Category / BU research

RKEO Academic and Researcher induction

BU research, Guidance

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) invite all ‘new to BU’ academics and researchers to an induction.

Signpost with the words Help, Support, Advice, Guidance and Assistance on the direction arrows, against a bright blue cloudy sky.This event provides an overview of all the practical information staff need to begin developing their research plans at BU, using both internal and external networks; to develop and disseminate research outcomes; and maximising the available funding opportunities.

The primary aim of this event is to raise participants’ awareness of how to get started in research at BU or, for more established staff, how to take their research to the next level. The induction will also provide participants with essential, practical information and orientation in key stages and processes of research and knowledge exchange at BU

The fourth induction will be held on 5th April 2016 on the 4th floor of Melbury House. The format of the day is as follows:

9.00-9.15 – Coffee/tea and cake/fruit will be available on arrival

9.15 – RKEO academic induction (with a break at 10.45)

11.25 – Organisational Development upcoming development opportunities

11.30 – Opportunity for one to one interaction with RKEO staff

12.00 – Close

There will also be literature and information packs available.

If you would like to attend the induction then please book your place through Organisational Development here. We will directly contact those who have started at BU in the last five months.

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.

Regards,

The RKEO team

RKEO

Awarded Summer-based Undergraduate Research Assistantship Project

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion Investment Fund, Uncategorized

Following on from the academic applications of the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA), the application review panel have selected the following projects to recruit a student to.

All student job vacancies are live on MyCareerHub, all BU staff and students have access to this system.  These vacancies are currently in the recruitment stage to recruit a student.

Alison McConnell – Cardiorespiratory Physiology Research Assistant

Amanda Korstjens – Researcher and assistant on the LEAP (Landscape Ecology and Primatology) conservation project

Ann Luce – Research Assistant: Research on the impact that the media can have on intervention in early childbirth and labour

Anna Feigenbaum – Research Assistant: Social Media, Policing and Human Rights

Caroline Jackson – Creativity & Events Undergraduate Research Assistant

Carrie Hodges – ‘Using Participatory Methods to Empower Disabled Young People’ UG Research Assistant

Christos Gatzidis – Game Developer (Programming / Art)

Constantine Panourgia – A pilot effectiveness study of the Incredible Years Parent Programme. UndergraduateResearch Assistant

Daniel Jackson – EU Referendum Analysis: media, voters and the campaign

David John – 3D developer: Reconstruction of Roman Farmhouse Undergraduate Research Assistant

Feng Tian – Creating a Virtual and Interactive Environment for the Event Planning

Ian Stephenson – Web Developer

Isabella Rega – A Study on Informal Learning and Slum Tourism in India using User Generated Contents

James Gavin – Gait, Balance and Mobility Throughout the Lifespan: The ORI Biomechanics Database

Katherine Appleton – Testing a novel mobile phone app for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption

Mark Readman – Digital Outreach Research Assistant

Michael O’Regan – Chinese Tourists Abroad and the CNTA Etiquette Guide Book

Miguel Moital – Undergraduate Research Assistant: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in events as a marketing tool

Nicola Gregory – Social cognition in autism and borderline personality disorder

Shamal Faily – CAIRIS Research Assistant

Viachaslau Filimonau – Food waste management in the UK grocery retail sector

 

 

 

Please do share any relevant URA positions to your students where applicable.

Pending further funding, the URA scheme is set to continue into 2016/17.  Should funding be awarded, the next call for academic applications will be in Autumn 2016.  Please do look out for further communications on this on the BU research blog.

Further information on the URA scheme can be found here.  If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk or urap@bournemouth.ac.uk

Interreg event in Poole – Thematic workshop on coastal and transitional water ecosystems

BU research, Business Engagement, EU, Events, Funding opportunities

Interreg V ChannelWe have been advised by Marie Pandolfo, External Funding Manager for the Borough of Poole, that they are hosting an Interreg event.

If you are interested in applying to an INTERREG call for proposals to collaborate with French partner organisations on coastal and transitional water ecosystems, please email Christelle Pereira (Norfolk C.C. – England Programme Joint Secretariat) to register your interest and find out more.

 Friday 15th April (from 10am to mid-afternoon)

CoastBoPal and transitional water ecosystems in the France-England INTERREG V Programme

Poole Civic Centre, BH15 2RU.

The event will start at 10am (TBC) and  will last 3.5 hours in total (plus lunch break). Please note that the event will focus on priority 3.2 of the programme.

Find out more about the Interreg V  – Channel Programme.

 

RKEO Drop-in session tomorrow

BU research, Guidance

As previously posted, RKEO will be holding monthly drop-in sessions throughout 2016. The full schedule of sessions can be found here. research lifecycleresearch lifecycle

The second session will be held on 23 March 2016 between 2-4pm in the Atrium Cafe on Talbot. Anyone can attend with any queries for RKEO. Come and find out about upcoming calls such as the British Academy’s small grants scheme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, KTPs, and the upcoming Festival of Learning and all the other public engagement activities that are available. The following RKEO staff will be available for the session:

Ehren Milner – Funding Development Officer for Management

Kerri Jones and Alice Brown– Funding Development Officers for SciTech

Philip Leahy-Harland – Project Delivery Officer for Management

Nimisha Prajapati and Sara Mundy – Project Delivery Officers for Health and Social Sciences

Rachel Clarke – Knowledge Exchange Advisor

Naomi Kay – Public Engagement Officer

You don’t need to be from these faculties as staff will help with any queries you have and if they’re not able to answer your query then and there, they’ll ensure you receive a timely response from RKEO. Basically, come along and have a chat. These are also great opportunities for us to gather feedback from you on the service that we deliver to you.

RKEO look forward to seeing you.

Bristol Online Surveys (BOS)

BU research

Change in Account Creation Process and Entitlement to Students – March 2016

Introduction

Bristol Online Surveys (BOS) is an easy-to-use service that allows you to develop, deploy and analyse surveys via the Web. No complicated set-up or technical knowledge is required.

The Bristol Online Survey (BOS) tool can be used to conduct small or large scale surveys over the Internet. Survey questionnaires are easy to set up, and offer a variety of question formats, and a simple page and section structure. Survey respondents simply need to visit a dedicated webpage to complete the questionnaire. Some very easy to use data analysis tools are also available.

The tool is provided via the University of Bristol and Bournemouth University has a full site-licence.

Availability and entitlement

This service is mainly designed for use by university staff. However, from March 2016, postgraduate and final year undergraduate students are now able to use Bristol Online Surveys (BOS) subject to approval from their academic supervisor.

Getting a Bristol Online Surveys account

Staff can apply for a BOS account, or for their students, by contacting the IT Service Desk:
https://bournemouth.service-now.com/

A university email address will need to be provided. Users will then be sent a link to activate their BOS account. Please do not contact Bristol Online Surveys (BOS) directly.

Help and Support

Once you have an account, you can login from the Bristol Online Survey’s login page:

The BOS Help and Support pages are very useful in helping you to design, distribute and analyse your surveys.

If students require further advice on research design and ethics, they should contact their academic supervisor.

Research Ethics
Before you undertake any survey you must receive ethical approval by completing the online ethics checklist. Please read the University’s Research Ethics Code of Practice, which can be found here: https://itservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/services/online-ethics-checklist.aspx.

RKEO Drop-in session 23rd March 2016

BU research, Guidance

As previously posted, RKEO will be holding monthly drop-in sessions throughout 2016. The full schedule of sessions can be found here. research lifecycle

The second session will be held on 23 March 2016 between 2-4pm in the Atrium Cafe on Talbot. Anyone can attend with any queries for RKEO.  Come and find out about upcoming calls such as the British Academy’s small grants scheme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, KTPs, and the upcoming Festival of Learning and all the other public engagement activities that are available.  The following RKEO staff will be available for the session:

Ehren Milner – Funding Development Officer for Management

Kerri Jones and Alice Brown– Funding Development Officers for SciTech

Philip Leahy-Harland – Project Delivery Officer for Management

Nimisha Prajapati and Sara Mundy – Project Delivery Officers for Health and Social Sciences

Rachel Clarke – Knowledge Exchange Advisor

Naomi Kay – Public Engagement Officer

You don’t need to be from these faculties as staff will help with any queries you have and if they’re not able to answer your query then and there, they’ll ensure you receive a timely response from RKEO. Basically, come along and have a chat. These are also great opportunities for us to gather feedback from you on the service that we deliver to you.

RKEO look forward to seeing you.

BU BMC paper followed up by BMC Series Blog

BU research, Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

media childbirthOur latest paper in the international journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published late last month was highlighted yesterday in a BMC Series Blog.[1]  The blog post reminds us that the media plays an important role in providing the general public with information about a range of issues, including pregnancy and childbirth. The visual media, such as television, can provide planned information (education), for example in documentaries, advertising and the news.  Our paper “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ looked into how the representation of childbirth in the mass media affects childbirth in society as there is evidence to suggest that it can have a negative effect.  BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an Open Access journal therefore the paper is freely available for anybody across the globe with an internet connection, for access click here.

interdisciplinary-1Our paper is great example of interdisciplinary research, as celebrated at the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Research Sector Day on June 21st (see here).  The authors of our paper combine expertise in media studies, midwifery, sociology and health services research.   Moreover, it involved collaborations across universities (Bournemouth and Stirling) and within BU across faculties, namely the Faculty of Media & Communcation and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

 

Ann Luce, Marilyn Cash, Vanora Hundley, Helen Cheyne, Edwin van Teijlingen & Catherine Angell

 

Reference:

  1. Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V., Cheyne, H., van Teijlingen, E., Angell, C., (2016) “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 40 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x

 

International Summer School on Global Greenhouse Gases, 2-12 August 2016

BU research, Funding opportunities

Greenhouse Gases UK is running an intensive 10 day course aimed at advanced PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the natural sciences, who want to develop a solid understanding of the role of key greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth system and the processes that govern their dynamics in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere.

This residential course for 20-25 participants will be based at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton and there will be a combination of lectures, practical exercise, seminars and field/lab work. Organised by international experts in oceanography, atmospheric science and terrestrial biogeochemistry, the course will provide:

  • theoretical background on the role of greenhouse gases in the Earth System
  • practical training in how to measure and model fluxes
  • interaction with leading experts in the field
  • the opportunity to network with other early-career scientists with similar interests.

Topics will include:

  • Greenhouse gases in ocean, atmosphere and biosphere, with a focus on carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)
  • Instrumentation for measuring GHGs: theory and practice
  • Process modelling of GHG fluxes
  • Satellite observations of GHGs
  • Measuring and up-scaling fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere

Staff will be drawn from the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Feedback Programme, including researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Exeter, Bristol, York, Leicester, Manchester, and dedicated UK research centres including Forest Research, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and others.

All participants will be expected to present a poster on their research during the summer school.

The course will start after lunch on Tuesday, 2 August, and finish at noon on Friday, 12 August; students can travel on those days. There will be some teaching and social activities on the weekend (6-7 August).

Course fee

There is a course fee of £200 per student. This will contribute approximately 20% towards the real cost of accommodation, lunches and field trips, which will be provided by the summer school. Accommodation is in single standard (non-ensuite) rooms. Students are expected to fund their own travel to and from the summer school.

In exceptional cases, we can exempt some students from the course fee, so that your participation is free, for example if your grant and your institute do not cover the fee. Please explain the reasons in the relevant box in the application form.

Contact

If you have any questions about the summer school or if the application form does not work for you, please contact Stephan Matthiesen ( Stephan.Matthiesen@ed.ac.uk This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

Application form

To apply, please fill in the application form. The application deadline is 25 April 2016. Places are limited to 25. We will select the most suitable candidates among all applications after the deadline and inform you by mid May whether you have been accepted.

The importance of leadership strategy in Children’s Services

BU research

By Lee-Ann Fenge, Deputy Director National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work

It is difficult to under-estimate the importance of effective leadership and leadership style within children’s services. Children’s services represent complex areas of practice including child protection and looked after children, and services are being delivered against a backdrop of increasing fiscal restraint and budget cuts. The recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce is anchildcare-page on-going challenge and as a result leaders need to be able to effectively deliver innovative responses to provide services which achieve better outcomes for children and their families.

Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, but worryingly recent inspection figures revealed there were more “inadequate” than “good” children’s services in English local authorities. This is worrying for both local authorities and those receiving support from them.

Staff from the National Centre of Post-Qualifying Social Work at Bournemouth University, have been working in partnership with one local authority to develop a robust approach to leadership in order to enhance service delivery in children’s services. Cheshire West and Chester have committed to deliver an Aspiring Team Leader programme and an Aspiring Practice Lead programme as part of a sustainable workforce development approach. Kate Howe, from the NCPQSW, has worked with them to deliver a bespoke Masters level Leadership unit, providing added depth to the programme.

This commitment to workforce development and leadership has proved very positive for Cheshire West and Chester who were recently awarded ‘good’ in their Ofsted inspection, whilst leadership, management and governance were deemed as ‘outstanding’.

‘This outstanding leadership has resulted in good-quality services that respond to the needs of children and families quickly and effectively’ (Ofsted, 2016:2).iStock_000016105991Large Young People Discussing Finance

Cheshire West and Chester have embraced a culture of leadership and coaching as a central plank to improve services for children and their families, taking on board recommendations from Ofsted’s report into effective leadership (2015).

Ofsted suggest that it is possible to overcome some of the challenges of contemporary children’s services through innovation and robust succession planning. This includes approaches to workforce development which value ‘growing your own’, and an importance on learning and development alongside protected budgets and caseloads (Ofsted, 2015). Cheshire West and Chester’s approach to leadership appears to acknowledge these key areas and their recent Ofsted Inspection highlighted the importance of their partnership with Bournemouth University.

‘The authority is active in trying to retain staff through a staff development policy including aspiring senior practice leads and aspiring team managers’ courses, and is currently developing an aspiring senior manager course, all in conjunction with Bournemouth University’ (Ofsted, 2016: 33).

The value added of working alongside a university concerns not only the content of the learning, but also the critical role of assessment of learning. By designing clear assessment strategies based on reflective practice, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of learning on staff thinking and practice, and ultimately support a culture of change within the organisation.

References

Ofsted (2015) Joining the dots… Effective leadership of children’s services, Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/424193/Joining_the_dots__effective_leadership_of_childrens_services.pdf

Ofsted (2016) Inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers And Review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board – Cheshire West and Chester http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/cheshire-west-and-chester

 

The Research Lifecycle

BU research, Research news

If you haven’t checked out the BU Research Lifecycle yet then you most definitely should! Our Research Lifecycle diagram is a jazzy interactive part of the BU Research Blog that shows the support and initiatives that are available to staff and students at each stage of the research lifecycle. The information is general enough so as to apply to all disciplines and you can use it to organize and identify the many activities involved in your research. You can explore the Research Lifecycle to find information on how to get started with:

1. Developing your research strategy

2. Developing your proposal

3. The research process

4. Publication and dissemination

5. Impact

RKEO will be adding to the Research Lifecycle to ensure it always contains the most up to date information to support you with planning, organising and undertaking your research.

You can access the diagram from the links in this post or from the menu bar that appears on all screens in the Research Blog.

Latest Funding Opportunities

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news

fifty-pound-note-money

The following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

NERC

UK aquaculture initiative – innovation projects call

NERC and Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council are inviting proposals for innovation projects to the UK Aquaculture Initiative, which builds on the 2014 Sustainable Aquaculture capacity-building call. Approximately £1·2m of funding is available for this call for projects that meet the needs of the UK aquaculture industry and create sustainable, tangible economic or societal benefits.

Maximum Award: £1.2m available
Deadline: 1st stage application by 26 April 2016

International opportunities fund

NERC is inviting proposals for Pump Priming and Pump Priming Plus grants to its International Opportunities Fund (IOF). The IOF scheme provides resources to NERC-supported researchers to allow them to forge long-term partnerships with overseas scientists that add value to current NERC-funded science. IOF grants are pump-priming, to help stimulate novel research collaborations.

Maximum Award: £40,000
Deadline: 19 May 2016

ESRC

ESRC/NRF Newton call – higher education in Africa

The ESRC and National Research Foundation (NRF) invite collaborative projects between the UK and South Africa which can offer additional value to existing programmes of education research. Some themes are:

  • Organisation of higher education systems, higher education institutions (HEIs) and alternative providers
  • Equity in higher education access and participation
  • Curriculum, pedagogy and modes and levels of provision

Maximum Award: £630,000
Deadline: 3 May 2016

BBSRC

Future Leader Fellowship

The Future Leader Fellowship (FLF) will provide support for researchers wishing to undertake independent research and gain leadership skills. The FLF will support the transition of early stage researchers to fully independent research leaders.

Maximum Award: £300,000
Deadline: 12 May 2016

NIHR

Health technology assessment programme – commissioned call for proposal 15/167

Proposals are sought on the topic of management of knee braces in the management of knee osteoarthritis, with the specific research question: What is the clinical and cost-effectiveness of knee braces in the management of knee ostearthritis.

Maximum Award: Unspecified
Deadline: 19 May 2016

Arthritis Research UK

Career development fellowship

Career development fellowships aim to attract and retain talented postdoctoral basic scientists and allied health professionals in research relevant to arthritis and related musculoskeletal conditions, and provide them with the opportunity to develop an independent research career and progress towards higher-level appointments.

Maximum Award: Salary and research expenses
Deadline: 1 June 2016

EPSRC

Human dimensions of cybersecurity

The funder is inviting proposals which address the challenges identified at the ‘Human Dimensions of Cyber Security’ (HDoCS) workshop in 2014. The challenges are titled:

  1. Design, build and measure
  2. A theory of everyone
  3. Risk, trust and response
  4. Understanding people
  5. Evolution of cybercrime

Maximum Award: up to £5 million available
Deadline: 8 June 2016

eFutures Facility award

This award is intended for researchers who have a current or recent cross-disciplinary project and require additional resources to take their idea towards commercialisation or require further investment to bridge the gap with follow-on funding.

Maximum Award: £20,000
Deadline: Unspecified

Trans-Atlantic Platform Social Sciences & Humanities

T-AP Digging into Data Challenge

This funding opportunity is open to international projects that consist of teams from at least three member countries, and must include partners from both sides of the Atlantic. Projects must address any research question in humanities and/or social sciences disciplines by using large-scale, digital data analysis techniques, and show how these techniques can lead to new insights.

Maximum Award: Unspecified
Deadline: 29 June 2016

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in  RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

‘Voices of the Secret State’: Seminar presentation by Dr Hyun Joo Lim, 16th March, Studeland House, Room S206, 13:00-13:50

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, BU Challenges, BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Coffee Morning, conferences, EU, Events, Featured, Featured academics, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Grants Academy, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Publishing, R & KE Operations, Research assessment, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network

All staff and students welcome. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

Voices of the Secret State: Human Rights Activism among North Korean

Defectors in the UK

 

Abstract: My paper aims to highlight the lived experiences and identity formation of North Korean defectors settled in the UK who are involved in human rights activism. Whilst violations of human rights in North Korea are well documented, human rights activism by its defectors is less well known. Since 2004, approximately 600 North Koreans have settled in the UK. Free NK, a human rights organisation born out of this settlement, has been active in illuminating the reality of North Korea whilst also working towards subverting the regime by informing its fellow remainders about the outside world through the distribution of newspapers. This paper is drawn from ongoing research on North Korean defectors living in the UK. The data is collected using life history interviews to capture their lived experiences and to identify a range of factors which have influenced their involvement in the activism whilst also seeking to find better ways of improving the wellbeing and quality of life for those activists. The presentation will focus on the in-depth story of a North Korean defector who has founded Free NK. Themes that will be addressed in this story include the reason why he has fled North Korea; the processes of getting to the UK; challenges he has faced in his human rights activism.
Dr Hyun-Joo Lim is a lecturer in Sociology and the programme leader for BA Sociology and Social Policy at BU. She is originally from South Korea and has been engaged in various research projects that explore issues around migration, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and identity. Her previous research examined East Asian mothers in Britain.

For more information about Social Science seminar series please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

BRAD 2016 starts in April – don’t miss out – get yourself booked in!

BU research, Research Training

The BU Researcher/Academic Development (BRAD) events programme will run 4th of April – 11th of April 2016.BRAD

With less than one month to go until our BRAD events programme begins – there is still time to book yourself into one or more of our exciting events through Organisational Development under the following themes.

Introduction and Basics

BRAD wordle