Category / Research themes

FIF Staff Mobility and Networking award helping me fly

Funding opportunities, Fusion

Early in January I received the good news that my application to the Fusion Investment Fund SMN strand was successful. What a great way to start the New Year!

The main aim of my FIF SMN project is to consolidate newly developed partnerships with European and non-European researchers and stakeholders. Planned activities include visits to colleagues who were involved in the development of the research proposal “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast” (LEEC), submitted to the EU FP7 call on Environment (Challenge 6.4 Protecting citizens from environmental hazards). LEEC successfully passed stage 1 and we are now waiting for the outcome of stage 2, so keep your fingers crossed.

As my FIF SMN proposal builds from LEEC, I decided to call it “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast Grant Development” (LEEC GraDe). Not very creative, but it reflects well the main objective, which is to explore opportunities for collaborative research in topics related to LEEC. LEEC aims to better understand how extreme storms and climate change in coastal areas will affect flood risk and impact on society, infrastructure, economic activities and the natural environment throughout the 21th century.

Besides, the development of collaborative research proposals, I will also be exploring opportunities for enhancing students’ experience, e.g. through work placements. By the time I submitted the FIF SMN proposal, I had just taken the role of ApSci’s Academic Lead for Placements. In this role, one of my objectives is to increase the offer of research-based placements to our students. So I thought my networking visits would be a great opportunity to discuss with colleagues from organisations in Europe and abroad whether they are interested in offering to our students a research-based working experience. Many researchers systematically plan their fieldwork campaigns or dedicate larger proportion of their time to research in the summer, so a work placement can be mutually beneficial.

I so much believe in the benefits of this arrangement that I am offering two placements this summer to undergrad ApSci students. If you are interested in doing the same, please contact me.

LEEC partners are from 13 organisations spread across eight countries (Estonia, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, UK, Mexico and Vietnam). The FIF SMN award will allow me to visit some of these organisations and engage in other networking opportunities. I will be very busy networking throughout 2013! Hopefully the effort will result in the submission of more collaborative research proposals and a number of arrangements made to enrich students’ experiences through placements or exchanges.

The first of my planned activities was to attend the 12th International Coastal Symposium (ICS) in Plymouth (http://ics2013.org/) earlier this month. This is the largest international conference focused on coastal research with over 500 participants, so a great venue to disseminate research results, to keep updated with research progress worldwide and to network! I was invited to be the convener of the Coastal Evolution and Geomorphology session, so worked very hard evaluating abstracts and full papers before the conference! I also presented a paper on the Coastal Management session, entitled “Is managed realignment a sustainable long-term coastal management approach?” You can find a copy of the paper on BRIAN.

ICS offered the opportunity to meet many ‘old’ friends and make new contacts worldwide, including from countries I had none before, such as Trinidad & Tobago and South Africa. I have already exchanged email with a few of the new (and old) contacts and there are very exciting prospects for future collaboration. I have discussed the preparation of a joint paper with a colleague from the University of Rostock (Germany), explored ways to collaborate with practitioners from a government agency in Trinidad & Tobago and I am already working on a proposal with colleagues from South Africa. The most immediate result from networking during ICS was the invitation to visit five different organisations in Mexico, which is planned to happen in June.

Networking is also about maximising the opportunities and I will be doing exactly that next month in Brazil. I was invited to give a keynote talk in the National Symposium of Coastal Vulnerability. As the hosts are taking me to Brazil, I will extend my stay and visit two universities using SMN funds. The plan is to start building a joint research proposal to submit to the Science without borders programme (funding source from Brazil) with the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and discuss exchange of postgraduate students and other opportunities with the Universidade do Vale do Itai.

Please watch this space for upcoming news!

Luciana Slomp Esteves (Lecturer in Physical Geography, ApSci)

Health, Wellbeing & Ageing workshop on 10 May – US perspective on the care of older people

On 10 May, Prof Phil Clark from the University of Rhode Island in the US will be running a workshop for our Health, Wellbeing and Ageing theme from 10-12pm (a short Bio is pasted below) in R207. Lunch will be provided. Please email Julia Hastings Taylor if you would like to attend.

Phil will offer us his perspective on the care of older people in the US and particularly the importance of interprofessional collaboration for older adults from the US perspective.

He will then work with us to explore opportunities for publishing for US audiences in this field as well as opportunities for making collaborative research and education links between BU and the University of Rhode Island and other US institutions especially in the field of interagency, interprofessional education and practice as well as Ageing.

Phil is on sabbatical with us from 6-25 May.  He has offered to give guest lectures on subjects to students related to Working Together in the Care of Older Adults and Interprofessional Teamwork in the US.  If this is something you would like to offer your students between these dates please contact Sarah Hean.

Dr Phillip G. Clark is Professor and Director of both the Program in Gerontology and the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center at the University of Rhode Island in the US, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. He was awarded a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard University in 1979. He has served as Visiting Professor at the Universities of Guelph and Toronto in Canada (1988-89), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Buskerud University College in Norway (2007). His experience includes teaching health care teamwork, developing interprofessional health care research and demonstration projects, and consulting on interprofessional educational program development and evaluation. He is co-author of Health Care Teamwork: Interdisciplinary Practice and Teaching (Auburn House/Greenwood, 2000); his work has been published in The Gerontologist, Canadian Journal on Aging, Journal of Aging and Health, Ageing and Society, Educational Gerontology, Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, and the Journal of Interprofessional Care. Dr. Clark is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.  He is Visiting Professor at the School of Health and Social Care, Bournemouth University and on the leadership group of the Special Interest Group IN-2-THEORY (Interprofessional scholarship, education and practice).

Finding (and defining) Friendly in New York City

Fusion, Research themes

‘Dementia Friendly’ is a sound bite used frequently at the moment in my field. This is in part due to the Prime Ministers 2012 Dementia Challenge which has a particular component aspiring to the creation of 20 dementia friendly towns/cities by 2015. But what does dementia friendly actually mean? and how do we know when we have an example of something that is dementia friendly? A colleague and I spent a week in New York City earlier this month and we were truly ‘wowed’ by the dementia friendly initiatives we witnessed. The first was at MOMA where they have an established programme for people with dementia that we were lucky enough to be able to join one afternoon. What made this programme dementia friendly? Three things in my view; first the educators (their term) made no attempt to ‘dumb down’ their offering to those with dementia (too often people with dementia are treated as less able without first having tested the waters to see if  just because the label of ‘dementia’ applied means that the person is unable to participate in various everyday activites ‘as usual’ or if it needs modified in some way, in this case participating in an arts appreciation programme). Two it was extremely difficult to tell who might have dementia and who were the accompanying family members and finally the contributions from the group reflected the individual perspective different people have on what is ‘art’, what they like, or in the case of one man what was ‘trash’ (every piece we stopped at!). We were also invited to join a choir rehearsing in a cathedral (an extremely modern building that we walked by twice before realising this was the cathedral, another story…) for the final time before performing at MOMA the following week (we didn’t get to see the real performance as back at BU by then). This choir group, known as ‘The Unforgettables’, was amazing, the two directors created an unbelievable energy in the room, there was laughter, fun, serious points made about music/signing. Individuals who could barely walk took their turn to stand by the piano and sing heart rending solos which brought a tear to the eye, a lump to the throat. By contrast, other couples sang humourous duets. This was an inspiring group to witness. The choir directors had again made a conscious decision not to ‘dumb down’ their approach but to encourage and challenge, in the same way that they would any other choral group. The results were incredible. We were offered hospitality by the group members, the only tell tale sign that one particular man had dementia was his bringing us 5 cups of iced tea and numerous plates of fruit/cake/biscuits as he didn’t remember that he had already been up to the table and brought us over some goodies. We also visited the Metropolitan Museum, again with long established groups for people with dementia. Some involve art making, others art appreciation, others tours of different parts of the museum. Again the underpinning philosophy is one of ability to engage, to promote intellectual stimulation, social interaction and also the programmes encourage a degree of physical activity by choosing exhibits at various places throughout the building (mental, physical and social stimulation being key to reducing risk of developing dementia, but also to maintaining well-being once diagnosed).

We went to New York because we had heard about the programmes and wanted to see if possible to learn and implement back here in Dorset but also to meet with academic colleagues, present at NYU, meet with the US Alzheimer Association (which has really made us think about donations and fund raising to support our work) and these were also very productive parts of the trip and reinforced that the approach we are taking at BU Dementia Institute is one that we should continue (mainly that engagement and collaboration with the range of stakeholders that has been guiding our work should continue). But what stands out for me is the energy and enthusiasm of those running groups for people with dementia and the huge engagement and enjoyment this approach created. The US might not have a ‘dementia friendly agenda’ being driven at a national policy level,  and New York might not immediately spring to mind as a place where one could live well with dementia, but the initiatives we saw clearly demonstrate the possibility to create dementia friendly environments even in places where sign posting might not be clear, transport busy and where the assumption that services ‘cost’ can be challenged (all the programmes we joined are free to those with dementia).

Success of FIF application within SMN strand

Fusion

Developing an International Face of Fusion

Following the success of  FIF SMN application two mutual visits were made. Professor Ramesh visited BU during Nov-Dec 2012 for 5 weeks. This was followed by a week visit by Dr Zulfiqar Khan during Feb 2013 to PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India. This activity resulted in significant achievements over all areas of FUSION in research, education and professional practice. Both Prof. C S Ramesh and Dr Zulfiqar Khan participated in teaching activities at BU and PES IT Bangalore respectively.

Education

Participation in education has resulted in enhanced students’ experience at level C and H. Level H students have produced journal publications, a major achievement of this activity and has provided example of engaging UG students in research activities through research informed education. Students’ engagement with research has enhanced their experience at BU, awareness of the international activities and advancement in nano-technology and nano materials. Publications by UG students will play a very significant role in the promotion of BU and raising its academic profile at international stage as leader in FUSION.

Research/Professional Practice

This programme provided opportunity of developing research proposals and bidding for external funding in collaboration with external academic and industrial partners.

One research proposals was developed in collaboration with academic partners as PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India, Visvesvaraya Technological University and industrial partners National Aerospace Laboratories India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd India, Gas Turbine Research Establishment India and Ingersoll Rand India to target EPSRC-DST initiative. Through the development and submission of research proposal for the EPSRC-DST (BU/PESIT India) application significant industrial links have been initiated and will be further strengthened in near future, through the formation of an International Consortium in Renewable Energy & Renewable Technology (RERT).

A second research proposal was developed with PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India to target World Bank initiative  in Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP).

A joint research proposal to Erasmus Mundus JASMINE Techno III has been submitted as part of the fusion activity and has provided opportunity to increase and further strengthen collaborative links with cross-channel (France), EU & Indian partners.

In addition the proposed programme within FIF SMN resulted in publications of three journal papers of which two were published with the final year Design Engineering students. Four conference papers were submitted/ published of which 1 conference paper was submitted with UG final year Design Engineering student and PGR.

Further Plans

It is aimed to form an international consortium and strengthen exiting partnerships around the world including key academic partners such as PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India, Visvesvaraya Technological University, India, GIK Institute of Technology, Pakistan and Wisconsin-University Milwaukee, US.

This partnership will pave way for exploring future opportunities of tapping into external funds e.g. National Science Foundation (NSF), The World Bank, EPSRC-DST (Department of Science and Technology India), developing and submitting joint research proposals, developing case studies for UG and PGT taught provisions and staff/students exchanges.

Fusion in Action Conference

During the Fusion in Action Conference on Thursday April 18, 2013 the highlights of the programme in terms of activities in research, education and professional practice and successes to date were presented, which has been uploaded Fusion in Action 180413.

Finally I would like to thank BU for providing such a fantastic opportunity within FIF and the School for their continued support during the programme.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan

Director Sustainable Design Research Centre

DEC

State of Yawning – Santander Travel Scholarship awarded to Dr Simon Thompson

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

Studying yawning has the potentially benefit of identifying underlying neurological disorders. Strong evidence of a link between yawning and fatigue, and with multiple sclerosis, is known. Mechanisms involved in excessive yawning are not understood and my work has shown a definitive link between yawning and cortisol levels in normal people. However, since people with multiple sclerosis often yawn excessively, it is important to establish whether or not their cortisol levels rise as with normal people since prolonged rises in cortisol levels indicate stress and may also indicate adverse neurological symptomatology. My work has generated a new hypothesis to explain the occurrence of excessive yawning and is complementary to Dr Gallup’s theories on thermoregulation in multiple sclerosis, which is pioneering. I am meeting Dr Gallup (Princeton University) in New York to discuss further studies in order to stay ahead of research progress. This is an excellent opportunity for kudos for Bournemouth University in being the first to carry out such research.

Business School Arrivals

The Business School has seen the arrival of its new Deputy Dean of Research, Andy Mullineux (formerly University of Birmingham) as Professor of Financial Economics. Additional to his wisdom he comes with an AHRC Research Award worth £687K. End of April he will be chairing a session and give a paper at the International Conference on the Global Financial Crisis in Southampton. At the same time the new Head of Department of Accounting, Finance & Economics, Jens Hölscher (formerly University of Brighton), came to Bournemouth as Professor of Economics. He can draw on research funds won under the EU’s Jean Monnet programme and will chair a session and give a paper at a conference on The Pacific Rim Economies in Seoul, South Korea, at the end of April. Both of them have high aspirations to boost the research culture within the school.

Insurance and meerkats

What do insurance and meerkats have in common? On the face of it – very little. For comparethemarket.com, the well-known insurance aggregator, the combination has proven to be extremely successful and has captured the public’s imagination. The campaign achieved its 12 months targets in just 9 weeks and Aleksandr, the main character, has his own Facebook fans, is followed on Twitter and has received numerous marriage proposals.

Comparethemarket.com, or should that be Comparethemeerkat.com, was just one of the advertising campaigns reviewed by Dr. Julie Robson at a recent presentation on “Changes in Insurance Advertising” for the Bournemouth Insurance Institute.

Julie’s talk examined how advertising content, structure and style have changed over time. Beginning with one of the earliest forms of insurance advertising, as early as the 1700s, where fire insurance plaques were placed on the front of the insured’s building, signifying which company the property was insured with. She then tracked through the decades of change in advertising to today’s advertisements looking at visual prominence; the use of puns, metaphors and ambiguity; emotional vs. rational appeals; and the increasing use of digital technology within the sector.

Julie also examined what advertising works in a recession and how to get the most from your marketing budget before going on to look at some of the trends for the near future.

The Insurance Institute of Bournemouth has over 1,000 members and is part of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the leading professional body for the global financial services profession.

Dr. Julie Robson specialises in financial services marketing. She has presented her research at internal conferences and published in academic journals on a range of marketing topics in the banking, insurance, broker and Islamic finance sectors. She has secured grants from the ESRC and HEIF to support this work and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Bank Marketing. Julie is currently Chair of the Qualifications Examination and Assessments Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and a past President and current Education Secretary for the Bournemouth Insurance Institute.

CEMP Research & Innovation Cluster Bulletin / Agenda

Funding opportunities

The updated cluster bulletin and agenda for the next meeting is here:  CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 18.4.3.13

The reading matter for the ‘think-tank’ discussion is here: Postill-Pink-socialmedia-ethnography

Please note that, due to Easter holidays, the meeting is a week later than usual – taking place now at 9.30am on Thursday 18th April in the CEMP office.

As always, anyone wishing to pursue a funding opportunity in the bulletin, suggest a project relating to pedagogy / innovation or just find out more about the cluster, you are VERY welcome to come to the meeting, just let me (Julian) know in advance. Same applies if you have ideas for collaboration but cannot attend the meeting.

 

 

Want a challenge? short term secondment opportunity @ the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute

The BU Dementia Institute is growing fast with staff or students involved in various ways from all BU schools. We have a short term secondment opportunity (3 months) to work with us as Project manager to help develop our profile, income streams and to work on selected existing projects. Interested? Take a look at http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/jobs/hsc184.html and drop me an email if you would like to discuss ainnes@bournemouth.ac.uk

To Initiate a Research Platform for Electric Vehicle (EV) Business Ecosystem Research

Fusion

This project (sponsored by SMN Strand Santander Scholarships), is conducted by Dr.Ke Rong (Business School) and Dr.Nigel Williams(Tourism School) to initiate an university-industry research platform between UK-China for the emerging electric vehicle business ecosystem and business model research. This project would help BU secure an active position in the electric vehicle industry research. The research platform will integrate scholars of Santander Universities including two Chinese top universities (Tsinghua and CEIBS) and two UK top universities (Cambridge, Bath) as well as two committed EV companies. Based on this platform, the industrial fieldwork and one public seminar on EV industry development will be organized in China by engaging top scholars and practitioners which will expand BU’s reputation in China and UK. One journal paper of EV ecosystem would be developed based on our research.

For more information, please contact Dr Ke Rong (krong@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

BU academics to look at access to maternity services in Nepal with Fellowship grant

A team from Bournemouth University will look at why women in Nepal don’t use health services when giving birth, after receiving the first International Fellowship for Midwives. The Fellowship is awarded by the charity Wellbeing of Women, in association with the Royal College of Midwives, for research into maternity services and women’s health from an international perspective. The team from BU will use the £20,000 Fellowship grant to look at the real and perceived barriers to women in Nepal giving birth within a health facility with a skilled birth attendant.

“There is evidence that access to skilled birth attendant is likely to lead to a better outcome for the mother and baby,” said Lesley Milne, senior lecturer in Midwifery at Bournemouth University, who will lead the project. “If they don’t, it is more likely to end in a maternal mortality, and we are trying to determine why women in Nepal don’t access health services.”

Lesley will be supported by Vanora Hundley, Professor in Midwifery at BU, Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research at BU, and Dr Padam Simkhada, from the University of Sheffield. The year-long project will start on April 1 and the money received as part of the Fellowship will enable Lesley to go to Nepal for three weeks in September to undertake the research. She said: “This would not be possible if we had not been awarded this money. It’s fantastic to have received this grant and we are really pleased about it.” She added: “There is an under-utilisation of health services in Nepal. It is about getting women to use the services available and trying to find out why many of them currently don’t. I will be going out to Nepal to observe and also undertake some interviews of health personnel of both a rural hospital and a hospital in Kathmandu, to try to see what they think is preventing women from accessing services.” Lesley added that possible reasons for women not accessing health services could include having to travel a long way, having had poor previous experiences or their cultural beliefs.

Bournemouth University has been building links with Nepal across a number of areas and academic schools, including the School of Health and Social Care, and both Lesley and fellow researcher Professor Edwin van Teijlingen have experience in the surrounding area. Lesley said that she hoped the research could be a springboard for future study. “I hope that we may have a great insight into why women aren’t accessing services and hopefully will be able to address that in the future,” she said.

Face Blindness Public Awareness Campaign Gets Underway!

Research from BU’s Centre for Face Processing Disorders was featured in a CBBC documentary today.  The film was entitled ‘My life: Who are you?’ and followed the journey of Hannah, a teenager with face blindness, as she participated in one of our training programmes and discusses the difficulties of everyday life.  The documentary also featured Hannah meeting another girl with face blindness for the first time, and her encounter with Duncan Bannatyne who also has the condition.

We are so pleased with the documentary, and felt the producers did an excellent job in portraying the condition with scientific accuracy, and in demonstrating the difficulties associated with face blindness.  Despite Hannah’s struggles she still maintains a positive attitude to life and the film does an excellent job of presenting her as the remarkable young lady that she is, who was so keen to make the film in order to raise public awareness of the condition.  Hannah’s story illustrates how life can be affected by brain injury, but her remarkable positivity shines through as the programme follows her journey.

If you missed the programme you can watch it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/cbbc/episode/b01rlyc9/My_Life_Who_Are_You/

We recently launched an e-petition that aims to promote public and professional awareness of prosopagnosia by campaigning for its discussion in the House of Commons.  We need to gain 100,000 signatures to make this happen, so if you were moved by the documentary, please do add your signature:

http://www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org/awareness/e-petition

Our public awareness campaign has only just taken off so watch this space for more activities!

Realities of fieldwork: Sheetal Sharma, HSC PhD student on fieldwork in rural Nepal.

PG research

(c) Sheetal Sharma

Open air focus group in rural Nepal, (c) Sheetal Sharma 2013.


Roosters crowing, cows mooing, bleating goats, birds chirping, mobile phones ringing, children screaming, laughing and running around while women, breastfeeding, talk over one another excitedly in the sun as they need to leave us soon to drop the children off to school and/or head to the field to cultivate the season’s crop this spring it is wheat, last summer, rice. Women do this work as most of their husbands are away in the capital, Kathmandu or in the Arab Gulf. This is the reality of conducting focus groups in rural Nepal.

Although we, as researchers, spend considerable time to perfect the ideal ‘tool’ of the interview schedule and imagine the transcription clear and the background; a researcher must be prepared for every eventuality. Noise, din and interruptions: Today a dog nibbled on a nearby goat and a few men kept creeping to listen in why was this videshi (foreigner) recording conversations and making notes. The women shooed them away as today was a discussion on contraception; also that the discussion of the focus groups should be in ‘controlled environment’, safe, quiet; and in Nepal where women are not the main decision-maker for their reproductive health, it should mean a lieu women should be able to discuss freely these issues. In this Green Tara’s (www.greentaratrust.com) intervention area, which my PhD, supervised at HSC BU by Catherine Angell, Vanora Hundley, Edwin van Teijlingen and University of Sheffield’s Padam Simkhada, aims to evaluate both quantitatively and qualitatively, shows one the decision-making outcomes improved: increased the use of contraception in the Pharping area from 4.3% (2008) to 24.6% (2012) after 5 years of health promotion conducted by two auxiliary nurse-midwives.
40 minutes later recording (with 2 digital recorders) and once the demographic data and recording is double-checked and any last questions answered we set off walking 2 hours downhill visiting a tea-shop on the way for a cup of chai.

Edwin van Teijlingen and Emma Pitchforth, Qualitative Research: Focus group research in family planning and reproductive health care J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2006;32:1 30-32doi:10.1783/147118906775275299
http://jfprhc.bmj.com/content/32/1/30.citation