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BU Researcher Development Framework

PG research

BU has adopted the VITAE Researcher Development Framework to help you identify your strengths and prioritise for personal and career development, inform discussions with the supervisory teams and consider what skills and experiences will enhance career prospects and how to articulate capabilities to future employers.

 By monitoring and recording your development activities within the RDF, you will be able to:

  • aid self-reflection and set aspirational goals
  • choose the most appropriate formal and informal development
  • assess opportunities provided by BU and look for development opportunities externally
  • prepare for one-to-one progress reviews, appraisals and career
  • prepare for development conversations with Supervisory Team
  • consider how skills and experiences will enhance career prospects
  • highlight, articulate and evidence the transferability of their skills in their CV, in job applications and at interviews.

As a Postgraduate Researcher at BU, you are required to engage in a personal programme of researcher development throughout the duration of your enrolment. This is not formally credit bearing, however you are required to compile evidence of specific training and development courses undertaken, as well as evidence of personal development through independent activities undertaken as part of your research.  The process is as follows:

  1. Discussion of individual training needs with supervisory team at initial supervisory meetings to prioritise development activities throughout the course of the research.
  2. Identify most appropriate mechanism for developing identified training needs
  3. Record development on overview sheet and complete record sheet for each development activity
     – outline the activity, the skills gained from the activity and how the skills can be applied
    –  Supervisors to be sign off
  4. Review individual training and development needs as part of the Annual Monitoring Process
  5. Develop and maintain portfolio of research activities

Many generic research methodology and skills development sessions are offered centrally by the GraduateSchool and RDU and details will be communicated via the Research Blog.

 Specific and in depth methodological training should be offered by the Academic Schools or identified externally.  Other independent development activities may include:

  • Attendance at externally organised Researcher Development activities (e.g. Vitae events)
  • Participation in specific training related to individual research projects
  • Participation in internal Seminars and Conferences
  • Participation at external Seminars and Conferences
  • Publication of papers
  • Wider research activities – organisation of seminars, conferences, etc
  • Public engagement & outreach activities

Need to publish a paper quickly for the REF?

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceThen come to our free Open Access event this Wednesday in the EBC!

Publishing via an open access route often results in much faster publication times, meaning your research is out in the public domain much more quickly than traditional subscription journal routes.

BU fully supports open access publishing and has recently launched a central Open Access Publication Fund to enable academic staff to access funds to easily publish via open access outlets.

We’re holding an open access publishing event this Wednesday between 10am-12:30pm in the EBC (7th floor).

You can access the programme here: BU Open Access event programme

It is free for BU staff and students to attend. Refreshments and lunch will be provided.

To reserve a place at the event please contact Anita Somner by email.

We look forward to seeing you there! 😀

How to find partners for EU Projects

EC projects usually require partners, with the number and geographical location varying for each call. A useful tip to remember when considering your partner options is that a consortium should include a good balance of sectors industry, academia, user groups etc) and that all partners should be well-matched to the activities in the proposal.

You can find partners through your existing contacts, by reviewing previously awarded FP6 and FP7 projects, by searching/ advertising on the UKRO website ,by seeking the assistance of the relevant UK National Contact Point and by attending EU conferences and project evaluations, by scanning the CORDIS website.

The best and most effective way to become involved in FP7 consortia however, is to join European Technology Platforms (ETPs). These are groups of industry-led stakeholder forums who explore Europe’s key challenges. ETPs define the EU Strategic research agenda and then bid for European Commission funds (through FP7 etc) to address these. The biggest players in the field across Europe belong to these groups and obviously as they set the research agenda, they are increduibly successful at winning FP7 funds for research. Joining these groups will not only open you to a plethora of partners but also will allow you to contribute in shaping the research agenda of Europe (which you can then address through funding). Some of the major ETPs are listed below with hyperlinks to their webpages:

Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies
Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe
Embedded Computing Systems
European Biofuels Technology Platform
European Construction Technology Platform
European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council
European Rail Research Advisory Council
European Road Transport Research Advisory Council
European Space Technology Platform
European Steel Technology Platform
European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future
European Technology Platform for Wind Energy
European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration  
European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources
Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction Technology Platform
Food for Life
Forest based sector Technology Platform
Future Manufacturing Technologies
Future Textiles and Clothing
Global Animal Health
Industrial Safety ETP
Integral Satcom Initiative
Mobile and Wireless Communications
Nanotechnologies for Medical Applications
Networked and Electronic Media
Networked European Software and Services Initiative
Photonics21
Photovoltaics
Plants for the Future
Robotics
Sustainable Nuclear Technology Platform
Sustainable Chemistry
Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform
Waterborne ETP
Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants

RCUK Research Outcomes Project is ready to launch!

Following my previous post about the development of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Outcomes Project, the launch of the new system for collecting information about research outcomes from all RCUK grant holders is nearly here. Assuming all goes to plan with the final phase of user testing, the system will go live from 14 November 2011. Grant holders will be required to upload information about the following for each of the RCUK-funded projects they are responsible for:

  • Publications
  • Other research outputs
  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Exploitation
  • Recognition
  • Staff development
  • Further funding
  • Impact

Grant holders will be able to log in to the system using their Je-S login and will be responsible for maintaining the outcomes information about the grants they have been awarded, even if they move institution. RCUK have issued a list of FAQs to help answer some common queries.

Migration and Climate Change

The Migration and Global Environmental Change Report (commisioned by government) has been published today. The report warns of the serious implications of climate change for the world’s poorest people, who will be forced to migrate away from sterile land. The report suggests that migration will need to be managed – which is in itself controversial because migration is usually seen as a bad thing by aid agencies. Further, unless carefully managed, migration often gives rise to unrest and conflict, particularly where the migrants either impose an extra burden or are unwelcome by those living in the areas to which they migrate. Some difficult issues will need to be planned for – unfortunately such issues are often low down the priority in terms of planning .

The report can be accessed at:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight

 

Bamboozled by Intellectual Property Right in FP7 proposals…?

Then the new factsheets published by the European Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Helpdesk is for you!

The factsheets aim to help you with your IP issues at different stages of FP7 projects before you start writing your proposal. How to manage IP in FP7 during the proposal stage looks at some of the issues you need to consider when putting your proposal together, as well as questions you should address in the text of the proposal itself. How to manage IP in FP7 during the negotiation stage highlights issues that consortia should bear in mind during negotiation of grant agreements with the EC once a proposal has been lucky enough to have been selected for funding. ‘How to manage IP in FP7 during and after the project’ isn’t quite ready yet, but will be published on the IPR website soon!

How to kill your funding application

Guidance

Funding proposals are not the easiest (or quickest) thing in the world to write.

Not least for multi-tasking academics up against a wall of deadlines.

Jonathan O’Donnell, author of the most excellent Research Whisperer Blog,  has a similar job to mine – supporting the writing of funding proposals at his university.

I like him.  He has some good advice.   I found this post – its called 5  ways to kill your application. I think its worth reading. 

I hope you find it helpful too.

For information about how BU’s very own Research Proposal Review Service can support your current/next funding application, please contact Caroline O’Kane.

Research by Prof Keith Brown featured in The Guardian

Congratulations to BU’s Professor Keith Brown from the Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work. Keith co-authored a report with Learn to Care that contains details of a leadership development scheme for social workers currently underway in Hampshire. The scheme aims to give managers the confidence to lead through change and hold staff to account, and is already being viewed as a model for other local authorities.

Details of the scheme are contained in a new report that outlines a strategy of guiding principles on leadership development and a proposed “pathway of leadership progression”. Aimed at giving managers the confidence to lead through change and hold staff to account, it is being seen as a model for other local authorities.

You can access the online story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/19/model-for-social-care-management?newsfeed=true

Southern Universities REF event at BU – 22 February 2012 – SAVE THE DATE!

Research assessment

REF logoBU will be hosting a half day Research Excellence Framework (REF) event for southern universities, supported by the REF Team, on 22 February 2012 to which all staff are invited to attend.

This event follows hot on the heels of the first REF Team-supported event held at BU on 19 May 2011, to which over 150 delegates from 39 institutions attended (see our previous blog post – The excellent HEFCE REF event at BU!).

The sector-wide consultation on the proposed REF panel criteria closed earlier this month and the final documents are due to be published in January 2012. This event will provide an update on the current developments with the REF and the confirmed REF panel documentation, focusing specifically on the assessment of impact within each of the four Main Panels.

The event will be open to BU staff and external delegates and the provisional programme is shown below.

Provisional programme:

09:30 – 10:00    Coffee and registration

10:00 – 10:30    REF Team overview of the assessment framework

Chris Taylor, Deputy REF Project Manager, REF Team

10:30 – 11:00    Similarities between the 4 Main Panel criteria

Professor Stephen Holgate, Chair of Main Panel A

11:00 – 11:30    Morning break

11:30 – 12:15    Panel specifics, differences and impact assessment

There will be concurrent sessions, one for each of the four Main Panels. Attendees choose which one to attend.

Main Panel A:    Professor Stephen Holgate, Chair of Main Panel A

Main Panel B:    Professor Philip Nelson, Chair of sub-panel 15 (General Engineering)

Main Panel C:    Professor John Scott, Chair of sub-panel 23 (Sociology)

Main Panel D:    Professor Bruce Brown, Chair of Main Panel D

12:15 – 13:00    Panel Q&A session with all participants

13:00 – 14:00   Lunch, networking and close

 

The event is free to attend but booking is essential. Booking will open very soon – further details to follow!
 

BU workshop on Meta Transfer of Knowledge as part of EU project

You are invited to contribute and participate in a Workshop on Meta Transfer of Knowledge – Challenges in Transfer of Knowledge in Industry.

The workshop is taking place at the International Conference on Innovation through Knowledge Transfer at BU on 19th and 20th of April 2012.

The workshop is a part of Knowledge Transfer activities that take place within the EU funded INFER project coordinated by Prof. Bogdan Gabrys, DEC. INFER offers participants the opportunity to move between sectors and country in order to provide, absorb and implement new knowledge in a professional industrial-academic environment.

The workshop will allow conference delegates to benefit from experiences in knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange and knowledge sharing, during the progress of the INFER and other similar projects.

The goal of the workshop is to share the knowledge about the most effective transfer of knowledge activities that can and have been organised especially in large international projects such as those carried out within EC “People” Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) programme.

Such projects are of particular interest to this workshop as their aim is to stimulate intersectoral mobility and increase knowledge sharing through joint research partnerships in longer term co-operation programmes between organisations from academia and industry where effective knowledge transfer is critical to the success of the projects.

As the transfer of knowledge mechanisms can be observed in all areas where the cooperation between academia and industry exists, it is hoped that sustainable collaborations between people who are interested in continuous development of these mechanisms and improvement of their efficiency will be fostered. This will give the opportunity to push further the discussion upon the potential of Transfer of Knowledge phenomena across different communities.

More about this event can be found on the project website and if you have any further questions about the Workshop please contact Katarzyna Musial.

Funding opportunity – ESRC Research Seminars

Funding opportunities

Seminar groups are multi-institutional groups of academic researchers, postgraduate students and non-academic users who meet regularly to exchange information and ideas with the aim of advancing research within their fields. Where appropriate, seminar group members should be drawn from the public sector, commercial private sector, third sector and other relevant organisations as well as from academic institutions. We would particularly encourage seminar groups designed to bring together leading researchers from across disciplines to identify new research agendas or capacity building priorities. These grants are non-fEC and are limited to £15,000. This covers:

  • travel and expenses for speakers and participants
  • administrative costs
  • stationery, postage, copying and telephone costs
  • hire of rooms and facilities

An additional £3,000 can be made available when applicants have made a strong case for the inclusion of international academics or the holding of events abroad.

Further information regarding eligibility can be found on the RCUK website: (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/Eligibilityforrcs.aspx).

The deadline for applications is 10 November 2011.

If you’re interested in submitting an application, please contact the RKE Operations team.

Launch of the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office

Following the announcement by the Vice Chancellor in August 2011 that CRE would move from Finance & Commercial Services I am delighted today to formally launch the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (R&KEO) with the remit of supporting all research and knowledge exchange (formally enterprise) activity at BU.

Under the new arrangements our existing research and knowledge exchange units will report directly to me forming a collection of discrete, but cognate elements.  Administrative support for the new R&KEO will be based in the Research Development Unit working in support of all the different teams. An overview of the status of each team is provided below.

Research Development Unit – This will continue to be led by Julie Northam and has been expanded to also include knowledge exchange development. Two new posts will be advertised later this month: a research development officer to focus specifically on research ethics, governance and conduct, and a commercialisation and KTP officer.

RKE Operations – Previously CRE Operations, this will continue to be led by Julia Taylor.  We are currently reviewing the R&KE processes and systems, with a view to improving the already excellent service delivered by this team over the next 3-6 months.

Business Engagement Unit – This is a new unit to be established as part of the HEIF-5 strategy.  We will soon advertise for a Business Engagement Leader, followed by four Business Engagement Consultants each related to the investment themes set out in the HEIF-5 Strategy.  It is hoped this team will be established from January 2012 and will work closely with the BU Foundation in developing BU as Knowledge Broker.

Graduate School – Professor Tiantian Zhang joins BU as the Head of the Graduate School in January 2012 when we will formally re-launch the Graduate School.  Until then Fiona Knight, and the School PGR administrators are keeping everything running smoothly.

DM Centre for Entrepreneurship – The CfE is led by Professor Dean Patton and has recently moved into the Business Engagement Centreof the 6th floor of the EBC and currently in the process of seeking potential tenants initially around the two specific themes as set out in the HEIF-5 Strategy, namely: (1) digital and creative; and (2) tourism & leisure.

You can access a structure diagram of the new R&KEO here: R&KEO structure diagram

I will ensure future developments with the R&KEO are announced regularly via the BU Research Blog.

Matthew Bennett

Interested in bio-based economy? Then you need to read this consultation summary!

The EC has published a summary of responses to the recent consultation on the bio-based economy in Europe. The consultation gathered views from stakeholders in advance of the upcoming EC Communication on the Bio-Based Economy (to be published in November) which will be the main EU strategy until 2020 for developing and promoting a sustainable bio-economy in Europe (and therefore influence funding!).

225 responses were received in response to the consultation, which contained 12 questions around potential benefits and risks of fostering a bio-based economy in the future, the current achievements and existing obstacles that hinder the functioning of the bio-based economy today; and future actions that will be necessary.

The responses indicated that the reduction of waste and pollution was the biggest potential benefit of a bio-based economy that could be achieved in the short term (by 2020). Strong consensus was gained on the possible achievements in the short term of the provision of agricultural advisory services and/or knowledge transfer systems to farmers, and on the increase in the use of bio-waste and other waste streams. There was major concern over the possible over-exploitation of natural resources and food security and only 27 % of all respondents thought research and innovation actions on the bio-based economy are effective both at EU and Member State levels. Respondents also claimed that insufficient links between decision-makers and stakeholders from the bio-based economy sectors is hindering the successful functioning of the bio-based economy, along with not enough links between policies, lack of long-term impact analysis in decision-making and insufficient provision of loans and venture capital and that lack of general public information and understanding of the sustainable bio-based economy is a concern.

You can read the full consultation document for yourself on the EC webpages.

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