Category / BU research

CIPD Research Showcase Event

BU research

The Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour in The Business School held a successful Research Showcase for members of the CIPD (the professional body for HR practitioners) on Wednesday 13th March.  The event focused on highlighting to the wider business community the research and knowledge exchange work of the HR/OB team. 

The event included a networking buffet, poster presentations showcasing the areas of identity at work (Dr Anne Benmore), leadership practice (Dr Lois Farquharson), false performance (Dr Gbola Gbadamosi), HR and ethics (Dr Louise Preget), health and wellbeing management (Dr Davide Secchi), cross-cultural HRM and diversity (Dr Huiping Xian) and two interactive presentation/discussion sessions covering ‘docility’ in hiring practices (Davide Secchi) and High involvement HR practices and work attitudes (Hong Bui). 

The event was ably chaired by Dr Fabian Homberg.  In addition, the opportunity was taken to launch the CIPD Approved MSc Professional Development (HRM) course which begins at the EBC in September 2013 (link: BU Link to MSc PD (HRM) Course details).  Thanks is extended to all those who contributed to the event and attended the event.  We look forward to delivering more research events in the future.

Revision to the Activity Proposal Form Process

BU research, Guidance

Currently all research and knowledge exchange bids require an Activity Proposal Form (APF) to be signed off by the applicant, Dean and depending on the value members of UET and the Board.  To date the APF has focused on financial issues, primarily the financial recovery of a proposed bid or grant.  Currently the APF process has been a paper based system rather than one which allows for electronic approval.  This is about to change with one important addition!

The APF has to date not required any sign-off with respect to bid quality, yet submissions of poor quality endangers both personal and institutional reputations. In future all bids will require a dual sign-off one focused on financial issues and one focused on quality.  The quality will be determined by a senior academic within a particular school, typically the Deputy Dean for Research/Knowledge Exchange and other nominated assessors.  This will all be wrapped up in a new paper-free system. 

The redesigned APF process will introduce a formal three stage approval process which will work as follows:

Stage One: An Intention to bid form will be completed by the Principal Investigator (PI) in conjunction with RKE Operations and approved before the PI can progress with the bid.  As part of this process, the PI will nominate a quality approver from a School’s approved list.  Out of curtsy the PI is expected to inform the nominated Quality Approver that they will receive the bid in due course.   Once the form is completed and RKE Ops have entered the details on RED, the Authorised School signatory will be sent the bid electronically, which they will receive in the form of an email containing a link.  Clicking on the link will direct them to the APF Approval Screen to make their decision.  If UET/Board Member approval is required then it will follow the same process and they will receive the link also.

Stage Two: Each School’s Deputy Dean Research/Knowledge Exchange has provided a list of Quality Approvers.  Training is being provided to the Quality Approvers during February and March.  When the bid is ready the Quality Approver will be sent the bid electronically to confirm that it is of sufficient quality to be submitted for external funding and they will approve the bid via link as per Stage One.  Sufficient quality is defined as ‘without causing reputational damage to the individual or BU’.  The Quality Approver will be required to justify their decision and may also provide feedback to help the applicant fine tune the final bid.  If a bid has been through the Internal Peer Review Process this step will be largely automatic.  Quality approval is only required for: (A) competitive research bids (e.g., RCUK, Charities etc.) regardless of value; and (B) competitive knowledge exchange bids such as tenders and contract research bids where the value is in excess of £50k.  If a bid is declined by a Quality Approver RKE Ops will inform the Dean and RKEDO Internal Peer Review Team to trigger support and guidance to the PI to improve the quality of the bid if there is sufficient time.  The Dean will be responsible for informing the PI that their bid has been declined on the grounds of ‘Quality’ and will provide them with feedback.  Appeal can be made directly to the PVC who will adjudicate differences of opinion on the basis of their own review of the bid. 

Stage Three: Final approval is only required if finances within a bid have changed  significantly changed from those set out in Stage One.  RKE Ops will decide whether this is the case and whether re-approval is required. 

For all stages of approval, all approvers will be sent an email containing a link to the bid; relevant documentation will be provided in the link; comments can be added to say why a decision was made (these will appear on the APF); and no log-in to RED is required.

The APF Process is being piloted in HSC throughout March and the official go-live date for all Schools will be 2 April.  The RKE Operations team will provide the PI with the Intention to Bid form.  Jo Garrad, RKE Operations Manager, will provide a user guide explaining the new process once the pilot has been completed.

Congratulations and Good Luck

BU research, Featured academics, News from the PVC

February had a good deal of activity around bids being submitted and awarded, with Schools winning consultancy contracts, research grants and organising Short Courses.

For Applied Sciences, congratulations are due to Richard Stillman for his consultancy contract with the Welsh Government, to Mark Maltby for his consultancy contract with Central Bedfordshire Council, to Andrew Ford for his two consultancy contracts with WPA Consultants and Axent Embroidery, to Ralph Clark for his consultancy contract with the Environment Agency, to Phillipa Gillingham and John Stewart for their award from Natural England.  Good luck to Daniel Franklin with his application to the Marine Management Organisation, to Emilie Hardouin for her application to FSBI, and to Rob Britton and Richard Stillman for their proposed consultancy with DEFRA.

For DEC, good luck with the applications submitted by Katherine Appleton to the Humane Research Trust, by Simon Thompson to the Royal Society, and by Tania Humphries-Smith to the HEA. 

For HSC, congratulations are due to Anthea Innes for her award from the NIHR and also good luck with her application to Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, as well as her consultancy training for Gracewell Healthcare together with Michele Board, Vanessa Heaslip and Sue Barker, and finally, for Anthea and Michele Board’s short course with RBCH.  Good luck also to Edwin Van Teijlingen for his application to NIHR.

Congratulations to the Media School for Liam Toms consultancy contract with Kestrel Medical Ltd, to Rebecca Jenkins for her consultancy contract with Craft Strategy Ltd.  Good luck to Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen for their application to ESRC, and to Darren Lilleker, Dan Jackson, Richard Scullion, Einar Thorsen and Shelley Thompson for their application to ESRC, to Julian McDougall and Kris Erickson for their application to The Spencer Foundation, to Carrie Hodges and Janice Denegri-Knott for their application to the British Academy, to Iain MacRury, Chris Williams and Steve Harper for their consultancy bid to SKILLSET, and to Liam Toms with his consultancy bid to Work Research Limited.

For the School of Tourism, congratulations go to Richard Gordon for securing funding for his short courses with the MoD and NEMA, and good luck to Jon Hibbert with his contract to Liz Lean PR Ltd, to Christian Lemmer and Crispin Farbrother with their short course to Wuhan City Vocational College, to Lisa Stuchberry for her contract to NHS Dorset, to Stephen Calver with his contract to Bournemouth Borough Council, and to Nicky Pretty and Lisa Stuchberry for their contract to Godolphin Company.

For applications and bids submitted, a number of people have submitted applications to the European Commission and so good luck to Adrian Newton, Kathy Hodder, Elena Cantarello, Judith DeGroot and Chris Shiel from Applied Sciences who are investigating Bio-regional approaches to sustainability transitions, to Jon Williams, Luciana Esteves and Christos Gatzidis also from Applied Sciences. To Ian Swain who is researching the Mediterranean diet against depression, to Katherine Appleton, Emili Balaguer-Ballester for their separate applications,  all from DEC, and to Abdelhamid Bouchachia (DEC) and Hammadi Nait-Charif (MS) for their application, to Anthea Innes and Michele Board from HSC with their Erasmus application, to Edwin Van Teijlingen also from HSC, to Stuart Allan from the Media School, and to Dimitrios Buhalis, Alessandro Inversini and Katherine King, all from the School of Tourism.

Finally, good luck to Jian Jun Zhang, Xiaosong Yang and Lihua You (all MS) with their application to EPSRC for an award in Human Robot Symbiosis in a shared Nervebot for phantom limb pain, to Jonathan Williams (HSC) for his contract to the International Tennis Federation concerning Lumbo-pelvic-hip motion sharing in tennis players.  In HSC, good luck goes to Keith Brown who is applying for two separate KTPs with Brent Council and Dorset County Council.  Good luck to Venancio Tauringana in the Business School, who has submitted an application to the British Academy’s International Partnership and Mobility Scheme.

Don’t miss the ‘Festivity Mashup’ – today at 5pm in the Loft (food and drinks available)!

BU research, Research themes

You are invitied to join the Leisure and Recreation research theme for their Ideas Cafe, titled “A ‘Festivity Mashup'”!

When: 20 March 2013, 5pm – 7pm

Where: The Loft, Poole House, Talbot Campus

‘Festivity’ is an expanding and critical phenomenon that is impacting on all areas of life from events, technology and gaming, health and wellbeing, media and digital culture, to tourism, fashion and food.  ‘Festivity Mashup’ is an informal ‘eat, drink and discuss’ session that explores these areas, their research and practical applications as well as future. Don’t be worried, not all festivity is about ludic behaviours, role inversion and communing in liminoid environments. So, if you like research with a difference, where casual sociability and soft engagement mingles critique and a hint of intrigue join us in the Loft on March 20th, starting at 17:00….

Potential themes:

·         Gamification of the Live and Lived Fantasy

·         Mediated Lifestyles: Communities of Convergence

·         Wellbeing and Wonder: Edutainment in Action

·         Festivalization of the Everyday

·         Festive Identities from Parade to Protest

·         Journeys of Emotioneering & Imagineering

.         Meanings, Value and C2C Co-creation

·         Globalising Cultural Policy: Place Wars

·         Festival for Whom?: the Politics of Place

·         Experiential Dreams in the Age of the McFestival

·         Consumerism, Sustainability and Post-Festivity

·         Digital Brandscapes: New Worlds of Performative Play

If you are interested in attending please let Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Julia Hastings Taylor (jhastingstaylor@bournemouth.ac.uk) know.

BU research to feature in BJOG’s international Twitter Journal Club

BU research

A recent paper by Professor Vanora Hundley is receiving significant interest and is to feature in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology’s Twitter Journal Club. For the last two years the BJOG has provided questions and slide sets to help readers evaluate selected papers in their local Journal Club. However, the introduction of the new Twitter Journal Club allows readers across the world to engage in online critical review and discussion. In addition to the paper, participants are provided with a scenario, background to the clinical issue, helpful details about the paper and discussion points. Journal club members participate in the discussion via Twitter using a specified hashtag (#BlueJC).  The discussion session starts on 20 March 2013 at 17:00 GMT and is open to anyone to join. For further details see: http://www.bjog.org/details/news/4459851/Blue_JC.html

New mandatory institutional timeframe for EC and RCUK submissions

BU research

As of Monday 25 March 2013 two new institutional changes will be implemented for European Commission and Research Council grants.

 European Commission submissions

A new 4-week institutional timeframe will be imposed for all European Commission application submissions. This timeframe has been created to ensure academics wishing to apply have the appropriate level of support from RKEO needed for their application. This timeframe is outlined on the right.   

As European Commission deadlines are announced at least 3 months in advance this should not have a significant impact on any staff wishing to apply as a Principal Investigator on a grant. For academic staff approached to be a Co-Investigator on a project less than 4 weeks before the submission deadline can make an appeal by email to their Deputy Dean of Research (or equivalent) and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation.

In order to help you gain the best possible support in terms of grant-writing, partner-searching, funding-call information and other useful help, please let the RKEO EU Pod know you intend to make an EC grant submission. Paul Lynch and Sarah Katon in the EU Pod will be happy to provide further information.

 

  

Research Council Submissions

As of Monday, it will be mandatory for all Research Council submissions to go through the Research Proposal Review Service (RPRS). This move is in response to the demand management measures imposed by Research Councils such as the EPSRC and NERC. Many institutions have similar measures to protect academic staff.

You can select whether your application will be peer-reviewed by two internal members of staff only or if you would like an external RCUK grant holder or expert bid writer to also review this. You will be advised on aspects to incorporate into the final proposal after review, which will give it the maximum chance of success.

To start this process, just notify RKEO of your intention to submit an application to one of the Research Councils. Please note that the RPRS can take up to three weeks, so you will need to factor this in to any proposal writing timescales. If you wish to make an application and do not have sufficient time to go through the RPRS, then an appeal by email must be made to your Deputy Dean of Research (or equivalent) and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation.

Book now for the Digital Economy Sandpit

BU research

Feedback from BU staff who have participated in academic sandpits is always positive: “Sandpits stimulate creative thinking and encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone. They are an opportunity to learn from others whose approaches to research may be different from your own” – Prof. Adele Ladkin, School of Tourism, EPSRC Sandpit Participant

Sandpits provide an intensive, interactive and free-thinking environment. A group of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds use this space to get together to become immersed in a collaborative thinking processes in order to construct innovative approaches to issues or questions.

As sandpits involve diverse participants, they force catalysation, collision and collaboration. This produces unique and innovative outputs and fosters new partnerships.

We are facilitating with expert bid writer Dr Martin Pickard of GrantCraft, three 1-day sandpits at BU which focus around relevant Research Council UK cross-thematic areas. The next Sandpit is on Digital Economy Sandpit is being held on 17.04.13

Attending one of the sandpits will:

  • facilitate you networking with other researchers across BU who you wouldn’t normally come in to contact with
  • allow you to get a fresh perspective from a different discipline on the same issue
  • enable you to be part of a multidisciplinary team who potentially bids for Research Council funding
  • give you a truly unique experience

Spaces are limited for each of the sandpits and you can register for a place on the Staff Development website.

The research collaboration with Cambridge on the emerging strategic management scheme- Business Ecosystem

BU research, Post-award


I (Dr.Ke Rong) as the principal investigator have received an award from the Bournemouth Small Grant scheme. This project  has set up the collaborative research partnership with Dr.Yongjiang Shi (ys@eng.cam.ac.uk), the director of centre for international manufacturing of University of Cambridge. We have explored a new strategic management territory- business ecosystem in a multidisciplinary working environment by integrate the research methods from operation management (Dr.Yongjiang Shi’s expertise) and strategic management (Dr.Ke Rong’s expertise).

After ten months, we successfully completed the project. Specifically, our pilot research explored the evolution and construct of a business ecosystem. This pilot project also led to a funding bid by combining ideas in a multidisciplinary working environment ( strategic management and operation management) and fostering new and long term collaboration with prestigious universities like University of Cambridge. Two journal papers on the business ecosystem have been published and two others are submitted.

Besides,  the co-investigator and I also organized a research seminar on ‘Shanzhai business ecosystem’ in the Academy of Management Annual conference in Boston, 08/2012. More than 20 worldwide scholars attended and they recognized that our business school had dedicated to this emerging research theme- Business Ecosystem.

 

Squeezing the pips from a conference with social media

BU research, Uncategorized

Please forgive the self-publicity, but I would like to share my recent use of social media to promote BU, research, a conference and papers.

Last week, I attended the annual International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) in the US, where I presented three papers, one with a US co-author. It’s the largest conference in the field, drawing 101 papers over three days and attendance in the order of 150-175 academics, graduates and some practitioners.

To broadcast involvement in the conference, I used my personal blog to present a daily summary of interesting papers:  http://fiftyonezeroone.blogspot.co.uk/. The blog posts have had over 210 visits so far and were also circulated on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. There have been many re-tweets (RTs), plus appreciative emails and direct messages via Twitter.

A short summary of “top 10 research tips” was written for the prmoment.com website which has around 30,000 users, worldwide. It was posted on the site’s blog and is included in this week’s publication: http://blog.prmoment.com/ten-pr-research-tips-from-bournemouth-universitys-professor-tom-watson/

The outcomes of this type of activity will be long-term and hard to measure, but as I was the only UK delegate at IPRRC this year, it has given BU, our research and industry knowledge an international platform of expertise and insight to present ourselves. The capital cost was almost nil, as I used my own netbook, Wi-Fi was free and the time component was less than an hour a day. Try this approach at your next conference or internal event.

Tom Watson presenting at IPRRC 2013

BBB Seminar: Bournemouth-Brasilia-Birmingham

BU research, Fusion

As part of the BBB project, funded by Bournemouth University Fusion Investment Fund SMN strand, and Software Systems Research Centre activities, we would like to invite you to our seminar series next week, the week of March 18th 2013, at the School of Design, Engineering and Computing.

Bournemouth Birmingham Brasilia BBB Project Fusion Investment Fund SMN Strand

BBB project creates a community of interest which involves the computing groups of University of Brasilia, University of Birmingham, and Bournemouth University. The three groups are focused on Software Engineering research and this project involves exchange visits and the establishment of joint work.  BBB is working together on a timely research project about adaptive software systems with particular focus on cloud and service computing. We are investigating core engineering foundations which are required to enable software to adapt and respond to the dynamic needs and environments of its users and, also, to respond to their runtime feedback aiming to enhance its service quality. The program consists of the following talks:

 Tuesday   19-03-2013

Speaker: Danilo Mendonça, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Title: Compositional Approach for Parametric Model Checking in Software Product Lines
Room and time:   P403 (Poole House, Talbot Campus) Start: 15:00 Finish: 15:40

Speaker: Funmilade Faniyi, University of Birmingham, UK
Title: A Self-Adaptive Architecture Approach to Service Level Agreement Compliance in Cloud-based systems
Room and Time:   P403 (Poole House, Talbot Campus) Start: 15:40 Finish: 16:20

Speaker: Raian Ali, Bournemouth University, UK
Title: Socially-Adaptive Software: The SOCIAD project Approach*
Room and time :   P403 (Poole House, Talbot Campus) Start: 16:20 Finish: 17:00

Thursday   21-03-2013

Speaker: Felipe Pontes, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Title: Enacting distributed and reliable service choreography using context-aware agents
Room and time:   P411 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 15:00 Finish: 15:40

Speaker: Lai Xu, Bournemouth University, UK
Title: Business process management as service & lightweight business process modelling.
Room and time:   P411 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 15:40 Finish: 16:20

Speaker: Huseyin Dogan, Bournemouth University, UK
Title: Systems of Systems (SoS) to Capability Management.
Room and time:   P411 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 16:20 Finish: 17:00

Friday   22-03-2013

Speaker: Malik Almaliki, Bournemouth University, UK
Title: Developing a Software Engineering Framework for Adaptive Acquisition of Users’ Feedback
Room and time:   P409 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 15:00 Finish: 15:20

Speaker: Rami Bahsoon, University of Birmingham, UK
Title: Self-Adaptive Cloud Software Engineering @ Birmingham
Room and time:   P409 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 15:20 Finish: 16:10

Speaker: Genaina Rodrigues, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Title: Variability Management of Reliability Models in Software Product Lines
Room and time:   P409 (Poole House, Talbot Campus). Start: 16:10 Finish: 17:00

We hope you will join us.

* SOCIAD (Social Adaptation: when Software Gives Users a Voice) project is  funded by EC Marie Curie CIG grant

UK-India Education & Research Initiative Funding Available

BU research

The next round of applications for the UKIERI Thematic Partnerships is now open. UKIERI Thematic Partnership funding is designed to support the collaborative costs of joint research projects, including exchanges between research teams in the two countries. The closing date for applications is 31 May 2013. This year there are two categories for funding:

1.     UGC UKIERI Thematic Partnerships (with the University Grants Commission), which covers research, faculty exchange and innovation across all subject areas.

2.     DST UKIERI Thematic Partnerships (with the Indian Department of Science and Technology), for the following specific areas:

a.     Sustainable energy supply

b.    Food production and security

c.     Water supply and security

d.    Health and Disease

e.     Innovation including social impact and intellectual property

f.     Research and Science Policy

Full guidance notes and application forms are available from the UKIERI website.  UKIERI will organise pre-bid workshops in March and April 2013 to help potential applicants understand the application process for the call and the dates of these will be released on their webpage.

Interested in eHealth? Join the Psychology Research Centre for an informal forum!

BU research

On Wednesday 27th March, 2013 the Psychology Research Centre will be holding an informal forum for anyone who is currently doing, or interested in doing, research related to eHealth (e.g. research interests may include understanding how people (e.g. potential patients, patients, health professionals) use the internet for health information and/or intervention). We are informally calling this forum CHIRP which stands for Centre for eHealth Internet Research and Practice and it is open to any staff or postgraduate students at BU who would like to meet up to discuss research plans, ideas and potential collaborations.

The topic of eHealth fits well into the BU research themes of ‘Health, Wellbeing & Ageing’ and ‘Technology & Design’ and we are currently aware of members in DEC and HSC who are currently conducting research in this area.

The aim of this meeting will be to get together and understand common research interests therefore we would ask you to come prepared to talk for around 3 minutes about the current work you are doing (feel free to send a powerpoint slide with details of you interest too).

The forum will be held at 3pm in room P405 at Poole House and Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. Please contact Sarah Williams in Psychology by early next week if you are interesting in attending.

Want to know more on the exciting R&D opportunities available in Electronic Systems?

BU research, Funding opportunities

Keen to find out more on the opportunities available for R&D?  Then do not miss this event:

‘Starting Small, Thinking Big: Entry-Level funded R&D opportunities in Electronic Systems’         

at:

The University of West England on Wednesday 10th April.

The purpose of this event is to inform organisations of the type of opportunity that is available from the Technology Strategy Board, through funding programmes such as: 

SMART and  KTPs.

In particular, detailed information will be given on the current

KTP Call opportunity in Resilient Energy.

Used properly, publicly funded R&D can be a valuable way for companies to develop products, ideas and people. Successful projects and programmes in electronic systems are often built from small, carefully planned beginnings.

To register for the event, and to find out further information please click here

Link to ETHICS on the Staff Intranet

BU research, Research Ethics

The Staff Intranet ribbon has a new ETHICS icon, which will direct you to the Research Ethics page on the blog. Go to the Staff Intranet, scroll to the bottom and click on the right arrow to find the ETHICS icon. This new icon on the Staff Intranet will make it easier for researchers to find information on BU’s research ethics policy and procedures.

BU is committed to promoting and upholding the highest quality academic and ethical standards in all its activities. BU’s research governance and ethics policies and procedures recognize the importance of addressing ethical matters, while supporting the achievement of its collective research objectives. To this end, robust research governance and ethics policies and procedures underpin all research at the University. Further information can be found on the Research Ethics page on the blog, accessible here, or via the ETHICS icon on the Staff Intranet.

CEMP Research & Innovation Bulletin 14.3.13

BU research, Funding opportunities

The CEMP Research & Innovation Cluster bulletin for the meeting on 14.3.13 is here: Cluster bulletin and agenda 14.3.13.

The focus of the cluster is pedagogic research and innovation. Any colleagues interested in collaborating with CEMP to pursue any of the funding opportunities in the bulletin – please email Julian McDougall.

Cluster meetings take place every other Thursday. In the Thursdays in between, the bulletin will be posted here.

Calling all Early Career Researchers!

BU research

R&KEO are keen to know your thoughts as to whether holding an event this summer for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) would be of interest.

The event would be intended to help you reflect and develop the skills you have and help you consider how you can apply your skills now and in the future and aim to help you make more informed choices about the next step of your career.

The event would include some training and then allow you to work in a range of situations such as a simulated business or academic environment with a facilitator. This will help you uncover more about your personal motivations and career. 

If you are an ECR please use the voting buttons below to register whether this would or would not be an event you would like to participate in.  

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