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Vitae and the Researcher Development Framework

PG research

Vitae is an organisation set up to promote career development in both postgraduate researchers and academic staff.  They have recently launched the Researcher Development Framework which is intended to help people monitor their skills and plan their personal development.  At BU we will be using this framework to format the training on offer for the postgraduate research students and academic staff.

The Vitae website is an excellent resource and the organisation regularly runs free training events specifically aimed at PGRs.  Upcoming events include Effective Researcher – The end is in sight aimed at students close to the completion of their PhD.

The Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is the professional development framework to realise the potential of researchers.  The RDF is a tool for planning, promoting and supporting the personal, professional and career development of researchers in higher education.  It was designed following interviews with many successful researchers across the sector and articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of a successful researcher. 

There is a planner available on the Vitae website to help you assess which stage you are at with your skills and a tutorial providing guidance on how to use the framework.

Top 10 tips from researchers on using the Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

1. You might choose to use the RDF for short term as well as long term development. The RDF can be used in planning for your long term career ambitions but also to make a feasible short term plan. It can be useful to imagine your long term ambitions in order to focus your career path however the reality of progressing through to the higher phases may be more difficult to plan. In the short term, making decisions about how to progress to the next phase or what sub-domains are most important for you will be easier. Try to be realistic when setting these short term goals.

2. Use the RDF to highlight your strengths and areas for development and how these might be used to benefit/influence your personal, professional and career development.

3. Use the RDF to highlight your applicable and transferable skills. This is important for career progression within or outside academia.

4. Prioritise those areas which are most relevant. You don’t have to try to develop in all the areas of the RDF at once. There may be some sub-domains/descriptors where there is less relevance in progressing through the phases for you.

5. Draw on experiences outside of work to evidence your capabilities.

6. Progression to the highest phase in a descriptor will not be applicable to everyone but being aware of the possibilities can aid personal and career development.

7. Talk to others to get their views about your strengths and capabilities. Your supervisor, manager, peers, family and friends are a great source of information to find out more about yourself. Talk to them about how they perceive your capabilities. By understanding how others view you, you will be able to make more informed choices about your future.

8. To move from one phase to the next why not explore attending courses. These courses may be run at a local level (within your University) or may only be run nationally or internationally so awareness of opportunities for training is important. Vitae also run a wide range of courses which address many aspects of personal and career development.

9. Some phases may only be reached through experience and practice however good self-awareness and professional development planning will aid the process.

10. Networking is likely to enable you to reach more experienced phases.

Professor Kretschmer’s research at the centre of debate by copyright owners & policy makers

Professor Martin Kretschmer’s research into private copying and fair compensation is at the centre of a discussion at an Intellectual Property Office event next week.

‘Informing Copyright Policy in the UK’ takes place on Wednesday 19 October, in partnership with The Big Innovation Centre.

It is an opportunity for copyright owners, technology companies, consumers, academics and policy makers to discuss exactly what Kretschmer’s findings mean for UK policy making.

The influential research paper, entitled ‘Private Copying and Fair Compensation: A comparative study of copyright levies inEurope’, offers the first independent empirical assessment of the European levy system.

The research consolidates evidence on levy setting and collection, as well as reviewing the scope of consumer permissions associated with levy payments. Professor Kretschmer reports the results of three product level studies – printer / scanners, portable music / video / game devices and tablet computers – and analyses the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries.

The other paper up for discussion is ‘Changing Business Models in the Creative Industries: The Cases of Television, Computer Games and Music, by Dr Nicola Searle from theUniversityofAbertay,Dundee.

More information at the event can be found here.

Professor Kretschmer’s key findings:

– There are dramatic differences between countries in the methodology used for identifying leviable media and devices, setting tariffs, and allocating beneficiaries of the levy. These variations cannot be explained by an underlying concept of economic harm to right holders from private copying.

– The scope of consumer permissions under the statutory exceptions for private copying within the EU does not match with what consumers ordinarily understand as private activities.

– In levy countries, the costs of levies as an indirect tax are not always passed on to the consumer. In competitive markets, such as those for printers, manufacturers of levied goods appear to absorb the levy. There appears to be a pan-European retail price range for many consumer devices regardless of levy schemes (with the exception ofScandinavia).

– In non-levy countries, such as theUK, a certain amount of private copying is already priced into retail purchases. For example, right holders have either explicitly permitted acts of format shifting, or decided not to enforce their exclusive rights. Commercial practice will not change as a result of introducing a narrowly conceived private copying exception.

– A more widely conceived exception that would cover private activities that take place in digital networks (such as downloading for personal use, or noncommercial adaptation and distribution within networks of friends) may be best understood not as an exception but as a statutory licence. Such a licence could include state regulated payments with levy characteristics as part of a wider overhaul of the copyright system, facilitating the growth of new digital services.

Links

Professor Martin Kretschmer’s academic profile

More publications by Professor Martin Kretschmer

CIPPM: Recent policy reports

BU Fusion Fund – closing date fast approaching!

The first closing date for the current round of the BU Fusion Fund competition is 1 November 2011.

The fund was launched in September to support staff innovation.  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 or industry engagement enhancing core BU activity 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:

 

Increasing the value of our research – an international perspective

Reading the latest version of the REFAssessment relating to submission guidelines it is evident that we are assessed using a criteria based on international standards (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/pubs/2011/02_11/).  The quality profile is framed around terms such as “world leading”, “internationally excellent” and “recognised internationally” that define four, three and two star research. It is accepted that research should operate at an international level in terms of activities such as conference networking, outputs, collaboration and grant bidding.

One of the great benefits of conducting research at University is the opportunity to attend international conferences. Meeting other academics across the world has real developmental opportunities in addition to receiving valuable subject specific feedback during presentation questions and informal discussions. At a recent international conference in Maltathe conference delegates were invited to spend an afternoon at the University Engineering Faculty in Msida (http://www.um.edu.mt/eng). After presentations from the Faculty Dean and members of academic staff the delegates were shown around the laboratories etc. This was a great opportunity to form new academic links and to understand both the research and educational pressures and opportunities.

It would be interesting if we develop our measurements of success relating to the value of international research. We could for example look more closely at the number of overseas visiting academics, publications with international co-authors or the linkages with post-graduate taught programmes. If we identify and extend the full value of international research beyond its formal boundaries it will benefit all academic activities such as education and professional practice.

Experience counts: increasing research response rates

Guidance

I’ve recently been doing some work to identify what can be done to improve response rates in both qualitative and quantitative research. Although this work was conducted as part of a HEIF4 project and in the financial services sector, the findings are of relevance to anyone conducting research with individuals.  Of particular interest to me were those respondents who were not initially apathetic to research and had in the past taken part in surveys and interviews, but who had developed a reluctance to participate over time. What had caused this reluctance and how could response rates be improved? 

Digging into the literature, two pieces of work caused me to stop and think about the whole research context.  The first was the work of Pickery, Loosveldt and Carton (2001) who found that the interviewer in the first wave of research was more important than the interviewer in the second wave in terms of the impact on subsequent response rates. If the experience with the first researcher was positive then the respondent was more likely to engage again and vice versa. If we link this finding to the more recent work of Clark (2010) it seems that respondents engage in (qualitative) research for many and various reasons and not just to contribute to knowledge or for altruistic reasons. Some actually enjoy the experience; they enjoy the social comparison and the therapeutic aspect of talking about themselves and their experiences. Participation for these respondents is more about the experience and the value they as individuals gain from the interaction.

In the financial services sector there is always the grim warning that “past performance is no guarantee of future performance”. Of course, there are also no guarantees in research; however in this case there does seem to be evidence to suggest that past performance in terms of the research experience is a good indicator of future performance in response rates. The question now is how do we make the research experience more positive, stimulating and enjoyable from the respondent’s perspective? 

References

Pickery, J., Loosveldt, G., and Carton, A (2001) The effects of interviewer and respondent characteristics on response behavior in panel surveys: a Mulit-level approach. Sociological methods and research. 29:509-523

Clark, T. (2010) On ‘being researched’: why do people engage with qualitative research? Qualitative Research. 10: 399-419

Research and the role of the university…

Last week the Guardian wrote a story about the role of universities in the 21st century and how the coalition government’s higher education reform is raising questions about the purpose of universities  (‘What are universities for?‘, 10 October 2011). And this got me thinking about why we’re all here, what the role of a university such as BU should be, and where does research fit into all of this…?

The role of a university has been debated since the nineteenth century. In 1852 Cardinal Newman wrote that the sole function of a university was to teach universal knowledge, embodying the idea of ‘the learning university’. Newman believed that knowledge is valuable and important for its own sake and not just for its perceived use to society (this is very different from the current thinking on the importance of research impact, public accountability and the value of research findings to society at large, issues which I imagine Newman would have thought of as irrelevant!). There was not a great deal in Newman’s work about the importance of research in a university, but research was beginning to play the starring role in mainland Europe where Prussian education minister Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote of the concept of ‘the research university’ and eventually set up the Humboldt University of Berlin. After the Napoleonic Wars, von Humboldt’s view was that the research university was a tool for national rebuilding through the prioritisation of graduate research over undergraduate teaching. This model soon became the blueprint for the rest of Europe, the United States and Japan. Arguably the Russell Group universities are today still structured in a similar way to that envisaged by von Humboldt two hundred years ago.

Moving into the twentieth century and we come across American educationalist Abraham Flexner who wrote of ‘the modern university’. In Flexner’s view universities had a responsibility to pursue excellence, with academic staff being able to seamlessly move from the research lab to the classroom and back again. The pursuit of excellence features in many universities strategies, and sounds very similar to the message conveyed by the REF team as part of the REF2014 guidance. The union of research and education also sounds similar to the current structure of many UK universities.

Taking into account the complexity of universities in the twenty first century, however, all of these views are a little too simplistic. Today’s universities have much broader remits and have to be all three ideas of a university – learning, research and modern. The universities minister David Willetts describes universities as institutions that “push forward the frontiers of knowledge” and “transform people’s lives”, significantly contributing to society and the economy. Peter McCaffery notes that universities now regularly encompass four roles:

  • Finishing school (the last stage of general education)
  • Professional school (the training of elite workers)
  • Knowledge factory (the production of science, technology and ideology)
  • Cultural institution (the expression of our individual and collective sense of being)

This is a huge remit for universities to take on, but makes them exciting places to work!

A quick look at the mission statements of a handful of UK universities indicates a common purpose based on the views of all of the aforementioned scholars:

  • “…to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence” (Cambridge)
  • “…to pursue and share knowledge and understanding, both for their own sake and to help individuals and society fulfil their potential” (Bristol)
  • “…to pursue research, learning and teaching of international distinction and impact” (Cardiff)

The creation and sharing of new knowledge and new ideas has become the principal purpose of many modern universities. In Northern and Western Europe and North America the university has become the key producer of knowledge (through research) and the key sharer of knowledge (through teaching).  The University of Bristol’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Eric Thomas claims that universities are the knowledge engines of our society having produced the vast majority of society’s breakthroughs and innovations, such as: the computer, the web, the structure of DNA, Dolly the Sheep, and the fibre optic cable. Where would we be without these breakthroughs, and would they have come about so quickly without university research?

Being part of an environment in which knowledge creation thrives creates a unique and amazing learning experience for students, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. BU’s focus on the fusion of research, education and professional practice enables the creation of this type of environment through the continuous and valuable exchange of knowledge (BU2018).

By engaging with research, academics can ensure their knowledge is cutting edge and relevant, ensure students receive a quality learning experience, and deliver high quality professional practice. If you’re interested in getting more involved with research, talk to the Research Development Unit and we’ll get you started!

Finally… What do you think the role of the twenty first century university is??

Rio plus 20

As we move into the run up for Rio plus 20 a number of colleagues in the UK are seeking to influence the thinking of key delegates and power brokers (unfortunately the UK delegates are not announced yet). November 1st is the deadline for receiving formal submissions which will be considered for the text to be negotiated at the Summit (compilation text). 

The EAUC is asking members to input their views.

http://www.eauc.org.uk/giving_eauc_members_a_powerful_international_vo

 It is critically important that the role of education in relation to sustainable development does not slide off the table. My colleague Professor Daniella Tilbury has been engaged in the PreComs and has alerted that there is a real danger that the dialogue is moving away from the Agenda 21 vision and UN DESD, to focus on technical and specialist training approaches (with little reference to learning based change and social community learning). There is still time to influence (sustainability will not be achieved by technical solutions alone – it requires education and behaviour change) and to stress the importance of ESD. You can influence either through EAUC or Education Caucus, or other channels you may have access to

To find out more about the processes leading up to Rio

http://www.earthsummit2012.org/

Or

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/

 If you have ideas about influencing it would be interesting to hear them.

At the same time as the Summit there is a World Symposium on Higher Education and SD. The call for papers is still open

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=289&menu=27nd

 If you are developing research for Rio it would be great to hear about it

A view from afar…

I have recently become part of a fascinating network, the Royal Anthropological Institute, who kindly made me a Fellow. Fascinating, because they have realised, after a longer period of Sleeping-Beautyesque focus on social and cultural anthropology alone, how important it is to embrace the natural science part of anthropology, its biological, forensic and medical strands. An excellent move that will bring Anthropology and its representation in the UK back to its comprehensive and encompassing roots and remit. Good also for BU, because the RAI is recognising our contribution towards educating the next generation of anthropologists, whose combined education in humanities and science produces the rounded and aware graduates society will need in future.

Naturally, the RAI fosters broad-ranging discussions among its members, and their ‘house journal’, Anthropology Today, invites guest editorials on a regular basis. Not long ago, a former Cambridge graduate, who moved on to a highly successful career in the US, reflected on the latest changes to the UK Higher Education system, its commercialisation and consumer orientation (anthropology today). American universities have been operating this for a long time, and they are beginning to pick up the fallout now. Hugh Gusterson’s thoughtful comparison of political agendas here and campus reality there makes interesting reading – if only to avoid falling into the same traps.

Dr Sarah Bate’s research will feature on BBC One tonight!

A couple of months ago we ran a blog post about the amazing research into prosopagnosia (face blindness) being undertaken at Bournemouth University by Dr Sarah Bate (‘Find out about Dr Sarah Bate’s research into prosopagnosia‘).

Sarah will feature on tonight’s Inside Out – South show, at 7:30pm, discussing the condition with presenter Jon Cuthill and people diagnosed with prosopagnosia.

You can see a quick peek at Sarah’s research on tonight’s show here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15290378

You can test yourself for prosopagnosia at Sarah’s website: www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org.

EU Parliament propose double money for Horizon 2020

The European Parliament has published a report in response to the various draft documents for Horizon 2020. The report suggests that the budget for the research and innovation programmes should be doubled (so get networking now to apply for this in 2014!) and large scale projects (such as GALILEO) be paid for outside of this budget. Collaborative transnational excellent research should be kept at the heart of Horizon 2020 and a move towards a more ‘science-based’ approach and a more trust-based and risk-tolerant attitude towards participants at all stages of the funding system should be taken. Research Priorities should be set in a more transparent way and rules should be easy to interpret and apply to all EU research and innovation programmes and instruments. It also calls for greater participation for Member States who are currently under-supported, more support for underperforming regions and states that there should be new measures to support Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

We have received information about the following funding opportunities which may be of interest:

British Academy/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowships

This scheme enables established scholars to have one year’s research leave with funding being provided to cover the costs of replacement teaching.  The closing date for applications is 16 November 2011.  The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s age or current status (eg Professor, Lecturer) in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, in all cases, award-holders are expected to be able to disseminate the results of their research not only through publications, but also through feeding into their future academic career after the end of the awards. Any field of study in the humanities and social sciences is suitable for support.  More info available on the website.

Lister Institute Research Prizes

The Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine, which is a registered charity established to support biomedical and related research, is now inviting applications from outstanding young researchers in biomedical or related biological sciences for its 2012 Research Prizes.

More information can be found on the charity’s website.

All the latest on the FP7 Security theme

The Security theme has been a hive of activity over the last few weeks!

Firstly the EU has signed a European Framework Co-operation with the European Defence Agency which will allow them to formally cooperate in promoting dual-use application in research, formally consult with each other and share their R&D goals, align their agendas and coordinate calls for research topics as well as influencing the development of a possible Security theme in Horizon 2020. These activities are expected to support the emergence of dual-use technologies and capabilities for civil and military users across the 27 EU Member States. Protection against Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats is the first research topic that will be addressed under the newly established EFC. Other topics where the Commission and the EDA plan to co-ordinate their work involve unmanned aerial systems and situational awareness, which includes many technological sub-sectors involving sensors, information management and cyber-security.

Secondly, the presentations of the 2011 Infoday are now available online for anyone who couldn’t attend. These slides also include the list of participants, and Project Officers’ contact details; this is the first time that a list of Project Officers responsible for the various topics to be funded under a Security call has been published.

Thirdly, the annual Security conference was held in Poland at the end of September. The focus of the conference was to explore effective ways in which industry, research institutes and local public (end-user) authorities can be brought together and it was ackwledged during the conference that one of the main challenges is to move the programme from its research focus to a market perspective due to the sector’s fragmentation. Several achievements of the FP7 Security theme that were highlighted during the Conference as well as some of the main new policy goals for Security research in Horizon 2020. You can  read more about the conference  on the SRC 2011 website.

Prof Martin Kretschmer on Hargreaves’ parody and private use exception to copyright

BU’s Prof Martin Kretschmer will speak at a Houses of Parliament discussion into the practicalities of Professor Hargreaves’ recommended copyright exceptions.

The event, entitled ‘Hargreaves’ exceptions: format-shifting, parody, research and archiving’, takes place on Tuesday 18 October and will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the practical implications of Professor Hargreaves’ recommendation.

The Hargreaves Review cites the research in developing a recommendation to introduce a limited private copying exception without compensation.

Professor Kretschmer will talk about the European requirement of “fair compensation” in relation to certain copyright exceptions. His research reports the results of three product level studies – printer / scanners, portable music / video / game devices and tablet computers – and analyses the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries. His report on copyright levies, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), has been cited by the Hargreaves Review and in the Government’s response to Hargreaves.

The panel discussion will be chaired by Jim Dowd MP. Other panel members include Martin Brennan, founder and CEO of 3GA Ltd, Richard Brousson, legal counsel at the British Film Institute (BFI) and James Sadri, digital producer at Greenpeace UK.

For further information, please see the following links: 

More on Private Copying and Fair Compensation

Professor Martin Kretschmer’s academic profile

More publications by Professor Martin Kretschmer

BU research features in the THE!

PG research

Congratulations to BU PhD student Adil Saeed from DEC’s Sustainable Design Research Centre! Adil’s research featured in the Times Higher Education today – pg 15 of the printed publication as part of the Campus Round-up section.

Adil is pictured at the Tank Museum at Bovington with some additional information on the relationship between BU and the Museum and an outline of Adil’s research.

You can access the online story here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417729&c=1

We previously ran a story on the blog about Adil’s research and the close links between BU and the Tank Museum which you can read here: Sustainable Methodology of Conserving Large Historic Vehicles in a Museum Environment.

Donella Meadows and systems thinking

One of the great joys of developing new teaching material is discovering the work of others, whom you knew nothing about. I’m currently reading ‘Thinking in systems’ by Donella Meadows, one of those names I’d been dimly aware of, without actually having read her work. Now I’m doing so, it’s a revelation; I have never read anyone write so clearly and entertainingly about systems thinking. She is probably best known as lead author of the seminal book ‘Limits to growth’, and was also a member of the ‘Club of Rome’. The article I have been recommending to my students is one of her best-known, and focuses on leverage points in systems – in other words, how to bring about change. Strongly recommended; I’ve put the link below. As a taster, here are a couple of quotes from her ‘Thinking in systems’ primer:

‘Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes… Managers do not solve problems, they manage mess’ [R Ackoff]

and:

‘You think that because you understand ‘one’ that you must therefore understand ‘two’ because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand ‘and’ [Sufi teaching story]

http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/pubs/Leverage_Points.pdf

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donella_Meadows

Welcome to the Green Economy and Sustainability blog

‘Green economy and sustainability’ is one of Bournemouth University’s (BU) newly defined research themes, and this blog has been created to support its development. The main aim of initiating this blog is to share information and to foster inter-disciplinary collaboration across the University. So, please get involved! Any member of BU staff who wants to add their own posts directly to this blog can now do so; please just make a request for access to the Research Development Unit, who will then set you up with an account.

Some brief items of news to kick us off. We are delighted that BU’s new MSc Green Economy has formally launched this October, with an initial cohort of 11 students. This is a novel departure for the University, being entirely distance-based in delivery, enabling students to study from anywhere in the world. As part of the course, students will have the option of undertaking either a research project or a work-based placement during their studies. So, if you have any ideas of projects that you would like to see them do, please get in touch.

There is also a Sustainable Business Exhibition happening right here in Bournemouth on 10th November, at the AFC Bournemouth stadium. This is free to attend: http://www.greenmessage.co.uk/exhibition/

Also, on the 20th October, the Carbon Management Centre of Excellence established by Mouchel in partnership with Bournemouth Borough Council is holding an event in BU’s Business Centre. The event will be showcasing successful carbon reduction projects in the property, transportation and waste sectors. It also will include a number of innovative new technologies that could deliver carbon reduction in the future. To register please email mark.baillie@mouchel.com.

Adrian

EU ‘Erasmus’ funding available for BU staff!

BU takes part in the  Erasmus Mobility Programme (part of the EU funded Lifelong Learning Programme) which means academic and professional services staff can now bid for funding in support of teaching or training visits to partner universities or enterprises in Europe. Taking part in the Erasmus scheme will enhance your CV and give you a great international experience, as Richard Shipway from the School of Tourism found:

“My Erasmus visit was an opportunity to profile BU’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses, enhance my own experience of teaching overseas, explore the possibility of future students and staff exchanges, and to establish research links with the partner university’s staff in the area of tourism and events.” (Erasmus visit to Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey in May 2011).

Check out the Centre for Global Perspectives webpage to submit an application; the deadline is Friday 28th October.

Funding Opps for Postgrad Students

PG research

Interested in spending a year conducting research at an overseas university?  The following funding schemes may be of interest:

Ritsumeikan University

This Japanese University has a range of scholarships available.  One of the schemes is to spend 12 months as an International Research Student working closely with the University’s research staff.  Applications are open until 5th December 2011.  Visit the website for details.

One Year Visiting Fellowship at Harvard or MIT

There are scholarships available for students who are mid-PhD and would like to spend an additional year as a fellow at Harvard or MIT.  You must have at least one year left to complete on your return to the UK.  Applications can be made online at www.kennedytrust.org.uk and the attached documents contain more information – Kennedy Scholarship and Frank Knox Fellowship.  The deadline is 30th Oct 2011.