Please help to develop BU policies and initiatives relating to research at BU by completing the BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023(Culture, Employment and Development in Academic Research survey)*.
This is an important survey as it benchmarks BU against the rest of the sector. It will, therefore, help us to identify where we are excelling and where there is room for improvement.
Participating in this study will also influencepolicy. Your input will help us to understand where to focus our efforts and resources – it will give us the data to make the argument for you. (The results of the previous PIRLS and CROS surveys that CEDARS has replaced were used to develop new policies and initiatives, as well as training and development opportunities).
Please complete the CEDARS survey if you are research-active (whether on a full-time, part-time or part-time hourly paid contract). This includes researchers at all stages in your career, those who manage researchers, or are Principal Investigators, or contribute to research by providing professional services for researchers, (i.e. researcher developers, research officers or technical staff).
The survey is running from 20th March to 21st April. Your responses will be anonymous; you will not be identified or identifiable in any published results. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey. BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023
If you have any questions regarding the survey, please email Rachel Arnold: rarnold@bournemouth.ac.uk
Thank you, the Research Development and Support Team
*CEDARS is a national survey that explores the views and experiences of researchers and those supporting researchers across the UK. It is based on the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, which aims to create the best culture for researchers to thrive. This survey replaces the previous CROS and PIRLS surveys.
Please find more information here on the ‘Concordat to Support the Careers of Researchers’ and what BU is doing to support researchers.
The 41st International Labour Process Conference (ILPC), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow,12-14 April 2023
Launch of Global Hospitality Research Alliance (GHRA)
At a special session during the ILPC conference, the GHRA was launched. This was a timely event, given the theme of the conference ‘Fair and Decent work in a Global Economy?’
The GHRA brings over 20 researchers from 11 institutions representing eleven countries. While certain GHRA members have been researching hospitality work and workplace issues for several decades, there has been a drive since 2020 for members to work more closely together to explore common themes with respect to the work experiences of hospitality workers. Our growing evidence base is increasingly being used to further our academic understanding of the issues involved, inform policy, and motivate societal change towards improving hospitality through critical research.
Several frameworks are employed in our research, including the Oxfordian fair work principles (Fairwork, 2022) of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management and fair representation. We also address several of the United Nation(’s Sustainable Development Goals, such as SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well -being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
In our work, we discuss practical implications to inform policymakers and management teams within the hospitality and tourism sector in dealing with endemic phenomena such as abuse and harassment of hospitality employees.
The launch of the alliance offers an exciting opportunity for existing and new members to work together more closely to further intellectual activism and explore paths to change in policy and practice for better hospitality/service work and workplaces.
With research expertise in tourism work and employment, including employee wellbeing, Professor Adele Ladkin says “this is a wonderful initiative, and over the duration of the conference we had an opportunity to listen, learn, and devise an action plan for our next steps. It was a privilege to spend time with a group of collegiate and like-minded researchers who are driven by our common cause.”
Join us!
For any further information, contact aladkin@bournemouth.ac.uk or take a look at our LinkedIn page: GHRA https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9311179/
The Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) is now open
Share your feedback with us by taking part in the Advance HE Postgraduate Research Experience Survey. We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying at Bournemouth University. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a University we could do better.
Upon completing the survey, PGRs will be entered into a free prize draw where you can win one of four prizes of a £50 Love2shop gift voucher. Terms and conditions apply.
In addition and as a thank you for taking part, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.
How do I take part?
PGRs will receive an email from the University on Monday 17 April 2023 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.
What will I be asked?
The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research culture, community, progress and assessment, responsibilities, support, research skills, profession development, opportunities, and overall experience.
Why should I take part?
Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.
More information
If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2023
We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.
The first half of April I have been in Nepal on the ERASMUS+ exchange with Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences MMIHS). Apart from teaching and running tutorial and workshops at the host institution the exchange can also include student supervision. I had the pleasure of offering some support to one of the MMIHS Master of Public Health (MPH) students. Ms. Binita Dawadi designed an interesting project under the title on factors associated with burnout among nurses in the district of Jhapa (Nepal). She recently complete her research project as part of her dissertation which she subsequently presented as a poster at last week’s Ninth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal. This annual research conference organised by the NHRC (Nepal Health Research Council) was held in Kathmandu on 11-12 April.
Congratulations to Bronwyn Sherriff, Carol Clark, Clare Killingback and Dave Newell. Their manuscript titled “Musculoskeletal practitioners’ perceptions of contextual factors that may influence chronic low back pain outcomes: a modified Delphi study”was recently published in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies. The Delphi study provides initial insights regarding a panel of musculoskeletal practitioners’ attitudes towards contextual factors during chronic low-back pain (LBP) rehabilitation in the UK. If you are interested in their findings, click here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-023-00482-4or as a PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12998-023-00482-4.pdf.
Please help to develop BU policies and initiatives relating to research at BU by completing the BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023(Culture, Employment and Development in Academic Research survey)*.
This is an important survey as it benchmarks BU against the rest of the sector. It will, therefore, help us to identify where we are excelling and where there is room for improvement.
Participating in this study will also influencepolicy. Your input will help us to understand where to focus our efforts and resources – it will give us the data to make the argument for you. (The results of the previous PIRLS and CROS surveys that CEDARS has replaced were used to develop new policies and initiatives, as well as training and development opportunities).
Please complete the CEDARS survey if you are research-active (whether on a full-time, part-time or part-time hourly paid contract). This includes researchers at all stages in your career, those who manage researchers, or are Principal Investigators, or contribute to research by providing professional services for researchers, (i.e. researcher developers, research officers or technical staff).
The survey is running from 20th March to 21st April. Your responses will be anonymous; you will not be identified or identifiable in any published results. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey. BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023
If you have any questions regarding the survey, please email Rachel Arnold: rarnold@bournemouth.ac.uk
Thank you, the Research Development and Support Team
*CEDARS is a national survey that explores the views and experiences of researchers and those supporting researchers across the UK. It is based on the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, which aims to create the best culture for researchers to thrive. This survey replaces the previous CROS and PIRLS surveys.
Please find more information here on the ‘Concordat to Support the Careers of Researchers’ and what BU is doing to support researchers.
Patient and public involvement (PPI) is now widely accepted to be a standard requirement in health and social care research. While guidance on involvement in primary studies is available from organisations such as the National Institute for Health Research, researchers are often less clear regarding how PPI in systematic reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis might work, and exactly what to do during meetings. This presentation will look beyond the guidance to offer practical suggestions on when, how, and why patients and the public can be involved in reviews of literature.
When: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 13:00 – 14:00 BST
Bio: Sue Baxter is a Senior Research Fellow who has been carrying out qualitative research, service evaluations and evidence synthesis in the field of health and social care for over 20 years. This presentation will draw particularly on learning from PPI in two evidence synthesis centres in ScHARR, which carry out reviews of research relating to Health Services Delivery, and Public Health.
We are pleased to announce a one-week extension to the date for submission of abstracts, for the inaugural FHSS PGR Conference, which is being held on Tuesday 6th June from 09:30-13:30, in BGB.
The revised abstract submission date is Friday 21st April
We welcome abstracts for presentations or posters, from all PGRs in FHSS, no matter what stage of your studies you are at, focusing on the conference theme of ‘doing postgraduate research in health and social care’. Do get in touch with the conference committee at FHSSPGRConferenceCommittee@live.bournemouth.ac.uk if you are unsure and want to discuss your ideas before submitting an abstract.
Don’t forget that we welcome the submission of posters that you have presented elsewhere over the last year – please submit a brief abstract, as outlined below.
Today, the last day of the Nepalese year 2079, we held a well attended event to discuss the preliminary findings of the interdisciplinary study of the impact of federalisation on health system in the country. We invited policymakers and politicians from all three levels of government in the country to help the research team to analyse the large amount of high-quality data. This meeting helped to validate the study results and guide our future capacity building as part of this project. We were pleasantly surprised by the number who turned up and with their active engagement!
One of the interesting comments made by the participants was that this was the first time that they had met with staff from differ levels to discuss the working of the system. In fact, participants expressed that they wanted more opportunities to have this kind of discussions across all three levels of government. The researchers reported both positive and negative developments in the decentralized health system of Nepal. Positive aspects included, for example, improvements in the availability of resources for health, the construction of new health posts and hospitals, better availability of essential medicines in many places. We also commented on the positive management of COVID-19, compared to other many countries. The policymakers from local, provincial and national level largely agreed with our findings and analyses.
This stakeholders’ event is part of the Nepal Federal Health System Project, our major collaborative project examining the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure in 2015. This is a joint project (2020-2024) led by colleagues the University of Sheffield in collaboration with the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) Bournemouth University, the University of Huddersfield, with two partners in Nepal, namely Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) and PHASE Nepal. This longitudinal interdisciplinary study is funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref. MR/T023554/1].
You are invited to join us for the final dissemination event of the Healthy Brain Healthy Life project.
The event will bring together researchers, participants, collaborators and members of the public to share our experiences of the project.
We will share experiences from the perspectives of the researchers, local delivery partners and participants. You will be hearing stories about the workshops – how they were designed and implemented – and their impacts especially on participants, the community and on future research. We will showcase different outputs co-created with participants from the workshops.
Please contact Dr Sophia Amenyah (samenyah@bournmouth.ac.uk) if you would like more information about the event.
Date and time: Wednesday 26 April 2023 at 5:00 – 7:30pm
Funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK, and led by researchers from BU and collaborators, Healthwatch Dorset and Edge Hill University, we co-created a series of interactive culturally-tailored workshops to create dialogue around brain health and dementia risk with minority ethnic communities.
The project provides an example of best practice of public engagement in research and how to engage with underserved communities around difficult subjects. To find out more about the project, please check out our website: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/healthy-brain-healthy-life
“I don’t listen to adults when it comes to this sort of thing”, a 17-year-old told me.
We were discussing how digital technology affects his life, as part of a long-term project in the west of England that I carried out with colleagues to explore young people’s mental health – including the impact of digital technology on their emotional wellbeing.
There is a widespread perception that being online is bad for young people’s mental health. But when we began the project, we quickly realised that there was very little evidence to back this up. The few in-depth studies around social media use and children’s mental health state that impacts are small and it is difficult to draw clear conclusions.
We wanted to find out if and how young people’s wellbeing was actually being affected in order to produce resources to help them. We talked to around 1,000 young people as part of our project. What we found was that there was a disconnect between what young people were worried about when it came to their online lives, and the worries their parents and other adults had.
One of the things young people told us was that adults tended to talk down to them about online harms, and had a tendency to “freak out” about these issues. Young people told us that adults’ views about online harms rarely reflected their own. They felt frustrated that they were being told what was harmful, rather than being asked what their experiences were.
Common concerns
The concerns the young people told us they had included bullying and other forms of online conflict. They were afraid of missing out on both online group interactions and real-life experiences others were showing in their social media posts. They worried that their posts were not getting as many likes as someone else’s.
But these concerns are rarely reflected in the media presentation of the harsher side of online harms. This has a tendency to explore the criminal side of online abuse, such as grooming, the prevalence of online pornography. It also tends to describe social media use in similar language to that used to talk about addiction.
It is no surprise, therefore, that parents might approach conversations with young people with excessive concern and an assumption their children are being approached by predators or are accessing harmful or illegal content.
Young people and their parents’ concerns about online safety may not match up. George Rudy/Shutterstock
We have run a survey with young people for several years on their online experiences. Our latest analysis was based on 8,223 responses. One of the questions we ask is: “Have you ever been upset by something that has happened online?”. While there are differences between age groups, we found the percentage of those young people who say “yes” is around 30%. Or, to put it another way, more than two-thirds of the young people surveyed had never had an upsetting experience online.
Meanwhile, the online experiences reported by the 30% who reported being upset often didn’t tally with the extreme cases reporting in the media. Our analysis of responses showed that this upset is far more likely to come from abusive comments by peers and news stories about current affairs.
This disconnect means that young people are reluctant to talk to adults about their concerns. They are afraid of being told off, that the adult will overreact, or that talking to an adult might make the issue worse. The adults they might turn to need to make it clear this won’t happen and that they can help.
How to help
There are three things that young people have consistently told us over the duration of the project, and in our previous work, that adults can do to help. They are: listen and understand – don’t judge.
Conversations are important, as is showing an interest in young people’s online lives. However, those conversations do not have to be confrontational. If a media story about young people and online harms causes parents concern or alarm, the conversation does not have to start with: “Do you do this?” This can result in a defensive response and the conversation being shut down. It would be far better to introduce the topic with: “Have you seen this story? What do you think of this?”
Working in partnership with others, such as schools, is also important. If a parent has concerns, having a conversation with tutors can be a useful way of supporting the young person. The tutor might also be aware that the young person is not acting like themselves, or might have noticed changes in group dynamics among their peer group.
But, even if they are not aware of anything, raising concerns with them – and discussing from where those concerns arise – will mean both parents and school are focused in the same direction. It is important that young people receive both consistent messages and support. And schools will also be able to link up with other support services if they are needed.
Ultimately, we want young people to feel confident that they can ask for help and receive it. This is particularly important, because if they do not feel they can ask for help, it is far less likely the issue they are facing will be resolved – and there is a chance things might become worse without support.
BU authors can now publish OA for free in select journals with American Psychological Association. Read on to find out more!
Authors affiliated with UK institutions participating in APA’s Jisc agreement may publish open access in hybrid journals published by APA at no cost to the author, provided that:
The article’s corresponding author is affiliated with a participating institution’s UK campus.
The article is accepted after August 1, 2022.
The article is an original peer-reviewed research article or review article.
All articles under this agreement will be published under the CC-BY copyright license. Upon publication, articles will be made immediately open access.
You can find further information on how to submit an article for consideration and other key information, such as maximum number of articles, here.
As a reminder, BU holds a number of agreements with key publishers, many of which allow you to publish open access for free. You can read more about them here.
We are delighted to announce that bookings are now open for our 2nd research event: Collaborative Research: A Time For Action!
The BU-UHD partnership exists for the benefit of staff, students, patients, and the local community. This joint event will act as a catalyst for discussion around research collaboration and a perfect opportunity for networking.
The event starts with a keynote presentation from Professor William Rosenburg, newly appointed chair of Wessex Health Partners.
With facilitated discussions on developing future research in health inequalities; workforce and people; sustainable futures; digital futures and medical sciences this event is likely to be of interest to a wide range of BU and NHS staff.
Posters and presentations provide a chance to view and talk about collaborative research already underway.
Light refreshments will be served during the event.
Yesterday (April 11th) Dr. Bibha Simkhada presented key findings from our research project on ‘Cultural practice and policy in dementia care in Nepal’. She spoke at the ‘Ninth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal’. This annual health summit in Kathmandu is organised by the NHRC (Nepal Health Research Council). Dr. Simkhada, who is Visiting Faculty in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS), started this work whilst at Bournemouth University, before she moved to the University of Huddersfield to become a Senior Lecturer in Nursing. This project is a cross-faculty collaboration with Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology.
This qualitative study comprising four face-to-face interviews and four focus groups with carers, health workers and other stakeholders. The two key conclusion she presented are:
Stigma and stereotyping around dementia needs addressing. Nepal needs better policies, guidelines and service provision for people living with dementia and their carers.
There is need for inclusion of Dementia/Alzheimer education in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula of nurses, doctors and allied health professionals in Nepal.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
Please help to develop BU policies and initiatives relating to research at BU by completing the BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023(Culture, Employment and Development in Academic Research survey)*.
This is an important survey as it benchmarks BU against the rest of the sector. It will, therefore, help us to identify where we are excelling and where there is room for improvement.
Participating in this study will also influence policy. Your input will help us to understand where to focus our efforts and resources – it will give us the data to make the argument for you. (The results of the previous PIRLS and CROS surveys that CEDARS has replaced were used to develop new policies and initiatives, as well as training and development opportunities).
Please complete the CEDARS survey if you are research-active (whether on a full-time, part-time or part-time hourly paid contract). This includes researchers at all stages in your career, those who manage researchers, or are Principal Investigators, or contribute to research by providing professional services for researchers, (i.e. researcher developers, research officers or technical staff).
The survey is running from 20th March to 21st April. Your responses will be anonymous; you will not be identified or identifiable in any published results. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey. BU Vitae CEDARS survey 2023
If you have any questions regarding the survey, please email Rachel Arnold: rarnold@bournemouth.ac.uk
Thank you, the Research Development and Support Team
*CEDARS is a national survey that explores the views and experiences of researchers and those supporting researchers across the UK. It is based on the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, which aims to create the best culture for researchers to thrive. This survey replaces the previous CROS and PIRLS surveys.
Please find more information here on the ‘Concordat to Support the Careers of Researchers’ and what BU is doing to support researchers.
Our study on the impact of federalism on the health system in Nepal got great coverage at the ‘Ninth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal’ on Tuesday 11th April. This annual conference in Kathmandu is organised by the NHRC (Nepal Health Research Council).
In the morning Prof. Sujan Marahatta (who is Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University) and Prof. Simon Rushton from the University of Sheffield presented in the plenary session. They jointly outlined the preliminary study findings. In the afternoon, our collaborator Dr. Jiban Karki (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) presented more detailed findings on ‘Human resource management at local level in Nepal’s federalised health system’ from the same study.
During the whole day we also had a poster presentation on display under the title ‘COVID-19 as a challenge to Nepal’s newly-federalised health system: Capacities, responsibilities, and mindsets’.
All dissemination was part of the Nepal Federal Health System Project, our major collaborative project examining the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure in 2015. This is a joint project (2020-2024) led by the University of Sheffield and collaborating with Bournemouth University, the University of Huddersfield, Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) and PHASE Nepal. This longitudinal interdisciplinary study is funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref. MR/T023554/1].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
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Open Access Publication Fund open again to new applications
Closing tomorrow: please complete the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2025
Plenary talk by Dr Regmi on Hidden Health Burden of Nepalese Migrants
Conversation article: Wishcycling – how ‘eco-friendly’ labels confuse shoppers and make recycling less effective
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease