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Second chance to see The PHD Movie!

PG research

Love PHD Comics? Then come to the screening of The PHD Movie, hosted at BU on Wednesday 15 February!

BU first screened the movie in December but due to popular demand a second screening has now been arranged!

The PHD Movie is being shown at universities around the world and premiered at UCLA in Los Angeles in September. It has also been shown at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Sydney, CERN, and multiple screenings at the Max Planck Institute.

In the UK the movie is only scheduled to be screened at UCL, Oxford, Glasgow, Cranfield, Bristol, Imperial College, York, Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Brunel and Bournemouth!

The PHD Movie is a live-action adaptation of the popular online comic strip by Jorge Cham (www.phdcomics.com). It was filmed on location at and was produced in partnership with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

The film introduces audiences to the unique and funny culture of Academia and follows four graduate students (Cecilia, Mike, Tajel and the “Nameless Grad Student”) as they struggle to find balance between research, teaching and their personal lives with humor and heart.

The Movie was produced and directed by and stars real PhD students and researchers.

The second Bournemouth screening will be held on Wednesday 15 February between 12:30-2pm in the Allesbrook Lecture Theatre on the Talbot Campus.

It is free to attend and lunch will be provided! 😀

Places at the screening are limited so complete the booking form below if you’d like to come along.

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    I’ve got a draft copy of the FP7 ICT Work Programme for you!

    I’ve managed to obtain a draft version of the FP7 ICT Work Programme which features the calls for proposals to be released in 2012. This is just a draft and therefore subject to change but it gives you a great idea as to what the European Commission are looking to fund. The Work Programme is a tedious read so I’ve summarised the info on funding in there for you; the aim of the call etc. I have bookmarked the document so you can jump straight to the call that interests you from the front page.

    As this document is highly confidential I have placed it on our I drive; it is strictly forbidden to circulate this outside of BU! I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Draft Work Programmes for 2012-13

    There are also the drafts for Environment, Health and Food, Agriculture, Fisheries & Biotechnology in there too which I’ve blogged about previously.
    The final official version of the Work Programmes aren’t released until July 2012 so this gives you a fantastic head start to preparing a submission.

    I will summarise the other themes as soon as I get the drafts through so keep your eyes peeled on this blog for them!

     

    Make your research freely available to a global audience via open access!

    Guidance, Publishing

    open access logo, Public Library of ScienceThe BU Open Access Publication Fund was launched in August 2011 with the aim of making BU research freely accessible to a global audience.

    Since then the open access publication costs for eight papers have been met by the Fund, including papers authored by Professor Mark Hadfield, Professor Adrian Newton, Dr Julie Kirkby, and Professor Jonathan Parker.

    The fund is available for use by any BU author ready to submit a completed article for publication who wishes to make their output freely and openly accessible.

    For further information about the Open Access Publication Fund and how to get involved, see our previous Blog post – Launch of the BU Open Access Publication Fund.

    EU top tips from our academics, funding opportunities and cake THIS FRIDAY!

    Are you curious to uncover the secret of our academics success with EU funding? Do you like cake? Well the EU Showcase Event THIS FRIDAY is a must-attend morning for you!

    In a very bright, lively and informal event , several of our most EU-active researchers will be sharing information on their brilliant projects and their experiences on how they embarked on the EU funding world.

    Presenters will be from a range of Schools and the day will begin by an introduction from PVC Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation Prof. Matthew Bennett. I will also be giving you more info on our fantastic EU Networking fund and EU Academic Development Schemes which will help you in your EU funding endeavours.

    The event is a half day (9-12) in Kimmeridge house and tea, coffee and cake will be provided.  This is a great opportunity to see the excellent EU work some of our researchers are doing, but also to find out more about how you too can get involved.

    In order to ensure we order plenty of cake and refreshments, we are asking you to register here by Thursday (which takes 10 seconds).

    Leverhulme Trust visit – 1st Feb – booking now open

    Funding opportunities

    Booking is now open for the Leverhulme Trust  visit (1st February).

    Places are limited, and are going like hotcakes –   to book your place please click here.

    What’s happening?

    Jean Cater from the LT is coming to BU, and its a great opportunity to find out more about how the Leverhulme works,  what they are looking for in a proposal and what they fund.    

    The Leverhulme Trust offers a range of funding opportunities – across all disciplines.   This includes research grants, international networks, early career fellowships, research fellowships and more. 

    The session will cover:  

    • where the Leverhulme sits in the funding spectrum
    • schemes and application procedures
    • things to bear in mind if applying
    • plenty of time to ask questions too.  

    This session is for you if:

    • you have a research idea and wonder if the Leverhulme Trust might be an appropriate funder
    • you are developing a funding proposal for the Leverhulme Trust
    • you don’t know much about the Leverhulme Trust and would like to find out more

    Details:

    • Date: Wednesday, 1st February 2012
    • Time: 2-4pm
    • Place:  Thomas Hardy Suite – PG 146
    • Refreshments will be available.

    ** To book your place please click here. ** 

    If you have any questions please contact Caroline O’Kane

    Latest developments with the REF now available from the REF Highlight Report #11

    Research assessment

    REF logoThe latest REF Highlight Report is now available from the Research Blog.

    Key points include updates on:

    • progress towards the Winter 2011 REF preparation exercise
    • funding identified for case study development
    • update of the draft BU REF code of practice
    • latest documents released from the REF team at HEFCE (including an updated external timetable and a set of FAQs)

    You can access the full document from the I-drive in the following folder: CRKT\Public\RDU\REF\REF preparations\REF highlight reports\#11

    Radio heritage digitised and available on the British Universities Film & Video Council website

    Watch this excellent short video from BU’s Professor Hugh Chignell who has worked with London Broadcasting Company’s independent radio news archive to digitalise over 8,000 tapes, creating a live history account which is now available on the British Universities Film and Video Council’s website: http://radio.bufvc.ac.uk/lbc/

    To see other BU videos on YouTube go to the BU YouTube page.

     

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svdm_2f4V24

    Leverhulme Trust – Research Leadership Awards

    Funding opportunities

    The Leverhulme Trust has announced that the Research Leadership Awards are now open to applications.  Each university is only allowed to put forward one candidate for this scheme.

    The aim of these awards is to support those who have succeeded in beginning a university career but who are then confronted with the task of building a research team able to tackle an identified but distinctive research problem. The awards provide support for research assistants and research students led by the award holder. Applicants will have held a university post for at least two years.

     

    The awards:

    • are each for a sum of between £800,000 and £1 million;

    • are for the provision of research assistants and research students to build a research group under the direction of the grant holder. A fraction of the award (up to a maximum of 25%) can be used for associated costs;

    • are for research activity over a five year period;

    • are offered in any subject area within the Trust’s normal remit;

    • will be allocated with attention to three selection criteria; namely, first the record and promise of the group leader, secondly the fit of the group’s research involvement and resources, and thirdly the extent to which the work of the group can be seen to bring about a fruitful reshaping of the disciplinary landscape.

    More information is available on the Leverhulme website.  If you are considering applying please register your interest with Susan Dowdle asap.

    Call for Papers – Council for Hospitality Management Education Conference

    Call for papers for peer-reviewed consideration for presentation at the 21st CHME Annual Research Conference hosted by University College Birmingham.

    Both full papers of 4,000-6,000 words, and developmental papers of 1,000-2,000 words are invited under the three panel themes of

    • Cultural and Critical Studies in Hospitality,
    • Developments in Hospitality and Tourism Research, and
    • Research and Practice in Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

    For notes and guidelines on submission format please follow those set out by Hospitality & Society which can be located at http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/views-journal,id=194/view,page=2/

     

    Papers should be submitted as a word document to CHME2012@UCB.ac.uk

    Final Submission Deadline: Tuesday 31st of January 2012

     

    For further information visit the website: http://chme.ucb.ac.uk/

     

    BU Fusion Fund – closing date fast approaching!

    Fusion

    The first closing date for the current round of the BU Fusion Fund competition is 13 January 2012.

    The fund was launched in September to support staff innovation around the concept of Fusion. Details and the application process for the fund are set out in the attached documents and the fund forms part of BU’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) Strategy. The idea is to support innovative ideas which lead to employer, business and/or industry engagement enhancing core BU activities of research and education. Availability of funds are modest in the first year (although build in subsequent years) but the key is to provide an opportunity for staff to explore innovative ideas around Fusion. Ideas for new courses, enterprise ventures, industry secondments, or employer engagements can all be explored by this fund. It is designed to allow staff to develop new ideas and innovations!

    Find out more about BU’s fusion strategy here – BU2018 website.

    Submit your completed application forms by email to Susan Dowdle.

    Good luck!

    Available documents:

    Please note this is not the Fusion Investment Fund – to find out information about the Fusion Investment Fund please click here:

    http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/06/26/fusion-investment-fund-it-is-almost-time-to-submit-applications-1st-july-deadline-2/?preview=true&preview_id=11804&preview_nonce=1c78dc27cc

    OK, I know China isn’t the EU but this is a great nursing opportunity!

     The British Council are hosting a unique meeting to support China-UK nursing collaboration. The Chinese Ministry of Health, Guanghua Nurse Fund (GNF) of China Guanghua Science & Technology Foundation is in the process of establishing arrangements for a specific initiative intended significantly to enhance the education and training of nurses in China.  The objectives of this scheme is to ensure standards that must be met by trainee nurses are equivalent to those that prevail internationally and appropriate to the needs of the Chinese Government’s 12th Five Year Plan as well as to ensure that post-qualification continuing professional development (CPD) standards for those who are currently qualified nurses or who will become so during the period covered by the Plan are appropriate, rigorous and internationally-benchmarked.

    As part of the scheme, a pilot involving 20 Chinese universities and 5 pre selected UK universities will be implemented in 2012-13. The selected universities will take trainee nurses in the academic year 2012-13 such that they can gauge, and inform the review of, existing standards. Opportunities will shortly be available to apply for participation in these scheme in 2013.To learn more about the scheme and meet delegates from the 20 Chinese Universities involved, you can apply to attend a meeting to be held in Manchester 20-21st February. Places are extremely limited and on a first come first serve basis. A draft programme will be available towards the middle of January 2012; contact the British Council  if you are interested in attending

    Become a part of the new EU e-Health stakeholder group

    The European Commission has launched a call for expressions of interest from both user and industry representatives to form a new eHealth Stakeholder group for 2012.

    The group will provide a platform for the development of legislation or policy related to eHealth and will have two main objectives:
    •provide input into design and implementation of eHealth policy activities, in particular the Digital Agenda for Europe on eHealth, and the implementation of the eHealth Action Plan; and
    •deliver independent, sound and transparent advice, drawing on their knowledge and research.
    The deadline for applications of interest is 30 January 2012, and those appointed will be expected be an active member of the group for three years.

    Colleague supervision – and maximising research opportunities

    This blog post considers two aspects of research – supervision and publication. The two came together in article of mine recently been published online by the Journal of Further & Higher Education (JFHE) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2011.644774.

    In 2008/09, I undertook the PGCert Research Degree Supervision to further develop supervision skills. For the second assignment, I made a study of colleague supervision – the supervision of staff doctoral students by their colleagues and, sometimes, managers. From it, an academic paper was developed and later submitted to JFHE. The article was an opportunity to maximise the outcomes of my study of research supervision and to create insights (possibly “new knowledge”) into a sometimes contentious and little researched area.

    The starting point was a claim by Pam Denicolo (2004) that colleague supervision was “a role relationship that has been largely ignored or undervalued by [university] administration” (p. 693) and colleague students and supervisors “felt more vulnerable” than other students/supervisors (p. 706). At the time, I was Deputy Dean (Education) in the Media School and had, at BU and a previous university, observed colleague students often struggling to manage the roles of teacher, researcher, colleague and administrator. So the aim of my qualitative study amongst students and supervisors was to gain greater insight into the colleague students’ research journey and to consider how their working lives could be better structured.

    Broadly, the indications from this small-scale study were:

    • The students and supervisors did not feel they were “ignored”, “undervalued” or “vulnerable.” There were some advantages of easy access to supervisors that other PGRs don’t have;
    • More effort is needed on the research training of colleague students. Those coming into doctoral studies from professional backgrounds said that they often learnt “on the hoof”;
    • Some students, in 2009 interviews, feared for their jobs without achievement of a doctoral qualification. Others saw it as an essential part of their development of academic research and professional skills;
    • Although Denicolo posited “vulnerability” as a power imbalance between supervisors and staff, the general attitude was that their supervisor was a “friendly facilitator” and supportive;
    • Confidentiality of performance on doctoral studies was expected by students as part of their relationship with the colleague supervision;
    • The use of group supervision by HSC to support students was seen as very beneficial in aiding cohort progress and reducing the loneliness of the doctoral student’s research journey.

    This was a small-scale study (six students and five supervisors) and thus there are limitations of its generalisability, but it indicates that colleague supervision needs to be considered as a special case and not just part of the academic “day job”.

    Prof Tom Watson, The Media School

    Article:  Watson, T., 2011. Colleague supervision – ‘ignored and undervalued’? The views of students and supervisors in a new university. Journal of Further & Higher Education. DOI: 10.1080/0309877X.2011.644774.

    Reference: Denicolo, P., 2004. Doctoral supervision of colleagues: Peeling off the veneer of satisfaction and competence. Studies in Higher Education, 29 (6), 693-707.

    New EC Justice website and funding

    DG Justice has a new and improved websitewhich now has two particularly useful new pages: one containing an oversight of its 6 funding programmes, and one summarising open calls for grant proposals.

    There are also separate web pages giving details of each of the funding programmes, including Daphne III, the Civil Justice Programme, the Criminal Justice Programme and the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme. Currently open calls with forthcoming deadlines are:

    Linked to Horizon 2020 changes, the 6 Programmes within DG Justice will be condensed to just two:

    • Justice Programme: concerned with judicial co-operation in civil and criminal matters (€472m budget)
    • Rights & Citizenship Programme  concerned with the development of an area of freedom, security and justice, by promoting and supporting the effective implementation of a Europe of rights (€439m budget)

    To complement this, DG Home Affairs are replacing their current schemes with an Asylum & Migration Fund (worth €3.9b) and a Internal Security Fund  (worth €4.65b).

     DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion are launching a Programme for Social Change and Innovation . This contains three Programmes:   Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (worth €574m),  European Employment Services (worth €143.7m) and European Progress Microfinance Facility (worth €191.6m).

    Why not take a few minutes to have a peek…?

    Calls related to Health Policy released & InfoDay live online!

    The Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC) has issued calls for proposals, based upon the Directorate for Public Health and Consumers (DG Sanco) Work Programme for 2012. This Programme supports the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, and the calls cover a wide area of public health issues. The deadline for these proposals is 09.03.12. Funds are available for projects, conferences, operating grants and joint actions, available through calls under the following headings:

        • 3.1.1. Protect citizens against health threats – Develop risk management capacity and procedures, improve preparedness and planning for health emergencies;
        • 3.1.2. Protect citizens against health threats – Develop strategies and mechanisms for preventing, exchanging information on and responding to health threats from communicable and non-communicable diseases and health threats from physical, chemical or biological sources, including deliberate release acts;
        • 3.1.3. Improve citizens’ safety – Scientific advice;
        • 3.1.4. Improve citizens’ safety – Safety and quality of organs and substances of human origin, blood, and blood derivatives;
        • 3.2.1. Increasing healthy life years and promoting healthy ageing;
        • 3.2.2. Identifying the causes of, addressing and reducing health inequalities within and between Member States in order to contribute to prosperity and cohesion; supporting co-operation on issues of cross-border care and patient and health professional mobility;
        • 3.2.3. Addressing health determinants to promote and improve physical and mental health and taking action on key factors such as nutrition and physical activity, and on addiction-related determinants such as tobacco and alcohol;
        • 3.2.4. Prevention of major and rare diseases;
        • 3.3.1. European Health Information System;
        • 3.3.2. Dissemination, analysis and application of health information; provision of information to citizens, stakeholders and policy makers; and
        • 3.3.3. Analysis and reporting.

    Take a look at the DG Sanco web page for more information on the calls.

    There is also an Information Day in Brussels on 11.01.12 where you will be offered the opportunity to clarify queries concerning the administrative procedure and the technical contents of the call, as well as network with others in the same field. The deadline for registration for this event is 09.01.12 January 2012 but don’t worry if you can’t make it as the Infoday will also be web-streamed, and the link to this will be available on the EAHC website in advance.

    Research into public health and tourism strategies

    Watch this excellent short video from BU’s Dr Heather Hartwell (School of Tourism and School of Health and Social Care) who describes unique research facilitating strategic direction for public health, in alignment with tourism strategies, aimed at creating conversation and collaboration

    To see other BU videos on YouTube go to the BU YouTube page.

     

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv8DM9zKU1c

    Workshop on Evolving Predictive Systems

    Workshop on Evolving Predictive Systems

    co-located with the 12th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN-2012)

    September 1-5, 2012

    Taormina, Italy

    In recent years, the data mining scientific community witnessed a very strong demand for predictive systems that will be able to evolve and adapt. The range of tasks fulfilled by evolving predictive systems is very broad and covering many different application areas. Despite the high number of publications dealing with applications, there are still unaddressed pressing issues of evolving predictive systems design and development, such as complexity analysis, ensemble architectures and meta-learning. This workshop is devoted to the discussion of robust, context aware and easy-to-use evolving predictive systems, which improve, adapt and possibly maintain themselves within their respective environments and constraints.  Contributions presenting recent work on ensemble systems, complexity analysis and meta-learning are particularly welcome.

    The workshop addresses people from the scientific IT community who are active in the research domain of data-driven systems capable to adapt to changing situations and environments. The considered approaches can include evolutionary algorithms, other nature-inspired methods or heuristic approaches. Special focus will be put on research dealing with ensemble architectures, as well as with complexity issues (size, form and interpretation of the solution formula, time and algorithm complexity) and meta-learning incorporation.

    Researchers are invited to submit original work as papers of not more than 10 pages. Authors are encouraged to submit their papers in LaTeX. Papers must be submitted in Springer Verlag’s LNCS style.

    Topics of interest

    Topics that are in the area of interest of the workshop include, but are not limited to:

    •             Advanced Modelling Techniques for Evolving Predictive Systems
    •             Evolving Predictive Ensembles
    •             Complexity Analysis for Evolving Predictive Systems
    •             Advanced Adaptation Mechanisms
    •             Meta-learning
    •             Applications

    Important Dates

    Submission of Papers: 2 April 2012

    Notification of Acceptance: 1 June 2012

    Camera-Ready submission of Papers: 20 June 2012

    Early Registration Deadline: 25 June 2012

    Conference: 1-5 September 2012

    Papers are submitted by direct email to mailto:atsakonas@bournemouth.ac.uk

    Organization Committee

    Bogdan Gabrys, Bournemouth University, UK, bgabrys@bournemouth.ac.uk

    Athanasios Tsakonas, Bournemouth University, UK, atsakonas@bournemouth.ac.uk

    Mailing address: Bournemouth University, Poole House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB, UK

    Insight into FP7 Environment next round of funding & Info Day next month

    We have managed to obtain information related to the FP7 Environment funding theme for 2013. This information indicates what areas may be funded, so gives you a real head start to make contacts and develop a cohort of researchers for a submission. This is highly sensitive information and not to be circulated outside of BU, which is why I have placed this info on the I drive: I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\Draft Work Programmes for 2012-13

     

    The UK National Contact Point (NCP) for the Intelligent Energy Europe is holding an information day on the 2012 call on 1st Feb in London. Places are limited and in order to ensure that as many key market actors (the Commission’s target audience for the IEE II Programme) as possible can attend the NCP will review the registration requests on January 20th prior to sending out confirmations the following week. You can register for the event here.