Category / Health, Wellbeing & Society

26 September 2015

FOOD HARVESTING FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Awarded & submitted bids Edwin van Teijlingen

Researchers from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Fotini Tsofliou, Angela Turner-Wilson, Anne Mills and Juliet Wiseman, working in collaboration with Sarah Watson (Sustainable Food City Partnership) received a Grants Academy Pilot Scheme Award from BU. This funding has enabled us to undertake some exciting new work in the field of Community Food Programmes (CFP). These are widely used services that support people to access food. However at present there is little information from the users on the role of CFPs in building the capacity of the community towards healthy eating.

Focus groups provided fascinating insights into people’s views around food growing in the community. For example, participants said:

“it’s (community gardens) really good for your mental health, your physical health, growing things and for the children as well ‘cos a lot of children think peas come from a pan or from the freezer.”

“they (children ) enjoyed harvesting.”

“yes and they’ve (children ) learnt they can and they’ve eaten them”

“if it brings people together kids take ownership of it”

Work continues with gaining understandings of the role of cooking classes and lunch clubs in relation to community’s health and wellbeing.

25 September 2015

Go Team BU in Sports England Hackathon!

BU Challenges cfarrance

Ever heard of a hackathon? Nope, neither had I until a few weeks ago. Wikipedia reliably informs me that a hackathon is a “portmanteau of the words “hack” and “marathon”, where “hack” is used in the sense of exploratory programming”.

The challenge is to create an app that facilitates social change through sport at the Sport England Sport Technology Awards Hackathon. It will take place over 25 hours on 2-3 October 2015 during which time teams will have just 24 hours to develop their concept that will help a particular demographic group become more physically active.

The winning team will be awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.

Our Team BU will be a collaborative effort across BU departments and services. We have five on our team so far:

Erika Borkoles, Sport and Exercise Psychologist from the Department of Sport and Physical Activity
Barry Squires, the Business and Partnerships Manager from SportBU
Chi Zhang a Postgraduate Researcher from Faculty of Science and Technology
Sarah Collard, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
Clare Farrance, Postgraduate Researcher from Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

Chi will be our star programmer with the rest of us supporting the conceptual and design elements.

We still have space for one more on our team. We’re particularly keen to find another programmer or anyone with skills in graphics design. Staff or students are welcome. If you’re interested please get in touch with Clare at: cfarrance@bournemouth.ac.uk

Wish us luck next week!

25 September 2015

Sustainable Development Goals summit today in New York

Edwin van Teijlingen

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) summit is being held today in New York. As part of this summit the pope will address the United Nations in NY as will Bill and Melinda Gates who run the largest private philantropic organisation in the world. The key underlying principles of the SDGs are: (a) reducing (or eradicating) poverty eradication; (b) changing unsustainable and promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production; and (c) protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development. The seventeen SDGs are outlined in Table 1.

Table 1 Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 1	End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2	End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3	Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4	Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5	Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6	Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7	Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Goal 8	Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9	Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10	Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11	Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 12	Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13	Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
Goal 14	Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Goal 15	Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16	Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Goal 17	Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

The SDGs replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) formally from today onwards. Key questions to be asked by researchers (and policy makers) include: (a) how are these SDGs different from the MDGs in their effect on international development?; (b) How successful will the SDGs be?, including the question: What do we define as success?; and (c) How useful were the MDGs, in which countries and for whom? These are ‘big’ system level questions, for those of use working in the field of maternity care more specific questions to address would be around priority settting. As reducing maternal mortality was one of the eight MDGs, i.e. recognised as an individual goal or target, but in the SDGs maternal health will fall under the overarching heading of Goals 3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. As health is only one of 17 SDGs and maternal health fits in with all other aspects of the lifespan does this mean maternal health has become less of a priority? Of course only time and plenty of good research will tell.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

23 September 2015

Assistive Music Technology

PG research djohn

We would like to invite you to the first research seminar of new academic year for the Creative Technology Research Centre.

Speaker: Asha Blatherwick

Title: Assistive Music Technology

Date: Wednesday 30^th September 2015

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

Abstract: Music is essential to most of us. It can light up all areas of the brain and help to develop skills with communication and establishing identity. People use musical experiences to create meaning and coherence in states and times of adversity using its transformative properties. Music can be explored actively by playing instruments, or passively, such as listening to music and can be used to enter a state of flow.

Exploring music actively in this way can be restricted for someone with cognitive, physical, or sensory impairments. The barriers they face may cause gaps between their musical gestures and the music making means available to them. Using technology, we can bridge these gaps by focusing on a person’s capability to create personal instruments that allow for active music making and exploration of sound. Technology can be used to turn tiny movements into huge sounds and tangible user interfaces can be used to investigate the relationship between the physical and digital world, leading to new modes of interaction.

My research will take an Action Research approach to create bespoke tangible tools that combine hardware and software, allowing users to create and explore sound using their capabilities in a participatory way.

We hope to see you there.

17 September 2015

Joint project with Tribhuvan University

Awarded & submitted bids, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Today I attended a contract-signing meeting at the Department of Health, Physical and Population Education at Nepal’s oldest university, Tribhuvan University (TU).

BU, TU and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have been awarded a Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) grant for health partnerships to carry out training and capacity-building projects in low-income countries, such as Nepal.

The new BU-led THET project will bring highly experienced UK volunteers to train some 100 maternity care providers, such as Auxiliary Health Workers (AHWs) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) about the key mental health issues in pregnancy and in the months after birth. A local charity Green Tara Nepal (GTN) will support the work through some of the curriculum design, sensitising UK volunteers to live in rural Nepal, assisting in translating, as well as helping to recruit the local health workers. The two UK universities have a long history of working with GTN as well as its sister organisation Green Tara Trust (GTT), a Buddhist charity based in London. The new project will be based in Nawalparasi in the sub-tropical part of the country bordering India. The target population consists of grassroot health care practitioners since there are no doctors in these rural villages.

The pictures accompanying this post illustrate the inequalities and the mix of modern and traditional in Kathmandu today. The city crowded with motorbikes and then occasionnally one sees a couple cows been driven through these busy streets. The green house is in the street in front of where I am staying and the shanty town building are the backdoor neighbours. The picture with text is the price-list ourside the main infectious diseases hospital informing patients about the costs of certain treatments, tests and drugs. A reminder that health care might be free in name for the poorest people, there are still many costs involved in gettiong treated in hospital!

This project is supported by the Tropical Health & Education Trust (THET) as part of the Health Partnership Scheme, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The following people make up the international project team: Edwin van Teijlingen, Padam Simkhada, Bhimsen Devkota, Padmadharini Fanning, Jillian Ireland, Bibha Simkhada, Lokendra Sherchan, Ram Chandra Silwal, Samridhi Pradhan, Shyam K. Maharjan, Ram K. Maharjan

14 September 2015

Systematic review training to dentistry students at Kantipur Dental College, Nepal

Knowledge Transfer, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week I was invited by a Nepalese colleague to do an introductory lecture on systematic reviews. We have conducting various training sessions over the years in Nepal (with BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada) and in the UK. At Bournemouth University Prof. Vanora Hundley and I have conducted several two-day Master Classes over the past few years we are currently preparing for the next one in early 2016 (15-16 Feb.).

This morning I run this introductory session at Kantipur Dental College in Kathmandu. The session resulted in an interesting set of questions and comments from both staff and students.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

14 September 2015

World Federation of Chiropractic Conference, Athens May 2015

PG research jbranney

From May 13-16th 2015 I had the pleasure of representing BU at the joint World Federation of Chiropractic 13th Biennial Congress/European Chiropractors’ Union Convention in Athens. This is the premiere conference within the chiropractic profession which attracts hundreds of clinicians and researchers from around the world. The Congress was entitled ‘The Alpha and Omega of Spinal Healthcare’ in deference to the historical links with the host country as Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, utilised methods of spinal manipulation.

First up in my session - cool as a cucumber...

First up in my session at Hilton Athens – cool as a cucumber (also thinking, “Maybe I’ll get to present in the big fancy hall next time…?”)

I enjoyed finding out about the latest understanding of spine biomechanics and how this might relate to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with spine conditions, as well as networking with researchers with international reputations in the musculoskeletal field. During my platform presentation I presented work on the measurement of inter-vertebral motion in the cervical spine (neck) that I did as part of my PhD last year at the Institute of Musculoskeletal Research & Clinical Implementation based at AECC, a partner college of BU. The abstract was published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine I will be following this up with a paper for publication in the near future. Please don’t hesistate to contact me if this is a research area that you are interested in.

Away from the conference I enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful and historic city of Athens where I enjoyed the freshest fruit and vegetables I’ve ever tasted. The top of Mount Lykavittus (Lofos Lykavittou) provided the most amazing panoramic views – and I could even see the Parthenon from my hotel balcony!

Mount Lykavittus, Athens

It was an interesting time, to say the least, to be in Athens. I was expecting there to be protests, particularly around the parliament building, but our visit seemed to coincide with a period of calm, certainly in the area of Athens surrounding the conference hotel. Since then there have obviously been continuing problems for the area from which arose Western culture and philosophy, and the least I can say is that I sincerely hope that things improve soon for present-day Greece.

Statue in Panatheniak stadium, Athens

14 September 2015

Education / learning research at BU – UoA25 call

REF Subjects, Research assessment jmcdougall

The Learning Research Group, convened by CEL and CEMP, is now in the first stages of more formal planning for the REF submission under the Unit of Assessment for Education (UoA25).

In order to plan strategically for the allocation of development funds and for the development of Environment and Impact, colleagues across BU who wish to be included in the provisional REF ‘team’ for UoA25 should, by the end of September, return an updated research plan: UoA 25 Researcher plan Update Sept 15 to Julian McDougall, UoA25 lead.

9 September 2015

Your most popular paper this week was ….

BRIAN, Publishing, Research themes, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

Every week I receive an email telling me what my most accessed paper is on Academia.edu. As a research-active academic I would like this ‘top paper’ to be one of my research papers based on primary research or perhaps a systematic review. My second preference is that I would like it to be one of my few more theoretical papers and, if not that, then at least one of many methods papers I have published with colleagues over the past decade. But no, every single week a fairly basic ‘how-to-do’ paper is my most accessed paper. This week’s message is typical: “Your most popular paper for the week was Writing an academic paper for publication, which had 142 views.”

This how-to-write-an-academic editorial has been my most read paper for months now. It is a paper Prof. Vanora Hundley, Prof. Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University & BU Visiting Faculty) and I wrote in an attempt to help budding academics and postgraduate students in a low-income country to think about the process of drafting and writing a scientific paper.

Perhaps this paper is popular because there is a global need for it (Academia.edu also gives break down from where in the world the paper has been accessed). It is also possible that it is on course reading list or perhaps it is recommended on webpage somewhere. The paper is,of course, Open-Access which helps in terms of providing more people across the globe easy and free access!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2013) Writing an academic paper for publication, Health Renaissance 11(1): 1-5. healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Pp_1_5_Guest_Editorial.pdf

7 September 2015

American Sociological Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Puts Romance, Internet Dating and Relationships Center-Stage

Fusion, Women's Academic Network Lisa Andrews

By Professor Ann Brooks

The American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Conference in August, set against the stunning backdrop of the city of Chicago and Lake Ontario, and the socio-cultural earthquakes of Ashley Madison and the political challenges of Donald Trump proved to be even more dynamic than usual. The theme this year was Sexualities in the Social World and attracted hundreds of iconic figures from the sociological world and global sociologists more generally. Iconic figures such as Sasskia Sassen, Sylvia Walby, Anne Swidler, Eva Illouz, Judy Wajcman, Eric Kleinenberg, Robert Sampson, Lynne Jamieson and many many more ….. a veritable whos who in the contemporary world of sociology, presented and contributed enormously to this major conference in sociology.

Plenary sessions included: The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage: Public Opinion and the Courts; Modern Romance: Dating, Mating and Marriage; The Rise of Nonmarital Births; Internet Dating; Abortion in America; and in addition a huge range of Presidental (ASA) Panels included : Birth Control in America; Women on the Battlefield: Integrating Women into the U.S. Military; Aging and Sexuality; Cohabitation; and many many more.

I chose sessions to reinforce the new undergraduate course I am offering in Sem 2, 2015-6 entitled Love and Intimacy in Contemporary Society and these major Plenary sessions did not disappoint. In fact they turned out to be real highpoints of the conference. A packed Saturday evening Plenary Panel entitled Romance Matters included Eric Kleinenberg (NYU), Azis Ansari (Comedian, Author, and TV Presenter), Helen Fisher (Rutgers, psychotherapist and Consultant to match.com), Christain Rudder (Ok Cupid) and Eli Finkel (Northwestern) enthralled the audience with serious and amusing presentations. This was followed by the signing of the Anzari and Kleinenberg new book …Romance Matters. I have to say the students will really enjoy this bringing together of research and teaching.

I convened a session on Gender, Sexuality and Work with 5 excellent papers, many of which are being published within books or journals.

The Presidential address by Paula England looked at the Changing Nature of Sexuality and and a further Presidential Panel looked at the advantages and disadvantages of Internet Dating also as an evening Keynote panel.

A truly inspiring conference with significant relevance for my new BU course. Thank you BU and HSS for supporting this.

Professor Ann Brooks September 7, 2015

4 September 2015

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

Research Ethics swincewicz

Emily Rosenorn-Lanng Research Assistant

Rebecca Johnson Research Assistant

Sarah Wincewicz Research Admin Assistant

Financial scamming is costing the UK public approximately £3.5 billion each year. It is a problem which has developed in recent years and has hit the press because of the relationship with charity mugging, or ‘chugging’ (charities coercing people to give money). Although both scamming and ‘chugging’ result in the coercion of money from donors, they differ in approach, perception and legality. Having a charity connection gives ‘chuggers’ a sense of morality, which gives them a sense of legality, allowing them to tug on the heartstrings of consumers and persuade them, sometimes by intimidation, to part with money. Once a donation has been made, and details have been obtained, charities feel they have the right to regularly hound their donors for further contributions, and have recently been discovered to sell their details on to non-charitable organisations.

The Daily Mail’s investigation into the story of former Army Colonel, Mr Rae, highlights the relationship between scamming and ‘chugging’. Charities who acquired Mr Rae’s personal details sold them up to 200 times to other charities and list brokers who then passed them to scammers who deceived £4,000 from him.

To what extent is it a problem?

The following figures, specific to Mr Rae, demonstrate the relationship that ‘chugging’ has with scamming:

The alarming figures demonstrate the impact of this relationship and raise plenty of questions. How valuable is personal information to a charity? Why are charities selling personal information to non-charities? Where are the moral boundaries in this? What part do charities play in the scamming of vulnerable people?

What are we doing about it?

Here at the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice we are working with Trading Standards to tackle scamming and chugging. To do this we are looking into:

Early intervention
The cost to victims and the knock on effect of being scammed
Developing a sophisticated profile for a potential victim, allowing the creation of ethical mailing lists that charities and public bodies could use
Reviewing the understanding of the Data Protection Act to make it potentially easier to remove people from databases (mail, telesales and charity approach) for the most vulnerable
Developing good practice guides and advice for professionals working in this field and for vulnerable citizens and their families/carers.

We recognise that this will all take time, but there are steps that you can take today. You can help protect the most vulnerable members of society from this sort of exploitation. How? Have that conversation with Mum, Dad, Nan, Grandad, Aunt or an elderly neighbour. Keep an eye out for scam mail and an ear out for scam phone calls. Make them aware they have a choice as to whether to respond or not, or whether to donate or not.

Most of all, make sure they are not lonely. Time and time again, we hear how loneliness is a key factor in chugging and scamming. If we can ensure our friends and family are not so lonely, then we may be able to ensure they are less vulnerable.

1 September 2015

Hackathon Challenge – It’s not too late!

cfarrance

I’m still trying to get a team together for the UK’s first sport hackathon. The challenge is to create an app that facilitates social change through sport at the Sport England Sport Technology Awards Hackathon. It will take place over 25 hours on 2-3 October 2015 (3pm start on the Friday) during which time teams will have just 24 hours to develop their concept that will help a particular demographic group become more physically active.

The winning team will be awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.

If you’re interested can you please get in touch with me, Clare at: cfarrance@bournemouth.ac.uk

Team registration closes on 7^th September. Would be great to have a BU team there!

More details can be found at:

http://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/news/06-08-2015/uk%E2%80%99s-first-sports-hackathon-launches

25 August 2015

Fusion Investment Fund: International approaches to the investigation of juvenile crime – a comparative analysis to inform UK policy.

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund llaver

Thanks to Fusion Investment Funding, the developing Forensic Psychology group in SciTech will be working on an international project aimed at improving the UK’s management of child suspects of crime.

Of the 1 million arrests for criminal offences in the UK each year, around 12% are of children aged 10-17 (Youth Justice Annual Statistics: 2013/2014, Ministry of Justice). Most of these 126,809 juvenile arrests are followed by a police interview. Evidence taken from these interviews contributes to charging, prosecution and custody decisions for young people and plays a role in nearly 100,000 juvenile convictions and cautions a year. The police interview therefore plays a substantial role in a child’s criminal record, future inclusion in the criminal justice system and long-term well-being. However, there is little research or guidance informing the interview process for child suspects of crime. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) recognise that children have differing needs from adults when involved in criminal proceedings. However, most ‘Special Measures’ and interview guidance for children in the UK legal system pertains only to child witnesses or victims of crime.

A large body of psychological research into the communication abilities of child witnesses has indicated that children have different needs from adults in interviews because of their underdeveloped cognitive skills (such as decreased resistance to suggestion and difficulties with timeline recall). These findings form the basis of the Home Office (2007, 2011) ‘Achieving Best Evidence’ guidelines, which provide police with step-by-step instructions on interviewing child witnesses in accordance with their specific vulnerabilities. The guidance serves to ensure that evidence taken from child witness interviews is reliable enough for fair use in court. Child suspect interviews, however, are not considered by the guidance, despite juvenile arrestees being at higher risk of cognitive delays.

Young offenders have been shown to have increasingly delayed neuro and socio-cognitive development in comparison to their non-offending peers, leading to deficits in inhibition, attention, time-perception, perspective-taking and interpersonal abilities (Al-Attar, 2010). These additional developmental delays mean that the established age-related difficulties experienced by children in interview are likely to be greatly exaggerated in suspects. Without additional precautions to account for these extended (but often well-hidden) difficulties, evidence from child suspect interviews can be inaccurate or misleading, resulting in the potential for serious miscarriages of justice. With a suspect’s testimony often being key to their own prosecution, its reliability as evidence is central to a fair trial – a basic human right.

Working with policy makers in the UK, Norway, Belgium, Singapore and Israel, BU will initiate development of child suspect interview guidelines and work with the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group to improve management of child suspects worldwide.

Please contact Lesley Laver if you would like to learn more or get involved with this project.

23 August 2015

BU PhD student publishes in Huffington Post

PG research, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

From Aspirations to Reality: How to Effectively Measure the Sustainable Development Goals

PhD student Ms. Sheetal Sharma in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) published an article in online newspaper The Huffington Post this week. In the article argues in order that the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved in 2030 we set out clear he measurable guidelines and targets as well as mechanisms to facilitate that measurement. The measuring progress in itself is important as transparent measurement stimulates a culture of accountability.

With co-authors Prof. Zoë Matthews and Dr. Sylvia Szabo both from the University of Southampton, Sheetal argues that we need a Call to Action. Now is not the time for weakness, neither in the implementation nor in tracking technical progress. They state: “We cannot be conservative in our measurement of progress in the post-2015 agenda. The measurement framework must empower the implementation of the SDGs and improve equity, welfare and environment for all for greatest and most inclusive developmental impact.”

The proposed two-track SDG indicator framework for 2030:
• Track 1 could monitor political goals (about 30 impact indicators) to assess overall progress regionally and globally.
• Track 2 could include a larger number of technical indicators to measure the means of implementation or processes towards each goal (300 indicators, or more).

Sheetal Sharma is currently writing up her PhD thesis on issues around evaluation of a maternity care intervention in Nepal. She has submitted several papers based on her PhD work for publications. Her PhD supervisory team comprises professors Vanora Hundley, Padam Simkhada (BU Visiting Faculty) & Edwin van Teijlingen and doctors Catherine Angell & Elisa Sicuri (BU Visiting Faculty).

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Twitter: @EvanTeijlingen

Follow Sheetal Sharma on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sheetale

20 August 2015

Sports England Hackathon Challenge!

cfarrance

I’m trying to get a team of six together for the UK’s first sport hackathon. The challenge is to create an app that facilitates social change through sport at the Sport England Sport Technology Awards Hackathon. It will take place over 25 hours on 2-3 October 2015 during which time teams will have just 24 hours to develop their concept that will help a particular demographic group become more physically active.

The winning team will be awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.

If you’re interested can you please get in touch with me, Clare at: cfarrance@bournemouth.ac.uk

Team registration closes on 7^th September. Would be great to have a BU team there!

More details can be found at:

http://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/news/06-08-2015/uk%E2%80%99s-first-sports-hackathon-launches

20 August 2015

Fusion Investment Fund: Neuroscience has found that emotions are a primary factor in learning to change behaviour: A project to apply and study these findings in many areas of practice (for example, public health, sports science, youth work, neurological rehabilitation, special education, and potentially many others).

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund scarter

We were very fortunate to receive Fusion funding for our collaboration between colleagues and students in Health and Social Sciences, Sports Science, and a variety of external practice partners. Essentially the funding will enable us to obtain psychophysiological recording equipment to be used to measure emotional responses in a wide variety of learning and training settings. Below is a screenshot of a typical recording from this kind of equipment.

Huge progress has been made over the last couple of decades in our understanding of emotion and feelings. A compelling conclusion from this enormous body of work is the primacy of emotion in how we operate in the world. Darwin knew this, as did Freud, but many still cling to the notion of the achievements of homo sapiens (“wise man”!) as founded on cognition and rational thinking. For them, feelings are a vestigial remnant of our evolutionary past, not dissimilar to the appendix – no longer having any purpose, and also potentially a threat to our well being.

Affective neuroscience completely opposes this so-called rational approach: emotions and feelings guided our survival in our evolutionary past, but the big news is that they still do! Accumulations of theory and research from fields such as affective neuroscience, positive psychology, and health psychology support this simple but crucial switch in emphasis. Some everyday practice reveals the primacy of emotion, for example emotionally skilled doctors tend to bring about better health outcomes for their patients, children are taught to pay attention to their ‘uh oh’ signs (involuntary emotional responses of sweaty palms and heart beating faster) to keep them safe. So emotions are not the redundant and fickle “appendix” of our behavioural systems, but in fact are their driving force.

Despite an array of pragmatic findings about the way emotions and feelings work, this largely ‘pure’ body of neuroscience has not been directly applied to any particular field of practice. This project aims to correct that omission. The applications of affective science to how we learn and change our behaviour are potentially enormous, as the physiological emotional measures offer a straightforward ‘window’ into the person’s emotional responses.

The Fusion funding enables us to build on one of the applications, through running a study developing a previous pilot. This will be based on a form of training using natural horsemanship that has been demonstrated to be very successful in behaviour change for young offenders and young people who do not engage with school. This is an example of what it looks like (thanks to TheHorseCourse for the picture):

The equipment, and experience gained through carrying out the initial study, will also allow for projects with other practice partners to go ahead, for example, work with people with acquired brain injuries, and children with profound learning disabilities. If any of this interests you, please get in touch with Sid Carter or Emma Kavanagh, and we’d be glad to tell you more.

14 August 2015

Latest Funding Opportunities!

Funding opportunities, Public engagement nprajapati

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

British Academy

Mid-career fellowships

Through Mid-Career Fellowships, the British Academy intends both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and social sciences.

The aim of the scheme is to allow successful applicants to obtain time freed from normal teaching and administrative commitments. The time bought by the scheme should be devoted to the completion of a major piece of research, and the Academy will also look for evidence of a clear commitment to a strategy of public engagement with and communication of the results of the research during the period of the Fellowship.

The awards support outstanding individual researchers and outstanding communicators who will promote public engagement and understanding of the humanities and social sciences. Applicants should set out in their proposals specific plans for the dissemination of their research to a broad audience, in addition to publication in the usual academic press and journals. Awards will be judged both on the excellence of the research proposed and on the capacity of the applicant to communicate with a broad audience. Applicants are invited to indicate ways in which their proposed programme will contribute to advances in understanding, including public understanding, in their subject area and to the identification of appropriate strategic priorities in the social sciences and humanities.

These Fellowships are covered under the Full Economic Costing (FEC) regime, but the Academy’s contribution to the salary of the Mid-Career Fellow will be capped at an upper limit of £80,000. It is not expected that the total value of an award will exceed £160,000 (BA contribution to FEC). Awards can be held over a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months, beginning in the autumn of 2016.

Please refer to Funder’s website for eligibility criteria

Closing date: 16/09/15 17:00

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships

The aim of the British Academy in making these awards is to offer opportunities for outstanding early career researchers to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment which will develop their curriculum vitae and improve their prospects of obtaining permanent lecturing posts by the end of the Fellowship. The primary emphasis is on completion of a significant piece of publishable research, which will be assisted by full membership of an academic community of established scholars working in similar fields.

Applicants must be supported by the UK host institution in which they wish to hold the Fellowship

Please see Funder’s website for eligibility criteria

45 awards are expected to be offered and awards are for 3 years.

Awards are offered on a Full Economic Costing basis. There is no fixed amount awarded for the Fellowships and the value of award will vary depending on the host institution. Awards cover the salary of the Postdoctoral Fellow to work full-time on the Fellowship, small-scale research expenses (up to a maximum of £6,000), costs towards the time of a mentor (equivalent to one hour per month for the 36 months of the Fellowship) and the host institution’s estates and indirect costs.

Applicants must be supported by one self-nominated referee. The referee should normally be the external examiner or, if not available, someone else who is as external to the applicant as possible.

Closing Date: (for outline applications) 07/10/15 17:00

44th International Congress of Americanists Fund

Surplus funds resulting from the 44th International Congress of Americanists, held in Manchester in 1982, were entrusted to the British Academy. Grants are offered for travel expenses in connection with a research project relating to Latin American studies and may support British scholars or scholars from Latin America.

Applications may only be submitted by scholars resident in the UK.
Maximum Award: £1,000
Closing date: 14/10/15

Elie Kedourie Memorial Fund

The object of this fund, established by the family of Elie Kedourie, FBA, is to promote the study of Middle Eastern and Modern European History, and the History of Political Thought by recent postdoctoral scholars of any nationality. Awards are offered to support any aspect of research, including travel and publication. Funds are not available to support travel to or attendance at conferences, workshops, or seminars, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.

Maximum Award: £1,000

Closing date: 14/10/15

Elisabeth Barker Fund

The Fund was established in memory of Elisabeth Barker (1910-1986), diplomatic correspondent and historian of modern Europe. This fund is intended to support studies in recent European history, particularly the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Grants may be made for individual, or collaborative projects and may support British scholars, or scholars from other European countries.

Maximum Award: £1,000

Closing date: 14/10/15

Thank-Offering to Britain Fellowship

The British Academy invites applications for the Thank-Offering to Britain Fellowship. This Fellowship enables an established scholar to have time away from their normal teaching and administrative responsibilities for one year to concentrate on a major piece of research that is related to “human studies, widely interpreted”.

This call is repeated every 2 years.

Closing date 18/11/15 17:00

British Academy/Leverhulme Trust

Senior Research Fellowships

The Academy continues to offer the Senior Research Fellowship scheme, with funding generously provided by the Leverhulme Trust (on a non-FEC basis). This enables mid-career scholars to have one year’s research leave with funding being provided to cover the costs of replacement teaching. There is an annual closing date in the autumn.

Eligibility: The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s age or current status (e.g. Professor, Lecturer) in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, in all cases, award-holders are expected to be able to disseminate the results of their research not only through publications, but also through feeding into their future academic career after the end of the awards. Any field of study in the humanities and social sciences is suitable for support.

Closing Date: 18/11/15 17:00

British Council

Researcher Links workshops in the Philippines on sustainable cities

We have grants for early-career researchers to participate in a workshop in the Philippines entitled ‘Process Systems Engineering Approaches for the Provision of Supplies and Utilities for Sustainable Cities’.

The workshop is part of Researcher Links, funded under the Newton Fund, and is being organised by the University of Nottingham (UK) and De La Salle University (Philippines).

The grants will cover all transport, accommodation and meals. Participants are encouraged to purchase adequate travel insurance (not covered by grant).

Please refer to the Funder’s website for full details and eligibility criteria.

Closing date: 08/11/15

CRACK IT Challenges 2015

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is an independent scientific organisation that supports the UK science base through the application of the 3Rs.

CRACK IT Challenges is a challenge-led funding competition from the NC3Rs which is designed to fund collaborations between industry, academics and SMEs; minimise the use of animals in research; support the development of marketable products and/or improved business processes.

This year the Challenges are funded by the NC3Rs and Dstl with in-kind contributions from the Challenge Sponsors (for example, data, access to compounds and equipment).

This year the NC3Rs intends to launch two Challenges: the first one is called ‘METABODERM’ where successful completion of this Challenge will deliver new capability to understand/interpret human relevant skin metabolism, including rates of metabolism in the skin and approaches towards metabolite identification.

The second Challenfe is called ‘InMutaGene’ where successful completion of this Challenge will result in the development of a new platform to address the risks of insertional mutagenesis/oncogenesis and to improve the efficiency of translational research in gene therapy.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further information on these Challenges

Closing date: (for Registration) 04/11/15 12:00

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme

Biotechnology YES, now in its 20th year, is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of ideas among early career researchers. The competition is funded by sponsorship and aims to encourage an entrepreneurial culture in the UK postgraduate and postdoctoral base for the benefit of the UK bioeconomy. The competition is organised jointly by The University of Nottingham – The Haydn Green Institute and Innovation and Skills Group, BBSRC.

Over the course of a three day residential workshop, teams will develop a business plan for a company based on a hypothetical but plausible idea based on real markets. The workshop comprises presentations and mentoring sessions from leading figures in industry and culminates in the presentation of the business plans to a panel of ‘equity investors’ drawn from industry and academia. Up to three teams from each workshop are selected to progress to the final stage in London.

In addition to the general Biotechnology YES workshops there are several themed workshops which are run in conjunction with industry: the Plants, Microbial and Environmental Workshop, hosted by Syngenta; the Biomedical Workshop, hosted by GSK and the Stevenage Biosciences Catalyst; and new for this year, the Food, Nutrition and Wellbeing workshop, hosted by Unilever. The Royal Society of Chemistry is also sponsoring a Chemistry YES workshop for the third year.

The benefits of taking part include a prize fund of £5,000, including a first prize of £2,500, a trip to the USA, and an invitation to the BIA Gala dinner. As well as enhancing their CVs, participants will develop and improve transferable skills such as communication, time-management, negotiation and team-building. There will be opportunities for networking with industry professionals, and increasing your commercial awareness and technology transfer knowledge.

Closing date: September 2015 – exact date to be confirmed

Economic and Social Research Council

Training Bursaries

The ESRC wishes to improve the standards of research methods and to stimulate the uptake of high quality training courses in research methods across the UK social science community.

Bursaries are available for up to £1,000 each to enable staff in the UK social science community engaged in research, teaching research methods or supervising research to update their research skills. Contract researchers working in HEIs are also eligible for the bursaries.

Please refer to funder’s website at link above for eligibility criteria

Maximum award: £1000

Closing date: 15/08/15 17:00

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Balance Network Funding

The Balance Network invites proposals for activities within the themes of ‘work-life balance in the digital age’ which support the network’s aims of collaboration and impact. These events will form part of the network’s programme of activities between November 2015 and April 2016. A maximum of £35k will be awarded in total, and we anticipate the majority of successful proposals will be under £4k. We aim to fund at least one activity led by an early career researcher.

All events funded through this invitation will feed into BEYOND BALANCE, a one-day large-scale Balance Network event taking place Monday 27 June 2016 at IET London, Savoy Place. Details will be circulated via the bulletin and made available on the funder’s website.

Maximum award: £4000

Closing date: 15/09/15 17:00

Healthcare technologies impact fellowships

Please note the above dates are indicative only and are subject to change

This is an advance notice that EPSRC will be issuing a call in early September 2015, inviting recently funded EPSRC fellows who have a permanent post to apply for funding to progress the outputs of their fellowship towards impact within a healthcare application. Proposal should align to one of the four Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges. The fellowship can be a maximum of 24 months in duration. A budget of around £2.5 million will be available to support the call. EPSRC expects to fund 4 – 6 Healthcare Technology Impact Fellowships depending on demand and available budget.

This call is open to all EPSRC fellows holding a permanent post, whose fellowship end dates are in the period 01 July 2014 – 30 September 2016. Prospective applicants are encouraged to discuss their proposal with the call contacts (see below) at the earliest opportunity.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for full details.

Healthcare Technologies Programme Grants

Please note the above dates are indicative only and are subject to change.

This is an advance notice that EPSRC’s Healthcare Technologies theme will shortly be issuing a call for ‘Healthcare Technologies Programme Grants’. The full call document will be available by early September.

The Healthcare Technologies Theme has recently announced a new long term strategy, and in order to deliver on this, the EPSRC invites applications for Programme Grant proposals that seek to address significant major research challenges that align to the Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges of: Developing Future Therapies – Supporting the development of novel therapies with technologies to enhance efficacy, minimise costs and reduce risk to patients (note: this specifically relates to drug, biological, cell and regenerative therapies); Frontiers of Physical Intervention – Restoring function, and optimising surgery and other physical interventions to achieve high precision with minimal invasiveness; Optimising Treatment – Optimising care through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention; Transforming Community Health and Care – Using real-time information to support self-management of health and wellbeing, and to facilitate timely interventions.

Applications should also draw on one or more of the cross-cutting capabilities of:

Advanced materials

Disruptive technologies for sensing and analysis

Future manufacturing technologies

Medical device design and innovation

Novel computational and mathematical sciences

Novel imaging technologies

Programme Grants are a flexible mechanism to provide funding to world-leading research groups to address significant major research challenges and are intended to support a variety of activities focussing on one strategic research theme. It is expected that proposals will be interdisciplinary and collaborative.

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further information on the Programme Grants scheme, including details of the peer review process and assessment criteria.

Applicants must discuss their suitability for Programme Grant funding with one of the EPSRC contacts for this call before submitting an Outline application.

Up to £15 million will be available to fund 3-5 Programme Grants through this call for proposals.

Closing date: (for Outline) 27/10/15 16.00

Systems Integration of energy supply and demand

The RCUK Energy Programme is bringing together engineers and physical scientists from across the energy sector to tackle the research challenges involved in integrating the energy supply, storage, transmission and demand sectors.

The RCUK Energy Programme seeks to encourage cross energy-sector collaboration designed to enable future energy systems integration. This integration will help the UK meet its ambitious 2050 emission targets (the UK is legally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by at least 80% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels) and address the energy trilemma by providing resilient, affordable and sustainable future energy systems.

In this call we seek applications for research addressing the co-evolution of supply and demand across an integrated network over the next 35 years – in order help identify potential solutions and frame the challenges. Proposals should pull together existing and complimentary research from across the whole energy-sector to add meaningfully additionally and context.

All proposals must cover research covering the entire energy sector from supply to demand, and can include storage, across the energy networks of electricity, heat and gas.

Up to £5 million is available for this call with EPSRC looking to fund a research centre. The successful proposal must clearly identify how the research will complement and add to existing RCUK Energy Programme investments, in particular the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Applicants are strongly encouraged to open a dialog with existing RCUK Energy Programme investments before submitting an application.

Maximum award: £5 million

Closing date: 24 /09/15 16:00

Medical Research Council

Confidence in Concept Scheme

Ensuring that fundamental science is translated into new therapies, diagnostics and medical devices is central to our mission. The Confidence in Concept scheme aims to accelerate the transition from discovery science to the early stages of therapeutic/biomarker development by providing locally-administered, responsive and flexible funding to support preliminary translational work.

The award can be used flexibly by the institution to support a number of preliminary-stage translational projects. The projects supported should aim to provide sufficient preliminary data to establish the viability of an approach –– before seeking more substantive funding (e.g. from the Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS).

Applicants are encouraged to explore how awards could be used to develop academic-industry interactions. People exchange (in either direction) is permitted, where focused on the delivery of specific project objectives. Other routes (e.g. co-funding projects, developing early-stage collaborations) are also encouraged. Standard terms and conditions apply (see in particular the “MICA” webpage).

Institutions may apply for an award between £250k and £1.2m.

We anticipate that individual projects funded from an institution’s award will be of the order of £50-100k and approximately 6-12 months in length, although this will be dictated by the needs of each project.

Institutional awards will be of 24 months duration. Successful institutions are expected to allocate funds to projects within the first 12 months of the award.

Closing date: 15/10/15 16:00

Proximity to discovery – industry engagement fund

This Fund is designed to provide flexible funding for innovative ways to enable the initial development of academic-industry collaborations.

MRC’s Confidence in Concept (CiC) scheme provides responsive and flexible funding to support preliminary work aimed at assembling the data to support an application for a translational project grant. CiC permits academic-industry collaboration where focused on the delivery of the specific project objectives. The Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund aligns with CiC to further enable research organisations to establish academic industry relationships. Short term people exchanges between industry and academia are seen as a key way of exchanging skills and knowledge and developing a longer term working relationship. Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund can be used for people and knowledge exchange at the very earliest stage of a collaboration and may not necessarily be aligned to a specific project objective.

Please refer to Funder’s website for further details and examples of potential uses.

Institutions may apply to this scheme and CiC in the same round. The two applications do not need to be led by the same individual but the applying institution will need to present a persuasive case that the proposed governance structures will be coherent.

Institutions applying to the scheme must be able to demonstrate that they have sufficient critical mass to be able to deliver engagement with industrial partners that will result in partnership opportunities.

Applications are not expected to be in excess of £250k and are to be spent within 18 months of the award starting.

Only one application per institution is permitted. It is expected that applications will be led by one or more senior members of the institution (e.g. Dean of Medical School or equivalent).

A total budget of £15M is available to support CinC and Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund.

Natural Environment Research Council

Antimicrobial resistance in the real world

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the Real World is a programme under the AMR Cross-Council Initiative. This call is co-funded by NERC, the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), and has potential co-funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

This programme aims to address the need for a greater understanding of the role of the outdoor environment and host microbiome in influencing the evolution, acquisition and spread of antibacterial resistance, and as a reservoir for resistance. The programme is restricted to antibacterials and resistant bacteria or resistance genes, of relevance to bacteria of clinical and/or veterinary importance. Research supported can be based in agricultural, aquaculture, wastewater and natural environments, the human and animal host microbiome, and also includes elements of the way people and human communities interact with the environment.

Research Grants should be up to £1.5m (100% FEC), with funding for up to four years’ duration, and projects starting no later than 1 May 2016 and complete by 31 March 2020.

Maximum award: £1.5million at 100%fEC

Closing date: (for outline) 06/10/15 16:00

Sustaining Water Resources for Food, Energy & Ecosystem Services in India

NERC and India’s Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) – Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) jointly invite proposals for research on sustaining water resources for food, energy & ecosystem services in India. This collaboration is supported by the Newton-Bhabha Fund, established by the governments of the UK and India to provide a framework for increasing research and innovation collaborations that support sustainable economic growth, and builds on existing NERC-MoES activities.

Proposals are sought for interdisciplinary collaborative research projects involving UK and Indian researchers. The focus should be on the main hydrological processes and how they interact within one of the 3 case study regions: the Himalayas, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, or Peninsular India.

Up to £3m is available from NERC for this call with up to £1m (80% FEC) available for the UK contribution to each of the case studies, which will be matched by MoES in terms of research effort.

Closing date: (for Notification of Intent) 07/09/15 16:00

Research Councils UK

RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships Call: UK – Chile Call for Proposals

Research Councils UK (RCUK) and National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT) are pleased to invite applications to the RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships Call.

This initiative will provide funding for high-quality collaborative research projects between UK and Chilean researchers which contribute to the economic development and welfare of Chile and to developing countries more broadly. We invite proposals which address the following topics:

Disaster Management
Diet and health
Education, Inequality and Social Reform
Sustainable Aquaculture for Nutrition and Food Security

The objective is to deliver significant 2-3 year research funding for internationally competitive and innovative collaborative projects between researchers from Chile and the UK that will allow the pursuit of shared research interests.

Proposals within the themes listed above are welcomed from across the remits of the UK Research Councils. Recognising the multidisciplinary nature of the thematic areas, the development of interdisciplinary collaborations is particularly welcome.

Consortia should consider how their proposal makes the best use of available expertise in the UK and Chile, the added value of collaboration and how the proposal will meet the ODA requirements of this Newton Fund activity. Whilst still currently on the OECD DAC list, Chile may graduate from the list in the next few years and, as a result, and a condition of the Newton Fund, proposals must contribute towards the economic development and welfare of Chile and articulate a broader applicability to the issues of poor people globally.

Closing date: 08/10/15 16:00

Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust Centres

Funding for world-leading groups proposing novel and innovative ways of tackling important research and translational questions.

The Wellcome Trust awards Centre status to programmes that we expect to catalyse and enable world-leading research and innovation in fields that are central to our mission. We expect our support to allow Centres to achieve exceptional impact in any or all of basic research; translation into clinical practice; health product research and development; and public policy.

We currently fund eight Centres at UK universities and four Medical Engineering Centres.

We are now offering other groups the opportunity to become Wellcome Trust Centres. We invite eligible institutions in the UK and Republic of Ireland to submit Letters of Interest proposing new Centres, for a competition to be decided in late 2016. We will also consider renewal applications from existing Centres.

We encourage Centres to develop specific innovation and translation strategies and to support effective programmes of public engagement, and to identify the necessary resources.

Our existing Centres work in four broad areas of biomedical science – neuroscience; cell and developmental biology; genetics/genomics; and infectious disease – and in medical engineering.

For this new competition, we will consider proposals in any area relevant to the Trust’s mission, including the humanities and social sciences as well as basic biomedical research and translation.

Centres will normally be funded for five years, with the possibility of competitive renewal (we expect to make the next set of awards in 2021).

Please refer to the Funder’s website for further details of what costs the fund will support; what is expected of the host institution; key stages and dates of the application process.

This is a one-off call for applications.

Closing date: (for Letter of Interest) 21/09/15 12.00

11 August 2015

New publication by BU PhD student Jib Acharya

Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to FHSS Ph.D. student Mr. Jib Acharya, whose paper ‘Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal’ has just been published in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare [1]. The academic paper, based on his Ph.D. thesis, reports on his mixed-methods Public Health study addressing attitudes and knowledge of mothers of young children (pre-school aged) in one particular district in Nepal. The research comprises a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups. Jib Acharya, who is originally from Nepal, compares and contrasts the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of poor rural and poor urban women (=mothers) in that district. The research is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal, Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare 1(2): 97-118.

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