Category / BU research

At an early stage in your research career? Then come to one of our ECR Forums!

BU research, Training

Last year we ran a series of forums for academic colleagues who are at an early stage in their research career.  You can find out more about the September session here

The forums are an open, informal sessions where you can meet with experienced academics and members of R&KEO to discuss anything you like to do with research. From publications to projects to funding to research strategy we will be on hand to help and advise.  Going forward we plan to hold these forums on a School by School basis.  If you would be interested in attending one of these events, please contact Nikki Gloyns here.

The next forum will be a Media School event and will be held on 27 March 2013 from 12:30 – 15:00 on Talbot Campus.  If you wish to attend the Media School forum, please contact Nikki Gloyns to book. Lunch will be provided so booking is essential.

Definitions of BRIAN and BURO

BU research, Guidance

Clarification is required of what BRIAN is and what BURO now does.

BRIAN

BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information And Networking) is BU’s publication management system.  Staff can manage their research outputs on BRIAN, as well as other information such as biography, academic group, memberships, website and social media links, plus many more options.  Information input to BRIAN will be displayed in the BU staff profile web pages.  BRIAN enables a single point of data entry which will enable research information to be used in multiple places.  It will also enable BU to meet Research Excellence Framework (REF) requirements by improving administrative efficiency and data accuracy.  All academic staff automatically have a login and you can access it with your normal university username and password (you don’t need to add staff\ in front of your username).  Help and guidance can be found on the system and via the documents below.  If you have any problems accessing the system or you have any queries please contact BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you require any help with BRIAN, please contact BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk

BURO

Bournemouth University Research Online [BURO] is the University’s Institutional Repository. BURO is supported by Eprints software. It gives access to academic outputs created by Bournemouth University staff and researchers. Where available BURO contains open access full text of unpublished works (pre-prints) and the author’s version of published works (post-prints).  BURO is located at http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk – it has a well-designed interface and is easy to use. BURO is open to anyone to search, however, only Bournemouth University staff and researchers can contribute material.  Material is contributed to BURO via BRIAN.  BURO contains records of outputs with full-text attached – a full list of outputs can be viewed in the BU staff profile web pages http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/.

If you require help assessing whether an open access version of your work can be contributed to BURO please contact your Subject Library Team or SAS-BURO@bournemouth.ac.uk .

I will shortly be updating the FAQ’s for BRIAN and so watch this space.

Do you want to put science in the headlines?

BU research

If you do then the British Science Association Media Fellowships are for you.

The scheme offers a free and unique professional development opportunity for practising researchers to experience first-hand how science is reported by spending 3-6 weeks on a summer placement with a press, broadcast or online journalist such as the Guardian, The Times or BBC.

You will work with them to produce well informed, newsworthy pieces about developments in science.

Come away better equipped to communicate your research to the media, public and your colleagues.

You will develop writing skills that could help you produce concise and engaging articles and funding applications.

For details about the scheme and online application form, visit the British Science Association website.  Application deadline is 11 March 2013.

To be eligible to apply for the Media Fellowships scheme you have to fulfil the following criteria:

  • are a practising scientist, social scientist, clinician or engineer and have a minimum of 2 years postgraduate experience in your field. PhD students are eligible although we don’t recommend it due to the heavy workload.
  • are employed, and based, part or full time in the UK or Ireland and you have a work contract/ research funding until December 2013. If you are not a UK or Irish citizen you need to have a work contract until June 2014.
  • work at any level in an academic or research institution, industry, civil service or any other similar organisation
  • have your employers/funders consent to be released on full pay for the period of the Fellowships. Annual leave may be used for part of the placement.

Unfortunately the British Science Association ARE NOT able to offer Media Fellowships to freelancers, those who work in PR or communications, or those who want to change career full time into science communication.

 

Fusion supports new collaborative research project about the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

BU research, Fusion, Uncategorized

 “Hello, hello, band from Ipanema – big hug! Hello, hello, girl from the favela – big hug!”. These are the lyrics of ‘Aquele Abraço’ (That Embrace), an iconic song in the samba genre performed at the closing ceremony of London 2012 to mark the transition for the Rio 2016 Olympics. The song celebrates all the neighbourhoods of the city, the wealthy Ipanema, but also the favelas (slums or shantytowns) by ‘sending a hug’, a form of friendly greeting in Brazil. It can be inferred that, just like the song, the Olympics are embracing the whole city and vice-versa. But how can mega-events such as the Olympics be truly socially inclusive? To what extent are the perspectives of the city’s impoverished communities being taken into account – being heard and seen – in the decision making process?

A new research project sets out to investigate issues of social inclusion, marginality and the ways in which the residents experience the on-going transformations of the city during the preparations for the Olympics through the senses of hearing and seeing. Funded by the Fusion Staff Networking and Mobility (SMN) fund, Dr Andrea Medrado, from the Media School, will travel to Rio de Janeiro in May 2013 in order to establish collaborations between Bournemouth University and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Whilst in Rio, Andrea will work with UFRJ’s Community Communications Studies Lab (LECC- Laboratório de Estudos de Comunicação Comunitária), which is led by Professor Raquel Paiva and is one of the most prominent in this field in the country. She will then share some of the lessons learned from the communities in Rio with students at BU, particularly those with an interest in social communications and community or student-led media. The project also has the participation of Dr Carrie Hodges and Dr Janice Denegri-Knott, who specialise in emerging promotional cultures in Latin America and are members of BU’s Emerging Consumer Cultures Research Group.

Besides developing stronger ties with universities in Brazil, the goal is to liaise with the Brazilian Olympic Committee, NGOs and the city hall of Rio de Janeiro in order to share research findings and insights. If you would like more information about this project, please contact Andrea Medrado at amedrado@bournemouth.ac.uk. Along with many colleagues in the Media School, she is also keen on initiating a cross-school research group on the Olympics and Paralympics.

Transfer viva? Only 10 000 words(!)

BU research, PG research

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com

 

Preparing for your transfer viva – a mere 10 000 words and a separate 500 abstract.

After a bit of nudging from a few staff @HSC-BU, I thought to write a short on how to prepare for the transfer viva. I had mine in Dec 2012 and these are few things at the time that helped and a few I got the hang of post-viva. By now you should have done an RD6 and 1 Annual Review. These forms, available from your school administrator, help you put down what you are going to do for the next few years (sigh) and how you will ‘physically’ do it (double sigh). When I started my transfer viva, I took (i.e. copy and pasted) a lot of what was in my RD6 research plan and used it as the skeleton in order to write the 10000 words. I then looked at the BU PhD bible  – Code of Practice for Resarch Degrees booklet and borrowed a transfer viva from the school admins. The older ones  helped me for structure and format. And the same rules apply, be concise and write you abstract last.

The timeline for transfer from MPhil to PhD is usually a  year/and a half after you start (or submit your RD6, 24-36months for PT), once you hand it in, after your supervisors are ‘happy’, you will have a month before your viva. Have a chat with your school admin (for HSC, it is Paula Cooper and Sara Glithro), and your supervisors as they will read it, then look for examiners (2), an independent chair and a supervisor (if you wish; I asked mine, you don’t have to, so as to gain feedback, as he also took notes and could comment on my ‘performance’; all towards the final viva). There is a one page form that you and your supervisors need to fill in, hand in duplicates of form and of bound thesis and done. Not quite.

Take it very ‘seriously’, I took it for granted once written and discussed you would carry on the PhD (this is not always the case read the BU PhD bible), the quality of the document and performance in the viva voce matters. It should ressemble as much as possible the ‘final product’. Once you hand in your 10 000 words, read it the week before or the night before. I was really nervous but the best piece of advice I got was ‘go in and talk’ – you know your work the ‘best’: so pretend like you want your best friend to understand your work. A few things I could have done better? Better writing, made sure I did not repeat myself and written it more as a ‘story’. Using power point where each slide helps you plan what you will write. For me the viva was the best time to say this is my work and to gain (brutal) feedback from people from a similar field as it gives you time to plan your final product. One major thing I realised I needed to put my study in context and what it means to ‘science’.

Essentially it looked something like this:

  • Title page (Name, Title, Supervisors, School, University)
  • Acknowledgements (Thank you to your supervisors, school, funders…)
  • Abstract (500 words)
  • Table of contents (in a table with invisible borders)
  • List of Abbreviations (in a table with invisible borders)
  • Introduction (which is your literature review)
  • Research Plan: Methodology and justification of method(s) used (your literature review will help here)
  • Aim and Objectives – which are drawn from your research question
  • Progress to date: Research contribution to the field (a PhD means a new contribution to the field or new tools); Findings (Here – I only included the findings that I had ‘cleaned’ for the final table and I was sure I would be able to discuss if asked) and a discussion of your findings.
  • Ethical considerations (Ethics body and in the appendix letter of ethics body);
  • Conclusion & future work (what I infer from what is done so far and how it will lead to the next stage).
  • Reference list
  • Appendix (Tables, survey questionnaire, letters…)

Start with the ‘niggly’ bits, making sure your endnoteTM lets you insert during cite and write (the librarian can help you with this if you haven’t done the course, Emma Crowly for graduate school). So that it should only take a click to insert your bibliography as BU Harvard. I chose headings in the layout so that when I write my final thesis it will be a matter of adding heading and sub-heading titles. So for the table of contents: Use a table from excel or use Home>Headings, e.g. Heading 5. Abbreviations can be sorted with the function ‘sort’ in WordTM.

A few useful resources for writing:

Good luck!

Research Professional

BU research, Guidance

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:

26th February 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/267446504 

26th March 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/518275168 

23rd April 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/255287520 

28th May 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/806064201 

25th June 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/492839664 

23rd July 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/771246561 

27th August 2013: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/398714217 

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.

PhD student at HSC? BEACON needs you

BU research, PG research

Ref: (http://www.sterlingtimes.org/kitchener.jpg)

Wondered if you had thought of writing a few lines for this years Beacon on your PhD study.

Just a short summary.  It could be as little as 150 words, nothing to big.  Just to raise the awareness of your work internally.

Please email <ssharma@bournemouth.ac.uk> Thanks Sheetal!

Socially-Adaptive Cloud gets the 3 Bs

BU research, Fusion

 

Brasilia-Birmingham-Bournemouth Social-Adaptation in the Cloud The BBB Project

This project creates a community of interest which involves academics from 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 co-operatively initiates a timely thread of research on “Socially-Adaptive Cloud SaaS”. We are investigating core engineering foundations required to enable end-users to formulate Software-as-a–Service adaptation decisions at runtime. This focuses on the collection of users’ feedback about the quality of SaaS which could be used by the SaaS to adapt autonomously.

BBB welcomes any potential collaboration with interested academic and industrial institutes to exchange knowledge and join us to work in this area.

The project is funded by the The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand of Bournemouth University.

 

 

Kip Jones interviewed by LSE’s Impact blog

BU research, Research news

London School of Economics’ “Impact of Social Sciences” weblog has just published a five-minute interview with HSC and the Media School’s Kip Jones.  Mark Carrigan, Managing Editor of the British Politics and Policy blog talked with Jones for a piece entitled, “5 Minutes with Kip Jones: “we engage in the creative process and open new doors for communication” on the site.

Carrigan was particularly interested in questioning Jones about the impact that the research-based, award-winning short film, Rufus Stone, has produced. Jones answered questions about how the script was crafted from years of in-depth research. He also discussed the possibility of social scientists collaborating with artists, but also generating their own small projects, which Jones likes to call ‘kitchen sink’ work.

The growing Performative Social Science movement is commented upon. Advice on funding such ventures and the possibilities of arts-based research and dissemination in  engaging ‘in the creative process and open(ing) new doors for communication and future development possibilities’ is highlighted.

Rufus Stone will be screened at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse cinema on the 22nd of February at 4 p.m.as part of their Arts and Science Researcher Forum. The film also can be seen at BU at Talbot campus hosted by BU Media School’s Narrative Group on 18 March, Kimmeridge (KG03) at 1 p.m.

 

 

Are you making the most of your RKEO?

BU research

We in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) have extensive experience and qualifications that you can really utilise to help you with your own research career…and we’re an interesting lot too, so if you don’t know us already get in touch to come and say hello.

To give you a snippet of our the skills and experience we have that you can tap into, you may be interested to know that some of us have PhDs and Masters degrees and have worked as researchers or grant writers ourselves. We have qualifications in subject areas ranging from biology, to international business and management; anthropology to economics and psychology to MBAs. Some of us have clocked up experience working for other universities, research councils, research organisations, banks and libraries before coming to BU, others have worked at BU for many years in a range of Schools and Services and others have worked all over the globe.

In addition to academia, some of us have had former careers as media producers, journal editors and international marketers and indeed some of us still have dual careers as interior designers, bespoke jewellery designers and creators and NLP practitioners. So not only so we have a lot of expertise and experience to help you, we’re also a diverse and fascinating bunch. If you are interested in learning more, then take a look at our RKEO Development Team and Operation Team pages and get in touch with us.

 

Training course on agent-based modelling techniques

BU research

Have you ever heard of agent based models, and wondered what they are? Have you perhaps been dazzled by computer simulations of flocking birds or shoals of fish, and wondered how they are produced? Or perhaps you enjoy computer games involving interacting individuals, such as the magnificent Fifa13. If so, you might be interested in a training course that we are hosting later this year, supported by the Fusion Fund.

Agent-based models (ABM) can be described as a type  of computational model that are used for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous “agents”. These can be either individuals, such as people or animals, or collective entities such as businesses or other types of organization. The models enable the behaviour of such agents to be explored in relation to the behaviour of the system as a whole. The approach is relevant to areas such as game theory, complex systems, computational sociology, multi-agent systems, and evolutionary programming. They are relevant to a wide range of research domains including ecological and social sciences, and enable the study of how simple behavioural rules can generate complex behaviour. They provide a very useful method for supporting interdisciplinary collaboration.

The course will be led by leading practitioners of this rapidly developing technique, and will focus on the use of Netlogo (http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/). This is an open source software environment, which is both powerful and user friendly, enabling attractive graphical output to be generated readily. The course is open to both staff and postgraduate students  who are interested in learning the technique. While the course will be introductory, it is principally aimed at researchers who already have some experience in modelling, or who can see a direct potential application of this method to their own research. Please contact me for further information – Adrian Newton anewton@bournemouth.ac.uk

MASTERCLASS: INTRODUCTION TO GROUNDED THEORY

BU research, PG research

MASTERCLASS:  INTRODUCTION TO GROUNDED THEORY

14-15 February 2013

This two day Masterclass will be an introduction to Grounded Theory – theory developed from the data.  The masterclass has been designed to suit postgraduate students, academics and professionals who may wish to use grounded theory (GT) in their research but do not yet have full knowledge of the approach.  The masterclass can also be taken as a stand-alone Master’s level unit of study – Contact Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill for details: cehill@bournemouth.ac.uk

Facilitators:

Immy Holloway, Professor Emeritus in the School of Health & Social Care at BU.  Immy is a sociologist and has taught and supervised qualitative research for several decades.  She still actively pursues her interest in qualitative research by supervising PhD students and writing articles and books.  Immy used GT in her PhD before the proliferation of books and articles on GT.

Liz Norton is a Senior Lecturer at BU.  Her professional background is in education and nursing and her current academic interest and work is in public health.  Liz has a particular interest in Glaserian GT and her experience of using GT in practice includes completion of environment and health-related grounded theory studies for MPhil and PhD qualifications.

 Quotes from previous masterclass attendees:

“Their knowledge and expertise felt like a valuable resource open to all”

“Presenters were very experienced . . . particularly high quality and effective teaching methods”

Full details of the Masterclass and the online booking form can be found at: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/masterclass

Euro PR history network backed by Fusion

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, EU, Featured academics, Fusion, Uncategorized

IHPRC at EBC - Scene for first EPRHN meeting

A proposal to develop an innovative Europe-wide network of researchers in the history of public relations field has been supported by the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF).

The European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) was formed in mid-2012 by Prof Tom Watson and backed by EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education & Research Association) as a priority project for the next three years. It was set up to identify archives and resources, undertake collaborative research, and prepare bids to European research bodies and PR industry organisations.

The field of public relations history has been developed at BU over the past four years, mainly through the establishment of the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC).

Prof Watson said: “there has been increasing interest in the conference and PR historical research in Europe over the past 3-4 years but it has largely focused on national histories, personalities or phenomena. Collaborative research, across national boundaries, has yet to emerge. There is little shared knowledge of archival resources, where they exist or can be created.”

So far, 35 academics and practitioners from 12 countries have shown their interest in EPRHN. Its first publication, a catalogue of archives and resources in seven countries has just been published.  A EPRHN planning meeting will be held at BU after IHPRC in June.

Within The Media School, the network will also help develop European aspects of the Centre for Media History (CMH). CMH is already developing relationships with universities in Sweden and northern Germany. CMH and EPRHN will, it is hoped, foster the recruitment of PGR students interested in media and communication historical research.

The Fusion funding will allow EPRHN to hold a planning event at BU after IHPRC in late June and for Prof Watson and Dr Tasos Theofilou, who is working with him on both PR history projects, to attend EUPRERA’s annual conference in Barcelona in October. At EUPRERA, they will hold the network’s first formal meeting and workshop. [Photos by Minna-Liisa Nurmilaasko, PROCOM Finland].

IHPRC 2012

Working with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Themis Foundation in Andorra. School of Tourism’s Adele Ladkin on her FIF Staff Mobility Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

In September of last year, Professor Adele Ladkin received funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two visits to the UNWTO.Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra. 

As part of its Capacity Building Programme, UNWTO.Themis provides educational courses for tourism industry experts.  Due to the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sector are recruited as facilitators to deliver the courses.

Adele has just returned from her first visit to Andorra where she and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO.Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO.Themis Foundation have been writing a teaching guide, and developing an intensive training course for the facilitators.

As a provider of educational courses, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is committed to sharing best practice in tourism teaching and learning. The purpose of the course is to assist and train facilitators to provide UNWTO Themis courses.  Along with practical guidance, the course aims to ensure that facilitators understand and articulate the philosophy and strategic issues of the UNWTO, UNWTO.Themis and their programmes.

The visit provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge exchange, with Adele gaining an insight into the latest educational activities being undertaken by UNWTO.Themis, and for her to share her expertise in developing tourism educational materials.  As Adele states:  “This has been a very intensive visit with us working collectively on the educational materials.  It also gave me the opportunity to discuss the potential for further research collaboration, which is great news for the School of Tourism and BU.”  Adele will return to Andorra for the second visit later in the year.

BRIAN – Improve your search settings

BU research, Guidance

I’ve attended a number of BRIAN workshops recently and a common theme has emerged – BRIAN doesn’t find all of your publications available on the on-line data sources that it searches.  In investigating this further with individuals it became obvious that not all of you have optimised your search settings.  This is quick and easy to do.

From your home page, you can scroll down to view you current search settings.  If they just include your name, e.g. Garrad J, then you should input an address, e.g. Bournemouth, at the very least.  If you publish under other names or have published at other institutions then you should add these too.  Click on ‘My Search Settings’ and firstly add all combinations of your name and initials under which you publish by entering a name, e.g. Garrad Jo, and then clicking on the blue plus sign.  You can add as many names as required.  You can add previous institutions or those with which you collaborate under the address field, e.g. Swindon University, and as before, click on the blue plus sign each time you add an address.

After you have clicked the ‘save’ button at the bottom of the page, BRIAN will search within four hours.  This is all you need to do.  You don’t need to add keywords or journals as this will limit the search too much.  If you want further information then please read the BRIAN – Quick Start Guide v1.

If you are receiving hundreds of publications that are not yours, please do contact BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and let us know.  We can sort this out for you.

Please note that I will be moving to RKE Operations on 1st February until mid-July and so please send all future BRIAN queries to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and not directly to me.

Thanks

Women in academia and FIF SMN Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

 There are currently 18, 465 professors across British Academia; only 3,790 (20.5%) are female.  The number of female professors has increased by 1.5% since 2010[i]. At this rate of increase (0.75% per year) it will take 119 years for women to achieve equal numbers in the professoriate (and that is assuming the total number of professors stays the same!). At the same time the ratio of women to men is roughly equal at undergraduate level.  At Phd the number of women starts to decline, through to postdoctoral, to lecture, to SL to professor. We might imagine this as an inverted pyramid.

With these concerns in mind, I have recently been asked to edit a symposium in the journal European Political Science (which I will now co-edit with Stephen Bates [University of Birmingham]) about the status of women in political science.  While there are clearly issues which impact upon women’s careers across the academy (and I have written about this elsewhere),  the aim of our symposium is to map the way in which women are positioned in my own discipline, political science, across Europe.  Space and resources have meant that we are beginning with a ‘snapshot’ with contributions from Finland, Germany, Spain and the UK and authors will be asked to map the ‘state of play’ in political science in their own country.  From here the intention is to then move to a discussion about what possibilities and opportunities lie ahead for women.  While the symposium is about political science, there are clearly wider themes applicable beyond our discipline; about women in academia more generally their opportunities for entrance, engagement and progression.

 The FIF SMN networking grant gives me the opportunity to attend the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Gender and Politics Conference in Barcelona.  Here I am hoping to meet with the ECPR Gender and Politics Group steering committee and discuss the ways in which European Political Science currently seeks to tackle this issue. We are also hoping to apply for funding for a full scale data collection project, looking at best practice elsewhere and developing tools and recommendations to support and promote women within the profession.

 

 

[i] 2012 data from Higher Education Statistics Agency; 2010 data from the Equality Challenge Unit

FIF SMN strand accepting applications

BU research

The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand has £45k to award from now until April 30th 2013.

The objectives , eligibility criteria and award limits are exactly as that found in the SMNPolicy document found on our  Fusion Investment Fund webpages.

Applications must be on this FIF Application Form and emailed to me when completed; as many people experienced problems with the online form, this format is no longer valid.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis by the Committee and the fund will close either when the fund expires or on April 30th 2013, whichever occurs first. You are encouraged to discuss your potential application with a member of the Committee to ensure it meets the remit of the scheme.

All vital information including policy documents, FAQs  etc can be found on the SMN webpage.