The Centre for Seldom Heard Voices is delighted to invite you to a special international guest lecture featuring social anthropological research on ‘pacing adult womanhood’ in precarious situations, here through the case study of young women’s situation in Kosovo. Dr Rozafa Berisha (Manchester/ Prishtina), currently visiting the social anthropology sister programme in the Social Science and Social Work department through our Erasmus+ K107 programme in partnership with University of Prishtina, Kosovo, will present her research on Thursday, 27th April, 15:00 to 17:00 in EB-206. All interested staff and students welcome! More details are available in this poster: Rozafa Berisha poster
Category / REF Subjects
BU PhD student publishes in The Conversation
Congratulations the Abier Hamidi, PhD student in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) whose PhD work was published in The Conversation this week (24 April) under the title Social media now trumps traditional family networks in Libya – my Facebook survey reached 446,000 women. Her piece in The Conversation on the recruitment of female participants for a PhD study in a rather patriarchal society brings together issues of anonymity, gender, and wider social culture.
This is Abier’s PhD research is supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health and the Global Engagement Lead in the Department of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Several BU papers at this week’s BNAC Nepal Study Days
The BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) twentieth Nepal Study Days (24-25 April) start today in Huddersfield. BU is directly represented through Dr. Pramod Regmi who will be presenting ‘Health Research Priorities and Needs in Migrant Health: A Review of Reviews’ today.
Dr. Regmi based in the Department of Nursing Sciences and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences are also part of the paper ‘Nepal Family Cohort Study: Starting a Longitudinal Population Health Study’ which will be presented by our colleague Dr. Om P. Kurmi from Coventry University.
There will also be a BU paper on ‘Perceptions Around Covid-19 and Vaccine Hesitancy: A Qualitative Study Among People Living in Kaski, Western Nepal’ , presented by Dr. Preeti Mahato. Preeti is based at Royal Holloway (University of London) and she is also a Visiting Faculty member of FHSS. She’ll presenting a study recently published in PLOS Global Public Health.
These Nepal Studies Days pay serious attention to our ongoing interdisciplinary study ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’ which was reported in several national newspapers in Nepal last week. Tomorrow there will be a plenary session by Prof. Simon Rushton, the PI on this project in which BU collaborates. He will be talking about ‘Nepal’s Health System During Federalisation: Emerging Issues and the Co-production of Policy and Practice Recommendations’. Later that day there will be two further presentations based on this large-scale study, the first one by Dr. Sharada P. Wasti followed by one delivered by Dr. Sujata Sapkota.
Extensive media coverage in Nepal last week
The interdisciplinary research project ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’ was reported in several national media in Nepal last week. This project running from 2020 to 2024 is, funded by the Health System Research Initiative, a UK collaboration between three funders: the MRC (Medical research Council), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the Welcome Trust.
The 2015 Constitution brought federalisation and with it, significant changes to the health system.
To understand these changes researchers worked in three provinces where they interviewed 243 stakeholders, at all three levels of government. They also conducted 31 Participatory Policy Analysis workshops at local and province levels. The team includes researchers from Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (Kathmandu), and PHASE Nepal (Bhaktapur), and three UK institutions (the Universities of Sheffield, Bournemouth, and Huddersfield). It researchers from the UK and Nepal meet with Provincial and Federal MPs to discuss the interim findings of a federalisation and health study.
News articles appeared in national newspapers in Nepal, both in English and Nepali. The Nepali article appeared in the country’s oldest newspaper Gorkhapali, see copy here! Bournemouth University [Thank you Nathaniel Hobby and Stephen Bates] also publicized our press release on this project online. The journalist Nam Raj Bhatta published an item in the online Nepali-language newspaper NepalHealthOnline on April 13. The main meeting to discuss the interim findings of our project took place on Thursday 13 April an hotel close Nepal’s parliament. The interim results highlight how federalisation of the political system has affected Nepal’s health care organisation. The research team summarized the findings for the invited MPs and local and provincial political leaders, and invited their reflections on the political possibilities and obstacles to moving forward with the development of the country’s health system. The Himalayan Times published the article on top of this BU Research Blog as well as the special interview with the University of Sheffield based PI Prof. Simon Rushton.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Double congratulations to Prof. Jonathan Parker
Congratulations to Prof. Jonathan Parker, Professor of Society & Social Welfare in the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work, who just published his historical-sociological analysis of British Welfare under the title Analysing the History of British Social Welfare – Compassion, Coercion and Beyond. The book it is published by Policy Press and will be available next week. This book offers insights into the development of social welfare policies in Britain. By identifying continuities in welfare policy, practice and thought throughout history, it offers the potential for the development of new thinking, policy making and practice.In addition Jonathan also published a new edition of his popular textbook Introducing Social Work SECOND EDITION. This edited volume included chapters by BU academics Dr. Orlanda Harvey (Chapter 26) and Dr. Sally Lee (Chapter 22) as well as an array of internationally renowned social work academics.
New publication Abier Hamadi, PhD student in FHSS
Congratulations to Abier Hamidi on the acceptance of her Ph.D. paper ‘Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review’. [1] This review has been registered on PROSPERO. [2] The Journal of Public Health is part of BU’s publishing deal with Springer, hence it will free open access when published.
Abier is supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health and the Global Engagement Lead in the Department of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). Earlier Abier published ‘HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps’ in 2021. [3]
References:
- Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review, Journal of Public Health, (accepted)
- Hamidi, A., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P. (2021) Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review. PROSPERO CRD42021297160
- Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps, Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, 20 :1-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/23259582211053964 .
BU-BCP collaborative initiative on sustainable urban parking

BU signs up to Jisc agreement with the American Psychological Association
BU authors can now publish OA for free in select journals with American Psychological Association. Read on to find out more!
Authors affiliated with UK institutions participating in APA’s Jisc agreement may publish open access in hybrid journals published by APA at no cost to the author, provided that:
- The article’s corresponding author is affiliated with a participating institution’s UK campus.
- The article is accepted after August 1, 2022.
- The article is an original peer-reviewed research article or review article.
All articles under this agreement will be published under the CC-BY copyright license. Upon publication, articles will be made immediately open access.
You can find further information on how to submit an article for consideration and other key information, such as maximum number of articles, here.
As a reminder, BU holds a number of agreements with key publishers, many of which allow you to publish open access for free. You can read more about them here.
If you have any queries, please contact the Open Access team.
Free webinar Wednesday 29th March: Developing capability and capacity – releasing nurses’ research potential
Free webinar: Developing capability and capacity – releasing nurses’ research potential
Registration is now open for a webinar placing the spotlight on the importance of nurse leadership in developing capacity and capability in research. Join Professor Mark Radford, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England, two experienced nurse researchers and a highly skilled nurse leader in the field of research and innovation, who will showcase initiatives and activity in support of developing research capability and capacity in nursing. Book your place: Developing capability and capacity – releasing nurses’ research potential Tickets, Wed 29 Mar 2023 at 15:00 | Eventbrite
HealthBus to present at Community Voices webinar Wednesday April 12th 12-1pm
This month’s Webinar welcomes Bels Wathen from HealthBus. The HealthBus Trust is a charity that provides accessible and appropriate healthcare to people experiencing homelessness in Bournemouth and the surrounding areas. The Trust operates a mobile, GP-led service in close relationship with a multidisciplinary team and other providers of homeless services.
Bels will share details about the HealthBus Trust, and her involvement in coordinating volunteers, managing projects and supporting the clinical team by taking the mobile clinic to designated sites across Bournemouth
Community voices is a collaboration between BU PIER partnership and Centre for Seldom Heard Voices to provide a platform and a voice to local community activists.
Please do join us for this webinar….
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 386 758 891 002
Passcode: kzfdY9
Download Teams | Join on the web
Online public lecture from BU academics this evening: Pioneering women at the BBC
For more than a century, the BBC has been a fixture of British cultural life. However, few people are aware of the key role played by women in its earliest days.
The next event in our online public lecture series will showcase the pioneering women of the BBC – from female producers through to the engineers, broadcasters and managers who carried the BBC through the Second World War and beyond.
The free event will take place online from 7pm – 8.30pm on Thursday 23 March.
Dr Kate Terkanian and Dr Kate Murphy – from the Faculty of Media and Communication – will share stories uncovered by their research into women in the BBC, from the 1920s up to the 1950s.
There will also be the opportunity for audience questions.
The event takes place during Women’s History Month, which this year is celebrating ‘The Women Who Tell Our Stories’, encouraging recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling.
It is the third event in BU’s 2022/23 online public lecture series, which showcases our research and expertise across key areas. The first lecture series attracted more than 1,000 attendees from across the world.
A global health journal with a diverse editorial board
A recent study of 43 journals in the global health field found that PLOS Global Public Health has the joint highest diversity index, whilst also recording the maximum geographic diversity score! [1] The paper by a team from Pakistan and Canada addressed the question: “What is the current state of ethics of diversity and representation in global health publications?” In order to be able to answer this question they developed their own Journal Diversity Index (JDI) to measure three parameters of diversity and representation, namely gender, geographic & socioeconomic status. 
The fact that PLOS Global Public Health came out top is good news for the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) as we published a paper in this journal last month. [2] Our qualitative paper ‘Perceptions around COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: A qualitative study in Kaski district, Western Nepal’ comprises 19 interviews in the city of Pokhara and its surrounding rural areas.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
- Manan, M.R., Nawaz, I., Rahman, S. et al. (2023). Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Editorial Boards of Global Health Journals. Asian Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-023-00243-8
- Mahato P., Adhikari B., Marahatta S.B., Bhusal S., Kunwar K., Yadav R.K., Baral, S., Adhikari, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2023). Perceptions around COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: A qualitative study in Kaski district, Western Nepal. PLOS Global Public Health 3(2): e0000564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000564
Establishing an evidence-based centre in Nepal
A team of Nepal and UK-based researchers are in the process of setting up a National Evidence Synthesis Centre under supervision of the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC). Recently, we published a paper [1] setting out our arguments on why such a centre is important for a low-income country like Nepal. This centre needs to be responsible for synthesizing evidence specifically relevant to Nepal, as well as producing actionable messages for evidence-informed decision-making.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (CMMPH)
&
Prof. Padam Simkhada, University of Huddersfield and Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University
References:
-
Simkhada, P., Dhimal, M., van Teijlingen, E., Gyanwali, P. (2022) Nepal Urgently Needs a National Evidence Synthesis Centre, Journal of Nepal Health Research Council, 20 (3): i-ii.
Applying FUSION in Bangladesh
Late in 2022 we started a new interdisciplinary study funded by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The research aims to reduce the deaths of newly-mobile toddlers from drowning in rural Bangladesh. This project called Sonamoni is being co-ordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, the Poole-based Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB).
In Bangladesh, drowning is the leading cause of death in children between one and two years old. This low-income country has one of the highest rates of drowning, especially among children in the world. The risk of drowning in rural areas is twice that in cities, because there are significant numbers of ponds and ditches, creating natural drowning hazards for very young children. CIPRB has implemented several effective drowning prevention solutions focused on children over the past 15 years, including a successful daycare model to keep young children safely away from water. However, enrollment and attendance rates for children under two years (those at the highest risk of accidental drowning) have been low.
The team will be working with communities to apply human-centred design techniques in Bangladesh. Together they will identify and prioritise potential solutions, develop prototype interventions, and assess the acceptability and usability of proposed interventions.
This research is an excellent example of BU’s FUSION. BU endeavours to bring together Research, Education and Practice to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts. FUSION is central to our Bangladesh project, the Research is focusing on social sciences and public health, the Education is around health education of people in rural communities as well as training of the research team members, whilst Practice will be the outcome of the human-centred design approach, when we test the best interventions. 
The £1.6m project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the NIHR through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website. NIHR uses aid from the UK government to support global health research.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)
Would you like to get more involved in preparing our next REF submission?
We are currently recruiting to a number of roles to help support preparation for our next REF submission. The deadline for expressions of interest is the 30th March 2023.
Further information is outlined below…
The roles are recruited through an open and transparent process, which gives all academic staff the opportunity to put themselves forward. Applications from underrepresented groups (e.g. minority ethnic, declared disability) are particularly welcome.
We are currently preparing submissions to thirteen units (otherwise known as UOAs). Each unit has a leadership team with at least one leader, an output and impact champion. The leadership team are supported by a panel of reviewers who assess the research from the unit. This includes research outputs (journal articles, book chapters, digital artefacts and conference proceedings) and impact case studies.
We currently have vacancies in the following roles:
Impact Champion –
17 – Business and Management Studies
Review Panel Members –
14 – Geography and Environmental Studies
32 – Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory (Academic year 2023/24 onwards)
All roles require a level of commitment which is recognised accordingly with time to review, attend meetings, and take responsibility for tasks.
Undertaking a UOA role can be enjoyable and rewarding as two of our current champions testify:
“As UOA Outputs Champion you develop a detailed knowledge of all the great work that colleagues are doing related to the subject, and the different outlets used for disseminating their work. As an outputs committee member, you also get to know what research is going on across BU, and it’s interesting to see the differences between disciplines. It’s a good way develop your knowledge of the bigger picture of BU’s research, and also to understand the importance of REF and how it works in practice. You do spend quite a bit of time chasing colleagues to put their outputs on BRIAN for REF compliance but hopefully they forgive you!”
Professor Adele Ladkin – UOA 24 Output Champion
“As a UoA 17 impact champion, I work closely with the UoA 17 impact team to encourage the development of a culture of impact across BUBS. I try to pop into Department / research group meetings when I can to discuss impact, and I’ve enjoyed meeting people with a whole range of research interests. Sometimes it can be tough to engage people with impact – understandably; everyone is busy – so it’s important to be enthusiastic about the need for our BU research to reach the public. Overall, the role is about planting the seeds to get researchers thinking about the impact their work might have in the future (as well as the impact they have already had, sometimes without realising!)”
Dr Rafaelle Nicholson – UOA 17 Impact Champion
How to apply
All those interested should put forward a short case (suggested length of one paragraph) as to why they are interested in the role and what they think they could bring to it. These should be clearly marked with the relevant role and unit and emailed to ref@bournemouth.ac.uk by 30th March 2023.
Further detail on the roles, the process of recruitment and selection criteria can be found here:
| UOA Leader | Output Champion | Impact Champion | Panel Reviewer |
| Role Descriptor | Role Descriptor | Role Descriptor | Role Descriptor |
| Process and criteria for selection | Process and criteria for selection | Process and criteria for selection | Process and criteria for selection |
For further information please contact ref@bournemouth.ac.uk, a member of current UOA Team or your Deputy Dean Research and Professional Practice with queries.
Setting up a longitudinal health & lifestyle study in Nepal
The Nepal Family Cohort Study (NeFCoS) is a multidisciplinary cohort study into the prevalence, incidence, and determinants of various diseases from childhood to adulthood in children and their parents for over two decades. NeFCoS is a longitudinal study which recently started collecting health and well-being data, and which will collect data repeatedly from the same individuals at certain intervals for years to come. Our primary focus is understanding the multiple risk factors of health conditions in children and their families, early diagnosis of diseases, and prevention and management of diseases through effective intervention. The team aims to this by examining associations between exposure to known or suspected causes of disease, so-called risk factors and subsequent morbidity and mortality.
Our large international team is led by Dr. Om Kurmi, Associate Professor and Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiologist at Coventry University in the UK, and associated with McMaster University, Canada. The Bournemouth University team comprises Dr. Pramod Regmi (Senior Lecturer in International Health), Dr. Edwin van Teijlingen (Professor of Reproductive Health), and Dr. Vanora Hundley (Professor of Midwifery).
The team is currently recruiting six-to-nine-year-old children and their parents who have provided written consent to participate. The parents offer information on socio-demographics, lifestyle factors, dietary habits, occupational history, educational history, environmental conditions at home and outside, physical activities and any diseases they or their children have had since birth. They also undergo a series of measurements such as lung function, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, hand-grip strength, anthropometry, body fat percentage, muscle mass, body water content and skin-fold thickness as an indirect measure for malnutrition. The study is also measuring eleven different parameters in spot urine samples semi-quantitatively and plan to collect the biological specimen in future follow-ups studies. The study is currently being conducted in two regions of Nepal in the south, the Terai and in the more central hill part of the country, with plans to expand to extend to other provinces of Nepal in the future.
The baseline study is ongoing. So far, the team has collected over 4250 participants’ data from both study sites. We plan to complete the baseline data by the end of December 2023 with about 15,000 participants from the two regions. Our study is urgently needed in Nepal as it will provide valuable information for evidence-based decision-making regarding disease prevention and management along with changing policy.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi for his appointment this month as Visiting Faculty at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS). Dr. Regmi is Senior Lecturer in International Health as well as Global Engagement Lead in the Department of Nursing Sciences. He is also REF Outputs Champion for Unit of Assessment 3 ‘Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing, Midwifery & Pharmacy’. 
Bournemouth University has currently a staff-student exchange with MMIHS which is funded under the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. Whilst BU and MMIHS also have a partnership agreement which we are currently in the process of renewing.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
Second INRC Symposium: New Frontiers in Neuroscience -Neuroimaging and Integrative Multi-Sensing Methods
Recent advances in neuroimaging, accompanying the coalescence of multiple neurophysiological registration modalities in virtual reality settings, are experiencing a substantial growth in brain research. These developments in experimental and analytical approaches to probe the human brain, open exciting avenues for novel applications in e.g., health, media industries, education, sport, art, or tourism. This topic was the focus of the second symposium of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre , which took place on the last 16th of January at the Inspire Lecture Theatre on Talbot Campus.
The symposium, entitled “New Frontiers in Neuroscience: Neuroimaging and Integrative Multi-Sensing Methods” concentrated on these two linking themes from a cross-disciplinary angle, leveraging synergies between BU departments, collaborators in other universities, industry, charities, and at the NHS.
The event started with a fascinating talk by Mavi Sanchez-Vives (Biomedical Research Institute IDIBAPS, Barcelona), Leader of the Human Brain Project work-package entitled “Networks underlying brain cognition and consciousness”.

Prof Fred Charles presenting at the 2nd INRC Symposium.
Next, our first session revolved around the integration of multi-sensing methodologies and their industrial applications. In this focused session, we enjoyed three exciting talks, the opening one by Prof. Fred Charles (BU) on multimodal immersive neuro-sensing approaches; followed by Dr. Ifigeneia Mavridou (EmteqLabs), who discussed her appealing research of affective responses to VR environments. Finally, Dr. Federica Degno (BU) showed us her avant-garde work on co-registration of eye movements and EEG recordings.
The second session, centred on neuroimaging recordings in clinical neuroscience, was opened by Dr. Ruth Williamson (Deputy Chief Medical Officer, University Hospitals Dorset), who presented her multidisciplinary study of the effect of cold-water immersion on brain function, inspiring a stimulating debate on its clinical applications. The symposium concluded with Prof. Carol Clark’s (BU) very interesting talk on mapping brain structure, function and cognition in women engaged in sporting activities.
After the symposium, we had two follow-up activities in the afternoon: first a seminar, sponsored by the Department of Psychology and the MINE research cluster, by Dr. Benjamin Schöene (Universität Osnabrück), who debated the novel perspectives that VR offers in psychological research; followed by a visit to the Multimodal Immersive Neuro-sensing lab for natural neuro-behavioural measurement (MINE), led by Dr Xun He .
All of us in the INRC would like to thank very much the attendants to the symposium, and a huge thanks to the speakers for accepting our invitation, and for their compelling talks.
For colleagues who could not make it, the two thematic sessions were recorded, and can be accesed on this link. If you are interest in getting in touch, contributing or joining the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre, please do not hesitate to contact Ellen Seiss, (eseiss@bourenmouth.ac.uk) or Emili Balaguer-Ballester (eb-ballester@bournemouth.ac.uk).
Thank you again for your interest, and we are looking forward to seeing you in our next activities.
Kind regards,
Ellen and Emili on behalf of all of us at the INRC














Nursing Research REF Impact in Nepal
Fourth INRC Symposium: From Clinical Applications to Neuro-Inspired Computation
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025 – Reflecting back and looking ahead to 2026
3C Event: Research Culture, Community & Cookies – Tuesday 13 January 10-11am
Dr. Chloe Casey on Sky News
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Application Deadline Friday 12 December
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease