Category / BU research

Cross-Research Council Interdisciplinary Funding Opportunity

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news

The Government Spending Review on 25 November 2015 announced “a new £1.5 billion Global Challenges Fund, to ensure UK science takes the lead in addressing the problems faced by developing countries, whilst developing our ability to deliver cutting-edge research”. It operates across a number of partners, including the Research Councils, National Academies, UK Space Agency and HEFCE. The RCUK GCRF represents the largest portion of this Fund and is a strategic fund spanning all seven Research Councils.

The Research Councils have each received directly allocated portions of the GCRF and the MRC, AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and NERC are drawing on their allocations to support this opportunity.

Foundation Awards are expected to vary in scale, as appropriate to the specific needs of each foundation case. The total funding requested is not normally expected to exceed £600k. Possible uses of Foundation Awards include but are not limited to the following, innovative approaches are encouraged:

  • Early phase discovery and translation research
  • Extending scope of existing research to wider global settings
  • Population studies, sample/data collection, data integration
  • New research tools and techniques
  • Development of collaborations, partnerships, teams
  • Creating pathways to impact in LMICs.

Submission Deadline: 22 June 2016

For more information, you can refer to the MRC call details page or the BBSRC call details page.

If you are interested in applying, please contact your Funding Development Officer no later than 3 June.

Impact Week: celebrating research at BU

BU research, Impact

It’s been a busy week here in BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office and we’re really pleased to have seen so many of you attending events as part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events.  We hope you’ve found these sessions useful and have come away from them with some new ideas and insights for developing your research impact.

If you’d like further support to develop your research impact, please see our list of key contacts within BU or take a look through our impact toolkit.

To wrap up BU’s week-long series of research impact events, we’re hosting a session about how to collect evidence of research impact, hosted by Vertigo Ventures’ Bokani Tshidzu, followed by an afternoon celebration of BU’s research impact.  Join us to hear a series of inspirational lightening talks from some of BU’s staff and stay to network over drinks and snacks.

Hat-trick of new diabetes papers

BU research, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Diabetes editorial BarnardCongratulations to Katharine Barnard and Janet James in FHSS and their colleagues in the USA and Sweden on their latest publication on the ‘Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living with T1 Diabetes’ [1].  Recently Dr. Barnard also co-authored an editorial in the international journal Diabetes under the title ‘Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand?’ [2].  Finally, the third recent paper by Dr. Barnard and colleagues from across the UK was published in Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Association [3].Barnard Diabetes 2016

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

References

  1. Barnard, K., James, J., et al. Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living With T1 Diabetes J Diabetes Sci Technol 2016; 10: 762-767.
  2. Barnard K.D., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand? Diabetes 2016; 12(1): 35-36. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17925/EE.2016.12.01.35
  3. Barnard K.D, Holt, R.I. et al. ,Could the Discrepancy in Perceived Emotional Care Received and Provided Be a Barrier to Active Diabetes Self-management? Insights From the Second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) Study. Diabetes Care 2016; 39(2): e20-e21.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc15-0674

 

How public engagement can help to develop your research impact

BU research, Impact

In order to achieve impact you are likely to need to use a combination of pathways, of which public engagement can be a powerful option.  For example if you were looking to embed policy change based on your research, getting public opinion on side through public engagement to both disseminate facts and also inform your research to begin with, may make it a lot easier to get policy makers to listen – especially if you’re dealing with a topic that may be considered controversial.

The public can be influential lobbyists – so giving the right information to the right people can be a powerful tool.  Engaging with grassroots lobbyists who have a passion for the issue and the connections to lobby for change can make it easier to make a difference with your research.

What is public engagement?

The most widely accepted definition of public engagement is that given by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE):

“Public engagement describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public. Engagement is by definition a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.”

This could take place at any part of the research lifecycle and should go beyond outreach, instead focusing on creating a two-way dialogue between researchers and the “public”.  This could be as simple as incorporating an open discussion into a public lecture or could be as detailed as doing a piece of research in partnership with the public.

How can you find out more?

For further information about public engagement, take a look at RKEO’s new impact toolkit or contact RKEO’s Public Engagement Officer, Naomi Kay.

Developing research impact: influencing public policy

BU research, Impact

Working with policy-makers is a really useful way of getting research recognised and used by professionals in the relevant field, resulting in an impact on society.

Not only can attempting to influence policy raise the profile of the research and have profound implications for society, it can also considerably raise the profile of the academic behind the research, creating room for possible new partnerships and future collaboration.

What is policy-influencing?

Policy-makers bring together evidence and politics to come up with policies and solutions for issues that affect everyone on a daily basis. They can incorporate a range of individuals; including those who are elected into political positions and civil servants who work in government departments, meaning there are a variety of ways in which research can lead to influencing policy.

Research can be particularly influential in policy influencing as it could provide the basis for an evidence-based change or amendment to legislation.  This can be a very powerful way of developing research impact, but it can also be a very complex process.

How can you find out more?

BU’s Policy team, Jane Forster and Emma Bambury-Whitton are running two sessions as part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events which will explain how to use research to influence public policy on Wednesday and Thursday.

For further information about influencing policy, take a look at RKEO’s new impact toolkit.

Communicating your research for impact

BU research, Impact

Research communication is the process of communicating your research in an accessible way to audiences who can benefit from or put it into practice.  How you communicate very much depends on who your audience is and how they prefer to receive information.  It may be that you need to use a number of different methods of communication in order to reach the right people.

In age when digital technology surrounds us, there are many possible channels to choose from: a newspaper or magazine article, a TV or radio interview, a blog, social media, a website, a film, or more traditional means of communication through a briefing paper based on your research findings or a toolkit to be used by professionals in the relevant sector or press and public relations.  Any combination of these could be appropriate, but your choice will depend on the message you want to convey and who you want to connect with.

BU has a number of ways to help you communicate your research including:

If you’d like to find out more about how to use the media to generate research impact, do sign up for one of two engaging the media events run by the PR team this week on Tuesday and Thursday.

For more information about any of our communication channels, including the research blog, research website, briefings or Bournemouth Research Chronicle, please contact Rachel Bowen in RKEO.

For further information about communicating your research, take a look at RKEO’s new impact toolkit.

How can working with businesses help to develop research impact?

BU research, Impact

At the heart of impact is the process of knowledge exchange, which is very much a two-way process between you as the creator of a new piece of knowledge and your audience, who could use or benefit from what you know.

How you communicate that knowledge and to whom, will vary according to what your research is and the outcome you hope to achieve.  One route you could consider is working with businesses to develop you research impact.

What is business engagement?

Working with businesses and industry can be a very effective way of developing research impact.  By working in partnership, researchers can help to generate innovation, develop ideas for commercialisation and achieve economic and societal impact.  But, remember that knowledge exchange and sharing your ideas with businesses alone isn’t impact – it’s what happens as a consequence of those interactions that matters.

HEFCE defines this type of knowledge exchange as “the transferring or exchanging of knowledge with the aim of delivering external impact, such as improving products, services and profitability. This is linked with research and teaching, and includes consultancy and advisory work, the creation of intellectual property, the development of academic and student entrepreneurship, and a variety of other activities.”

How can you find out more about business engagement?

As part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events, RKEO are running two sessions around engaging with businesses, which you might like to sign up to.

On Monday afternoon, RKEO’s Knowledge Exchange Advisors, Rachel Clarke and Jayne Codling will be facilitating a session between BU’s researchers and local businesses on the topic of virtual and augmented reality.

On Tuesday, RKEO’s Research Facilitators will be hosting a ‘Smart Cities Sandpit’, where attendees will be working on the issue of how we link technology and services in key urban sectors in a smart way which will improve quality of life and the sustainability of our cities.

Developing research impact: new mini guide and toolkit available

BU research, Impact

Impact guide image

Developing research impact is becoming an increasingly important part of academic life, largely underpinned by changes in the external environment.

Demonstrating the potential impact often forms part of grants applications, while impact case studies are a significant part of a university’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission.  Aside from the external drivers, the process of developing impact and seeing your research make a difference to society can be extremely rewarding.

BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office have created a mini guide and online toolkit designed to help support the development of your research impact.  The guides explore what impact is, how you can go about creating an impact strategy and looks at some commonly used pathways to impact.

The online toolkit, which is more in-depth, also signposts readers to examples of outstanding impact case studies and provides examples of academics at BU who are using different pathways to develop their research impact.

The guides are being launched as part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events.  Throughout the week, academics will have the opportunity to drop into sessions designed to help support the development of their research impact.  If you’ve ever wanted to find out how to work with the media, influence public policy or work with businesses, this is your chance!

Impact mini guides will be given out at all sessions during BU’s week-long series of research impact events and are also available on request from RKEO.  Please do share these with colleagues and hand them out at any relevant internal events.

The full toolkit can be read on BU’s staff intranet.

Bournemouth University student wins ‘Best Undergraduate Research Paper Award’

BU research, conferences, student research

Katherine at the conference

Bournemouth University Events Management graduate, Katherine Devenish, has won the ‘Best Research Paper Award’ for undergraduate research at the Asia Pacific Forum for Graduate Students Research in Tourism.  Katherine’s research into event greening – the process of incorporating socially and environmentally responsible decision making into the planning and implementation of an event – was carried out as part of her undergraduate dissertation.

Her research explored the factors that ease or impede the process of event greening in the corporate world, based on interviews with staff from a UK corporate event organisation.  As well as identifying the barriers and facilitating factors, Katherine’s paper also makes useful recommendations for practice.  These include developing a formal environmental policy to support cultural change within the organisation, encouraging long-term thinking to improve the use of resources and providing formal training to improve staff knowledge of greening measures.

Katherine was encouraged to submit her research paper to the conference by her supervisor – Dr Miguel Moital, a Principal Academic in Events Management.

“Katherine did extremely well in her dissertation, which was essentially written at journal article level,” explains Dr Moital, “We have developed it into a full academic paper which we’ve submitted to a journal.  We’re waiting for reviews at the moment.”

“After we’d written the paper up, I found out about the ‘Best Undergraduate Research Paper Award’ at the Asia Pacific Forum and encouraged Katherine to submit the final paper.  I was delighted to hear that she had won first prize.”

The conference was hosted by Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel & Tourism Management – one of BU’s partner institutions.  Conference organisers incorporated an undergraduate award with the aim of highlighting and fostering high quality research from undergraduates across the world.

To find out more about Katherine’s experiences, please see her video blog.

FHSS PhD student awarded prestigious Churchill Medallion in London

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

new medallion Anita

129 Fellows awarded a prestigious new Churchill Medallion at a London award ceremony

 

Anita Immanuel, PhD student in FHSS was presented with a newly designed Churchill medallion at a prestigious biennial award ceremony in London this week (Wednesday, 18th May), after successfully completing  her Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.

Anite was presented with the stunning blue cloisonné enamelled silver Churchill medallion by its designer and Guest of Honour, Professor Brian Clarke, who is a world renowned architectural artist. Professor Clarke presented 129 Fellows with their medallions at a ceremony in Church House, in Central London. Church House has significant Churchillian associations as during the Blitz, Winston Churchill requisitioned Church House as a makeshift Houses of Parliament after the originals had been damaged by bombing.

As part of  her Fellowship and linked to her PhD research, Anita travelled to Australia and Canada.  Her PhD reserach examines the quality of lives of adults who have survived cancer of the blood or lymphatic system. Patients with haematological cancers have frequently reported lack of care-coordination as an unmet need following their intensive treatment.   Anita’s Fellowship has been outlined in a previosu BR Research Blog (click here!).

Speaking about the Fellowship, Prof. Stephen Tee (Executive Dean FHSS) said: “These Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships provide opportunities for UK citizens to go abroad on a worthwhile project, enriching their lives through their global experiences.  We are proud of Anita’s PhD research focusing on the quality of life in people who have survived cancer.  This Fellowship has also benefited Anita and her colleagues at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trustwhere she works as specialist nurse in this field”.

Anita’s PhD is supervised by: Dr. Jane Hunt and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (both FHSS) and Dr. Helen McCarthy, Anita’s clinical Ph.D. supervisor.

In 2017 The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust will be awarding 150 Travelling Fellowships. This will directly support British citizens who want to travel overseas to gain knowledge, experience and best practice to benefit others in their UK professions and communities, and society as a whole. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death in 1965, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 5,250 Travelling Fellowships.  The application process for travel in 2017 is now open!  Visit www.wcmt.org.uk for more details, or to apply before 5pm on 20th September 2016, for travel in 2017.

 

Research and Knowledge Exchange development framework – introduction to the pathways

BU research, Events, Knowledge Exchange, Training

Last week we announced the imminent launch of the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) development framework (see here if you missed the post). Here we provide a bit more information about how the framework will be organised.launching soon pic

The framework will be divided into pathways. These are a series of sessions, combining some face-to-face delivery with online materials, which are linked by a topic. Some of the sessions will be targeted towards those with less experience in engaging with research and knowledge exchange, whilst others will be useful for academics with a wide range of experience. You may wish to sign up for the sessions on an entire pathway, come along to the first event to explore whether that pathway is right for you, or simply join in with a small number of sessions such as the bid writing retreats.

An overview of the pathways confirmed to date is provided below: we’ll be adding more pathways and confirming events over the next few weeks.

Research Council funding

Indicative Content: introduction to the UK Research Councils, working with stakeholders, pathways to impact statements, approaching the Case for Support and writing the Justification for Resources.

Funding from the Academies

Indicative Content: Introduction to the British Academy and the Royal Society, working with stakeholders and Bid Writing Retreats.

Funding from Major Charities

Indicative Content: Introduction to Wellcome and Leverhulme Trusts, working with stakeholders, hints and tips for applications to charities and Bid Writing Retreats.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

Indicative Content: Introduction to funding schemes, applying to NIHR calls and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

Pre-Award at BU

Indicative Content: Getting started, financial and legal considerations, BU processes, using Research Professional to locate funding.

Building a Team

Indicative Content: Working with stakeholders, networking, team building, Sandpits and Interdisciplinary Research.

Working with Business

Indicative Content: Introductions to knowledge exchange and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and IP and commercialisation

Returning to Academia after a break

Indicative Content: Specific funding opportunities for those retuning to academia and building resilience in research and knowledge exchange

Planning for and communicating research

Indicative content: Engaging with policymakers, public engagement, social media for impact and digital communication

EU Funding

Indicative Content: Introduction to Horizon 2020 and other EU funding schemes, some key principles to consider, IPR for EU projects, and call-specific Bid Writing Retreats.

International Funding

Indicative Content: Introduction to selected international funding schemes

 

A new webpage has been created for the framework through Organisational Development and up-to-date information can be found at staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/RKEDevelopmentFramework/. We will also be continuing to provide information through the University blogs.

**** Speaker Spotlight **** Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21/6/16

BU research, Events

IR21616

 

BU is hosting a Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21st June 2016, dedicated to exploring the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research.

The Key Note address will be given by Dr. Louise Mansfield.

Dr. Louise Mansfield is Deputy Director of the Brunel Centre for Sport, Health and Wellbeing (BC.SHaW) in the College of Health and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on gendered inequalities in sport, physical activity and fitness across the lifespan. The health and well-being aspect of her research dovetails with projects she has managed exploring the physical activity and health legacies of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Dr. Mansfield is also a member of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing research team.

Other presentations include:

The Funders’ Perspective – Charlotte Lester (HEFCE), Dan Licari (Innovate UK / KTN Creative, Digital & Design) and Ben Sharman (EU NCP – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies)

Supporting Interdisciplinary Working – Prof. Alan Lester and Debbie Foy-Everett (Sussex), Jordan Graham and Ehsan Masood (Research Professional) and Christopher Ferguson (Piirus)

The Academics’ Perspective – Prof. Adele Ladkin (BU), Dr. David Hutchinson (Portsmouth) and Dr. Justine McConnell (TORCH, University of Oxford)

Facilitated networking session – How can I contribute?

Please see the Speakers’ Biographies for further information on our contributors.

The event will take place in BU’s Executive Business Centre. It will be opened BU’s Prof. Michael Wilmore (Executive Dean – Faculty of Media and Communication and  the closing remarks will be made by BU’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Vinney. To find out more about BU’s Research, why not register to receive updates from our award winning Research Blog.

Please see the Provisional Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day Schedule for more information. Key to the programme, as well as inspirational speakers, there will be plenty of time to network with colleagues and participate in exploring your own relationship with interdisciplinary research.

This event, is free and open to academics and research support staff throughout the UK.

Places are limited, so book now via Eventbrite.

There’s no ‘I’ in Team: My experience as a URA

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, conferences, Fusion, Research communication

Blog post by Pippa Empson, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Innovative Pedagogy)

Following my application and interview earlier this year I was accepted for the Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) position on an ‘Innovative Pedagogy’ research project. Being part of the URA programme gave me an insight into the world of primary research which involved transcribing conversations from focus groups, collating data into spreadsheets and statistically analysing data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), and getting the opportunity to present our findings in the Bournemouth University conference SURE (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence). It was a pleasure to work alongside academic staff Dr Jacqueline Priego and Dr Jonathan Branney who welcomed me and Jade Offer, the other URA, to the team and supported me in my position.

I learnt many new skills including analysing quantitative and qualitative data which the academic staff was happy to guide me in. I was initially daunted by the work I would be expected to do and whether I would be able to fit it around my undergraduate studies as a second year adult nursing student. However as I was able to fulfill some of the URA work at home on my own computer it meant I was able to be flexible with when I worked, so I could keep my other commitments. Being a URA was a great opportunity which I would recommend it to anyone interested in research or furthering their skills, be it computer skills or communication skills.

Pippa Empson, BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing, year two

What makes good evidence of research impact?

BU research, Events, Featured, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Research communication, Research news, Research Training, Training

Bokani Tshidzu

Bokani Tshidzu

Join us on Friday 27 May at 12.00 to find out how to evidence impact from research in a session by Bokani Tshidzu, Chief Operating Officer of impact consultancy Vertigo Ventures.

The session will outline the types of impact evidence that researchers can collect and online tools that can be used to gather this data. Attendees have an opportunity to consider the stakeholders involved in their research and find out how best to collect evidence of impact from different groups. There will also be a chance to find out more about the types of high-scoring evidence that was used in each panel during the last REF.

Book your place via Eventbrite

The session will take place in Kimmeridge House (KG03) Talbot campus from 12.00 – 14.00.  Light refreshments will be provided but please feel free to bring your lunch along.

impact wordle 3
This session forms part of a series of research impact seminars and workshops, organised by RKEO to explore the various pathways to achieving societal and economic impact.  Within the series, attendees will explore methods for effectively engaging a variety of research users throughout the research process, and develop new ways to plan, deliver and evidence impact.

 

View the other events in the series or email Genna West for further information.