Category / REF Subjects

Ref 2021/ Report analysing impact case studies

REF Subjects

This is an interesting report from the British Society of Gerontology analysing impact case studies from REF 2021. This includes work from Bournemouth University amongst various other centres.

Please find below the links to the report and presentation about “The impact of Ageing Research within the Research Excellence Framework 2021: an evaluation” as a useful reading in terms of the range and scope of age-related research.

BSG REF 2021 evaluation report

Presentation REF state of Ageing 131123

OpenBright grant awardees from Bournemouth University

Awarded & submitted bids

OpenBright grants have been available since 2020 to support women in the development of research projects at the university level, focusing on subjects related to computing and technology. OpenBright offers small grants for students studying for degrees or postgraduate qualifications in areas such as software engineering, data science, digital media, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

We are thrilled to introduce the awardees:

Assemgul Kozhabek (Final year Ph.D. candidate): Assemgul is the second-time OpenBright grant awardee. Her plan is to upgrade her computer system to conduct a thorough analysis of road networks. This upgrade will greatly support her project, titled “Examining the Topology of Urban Road Networks in densely populated countries: China and India”. Assemgul and her supervisor Dr. Wei Koong Chai abstracted road networks as complex systems and employ tools from network science to study their properties.  This study introduces multi-level urban road network robustness metrics, which incorporates macro, meso and micro perspectives. Assemgul thanks her supervisor  Dr. Wei Koong Chai and Dr. Melanie Coles for their guidance and support!

Fatima Ahmad Muazu (1st year Ph.D. student): Fatima got funding for her project “The Use of Mobile Learning and Assistive Technologies for Enhancing Digital Inclusion in Special Education for Learners with Learning Disabilities in underserved regions of Northern and Southern Nigeria”. The funding will be used to conduct a preliminary needs analysis involving stakeholders and students in special education settings of 4 Nigerian secondary schools.

Maggie Foulds (Final year BSc Software Engineering student): Her project is the development of a mobile application to aid all-star cheerleading coaches in the creation of competition routines, and to help ensure athlete safety throughout the season. Maggie has been awarded funding from the OpenBright foundation to travel to a software development conference in Miami, to boost her coding skills to take her project to the next level. OpenBright is also supporting me to attend the Cheerleading World Championships in Orlando, where I will be able to test a prototype of my application with stakeholders.

Ayo Agbeja (MSc Data Science and Artificial Intelligence): Ayo’s research title is “Plastic Wastes and Sustainability Targets in Germany: A Policy Simulation Experiment using Machine Learning”. Her project has a primary focus on Germany and aims to investigate the relationship between policies related to plastic waste management and sustainability objectives, particularly in the context of reducing carbon emissions. This simulated model will take into account the key factors: economic growth, oil and coal production, the generation of renewable energy, and energy consumption, while making projections based on an optimal weighting of these factors.

Congratulations!

The last BU blog of 2023

international, open access, Publishing, writing

First of all: Happy New Year!

One of the first message I received this morning was that our editorial ‘Addressing the inequalities in global genetic studies for the advancement of Genetic Epidemiology’ [1] had been published yesterday.  If I had know this in time it would have been the proper last Bournemouth University Research Blog of 2023 published yesterday.  Interestingly, we only submitted the draft editorial on Christmas Day, got it back for revisions on Boxing Day and resubmitted it and had it accepted on December 28th.   It dis, of course, help that both editors-in-chief of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology are co-authors on this editorial!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

 

 

Reference:

  1. Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Roy., B., Kabir, R., Banerjee, I., Simkhada, P., Al Hamad, H. (2023) Addressing the
    inequalities in global genetic studies for the advancement of Genetic Epidemiology. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 13(4):1292-1293.
    DOI: 10.3126/nje.v13i4.61271

Discovering Causal Relations and Equations from Data

BRIAN, Fusion themes, open access, REF Subjects, staff profile pages

Discovering equations, laws, or invariant principles underpins scientific and technical advancement. Robust model discovery has typically emerged from observing the world and, when possible, performing interventions to falsify models.

Recently, data-driven approaches like classic and deep machine learning are evolving traditional equation discovery methods. These new tools can provide unprecedented advances in computer science, neuroscience, physics, philosophy, and many applied areas.

We have just published a new study discussing concepts and methods on causal and equation discovery, outlining current challenges and promising future lines of research. The work also showcases comprehensive case studies in diverse scientific areas ranging from earth and environmental science to neuroscience.

Our tenet is that discovering fundamental laws and causal relations by observing natural phenomena is revolutionised with the coalescence of observational data and simulations, modern machine learning algorithms and domain knowledge. Exciting times are ahead with many challenges and opportunities to improve our understanding of complex systems.

This study is a collaborative work between eight universities in Europe and the United States (Valencia, Berlin, Tübingen, Jena, Stockholm, New York, and Bournemouth Universities).

Camps-Valls, G., Gerhardus, A., Ninad, U., Varando, G., Martius, G., Balaguer-Ballester, E., Vinuesa, R., Diaz, E., Zanna, L. and Runge, J., 2023. Discovering causal relations and equations from data. Physics Reports, 1044, 1-68 (Impact Factor=30).

 

Paper published on ‘living evidence’

international, open access, Publishing, Training, writing

The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published today carries an article on so-called ‘living evidence’ as an on-going synthesis approach that provides up-to-date rigorous research evidence [1].  This short research methods paper argues that living evidence is particularly useful in rapidly expanding research domains, uncertain existing evidence, and incorporating new research evidence that may impact policy or practice, ensuring that health worker, managers and health-policy makers have access to the best, i.e. the most recent evidence.

The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is an Open Access journal, and hence freely available to researchers across the globe.  The paper has been co-authored by researchers from the Denmark, Qatar, Mauritius and the UK.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

 

Reference:

  1. Sathian B., van Teijlingen E., do Nascimento I.J.B., Khatib M.N., Banerjee I., Simkhada P., Kabir R., Al Hamad H. (2023) Need for evidence synthesis for quality control of healthcare decision-making. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 13(3):1288-1291.  DOI: 10.3126/nje.v13i3.61004

MaGPIE has taken flight!

Awarded & submitted bids, international, REF Subjects

“There is not one region in the world, not one historical period, that has not seen mass graves”.

(UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions, 2020)

 

Wednesday 13th December marked the launch of MaGPIE, the pioneering £1.6 million ERC selected UKRI funded research project, run out of the Humanities & Law department in the Faculty of Media and Communication.

 

MaGPIE stands for Mass Grave Protection, Investigation and Engagement and asks: how can a comprehensive and universally applicable human rights framework for mass graves can be developed and achieved?

 

To answer such a magnitudinous question, MaGPIE has strategically organised its research into three interconnected pillars:

Pillar 1 asserts that comprehending the scale of global mass graves is paramount to understanding the nature of the problem. Consequently, pillar 1 will result in an open-source map of mass grave sites and ancillary outputs that have the potential to strengthen protection, forensic investigation, justice efforts, commemoration and remembrance for the benefits of survivors.

 

Pillar 2 identifies and seeks to remedy human rights blindspots that persist within present practices surrounding mass graves. These blindspots will be addressed through researching: cultural and Indigenous rights; issues of access, consent and data protection; participatory rights and vulnerabilities due to climate change.

 

Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation land and sea migratory routes and to what extent they might contain mass graves and hence warrant protection through a concerted human rights framework and policy.

 

The launch of MaGPIE was a momentous occasion for Professor Melanie Klinkner and her growing team. Professor Scott Wright, Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice, kindly introduced the MaGPIE team members: Dr David Biggins, project management and data specialist in BUBS; Emily Fisher the Research Assistant and HSS prize winning graduate; Dr Ellie Smith and Dr Ian Hanson Senior Research Fellows, and newly appointed data researchers Diego Nunez and Ellen Donovan. Internal stakeholders were invited to raise a toast—of non-alcoholic mulled wine—not only to celebrate the project’s launch but also to acknowledge the collaborative efforts that brought MaGPIE to the starting line.

If you are interested in following the work of MaGPIE stay updated by following our LinkedIn and Twitter profiles for the latest developments over the coming years.

Delay to the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise

REF Subjects

Following community consultation on the REF initial decisions published in the summer of 2023, the four UK higher education funding bodies have announced an extension to the timing of the next REF exercise.

The next REF will now be REF2029, with results to be published in December 2029.

It is likely that submission will now be autumn 2028. The REF team have advised that an updated timeline will be published “as soon as possible”.

The extension to the timeline is in recognition of the complexities for Higher Education Institutions in:

  • the preparation for using HESA data to determine REF volume measures,
  • fully breaking the link between individual staff and institutional submissions,
  • the reworking of institutional Codes of Practice

As well as the change to the timing for the REF, a number of other updates have been announced, including:

  • The Units of Assessment structure used in REF2021 will remain unchanged.
  • Institutions may submit any output where there is a “demonstrable and substantive link to the submitting institution within the REF period.”
  • Outputs sole-authored by PGR students will not be eligible for submission, nor will those produced by staff on teaching-only contracts.
  • The minimum number of impact case studies that an institution can submit per disciplinary submission will be reduced to one, and there will be a removal of the 2* quality threshold for research that underpins impact case studies.

More detail on the initial decisions next steps can be found at https://www.ref.ac.uk/news/update-on-initial-decisions/