March 26, 2015

Is this a 3 star Shed?

Public engagement, REF Subjects afeigenbaum

Understanding REF

On Thursday March 26th, a dozen colleagues from around BU participated in a seminar on REF and Impact Monitoring in the Social Sciences. The Impact session organised by Professor Ann Brooks from HSC was led by Sociology Professor John Scott, an active academic citizen and prolific writer, often at the cutting edge of his field. Professor Scott has served on the Sociology RAE/REF panel for the past 15 years of exercises, as well as overseeing a submission for Plymouth University.

Professor Scott started the seminar with a brief history of the development of research assessment, setting the exercise in the context of our ‘audit culture’ of regulation in academia. As the REF changed once more for the 2014 cycle, the big question we now face is: how will the ‘impact agenda’ influence and shape research practice?

Speaking of the challenges of creating REF input plans, Scott discussed the personal cost that comes with making strategic decision of who should be included in what subject area. People doing very strong research can end up excluded from a submission because they are not a good fit with the university’s strategy for putting units together. Taking seriously the effects of this interpersonal dimension of REF planning should be incorporated throughout the process.

Scott summarised the profiling system used in REF 2014 that is likely to run again for REF 2020. Panels judge Outputs (65%), Environment (15%) and Impact (20%). He explained that the process works similar to exam second marking. After rating a sample of submissions from across these profile elements, panel members met to look for patterns and reach consensus on the reasoning behind allocating 3* and 4* marks. This was done across subject areas, for example, trying to compare an architect’s built shed and a medical researcher’s new diagnostic system.

Scott reinforced that citation indexes were not the driving factor in rankings. While citation indexes might be discussed as evidence, there is a clear understanding now with HEFCE that high citations can be because a paper is great—or terrible.

Impact in REF 2014

With the new impact component for REF 2014, universities submitted one case study for every 8 academics, with a minimum of 2 case studies needed for any submission unit. Alongside the Case Study comes an Impact Statement on strategy and approach to impact, which is equally assessed. Tracing some of the history of the rise of the impact agenda, Scott noted the role government expectations played and the fuzziness of the definition of impact.

As this was people’s first go at writing impact statements, universities took very different approaches. The retrospective collection of evidence often led to an ‘impact as add-on’ and the top-down approach to grouping together impact case studies. With more planning time for REF 2020, it is important to take a more systematic and dynamic approach to grouping case studies.

Scott emphasised that economic impact is only one aspect of impact. Cultural and Societal value does not need to be measured in financial terms. Panels in the Social Sciences and Humanities understand that impact has different definitions and overlaps between spheres. He highlighted that impact can be on the local, regional, national or international level.

For REF 2014, people tended to play it safe, going for the most obvious and easy to measure kinds of impact. It was difficult to find a balance between offering guidance and keeping things open so people did not feel constrained. Offering the example of a case study on conversation analysis, Scott discussed how researchers’ documented the ways their work was taken up by people working with pension claimants to improve relationships and workplace effectiveness.

Scott described how impact is assessed in terms of reach and significance. ‘Reach’ is not a reference to geographical scope, but how many people in a given area of impact you reach. For significance the assessment is for ‘how much’ something changed—a policy, a practice, a mode of delivery — but this is still a qualitative judgement.

Demonstrating Impact

In the second half of the seminar we moved to discuss methods of collecting and demonstrating impact in our research. Scott opened the conversation with another exam metaphor—panel members can only assess what is on the page.

Unlike outputs that you can carry across institutions, impact case studies must be for research undertaken in your submitting institution. While this can be hard for researchers changing home universities, for universities it means that, in principle, impact for former, retired or deceased colleagues can be counted. This was a big issue in REF 2014 and may arise in the consultations for REF 2020.

For REF 2020 it is likely that Jan 1st 2000 will be the start date of the research period, with impact demonstration assessed from January 1st 2014. This means that for the next REF esearch we have already conducted may be evaluated for impact, though there is room to include ‘emerging impact’ for later research.

Scott emphasised the need to have mechanisms in place for collecting evidence of impact. For REF 2014, researchers largely collected this on their own, but for REF 2020, it is important that institutions support this process, in addition to it being built into the research project.

In assessing impact, REF panels are looking for three key aspects:

Quality underpinning research: the 2* threshold
Significance and reach of impact: the evidence
Compelling narrative linking research

The different time frames for outputs and impact means that the (1) underpinning research being evaluated is often not the same as your research outputs. In relation to what ‘counts’ as underpinning research we discussed nontraditional research from both ends of the spectrum—research done under commercial or government secrecy agreements, and research done in entirely open access and digital forums. For REF 2014 these cases were dealt with on an ad-hoc problem-solving basis. For REF 2020, if people become more adventurous in their submissions, more dynamic modes of assessing impact will be needed.

For all submissions, Scott noted the importance of disentangling research processes from research impact. For researchers engaged in participatory and action research methods, this means explicitly linking the background academic context and theoretical basis of your research, separately from the purely applied aspects. It becomes very important to demonstrate both how your new academic research is innovative and how you evaluated its impact (i.e. carrying out an impact assessment within your own project).

In relation to (2) Scott discussed the ways you can use either qualitative or quantitative forms of evidencing impact—anything from press reports and media coverage, to a survey carried out independently, to letters of support from policymakers or industry. You can also track feedback and comments you have gotten from readers, as well as hits on your website. These are a starting place for evidencing impact and the kinds of things that institutional support will be helpful for.

This is also where (3) narrative is so important. With impact, you are telling a story that goes from the academic context of your research through to the demonstrable effects your research has had beyond academia.

Key Questions the REF 2014 panels asked about impact were:

What was the research activity: a person, a project, or a programme?
Was research actually carried out at the university?
Was the research carried out within the time period allowed?
Did the impact occur within the time period allied?
Did the research actually contribute to the impact?
Is there supporting evidence for the impact?

While research outputs in the Social Sciences and Humanities are often ‘owned’ by an individual or small groups of co-authors, impact can be linked to broader programmes and groups. Your impact narrative should connect your contribution to a larger project or programme’s impact.

For REF 2014, impact strategies were sometimes weak or poorly demonstrated. There were also challenges tying impact statements to institutional support mechanisms. The panel was looking for narratives—stories that demonstrated how support mechanisms supported impact, and how those mechanisms could be built upon in the future.

REF 2020 – Going Forward

For the next REF, HEFCE is looking into refining impact assessment. This includes their analysis of measurement tools, expansion of impact criteria, and reflection on how to best operationalise these.
As universities devise institutional support mechanisms for collecting evidence of impact, here are some practical things you can do:

Look for reviews that make reference to your research
Track website visits, press appearances, public forms of citations
Keep a folder of emails you receive from outside academia mentioning how your work is being taken up
Make sure to devise mechanisms for tracking impact into your research projects from the start (surveys, feedback)

Returning to strategy to finish off the session, Professor Scott reminded us that not everyone has to be putting out 4* outputs and 4* impact case studies! When organising for REF 2020 it will be important to embrace and support the diversity of our colleagues’ strengths.

FOR MORE ON REF REFLECTIONS & HEFCE READ: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2015/03/26/ref-update-hefces-reflections-event-25-march-2015/

March 25, 2015

PR History conference abstracts online

Tom Watson

The 46 abstracts of papers chosen for presentation at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2015 are now available online at: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/historyofpr/files/2010/11/IHPRC-2105-Abstracts.pdf

This is the largest selection of papers chosen for IHPRC since it started in 2010 and, says IHPRC Chair Professor Tom Watson, “it is indicative of the increasing quality of research and scholarship from around the world in the field of public relations history.”

Authors come from 21 countries and include first-time contributions from Mauritius, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland. The largest group of papers is from the U.S. (10), followed by UK (8), Germany (4) and Turkey (4).

The conference will be held in the EBC on 8-9 July this year. Registration is at: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/historyofpr/registration/

March 23, 2015

UNCLASSIFIED

Publishing, REF Subjects, Research assessment sastringer

Picture the scene… it’s 2016 the 1^st April 2016 to be precise and you’ve had an article you have been working on for the past 6 months accepted by your first choice journal – well done you – you spend the next 3 months eagerly waiting to read your hard work in print. When it finally it is published you are ecstatic, it is well received by your colleagues, peers, journalists and the public – your research is out there and making a real impact to society, you couldn’t have imagined a better reception. Well done you again!

Now fast-forward to submission of the next REF where you enthusiastically submit your lovingly crafted, well received, well cited article for submission with the full expectation that it will certainly be assessed as a 4* publication but then the bomb drops… the article is “UNCLASSIFIED”. Why I hear you cry?! Well back in 2016 when your article was accepted you did not make it open access – simple.

HEFCEs decision on non-compliance of their Open Access Policy really couldn’t be clearer in this aspect:

“Any output submitted to the post-2014 REF that falls within the scope of this policy but does not meet its requirements or exceptions will be treated as non-compliant. Non-compliant outputs will be given an unclassified score and will not be assessed in the REF.”

We have 12 months to get ready for to comply with HEFCEs Open Access policy and we have to start now. Only the author and the publisher know when an article is accepted and this is the key point for the policy. So, if you want to have the full benefit of all your hard work, then make sure that when an article is accepted by a publisher you upload it to BRIAN – simple.

For further information on how to you go about making your outputs open access, please see the guidance here. Email openaccess@bournemouth.ac.uk with queries or attend one of our Open Access Workshops over the next few months.

Further information on HEFCEs policy can be found here

March 22, 2015

BU Academic’s Major International Engagement and Esteem

Fusion Zulfiqar Khan

Dr Zulfiqar Khan FIMechE, CEng, SFHEA

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor), Director Sustainable Design Research Centre SciTech has been invited to Chair Surface Engineering Track at the STLE (Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers) 70^th Annual Meeting & Exhibition May 2015.

Zulfiqar is leading the Surface Engineering Technical Committee as Vice-Chair. He is also Technical Editor of Tribology & Lubrication Technology (TLT), STLE’s official membership publication. Around 126 STLE members were invited to submit a case for support to become technical editor, only 17 were selected, of whom Zulfiqar is the only non-US member of the technical committee.

He has been actively engaged and making significant contributions to the STLE since May of 2008, as conference track Chair, Vice-chair, Paper Solicitation Chair and is currently leading the selection process of the Surface Engineering 2015 best paper award.

SLTE mission is “to advance the science of tribology and the practice of lubrication engineering in order to foster innovation, improve the performance of equipment and products, conserve resources and protect the environment.” [STLE website].

STLE is serving the needs of more than 10, 000 members and over 150 industrial partners within the Tribology & Lubrication Engineering sector. STLE has a 24 member elected board with elected president (annual) who leads STLE as CEO and heads the board as Chair, 23 technical committees and councils and has an annual budget of around 2.25 million USD [STLE website].

If you would like to know more or have interests to get involved please contact Dr Zulfiqar Khan directly.

March 20, 2015

‘And the walls came tumbling down’ – BU involved in Palestinian-Israeli peace and reconciliation dialogues

Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict represents one of the most protracted and volatile in contemporary global politics. In Europe, we witness events from the outside through the shock and glare of television newsflashes. We are uncomfortably aware of the huge gulf between the world we inhabit of quotidian demands and trivial, micro conflicts – and that other world that vibrates terrifyingly with the devastating and cataclysmic, horrifyingly symbolised by the bodies of the killed, so many of them young children.

Given my academic interests I was therefore deeply honoured to be invited on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel recently, by our Visiting Professor to the currently named Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy (CSWSSP) in FHSS – Professor Alean Al-Krenawi – a world renowned social work scholar of Bedouin heritage. The invitation was to give a keynote lecture in Jerusalem at the final conference/workshop under the ‘Building Peace Through Knowledge Program’, a Palestinian-Israeli project, under the auspices of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and generously funded by the USAID Conflict Mitigation and Reconciliation Program. This three-year project was developed by Professor Al-Krenawi and his impressive colleague, Dr Tawfiq Salman, the General Director of the Palestinian Neuropsychiatric Rehabilitation Center (PNRC) Bethlehem and President of the Palestinian Association for Child & Adolescence Mental Health (PACAMH). The aims of the project have been to bring together participant dialogue groups in conference workshops – and this final event would seek to embed, encapsulate and take forward the good work developed so far.

The invitation therefore was both a great privilege and honour – and an undeniably challenging one, replete with huge, raw sensitivities to acknowledge and yawning pits for the vigilant, let alone unwary, to carefully negotiate. Here, to a large mixed audience of Israeli and Palestinian professionals working across the domains of human services, education and health disciplines, I presented a paper entitled ‘Chaos and coalescence in the narratives of hardship: a new pedagogy for human services’. The aim was to begin to create a meta-narrative of hardship and suffering in order to recognise fully the humanity and the pain of the ‘other’; and to find a universal commonality transcending the barriers of ethnicity, religion and years of violent oppression and conflict.

A highly ambitious undertaking therefore, which could only be attempted with great humility to be open to truly hearing and acknowledging the stories and accounts from participants – often exceedingly painful and occasionally inflammatory to others. The potential for offence was extremely high, but so too were the stakes for greater understanding and accord together with individual commitment to working towards a more peaceful and equitable future.

Following my talk the audience were then encouraged to break into small, mixed ethnic discussion groups to discuss narratives of hardship and suffering that they had encountered, engaged in or witnessed – and to reflect on these in terms of the impact upon individuals at the personal and professional levels. An excellent omen, I wryly noticed, was that one of the conference rooms where I was helping to facilitate discussion groups was called ‘Jericho’ – and thus together we began to bring down the walls.

I was deeply impressed by the willingness of the audience to engage in these difficult discussions. A few Palestinian and Israeli participants had already been able to develop close friendships through these dialogue encounters, maintained even across the worst of the fighting of the Intifadas. Yet, as we learn, there have been more peace and reconciliation dialogue groups taking place in Israel than in any other country globally – and sadly to little overall effect. Worse still such dialogues by the very act of breaking down personal-political barriers can exacerbate the huge of sense of (now) personal betrayal felt by participants in ensuing violence.

A key component of success we heard about is to ‘scale up’: in other words to increase the social impact of the good will developed in dialogue groups by expanding their influence externally. Accordingly, the aim is to expand both horizontally by creating meta-networks and vertically to reach government levels for necessary policy change. At the moment extremely aggressive hawks have been in the ascendance but the Israeli general elections are being held very soon. Accordingly many Israeli participants at the workshop expressed the hope that the political landscape would soon be changed by a more moderate government through democratic processes. Sadly, however, some of the Palestinian colleagues at the workshop had no voting rights despite being life-long Jerusalem residents. There is clearly still much work to do in such a troubled and unequal region of the world.

Dr Tawfiq Salman & Prof Alean Al-Krenawi

Bringing down the walls in Jericho

On a final constructive note, BU Sociology+ academics are able to continue some of this important work in Israel. Via these connections BU is now the British partner for a Palestinian-Israeli, USA and UK conference on diversity and multiculturalism (a key research theme within CSWSSP) to be held in 2016 under the auspices of the Achva Academic College, whose President is our much-esteemed colleague and friend, Alean Al-Krenawi.

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

March 19, 2015

Policy brief on Obesity

Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today my colleagues at the University of Aberdeen’s Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) published their latest HERU Policy Brief on ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’. The policy brief is now available on line. These policy briefs are concise summaries of the findings of research projects, presented with a focus on policy implications. Linking research findings to possible policy improvements increase the chance that our research has an impact on the wider society. Furthermore, that our research has an impact in REF terms.

This latest policy brief ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’ is part of a larger project called PROGRESS (Prevent Obesity GRowing Economic Synthesis Study), funded by the National Preventative Research Initiative (NPRI) and the Universities of Aberdeen and Melbourne. The project started when I was still at the University of Aberdeen, before I came down to Bournemouth more than five years ago now. Our research highlights that despite evidence that dietary interventions are the most effective way to lose weight, respondents preferred lifestyle interventions involving physical activity. Also that behaviour-change support improves effectiveness of interventions, but its value to participants was limited. A general preference to maintain current lifestyles, together with the sensitivity of take-up to financial costs, suggests financial incentives could be used to help maximise up-take of healthy lifestyle interventions. Finally, men required more compensation to take up healthier lifestyles.

Full details on methods and results are available in the health economics paper due to be published later this year, currently ‘published ahead of print’ (Ryan et al. 2014).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Reference:

Ryan, M., Yi, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Aucott, L., van Teijlingen, E. & Vale, L. (2014) Gaining pounds by losing pounds: preferences for lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity, Health Economics, Policy & Law, [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1017/s1744133114000413.

March 19, 2015

Brief Review of 3rd International Week Sport Management

Fusion, Knowledge Exchange tbreitbarth

Organized by Dr. Tim Breitbarth from the Sport Academic Group (FM) for the 3^rd time after October 2012 and 2013, the 3^rd International Week Sport Management saw international visitors contributing to the research culture, knowledge transfer and student experience on campus.

Beginning of March, Dr Christopher Huth (Senior Lecturer in Sport Events and Governance, Bayreuth University), Konstantin Druker (Lecturer in Sport Management at our Erasmus partner university SRH Heidelberg) and Kasper Roe Iversen (PhD researcher at University of Southern Denmark) provided guest presentations on Level C to Level M on sport fandom, turnaround management in sport organisations and sport sponsorship.

As part of the Business Research Seminar Series Research and the Roundtable International Sport Business, Dr Huth and Mr Druker presented their research projects on crowdfunding as a new means of financing professional/amateur sport organisations and a stakeholder analysis of the German Golf League.

In addition, Tim inspired the very strong PhD researcher audience at the Business Research Seminar Series with his assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the form of a PhD thesis, a shortened version of a conference keynote presentation he held in 2014, including reflections on how to keep your sanity and make progress.

Beyond the teaching and research spheres, much discussion on career and administrative aspects of higher education in different countries/at different universities was facilitated. Joint journal and special interest publications are in the pipeline.

Read about 2013 here:
http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2013/11/04/sport-students-learn-about-employability-of-their-european-peers-and-more/

Read about 2012 here:
http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/10/09/bournemouth-universitys-school-of-tourism-host-international-week-with-new-erasmus-partner-universities/

March 18, 2015

MIDWIFERY: Top five most down-loaded articles for 2014

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today academic publisher Elsevier sent round an email with the top five most downloaded articles from the international journal Midwifery.

We were pleased to see that the fifth paper on that list is a BU paper jointly written with Dr. Helen Bryers, Consultant Midwife in Scotland.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

March 18, 2015

Sport Management Researcher Top-Cited Author in Leading Journal

Publishing tbreitbarth

The latest ABS Journal Guide has lifted an article first-authored by Dr. Tim Breitbarth to be the single most-cited paper in the only 3* journal in the field of sport business.

Considering all major citation databases, Tim’s paper “The role of corporate social responsibility in the football business: Towards the development of a conceptual model” co-authored with Phil Harris in European Sport Management Quarterly (2008) is leaving the strongest footprint in the academic community.

Dr Tim Breitbarth from the Faculty of Management is a regular author, guest editor, project leader, track convener at international conferences as well as invited speaker on CSR in general and CSR in sport.

Full reference:

Breitbarth, T. & Harris, P. (2008): The role of corporate social responsibility in the football business: Towards the development of a conceptual model. European Sports Management Quarterly, 8(2): 179-206.

Abstract:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted considerable interest in the management discipline, but has rarely been evaluated and explored in the sports management research arena. In evaluating the sports, management and marketing literature, this article considers the role of CSR in professional football. It argues that an increased awareness and integration of CSR into the football business fosters the competitiveness of the game and creates additional value for its stakeholders. The article proposes a conceptual model which outlines the agency role of football in order to create political, cultural, humanitarian and reassurance value. Empirical evidence supporting the model is applied based on case studies from four key countries that currently dominate the shaping of CSR discussion and are vital for the game itself: England, Germany, Japan and the US. The article’s aim is to encourage sports management to see CSR as an opportunity-driven concept, which can assist in achieving better strategic direction, and outlines areas where future research can improve sport management’s appreciation of this rapidly more important topic.

March 17, 2015

Contingencies sound art exhibition

Public engagement tdavis

There is still a chance to experience a number of works as part of the

Contingencies Sound Art Exhibition

The current work (16 – 20 March) is by Antonio Della Marina

Della Marina’s music puts sound in pole position, even going as far as to claim that it is more important than the artist himself. With an extremely reduced set of initial parameters, he realises intense sets, quietly spectacular landscapes of sweet hummings, changing in frequency, sequence, pitch and colour, forming little melodies as well as emotive harmonic clusters.

Further details here

Contingencies is an exhibition, talk and concert series featuring sound art, music and technology. It is a collaboration between the Emerge Research Group, Creative Technology Research Group and the Co-Lab.

Curated by Tom Davis, Ambrose Seddon and Bill Thompson

March 17, 2015

Midwives4all: a Swedish initiative

Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Last night (March 16^th 2015) Bournemouth University Professor Edwin van Teijlingen attended a reception and panel discussion on Midwives as agents for change organised in London by the Ambassador of Sweden Ms. Nicola Clase. Earlier this year the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched midwives4all, which an initiative to spread the knowledge about the benefits of evidence-based midwifery, working closely with contributors to The Lancet’s series on midwifery.¹

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) coming to an end in 2015, it is clear that despite great improvements many countries have not reached two key targets: MDG4 to ‘reduce child mortality’ and MDG 5 to ‘improve maternal health’.² Too many women today still die in childbirth, most of these deaths occur in low-income countries and most of these deaths are avoidable. In 2013 alone, 289 000 women died from childbirth complications. Nearly 3 million newborns die in the first month of life and 2.6 million newborns are stillborn each year.

The aim of midwives4all is to use a coordinated and innovative communication approach to highlight the need to implement universal practice of midwifery globally in order to improve maternal health and empower women. Midwives4all highlights that only 22 per cent of countries have potentially enough midwives to provide life-saving interventions to meet the needs of women and newborns, which leaves most countries with severe shortages of proper maternity care. The vast majority of women and children lose their lives due to complications and illnesses that could have been prevented. Scaling up the midwifery workforce could prevent about two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, saving millions of lives every year.

For some countries the first step is to ensure that midwifery is properly recognised in law. In Nepal, one of the country in which we conduct research, midwifery is not yet officially recognised as an independent profession.³ Together with the president of MIDSON and Swedish colleagues we have long argued that we urgently need to convince the Government of Nepal and other the relevant stakeholders that ‘Nepal needs midwifery’.⁴

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

The Lancet Midwifery Series: http://www.thelancet.com/series/midwifery
van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Matthews, Z., Lewis, G., Graham, W.J., Campbell, J., ten Hoope-Bender, P., Sheppard, Z.A., Hulton, L. (2014) Millennium Development Goals: All good things must come to an end, so what next? Midwifery 30: 1-2.
Bogren, M., van Teijlingen, E., Berg. M. (2013) Where midwives are not yet recognised: A feasibility study of professional midwives in Nepal, Midwifery 29(10): 1103-1109.
Bogren, M.U., Bajracharya, K., Berg, M., Erlandsson, K., Ireland, J., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2013) Nepal needs midwifery, Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 1(2): 41-44. www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/9907/8082

March 13, 2015

Congratulations to Dr. Zulfiqar Khan and Hammad Nazir

Pengpeng

A BIG congratulations to Dr. Zulfiqar Khan and Hammad Nazir for their recent publication which has made the most read articles list on the Taylor and Francis website. Dr. Zulfiqar Khan leads the Sustainable Design Research Centre as Director. A recent REF2014 Panel feedback has identified Sustainable Design Research Group as having the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent!

The publication ‘Modelling of Metal-Coating Delamination Incorporating Variable Environmental Parameters‘ in the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology was written in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Salisbury. The research was co-funded by BU and Defence Science & Technology Laboratory Ministry of Defence, with in-kind support from The Tank Museum.

The article was published online on December 15th 2014, and is 4th on Taylor and Francis’ most read article list along with other articles published since 2012. To date, the article has been downloaded/viewed more than 300 times.

March 13, 2015

Fusion Investment Fund (Study Leave Strand): Dr. Dinusha Mendis on Research Leave in Italy and Australia

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Post-award, Public engagement, REF Subjects cippm

Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Associate Professor in Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) in the Faculty of Media and Communications was awarded a period of research leave funded by the Fusion Investment Fund which commenced on 1 January 2015.

The research leave was granted for Dr. Mendis to further her research into the digital aspects of Copyright Law and the Intellectual Property (IP) Implications of 3D Printing.

During January-February 2015, Dr. Mendis spent time at the University of Bocconi, Milan in the capacity of a Visiting Fellow. During this time she collaborated with researchers at the Art, Science and Knowledge (ASK) Centre at Bocconi University, in particular with Professor Maria Lilla Montagni (currently Research Fellow at the Harvard Law School).

In February, Dr. Mendis travelled to the University of Tasmania (UTAS), Australia and is currently based there as Lord Provost Fellow involved in collaboration work with Professor Dianne Nicol and Dr. Jane Nielsen of the Faculty of Law, UTAS. The collaboration work involves considering the IP implications of 3D Printing.

The time has also been utilised to collaborate with colleagues at Melbourne University, Monash University and Swinburne University of Technology where Dr. Mendis was invited to present her recent research, which she carried out for the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO). The presentation formed part of the ‘Innovation Seminar Series’, organised by the Centre for Transformative Innovation at Swinburne University of Technology.

Dr. Mendis was also invited to present her research at a Staff Seminar at UTAS, in her capacity as Visiting Fellow. The presentation which showcased the findings, conclusions and recommendation of the UKIPO Commissioned Project on the IP Implications of 3D Printing, also provided an overview of Copyrightuser.org – a project which Dinusha has been involved in since 2012 and carried out in collaboration with CREATe, University of Glasgow and CEMP, Bournemouth University.

The Fellowship at UTAS, which began in February will be completed at the end of March 2015 and will further include collaboration meetings with Associate Professor Matthew Rimmer of the College of Law, Australian National University, Canberra.

The collaboration work which is currently being carried out as part of the Research Leave will culminate in a number of outputs, specifically peer-reviewed journal articles and an edited book.

In January 2015, Dr. Mendis’s Commissioned article, titled ‘Clone Wars Episode II – The Next Generation: The Copyright Implications of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Files was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal Law, Innovation and Technology (Hart Publishing) (pp. 265-281).

March 12, 2015

Impact Lunchtime Seminar with Andrew Harding on 18th March

Fusion, PG research rfreeman

Lunchtime Seminar on Wednesday 18th March in R207, 1 – 1.50pm

Research should make a difference, and as the Faculty’s strapline is ‘helping to make people’s lives better’, it is of relevance to us all. Our forthcoming Seminar series will showcase some of the excellent work of the Faculty to inspire other academics and PhD students.

No need to book, just turn up. Contact Zoe on zsheppard@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.

Future Impact Seminar dates can be found by clicking on the link below.

Impact Seminar dates 2015

We look forward to seeing you there.

March 11, 2015

What do Wikileaks, MPs’ Expenses Scandals and Drone Strikes in Afghanistan have in common?

Fusion, Knowledge Exchange afeigenbaum

Data.

Big data, small data, everyday data. New technologies have reshaped what we know and how we find out about world events, conflicts and scandals. The collection, the aggregation, and later the manipulation and visualisation of open and shared datasets are now essential across many fields of research and public communication.

Next week at Bournemouth University we are hosting the first of three Fusion funded co-creation Datalabs. Datalabs are participatory workshops designed to enhance and share skills around working with data for civic and humanitarian research and public engagement. Datalabs involve students and staff from across BU’s faculties, as well as participating NGOs, journalists and digital designers.

Our first Datalab on Scraping and Cleaning combines a Masterclass and workshop to introduce participants to tools and techniques for scraping data from the web. We will go over how you format and organise data in spreadsheets. Discussing basic methods for data storytelling, the workshop will provide training in how to find data stories within datasets. We will also introduce geo-coding, making data ready for mapping.

To register to attend March 16th and March 17th Datalbs, email afeigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk

For more information on the project and future sessions see: http://www.civicmedia.io/datalabs/

To get the most out of the day we ask that you arrive promptly for the slotted programme sessions.

March 10, 2015

News from the Learning Research Group

Fusion, Publishing, REF Subjects jmcdougall

BU’s new Learning Research Group held its second workshop last week, so here is a quick update on activities so far since the group formed.

The group is convened by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and CEMP and meets in the CEL space with two objectives –

1. To bring people together for research into learning, pedagogy and education, related to the broader work of CEL;

2. To develop research strategically for a submission to the Unit of Assessment for Education in REF 2020.

Researchers in the group are working on projects and towards outputs in three related areas – Media and Digital Literacies; Practitioner Enquiry and (Higher) Education Dynamics. Impact case studies are in development in each of these areas and a strategy for capacity building, demonstrating impact and research environment has been produced.

In the first workshop, Professor Alex Kendall from Birmingham City University talked to the group about REF 2014 and gave advice for working across disciplines and faculty structures. In the second workshop, Julian shared sub-panel feedback with a focus on how BU’s research can be distinctive in the changing landscape, Isabella Rega ran a workshop activity to bring us together around research themes, methods and beneficiaries, and the group worked together to refine the plans for the group’s direction of travel, discussing development needs and targets for outputs and impact. The next time we meet, we will be guided by Professor Becky Francis from KCL.

The learning research group will continue to do two things in tandem – work towards a REF submission and support the research element of CEL’s work. To get involved, contact julian@cemp.ac.uk or just come along to the next workshop (after Easter, date will be circulated on the research blog).

March 6, 2015

Two new CMMPH publications this week!

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

BU Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Dr. Jenny Hall published her interesting piece on Nursing Times.net under the title ‘Time-wasters in A&E: time to shake the label’. Jenny uses quite a sociological argument highlighting that “However, labels such as time waster are unhelpful and inappropriate. Instead we have a duty to provide a service that is caring, compassionate and welcoming – no matter the pressures. “

The second CMMPH paper this week is by Professor Emeritus Paul Lewis and BU Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland in collaboration with Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Danielle Freemantle. Their paper ‘The loss of midwifery supervision: to mourn or rejoice?’ in the March edition of The Practising Midwife reflects on and discusses some of the possible consequences of the NMC’s decision to end statutory supervision of midwives in the UK.

Congratulations to all!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

March 5, 2015

An investigation into the importance of set plays within the Barclays Premier League

Fusion, Publishing, student research aharding

The interest in football goes well beyond the boundaries of it’s academic field. Such are the financial incentives and rewards in the modern game, professional football clubs now leave no stone unturned in their attempts to increase their performances on the field, win matches and increase their league position. This is the wider context for a recent submission to eBU: Online Journal, BU’s internal working paper journal designed around immediate publication and open peer review.

Based on an analysis of all 1,053 goals scored in the 2009/10 season, Jamie Osman, Andrew Callaway and Shelley Broomfield consider, ‘Just how important are set plays to teams competing in the Barclays Premier League?’.

The paper is open for wider comment and review from the BU community, and can be found here: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/36

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