Category / Research themes

Open for registration – Up to £2m funding for feasibility studies available

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

Innovate UK  has launched a funding competition for feasibility studies with up to two million pounds funding available.

The competition is open only to small and micro companies (click here for eligibility) across the following technology sectors:

Advanced materials
Biosciences 
Electronics, Sensors & Photonics
Information & Communications Technology 

A briefing event for this competition was held on 25 November.  You can view the webinar recording here. 

For any queries on this competition, please contact support@innovateuk.org.

BU academics appointed as dual editors-in-chief

Women's Academic Network

Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Jonathan Parker of the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy have been appointed as joint editors-in-chief for a journal published by UK publishing house Whiting & Birch and the Tbilisi SState University in Georgia: Social Policy & Social Work in Transition.

The journal stemmed from an earlier EU-funded Tempus project between Sheffield Hallam University and post-Soviet Eastern European states, including Georgia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and has recently negotiated a bipartite arrangement with Whiting & Birch to ensure its sustainability.

The journal aims to provide a platform for developing insight and research into transitions in social policy and social work predominantly in Eastern European countries, and this remains its primary focus. However, the new editors-in-chief will also expand the journal’s reach into Asia, the Asia Pacific region, Africa and the Americas especially in countries moving through complex socio-political, economic, historical and post-colonial transitions.

This important position was confirmed on the basis of the new editors’ international research links and reputations and adds to the strengths of the Centre for Social Work, Sociology and Social Policy at BU. Dr Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Parker will lead a multinational editorial board assisted by continuing editors Professor Iago Kachkachishvili of Tbilisi State University, Georgia and Dr Tetyana Semigina of National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’, Ukraine (current Secretary of the International Association of Schools of Social Work). Outgoing editor, Professor Emeritus Mark Doel, Sheffield Hallam University, will also remain on the board.

The position offers a springboard to further collaborative social science research in Eastern European and Balkan states, something which the journal is committed to developing.

Prof Jonathan Parker & Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

The Grange School visits Bournemouth University Dementia Institute

On 9th December Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) were delighted to welcome Year 12 Health and Social Care students from The Grange School in Christchurch. Putting our local partnership working into practice, the students took part in a Dementia Friends session and learnt about some of BUDI’s recent projects, including the Living Well with Dementia video and the BUDI Orchestra. We hope that the student’s learning will translate positively into their future practice, and were pleased to see that their feedback forms stated they will take the following actions as a result of the session:

• “Help people with dementia if I see them struggling”
• “Correct people when they say dementia sufferer”
• ”Help people to understand dementia”
• “Be more patient”

Dementia Friends sessions are part of a national initiative by the Alzheimer’s Society to raise awareness of dementia within our local communities. The sessions are designed to help people learn more about what it’s like to live with dementia so that those affected by the condition can feel included in their local community. BUDI run regular Dementia Friends sessions, if you would like to find out more please look out for further details on the BUDI website in 2015.

Dr Michelle Heward and Dr Ahmed Romouzy Ali

Fusion Investment Fund 2014/15: Upskilling the Engineering Workforce

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

We were delighted to hear that we have just received funding from the Fusion Investment Fund for a project which we hope will allow us to strengthen strategic partnerships with local/national engineering companies.  This will build on the work already carried out within the Department of Design and Engineering to develop an innovate flexible learning MEng Engineering degree for those currently in employment which has attracted over 40 students from local and national industries since its introduction.  The numbers entering the degree is expected to accelerate over the next few years with 300 engineering apprentices currently studying at Bournemouth and Poole College coming through the system.

The aim of this project is to collaborate with current BU engineering students, and engineering employers to develop, launch and establish a Professional Registration Mentoring Scheme.  The scheme will be developed to enable students who are studying on the flexible learning MEng Engineering degree to achieve professional registration (Incorporated or Chartered Engineer) status and for companies wishing to gain professional registration for a suitable group of their employees.

This scheme is timely as EngineeringUK has recently highlighted the need to double the number of annual graduate recruits into engineering by 2020 to meet demand.  The report also highlights it is estimated only 36% of engineers in the UK are registered as professional engineers.  However, professional engineers are vital for the growth of the UK economy.

A future goal, once established regionally, is to secure recognition for the scheme from an appropriate professional body.  This will then provide the credibility to expand the scheme nationally

Please do feel free to get in touch with us if you would like further information and we look forward to reporting on the outcome once the project is completed at the end of July.

Dr Philip Sewell (Principal Investigator) – Design and Engineering Framework Leader –psewell@bournemouth.ac.uk

Dr Tania Humphries-Smith – Head of Design and Engineering Department – thumphri@bournemouth.ac.uk

Thank You from the BUDI Orchestra

Last Friday (12/12/14), the BUDI Orchestra celebrated this festive season with a Christmas Carol Concert in the Atrium, Talbot Campus. They performed classics such as, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘White Christmas’ and a very moving rendition of ‘Winter Wonderland’. The event was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by both performers and spectators alike.

BUDI would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone that attended the concert, with extra thanks to all of the staff who gave their support so the morning could run so smoothly.

We will be starting a new orchestral group in the New Year. If you know someone living with dementia that might enjoy getting involved with the group, please contact me for further information (lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Merry Christmas!

BUDI Orchestra Christmas Concert

Wanted: Book reviewers

PG research, Publishing, student research

 

Sociological Research Online one of the four BSA journals is constantly looking for new reviewers of books for its section on book reviews.  Every issue of Sociological Research Online lists the recently received books from a range of publishers.  Please spread this message to (junior) sociology colleagues and Ph.D. students in the discipline.  For many social science postgraduate students a book review can be a nice first publication, with the added benefit that reading the book can be helpful in their Ph.D. journey.  For the budding book reviewer we have written a short ‘how-to-do-a-book-review piece’ which can be found on the Sociological Research Online webpages: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/info/bookreviews.html

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH, Bournemouth University

Book review editor Sociological Research Online

BUDI Orchestra Christmas Concert

Join us as we celebrate this festive season with classics such as ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ performed by members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and local people with dementia and their carers.

When? Friday, 12th December 2014, 11am – 12noon.

Where? The Atrium (by Starbucks), Poole House, Talbot Campus.

We’d love to see you there!

For more information about this event, please contact: lreynolds@bournemouth.ac.uk.

The BUDI Orchestra rehearsing.

The BUDI Orchestra during their final rehearsal.

 

News from the Consumer Research Group: The CR@B is dead … long live the CRG!!

PG research, REF Subjects, Research themes

 

The newly renamed ‘Consumer Research Group’ (formally known as CR@B (Consumer Research @ Bournemouth) … but now rebranded!) held its second meeting last week which again brought together consumer researchers from a wide range of disciplines across the University for lively discussions around the opportunities for cross-disciplinary research (over coffee and mince pies!).  The aim of the meeting was to begin to identify themes around which groups or clusters of consumer researchers could discuss potential collaborations and plan activities for the future.  From the meeting seven themes were initially proposed (see diagram above), and whilst these may initially remain fluid, they offer great opportunity for further discussion.  A notable outcome from this meeting was the variety of consumer research areas being explored at BU, and the number of potential linkages that could be made between different groups, across and between these themes, to develop an even stronger research profile for the CRG.

The next meeting for the ‘Consumer Research Group’ will be 2-4pm on Wednesday 28th January in PG19.  Professor John Fletcher – Pro Vice Chancellor – Research and Innovation – will open the meeting.  

Anyone who is doing consumer research of any description is welcome to join and contribute to the discussions – and as before there will be coffee and cake to help our consumer thinking along.

If you would like to come along please email any of the other contacts below so that we can get a feel for numbers.  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)

A forthcoming book from the new Faculty of Management receives endorsements from UNDESA, UNEP, UNESCO and the European Commission

Publishing

The concept of the green economy has entered mainstream policy debates and been endorsed by the United Nations, other international institutions and forums, such as the G-20. The Rio+20 UN summit specifically draw attention to the green economy approach in the context of sustainable development. The role of tourism sector will continue to be crucial in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. However, there are ambiguities about how tourism and allied industries can maximize their contribution to human well-being and ensure environmentally sustainability, embracing issues of political economy, geography and business ethics.

In this context, the forthcoming book “Tourism in the Green Economy” (Routledge, 2015) edited in line with BU research themes has been received externally as one of the many examples of our fusion agenda enriching the world. The book received valuable endorsements from key international organisations advancing sustainable development policy and actions worldwide.

“Building on the outcome of Rio+20, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, through its Division for Sustainable Development, has been working closely with the UN system, in particular, the World Tourism Organization and United Nations Environment Programme to advance sustainable tourism in the context of sustainable development and more specifically in national planning processes. In this regard, initiatives by the academic world to help policy makers and practitioners develop a better understanding of the dynamic and concrete linkages between tourism and sustainable development are therefore of great importance. This publication addresses the potential role that tourism could play towards a green economy. It also provides good practices, policy orientations as well as implications for future research in this area. The publication is therefore a timely and important input for tourism and sustainability stakeholders.” – Nikhil Seth, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat.

“This publication offers an objective assessment of the challenges faced by green economy and their application to the tourism sector, as well as opportunities for promoting a global and local sustainable tourism through resource efficiency, green jobs and sustainable consumption and production patterns. Tourism stakeholders will find inspiration in this book, from its multiple case studies, in defining and promoting methods and tools for implementing sustainable tourism while valuing local resources and educating the tourist community.” – Dr Arab Hoballah, Chief of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch, UNEP.

“We welcome this publication which covers the topic of tourism and in particular the aspect of sustainable tourism with the aim of providing useful insights on how tourism could adapt to green economy, and how to make tourism more sustainable” – Francesca Tudini, Head of Tourism Policy Unit, European Commission.

“This publication brings new insights into the need to green the rapidly-growing tourism industry. The case studies show the challenges and opportunities common to both developed and developing countries, echoing UNESCO’s efforts to build inclusive green societies and sustainable tourism through Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage (including marine) sites, and Geoparks.” – Dr Wendy Watson-Wright, Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission; and Assistant Director General a.i., Natural Sciences, UNESCO.

The book provides consensus about what the green economy entails, the important role tourism can play in a green economy, responsible business practices from many countries, on-going and emerging research initiatives that will enable tourism’s transition to a green economy. For more details and full list of chapters, please visit: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415709217/

Creative ways to disseminate research findings: ‘Moving Stories – Moving On.’

PG research

Being new to the academic world I had naively thought that the only way to disseminate research findings was though conferences and publishing papers.  However, my eyes were opened when I attended a production by the Theatrescience Company in October.  A play was used as one of the means of sharing research findings of a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Using a range of qualitative methods the research investigated people’s experiences of being physically active in older age.  It was seeking to understand ‘what works’ from a group of older adults who were engaging in regular physical activity.

So on a mild autumn evening about 60 people filed into a room at the Knowledge Spa at Treliske Hospital, Cornwall (the home of the University of Exeter Medical School’s European Centre for Environmental and Human Health).  After a brief introduction we were treated to a one-off performance of verbatim script of excerpts of those interviewed.  It provoked a range of emotions from laugh out loud funny to tear-jerking sadness.  The depth of insight was immense and reminded me once again why I am enjoying my new career as a social scientist.  Interestingly, my sister (a local doctor in Cornwall) came away with a slightly different perspective.  Whilst she found it interesting, she felt it hadn’t equipped her any more in helping her work with patients to see them become more active.

The on-going challenge continues to see how we take these findings and turn them into practical strategies which really work.  We also need to consider how we can use different forms of representations (blogs, journal articles, theatre, lay summary documents etc.) so that the reach of our research can be as wide as possible.

What will I take away from this event?

I learnt two things from this production: Firstly, that I need to think bigger when wanting to share my research findings and secondly, remaining physically active as we age is so much more than trying to get people to achieve their 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week.  Being active is part of our life journey and will fluctuate depending upon seasons in our lives.  There is also a lot more research which needs to be done to help us understand physical activity across the life course!

Please see this link below for more of the project details: http://www.ecehh.org/research-projects/moving-stories/

Dr Cassandra Phoenix who led the research, is currently primary investigator for the ESRC Seminar Series ‘More of the same is not enough: New directions for research on ageing and physical activity’. Seminars are being held around the country until 2017. For further information see: http://seminars.ecehh.org

Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence – SUREBU 2015: call for submissions

Fusion, student research

SUREBU is a Fusion funded project aimed at showcasing the best of BU’s undergraduate research.  Research is broadly defined and could include work towards an undergraduate essay or dissertation, work carried out as part of a volunteer or work placement, or activities for an academic society.  Not only are research skills a central part of undergraduate study and academic life, but they are also vital skills for any future career.  By encouraging undergraduate students to think critically and develop their skills, research will help to enhance their student experience and increase their employability upon graduation.

The call for submissions is now open, and all BU undergraduate students – from all schools and courses – are eligible to apply.  Examples of research could be anything from preparing for a dissertation or an essay to work carried out during a placement year to volunteering or work with academic societies.   The main criteria is that evidence of the student’s own critical thinking can be demonstrated.  As well as developing new skills, this is a good opportunity to enhance their CVs through a conference presentation, publication of abstract or even being the winner of awards and prizes.

To get involved, register on SUREBU’s website and submit an abstract.  Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, with a title no longer than 150 characters.  The deadline for submission is 5th January 2015.  If you know of a student or recent graduate who would be eligible to submit, do encourage them to apply!