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‘GDPR for Charities’ workshop: a report

BU research, Fusion themes, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

On Monday, June 11th we ran our long planned ‘GDPR for Charities’ workshop at the Enterprise Business Centre.  This workshop was one of the outputs from our Charity Impact Acceleration Scheme funded project to help a local charity with their GDPR readiness activities.  The aim of this workshop was to share the techniques and lessons learned from this project with the wider non-profit community in the Dorset region and beyond.  This was a one-day event attended by around 40 participants working for or with charities of various sizes.

Shamal Faily opened the workshop (slides) by setting out some of the challenges faced by charities making sense of GDPR, before giving an overview of what would be planned for the day.

Jane Henriksen-Bulmer then gave an overview of GDPR and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) before presenting the ‘DPIA Data Wheel’ – a step-by-step process for carrying out a DPIA (slides).

The participants were then divided into four groups and, with the assistance of our BU facilitators, used the Data Wheel to conduct a DPIA for a hypothetical but realistic scenario. The groups then came together to present the privacy risks they found to the rest of the participants.

After lunch, Tessa Corner delivered a talk on StreetScene‘s experiences applying the DPIA Data Wheel (slides), before Shamal gave a talk on how to find security & privacy risks, and demonstrated the use of CAIRIS to support the discovery and management of risks (slides).

After these talks, Raian Ali hosted a lively panel on GDPR and its implications for charities before Jane closed the day by summarising some of the results of applying the DPIA Data Wheel with StreetScene (slides) and discussing some next steps to build on the momentum from this workshop (slides).

If you’re interested in finding out more about the workshop, or would like to get involved in any follow-on activities then please contact Jane Henriksen-Bulmer or Shamal Faily.

Testing connected and autonomous vehicles: funding available

BU Challenges, BU research, Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

Image from fleetcarma.com

The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) – with Meridian Mobility and Innovate UK – has up to £30 million for projects that help make the UK the most effective connected and autonomous vehicle development ecosystem in the world.

Businesses and research organisations can apply into 2 competitions that support the testing of connected and autonomous vehicles and progress their development.

Connected vehicles data exchange

In the first competition, there is up to £5 million for one project that supports the sharing and trading of data generated by infrastructure, connected or autonomous vehicles or other third parties.

Autonomous highway, rural roads and parking

There is up to £25 million in the second competition. This is for up to 6 projects for facilities to support the testing of connected and autonomous vehicles for highways, rural roads and parking.

Key summary:

Deadline: 29 August 2018

Lead : UK-based business or research organisation

Available funding : Connected vehicles data exchange – up to £10m; Autonomous highway, rural roads and parking – between £1m and £20m

Project dates : before March 2019

Please see this link for full details of the call.

Funding opportunity – Smart tracking of waste across the UK

BU research, Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

The Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is investing up to £400,000 in projects that use digital technology to record and track the movement of waste through the economy. Funding for the competition is under SBRI (the Small Business Research Initiative), which aims to bring together government and businesses to find innovative solutions to public sector challenges.

This competition is in 2 phases. Phase 1 is for contracts of up to £80,000 to examine the feasibility of ideas. The best ideas could win a share of up to £1 million to develop and field test a prototype in a second phase.

Summary:

Deadline: 18 July 2018

Available funding: Phase 1 – up to £80,000; Phase 2 – up to £1m

Please see this link for full details of this call.

Funding opportunity – ISCF Next Generation Services Research Programme

BU Challenges, BU research, Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation

Image from www.avaya.com

The ESRC has announced the Next Generation Services Research call under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Proposals of up to £1.25 million (100% full economic cost) are invited for interdisciplinary research grants, focused on working with businesses to identify the potential opportunities offered by the application of new technologies in the high value services sector.

This is a ‘Pioneer’ initiative that will focus in the first instance on the accountancy, legal services and insurance industries.

Please see below key summaries of this call:

Deadline : 4pm; 18 July 2018

Project start & end dates : between December 2018 and March 2021

Please see this link for full details of this call.

Apply for Innovate UK Robotics and AI for safer work residential and funding

BU Challenges, BU research, Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

Collaborative Decision Making

Innovate UK is offering opportunities for individuals to apply on behalf of their business to attend a 5-day residential innovation lab in September 2018. This innovation lab will allow delegates to work in teams to generate innovative and commercially-viable ideas in the following areas:

  • robotic structural capabilities
  • reformable structures
  • long-range and beyond visual line-of-sight operations
  • electronics, sensors and photonics for extreme environments
  • AI, autonomy and situational awareness
  • mission planning and risk management
  • systems engineering, including methodologies, verification and validation tools
  • security, reliability, safety and trust
  • collaborative robotics and AI systems
  • long endurance operations
  • modules that support increased dexterity
  • locomotion platforms that work extreme environments

In the second stage of the competition, teams that attended the innovation lab will have the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £15 million grant funding for their project.

Please see below a summary of the competition:

Deadline for application: 11 July 2018

Number of places available : 20 to 30

Eligibility: a business, academic, charity, public sector or research and technology organisation based in the UK and intend to carry out the project and exploit the results in the UK

Residential dates : 10 September 2014 – 14 September 2018

Second stage proposal award : £2m – £6m

Second stage proposal start date : January 2019

Please see this link for full details of this funding opportunity.

Digital addiction: how technology keeps us hooked

BU research, the conversation

File 20180608 191974 6cyo5u.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1

There are a number of reasons why you can’t get away from your screen. shutterstock

By Dr Raian Ali, Bournemouth University; Dr Emily Arden-Close, Bournemouth University, and Dr John McAlaney, Bournemouth University

The World Health Organisation is to include “gaming disorder”, the inability to stop gaming, into the International Classification of Diseases. By doing so, the WHO is recognising the serious and growing problem of digital addiction. The problem has also been acknowledged by Google, which recently announced that it will begin focusing on “Digital Well-being”.

Although there is a growing recognition of the problem, users are still not aware of exactly how digital technology is designed to facilitate addiction. We’re part of a research team that focuses on digital addiction and here are some of the techniques and mechanisms that digital media use to keep you hooked.

Compulsive checking

Digital technologies, such as social networks, online shopping, and games, use a set of persuasive and motivational techniques to keep users returning. These include “scarcity” (a snap or status is only temporarily available, encouraging you to get online quickly); “social proof” (20,000 users retweeted an article so you should go online and read it); “personalisation” (your news feed is designed to filter and display news based on your interest); and “reciprocity” (invite more friends to get extra points, and once your friends are part of the network it becomes much more difficult for you or them to leave).

Some digital platforms use features normally associated with slot machines. Antoine Taveneaux/Wikimedia, CC BY

Technology is designed to utilise the basic human need to feel a sense of belonging and connection with others. So, a fear of missing out, commonly known as FoMO, is at the heart of many features of social media design.

Groups and forums in social media promote active participation. Notifications and “presence features” keep people notified of each others’ availability and activities in real-time so that some start to become compulsive checkers. This includes “two ticks” on instant messaging tools, such as Whatsapp. Users can see whether their message has been delivered and read. This creates pressure on each person to respond quickly to the other.

The concepts of reward and infotainment, material which is both entertaining and informative, are also crucial for “addictive” designs. In social networks, it is said that “no news is not good news”. So, their design strives always to provide content and prevent disappointment. The seconds of anticipation for the “pull to refresh” mechanism on smartphone apps, such as Twitter, is similar to pulling the lever of a slot machine and waiting for the win.

Most of the features mentioned above have roots in our non-tech world. Social networking sites have not created any new or fundamentally different styles of interaction between humans. Instead they have vastly amplified the speed and ease with which these interactions can occur, taking them to a higher speed, and scale.

Addiction and awareness

People using digital media do exhibit symptoms of behavioural addiction. These include salience, conflict, and mood modification when they check their online profiles regularly. Often people feel the need to engage with digital devices even if it is inappropriate or dangerous for them to do so. If disconnected or unable to interact as desired, they become preoccupied with missing opportunities to engage with their online social networks.

According to the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom, 15m UK internet users (around 34% of all internet users) have tried a “digital detox”. After being offline, 33% of participants reported feeling an increase in productivity, 27% felt a sense of liberation, and 25% enjoyed life more. But the report also highlighted that 16% of participants experienced the fear of missing out, 15% felt lost and 14% “cut-off”. These figures suggest that people want to spend less time online, but they may need help to do so.

Gaming disorder is to be recognised by the WHO.

At the moment, tools that enable people to be in control of their online experience, presence and online interaction remain very primitive. There seem to be unwritten expectations for users to adhere to social norms of cyberspace once they accept participation.

But unlike other mediums for addiction, such as alcohol, technology can play a role in making its usage more informed and conscious. It is possible to detect whether someone is using a phone or social network in an anxious, uncontrolled manner. Similar to online gambling, users should have available help if they wish. This could be a self-exclusion and lock-out scheme. Users can allow software to alert them when their usage pattern indicates risk.

The borderline between software which is legitimately immersive and software which can be seen as “exploitation-ware” remains an open question. Transparency of digital persuasion design and education about critical digital literacy could be potential solutions.

Raian Ali, Associate Professor in Computing and Informatics, Bournemouth University; Emily Arden-Close, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Bournemouth University, and John McAlaney, Principal Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Innovate UK Grant Support Opportunity

BU research, Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Research communication, Research news

Dear colleague

We understand that Innovate UK will be announcing a Digital Health Technology Catalyst (DHTC) fund competition in the Autumn (likely October). The sums of money available are likely to be significant (last call was looking for projects between £300K and £1M) and of course competition will be intense. The competition needs to be led by a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME), but these companies will need to partner with another organisation and this can be the University. We believe that locally we have the links to industry (SMEs), capability and expertise to be contenders for this award.

Attached below are the 10 questions that Innovate UK regularly ask in their applications.  We are giving you advance warning so that you could put yourselves on the front foot in the application process and give you time to seek and partner with an SME.

We would like to support you and have in place support from Dr Frank Ratcliff and Kevin Brooks of the Wessex AHSN for up to three to five bids which, based on their experience, have the ingredients for success. Kevin will be available to provide guidance throughout the application process and carry out a comprehensive check of your application, against the funder’s criteria, before the applications are submitted.

To registered your interest, and for us to check eligibility, there is a short expression of interest (EOI) form attached below for you to complete. Please send your EOIs to Audrey Dixon (adixon@bournemouth.ac.uk ) by Noon on Friday 29th June 2018.

We are told that the criteria for Round 2 of the DHTC grant is unlikely to change. For your information, and to check the eligibility and scope of your proposed project, click here to view details of the last (now closed) DHTC Round 1

DHTC Expression of Interest Application Form IUK 10 Application Questions

IUK 10 Application Questions

Calling all PGRs – Postgraduate Research Community Questionnaire (1 Week Left)

BU research, Doctoral College, PG research

The Doctoral College is conducting research into postgraduate researcher communities and we would love to hear our PGRs views.

Thank you to everyone who has completed the questionnaire so far.

The questionnaire is open for just one more week and should only take 10-15 minutes to complete (no log-in required).

>>>>> Click here to access the questionnaire <<<<<<

Drinks voucher available for all that complete the questionnaire.

If you have any questions please contact Natalie (nstewart@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Clare (ccutler@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Let’s Talk Tax!

BU research, Festival of Learning, Fusion, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

Ever puzzled over tax? Wondered about the politics or personal impact of international tax news? This session with BU researchers, students and the Chartered Institute of Taxation will give you a greater understanding and appreciation for tax and help you become more tax-savvy.

During this session, we have five star students presenting 5-minute ‘tax’ talks:

  • Martinas Prazauskas on the tax avoidance of Apple, Google and Amazon
  • Timothy Buck on tax arbitrage
  • Sesil Bou on thin capitalisation
  • Clémentine Saulnier on non-discrimination in the EU
  • Lucy Butler on the Robin Hood tax

Taking second billing in this session are BU’s tax academics: Dr Phyllis Alexander, Dr Alan Kirkpatrick and Richard Teather.  We will be joined by Mr Andy Brodrick of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), the organisation funding Dr Alexander’s research on tax morale.

There will be at least 15 minutes reserved for Q&A and an open discussion with this diverse panel on anything and everything to do with tax.   This will be a fast paced, interesting hour in which BU’s Fusion philosophy comes to light!

Please do join us and book your free tickets here. 

Doctoral College June NVivo Workshops – open to all

BU research, Doctoral College, PG research, Research Training

The Doctoral College is hosting two NVivo workshops. If you would like to attend either of these workshops please follow the instructions below.

 

Please note that to book onto the Advanced NVivo workshop you need to attend the Introduction to NVivo first.

 

 

 

 

LAST CHANCE to book for NIHR Grant Applications Seminar & Support Event – 26 June 2018

BU research, Doctoral College, Events, Funding opportunities, PG research, pre-award

 

Last chance to book for this with the deadline just over a week away…

Are you planning to submit a grant application to NIHR?

We are holding a one-day event in Bournemouth that is aimed at helping you to improve your chances of success.

The morning seminar session is open to anyone to come and hear Simon Goodwin, RfPB Programme Manager for the South West, and RDS advisers give presentations on what makes a good grant proposal. Topics covered will include:

  • what does the NIHR (and in particular RfPB) look for?
  • the application as a marketing document: selling the topic, selling the method, and selling the team
  • the team
  • clarity of description and explanation
  • feasibility issues
  • identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls.

The afternoon support session of one-to-one appointments is for those who would like to discuss their own proposal with an RDS adviser.

This event is FREE and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Places are limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. In order to secure your place please register using our online form by 1pm, 18 June 2018. Find out more.

And don’t forget, your local branch of the NIHR Research Design Service is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us, call us on 61939 or send us an email.

The inaugural Assistive Living Technologies Symposium 21st May 2018

BU research, Research news

On Monday 21st May 2018, Bournemouth University (BU) held the inaugural Assistive Living Technologies (ALT) Symposium at Talbot Campus. The Symposium was a fusion of research domains: Human Computer Interaction, Cyber‐Physical Systems, Robotics, Accessibility, Digital Health and Inclusion. The sponsor of the Symposium was EduWeb (EU Erasmus+ Project) which promotes digital inclusion within educational institutions, by providing a safe and creative web. The Symposium was organised by Dr Paul Whittington and Dr Huseyin Dogan from the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Research Group.

We were delighted to welcome Professor Nigel Harris from Designability, who develop products to increase dignity, confidence and independence for over 250,000 people with reduced abilities. The charity is supported by the University of Bath and Bath & North East Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board.

We also welcomed Martin Harman and John Heath from Southampton & South West Hampshire Remap Panel and Michael Garnish from Bournemouth Remap Panel. Remap is a national charity operating through local groups of skilled volunteers, who provide independence for people with reduced abilities, by designing and manufacturing bespoke equipment to assist with daily tasks. Designability and Remap delivered presentations on application of assistive living technologies to real world environments.

40 delegates attended the Symposium, representing the BU Faculties of Science & Technology, Health & Social Sciences and Media & Communications, as well as external organisations, including the NHS Dorset Clinical Commission Group, Possum Environmental Controls and Victoria Education Centre.

The Symposium was opened by Dr Paul Whittington and Professor Keith Phalp, followed by an interesting keynote presentation by Professor Nigel Harris, who introduced Designability’s Innovate UK CHIRON Project, which aims to provide a modular robotic system to support care at home. The system (branded JUVA) consists of a set of intelligent robotic systems in locations around the home, to help with personal care, including hygiene tasks and food preparation. The organiser of the Symposium, Dr Paul Whittington, presented his research, centred on the development of a SmartAbility Framework. The framework supports interaction for people with reduced physical ability through the application of built-in sensor technologies that automatically detect user abilities.

The Remap charity presented their work to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, through the development of bespoke solutions to solve problematic everyday tasks. Examples included assisting with dog walking, playing golf and painting. John Heath (former IBM employee) presented an enlightening video of his Nellie robot, developed to assist people with disabilities to prepare and eat microwave meals. Remap also had a display outside the lecture theatre to promote their work. Professor Hongnian Yu from BU concluded the morning session by providing an insight into the current applications and future trends of robotics in assistive technologies, including prototype versions of robots developed by BU.

Following an opportunity to collaborate and network during the lunch break, the afternoon session began with a presentation from Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis, Paul Oprea and Laura Day from University of Kent and the Kent, Surrey, Sussex Academic Health Science Network. They introduced their European funded project called ADAPT (Assistive Devices for empowering disAbled People through robotic Technologies), which is run in partnership with institutions in Southern England and Northern France. This included details of driving assistance technologies and a simulator for electrical powered wheelchairs.

The afternoon presentations included two BU Postgraduate Researchers, Mark Mosely and Asha Ward, on their research into an eye gaze controlled robotic arm and the use of music technology to assist users with complex needs respectively. This session provided an opportunity for the sponsors of the Symposium to present their EduWeb research in tackling the problem of digital exclusion, delivered by Zoe Carter (a final year Forensic Computing and Security student). The final presentation of the Symposium described the FACETS (Fatigue: Applying Cognitive behavioural and Engery effectiveness Techniques to lifeStyle) Digital Toolkit, developed by BU, to assist with managing fatigue for people with multiple sclerosis.

The day concluded with a Panel of experts in assistive technology; Professor Nigel Harris, Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis, Dr Sarah Thomas and Eur Ing Martin Harman. The panel raised some interesting discussions regarding the uses and acceptance of assistive technology, as well as the potential establishment of an Assistive Living Technologies network for Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire.

The inaugural Symposium provided an excellent opportunity for the current research into assistive technologies to be presented. The delegates have expressed positive feedback about the Symposium, including; “Congratulations again to you and Huseyin for putting on a first class symposium”, “It gave us the opportunity to speak to various others working in this field”, “I enjoyed the day and met some very interesting people” and “It was great to hear about the wide range of research and positive work taking place.”

We will be organising similar events in the future as we further develop our research into assistive technologies. We would like to thank Professor Keith Phalp, all the presenters and delegates for their support with the Symposium.

The Symposium presentations can be viewed on the HCI Research Group’s website at: http://hci.bournemouth.ac.uk/alt-symposium-2018/

 

 

New contract awarded to the RDS

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Funding opportunities, pre-award, Research news

We are pleased to announce that the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has awarded us a further five years of funding to continue our work as the RDS South West.

Proposals were invited from NHS organisations and Higher Education Institutions in England with proven expertise in research methodology and design. Ten organisations were successful and the combined Research Design Services will form a national network, liaising with each other to develop a consistent service to the research community across England.

The NIHR funding will allow RDS advisers in the South West to continue offering free and confidential advice, drawing on a unique breadth of experience and established track record in improving funding applications.

We have been funded for the ten years prior to this round of funding and the advice offered by us to researchers represents a key contribution to the NIHR’s commitment to delivery of high quality health and social care research.

Professor Gordon Taylor, Director of NIHR RDS SW, said: “I am delighted that the RDS has received a further five years of funding.  We look forward to continuing to support researchers, working in applied health, across the South West of England and to strengthen our engagement with partners in social care.”

Find out more about how we could help you by visiting our website or contacting the RDS South West Bournemouth Office hosted within BUCRU (Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit):

Bournemouth University

Room R505, Royal London House

Christchurch Road

Bournemouth

Dorset, BH1 3LT

Tel: 01202 961939

Email: wardl@bournemouth.ac.uk

www.bournemouth.ac.uk/bucru