Category / BU research

CoPMRE Tenth Annual Symposium

BU research

The Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) is pleased to announce its tenth annual symposium ‘Innovation in Medical Education and Research, promoting change’. The symposium is suitable for clinicians, academics, healthcare professionals and industry people (Pharma and Medical Device) with an interest in medical research and education.  

The research session will concentrate on design, assessment and implementation of novel medical devices and how to take technological innovations into practice.  The education session will explore changes in medical training from school to revalidation, now and in the future.

Date: Wednesday 16 October 2013
Venue: Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB
Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm

Please ensure that you register for this event in advance.

Speakers include:

Siamak Noroozi
Chair in Advanced Technology, Bournemouth University
Key performance enhancement potentials of running with blades

Ian Swain
Director of Clinical Science & Engineering, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
The use of electrical stimulation in Neurological Rehabilitation

Robert Middleton
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University
Medical Device Trials – The Bournemouth Experience

Chris Pomfrett
Technical Adviser, Research Commissioning, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
NICE evaluation of devices and diagnostics

Mike McMillan
CEO of NHS Innovations South West (NISW)
How to make it happen and keep the day job

Chris Stephens
Associate Dean (Education & Student Experience) University of Southampton
Southampton Medical School, now and the future

Richard Marchant
Assistant Director, Regulations Policy, GMC
Regulating Medical Education and Training

Peter Hockey
Deputy Postgraduate Dean, Health Education Wessex
Higher Training and the LETB

For more details please visit our website or contact Audrey Dixon

VS-Games 2013, the fifth outing of the International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications will be hosted at Bournemouth University, UK between the 11th and the 13th of September 2013.

BU research

VS-Games 2013, the fifth outing of the International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications will be hosted at Bournemouth University, UK between the 11th and the 13th of September 2013.

As mentioned in a previous blog post here, BU has been the main financial sponsor of the conference, so all BU members of staff and research students are invited to attend VS Games 13 free of charge (you will need to display your staff card at the registration desk).

There are three keynotes to the conference, Professor Adrian Cheok’s (Keio University) “”Multisensory Feeling Communication in the Hyperconnected Era”, Professor Anthony Steed’s (UCL) “What Will Virtual Reality Do For Games?” and Dr Chris Peters’ “”Computational Modelling of Artificial Behaviour: A Perceptual Approach”.

A full programme and more details can be found on the official conference website at http://www.vsgames2013.org/. We hope to do live tweeting from the conference at https://twitter.com/vsgames2013.

Thinking of applying for the British Academy Small Grants scheme…?

BU research

The British Academy Small Grants call was announced on September 4 and has a closing date of October 16. Our academics are always attracted to this call, but our success rate is not good; in the last round of calls BU submitted seven and none were funded.

With this in mind we want to encourage you to use the RPRS to help improve your submission (the deadline to get this to me would be next week) or if you are interested in making an application to this call, to utilise all of our wonderful grant craftsmanship resources (such as the Grants Academy and our training sessions) and the RPRS to get your application perfected for the next round of calls in April 2014.

If you do want to submit to this round, a gentle reminder that as this is requires Institutional Approval, the final deadline to submit to R&KEO is October 10th.

MeCCSA Annual Conference, Jan 2014: Final call for papers and registration open

BU research

 

In January 2014 The Media School at BU is hosting the MeCCSA Annual Conference. MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education.

 

We have two announcements!

 

1. The deadline for abstracts is almost upon us. Colleagues must submit abstracts by 16 September 2014. See the full call for papers for more info.

2. For those who are either uber-confident of abstract acceptance, or just uber-keen to attend, registration is now open via the conference website.

 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Advanced Notice! 2014 PhD Studentship Competition

BU research, PG research

At the end of September the Graduate School will be launching the 2014 PhD Studentship Competition. The Competition will open for project proposals (from Academics) seeking funding for projects to start in September 2014, as part of the Fusion Investment Fund.

This year there will be approximately 50 studentships available across two parallel strands

  1. Matched Funded Projects
  2. Fully Funded

There will be two rounds for proposals with the first round launching on Monday 30 September 2013 which will close on Monday 6th January 2014.  In the event that not all studentships are allocated in the first round, a second round will be run subsequently for projects starting in January 2015.

To assist academics, a one day workshop will be organised, by Staff Development, to cover topics such as how to target and develop relationships with external organisations; networking and project costings etc.  This workshop will take place in October and further details will be available when the Competition is launched.

Further details about the 2014 PhD Studentship Competition, including the policy document and project proposal forms, will be available when the competition is launched on the 30th September.

 

Dr Fiona Knight
Academic Manager
The Graduate School

 

 

Bournemouth Research Chronicle

BU research, R & KE Operations, Research news

Just under a year ago we published the second edition of the Bournemouth Research Chronicle (BRC). It went to print after the start of my maternity leave, meaning I got out of stuffing envelopes and posting hundreds of copies!

It was definitely worth my colleagues’ efforts though. Academic peers, research partners, potential business collaborators and journalists were among the recipients and the feedback was really positive.

Front cover of Bournemouth Research Chronicle 2012The BRC is a glossy magazine highlighting a range of BU research projects, presented within our eight societal themes. We’ve just begun preparations for the next edition, which will focus specifically on some of the fantastic impact-led work being carried out across BU.

Where work is at, what we call the ‘interim impact’ stage, the right effort and energy can propel it towards phenomenal impact in the future. The BRC is just the sort of vehicle to help achieve that. Featured research could land on the doorstep of a business eager to apply your findings, or in the inbox of an influential opinion leader or policy maker in your field. That’s why communications activity is such an important part of the life cycle of a research project. Often it is the bridge between the research and societal impact.

So please tell us about your impact-led projects. There is some space left in the next edition of the BRC, as well as numerous other communications opportunities to reach the audiences that need to hear about your work. My contact details are in the BU address book, so do get in touch with me (Sally Gates).

Incidentally, Bryce Dyer, pictured on the front cover of the last edition, is presenting one of the award lectures at next week’s British Science Festival in Newcastle. Congratulations Bryce and good luck!

And who’s up for being on the front cover of the BRC this time round…?

NIHR Research Design Service Grant Applications Workshop

BU research

The Research Design Service South West (RDS SW) is running a one-day grant applications workshop on 7th November 2013 at Taunton Racecourse, Somerset.

The grant applications workshop is directed at researchers who are considering applying to peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research, and is intended to allow them to turn good applications into excellent ones.

If you are interested in attending the workshop you will need to submit an application form and the latest draft of your research proposal by 1pm on Monday 14th October 2013.

For more information and to download an application form please go to http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/gaw.htm.

How to create the perfect profile

BU research, Guidance

BRIAN

The academic profile in BRIAN can hold a wide range of information about professional activities, publications and (shortly) grants.  As the information in BRIAN is used to populate the profile page which is available to anyone on the web, it is important that there is a minimum set of information that everyone maintains.  This minimum set of information will ensure that everyone’s academic profile contains entries for the same types of data, ensuring a consistent level of information across all profiles within the University.

The profile pages are displayed whenever anyone from inside or outside the University seeks information on a member of academic staff.  The external viewers include other academics who may be seeking collaboration partners, potential students, commercial enterprises investigating research or enterprise possibilities etc.  It is particularly important that those who are potentially being put forward for the REF have full external profiles.

To attain the minimum standard that has been defined for BRIAN, please ensure you have entries in the following areas.

  • Biography
  • Research theme
  • Keywords
  • Qualifications
  • Publications

In line with the new version of BRIAN, we have prepared a document ‘BRIAN – Minimum data requirements‘ containing examples of the information required.  This is especially relevant for the biography where recent examples of engaging biographies demonstrate what can be achieved.

Once the new version of BRIAN is deployed, we will add some more areas to the minimum standard.  These are:

  • Research
  • Grants
  • Photograph

In the new version of BRIAN, you will be able to maintain your photograph yourself.

Academic staff are encouraged to go beyond this minimum level and to record and maintain as much of their academic lives in BRIAN as possible.  We encourage you to use BRIAN as a living academic CV and to ensure that your research information and publications are always up to date.

There is no need to delay in adding and updating your information in BRIAN.  All the information you add to the current version of BRIAN will be carried across to the new version at the end of the month.

At last! Grant records on BRIAN

BU research, Guidance

BRIANAnother feature of the new version of BRIAN, when it is released later this month, will be the ability to record details of grants.

What makes a grant suitable for inclusion in BRIAN?  Well, it must have been awarded but you can include those that have been completed.  It is advisable to only include grants that are significant such as those from prestigious funders, of significant value, etc.  Courses and conferences are not suitable and so should not be included. 

The reason for the above is that the grant information that you put into BRIAN will be displayed in the new staff profile pages (live in October). 

Another useful feature is that you can mark a grant as a favourite.  Grants marked in this way appear on the home page of your external profile and have increased visibility.

Grant information can be added to BRIAN in the same way as you add publication or professional activity information.   The mandatory information required to enter a grant consists of: PI name, project title, funder name, start and end date, value and status (awarded, in progress or completed).  Other information can also be captured.  Grants can be linked to other BU staff and also to your publications.

More guidance will be provided at the launch of the new version of BRIAN.  In the interim, please give some thought to any grants that would be suitable for your BRIAN profile.

Using BRIAN to record your research activity

BU research, Guidance

BRIANWhen the new version of BRIAN is released later this month, a new Research field will be included.

The research field is intended to be used to capture information on your research projects, themes, areas of interest etc.  Use this field to provide up to date information on your current activities and future plans such as conference presentations, attendance etc.

It is important that you update your research information on a regular basis to ensure your profile page contains the most recent information.  Bi-weekly/weekly updates are ideal.  The research information will appear on the front page of the new staff profile pages so it will be easily visible outside BU.

The maximum number of characters for this information is 2,000.

Here is an example of how a research entry could look:

I am currently conducting a research study examining the use of digital imagery in news reporting during times of crisis.

My most recent book, Great Expectations, was published by Chapman and Hall, in June 2013.

My overseas work is largely based in Peru where I am involved in the evaluation of a community-based project funded by Amantani.  This involves connecting communities, and in particular, school aged children with global changes.  I will be visiting Lima and Arequipa in October ’13 to continue with my research and hope to establish a network with Guayaquil in Ecuador.

I am organising a conference to be held on 13th November 2013 on the ‘Transparency and accountability of journalism’.  Applications for papers to be submitted will be open on 1st October.  More details can be found here: www.journo.conf@BU.ac.uk

If you are interested in journalism in countries in conflict then please contact me for potential collaboration opportunities at joe.bloggs@BU.ac.uk

If you have time in the next couple of weeks, please prepare your research entry so that it can be pasted into BRIAN when the new Research field becomes available.

New look BRIAN

BU research, Guidance

When the new version of BRIAN is released on 23 September 2013, you will notice several improvements in the look and feel of the application.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRIAN continues to provide information on your publications and professional activities,  With the new version, we will also be introducing the ability for you to enter information on significant grants that you have won.  Look out for more information on grants on Wednesday.

The new BRIAN homepage includes a new navigation menu on the left side of the screen.  The My Profile options presents the information in BRIAN in a CV format and importantly includes the ability to upload and maintain your own profile picture.  You will only be able to upload one picture at a time but you can change your profile pictures as often as you wish. Explore allows you to search the information in BRIAN and save searches for re-use.

We will be showcasing some of the new features of BRIAN in a series of posts this week.  We will also be organising some training in BRIAN on both campuses in early October to help any new or existing BRIAN users get to grips with the application and how it can help you.

If you have any comments, feedback or items you would like us to feature on the blog, please contact us at BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk

Tomorrow we will explain the changes being made to the recording of your current research activities in BRIAN.

Great potential for cross-School collaboration

BU research, Guidance, Research news

At BU, we subscribe to Research Professional, which enables you to find out what funding opportunities are available as soon as they’ve been published by the funder.  Research Professional have just launched a new ‘Expressions of interest’ feature which allows you to register your intent to apply for a funding opportunity.

You may think, what’s in it for me?  Well, this feature will list all users from BU who have already expressed interest in the call, which opens up the potential for cross-Collaboration of Schools.  It can also show you the possible level of demand from BU for a call and will be particularly useful when a call has a quota for each institution.  This will allow us to see who may apply and put in place processes to deal with quota calls (there may be a need for internal peer review if BU are only allowed to submit one application).

It couldn’t be easier to use either.  When viewing a funding opportunity you will find the “Express interest” button in the right column and just simply click this.  Clicking on this button will display your name in the right-hand column. This will be visible to other users at your institution, alongside a contact button allowing them to email you. All users from your instituion who have expressed interest in the funding opportunity will be listed here.

 

 

 

 

 

Expressions of interest will also be listed in the ‘Our institution’ section.  On our institution home page, you will find the ‘Expressions of interest’ tab.  Here you will be able to see the funding opportunities you have expressed interest in, as well as any expressions of interest from others at your institution, listed in chronological order.  Each Group has its own ‘Expressions of interest’ tab, listing expressions of interest made by members of that Group.

If you wish to revoke your expression of interest, view the relevant funding opportunity in the ‘Funding section’.  The ‘Express interest’ button will have changed to a ‘Revoke interest’ button.  Clicking this button will remove your expression of interest; it will no longer be displayed either on the opportunity itself or in the ‘Our institutin’ section.

Research Professional

BU research, Funding opportunities

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional.  To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional 

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional.  They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional.  The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat.  Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month.  You can register here for your preferred date:

24th September 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/882372120 

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

VS-Games 2013, the fifth outing of the International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications will be hosted at Bournemouth University, UK between the 11th and the 13th of September 2013

BU research

 

VS-Games 2013, the fifth outing of the International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications will be hosted at Bournemouth University, UK between the 11th and the 13th of September 2013.

With the conference organized in previous years at locations such as Coventry (UK), Braga (Portugal), Athens (Greece) and Genoa (Italy), it will take place, for 2013, at the Kimmeridge House building of Bournemouth University, situated at the main Talbot campus of the institution.

The development and deployment of games with a purpose beyond entertainment and with considerable connotations with more serious aims is an exciting area with immense academic but also commercial potential. This potential presents both immediate opportunities but also numerous significant challenges to the interested parties involved, as a result of the relatively recent emergence and popularity of the medium. The VS Games 2013 conference aims to address this variety of relevant contemporary challenges that the increasingly cross-disciplinary communities involved in serious games are currently facing. This will be achieved by, amongst other ways, the comprehensive dissemination of successful case studies and development practices, the sharing of theories, conceptual frameworks and methodologies and, finally, the discussion of evaluation approaches and their resulting studies.

All accepted VS Games 2013 papers, full, short and posters, plus workshop ones, will be included (perpetually) in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library after the completion of the event. The conference is technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society. Also, the authors of the best papers will be invited to write an extended version for inclusion in the Elsevier Entertainment Computing journal and IGI Global’s International Journal of Game-Based Learning. Authors of selected technical articles with a focus on computer graphics will be invited to submit extended versions of their works to be considered for publication in Elsevier’s Computers and Graphics Journal.

As BU has been the main financial sponsor of the conference, all BU members of staff and research students are invited to attend VS Games 13 free of charge (you will need to display your staff card at the registration desk).

If you have a passing interest in game design and serious games, a very multi-disciplinary proposition in themselves which can offer impact/public engagement benefits for all kinds of scientific disciplines, then please by all means join us and sit through the talks! You may well find this sparks off new ideas for you in terms of your own research field and output and how computer/video games can be used to support and/or enhance it.

A full programme and more details can be found on the official conference website at http://www.vsgames2013.org/

International Day of the Disappeared 2013

BU research

Dr Melanie Klinkner studies the use of forensic science for investigation and prosecution of atrocities such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Here she talks about the International Day of the Disappeared.

Today serves as a reminder of the number of people around the world who are missing as a result of armed conflicts. We remember the families who face a daily struggle to understand what has happened to their loved one.

Dr Melanie KlinknerEnforced disappearances have been and continue to be used by oppressive regimes in an attempt to dispose of political opponents secretly and to instil fear in the population. Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection for all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006) defines disappearances as ‘the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law’.

The Red Cross work tirelessly to reunite families where possible and organisations such as the International Commission on Missing Person support identification of bodies.

In the aftermath of conflict and gross human rights violations, there is an overwhelming need of the families is to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones and, where the worst has happened, to receive their human remains as an absolute proof of death and to facilitate burial and commemoration rituals.

This need is mirrored in international human rights and international humanitarian law development, which has advanced the recognition of victim rights of national or international crimes and human rights abuses. The Basic Principles encompass the need for victims and their families to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones and demands that the bodies of those disappeared are recovered, identified and buried.

Melanie works alongside Ian Hanson and Paul Cheetham in the School of Applied Sciences, who have developed standard operating procedures for forensic investigation of mass graves. These have been used internationally in judicial and humanitarian contexts, bringing those responsible for atrocity crimes to justice and providing much needed answers to families.

Read more about the Red Cross

Dr Melanie Klinkner’s profile

International Commission on Missing Persons

BU Professor published in 20th Anniversary edition of leading journal

BU research

Steve Letza, a Professor in Accounting and Finance within the Business School , has been honoured to feature in the 20th Anniversary issue of Corporate Governance: An International Review; a leading journal at the forefront of research in this area. This special edition consists of articles from the past decade that have had the highest number of citations per year, and thus have been widely used in academic research.

Steve co-authored the article Shareholding Versus Stakeholding: a Critical Review of Corporate Governance alongside Xiuping Sun and James Kirkbride in 2004 and it offers a new perspective on the subject; identifying the need for organisations to adapt to the changing environments they operate in. 

Congratulations Steve!

First Impressions

BU research, Guidance, News from the PVC

Let’s face it when BRIAN was launched last year the staff profile pages, which drew information from it and were written in something called VIVO, were less than satisfactory!  Lots of technical problems with the input data from BRIAN and its presentation was not up to BU’s normal standard.  You expressed your concerns in no uncertain terms and we have now put it right.  Working with academic colleagues IT and M&C have worked hard over the summer to construct a completely new interface, not in an obscure computer code but in something we can maintain and evolve easily ourselves.  They have done a brilliant piece of work, so BRIAN has a new set of external clothes and they rock!

After all, first impressions count and the staff pages are a crucial portal through which we present our academic achievements and expertise; and in reverse it is a lens for the world to view and search the wonderful talent that exists here at BU.  The new pages go live at the start of October 2013; they are finished and ready but there is an upgrade to BRIAN due in September which needs to be installed first.

 The improvements include:

 –       A more professional look and feel

–       The opportunity to showcase selected publications

–       Users can upload their own photo (via BRIAN)

–       Improved searching by name, keyword

–       Closer integration with the research themes

–       Fixing the technical problems we have experienced

Since we have developed this interface ourselves here at BU we can develop it further and continue to respond to your feedback.  The BRIAN team are managing the development of the replacement.  If you would like to know more about the project, please email BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 The staff profile pages will continue to use data drawn from BRIAN so please keep updating your content in BRIAN since a profile is only as good as the input!  There should be no impact on staff during the switch to the new pages, although there may be minor disruption to the availability of the profile pages during the transition.  Let me know what you think of the new pages?