Category / BU research

Changes to ESRC New Investigator Grant scheme

BU research, Funding opportunities

ESRC are pleased to confirm that from 1 January 2020 they will be revising the eligibility criteria for this scheme to remove the four-year time bound criterion. This change is in recognition of the increasing diversity of career paths and trajectories and ESRC’s ambition to be as inclusive and supportive of these as possible.

New Investigator grants will remain a funding opportunity aimed at supporting early career researchers who have yet to make the transition to be an independent researcher, but from January the onus will be on applicants to articulate why they consider themselves to be in that career stage. This could reflect differences across disciplines or fields of research; periods of employment in non-research roles; where applicants are looking to re-skill in new research area; or, where relevant, personal circumstances such as career breaks. Peer reviewers will be directed to consider that justification when they assess applications.

This justification will need to be included in an attachment to proposals submitted from 1 January onwards. If you are in the process of developing an ESRC New Investigator Grant then please speak with your RDS Funding Development Officer.  The updated call guidance will be published in December at the following website: https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/new-investigator-grants/

FHSS PhD student Orlanda Harvey in this month’s edition of HED Matters

BU research, Doctoral College, ECR Network, Featured academics, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Student Engagement, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

PhD student Orlanda Harvey featured in this month’s edition of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [1].  HED Matters is an online magazine about the use of legal and illegal substances to enhance the human condition published biannually by the HED network. It brings together recent advances in drug research and experiences from both drug users and practitioners. This December 2019 issue focuses on sexual human enhancers.  Orlanda’s PhD research project addresses men’s experiences of recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) use.

Earlier this year she also published a peer-reviewed paper form her research : “Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Scoping Review into what they want and what they access” in the Open Access journal BMC Public Health [2].  Since there is a paucity of research on support for people using Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS), this latter article synthesised the available evidence.  Orlanda’s  PhD I the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences is being supervised by Dr Margarete Parrish, Dr Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.

 

References:

  1. Harvey, O., (2019) ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids, HED Matters 2(2):16-19.
  2. Harvey, O., Keen, S., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Literature Review into what they want and what they access. BMC Public Health 19: 1024      https://rdcu.be/bMFon

Women academics, social media and gender-based violence.

BU research, hate crime, Impact, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network

Dr Emma Kavanagh and Dr Lorraine Brown (FoM) have just published a paper entitled ‘Towards a research agenda for examining online gender-based violence against women academics’. Work on this topic was inspired by Emma’s research on the online violence experienced by female athletes and further influenced by work on sexual harassment by the Women’s Academic Network (WAN), which ran a symposium on the topic in June this year. The writing of the paper was supported through writing retreats organised by WAN. The focus of this paper builds upon the critical mass of research being conducted exploring inter-personal violence and gender-based violence in sporting spaces by members of the Department of Sport and Event Management, and the work of the Bournemouth University Gender Research Group.

There is an increasing call for academics to promote their research and enhance their impact through engaging in digital scholarship through social media platforms. While there are numerous benefits concerned with increasing the reach of academic work using virtual platforms, it has been widely noted that social media sites, such as Twitter, are spaces where hostility towards women and hate speech are increasingly normalised. In their paper, Emma and Lorraine provide a review of the current literature concerning violence toward women academics online and further provide suggestions for a research agenda which aims to understand the phenomena of gender-based violence more clearly and work toward safeguarding (female) academics engaging in digital scholarship. As they rightly state: “institutions such as universities that are increasingly placing pressure on women academics to engage in virtual platforms to disseminate their work have a responsibility in the prevention and protection of harm”.

The 11th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference

BU research, conferences, Doctoral College, Events, Featured, PG research, Research communication, student research

Wednesday 4 December played host to The 11th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference which took place in the Fusion Building. To view highlights of the day visit #BUPGRConf19 on twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live Research Exhibition

The day commenced with the live research exhibition where delegates had the opportunity to learn and practice infant CPR using a modified infant manikin and received novel real-time feedback via a monitor being used as part of Debora Almeida’s PhD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denyse King offered visitors to her live research exhibition the opportunity to immerse themselves in demos of virtual reality learning environments being developed as part of her cross-faculty EdD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen Slater shared with delegates a visualisation and sound installation of forest biodiversity and wildlife she is monitoring as part of her PhD.

Poster Presentations

The event saw nearly 30 posters on display with PGRs presenting and discussing their research with peers and colleagues from across the university. The live research exhibition and poster presentation room had a wonderful energy all morning and we also had the pleasure of being visited by the Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney.

 

Oral Presentations

Create Lecture Theatre was the venue of choice for our oral presentation session this year. The variety of research being presented was fascinating and inspiring and the room was alight with discussion, there was a real buzz for all sessions. What really stood out was how PGRs engaged with the audience, getting us all involved, making us laugh and the discussions that followed demonstrated the engagement from the audience. I can confidently say that each presenter showed immense passion for their research which shone through in all presentation styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to take this opportunity to also thank our fantastic session chairs Samreen Ashraf and Duncan Ki-Aries who made presenters feel comfortable and helped with the very smooth running of the four oral presentation sessions.

 

Keynote Speaker

Following lunch, we were joined by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty who came along to introduce the conference keynote speaker Professor Genoveva Esteban. Genoveva shared with us her experience of engaging the public (of all ages) in her field of research, microbial ecology. Genoveva was passionate and motivating, highlighting the benefits of public engagement for research and the wide range of opportunities that PGRs could get involved in, while sharing some tricks of the trade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This interdisciplinary conference truly highlights the variety of research being undertaken by PGRs at BU, it is a fantastic opportunity for networking and enhancing postgraduate research community and culture.

Congratulations to all presenters, and thank you to all attendees and those that showed support in many other ways. If you would like to leave some feedback, the feedback form will be open until Sunday 15 December.

Sustainability@BU

This year we made steps to improve the sustainability of the conference by reducing the brochure printing through making use of QR codes to access abstracts; encouraging delegates to bring their [Doctoral College] reusable bottles; provided free UniBus travel between campuses on the day of the conference and will re-display printed posters throughout the year to showcase PGR researcher wider.

 

If you have any questions, or would like to be involved in The 12th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference please get in touch.

 

 

Call for members to UKRI International Development Peer Review College

BU research, Research news

UKRI is very pleased to announce a Call for new members to the UKRI International Development Peer Review College. UKRI is inviting applications for new members to the College from both academics and non-academics from organisations based in or working with DAC list countries, such as policymakers, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations. Eligible applicants should have ODA experience as well as interdisciplinary knowledge. The Call opens on 25 November and closes 20 December 15.00 UK time.

UKRI especially invites applications from women to achieve their aim of a 50:50 gender balance in College membership. UKRI is also especially keen to receive applications from applicants in certain DAC-list countries (please see section 4 in the Call text) and from certain research areas where the College has a shortage (please see section 5 in Call text).

The Call text has information on eligibility, how to and where to apply. UKRI strongly advises potential applicants to read through the Call text carefully and to look at the SmartSurvey screenshots before starting their application.

A letter of support is required from a senior member of BU. For academics: If you are a professor, your letter of support should be signed by the VC. If you are a senior lecturer, your letter of support should be signed by a department head or equivalent. If you are an Early Career Researcher, it should be signed by a professor in your department or equivalent. Please contact your signatory and confirm their support before beginning your application.

More information about the College can be found on the College webpage.

If you are interested in applying then please inform Jo Garrad in RDS.

Research Training Events into the New Year

BU research, Research news, Research Training

We have some great RKEDF research training events coming up over the next few weeks to help support you in your research activities

December

Thursday 19th December RKEDF: Preparing Practice-Based Research Outputs for Assessment

January

Monday 13th January RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day
Tuesday 14th January RKEDF: Writing Academy
Wednesday 15th January RKEDF: Working with Industry
Friday 17th January RKEDF: Preparing Practice-Based Research Outputs for Assessment
Thursday 30th January RKEDF: Environment Narrative Writing Day

You can see all the Organisational Development and RKEDF events in one place on the handy calendar of events.

Please note that all sessions are now targeted, so look closely at the event page to ensure that the event is suitable for you. In addition, most RKEDF events now require the approval of your Head of Department (or other nominated approver). Please follow the instructions given on the event page and the template email for you to initiate the booking request.

If you have any queries, please get in touch!

Summary: Third Transnational Project Meeting (TPM) 21-22 November 2019

BU research, Events

 

Stories to remember in Bournemouth

It has been wonderful to host the third transnational project meeting in Bournemouth bringing together the team from Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Romania, and the UK (pictured) to advance the Story2Remember ERASMUS+ project: Using drama and storytelling in dementia care.

Following an introduction from Professor Jan Wiener about the work of the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre at Bournemouth University, Andreea presented on activities and results from year one and talked the team through next steps for year two.

Intellectual Output 2: Story2Remember

Each team presented their results and outputs from delivering Story2Remember for both phase 1, delivering Story2Remember to people with dementia and phase 2, delivering the ToT training to professionals in the dementia field. The overall results across all the teams were extremely positive for both phase 1 and 2. Feedback will be used to finalise the Story2Remember handbook.

Intellectual Output 3: The Toolkit

Collaborative discussions brought about positive actions to set out our next steps for the toolkit and its layout and structure agreeing for both website, PDF and paper copy it should:

  • Focus on improving communication between carer and person with dementia
  • Be user friendly
  • Be easy to navigate and use
  • Be a supportive platform for carers

The key focus from now is to build the content for the toolkit with the aim of piloting to users in March 2020.

TPM3 was an extremely proactive and collaborative meeting with celebration on successful delivery of IO2 and tangible next steps agreed for IO3.

By Danielle Wyman (Research Assistant for ADRC, Bournemouth University).

 

Website: https://story2remember.eu/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/STORY2REMEMBER.EU/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Story2rememberE

CoPMRE Visiting Faculty bi-annual event

BU research, Events, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, nhs, NHS, Research Centres, Research news

Yesterday CoPMRE welcomed 30 colleagues to our Visiting Faculty bi-annual event showcasing the exciting medical developments at BU from the new Bournemouth Gateway Building to the Institute of Medical Imaging and Visualisation. The key priorities to support delivery of BU2025 were presented by Dr Clare Wedderburn, Interim Head of Department of Medicine & Public Health presented.  Juan Campos-Perez, Clinical Research Co-ordinator, BUCRU spoke about Biobanks which were highlighted in Professor Emma King’s research presentation on immunotherapy.  Professor Jeffrey Wale, Lecturer in Law encouraged innovative medical cross faculty collaboration demonstrated by his recent research collaboration with Professor Sam Rowlands, Visiting Professor resulting in four co-authored papers. The main focus of the meeting centred around Visiting Faculty engagement in research and education to help us achieve our aims.  The audience reported that they were ‘very excited’ about these new developments at BU and were keen to support this vision.

Photo of the week: ‘Through different eyes’

BU research, Research news

Telling a story of research through photography

The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.

These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community. 

This week’s photo of the week was taken by Chantel Cox and is titled;

‘Through different eyes’

‘My research is looking at how our identities are affected as we get older and how older people with frailty manage these changes. This image is of a great grandfather and great grandson looking out to sea in Poole. This is where my research is being carried out but it made me think how although they are both looking at the same scene they are looking at it through totally different eyes. This is the same as we get older and look at all aspects of the world’

If you have any questions about the Photo of the Week series or the Research Photography Competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

CMMPH represented at The European Midwives Association (EMA) conference

BRIAN, BU research, conferences, EU, Featured academics, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research Centres, Uncategorized

EMA held its 6th triennial education conference in Malmo, Sweden from the 28-29 November 2019. Dr. Luisa Cescutti-Butler and Professor Sue Way had three abstracts accepted, two of which highlighted units of learning in our midwifery undergraduate programme (Evaluating the student experience of introducing newborn infant physical theory into a pre-registration midwifery programme in the UK and An evaluation of the student experience of peer facilitated learning) and a further one which was focused on a national collaborative project on grading practice (Developing a set of key principles to achieve consistency in assessing pre-registration midwifery competency in practice in the UK). The opening keynote speaker at the EMA Conference was Fran McConville – Midwifery Expert at WHO.  Fran presented on ‘Strengthening Quality Midwifery Education for Universal Health Coverage 2030’. Our takeaway message from her presentation was the following important statement: “When midwives are educated to international standards, and midwifery includes the provision of family planning……more than 80% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths could be averted”.

On the social side we were privileged to a hear a woman from the Sammi tribe in Sweden sing three traditional songs and a tradition adopted from Syracuse in Sicily which was the ‘Santa Lucia’ group of singers celebrating the start of Christmas who sang  Xmas Carols in Swedish. We were also able to network with some significant and contemporary midwifery leaders such as Gill Walton (CEO of the Royal College of Midwives), Fran McConville (WHO) and Grace Thomas, Reader and Lead Midwife for Education (Cardiff University).

Talk/session with the Wessex Clinical Research Network Study Support Service

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, Events, Info Days, Knowledge Exchange, nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, research integrity

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation’s largest funder of health and care research – the NIHR oversee 15 Clinical Research Networks (CRN) and these CRNs work alongside NHS Trusts, primary care providers and Universities. Each CRN has a dedicated Study Support Service.

The NIHR have a portfolio of research studies that are eligible for consideration for support from the CRN in England.  Portfolio status is usually vital to participating NHS Trusts when considering undertaking a proposed study.

Information on the NIHR portfolio is present on the research blog, but at this session our local CRN’s Study Support team will provide you with an opportunity to hear about and discuss the network and the service, and how it could benefit you.

This session is aimed at those planning on conducting clinical research.
It is also designed to raise awareness at BU about the benefits and importance of the NIHR portfolio, so if you’re just interested in learning more, please book on.

The session will take place next week on Tuesday 10th December at 2:30pm until 4:00pm on Lansdowne Campus.

To register your interest or if you have any queries, please get in touch with Research Ethics.

Checklist now available to support researchers undertaking clinical research

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, Guidance, nhs, NHS, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research news

Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor – Research Development & Support) and Juan Campos-Perez (Clinical Research Coordinator – Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit) have compiled a checklist (PDF and word formats) that can be used to support researchers through the process of applying for and conducting clinical research.

The document contains links to various documents and further resources to guide researchers through areas such as applying for external approvals, running the study and closing the study. The checklist clearly sets out what tasks are required, the support/resources available to complete this tasks, a space to write your own notes/how this task was resolved and the date it was completed. Using this document will help you ensure that all the required tasks are completed during your research journey.

The document is also here on the Clinical Governance blog.

Remember – support and guidance is on offer at BU if you are thinking of conducting clinical research, whether in the NHS, private healthcare or social care  – contact details for Suzy and Juan are on the checklist, and you can also take a look at the Clinical Governance blog for resources and updates.

New UK Standards for Public Involvement

BU research, Clinical Governance, Guidance, nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research news

Involving the public in your study is important, especially at the research design stage. This is called ‘Public Involvement’ (also known as ‘PPI’ [Patient and Public Involvement]). Public involvement in research means research that is done ‘with’ or ‘by’ the public, not ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.

By seeking the opinions and recommendations of the public, it is a great way to ensure that your study is designed and set-up in a way that will be relevant to participants, and of good quality.
This can also help to avoid any setbacks once the project is underway.

The new UK Standards for Public Involvement have now been released and were developed over three years by a country-wide partnership between the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Scotland, Health
and Care Research Wales, and the Public Health Agency Northern Ireland

They describe what good public involvement looks like and encourage approaches and behaviours that are the hallmark of good public involvement such as flexibility, sharing and learning and respect for each other.

You can see the six UK standards and supporting materials, as well as further details about the partnership, project and the piloting of the new standards, here.

Further guidance is available via the Clinical Governance section of the Research blog and via the Health Research Authority and NIHR pages.