well as for Bournemouth University.

 

 

Funding available from the MEDIA programme

Support to Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution:The Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution scheme constitutes one of the ways in which the MEDIA 2007 programme ensures that the latest technologies and trends are incorporated into the business practices of beneficiaries of the programme.The main objective of this scheme is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content. The deadline is June 25th.

Support for the implementation of Pilot Projects: The programme may support Pilot Projects to ensure that it adapts to market developments, with a particular emphasis on the introduction and utilisation of information and communication technologies. The deadline is June 18th.

One of the three pillars – Social Sustainability: hardest to implement, easy to neglect

Interesting and insightful blogpost on the three dimensions (pillars) of sustainability, challenging the simplicity of the model and highlighting how little attention is given to social sustianability. Makes a lot of sense: the ‘economy’ is after all a social construction which benefits humankind; the environment is made better or worse for/by human beings.  And yet the ‘social’ is so often given little attention in the discourse.

http://ssppjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/recovering-social-is-sustainability.html?goback=.gde_1917135_member_104059828

 

The Grants Academy – Strand Two: Bespoke training

Todays post will tell you all about Strand Two of the Grants Academy.  

Strand Two: Bespoke training and development programme

  • In essence Strand Two of the Grants Academy will follow the same format as Strand One.  

 

  • Strand Two will be a bespoke programme tailored to a specific group of academics (Research Centres, research themes, etc).  For example, the BU-wide scheme would offer advice and training on general research funding bodies whereas the bespoke scheme would offer advice on funding bodies that fund research in that particular field.

 

  • More importantly it is directed towards groups of staff who would be working together on a bid and subsequently ‘hunting as a pack’.

 

  • The provision of Strand Two could be requested by senior academic managers (e.g. UOA Leaders, Heads of Academic Group, Deans, etc.) and could also be initiated by the Pro Vice Chancellor for example, where a Research Centre has had limited success in attracting external research funds. 

 

  • Completion of Strand Two will entitle the group to all of the resources listed for Strand One, and will also entitle the group to dedicated support from the Research Development Unit for a period of three months to prepare bids for external funding. This support will depend on the specific skills requirement of the group, but may include support with EU funding, collaborative grants support, or support with bids for fellowship / early career funds.

 

  •  Strand Two of the Grants Academy will run as and when required, and it is anticipated this will be twice during 2012-13. The number of attendees per session would be discussed with the academic lead as part of the bespoke design of each Strand Two programme. As with Strand One, all attendees  will be required to work on a proposal after the session and to submit this proposal for external funding within six months of completing the training programme. They may remain part of the Academy for a maximum of 18 months during which time they will be expected to have submitted a minimum of three external bids.

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

Tomorrow: learn about Strand Three (post-award training).

Happy 1st Birthday BU Research Blog!

It is exactly one year today since the Research Blog was launched at Bournemouth University!

Our first post was on the excellent RNLI slipways research undertaken in DEC by Prof Mark Hadfield and Dr Ben Thomas (read the story here). Since then there have been 957 posts added to the Blog, many of which were posted by academic colleagues from across BU. The Blog currently has 366 subscribers to the Daily Digest email.

To celebrate we’re inviting all staff at BU to get more involved with the Blog to make it more exciting, interactive, collaborative and beneficial to academic staff. There are a number of ways you can get involved:

  • To subscribe to the Blog to receive the daily digest emails; this is the best way to keep up to date with research and knowledge exchange information at BU. Find out more here: Subscribe to the Blog!
  • To comment on Blog posts to share further information, resources, and perspectives, and to make connections with your colleagues. Find out more here: Interact with the Blog!
  • To add posts to the Blog to share information, experiences, successes, advice, news, etc with colleagues, and to promote your research both internally and externally. We’re strongly encouraging all staff involved in research at BU to sign up for access to add posts to the Blog and to start blogging! Using the Blog is really easy – you need no prior knowledge of blogs or websites, just an interest in research. Contact Susan Dowdleif you’d like to be set up with access to add posts.
  • To share Blog posts, either via Facebook, Twitter or email. Find out more here: Share posts from the Blog!

The Research Blog is unique in the sector and in its first year of existence it has been a huge success in improving research communications at BU.

Be part of something cool and get more involved in the Blog! :)

Happy 1 year birthday, Research Blog!

 

The Grants Academy – Strand One: The Training Programme

The second of our posts on the new Grants Academy is all about Strand One.  

What is Strand One?

This is the BU-wide development and training programme linked to grant writing support in the form of access to a pool of contracted external bid advisors. 

Intensive training

Strand One of the Grants Academy will be an intensive training programme run over two consecutive days, held off campus.  Academics must attend both full days in order to join the Grants Academy. The sessions will be delivered by an external facilitator with support from the Research Development Unit. 

Attendees will be required to come to the session with a draft proposal that they consider to be ready to submit for external funding (including CV). Each attendee will swap his/her proposal with another attendee on day one and will be required to read their colleague’s proposal before the second day when there will be a mock peer review panel where attendees will be required to lead a discussion on the proposal they have reviewed, taking into account everything they have learned the day before.

All participants of the Grants Academy will be required to work on a proposal after the session, using the resources and support listed below, and to submit this proposal for external funding within six months of completing the training programme.  They may remain part of the Academy for a maximum of 18 months during which time they will be expected to have submitted a minimum of three external bids. 

Extra training and resources for Academy members

Completion of Strand One will result in individuals becoming members of the Grants Academy; as members they would be able to access additional training and development resources including:

  • An internal grants mentor: This person will be assigned after the training programme and will be responsible for supporting the mentee with the writing and development of their proposal.  
  • Access to an external bid advisor: The University will contract the services of a number of sector renowned and successful bid advisors who will be available to support Grants Academy members with the development of their proposals.
  • Specific funder events: The Research Development Unit will arrange specific funder events for members of the Grants Academy to find out more about funding bodies, for example, specific schemes, priorities, bid writing hints and tips, etc.
  • Funding drop-in surgeries: These drop-in surgeries will be held fortnightly over lunch and will be facilitated by the Pro Vice Chancellor plus three experienced senior academics. They will offer members of the Grants Academy the opportunity to come along and to talk to experienced colleagues about their research, for example, getting advice on their ideas, how to strengthen their bids, etc.
  • Find a funder service: This service will be provided by the Research Development Unit and will help to match academics and their research ideas and strengths with external funding bodies and open calls. The service will also advise on how proposal ideas can be tweaked so they are more closely aligned to funder priorities, and will also support academics in identifying researchers at other institutions who are researching similar areas for future collaborations. 
  • Access to a library of successful bids: The Research Development Unit will provide access to Grants Academy members to a library of successful bids, and provide support to academics in accessing this resource.
  • Access to a small travel grant to support academic networking.  Each member of the academy will have access to up to £250 to support travel in order to talk to potential collaborators, establish/join networks, etc.

The support listed above will only be available to those academics who have completed Strand One of the Grants Academy.

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

On the blog tomorrow, we’ll be telling you all about Strands Two and Three.

The application process will be launched on Monday, 2nd April 2012.

Notes on Creative Europe proposal event available

A few weeks ago I attende an event to discuss the EC’s Creative Europe proposal, which could be the successor to the MEDIA Programme. which looks like it will have a whopping €1.8 billion budget for 2014-2020. Notes from the event can be found on our I drive I:\CRKT\Public\RDU\Media Programme  and feature an outline of the proposal for Creative Europe, key stats and figures, what topics will be covered and key questions raised on the day.

Taking part in EPSRC’s Digital Economy Theme

EPSRC logoRCUK have a cross-cutting Digital Economy Theme which aims to support research into the transformational impact of digital technologies. In December last year the BU Research Blog advertised a notice from the EPSRC who were looking to build a community of researchers to invesitgate ‘New Economic Models’ as a sub-category of the Digital Economy Theme. As my own area of research into media management investigates the transformational changes of media organisations to the digital environment, I thought it would be worth applying.

After successfully navigating the EPSRC peer review process I was invited to attend the first of many Network Meetings in Reading. It was a very professional event, with researchers attending from across the UK and from diverse academic disciplines. The aim of the first event was to scope out the size and shape of a future research agenda into this area and to get researchers to develop collaborative projects ideas for researching new economic models.

The EPSRC will soon be putting out a call for funded research, and in readiness for this, the Media School’s Advances in Media Management (AiMM) research group are organising a ‘Brainstorm Session’ with academics and high level media industry partners to scope out ideas to submit to this call.

This is an excellent example of how you can get involved with shaping the future research agenda within your discipline and preparing to respond to calls before they are released.

Developing software to improve quality of life for disabled people

Bournemouth University (BU) is proud to be a part of an exciting project, aimed at improving the quality of life for people with physical and learning disabilities.

The SHIVA Project (Sculpture for Health-care: Interaction and Virtual Art in 3D) brings together computer science groups, including the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BU, and medical organisations working with disabled people.

Professor Alexander Pasko is leading BU’s contribution to the SHIVA project: “The main idea behind SHIVA is to give people with disabilities the opportunity to do something in the area of 3D as a way of enhancing their creativity and expressing themselves.”

The project team are currently identifying the requirements of the medical organisations, in order to develop exercises to support a range of different patient needs. These exercises will also offer a wider range of activities for patients, which can increase the chances of a successful rehabilitation.

NCCA staff at BU are developing the 3D modelling software, which can be driven by gestures, as well as hosting the HyperFun project, which is a programming and language software tool, used to create, visualise, and fabricate volumetric 3D models.

One example case the project team are working on is to help improve physical activity in patients who have suffered a stroke.

“We are also working with children who are born disabled,” explained Professor Pasko, “helping them with simple tasks that engage and activate the right side of the brain.”

The final stages of the SHIVA Project will be to raise awareness of the exercises within the medical profession, so they can be applied in the education or rehabilitation process.

The project aims to be completed by February 2014, when an exhibition will be held to display the work of the disabled participants. This will be made possible through the use of 3D printers currently available at BU.

The other organisations involved in the project are the University of Lille in France, the HOPALE Foundation from France and the Victoria School from Poole. For further information and updates visit the project website.

The SHIVA project is part-funded thanks to the action of the European Union and with a contribution of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

Coming soon….The BU Grants Academy

Guidance

On Monday, 2nd April we will be launching a brand new training programme – the BU Grants Academy – to sustain research and invest in early career researchers to boost BU’s collective research output. 

Every day this week there will be blog posts focussing on different aspects of the Grants Academy.  Today its The Overview.  To find out more, please read on………

What is the Grants Academy?

It is a development programme for academic staff, with three distinct strands:

  • Strand One:    BU-wide development and training programme linked in 2012/13 to external grant writing support in the form of a contracted bid advisor.
  • Strand Two:    Bespoke intervention for key research groups and clusters (e.g., Research Centres, BU Research Themes, etc.) based on a bespoke version of Strand One.
  • Strand Three:  Post-Award support in the form of direct mentorship for new investigators with limited experience of research management and project delivery.

How will the scheme benefit acadmic staff?

Membership of the Grants Academy will enable academic staff to:

  1. improve their understanding of the research funding environment;
  2. increase the quality of their research funding proposals;
  3. unlock staff potential, confidence and motivation;
  4. enable staff to develop the skills required to design, write and structure a competitive, fundable research proposal; and
  5. to then manage awarded contracts, effectively leading to further funding.

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

On the blog tomorrow, we’ll be telling you all about Strand One.

Social sciences & humanities taking on the EC for funding in Horizon 2020 today

Europe’s social scientists and humanities researchers are combining forces to push for more funding in Horizon 2020 through the European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities, which will have its first general assembly today and tomorrow in Brussels. The European Commission has proposed that social science and humanities research would be funded as part of five other funding pots for grand challenges, which include climate change, health and ICT but the alliance members want the establishment of a sixth pot called Understanding Europe for social sciences and humanities research.

I will report on the Assembly when info becomes available.

Research Outcomes System (ROS) – AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC & ESRC

Over the last three months, four Research Councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and ESRC) have been working to collect research outcomes through the Research Outcomes System (ROS).  This system replaces the ESRC’s data collection system, “manage my grant”.  NERC are continuing with their own system for this year’s data collection but will move over to ROS for 2013.  The aim of this system is to collect outputs from projects as they go along, and provide a central repository for information on the impact and importance of research.

ROS is available all year round for submitting research outcomes, but every January to March RCUK will be conducting an annual exercise to encourage submissions. For this first collection period (Jan – Mar 2012) outcomes should be submitted for grants that are currently in ROS by Monday 30th April and:

  • started more than 12 months ago, or
  • have ended, but a final report has not been submitted, or
  • a final report has been submitted and relevant information has been transferred to ROS by a Research Council on your behalf.

The Research Councils are working to transfer all relevant final report information into ROS. If you have already completed a final report, please wait until that information is in ROS before adding any new or additional outcomes. Individual Research Councils will contact you when this information is ready to review in ROS.

ROS is available at www.rcuk.ac.uk/researchoutcomes and you can log-in using your standard Je-S account details.

A set of frequently asked questions and a number of video tutorials about ROS and how to use it are available on the website here. If you would like any further information or have any questions, please email: researchoutcomes@rcuk.ac.uk

 

EU Funding for Women in Media

The European Institute for Gender Equality invites proposals for a study on area J of the Beijing platform for action, which addresses women and media in the EU.

The tenderer will conduct a study on women’s participation and access to expression and decision-making in media, with an emphasis on women’s presence in the decision-making bodies within media companies, the extent to which media companies have developed codes of conduct and other forms of self-regulation to obviate discrimination on the grounds of sex, as well as the monitoring of women’s and men’s presence in media content, excluding films and commercials.

Funding is worth approximately €400,000 over 11 months and the deadline is April 24th.

‘Popularizing Research’ published with opening Chapter by BU’s Kip Jones on Performative Social Science

Peter Lang Publishing announces the publication of Popularizing Research: Engaging New Genres, Media, and Audiences, edited by Phillip Vannini of Canada’s Royal Roads University.

The book’s opening Chapter, “Short Film as Performative Social Science: The Story Behind “’Princess Margaret’” was written by Dr Kip Jones, Reader in Qualitative Research and Performative Social Science, who shares a joint appointment in HSC and the Media School. The Chapter outlines his fascinating and innovative approach to research and its dissemination via a fusion of the arts and social sciences.

Jones utilizes his chapter to recount an unconventional journey to academic publishing that certainly did not follow the usual route of journal or book publication. The Chapter revisits “The one about Princess Margaret”, one of Jones’ earliest attempts at audio/visual script writing, by recalling his initial motivation and enthusiasm for finding innovative ways to express scholarship and how his thinking about the use of tools from the arts in social science has evolved since those early days. These personal experiences are then offered up as advice in a summation for both social scientists and arts practitioners who may be interested in this new paradigm of Performative Social Science through a discussion about collaboration and pathways to impact.

Popularizing Research offers academics, professional researchers, and students a new methodological book/website hybrid by way of a broad survey of ways to popularize research. As an edited interdisciplinary book accompanied by a website featuring samples of popularized research, it will have the potential of not only telling its readers about new genres, new media, new strategies, and new imperatives for popularizing research, but most importantly it will also be useful in showing how these new processes work in the end, what they sound like, and what they look like.

For more information and to view the video representing Jones’ contribution to the book, see his page on the book’s website under ‘Film’.

Praxis Unico Impact Awards 2012

The Impact Awards, organised by PraxisUnico, recognise and celebrate the success of collaborative working and the process of transferring knowledge and expertise beyond higher education, charities and public sector research establishments for the wider benefit of society and the economy.

2012 Award Categories
Business Impact – Achieved
This award recognises projects that have made an outstanding business impact through successful knowledge transfer, where the impact can be quantified and measured.
Business Impact – Aspiring
This award recognises projects that promise to make an outstanding business impact through successful knowledge transfer, but where the impact may be currently latent or unquantifiable.
Collaborative Impact
This award recognises collaborative projects that leverage the intellectual assets of the research base. Types of projects might include research collaborations or consultancy with business or the public sector and/or knowledge transfer projects involving more than one higher education or research institute.
KT Achiever of the Year
This award recognises an individual, who has not more than five years’ experience in a technology/knowledge transfer role.

Deadline – 30 March 2012

For further information visit the Impact Awards website.

If you’re interested in submitting to the Awards, let me know and we will support you with your application.

ESF social inequalities conference grants up for grabs

The European Science Foundation invites applications for grants to attend the ESF-ZIF-Bielefeld University research conference on tracing social inequalities in environmentally induced migration.
The conference, to be held from 9 to 13 December 2012 in Bielefeld, Germany, will concentrate on the social inequalities between world regions, countries, geographical regions, organisations, groups and categories of people involved in environmental- and climate-induced migration. Grants are available to cover the conference fee or assist with travel costs for students and early stage researchers. View the full details for this call on the ESF website and the deadline is July 1st.