Category / Research themes

Wanted ! – Researchers for Silicon South

Position: 2 full-time freelance contracts available for 3 months each

Day rate: £100 plus travel expenses

Location: Dorset

Silicon South is working on behalf of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership to develop a strategy for boosting the digital creative economy in Dorset. Silicon South has committed to undertake a series of research and feasibility studies which together will inform a full-scale investment strategy setting out how this growth can be achieved.

Silicon South is looking for two freelance full-time researchers to assist in the development of the strategy by undertaking research and analysis on a range of projects related to the creative and digital sector. Working to the Director of Silicon South, you will undertake a combination of primary and secondary data analysis and research on a variety of topics relevant to Silicon South’s strategy.

Informal enquires about the post are welcomed. Please contact Anthony Story on 07702 103872.

Please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to: paul.webster@siliconsouth.org.uk

Closing date: Noon, 8 December 2014.

Click here for more information including application details.

Social Media and Dementia: Raising Awareness

The use of video within social media (such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) is providing researchers with novel ways of disseminating the findings of research. This is inspiring researchers to think outside of traditional academic approaches, and enabling research to extend to new and wide-ranging audiences. This paper focuses on the Living Well with Dementia project, which was designed to utilise video to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia. The project involved filming and disseminating a video featuring people with dementia and carers talking about what it means to live well with dementia. Obtaining the views of people with dementia and carers was considered crucial in terms of portraying the real-life experiences of living with dementia, and enabling these often marginalised voices to be heard. Participants were asked ‘what is your experience of living with dementia?’ and in their responses drew upon diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle, social activities and family relationships. The finished video was disseminated through YouTube. After viewing the video, members of the public were invited to complete a short survey to establish whether watching the video challenged their understanding of dementia. This paper showcases the Living Well with Dementia video, as well as exploring the ethical and practical challenges of capturing the experiences of people with dementia on video. Preliminary results from the survey are also presented, in order to explore the role of video within social media as a method to raise awareness and challenge gaps in perceptions and understanding of dementia.

Facilitated by: Dr Michelle Heward & Dr James Palfreman-Kay

Wednesday 10th December 2014 10:00-11:00
Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot Campus

To book your place, please e-mail Organisational Development od@bournemouth.ac.uk

Reminder For All Consumer Researchers – December Meeting of Consumer Research @ BU

Just over a month ago we held a very successful meeting bringing together consumer researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University.  Our ‘Hands-On Information Sharing Session’ made it clear that there was tremendous potential for cross-disciplinary research and that as a united group we could not only act as a forum for research and ideas but also to provide a platform for interaction with industry.

This is a reminder that our next meeting is going to be held on:-

Wednesday, 3rd December in CG01, Christchurch House between 3-5pm.  [Please note the change in venue.]

Anyone who is doing consumer research of any description is welcome (e.g. consumer behaviour, retail, marketing, advertising, psychology, consumer neuroscience …) and there will be coffee and mince pies to help our consumer thinking along.

At this meeting we will be begin to identify groups or clusters of researchers, to discuss potential collaborations, and discuss plans for the future.

So if you think this might be of interest, please do come along next Wednesday.  If you are unable to make this meeting but are interested in being involved please email us to let us know and we will keep you informed about future events.

Jeff Bray (Tourism; jbray@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Juliet Memery (Business School; jmemery@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Janice Denegri-Knott (Media School; JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Siné McDougall (SciTech; smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk)

 

Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

PG research

We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre that will be delivered by Chris Ramsey.

 

Title: Developing ViRETS – A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 3rd December 2014

Room: P335, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

This research project aims to develop a Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking System (VIRETS), capable of displaying naturalistic viewing conditions with high ecological validity and large field of view (FOV) in order to investigate the effects on human gaze behaviour (including head movement) and how this could be advantageous when looking at methods for visual cognition experiments. Static, lab-based eye trackers (head-mounted or desk-mounted) are accurate and easy to calibrate. However, they have traditionally made use of single screen setups with a FOV which doesn’t provide realistic viewing conditions. Furthermore, the head of a participant often has to be restricted using a chin rest and/or bite bar, or, in the case of head-mounted eye-trackers, restricted to small movements, which prohibits naturalistic head movements.

While mobile eye-trackers bring eye-tracking research to real world scenarios, allowing for naturalistic head and eye movements and allowing for naturalistic viewing conditions, the method presents a number of limitations, such as lower frequencies and the possibility of dropped frames. Although video footage can be layered with gaze behaviour to show saccadic eye-movement in real scenes, data analysis has to be carried out offline and can be time consuming: Specifically, video footage must be inspected frame by frame, labelled and described in order to analyse what objects in the scene participants attend to. Furthermore using real-world scenarios make it difficult to control all the stimuli presented, making the interpretation of cause and effect relationships difficult.

ViRETS aims to address these concerns by combining realistic and immersive VR, head-mounted eye-tracking, motion tracking and the freedom of naturalistic head movement. By these means we’ll investigate how an increased FOV affects gaze behaviour, head movements and performance specifically in the context of visual search and navigation.       

We hope to see you there.

Eleventh Annual Symposium explores ‘impact’ in healthcare research and education

BU’s Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education’s Eleventh Annual Symposium held on the 14th October was a huge success with around 100 healthcare professionals and academics in attendance.  The symposium explored the important and timely concept of impact in research and education.  A full report can now be found on our website at www.bournemouth.ac.uk/copmre.  We look forward to seeing you all at our next conference in the autumn of 2015 where the topic of Human Factors will be discussed.

Audrey

BUDI talks museums and dementia at AHSW Annual Conference

Last week I was invited to represent Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 9th Arts and Health South West (AHSW) Annual Conference held in Taunton. This was a great opportunity for me to talk about the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA’s) approach to involving people affected by dementia within their gallery space, as showcased in the MOMA Workshops held in May 2014 . I also discussed some of the work that local Dorset museums are undertaking to involve people affected by dementia, and ways to evaluate such activities.

The conference showcased a wide variety of innovative arts based projects, including: the therapeutic purposes of creative writing, doodling, and music and health from Live Music Now. The positive health impacts of arts based activities for a range of participants were highlighted in several presentations throughout the day.

ST academic swaps British winter with busy schedule in warm Brazil

Dr. Miguel Moital, Senior Lecturer in Events Management in the School of Tourism, is currently visiting Brazil to speak at three universities. The trip started with a keynote speech at the II Scientific Forum of Gastronomy, Tourism and Hospitality organised by UNIVALI – Itajai Valley University, Santa Catarina state. His presentation on “Innovation in gastronomic events: developing creative proposals using supply mapping” closed the Forum. The keynote presentation builds partially on the material developed for the Event & Leisure Innovation unit that Miguel has lead at BU for 7 years. The audience consisted of undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic staff as well as tourism professionals.

Besides his keynote speech, Miguel lead two research workshops for masters and doctoral tourism students which focused on defining the scope of the research. He also met the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Post-Graduate Research where the development of a MoU between BU and UNIVALI was discussed. UNIVALI is the leading tourism post-graduate education provider in Brazil, offering the highest ranked Masters in tourism and one of the only two doctoral programmes in tourism available in the country.

In his second stop, Miguel will deliver a guest lecture at UNIRIO – Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, whose campus sits next to the Sugar Loaf attraction. His third and final stop involves delivering two guest lectures at UFRN – Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, north-east Brazil. UFRN also has a leading role in tourism post-graduate studies, offering a Masters in tourism (there are only 8 in Brazil) and the other of the two doctoral programmes in tourism. BU is developing closer ties with UFRN, with one of its tourism academics coming to Bournemouth for her post-doctoral study, which will be supported by Miguel and Dr. Luciana Esteves from the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Congratulations to HSC student Mr. Jib Acharya

PG research, Publishing

HSC PhD student Jib Acharya presented the preliminary results of his thesis research in a poster presentation entitled “A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Nepal”

The poster was accepted at the 3rd World Congress of Public Health Nutrition Conference in Gran Canaria,  Spain, 2014.

Mr. Acharya’s poster was displayed as a traditional paper poster but also a digital poster on television screens around the conference.  The thesis work is supervised in the School of Health & Social Care by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.  The attendance of this conference was made possible due to the support of a Santander award.

Congratulations

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Breastfeeding research presented in Cornwall

Knowledge Transfer, PG research

Congratulations to Alison Taylor, senior lecturer in midwifery who presented preliminary findings of her PhD as keynote speaker last month at the Cornwall  Real Baby Milk conference.  Alison’s presentation ‘Women’s Breastfeeding Experiences – shared using video diaries’ was very well received.  Alison’s fieldwork has been supported by the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust , she received the first Tricia Anderson award in 2008. Founded in 1983, the Trust supports midwives and student midwives to undertake further education and to carry out projects designed to improve the care of mothers and babies.

More details on the conference can be found at:

http://realbabymilk.org/couldnt-make-real-baby-milk-cornwall-conference-last-month/

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

A Fishy Tale: BS Consumer Researchers visit Norway

Funding opportunities, REF Subjects, Research themes

Last week Professor Juliet Memery and Dr Dawn Birch from the Business School, supported by the Cyber Security Unit, travelled to Tromso in Norway at the invitation of the University of Tromso.  The aim of the trip was to discuss future research collaborations and funding opportunities around the areas of food security, food crime, food waste and technology with a particular emphasis on fish and seafood.

Whilst there Juliet and Dawn met with academics from the University of Tromso, including Professor Svein Ottar Olsen and Professor Kåre Skallerud, as well as Pirjo Honkanen, Director of Research (Consumer and marketing research) and Petter Olsen, senior scientist, from Nofima, one of the largest institutes for applied research within the fields of fisheries, aquaculture and food industry in Europe.  A series of research presentations revealed a number of areas of mutual interest which will be scoped out and explored further with a view to securing EU/Research Council funding.  Additionally they met with analysts at the Head Office of the Norwegian Seafood Council to discuss their role and research in the seafood industry and explore potential opportunities for them to be included in future research collaborations.

Overall it was a very successful networking trip, and a reciprocal visit to Bournemouth is anticipated in the coming months to further strengthen relationships and collaborations.

NERC Innovation Projects

Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

 

The Innovation Projects call supports projects that are likely to generate little or no commercial return, but which will deliver impact.

The call aims to increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research output by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users.  The Follow-on Fund is for those projects that aim to be fully commercialised with a revenue stream derived from licensing, spinouts, consultancy etc.

A maximum of £125k (£100k at 80% FEC) may be requested.  Projects are expected to start in May 2015 and to last for up to 12 months.  Smaller, targeted activities of three to six months are also welcome and NERC anticipates seeing a range of requests within the £125k limit, reflecting a diverse range of potential projects and activities.

The closing date is 16.00 hrs on 18th December, 2014

For further information go to  the  website

Centre for Leadership, Impact and Management in Health and Social Care launched at Bournemouth University

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

A centre to provide leadership and management development opportunities and support across the health and social care sector has been launched at  BU.

The Centre for Leadership, Impact and Management in Bournemouth (CLiMB)  offers a range of development options – including leadership and management programmes; coaching and mentoring development; accreditation for in-house programmes; and consultancy, research and impact evaluation.

Director of CLiMB Professor Keith Brown said: “CLiMB is being launched to bring together Bournemouth University’s strengths of research, consultancy and education in the leadership of health and social care services.  “Never before have these services been under the level of financial pressure and public scrutiny that they are currently, coupled with increasingly high public expectations for quality services.  “These needs and demands can only be met by better leadership at all levels within the health and social care sector.”
The centre has been launched after more than five years of research and development in the field of leadership and management in health and social care.  Professor Brown was asked by the government’s Social Work Reform Board, established following the death of Peter Connelly, to develop a leadership pathway for social work managers.

This was extensively evaluated for impact and then adapted for healthcare in response to the Francis report at Mid Staffordshire Hospital.

The Centre was officially opened on 12th November by Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns, who said: “Too often in health and social work, organisations have become too immersed in process and procedure that they lose sight sometimes of the outcome.  We should be proud of what Keith and the team do in terms of outcomes for people… making a contribution emotionally and economically.”

Sue Sutherland OBE, Chair of BU’s Board and former Chief Executive of Poole Hospital, said: “The launch of this centre is really important.  It is absolutely rising to the challenges that the sector faces, helping to develop the best health and social care service that’s borne out of leadership at every point of the sector.”

CLiMB currently receives HEIF funding. Higher Education Innovation Funding aims  to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK.

 

Funding Call Scoping Workshop: Invitation to inform the content of an upcoming Innovate UK UX and Data Competition

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

 

The Knowledge Transfer Network are running  an information day and workshop around User Experience and Data technology innovation.  This event will bring together businesses, academics and researchers working within UX and data to contribute to a discussion on the scoping of a Spring 2015 funding competition. 

Innovate UK (formally Technology Strategy Board) will be running three funding competitions in areas relating to User Experience (UX). This event is an opportunity to learn more about these funding calls, how to apply as well as influencing future activities in UX.

There are two themes to these UX related competitions: 

1. Utilising personal data to improve a user’s experience of a product or service: This competition is a feasibility study and is due to launch in March 2015. There will be an opportunity to influence the scope of this call so that it correctly addresses the issues that are affecting the UX industry.

2. Innovative technology & software to improved the interaction between human and machine: This will focus on novel approaches to UX with an innovative software element to them, essentially how to let people and machines interact better, moving beyond the traditional keyboard, mouse and screen.  

There are two competions in this theme: a feasibility study and a  Knowledge Transfer Parnership. (KTP).

Date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Time: 10:30 – 16:30

Venue: Barbican Centre, London

Register now to attend

Examination of the Newborn (EXON) Pilot Project for under-graduate student midwives: an update.

Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, student research, Training

In November last year I published a blog on the first pilot project I undertook with five under-graduate pre-registration midwifery students which was designed to enable them to qualify with the skills and competencies around examination of the newborn (EXON). The students were required to access and study the module with post-graduate midwives. Four of the students successfully completed the course in September 2014 with one student leaving early on in the project due to unforeseen family circumstances. The journey to completion was not smooth. The first hurdle was a clash of assessments. The EXON assessment (a presentation) fell in the same week as Complex Care (CC), a third year unit assessment where students are required to undergo a VIVA and manage two obstetric emergencies. It is a stressful experience and therefore three of the students requested an extension to their EXON presentation with only one choosing to present with her post-registration colleagues. As the EXON assessment took place on the Monday of that particular week and Complex Care assessments were running over three days, the student managed to negotiate to undertake her CC assessment on the Friday. The three students were re-scheduled to present later in the year with a number of other midwives who were on extensions or resits.  One of the advantages of choosing to present in January 2014 was that the student was able to choose a topic that she could use both for her learning around EXON and for her extended essay which was due to be completed somewhat later in the academic year. The student was successful in both endeavours as were all the others but at a later date.

Another hurdle students found themselves confronted with, was a lack of opportunity to undertake newborn examinations including a shortage of midwifery mentors who could support the training requirements of the project. Two of the students could not get any of the examinations done in their own trusts. Fortunately for them, the maternity unit and midwifery staff at Poole NHS Trust Hospital were extremely obliging and supported the students to work there which enabled them to complete the practical newborn checks. All four of the students have successfully qualified as midwives and have obtained midwifery posts in the local area. They remain committed EXON and have volunteered to be EXON ‘champions’ within their respective trusts. I am grateful to Jeanette Elliot, Luzie Schroter, Jenna Penhale and Bex Coleman-Moss for their hard work and dedication during the pilot and for their feedback and advice for the next intake.

Demand for places for the second pilot project remained high when the call was put out a short while ago. Unfortunately due to some of the barriers described above it was only feasible to recruit five students again and all of them based in the west. The students have commenced their studies and are enjoying the learning so far. The pilot projects are helping to inform what impact these barriers will have on the training needs for midwifery students within our local maternity units as this year we are introducing EXON theory to all midwifery students on our newly validated curriculum with the caveat that students will obtain the necessary theoretical knowledge but not all with qualify with the required skills. However by ‘fast-tracking’ students onto one of our twice yearly CPD EXON modules which has around 20+ midwives enrolled, by the time the students reach their third year there should be many more midwives qualified in EXON and in place to support our under-graduate students to gain the competencies around newborn examination.  If you require any further information please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler on lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk    

 

Congratulations to PhD student Rachel Arnold

PG research, Publishing, student research

HSC postgraduate student Rachel Arnold just had the first paper from her research in Afghanistan accepted by the scientific journal BJOG.  Her paper analyses the culture of a Kabul maternity hospital to understand its impact on the care of perinatal women and their babies.    A heavy workload, too many complicated cases and poor staff organisation lead to a low quality of maternity care. Cultural values, social and family pressures influenced the motivation and priorities of healthcare providers.

The centrality of the family and family obligations in Afghan society has emerged as a major theme. Another theme is the struggle for survival – as health care providers work to support their families, to maintain the power that they have, and to survive within a hospital system where fear rather than compassion appears to drive and motivate.  Rachel presented some of the key issues at the 2013 GLOW conference in Birmingham.   Rachel is supervised by Professors Immy Holloway, Kath Ryan (LaTrobe University, Australia) and Edwin van Teijlingen.

Rachel’s paper Understanding ‘Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital’ can be found here.  The paper is Gold Open Access.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health