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Discrepancies in guidance from funders

Guidance

We in RKE Operations have recently become aware of some discrepancies within funders’ guidance notes. In some instances, separate sets of guidance for the same call have provided different information. In others, guidance notes relating to a specific call have been released a while after the call notes, and have included important and relevant information for writing the bid. In order to guard against this, we recommend:

–          Checking back regularly – up to the date of submission – on the funder’s website in case they have released amended or supplemental  guidance.

–          Where amended guidance is released, always using the most up-to-date version.

–          Ensuring that all guidance notes are read thoroughly – important information may be found hidden where you least expect it.

–          If bids are submitted through an electronic system, this includes reading the guidance notes relevant to and attached to the e-system as well.

–          If different sets of guidance for the same call give conflicting information, check with the funder (or ask us to do so).

If the guidance isn’t clear or doesn’t give you the information you need, funders are generally happy to help – as are we in RKE Operations – so feel free to pick up the phone.

Royal Society opens up its journal archive

Publishing

The Royal Society continues to support scientific discovery by allowing free access to more than 250 years of leading research.  Their world-famous journal archive has been opened up and all articles more than 70 years old have been made permanently free to access. 

The Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific publisher and, as such, their archive is the most comprehensive in science.  It comprises more than 69,000 articles, from the very first published in 
the world’s first peer-reviewed journal Philosophical Transactions to the first article published in the recently launched journal Open Biology.

Thomas Henry Huxley FRS wrote in 1870: ‘If all the books in the world, except the Philosophical Transactions were to be destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be largely, though incompletely, recorded.’

Professor Uta Frith FRS, Chair of the Royal Society library committee, says: ‘The release of these papers opens a fascinating window on the history of scientific progress over the last few centuries and will be of interest to anybody who wants to understand how science has evolved since the days of the Royal Society’s foundation.’

The move to open up their publishing archive is part of the Royal Society’s ongoing commitment to open access in scientific publishing.  It also comes soon after the launch of the Society’s first ever fully open access journal, Open Biology. 

RCUK Digital Economy theme: invitation to apply to participate in sub-theme workshops and networks

The EPSRC have recently announced a call for applications to participate in a number of workshops to develop research challenges and networks within the Digital Economy Theme:

 

Digital Economy Theme – The Research Councils UK Digital Economy (DE) Theme is supporting research to rapidly realise the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of community life, cultural experiences, future society, and the economy.

EPSRC leads the DE Theme on behalf of the partner research councils AHRC, ESRC and MRC, bringing together a unique community of researchers from diverse disciplines including computer science, engineering, social science, the arts and medical research; a combination of research and skills that coupled with user-led design will deliver impact.

Digital Economy Sub-Themes – The DE Theme has formed four ‘sub-themes’ to describe the research they support (further described at the end of this document):

  • Communities and Culture– As people interact more and more over the web, what might ‘community and culture’ mean within a digital society?
  • Sustainable Society– Digital technologies can be used to make services more sustainable and enhance current systems (economic, environmental and social), in a way that is accessible, affordable, bespoke and popular.
  • IT as a Utility– To realise the digital economy, digital infrastructure should be so simple, accessible and reliable it is invisible to the consumer.
  • New Economic Models – New business models in a digital economy will create a more flexible, dynamic, resilient and individual-centred economy for the UK.

EPSRC now wish to further develop these sub-themes, and so are seeking applications from interested researchers and users to attend a number of one-day workshops, to explore the opportunities and associated research challenges in these sub-themes and also to create a longer term network of researchers and users around the sub-themes.

Sub-theme Workshops and Networks – At the workshops attendees will consider the sub-theme remit and associated DE Theme portfolio, and identify the opportunities within the sub-theme and the associated research challenges, prioritising where the DE Theme could add value and have maximum impact.

Following on from the workshop, EPSRC envisage the sub-theme network creating a community around the sub-theme, expanding the network to include other relevant stakeholders, whether academic, users or other stakeholders.
The network will also continue to develop the research challenges and priorities in the sub-theme and also gathering information on the sub-theme landscape (e.g. other activities, funders etc.). The DE Theme will use these network outputs to inform future investment.

The workshops have been arranged for the following dates, although locations are still to be confirmed:

New Economic Models – Monday 23 January 2012

IT as a Utility – Tuesday 24 January 2012

Communities and Culture – Thursday 26 January 2012

Sustainable Society – Friday 27 January 2012

The deadline for submission of the EoI is 12:00 on 30 November 2011. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by the 16 December 2011.

For more information on the RCUK Digital Economy theme, and how to apply to participate in the workshops please visit the EPSRC website.

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone researching in this area, especially as it fits in with our emerging BU Research Theme – Creative and Digital Economies. Anyone interested and research-active in this field is strongly encouraged to apply!

RCUK Demand Management week on the blog! What is RCUK Demand Management?

Guidance

Welcome to RCUK Demand Management week on the blog! There has been a lot of discussion and debate about demand management over the past 12 months or so, particularly in response to the RCUK Efficiency 2011-15 strategy, Research Councils’ delivery plans, and EPSRC’s cooling off period launched in April 2010. The other Research Councils have now started to publish their plans for demand management so it’s timely to look at what this actually is, how each of the Research Councils will enforce it, and what it means for researchers. Every day this week on the blog we will focus on a different element of demand management starting with today’s overview of what demand management actually means…

What is Demand Management? – Demand management is the term given to the steps taken by RCUK and the Research Councils to reduce the amount of applications they receive.

Why is Demand Management required? – Research Councils currently receive more applications that they are able to support and research institutions currently submit more applications than are likely to be funded. This can be seen in the Research Council success rates which continue to fall year-on-year as the demand for funds increases compared to the limited funding available (see the table below). The costs of administering such large quantities of applications is a huge burden for the Research Councils and reduces the amount of money available to fund research. Large quantities of applications also place a heavy burden on the peer reviewers, thus increasing the risk that the quality of decision-making could be compromised. RCUK note that “there are some proposals submitted which have little or no chance of success” and that steps should be taken at both applicant and institution level to pre-sift these proposals prior to submission, therefore reducing the volume of applications submitted to Research Councils.

What has RCUK asked institutions to do? – RCUK has asked institutions to actively encourage the self-management of demand and quality control, such as through internal sifting processes.

What resources and processes has BU put in place to support Demand Management? – BU has established an internal peer review scheme (Research Proposal Review Service) which has been up and running in its current form for almost 12 months now. The scheme is managed by Caroline O’Kane and a whopping 21 proposals have been reviewed since July. BU has also invested in proposal writing sessions and bid writing surgeries for researchers. On 23 and 24 November Dr Martin Pickard will be visiting BU to run sessions specifically focusing on writing and preparing applications for Research Council funding – read more and book a place here. Martin’s sessions are excellent and always well received, and I would encourage anyone considering applying for research funding to attend.

What processes have the Research Councils put in place to enforce Demand Management? – This varies between the Research Councils and we will focus on a different Council every day as part of RCUK Demand Management week on the Blog!

TOP SECRET! I have a draft of the next calls to be released in Health under FP7…

top secretI’ve managed to get my grubby mitts on a draft version of the FP7 Health 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, the eligibility criteria, etc. I have bookmarked the document so you can jump straight to the call that interests you.

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\Draft Work Programmes for 2012
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!

Online Research – advice sought

Guidance

Hello all

I am a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in HSC and newly registered MPhil/PhD Student.

I am planning to use online focus groups that run over a period of time to collect my qualitative narratives and I am hoping to speak to anybody that has experience in carrying out online research. So, if you are happy to meet up over a coffee to discuss the benefits and challenges you have faced, as well as potential technological issues then please do contact me.

Thanks

Kirsty Stanley (kstanley@bournemouth.ac.uk)

MEDIA 2007 Call for Proposals: Promotion and Access to Markets

The EC has launched a call for proposals for the promotion and access to markets under the Media 2007 Programme.

The objectives include:

  • facilitating and encouraging the promotion and movement of European audiovisual and cinema works at trade shows, fairs and audiovisual festivals in Europe and around the globe, insofar as such events may play an important role in the promotion of European works and the networking of professionals, and
  • encouraging the networking of European operators, by supporting joint activities on the European and international markets by national public or private promotion bodies.

The deadline for sending in applications is: 22 December 2011 for activities starting between 1 June 2012 and up to 31 December 2012. The guidelines of the call for proposals, as well as the application forms, are available from the European Commission’s website.

EU Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership announce focus of research areas

The Active & Healthy Ageing EU Innovation Partnership was established earlier this year with a pilot aim to increase the average healthy lifespan in Europe by two years by 2020. Its steering group (33 members from Europe including member states and regional authorities, organisations representing groups of patients, doctors, academics, and businesses) announced this week that it will focus on 5 research and policy areas:

  1. improving medicines compliance
  2. preventing falls
  3. fighting frailty and malnutrition
  4. developing new care models
  5. boosting the uptake of ICT solutions for independent living

The strategy includes in particular actions at the regional level, for example to spread remote monitoring care models for older patients suffering from chronic diseases. Other actions will be added later to these first five priorities, including improving health literacy and the diagnosis of cognitive decline.

EC Media- related i2i Audiovisual funding available

The EC has launched a call for proposals for the development, distribution, promotion and training of i2i audiovisual under the Media 2007 Programme.

The objective of this support is to facilitate independent European production companies’ access to funding from credit and financial institutions, by co-financing part of the costs of:

  • insurance for audiovisual productions: Module 1 — Support the ‘Insurance’ item in a production budget,
  • completion guarantee for the production of an audiovisual work: Module 2 — Support for the item ‘Completion Guarantee’ in a production budget, and
  • credit financing for the production of a work: Module 3 — Support for the item ‘Financial Costs’ in a production budget.

Applications for this call for proposals must be submitted at the latest by:

  • 6 January 2012, for projects with an earliest start date 1 July 2011,
  • 6 June 2012, for projects with an earliest start date 1 December 2011

The guidelines and application forms of this call for proposals may be found on the European Commission’s website.

 

 

REF Highlight Report #10

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
  • publication of the final REF guidance on submissions in July 2011
  • the consultation on the panel working methods and criteria
  • the appointment of Sally Gates as the REF Communications Manager
  • the RASG and RALT meetings held between May and October

You can access the full document from the I-drive via this link: REF Highlight Report #10

If you are accessing the report from off-campus then you will need to locate the following folder on the I-drive: CRKT\Public\RDU\REF\REF preparations\REF highlight reports\#10

Permaculture – towards sustainable living?

Permaculture: presentation by Theresa McManus
23rd November, 13.00-14.00, Shelley LT
Permaculture is about designing human settlements and agricultural systems modelled on relationships found in nature. It is about self-sufficiency, farming, gardening, smallholding and sustainable living. But more than that it is an ecological design system for sustainability that teaches us how to build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, harvest rainwater, build communities and much more.
Theresa McManus, Sustainability Manager for DEAC (Dorset’s Energy Advice Centre) is a committed environmentalist, community activist and permaculturalist. She is focussed on promoting sustainability, increasing biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions and saving the planet. On 23rd November between 13.00 and 14.00 she will give a talk on permaculture.
So if you are interested please come along.

Studying Green – a film to inspire learning and debate

Green is a film worth watching. As the website suggests http://studyinggreen.wordpress.com/ It is both a hard hitting portrayal of the causes and consequences of deforestation in Indonesia, and a film which captures the tranquillity and calm of wild nature. It contains no narrative or dialogue and yet helps us understand complex commodity chains. It was made with a small camera by a single person on a tourist visa, and has beaten much larger production teams, and healthily funded groups to the most prestigious prizes in environmental film-making. And if that is not enough Green was not made for sale or profit, instead you can watch and download it for free at the film’s website (or see below for how to get a DVD of it). The website also contains a series of short essays put forward by academics, who have seen the film,

Share files easily with the new BU Transfer service!

Guidance

As part of the Collaborative Tools for Academics project, we have been looking at ways of enhancing the support available to academics to share information both internally and externally. Feedback from colleagues indicated that the University’s file transfer service was not adequate and required improvement. I am delighted today to launch the new file transfer service – BU Transfer.

BU Transfer will enable you to quickly and easily share large files with colleagues internally and externally via a web browser.

You can access BU Transfer from the Staff Portal, the Research Blog and MyBU via this icon.

We are very interested in your feedback regarding the service. Please could you forward all comments to Amina Uddin.

Best wishes

Matthew

Partner sought for Green Materials FP7 Project

The School of Applied Sciences at Cranfield University in the UK is looking for partners to develop innovative advanced lightweight materials for the next generation of environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. This would include materials using thermoplastics, polymer nanocomposites and fibre-reinforced polymers, composites, and deploy them into the body parts, chassis and heavier interior systems. The project would also look at reducing the structural weight of materials, exploiting new material characteristics, developing related production processes, and carrying out life-cycle and cost-model analyses.You can read more details on the project here.

The CORDIS Partners Service helps you to find research collaborators in order to benefit from EU or other funding. You can also search by profile type, programme and/or country to find project partners.

Technology Strategy Board – Updates

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The Technology Strategy Board, which delivers the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme, has announced:

  • New funding criteria from the ESRC and BBSRC – ESRC Criteria for KTP support 2011 and  BBSRC Criteria for KTP Support 2011
  • Updated financial procedures for timely claiming and payment of awards
  • Applications for Shorter KTPs are now re-opened during the migration of KTPs to a streamlined 6 to 36 month scheme
  • A new version of Guidance Notes for Grant Application and Proposal Forms has been issued
  • An updated Management Handbook for KTPs – for Supervisors was released in October 2011
  • There is a competition for KTPs in Multicore and Parallel Processing  – closing date 24/11/11
  • Ashorne Hill have been selected to provide the new training package for Associates

As the TSB releases more information on KTP scheme, I will be posting this on the blog, so watch out for more news.

Please contact me if you have any queries about current or future KTPs, in the first instance. Further information is also available on the KTP website. For those interested in developing KTPs and networking with others with the same interests, the TSB recommends that you join the Knowledge Transfer Network.

Emily Cieciura (Research & Knowledge Exchange Operations)

ecieciura@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 968241

In search of a friendly physicist…

Guidance

Recently I have been doing some work looking at Ontology and the nature of Truth and have become interested in some of the ideas discussed in theoretical physics, such as multiple dimensions, space time, unified theories, observer effects, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle……….

My work relates to the authenticity of food.  A big gap I know, but I would like to have a chat with someone so that I can ask some naive questions such as, how can you have a very small dimension?

I will buy lunch or coffee.

Yours expectantly

Sean Beer

School of Tourism

(Sorry if this sounds like an add from the personal columns)