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The Collaborative Researcher – Free Places at a Vitae training workshop

Vitae, the organisation which focuses on researcher development is offering up to 40 free places on this 2 day training workshop to help you develop your collaboration skills.  All you need to cover are your travel expenses to Nottingham.  Places will fill up fast so if you’re interested don’t delay!  The dates are 30th Jan – 1st Feb 2012.

This 2 day residential course looks at the building blocks of the collaborative style of research: ­ inclusive communication, cultural awareness, robust planning, negotiation and the ability to work effectively with others.  Whether your collaboration is with another academic in your department, or partners from different subjects, sectors and countries, it helps you to develop winning strategies for connecting and working with others.

What does it involve?

The course is attended by up to 40 researchers from across the country, from different disciplines and career stages.  It is led by a team of experienced facilitators who work with participants throughout the 2 days to support their learning.  They will be from a variety of backgrounds with experience in collaboration, academia and other sectors.

This course takes a ‘learning by doing’ approach. There will be presentations on collaboration theory, but for the most part, you will be actively participating in the sessions and activities. 

This is an intensive 2 day residential course which runs from dinner on the evening of Monday 30th January to 5pm on 1st February 2011

What’s in it for you?

This course offers you the opportunity to: 

  • explore collaboration both in theory and in practice
  • work with a team of experienced facilitators from a range of career backgrounds, who will ensure you get the most out of the 2 days
  • meet researchers from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages
  • develop your understanding of collaboration theory and how to apply it in practice
  • take a few days out from your research both physically and mentally, and have some space in which to consider yourself and your next steps

Eligibility/Entry

This event is open to all UK researchers – subject to availability. Book your place now.

Places on the event are free but participants will need to cover their own travel expenses.  Accommodation and meals are provided.

Mental Health Research and Community Programmes

As part of Mental Health Week here at BU Dr Andrew Mayers from DEC has highlighted some of the work he is undertaking with local groups.

FirstPoint (Winton)

Run by Bournemouth Borough Council, FirstPoint work with community residents who have a range of mental health problems. Many of these individuals are not cared for by health services, often by choice. Using the ‘recovery model’ for mental health, the trained staff work to re-engage individuals and help them rebuild their lives. In the recovery model, individuals are shown how to regain enough self-confidence to find the coping skills and resources to return to better mental health. I am working with FirstPoint on a number of projects. We are evaluating outcomes in one-year longitudinal study, with BU students collecting and analysing the data. We aim to publish the outcomes in 2012/13. We also are working on arranging a series of work-experience placements for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Over the last months, FirstPoint have been working on a DVD that illustrates the benefits of the recovery model for mental health. The DVD will be used to inform mental health workers; I have made a contribution to that DVD. We will be launching the DVD for FirstPoint at BU in November.

Bournemouth and District Samaritans

The work undertaken by the Samaritans across the UK and Ireland is well known. The central focus of their work is to be a ‘listening ear’ to anyone experiencing despair, loneliness, or feeling suicidal. They are available 24-hours a day, every day of the year, via telephone, text, e-mail, letter, or face-to-face. I work very closely with the Bournemouth and District branch, acting as their Patron and I organise their publicity. We are working on a number of local projects, not least looking to establish closer ties between BU and the Samaritans. A number of our students volunteer to work at the Branch. The Samaritans have a presence at several BU events. We are currently working with several people at BU to establish a crisis nightline, and training (any) staff who have contact with students who may need emergency help (we have already had some crises with the current BU student intake). We are also looking to work closely with other agencies and charities locally. Some of this may lead to research opportunities, exploring ways in which mental illness, stress and despair can be reduced in our community. I am planning a number of projects focusing on suicide and mental health (including the particular problems faced in rural communities).

Barnardo’s (and Bournemouth Borough Council)

I am working with Barnardo’s Family Centres, in conjunction with Bournemouth Borough’s education services, to investigate the impact of maternal mental illness on young children. We are particularly interested in exploring attachment and mother-child interactions. We will be evaluating current programmes and working together on new ones. We have established a working party, with a view to design several research studies, and to explore sources of grant funding.

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust

I am supervising a PhD project (Research student – Lauren Kita), working with the perinatal team within Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. We are exploring the extent that poor sleep may pose a risk factor for postnatal depression. We will be examining sleep objectively, using state-of-the-art EEG equipment, and subjectively, using sleep diaries. Women with a history of depression will compared to women without such a history, during pregnancy and at weeks 4 and 12 after the baby is born. The mother’s mood and other mental indicators will also be measured.

International Cultic Studies Association /New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling

I am working with a Chartered Counselling Psychologist to explore mental health of individuals who were born into exclusive cults (i.e. they did not decide to join that cult). Through this contact, and the International Cultic Studies Association (ISCA) we have access to several hundred former members. We will be using a series of questionnaires that measure key factors such as current mental illness, trauma, self-efficacy, coping skills, and general life function. We will present the findings at the Annual ISCA Conference in Montreal next summer. Several papers will be published soon afterwards.

If you would like to find out more about this work please contact Andrew Mayers.

Tourism, Climate Change & Sustainability top of BU’s agenda

BU’s International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) is delighted to be hosting the second global conference to explore real-world issues.

The international conference: ‘Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability’ will take place from 13-14 September 2012. The emphasis of the event is to discuss and disseminate conceptual ideas and contested relationships between climate change, sustainability and tourism and examine worldwide responses and exchange cutting-edge research.

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy and Dr Keith Wilkes are the organisers of this conference, who are also editing a book jointly on this title for Earthscan London. The book launch will also take place during the conference next year.

This conference will feature keynote presentations from high-level policy makers from international agencies UNWTO and UNESCO MAB, the European Commission, leading research institutions and the private sector. Among these distinguished speakers are:

  • Mr Luigi Cabrini, Director UNWTO Sustainable Tourism, Madrid.
  • Dr Ishwaran Natarajan, Director UNESCO Division for Earth & Ecological Sciences, Paris.
  • Dr Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
  • Dr Stephan Harrison, University of Exeter & Oxford University Centre for the Environment.

Breakout sessions are planned to enable speakers to interact on a more personal level with delegates as well as for attendees to present their research on these important topics. In addition, leading publishers will be present throughout the duration of the conference to meet with delegates and discuss future publishing opportunities.

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy commented “we are pleased to announce this event on a globally crucial title. It will facilitate cutting-edge debates, timely knowledge exchange and networking”.

Dr Keith Wilkes says hosting the second ‘Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability’ conference is “very exciting and, coupled with the high-calibre keynote speakers, is further evidence of the position of BU as a driving force at the forefront of global tourism research, teaching and professional practice”.

The first call for abstracts was released recently.

EPRSC announces new open access policy

Guidance

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceThe EPSRC has introduced a new policy on access to outputs arising from funded research:

EPSRC Council has agreed to mandate open access publication, with the proviso that academics should be able to choose the approach best suited to their field of research. This mandate is now being implemented: EPSRC requires authors to comply with this mandate and ensure that all published research articles arising from EPSRC-sponsored research, and which are submitted for publication on or after 1st September 2011, must become available on an Open Access basis through any appropriate route. As now, publication costs may be recovered either as ‘directly incurred costs’ (if incurred before the end date of the relevant research project) or as indirect costs (and hence factored into the fEC indirect cost rate for the relevant research organisation).

This change in policy means that the EPSRC will now accept that researchers have met their open access requirements if they make their research outputs available via either the Gold OA or Green OA route.

Gold Open Access (pay-to-publish) – peer-reviewed papers published in fully Open Access journals which do not charge subscription fees, or in ‘hybrid’ subscription journals which enable free access to ‘pre-paid’ articles. Subject to certain criteria the publishing fees may be met from direct or indirect costs on EPSRC Research Grants.

Green Open Access – research is published in traditional subscription journals and authors self-archive their papers (as accepted for publication) in a digital online repository, such as BU’s institutional repository BURO. The publisher’s policy is a crucial issue as far as Green OA is concerned. Some publishers have repository-friendly policies, but others embargo deposit of full texts until a year or more after initial publication. SHERPA-RoMEO has a comprehensive list of publishers and their policies to check before deciding where to publish.

The EPSRC’s policy states that the costs of Gold OA can be met from the grant as a direct cost only where that cost is incurred during the period of the grant. If work is published after the grant is complete, then the institution must stump up the cash to publish or use a portion of the indirect costs to fund this. Earlier this year BU launched the BU Open Access Publication Fund to support researchers in making their research freely available.

Find out more about Open Access publishing at BU’s FREE Open Access publishing event on Wednesday 26 October between 10am-12:30pm in the EBC. To book your place please email Anita Somner.

BU RDF – Small Grants Scheme closing date fast approaching!

Guidance

The first closing date for the BU Research Development Fund – Small Grants Scheme (RDF-SGS) is 31 October 2011.

The scheme is open to all BU academics and will provide selective support to research initiatives considered to be of strategic importance to BU. Funding of up to £2k per award is available and priority will be given to applications involving staff from two or more Schools. 

Examples of research activities covered by the RDF-SGS include:

  • Pilot projects
  • Pump-priming
  • Interview transcription
  • Fieldwork
  • Visiting major libraries, museums, other research institutions, etc.
  • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants
  • Attendance at external networking events leading to collaborative research proposals
  • Meetings with external organisations to establish collaborations
  • Preparation of specialist material or data
  • Short-term Research Assistant support or replacement teaching
  • Research consumables and equipment (providing it is clear these would not normally be purchased by the School)

To apply for a Small Grant, please complete the RDF-SGS application form and submit it to Susan Dowdle before 31 October 2011.

For further information on the BU Research Development Fund see our previous blog post (Launch of the BU Research Development Fund). You can also read the Research Development Fund Policy.

EU Funding for ‘Social Experiments’ (!)

Funding is available under the Progress 2011 theme. Your proposal must contribute to developing and testing socially innovative approaches to policy priorities in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Open Method of Coordination on social protection and social inclusion. To be selected under this call, projects should focus on either of the following selected themes, keeping in mind in all cases the gender dimension of the issue:
• Social inclusion of vulnerable groups (such as Roma people, migrants and their descendants, homeless and young people)
• Quality of childcare services (this has great impacts on child well-being, but also on gender equality, poverty in jobless households, employment rates, birth rates and on long term sustainable development by supporting the development of human potential)
• Active and healthy ageing (this depends on various factors, such as life habits, working conditions or urban policies and represents a major condition in order to extend working lives and to reduce social protection expenditures)
• Transition from education to work for the youth (as only a multidimensional policy approach combining actions on the education framework, the labour market, families can be successful)
Deadlines: 15.12.11 and 30.03.12

World Mental Health Day

October 10th is World Mental Health Day and to support it BU is holding a week of activities around the topic of mental health.  The events are being organised in partnership with Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust.  The week will provide an opportunity for staff to build and develop links with organisations in the area of mental health.

This week the research blog will feature stories from BU staff working in the areas of mental health.

Andrew Mayers from the Psychology Group in DEC is already working closely with the Samaritans and First Point on research projects and providing his students with the excellent opportunity to assist with the research.

There will also be a health and wellbeing week at BU from Oct 31st to Nov 4th and First Point will be launching their new DVD on the recovery model of mental health.

This link is the programme for this week.

 

 

Research bid do’s and don’ts

Guidance

The Do’s of writing a good research bid:

C – O – M – P – E – T- E

Clarity: avoid the overuse of technical jargon, spelling/grammatical errors and being overly descriptive or long-winded. Ensure that the bid is systematically structured and you make clear your aims and why these are important.

Other’s work: ensure that you present a balanced appraisal of the relevant literature in your field; that the research questions you identify are novel; that you exhaust any existing data rather than duplicate in your own plan of work.

Methods & workplan: ensure that you have a sufficient sample size; consult stakeholders; have clear interpretation plans; address ethical issues; have a realistic timeline; be clear on the coordination of co-investigators.

Potential impact & outcomes: state expected outcomes and impact and dissemination plans beyond the academic community.

Explain your costings: justify staff of requested grade; the need for equipment/travel.

Tune into the Funder: ensure the proposal fits with their aims, that you are eligible to apply and that the funder will cover the resources you request.

Expertise: if you are not experienced in winning bids, involve an experienced colleague/approach a collaborator and submit your proposal to RORP (where available)

The Don’ts of writing a good research bid

  • Do not rush it; take time to plan and prepare
  • Do not bid for a large grant if you are relatively new to grant bidding
  • Do not proceed with work up to full bid and submission if you have any doubts about strategic fit or your eligibility
  • Do not work in isolation
  • Do not ignore the internal peer review scheme RPRS
  • Do not assume that the funder will understand all acronyms or technical jargon
  • Do not mistake a research bid for a literature review of the subject area when writing the background to your proposal
  • Do not ignore difficult issues whether they are technical or ethical
  • Do not promise the earth!
  • Do not submit final bid without having an experienced colleague read over it first
  • Do not propose referees (if invited to do so) who you have published/worked with

Checklist to Complete Prior to Proposal Submission

  • Does your research fit the funders remit?
  • Do you meet the eligibility criteria for the funding scheme?
  • Is the research question/hypothesis you are asking an important one?
  • Are the research aims clearly stated?
  • Have you provided a bibliography and appraisal of current work in the field that demonstrates your familiarity with the subject?
  • Is the novelty value of the proposed research argued well?
  • Have you demonstrated the potential social and economic impact of the proposed research?
  • Have you demonstrated that the approach you will use is the best way to address the research question?
  • Have you documented a contingency plan in case of unexpected controls/lack of participants etc?
  • Have you included any pilot data to help the funders gain confidence?
  • Are the roles of the co-PIs clearly defined and their expertise demonstrated?
  • Have you eliminated technical jargon and spelled out any acronyms?
  • Have you ensured there are no grammatical or spelling errors in your application?
  • Have you ensured you are within the word limit for the application?
  • Does your Research Director/experienced colleague think it reads well?

Who can I ask for further help?

Contact Caroline O’Kane in the Research Development Unit for advice on what makes a good proposal.  

Caroline also runs the University’s Research Proposal Review Service (RPRS).  In addition to your proposal being peer reviewed, Caroline can advise on funding criteria, funders and eligibility issues.  

For the best results please get in touch with Caroline as soon as you start developing a funding proposal – the RPRS can support your bid in more ways than you think.

Find out more:

BU staff making an impact with their publications

Publishing

I am sure that you would wish to join with me in congratulating both Richard Shipway and Philippa Hudson from the School of Tourism on their papers being in the top 10 most downloaded papers in Perspectives in Public Health.

Together they have achieved 1,337 people who have looked at their work.

Richard’s paper is titled Sustainable legacies for the 2012 Olympic Games and is second in the table and Philippa’s Food safety issues and children’s lunchboxes is fourth in the table.

Well done to them! I was very proud in the meeting with Sage last week.

Dr Heather Hartwell  Honorary Editor

 

Funding Opportunity – Assistance with Impact Analysis

Funding opportunities

JISC have recently announced a funding opportunity “Embedding impact analysis good practice in research, using BCE practitioners”.

This Call is designed to encourage skills sharing between researchers, engagement practitioners and information management specialists. It is aimed at research groups looking to bring in external expertise and support to help them develop improved capability and process to analyse the benefits and impact of their research, in order to enhance their impact and sustainability.

The work, which will be facilitated by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), focuses on the highly topical area of research impact. It invites people to register online to form partnerships to synthesise and share learning about how to embed technology-enabled good practice in impact analysis in research groups, using the expertise of Business and Community Engagement staff.

For any queries please contact David Owen.

The deadline for receipt of proposals is 31 October 2011. Call details can be found here.

Centrally funded places available on bid writing workshop (GIC Ltd, London, 29 November)

29th November 2011, London

GIC Ltd are running a one-day seminar called Total Proposal which will demonstrate the techniques that will make your proposals the ones which win!

Success depends on delivering a winning proposal – a strong selling document which the client will want to buy.  The seminar gives institutions not only the practical tools of proposal preparation, such as bidding plans and checklists, but also shows a range of winning techniques and “selling” devices that will positively differentiate your proposal from those of your competitors.

Half the day is dedicated to practical exercises and a “real life” proposal case study.

Preparing a competitive proposal is a time and resource intensive exercise. As the complexity of tender dossiers, terms of reference and compliance requirements have increased, so have the costs of not winning the business.

Attendees will:
– Refresh their approaches to the preparation of proposals
– Acquire new presentation techniques
– See how to give proposals a competitive edge
– Learn how to maximise the evaluation scoring of proposals.

Colleagues from CRE Operations attended the course earlier this year and found it extremely useful.

Places are £295 (+ VAT). The RDU has funding to support up to five BU academics to attend the workshop. If you are interested in attending please contact Julie Northam as soon as possible to book a place.

The University and Community Engagement

A report from ESRC funded research has found that university-community engagement is marginal to the funding, organisation, management and strategic control of universities and this means that universities are missing out on the chance to help develop ‘social capital’ in their local communities. 

The research team advised a 3 step approach to engage more effectively with community groups and have greater impact:

  1. Create small-scale learning communities, linking academics with community groups
  2. Link the activities of these communities temporarily to core university teaching and research to allow the activities to professionalise and grow.
  3. ‘Spin out’ these activities into the deprived communities to develop further, allowing them to address particular symptoms arising from social exclusion.

BU’s student services team have developed excellent relationships with local residents associations.  If research staff would like to publicise any community-related initiatives through these links, or go a step further and develop any initiatives with these groups please email Mandi Barron, Head of Student Services, who can help with suitable contacts.

Further information on the ESRC-funded research can be found here.

New plans for Partnering in Research & Innovation

The EC recently published  Partnering in Research and Innovation which sets out the different types of partnering and aims to progress partnering activities across the EU. The report acknowledges that the existing partnering activities they currently have (such as Public-Private Partnerships) work well as the mutual trust built within them creates excellent research which in turn makes Europe a more attractive global partner in addressing major societal challenges.

More relevant for BU as we tend not to participate in these partnering activities, is that the report acknowledges the need for Horizon 2020 to develop a framework to encourage and support future partnerships and capitalise on these early indications of success. The Active and Healthy Ageing EIP pilot which is designed to ensure that ideas are successfully developed and brought to market in the most coherent way possible is indicative of this.

In order to strike the right balance for Horizon 2020, the EC will soon launch a strategic exercise to determine where and how the partnering approach can be applied most successfully and the types of initiative to which the instruments are best suited. I will keep you informed when further information on this is released.

Grant Writing Workshops – Research Councils Focus

Dr Martin Pickard is coming to BU on 23rd and 24th November 2011 to deliver interactive workshops on the preparation of research council applications. 

  • 23rd November will be focused on social sciences and humanities research council bids. 
  • 24th November will be focused on applied and natural sciences research council bids, including engineering.

Martin is a specialist in writing and supporting research proposals – in particular European grant applications and tenders – as well as managing projects. He has 25 years experience of writing, supporting and managing literally thousands of research proposals and has worked across Europe with a large number of universities, research institutes, industrial firms and international companies.

Martin came to BU in May last year to deliver a general session on grant writing skills and the feedback he received was excellent:

“I was very impressed by the presentations“,

“I must say it’s a great workshop, which provides us a number of important points we should pay attention to while drafting our proposals.”

“I am confident that I can apply the tips that Martin gave us to significantly improve my chance of grant success.”

Following the workshop, anyone who attended can send Martin their draft application for a personal review and some feedback.

Sessions are free and available to all staff.  Places are limited so need to be booked in advance.  For further information or to book a place please contact Susan Dowdle.

The AHRC are seeking nominations for peer reviewers

The AHRC are seeking nominations for new members to be appointed to its Peer Review College (PRC) who would be able to assess proposals submitted under AHRC’s research themes. In parallel they wish to increase the capacity of the College in specific research areas.

Peer review lies at the heart of the AHRC’s operations, and they remain fully committed to the principle of peer review for the assessment of proposals to their schemes and programmes. PRC members provide expert quality reviews of proposals within their areas of expertise, which inform the AHRC’s decision making processes. As well as making an important contribution to the AHRC’s peer review processes, the experience gained by membership of the College also provides benefits to individuals, departments and higher education institutions.

We are actively encouraging all research-active staff in relevant areas to consider putting themselves forward as peer reviewers. Being part of a peer review college for a prestigious funding body such as the AHRC has a number of significant benefits, such as:

  • it will help to raise your profile
  • it is a useful way of getting an insight into how the funder works
  • it will help you to keep abreast of what work is currently being done in your discipline, thus ensuring your teaching and research are cutting edge
  • you will gain an understanding of what it takes for an application to get funded
  • you will be in a stronger position to mentor and help your colleagues with regard to internal peer review and bid writing

BU’s Dr Richard Shipway is a peer reviewer for the ESRC and recently wrote an excellent blog post on the benefits of being a peer reviewer. You can read Richard’s post here.

Further details of the call for nominations are available on the AHRC website, available here.

Applications are sought from academics at all stages of their career and, if chosen, you will serve a four year term. Candidates must be nominated by a senior academic within the University. If you want to be nominated then send your CV to me and I will liaise with Matthew Bennett,  who will put forward nominations on behalf of BU.

The Graduate School Needs You!

PG research

Historically the Graduate School has provided both generic research methods training as well as personal development programme for Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) at BU.  In the future the research method training is to be provided on a more bespoke basis within Schools so that PGRs are equipped with the specific skills they need for their research.  Some Schools may wish to put on specific training course or alternatively encourage PGRs to attend relevant Masters units, for example.

In future, the focus of the Graduate School will be on more generic skills development using the Vitae Framework as the basis for this.  Fiona Knight of the Graduate School is currently putting together a development programme based on the Vitae Framework which will require new PGRs to collect a portfolio of evidence via attending events here at BU or elsewhere.  There will also be an opportunity to collect evidence from independent development activities as part of their research programme such as giving talks or attending project specific events.  This framework is being developed with both our PGR and ECR students in mind and is being implemented this Autumn.  A specific briefing for supervisors will follow.

In the meantime I am looking for your help in populating this framework.  Offers of assistance would be very much appreciated and we are looking for three levels of engagement: (1) Master Classes by an experienced researcher lasting less than 2 hours; (2) one day course on key events; and (3) offers of multi-day courses.  It seems such a shame to paying external consultants to run these events when we have so much research talent within BU.  As an incentive we are prepared to offer academic staff contributing one- or multi-day events modest payments (circa. £1k) to their personal research funds for research consumables, travel or conferences in recognition of the time taken to run these events.

We are looking for volunteers to run master classes on: Collaboration in Research; Intellectual Property in Research; Research Philosophy; Research Governance; Publisher’s Perspective on Publishing; Coping with Peer Review; Publishing in the Social Sciences; Publishing in the Sciences; Making your Mark at Conferences, Managing your Supervisor; Research Impact.

We are looking for volunteers to run short courses on: Introduction to Quantitative Research; Introduction to Qualitative Research; Languages for Researchers; Research Ethics; Managing Research Data; Time Management; Project Management Tools; Introduction to Statistical Approaches in the Sciences; Introduction to Statistical Approaches in the Social Sciences; Open Access Statistical Tools; Conducting Interviewing & Focus Groups; Perfect Academic Posters; Developing an Academic Career.

If you are interested in helping out then please contact Fiona Knight [fknight@bmth.ac.uk] by Wednesday 12 October 2012.

Research Strategy: Initial Thoughts

Along with a few colleagues I am currently trying to identify the headlines of our new research strategy, one of several sub-strategies which which make up BU’s Fusion Strategy.  At this stage we are simply coping out ideas before putting pen to paper.  Once a draft is written it will be iterated through BU’s Research & Enterprise Committee and subject to much wider consultation.  The starting point is our new Vision & Values [http://2018.bournemouth.ac.uk/] and the key statements around research.  These are:

C2 Create a world-class learning community

C3 Develop strategic local, regional, national and international partnerships

C4 Build strong professional and academic networks worldwide

S1 Fuse research, education and practice to create a unique academic experience where the sum is greater than the component parts. As part of that fusion…

S2 …undertake world-class research in recognised areas of academic excellence

S5 Be recognised internationally as a thought-leader

I5 Inspire our staff and students to enrich the world

 

These statements are underpinned by:

P1 Recruit, retain, recognise, and develop a high performing workforce;

P2 Engage and inspire staff to deliver an outstanding student experience and to fulfil their potential;

E2 Provide world-class facilities

 

Over the last few months I have trailed a range of ideas on the blog and elsewhere but the key one is the importance of societal relevance and impact; the research that we do should have an impact on the world and society in which we live.  To be clear this is not to say that we should only do applied research, but that we should focus our energy however abstract or applied on tackling the societal challenges of our day.  Using this context it is possible to frame a strategy that is  shaped by societal challenges and through the impact of our research  in turn shapes society’s future agenda.  One could summarise this via the strap-line: driven by societal need, shaping societies future.   In order to deliver on such a mission we would need to create a world-class learning community focused on research excellence and through knowledge exchange enter into a dialogue with society.  The model shown below is a way of illustrating this and identifying the key elements which need attention within the strategy, if you prefer the key sections within the strategy.  I am very interested in hearing your views on this; for example things that are missing or different perspectives?  I am also keen to know your views on where the ‘levers for change’ are within this model, or put another way where should we focus or energy?  Either post a comment or e-mail me directly, I would also be happy to arrange to meet with indivdiual research centres or groups of staff to discuss this if you would like.