Category / REF Subjects

New paper on COVID-19 rumours in Nepal

Awarded & submitted bids, international, open access, Publishing, writing

Today the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health accepted the latest COVID-19 paper from an multidisciplinary team in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).  The paper ‘Fear, Stigma and Othering: The Impact of COVID-19 Rumours on Returnee Migrants and Muslim Populations of Nepal’ is based on research funded by British Academy Special Research Grants: COVID-19 Awards. This British Academy funded-study brought together social scientists and health researchers interested in social and media aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project is apart of the Health Research Network for Migrant Workers in Asia and it is led by Dr. Pramod Regmi (Department of Nursing Sciences), Dr. Shovita Dhakal-Adhikari (Department of Social Sciences and Social Work), Dr. Nirmal Aryal (formerly Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences and soon to be appointed in the Department of Nursing Sciences), external collaborator Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti from the University of Huddersfield, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences).

 

Reference:

  1. Regmi, P., Dhakal Adhikari, S., Aryal, N., Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Fear, Stigma and Othering: The Impact of COVID-19 Rumours on Returnee Migrants and Muslim Populations of Nepal, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Accepted

RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR MRI STUDY

Have you ever wanted a picture of your brain?

We are looking for participants to take part in our MRI study,

examining memory and inhibition across adulthood.

We would like to hear from people between the ages of 20-35 or over the age of 60 years.

You would be asked to complete two tasks in the brain scanner.

REWARD: £20 Amazon Voucher

For more information please contact: mconstantinou@bournemouth.ac.uk

My Turing Scheme experience in Nepal

international, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Student Engagement

My name is Sulochana Dhakal-Rai. I am a final-year PhD student at Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). My PhD research is related to factors affecting the rising rate of CS in urban hospitals in Nepal. There are several reasons to choose BU to do PhD study. Firstly,  this university offers strong professional orientation with focus on academic excellence and employability to multinational students from multicultural background. Secondly, it provides opportunities to students for undertaking  different activities, for example – international student exchange programme. I am always keen to be involved in such types of activities for my personal and professional development.

I applied for Turing Scheme Fund to do research activities in Nepal. The application process was very easy. I had received positive support from my supervisors and team of international grants. I was delighted to participate in international mobility, because I had a chance not only  sharing my research experience to student and teachers at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS), Kathmandu, but also to do my own research activities (secondary data verification and analysis).

Although, it was hot weather, polluted and over-crowded  in Kathmandu, I enjoyed eating Nepali cuisine, meeting own people and speaking Nepali language. For me, there was not any problem in local language and culture. However, it was uncomfortable using public transport at times. I had suffered from of an episode of indigestion problem as well.

I loved meeting students and teachers of MMIHS. During my stay in MMIHS, I had the opportunity to share experience about my research study, using mixed methods in research study and my experience working as a foreign nurse in UK to relevant teachers and students. They were really good and inspiring people. I always received respect and support from them while I was there.

After this international activity, I have learnt how to work with people from different organisation and different place. I have developed my confidence in employability and career skills. I would like to express my thanks to Bournemouth University for providing me such a golden opportunity. I strongly recommend to other student at Bournemouth University to participate these kinds of international mobility programmes.

Sulochana Dhakal-Rai.

Training on the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping technique

A 3-day training on the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) technique has recently taken place, led by Dr Gonzalo Nápoles of Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Five BUBS academics belonging to the Digital Marketing Research Group participated in the training: Dr. Miguel Moital (organiser), Dr. Elvira Bolar (Leader of the group), Dr. Ediz Ackay, Dr. Danni Liang, and Dr. Kaouther Kooli. The training was funded by QR funds and was an opportunity to develop skills on a versatile and upcoming research technique, which is expected to be welcomed by high quality journals.

The FCM technique is a cause-effect relationship knowledge-based method for modelling complex decision-making systems of humans. It emerges from a combination of cognitive mapping and Fuzzy logic and artificial neural network, and this method is increasingly used in social sciences and humanities research. FCM is suitable to both data generated by the researcher as well as big data. The technique can be applied to a variety of research settings, such as consumer behaviour, organisational decision making and social/public policy decision-making.

Participants unanimously considered to have learned a lot over the three days. Dr Nápoles was able to explain the complexity of FCM principles in an accessible way, with engaging discussions taking place around how the technique can be used in social sciences / marketing research. Participants agreed that the ability of FCM to answer different research questions while enabling looking at the data in different ways opens up many opportunities for research. Plans for future collaboration with Dr. Nápoles at both individual and institutional level were discussed.

Dr Gonzalo Nápoles, from the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence), is a leading contributor to the development of the technique, having several publications on it. He is the lead developer of the FCM EXPERT software tool which can be used to carry out FCM analysis.

Registration open: NIHR Training Camp 2022 virtual event, Tuesday 5 July, 12.30 – 17.15

Funding opportunities, NHS

Dear Colleagues

The NIHR doctoral training camp is a 3 day annual face to face event providing guidance and practical experience on putting together a successful application for funding.
By attending the virtual sessions run during day 1 of the NIHR Doctoral Training Camp, you will have access to the introductory plenary talks.

The event will include presentations on:
● How to sell yourself when applying for funding
● How to sell your project when applying for funding
● Effective patient and public involvement
● What funding panels are looking for in applications

Please see flyer relating to the virtual element of the NIHR Training Camp – Virtual 2022.pptx

Registration for the free event is here: Home Page – NIHR Doctoral Research Training Camp – Virtual (cvent.com)

Please do circulate to anyone that you feel this may be useful for.

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU)

We can help with grant applications to National peer reviewed funders. 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.

New paper on Amazonian Dark Earths involving IMSET researchers

Publishing

Today, Nature Communications published a long-expected Matters Arising in response to a 2021 paper in the same journal: “A new hypothesis for the origin of Amazonian Dark Earths“. The new paper, involving more than 50 leading scholars involved in research on prehistoric Amazonia, affirms a human origin for the dark earths found throughout the central and eastern Amazon basin.

Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are distinguished by their exceptional fertility and richness of archaeological remains. Evidently produced by various kinds of human activity, including but not limited to manuring, rubbish deposition, and biomass burning, they are a distinctive feature of later indigenous settlement of the Amazon river basin.

The paper synthesises diverse archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and historic data to demonstrate the human origin of ADEs. Source: Lombardo et al. 2022

For more information see: Lombardo, U., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Schmidt, M. et al. Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths. Nat Commun 13, 3444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31064-2

British Academy Writing Workshop in Nepal: Call for participants

Awarded & submitted bids, conferences, international, Publishing, Training, Women's Academic Network, writing

We are inviting expressions of interest for Nepal-based academic with an interest in gender and development issue to participate in our Writing Workshop: “Promoting Publishing in the field of Gender and Development in Nepal”.  Bournemouth University is leading two separate three-day workshops for early career researchers (ECRs) working across various universities in Nepal to encourage and support them to publish in peer reviewed journals in the field of social sciences, in Kathmandu (from  17-19 August 2022), and in Pokhara (from  21-23 August 2022).  The funding for these exciting workshop is provided by the British Academy.

There will be a mixture of presentations, group discussion and other interactive exercises, and independent writing exercises. The workshop involves practical sessions to help attendees to make their research idea clear and compelling to reviewers, and finalise their papers for publications. One-to-one sessions with our expert advisers will allow attendees to work through different aspects of their own research papers, methods and ideas.

 

How to apply: If you are an ECR based in Nepal and have some idea (or/and data) to work towards publication in gender and development, then please send us:

  1. A short CV – 3 pages maximum;
  2. An abstract or summary of the proposed paper you wish to develop through the writing workshop- (300 words maximum) by 30thJune 2022.

Female ECRs are highly encouraged to apply. Please use Subject British Academy Writing Workshop 2022 and email to sdhakaladhikari@bournemouth.ac.uk,  with a copy to both: pregmi@bournemouth.ac.uk and rashmi.rajkarnikar@cdec.tu.edu.np . The faciliators will inform you about your selection for the workshop by the middle of July 2022.  Selected participants will be asked to to submit their first rough draft by 3rd August, so that this can be discussed further during the workshop (17-19 August 2022).

The Writing Workshop facilitators are three BU scholars, Dr Shovita Dhakal Adhikari, in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Department of Midwifery & Health Science in collaboration with Dr. Rashmee Rajkarnikar, at Nepal’s oldest and largest university, namely Tribhuvan University.