Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Please be aware that there will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place next week, 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
Similar to the current system, after BRIAN has been upgraded, you can add new items for each different element by clicking on the “add” button under each tile –
This function is also similar for the “Grants” and “Records of Impact” tiles.
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
As mentioned last week, after the BRIAN upgrade, you can look forward to seeing the different elements within your BRIAN account represented by its own ’tile’ on the homepage –
Let’s now take a closer look at the “Publications” tile –
By default, your “Publications” tile shows you a condensed summary list view of your publications within your BRIAN account.
When you click on the right arrow key, you will then get to see the ‘graph’ view instead –
Clicking on the left arrow key will take you back to the list view. As mentioned, the publication “list” view is the default setting within your account; however, you can change the default view to “graph” if you wish, by clicking on the “configure homepage” option within the drop-down menu underneath your profile –
And by clicking on “graph” as shown below –
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
Do stay tuned for more exciting new features from the BRIAN upgrade!
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
As mentioned last week, after the BRIAN upgrade, you can look forward to seeing a much more consistent and a “cleaner” feel to the overall look of the homepage –
The tiles for each core elements of “publications”, “professional activities”, “grants” and “records of impact” are now in the same shape and size and they are neatly arranged. If you refer to a previous post about this particular feature, you can also find out how you can customise this homepage.
If you look closely at the top right corner of the “Publications” and “Grants” tiles, you will also notice a feature that will allow you to quickly clear any “pending” or “rejected” publications –
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
Do stay tuned for more exciting new features from the BRIAN upgrade!
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
When you first log into BRIAN after the upgrade, similar to the current version, you will notice the “My Actions” box at the top, next to your profile picture. The functionality which has been retained is the ability to switch the actions to either a “carousel” or “list” view by clicking on the three dots to the top right corner –
If you switch it to the list view, it will look like this –
The advantage of the “list” view is that it allows you to have an overview of all the pending actions, and for you to act on them quickly and easily.
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
Do stay tuned for more exciting new features from the BRIAN upgrade!
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
When you first log into BRIAN, you will notice that the “homepage” has completely been revamped. However, upon close inspection, you will discover that all functionalities remain the same. One notable improvement about the homepage from this upgrade is that it allows you to customise your own homepage, as circled –
The customisation functionality allows you to rearrange the “tiles” as how you would like them to appear on your BRIAN homepage; it will also allow you to hide certain “tiles” if you do not wish for them to be visible on your homepage –
Do stay tuned tomorrow for more exciting new features from the BRIAN upgrade!
For all BRIAN related queries, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
There will be a planned upgrade to BRIAN taking place beginning the week commencing 19th April, during which time BRIAN will be unavailable for use. The planned upgrade is expected to take place all week, therefore we are hoping for BRIAN to resume running again by 25th April 2022 (if not earlier).
In the next few days, there will be a feature post on BRIAN on each day, showcasing the changes that you can expect from this upgrade. Today, we will start by showing you the “Homepage” when you first log into BRIAN –
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s feature post where you can see how you can customise this homepage!
For any questions or queries you have regarding BRIAN, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
A paper titled, ‘Individual factors in the relationship between stress and resilience in mental health psychology practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic” is now published in Journal of Health Psychology and is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211059393.
This paper is an outcome of a QR funded project that was conducted by Dr Constantina Panourgia, Dr Agata Wezyk and Dr Ala Yankouskaya from the Department of Psychology in collaboration with academics from University of West London (Dr Annita Ventouris) and Catholic University of Lyon (Dr Amanda Comoretto) and a former BU MSc student (Miss Zoe Taylor).
This paper explores the concurrent effects of pre-pandemic and COVID-19 stress on resilience in Mental Health Psychology Practitioners focussing on the mediation effects of specific individual factors. Optimism, burnout and secondary traumatic stress, but not coping strategies, self-efficacy, compassion satisfaction, or self-compassion, mediated both the relationship between pre-pandemic stress and resilience and COVID-19 stress and resilience. These findings may be explained by the increased workload caused by the pandemic, and the nature and duration of COVID-19. Very importantly, they address the role of training and supervision practices that allow Mental Health Psychology Practitioners to reflect on their capacity to deal with their job demands under circumstances of general and extreme stress and to identify early signs of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
The research team plans to extend the above findings by examining the long-term effects of vicarious traumatisation on this group of professionals currently performing their duties in this complex historical moment.
This week sees the online release of a new open access comics database (https://www.juliaround.com/spellbound) that reveals previously unknown and unpublished information about the British girls’ mystery comic Spellbound (DC Thomson, 1976-78).
British comics dominated children’s entertainment in the United Kingdom for several decades over the latter half of the twentieth century. There were hundreds of weekly titles, with the most popular circulating over a million copies. They were diverse, exciting, irreverent, innovative, and worked on by some of the top talent in Europe (many artists came from Spanish studios). But their taut storytelling, dynamic layouts, and dramatic content are just memories to many old readers today – and in fact even these are fading. Memories from within the industry are equally precarious, as we have sadly lost a number of important creators over the past few years.
My research aims to increase access to information on British girls’ comics for readers, fans, and researchers. The majority of British comics in the 1970s did not credit their writers or artists, and the comics themselves are often hard to access, so preserving and publicising information on their creators and their content is vital to help us remember and explore their legacy.
Over the last decade I have done a lot of research into Misty, a competitor title published by Fleetway/IPC (1978-80). In 2019 I published my book Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics which was the first full-length critical history published on any single British comic. It brought together a wealth of primary research taken from archival visits, creator interviews, and online discussions with past readers, and revealed a great deal about the hidden history and production practices of the comics industry in this country. Many of the writers, artists, editors and associates I interviewed had never previously spoken about their work for British comics. Their recollections gave a fascinating picture of how the industry operated – one that is in danger of being entirely lost due to a lack of records and the ephemeral nature of these publications.
It was a joy to help name the creators of these stories and to finally credit them for their work, and when my project ended I wanted to continue this and make more information about British girls’ comics freely available. The Women’s Academic Network awarded me a small amount of funding back in March 2020 to support planned research trips to access archives of 1970s girls’ comics and speak with relevant publishers and creators. Due to the pandemic a lot of this research instead had to be conducted online and I also purchased several lots of comics as I was unable to access archives.
My aim was to complete my archival analysis of Spellbound and produce an open access database collating all the information I could find on its content (stories, creator names, recurring themes, etc). I’m very happy to announce I’ve finally managed to get the resulting database online and it has now been published at https://www.juliaround.com/spellbound. It contains story summaries and creator information (where known) on the entire run of Spellbound and is searchable by name, keyword, title, etc. My hope is that it introduces new readers to the types of stories that these comics told, that it helps old readers locate the stories they can’t quite remember and find out more about the ones they love, and that it is generally a useful resource for any fans or scholars interested in these lost publications.
Julia Round’s research examines the intersections of Gothic, comics and children’s literature. Her books include Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels (2014) and the award-winning Gothic for Girls (2019). She is an Associate Professor in English and Comics Studies at Bournemouth University, UK, co-organises the annual International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference (IGNCC), and edits Studies in Comics journal and the Encapsulations book series. She shares her work at www.juliaround.com.
Designing Innovative Pedagogy for Complex Accounting Topics (Project-DIPCAT) is coming to a successful end in December 2021. BU has led eleven other European Universities in this three-year, Erasmus+ funded project. Its objects were to design, develop and deliver four integrated accountancy case studies with contemporary content and innovative methods for wider dissemination in higher education. While the project partners were challenged by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the resulting intellectual outputs have exceeded expectations and are now suitable for F2F, hybrid and online deliveries.
Intensive Study Programmes
The cases were first tested in an Intensive Study Programme (ISP) at BU in September 2019. The second and third ISPs were originally planned to be delivered in Innsbruck and Budapest in 2020 and 2021. When it became apparent international travel would not be possible, the project partners redesigned the cases and delivery modes for two international hybrid events. The teams were challenged to deliver something truly innovative and engaging that participating students would enjoy remotely.
As ISPs are extra-curricular, they need to achieve something extra and engaging. That X-factor has always been fun, cultural enrichment and opportunities to develop friendships with students from other countries. The partners were delighted these very attributes were recognised and appreciated in feedback from more than 70 participating students in last month’s ISP, virtually hosted by Innsbruck partners. The third and final ISP will be virtually hosted by the Budapest partners next week, 25th-29th October 2021.
The Cases
The four cases are on the most contentious and fast-changing areas that challenge the accounting profession:
The case studies and the supplemental materials are designed to address all the competencies that are needed for emerging accountancy professionals (e.g. subject-specific knowledge, problem solving ability, interdisciplinary thinking, soft skills and the ability to recognise ethical issues in accountancy). While adaptable to short courses (e.g. ISPs or CPD), taken in their entirety, each case provides the scaffolding, content and assessment for 20-credit modules.
The cases and their rich supplemental learning materials, tasks and pedagogical innovations will be freely available through the European Union Repository in December 2021. The finished International Tax and CSR cases were successfully showcased at the Tax Research Network’s Education Day last month and have already been adopted at other HEIs. A recording of the event will soon be available on the TRN website. The IFRS and Auditing cases will be showcased at an International Accounting Conference in Budapest on 26th November.
The Team at BU and Beyond
The BUBS academics leading Project-DIPCAT are Dr Phyllis Alexander (PI), Dr Suranjita Mukherjee, Dr Hany Elbardan and Dr Tuan Vu. Mr Robert Day and Judge Anne Fairpo were special appointments to the project given their expertise in corporate governance and international taxation, respectively.
While Project-DIPCAT comes to a successful end, the partners continue to collaborate in research, professional practice and education, as they have done for over 25 years (partner details and their history is on the AFECA webpage). BU was one for four founding partners of AFECA in 1993, thanks to the inspiration and dedication of Mr Day.
The consortium have another Erasmus+ project currently underway – Smart Teaching in Accounting – Meeting Place Online, with its first ISP next month (November 2021). DICPAT and STAMP-Online follow the success story of Project-ILPA, which was shortlisted for best project in 2018 and was classified as a ‘good practice example’ by the European Union. AFECA truly is a winning strategic partnership in accountancy that continues to thrive and innovate!
Follow DIPCAT’s finale on Facebook and Instagram : #dipcatisp and #dipcat2021
BU academic, Dr. Alina Dolea, gave an extensive interview on her research on Romanian Diaspora, the emotional costs of migration, the constant identity struggles, as well as the role of diaspora in public diplomacy. She was interviewed by Elena Stancu, Pulitzer Center’s Persephone Miel Fellows 2021, and photographed by Cosmin Bumbuț; since 2019, the two journalists have been living in a caravan and travelling throughout Europe to document the 5 million Romanian migrants within their project titled “Plecat” (Away/ On the road). They are currently in the UK, gathering stories of migration and giving a voice to the over 1 million Romanians who are currently living here.
The interview was published simultaneously on Teleleu website „Migrația la noi pare să fie ca un divorț complicat, cu multe reproșuri și frustrări, și cu încercări de împăcare” « Teleleu (Migration seems to be for Romanians a sort of messy divorce, with mutual blame games, frustration and make-up trials) and in the major Romanian newspaper Libertatea: Cercetătoare, despre viața românilor în Marea Britanie: „E ridicol când îi auzi pe guvernanți că vor să-i aducă acasă. Îi aduci o lună, un an și apoi pleacă din nou” (Researcher, about the life of Romanians in the UK: “It is ridiculous when you hear government officials wanting to bring back home the Romanians abroad. You bring them back for a month, a year and then they leave again”).
As an interesting fact, the editor-in-chief of Libertatea newspaper is Catalin Tolontan, who lead the team of investigative journalists featured in the Academy Awards and BAFTA nominee documentary “Collective” – About the film — Collective (collectivefilm.co.uk).
UKRI announced its new open access policy in August 2021.
This policy applies to publications which need to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils. This includes funding from:
It aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built on.
The policy applies to:
Please see this link for the full policy document and other related information and details –
Following a successful upgrade, BRIAN is now up and running again and functioning as normal.
Do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk if you encounter any issues.
Just a reminder that BRIAN will be unavailable to users today and tomorrow, Monday, 2nd August and Tuesday, 3rd August for a scheduled upgrade.
If you need any help using the new system or if you encounter any problems after the upgrade, please do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.
In the meantime, if you do have general queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
Further information will be available once BRIAN is up and running again following the scheduled upgrade.
BRIAN will be unavailable to users next week on Monday, 2nd August and Tuesday, 3rd August for a scheduled upgrade.
If you need any help using the new system or if you encounter any problems after the upgrade, please do send an email to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and a member of staff will be able to assist you.
In the meantime, if you do have general queries relating to the upgrade, please get in touch with BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk
Further information will be available once BRIAN is up and running again following the scheduled upgrade.
The following RKEDF training events are coming up this month.
These are all online events.
Please email OD@bournemouth.ac.uk to book now!
| Monday 14th June – Wednesday 16th June
Writing Academy A three day workshop including planning and writing your research article, developing a strategy for getting your articles published, read and cited, and a writing day. |
| Thursday 17th June 15:00 – 16:00
Impact and Funding Bids How to write about impact successfully in funding applications. |
| Tuesday 22nd June 13:30 – 15:00
On Writing – Improving Writing Practice How to improve your writing practice by making more compelling knowledge claims, theories and arguments from your research and writing for your audience, with Professor Matthew Bennett. |
| Wednesday 23rd June 16:00 – 17:00
Early Career Researchers Network Meeting There will be presentations from two Early Career Researchers about their respective research projects followed by Q&A. |
| Thursday 24th June 11:00 – 12:30
Getting Started in Public Engagement with Research Public engagement in the research landscape; why it is important and what it can do for researchers. |
| Wednesday 30th June 16:00 – 17:00
BRIAN, Building your staff profile with research websites An introduction to BU’s publication management system. |
BOOKING: Unless otherwise stated, to book, please email OD@bournemouth.ac.uk.
You can see all the Organisational Development and Research Knowledge Development Framework (RKEDF) events in one place on the handy calendar of events.
If you have any queries, please get in touch!
Welcome to the Bournemouth University Research Staff Association (RSA).
What is it?
An association run by BU researchers from all faculties who want to make BU a great place to work and do research. We aim to ensure that researchers are supported to realise their full potential and to develop and produce research of the highest quality. (There are Research Staff Associations throughout UK universities and one of our BU RSA representatives is also a member of the UK RSA).
Who is it for?
Almost everyone! Postdoctoral researchers, research fellows, research assistants as well as anyone else who is actively engaged in research (or planning to be): postgraduate researchers; staff on teaching and research, or teaching contracts; clinicians; professional support staff; technicians.
What are our aims?
To help make BU a great place for researchers to work and progress in their careers.
To support BU researchers to produce excellent research by enabling them to thrive, personally and professionally through informal peer support / friendship with other researchers and encouraging BU to provide
How do we do that?
We support researchers through:
What do we need to succeed?
You! We need to know what the important issues, concerns, challenges, and aspirations of BU researchers are. We can then try to provide informative sessions which address the issues that are important to you, advocate for change – as well as letting BU know when they are getting it right! We would also like to get to know you and learn from your experiences – doing research can be lonely and being in contact with other researchers enriches our day.
When does the RSA meet?
The RSA meets regularly throughout the year. Everyone is welcome to attend or share issues that you would like raised with your faculty rep
How do I get involved/get in touch with the RSA representative for my faculty?
Come and meet us and tell us how the RSA could support you at:
Research Staff Coffee Breaks
Your current reps are:
University Research Staff Reps:
Michelle Heward mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk
Ashok Patnaik apatnaik@bournemouth.ac.uk
Faculty of Health & Social Science
Preeti Mahato pmahato@bournemouth.ac.uk
Rachel Arnold rarnold@bournemouth.ac.uk
BU Business School:
Rafaelle Nicholson rnicholson@bournemouth.ac.uk
Ashok Patnaik apatnaik@bournemouth.ac.uk
Faculty of Media & Communications
Oliver Gingrich gingricho@bournemouth.ac.uk
Ethzaz Chaudhry echaudhry@bournemouth.ac.uk
Faculty of Science & Technology
Kimberley Davies daviesk@bournemouth.ac.uk
Looking forward to seeing you at the RSA Coffee breaks over the coming weeks!
Open access is a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined ‘open access’ when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it – that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements.
Bournemouth University is unfortunately not a current recipient of the UKRI Open Access block grant. However, there is a small centralised BU Open Access Fund that BU authors can get access to on a competitive basis. Due to a very limited budget, application for funding is extremely competitive, and the selection criteria are stringent. In the past years, through the centralised open access fund, Bournemouth University has been able to support open access outputs from various impactful key research, including Epibentic and mobile species colonisation of a geo textile artificial sur reef on the south coast of England, Dignity and respect during pregnancy and childbirth: A survey of the experience of disabled women, Seven Characteristics Defining Online News Formats, Applied screening tests for the detection of superior face recognition, and many more!
Through the UK JISC Agreements, Bournemouth University currently has Read and Publish open access transformative deals with publishers such as BMJ, SAGE, Springer and Wiley, which means that BU authors can publish open access for free in the journal titles covered under the deals, subject to their terms and conditions. Each transformative deal and what it covers varies from one another. For example, the BMJ transformative deal only covers original research articles from research funded by UKRI, British Hearth Foundation, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Parkinsons UK, Versus Arthritis or the Wellcome Trust. As for the SAGE transformative deal, there is no such restrictions; however, you can only publish open access for free under a select list of journal titles.
In order to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from these transformative deals, do head over to the Bournemouth University Library and Learning Support guide for more details and information!
Green Open Access, also referred to as self-archiving, is the practice of placing a version of an author’s manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone. The version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or publisher. You can make use of the Sherpa Romeo online resource to check the copyright policies of your target journal or publisher. At Bournemouth University, the self-archiving process is done through our current research and information system called BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information and Networking); and all successfully reviewed and deposited manuscripts will be housed in our institutional repository called BURO (Bournemouth University Research Online).
Stay tuned for the next segment where we’ll be talking more about “Open Access @ BU & how it works!”
BU staff can login below:
BU geography student’s undergraduate dissertation published in international journal
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BU Research blog in 2023 grows into 2026 publication
REF 2029 Sector Survey: Have Your Say
BU methods paper reached 2,500 reads
UKCGE Recognised Research Supervision Programme: Applications Close 19 October
Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Civil Security for Society) 2026 Calls Now Open
MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026 Call Information Webinar
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026: Application Deadline Extended to Thursday 25 June 2026 Apply now to take part in the 2026 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Reminder: Register for the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026 Information Session
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply now MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network