Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health and Interim Global Engagement Lead in the Department of Nursing Sciences, was invited last weekend to speak at the Third Global Nepali Health Conference, London. He taught on ‘How to write a scientific paper’ with Dr. Om Kurmi from Coventry University and Dr. Bibha Simkhada from the University of Huddersfield (and Visiting Faculty at BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences).
Well done.
From the RDS desk – navigating the innovation pathway
The RDS blog this month provides a few tips on putting together an i4i application Read the blog here
Major new funding opportunity for local government based public health research collaborations
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NIHR Funding and support news: September 2021
NHS England and NHS Improvement: In Touch
HEE SW NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Awards Showcase Event
Online – MS Teams: Monday 20th September 2021 1.30pm – 2.30pm.
The event is open to everyone interested in finding out more about the awards. It will include:
Join on your computer or mobile app: Click here to join the meeting
Latest NIHR funding calls
Transforming care and health at home and enabling independence
Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRC)
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
21/554 Health Technology Assessment Programme Researcher-led (primary research)
21/555 Health Technology Assessment Programme Researcher-led (evidence synthesis)
21/556 NIHR NICE Rolling Call – (HTA Programme)
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
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Yesterday we had the pleasure of running an Academic Writing Workshop for academics and postgraduate students in the Department of Health & Physical Education based at the Sanothimi campus of Tribhuvan University. Tribhuvan University is the oldest and largest university of Nepal. We base these training session on our various publications on academic publishing, [1-14] and we used the opportunity to advertise our forthcoming textbook on the matter [15].
Prof. Padam Simkhada, Professor of Global Health and Associate Dean International at the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield and FHSS Visiting Professor.
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Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
References
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi, Lecturer in International Health & Global Engagement Lead, Department of Nursing Sciences, and Dr. Nirmal Aryal, formerly of the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), whose editorial “Kidney health risk of migrant workers: An issue we can no longer overlook” has been published today in Health Prospect [1]. Further co-authors (Arun Sedhain, Radheshyam Krishna KC, Erwin Martinez Faller, Aney Rijal, and Edwin van Teijlingen) work in India, Nepal, the Philippines and at BU. The study was funded by GCRF. 
This editorial highlights that low-skilled migrant workers in the countries of the Gulf and Malaysia are at a disproportionately higher risk of kidney health problems. The working conditions are often Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult (referred at as the 3Ds) include physically demanding work, exposure to a hot environment, dehydration, chemical exposures, excessive use of pain killers, and lifestyle factors (such as restricted water intake and a high intake of alcohol/sugary drinks) which may precipitate them to acute kidney injuries and subsequent chronic kidney disease.
References
Congratulations to Dr. Shanti Shanker in BU’s Department of Psychology and Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science on their paper ‘The Interdisciplinary Team Not the Interdisciplinarist: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Research’ which was accepted over the weekend by the journal Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences. This interesting paper is co-authored with two BU Visiting Faculty, Ms. Jillian Ireland, Professional Midwifery Advocate in Poole Maternity Hospital (University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust) and Prof. Padam Simkhada based at the University of Huddersfield. Co-author Dr. Sharada Wasti is also based the University of Huddersfield.
With interdisciplinary research growing in popularity, researchers, lecturers, journal editors and funders to consider how this is going to work in reality. This paper argues that interdisciplinary working is with in the team, not ‘in a person’. Multidisciplinary teams provide unique opportunities for researchers from different disciplines (and hence different ways of working and thinking) to collaborate with one another. We need to be careful not to try to create interdisciplinarists, or at least, not too many. We need people who are strong in their discipline and open-minded/flexible/reflective enough to see the value of other people’s disciplines.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH (Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health)
Reference:
From the RDS (Research Design Service) desk – raising the public involvement standards in the RDS.
Patient and public involvement has been an essential element of research funding applications for many years, and the RDS has been making it an essential element in how we work. Our blog this month shows how we’ve integrated our public contributor teams to our advice-giving service, and the resulting benefits. Read the blog here.
Good Clinical Trials Collaborative launches new guidance consultation
Professor Lucy Chappell begins role as NIHR Chief Executive
eBulletins and Newsletters
NIHR Funding and support round-up: August 2021
Funding Opportunities
Latest NIHR funding calls
Evidence Synthesis Programme
Incentive Awards Scheme 2021
Programme Development Grants
Competition 31
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.
Last night I misread a call from BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. To be fair the email included two different request to contribute to two different kinds of blog posts with different set of instructions. Of course, I managed not to simply to swap these instructions around, but mix them up properly. The result is the text below that does not fit either of the two calls, I think.
The question I tried to address was: “Tell us how your research published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth has links to wider issues than health!. The actual call in the email was: “Tell us about your contribution to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) – We invite our Editorial Board Members who have research or personal interests related to the SDGs to contribute a blog post to our BMC Series Blog network discussing your work/interests as these relate to the SDGs”. 
My adopted question explains the title ‘Health is not a vacuum’. The short overview of the blog I drafted focused on all the papers I have published in this journal over a fifteen-year period from 2006-2021 [1-11]. Not surprising for a sociologist of health & illness, my argument is that there are nearly always issues wider than SDG 3 ‘Good health and well-being’ in the way health care/service or health policy factors affects maternity care and midwifery. Social, cultural and economic factors affect the way maternity services ares provided, used and perceived. SDG 5 ‘Gender equality’ springs to mind first, but also important is SDG 4 ‘Quality education’, especially of girls, and SDG 1 ‘No poverty’, of course strongly linked with SDG 10 ‘Reduced inequalities’.
Gender is highlighted or at least part of the argument in many of our papers in low- and middle income countries [2,3,5, 7,10,11], but also in a high-income context [1,6]. Education, both health education and education more generally, for example education levels of maternity service users, appears in several papers [1,6,8-11] whilst poverty is a key factors in several papers based on our work in Nepal [2,3,5,6,11]. Several of our papers address issues wider than health that are not strictly speaking SDG, such as paper on cultural differences in postnatal quality of life among German-speaking women living either side of the Swiss-German border [4], and of course, our paper on media and childbirth [6].
Last, but not least, all papers published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth are Open Access and freely available online!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)
References:
UK government’s innovation strategy: Intellectual property
eBulletins and Newsletters
NIHR News and Research July 2021
NHS England and NHS Improvement – In Touch
Funding Opportunities
Latest NIHR funding calls
Evidence Synthesis Programme
Incentive Awards Scheme 2021
Programme Development Grants
Competition 31
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.
Professor Sam Porter, Dr Sally Lee, Dr Zoe Sheppard and Tracy Glen are the supervisory team supporting Suzanne Sheppard in a new project on cancer and sexuality. This project is aiming to develop an intervention to support healthcare professionals along with patients and their partners discuss sexual concerns following cancer treatment. This mixed methods study will take place at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
The PhD is part funded by Fortuneswell Cancer Trust, Bournemouth University and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex.
Yesterday Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Shovita Dhakal Adhikari, Dr. Nirmal Aryal and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, all based in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, presented at the tenth Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal & the Himalaya. Their paper ‘Moral panic and othering practices during Nepal’s COVID-19 Pandemic (A study with returnee migrants and Muslims in Nepal)’ was co-authored by Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti from the University of Huddersfield and Shreeman Sharma (Department of Conflict, Peace & Development
Studies, Tribhuvan University, Nepal). The presentation was partly based on research funded by the British Academy.
The legacy of the CLAHRCs 2014-19 – 5 years of NIHR-funded applied health research
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News from NIHR School for Social Care Research: Research findings, public involvement and webinars
Funding Opportunities
Latest NIHR funding calls
21/61 UK-wide antiviral clinical trial platform in non-hospitalised patients
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
21/532 Intensive Interaction for children and young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities
21/534 Surgical management of successfully reduced incarcerated inguinal hernia in children
21/535 Follow-up strategy after radical treatment for prostate cancer
21/536 Sodium bicarbonate in neonatal care
21/537 Neuroendoscopic lavage for preterm babies with post-haemorrhagic ventricular dilatation
21/538 Benefits and harms of reduced dose oral isotretinoin in the management of acne vulgaris
21/539 Benefits and harms of maintenance therapy for refractory acne vulgaris or previous relapses by reduced dose isotretinoin regimens
21/540 Pharmacological treatments for low back pain or sciatica
21/541 Medication support interventions and strategies for people with learning disabilities
21/542 Medication to manage sexual preoccupation in sex offenders
Policy Research Programme
Liaison and diversion services for children and young people
Access assessments for admission to adult medium and low secure services
Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme
Competition 46
Research for Social Care
Research for Social Care dementia call
Research for Social Care call for mental health research in Northern England
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
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Today ResearchGate informed Prof. Vanora Hundley and I that our paper in the Nursing Standard of 2002 had reached 90,000 reads. This short methods paper called ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ [1] was one of our earlier attempts, nearly two decades ago, to publish more of our work in practitioners journals. This approach has been highly successful in terms of reaching a wider audience. We have written longer, more sophisticated research methods papers on pilot studies over the years, including in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, Social Research Update, and the SAGE encyclopedia on research methods [2-6], but none of these has been read or cited as often as our short paper in the Nursing Standard. 
The term ‘pilot studies’ refers to mini versions of a full-scale study (also called ‘feasibility’ studies), as well as the specific pre-testing of a particular research instrument such as a questionnaire or interview schedule. Pilot studies are a crucial element of good study design. Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies fulfill a range of important functions and can provide valuable insights for other researchers. There is a need for more discussion among researchers of both the process and outcomes of pilot studies.
References:
Congratulations to Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ PhD student Karim Khaled and supervisors Prof. Vanora Hundley and Dr. Fotini Tsofliou on the acceptance of your manuscript ‘Perceived Stress was associated with Poorer Diet Quality among Women of Reproductive Age in the UK’. This paper will appear in the international journal Nutrients.All three are associated with our research unit CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health). This paper is supported by BU’s Open Access Fund will be freely available online soon.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Yesterday the international journal Midwifery (published by Elsevier) announced that our paper “Male Involvement in Promotion of Safe Motherhood in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. A Scoping Review” has been published online. [1] This paper is based on Dr. Alice Ladur’s innovative PhD thesis on men’s involvement in their partners’ maternity care in Uganda. This is Alice’s second PhD paper, her first one was published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. [2]
The second international midwifery paper that came out last week is ‘Slovenian midwifery professionalization: Perception of midwives and related health professions’ which appeared in the European Journal of Midwifery. [3] This paper is written with colleagues from Slovenia: Polona A. Mivšek, Majda Pahor, and Valentina Hlebec.
References:
This morning International Journal of Mental Health Nursing informed us that our article ‘Cultural issues on accessing mental health services in Nepali and Iranian migrants communities in the UK‘ has been published today. This paper is written by an interdisciplinary team including Hannah Blunt who works at Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust, Dr. Bibha Simkhada who is Senior Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Huddersfield and Dr. Mariam Vahdaninia who works in the Peninsula Medical School at the University of Plymouth. Both Mariam and Bibha worked with me at Bournemouth University at the time of the study.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)
New vision for harnessing the full potential of data-enabled trials published
NIHR blog: Improving the uptake of research findings in global health
Forthcoming COVID-19 funding call: Community-based COVID-19 platform study for novel antivirals
The NIHR is intending to open a funding call on behalf of the DHSC Antivirals Taskforce, for a team to set up and run a community-based clinical trial platform for novel therapeutic candidates in the UK. The Taskforce was set up to find effective and safe treatments for COVID-19, and will identify and prioritise potential candidates for this study. The study team will be expected to quickly set up a clinical trial platform to evaluate these novel candidates, and start recruiting patients into the platform in Autumn 2021.
The likely advert date for this topic is 19 July 2021. However, please note this is an indicative date, which may change.
Funding Opportunities
Latest NIHR funding calls
Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy and Practice
Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme
21/529 Efficacy trials in regenerative medicine
Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
21/525 Permitted Developments Rights
21/527 Development Award – Local authority-level research priorities on climate change
21/530 Application Development Award – Healthy extended working lives
Policy Research Programme (PRP)
Mental health services funding call
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.
Dr Heaslip, Dr Green, Stephen Richer (Nursing Science) and Dr Huseyin Dogan (SciTech) with Dr Simkhada (Visiting Faculty) have recently published a paper Use of Technology to Promote Health and Wellbeing of People Who Are Homeless: A Systematic Review examining current published literature around the subjects of homelessness, mobile technology usage and its impact on health.
The review noted that literature indicated that whilst a large percentage of people who are homeless owned a mobile phone or smart phone (around 80%). There were many barriers to the use of mobile technology when you are homeless and these include: physical damage to phones, theft, inability to charge phones, lack of data and the limited availability of Wi-Fi connections. The health impacts of mobile usage are largely associated with ‘social connectedness’. This not only included staying in touch with family and friends but also maintaining a connection to popular culture, social media, news, music and films. Current research indicated that this sense of social connection was considered of high importance by individuals who are homeless. As well as a social connection, people who are homeless found technology as having other potential health benefits, such as signposting to available support, reminders for appointments, prompts for taking medication, health information and online health advice.
Going forward, we are currently analysing data from an extensive 100 participant, 29 item questionnaire that has been carried out with people who are homeless locally as well as analysing qualitative data from focus groups and one to one interview (n=16 participants). This arm of our research aims to assess the availability, accessibility and utility of services for people who are homeless in the local area as well as further exploring the opportunities and challenges in utilising mobile phones to access health and social care services. Results will be published in due course and detailed in our next blog.
NIHR News
Updated guidelines for recruiting public members onto Trial and Study Steering Committees
NIHR launches Impact Toolkit
NIHR has developed an interactive dashboard that summarises, and signposts to, a range of tools to support research impact planning, delivery and/or assessment. (Will need to register for NIHR Learn if not already registered).
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NIHR Funding and support round-up: July 2021
NHS England and NHS Improvement – In Touch
Events
New impact short course
NIHR has launched a new e-learning course, ‘Introduction to impact through the lens of NIHR’.
In this self-paced and short e-learning course, you will get an introduction to what impact is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important to the NIHR. Find out more.
Funding Opportunities
Latest NIHR funding calls
Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award (AI Award)
Competition 3
NIHR Senior Investigators
Call 15
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Mental health call
Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
21/523 Image and performance enhancing drugs
21/524 Health impacts of housing-led interventions for homeless people
Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.
Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice
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Conversation article: Wishcycling – how ‘eco-friendly’ labels confuse shoppers and make recycling less effective
Apply now to take part in the 2025 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Photo exhibition happening now at Talbot Campus – Ageing in a digital world
A compassionate approach to Simulation: new national blog post 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
Research Information Network
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published