Category / Research themes

Global trends reports: environmental concerns at record lows

This is a disappointing global trend which shows a decreasing concern for the environment.
http://www.globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2013/261-environmental-concerns-at-record-lows-global-poll.html
We need to debate what is behind this – is it a reflection of a society that is becoming apathetic, is it because governments have not been doing enough, is it a reflection of the financial situation? At a time when the earth faces so many challenges and people need to be engaged to secure sustainable development, these issues merit further exploration.
On a more positive note I have had a sly preview of NUS data on students perceptions of the role of universitites and SD – students generally believe (and expect) universitites should do more. The NUS results will suggest a much more positive picture.

In relation to the role of universities, I have just contributed the ‘leadership’ chapter to a new book  The Sustainable University: progress and prospects. The Chair of our Board at Bournemouth University has contributed a ‘vignette’ about the role of Chairs. The book offers some explanations of why progress to date has hardly been transformational.  Details available at

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415627740/

Chris

Dr. Peter Bridgewater, Chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, is coming to BU tomorrow!

Research themes

The Environmental Change & Biodiversity Research Theme would like to invite you to their seminar tomorrow from 11am to 1pm in the Coyne Lecture Theatre. Dr. Peter Bridgewater, Chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, will lead the seminar and discuss “Biodiversity governance in the Anthropocene”.

Peter has had a glittering career in the science-policy interface. He currently holds a position as the chairman of the JNCC and has held many reputable positions in the past, including but not limited to: chair of the International Whaling Commission, Secretary General of the RAMSAR convention of wetlands, Chief Scientist UK Nature Conservancy Council and a position on the Board of the Millenium Assessment.

The seminar will be held in the Coyne Lecture Theatre from 11am to 1pm . All are welcome, so please come by if you’re interested in hearing more from Peter!

Dr. Peter Bridgewater, Chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee is coming to BU!

Research themes

The Environmental Change & Biodiversity Research Theme would like to invite you to their seminar on 5 March. Dr. Peter Bridgewater, Chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, will lead the seminar and discuss “Biodiversity governance in the Anthropocene”.

Peter has had a glittering career in the science-policy interface. He currently holds a position as the chairman of the JNCC and has held many reputable positions in the past, including but not limited to: chair of the International Whaling Commission, Secretary General of the RAMSAR convention of wetlands, Chief Scientist UK Nature Conservancy Council and a position on the Board of the Millenium Assessment.

The seminar will be held in the Coyne Lecture Theatre from 11am to 1pm on 5 March. All are welcome, so please come by if you’re interested in hearing more from Peter!

Competition open!

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

The website is now live and features all the details of how to enter the competition.

The competition has already been presented to students at BU and AUB – we go on the road next week to start promoting it at other UK universities.

Details of both the competition and the festival can be found at www.bfxfestival.com

Fusion Investment Fund – Decreasing spatial disorientation: towards dementia-friendly environments

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

Dr Jan Wiener (DEC) and myself are delighted to have been awarded Fusion funding to develop a student driven research programme to investigate navigation and orientation skills in people with dementia.

Spatial disorientation is among the earliest indicators of dementia, an increasingly common condition in our ageing society that currently costs the UK £23 billion annually. We aim to develop an inter-disciplinary eye-tracking research programme to investigate factors that affect spatial disorientation in people with dementia. Data gathered will be used to formulate design principles for dementia-friendly care homes, potentially reducing care costs, and leading to new knowledge with significance and reach.

To record gaze when solving wayfinding tasks, we will combine eye-tracking, head tracking and virtual reality (VR) technology. Participants will stand or sit in front of an array of large monitors arranged in a semi-circle that subtends their entire horizontal visual field and affords natural viewing behaviour. In order to create this unique and technically advanced research environment, students from DEC, HSC and the Media School will collaborate as researchers, increasing their skills through immersive experience on a well-designed, cutting-edge research programme.

This will give ambitious students with different backgrounds a unique opportunity to work co-operatively as part of a high-level, well-resourced multi-disciplinary team. We will share the knowledge we gain on improving dementia care home design with the academic community, practitioners, service providers, and the general public. These links will in turn enable us to form strategic local and national partnerships to ensure that the knowledge gained has an impact on professional practice.

Dr Mariela Gaete Reyes (HSC/BUDI) & Dr Jan Wiener (DEC)

Renewable energy and renewable technology within the BU fusion and cross-school collaboration initiative

Fusion

This cross-school fusion event is an opportunity to hear about renewable energy initiatives that are engaging the local community and businesses.  A multi-disciplinary network has been developed that engages students with practitioners, real world issues and the development of practical solutions.  In the presentations we will discuss the student experience and how this initiative is developing the transferable skills needed for employment in the 21st century.  You will also hear about the multi-disciplinary network that has been created to focus on renewable energy and renewable technology, current activities and future potential.  There will be an opportunity for informal discussion with those involved and for networking with local businesses and community organisations.

The event will take place on Thursday, 14 February from 1300-1530 in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham Library. For a full programme and more detail, please click here.

To book your place, please email staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk.

BFX

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

In November 2012 the VFX Hub – a HEIF funded initiative from BU and AUB, launched BFX, a 5-day festival of Animation and Visual Effects that will be held annually in Bournemouth.

One of the highlights of BFX will be a competition which aims to discover the best new talent in Visual Effects and will run from July to mid August 2013, with the winners being announced during the festival in September. Competitors will be expected to form teams of 4-6 members and will have to submit a written creative and technical treatment that explains in detail how they intend to produce an animated or VFX sequence in answer one of five specific briefs. Following the recent award of Fusion Funding the VFX Hub team will be presenting BFX to an international audience at FMX in Stuttgart during April, as well as pitching the competition to Animation and VFX students at several other UK Universities in the coming weeks – with the aim of attracting teams from at least 8 other institutions. The teams will live on campus at BU free-of-charge for the duration of the competition and each member will receive a £70 per week stipend towards their cost of living expenses. The work produced by the teams will mentored throughout the 6-weeks by professionals from Soho VFX companies Framestore, Double Negative, Cinesite, MPC and The Mill.

The rest of the festival itinerary will be updated on the website as events, venues and personalities are confirmed; it will include master classes, workshops, screenings, an exhibition and advice on careers and education.

PhD student at HSC? BEACON needs you

PG research

Ref: (http://www.sterlingtimes.org/kitchener.jpg)

Wondered if you had thought of writing a few lines for this years Beacon on your PhD study.

Just a short summary.  It could be as little as 150 words, nothing to big.  Just to raise the awareness of your work internally.

Please email <ssharma@bournemouth.ac.uk> Thanks Sheetal!

Euro PR history network backed by Fusion

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

IHPRC at EBC - Scene for first EPRHN meeting

A proposal to develop an innovative Europe-wide network of researchers in the history of public relations field has been supported by the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF).

The European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) was formed in mid-2012 by Prof Tom Watson and backed by EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education & Research Association) as a priority project for the next three years. It was set up to identify archives and resources, undertake collaborative research, and prepare bids to European research bodies and PR industry organisations.

The field of public relations history has been developed at BU over the past four years, mainly through the establishment of the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC).

Prof Watson said: “there has been increasing interest in the conference and PR historical research in Europe over the past 3-4 years but it has largely focused on national histories, personalities or phenomena. Collaborative research, across national boundaries, has yet to emerge. There is little shared knowledge of archival resources, where they exist or can be created.”

So far, 35 academics and practitioners from 12 countries have shown their interest in EPRHN. Its first publication, a catalogue of archives and resources in seven countries has just been published.  A EPRHN planning meeting will be held at BU after IHPRC in June.

Within The Media School, the network will also help develop European aspects of the Centre for Media History (CMH). CMH is already developing relationships with universities in Sweden and northern Germany. CMH and EPRHN will, it is hoped, foster the recruitment of PGR students interested in media and communication historical research.

The Fusion funding will allow EPRHN to hold a planning event at BU after IHPRC in late June and for Prof Watson and Dr Tasos Theofilou, who is working with him on both PR history projects, to attend EUPRERA’s annual conference in Barcelona in October. At EUPRERA, they will hold the network’s first formal meeting and workshop. [Photos by Minna-Liisa Nurmilaasko, PROCOM Finland].

IHPRC 2012

Fusion supports new PR research collaboration in Asia

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research themes

Prof Tom Watson teaching at Chulalongkorn University

For several years, the Media School (TMS) has been developing a relationship with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Chula, as it is known, is rated as the No.1 university in the kingdom.

The SMN award allows the development of a collaborative project between TMS and the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chula to organise an academic conference on public relations in Asia in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The conference will provide a platform for academic research on public relations history, current theory and practice, and future trends. In particular, it will investigate Asian (i.e. non Anglo-American) perspectives of public relations and will be the first dedicated conference to do so.

Prof Tom Watson, who is a co-chair of the conference, says the SMN funding “will lead to the development of a sustainable academic and research partnership between the two universities. It will enable BU staff participation in cross-cultural research with Thai colleagues. The conference will also place BU in a leadership role on research into cross-cultural communications and international public relations.”

Dr Ana Adi is working with Prof Watson on the project. She taught at Chula in mid-2012 on a staff exchange. She and at least one other TMS academic will be attending the conference and presenting papers.

The conference collaboration started with attendance by Chula’s Dr Napawan Tantivejakul at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2011 at BU, which began a dialogue about a joint conference with an Asian focus. This was cemented when Prof Watson visited Chula in November last year as a visiting professor and negotiated the arrangements. It is hoped that there will be 16 speakers, plus two keynotes, and 50 delegates at the November event.

Sport and Human Rights

Fusion

The Leisure and Recreation Theme starts its 2013 Seminar series with a session by Dr Andrew Adams on sport and human rights.  Recently Andrew has published on topics including:

Sport and leisure ethics, rights and relationships and, Do the Olympics help in securing or removing human rights? An exploration of the Olympic Game’s role as a catalyst for political change and human rights enhancement.

This promises to be a lively and thought provoking session with refreshments!

Wednesday 30th January at 2.00pm. TAG 01 

Do you have an interest in internal marketing?

Research themes

Within the Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth BU research theme we have recently formed a small group looking at internal marketing.

Internal marketing is essentially inward facing marketing that engages with employees rather than external audiences such as customers. It is about treating staff as internal customers so that they understand and contribute to the vision and goals of the firm. Internal marketing is two-way communication process that can increase staff motivation, improve customer service and contribute the overall success of a firm. Internal marketing can also help with improving communication in all parts of the organisation and so improving overall brand values and resultant communication externally. Naturally, this theme involves the business disciplines of Marketing and HR, but we are also interested to hear from anyone who has an interest or expertise in this area who would like to get involved with this group.

If you are interested in joining this group or learning more about our plans then feel free to contact any of the group members: Julie Robson, Yasmin Sekhon, Lois Farquharson and Fabian Homberg.

Developing a working paper at BU

Fusion, PG research, Publishing, Research themes

I would like to make you aware of an exciting development at BU.

A multi-disciplinary group of BU academics has been meeting over the last 6 months in order to design a online journal that is capable of acting as a central focus for the dissemination of the high quality research and scholarly outputs from UG and PG dissertations, post graduate researchers, early career researchers and established academic staff. The group has designed a developmental working paper online journal that will support ‘would be’ authors and their potential publications. Although particular emphasis has been given to maximising high quality outputs of UG and PG students and early career academics, this online journal will be capable of supporting the potential of all those engaged in research and scholarship at BU.

Below are a series of Q & As:

 

What’s the name of the working paper?

The provisional title is eBU: Working Papers Online

 

How is the working paper structured?

The working paper will not be limited to any one discipline or allied to any one particular methodology, but will aim to publish articles driven by the key BU Research Themes: (Creative and Digital Economies, Culture and Society, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Environmental Change and Biodiversity, Green Economy and Sustainability, Health, Wellbeing and Ageing, Leisure and Recreation, Technology and Design). Apart from the build-up to launch, the working paper will have no deadlines or specific calls for papers. Instead, the working paper will work on a rolling submission process.

A set of author guidelines and details about formats are currently being considered and written. However, the guidelines are likely to accommodate a wide range of formats.

 

What are the submission processes for staff and students?

It is envisaged that staff will act as gatekeepers and encourage undergraduate and master’s students to submit high quality work into a format this is publishable. Post-graduate researchers and academic members of staff will be able to submit papers on their own accord.

After a short review from the editorial board, two designated BU academics will provide an initial quality check. The paper will then be uploaded to the internal intranet working paper site. This will allow any member of staff or student to read and offer feedback. However, within a few weeks the two designed reviewers will then provide a more comprehensive and detailed critical review. All reviews will take place in a safe, secure and INTERNAL environment. After a detailed review, students will then be encouraged to make any recommended changes and submit to external publication/or make their work available to be published on external working paper website.

This working paper is set to go live in March.

 

Further information

If anyone is interested in becoming involved in helping to create this online journal, and/or at an editorial level please get in touch with Andrew Harding (aharding@bournemouth.ac.uk), Andrew Adams (aadams@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Fiona Knight (fknight@bournemouth.ac.uk).