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Research Funding, Society & Research @ BU

Over the last decade, but particularly in the last five years, BU has matured into a university with a strong research track record with some of the most talented researchers anywhere in the world.  It is a fantastic success story and one to be justifiably proud.  Take a look at the graph which shows the growth in our published output as depicted by Scopus data; it truly something!  Our output has grown at a rate of over 13% compared to 3.7% for the UK as a whole.

RAE2008 was a milestone in this journey – the fourth most improved University was the well-deserved headline!   There is much to shout about but we also have to think carefully about how we can continue this trajectory building on this foundation.

To do this we will need to find more income.  Our research income per academic FTE remains modest at around £6.5k compared to a sector average of £50k per FTE.  To grow our research base further we need to up our game.  You may ask why?  Well to make another step change and ensure that we are not just left in the stocks as a teaching-only university as the sector shifts in the coming years we need to grow our learning community of research students, research assistants and post-doctoral fellows which are the lifeblood of a successful research active university.   To do this we will need to attract much more external research income.  It is not, however, just a question of bidding more, but critically of increasing the quality of our bids and thereby our success rates.

There are many reasons why a shift to a research culture driven by societal need is important, not least of which is to give something back as a public institution to society, but it is also important to ensure our ability to bid more successfully for funds in the future.  Let me use my own career as an illustration.  My first passion is glacial geology and I spent much of the 1990s studying the esoteric discipline of sediment transport in Arctic glaciers.  It was a fantastic period in my life in which I was perpetually scraping together funds for my next field trip and never more at home than on some frozen glacier.  Money was not easy to come by because in truth there was little funding available for such work, to be blunt it has little or no societal relevance.  It was not until I joined BU in 2002 that I started to reinvent my research direction working for the first time in the field of contaminated land as an environmental geologist and starting to work first in Central America and then in Africa on aspects of human evolution.  During this second part of my career my success rate with Research Councils increased three-fold, as did the total amount of research income I generated.  In essence I shifted from a field with little societal relevance to one with huge value. My passion for research remains but is just directed slightly differently!  At the heart of this story is the fact that I was able to transfer my skills as sedimentologist – someone who studies dirt – from one discipline to another.

Within BU we have a lot of active and talented researchers some of whom are working in fields of societal importance but some whom are not, preferring to pursue their own, often narrow, research agenda.  By shifting to a more societal focus for the majority of our research our ability to generate income and achieve societal impact is likely to be much greater and this is a shift that we need to make together over the next year or so.  A shift which is something that is essential if we are to make BU2018 a reality.

During the last year BU has been through a process of defining societal research themes and it is worth refreshing ourselves about this journey.  The initial candidate set of themes was generated from a trawl of all the priority funding areas for all major research funding bodies (Research Councils, European Commission, major charities, etc).  This list was debated and refined by the BU Professoriate and subject to an all staff survey, in which candidate themes where put to the public vote.  The remaining ten themes were scoped out and defined and then whittled to eight earlier this year via debate on this blog.  These are the research themes on which BU has chosen to focus its societal research effort.  But crucially they are still up for debate, evolution and further discussion.  To this end I recently invited all staff to an event on the 14 December 2011 at which the research themes will be scoped further and networks of researchers created.  If you have not signed up yet I would encourage you to do so!

To register your place at the Fusion Event on 14 December complete this form:

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your School / Professional Service (required)

    Staff or PGR student? (required)

    StaffPGR

    Please select the themes that you are interested in (required)

    See the BU Research Themes brought to life with our excellent short videos!

    Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting a series of YouTube videos to the blog which illustrate examples of the excellent research being undertaken at BU within each of the 8 BU Research Themes.

    The first video went live today in the Recreation and Leisure section of the blog, and features Prof Alan Fyall (School of Tourism) discussing the research he has undertaken with the Malaysian Tourism Board to develop a sports tourism policy.

    The videos were produced internally by the Marketing & Communications team and provide excellent, colourful and lively examples of BU research brought to life. They are intended to give an insight into the research going on within the Themes.

    We’d love to receive your feedback on the videos! Just add a comment to this post 😀

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

    Introducing the new Executive Briefing Centre

    Guidance

    The sixth floor of the Executive Business Centre (EBC) on the Lansdowne Campus has recently been refurbished to include a Briefing Centre, an impressive new facility which is now available for staff to use when meeting and hosting external visitors and contacts. Co-located with the Centre for Entrepreneurship, it offers the ideal venue to brief external clients.

    The Executive Briefing Centre suite consists of a Reception area with sofas and Welcome Desk, two large state-of-the-art meeting rooms (EB602 & EB603), as well as access to the floor’s kitchenette facilities. The purpose of the Centre is to provide suitable meeting space for all staff and students to book when hosting external visitors, with the aim of facilitating links and engaging with the business community. Such meetings may include developing consultancy projects and research opportunities, media relations, student consultancy assignments, and more. 

    The larger of the two rooms, EB602 which sits 12, houses an exciting state-of-the-art HD video conferencing system which enables real time broadcast of video and audio as well as the transmission of computer graphics over the internet. A network-based image store is also available, and lighting in this room has been specifically designed to enhance the quality of the video calls.

    Bookings and access – To book either of these two superb meeting rooms please use the Room Booking Request form on the Estates and IT Services web page, http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/itservices/index.html. If you require EB602 for a video conference, please fill in the relevant information on the request form.

    In order to access the meeting rooms, please collect key card/s from the EBC Reception and ensure that all cards are returned on your departure. The information on the confirmation email includes a link to the Chartwells website to order catering, as well as information on how to book car parking for external visitors.

    Instructions on how to use the AV equipment are available in the meeting rooms in paper format, however training can be given on how to operate the equipment in advance of your booking. Please call the IT Service Desk on 01202 965515 in order to arrange this, if required.

    SciTech Europe 2011: Advancing Research, Innovation & Collaboration

    There are a limited number of last minute complimentary places available to attend SciTech Europe 2011 on 24 November at The Square, Meeting Centre, Brussels.

    Confirmed to Speak

    Dr. Anneli Pauli
    Deputy Director-General on Innovation and ERA (European Research Area), Directorate-General Research, European Commission

    Professor Enric Banda
    President, Euroscience

    Professor Maria Leptin
    Member of the Management Committee, Initiative for Science in Europe and Director of EMBO

    Iztok Lesjak
    President, International Association of Science Parks, European Division

    Dr. Katrien Maes
    Chief Policy Officer, League of European Research Universities

    Dr. John Smith
    Deputy Secretary General, European University Association (EUA)

    Dr. Ayoade MJ Oduola
    Coordinator, Stewardship for Infectious Diseases of poverty (STE),

    Professor Joanna Chataway
    Director, Innovation and Technology Policy, RAND Europe

    Professor Anthony J Ryan OBE
    Board member, STFC Science Council; Pro-Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Science, Sheffield University

    View Full Programme

    To register your complimentary place at this event please use our Online Registration System using discount code STEUCOMP at the final stage of the registration process.  Book Online

    EPSRC applications now need to include ‘national importance’

    The EPSRC has announced that from the 15th November 2011 their peer reviewers will be asked to assess the national importance of research proposals.  The Council have tried to reassure people that research quality will remain the key criteria by which research proposals are assessed.

    The EPSRC added the following definition of National Importance to their website:

    What is National Importance?

    National importance looks over a 10 to 50 year time frame. It takes into account the national importance of the research in relation to other research in the area, how it aligns to national UK priorities, user/stakeholder pull or if it underpins priority areas for other research councils.

    When considering National Importance for research and training we take into account;

    • the potential impact of a research area on the current or future success of the UK economy,
    • whether it has been identified as an area that will enable the future development of key emerging industry(s),
    • if the area makes a clear contribution to meeting key societal challenges facing the UK,
    • If the area is key to the health of other research disciplines.

    We are asking applicants to demonstrate the importance of their proposed research project to the UK in relation to other research in that area. We do not expect applicants to be able to predict the impact of their research, nor do we expect reviewers to make assumptions about the probability of the benefits being fully delivered. The purpose of national importance is to encourage applicants to articulate how their research aligns to national UK priorities, user/stakeholder pull or if it underpins other research areas. We encourage and recognise the research we invest in has a global impact.

    A full list of the FAQs can be found on their website here.

    RCUK Demand Management week on the blog! EPSRC and demand management…

    Guidance

    EPSRC logoWelcome to RCUK Demand Management week on the blog! Today’s focus is on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the steps they have taken to enforce demand management. The EPSRC was the first Research Council to initiate a policy for demand management and it was particularly controversial at the time. Back in April 2010 the EPSRC launched the ‘12-month cooling-off period for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants‘ as a way of reducing the number of applications they received through individual researcher sanctions. This policy restricts repeatedly unsuccessful applicants to submitting one application (as PI or Co-I) for a 12-month period.

    What is the criteria for ‘repeatedly unsuccessful applicants’? – Researchers are considered repeatedly unsuccessful if they meet both of the following criteria:

    1. Three or more applications within a two-year period ranked in the bottom half of a funding prioritisation list or rejected before panel (including administrative rejects);
    2. An overall personal success rate of less than 25% over the same two years.

    The two year period is calculated from the date on the letter the applicant receives informing them of the decision not to fund their application.

    Will all applications to EPSRC be taken into account? – All full proposals submitted by an applicant as PI will be considered over a rolling two-year period. Examples of applications not taken into account include: training grants, outline applications, applications submitted as Co-I, and all activities where peer review is led by another funding body. See the EPSRC website for a full list.

    What sanction is applied to applicants who meet the criteria? – They will be allowed to submit only one application during the next 12 month period and asked to review their submission behaviour with their university.

    How are people notifed that they have met the criteria? – They will be emailed by EPSRC. The Research Development Unit are also notified and keep a central record of BU applicants who have met the criteria.

    I am interested in applying to EPSRC. How can I make sure my application stands the best chance of being funded? – 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. If you are submitting an bid to EPSRC then I strongly encourage you to work with Caroline through the RPRS. You can also check the Blog to see what proposal writing sessions are running at BU. For example, 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.

    CONFIDENTIAL! FP7 Food, Agriculture, Fisheries & Biotechnology likely future calls for proposals are here!

    Exciting news if you’re interested in applying to the FP7 Food, Agriculture, Fisheries & Biotechnology theme next year – I’ve managed to obtain confidential documents which hint at calls to be released next July.

    The documents are long and very dull and I’ve saved you the pain of reading these by summarising them for you with bookmarks to allow you to jump straight to the area which interests you.As these document are highly confidential I have placed the summary 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 Work Programmes which feature the calls for proposals aren’t officially released until July 2012 so reading this gives you a fantastic head start to preparing a submission.

    Whenever I can obtain other documents indicating future calls for FP7 I will summarise these for you and place on the blog (I’ve already done this for the Health theme) so keep checking the EU blog to make sure you don’t miss out!

    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.