Category / BU research

Copyright levies & market growth: Kretschmer presents in Brussels

BU research, Research news

Professor Martin KretschmerBU’s Professor Martin Kretschmer presented his latest research on copyright levies to over 70 representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament and international organisations and firms including Google, Nokia and Apple in Brussels last week.

The event saw speakers thrash out the role of intellectual property (IP) in digital markets and particularly the barrier copyright levies pose to market growth. (The levy system adds a tariff to blank CDs, MP3 players, printers, PCs and other copying devices, and the money is given as compensation to the IP owner for loss of sale).

Professor Kretschmer’s research reported the results of three product CDsstudies (printer / scanners, portable music / video / game devices and tablet computers) and analysed the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries.

He argued that reproduction of files for personal use, storage or back up should fall under a (non-compensated) copyright exception as there is no harm due to loss of sale, but that file sharing, performance or social network activities will need a licensing solution.

Speaking alongside Kretschmer was Professor Ian Hargreaves; author of the ‘Hargreaves review’, which was conducted in 2011 for Prime Minister David Cameron, recommending an IP framework to support innovation and economic growth in the digital age.

Audio recordings and slides from the event, ‘Intellectual Property for Growth in Digital Markets’, can be accessed via the Bruegel website.

BU Research Blog is short-listed for a national award!

BU research, Research news

Hurray! The BU Research Blog has been short-listed for a Heist Award in the Best Internal Communication Campaign category. The Heist Awards have evolved over the last 20 years to become the premier awards programme for marketing in the sector and exist to recognise and celebrate professionalism and innovation in education marketing.

The Best Internal Communication Campaign category is for awareness campaigns aimed at staff, students or both and the judges are looking for a project with the purpose of improving internal knowledge, awareness and engagement.

Just to get short listed is a great achievement so thank you to everyone who contributes to and reads the Research Blog and who has made it a success.

The awards event will take place on Thursday 31 May in Leeds. Fingers crossed we win! 😀

 

Draft research integrity concordat now available for comment

BU research, Research Integritiy

Research Councils UK (RCUK) is working with Universities UK, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Wellcome Trust and government departments to develop a concordat to support research integrity. Comments are now being invited on the draft concordat which is available on the Universities UK website or go directly to the draft concordat.

The consultation phase is open for six weeks and will close on Friday, 11 May 2012.

The concordat outlines five important commitments that those engaged in research can make to help ensure that the highest standards of rigour and integrity are maintained. It also makes a clear statement about the responsibilities of researchers, employers and funders of research in maintaining high standards in research.

On behalf of BU, a coordinated response will be drafted and sent to Universities UK.  If you have any comments, please send them directly to Julia Hastings Taylor.

As part of the BU Ethics Review, it will be strongly recommended that the University fully adopts the concordat and implements its recommendations. Not only will this help to ensure that BU is maintaining a high degree of research integrity, but it will also confirm that BU is brought in line with industry standards.

Sociological Cinema recommends Jones’ short video for teaching

BU research

The Sociological Cinema, (“designed to help sociology instructors incorporate videos into their classes”) has recently recommended one of Dr Kip Jones’ (HSC and the Media School) earliest stabs at visualizing research data via audio/visual production.  Produced in his bedsit and in a friend’s studio in Leicester, Jones used photographs on loan from the National Trust and dialogue retrieved in his PhD research on informal care to produce this short A/V work on an antiquated PC, using an inexpensive camera to film it.

The Sociological Cinema suggests that ‘I Can Remember the Night’ ‘could be useful in a class on cognitive sociology, highlighting how cognitive processes, such as memory, are shaped by socio-cultural events, such as divorce. In addition to using the clip as a way to interrogate biography and narrative as sociological methods of research, the clip could also be a nice launching pad from which to introduce an assignment where students create their own videos, using their own biographical narratives as a window through which to explore larger sociological phenomena, much in the way C.W. Mills suggested’.

The video itself is available on Vimeo and portrays “Polly”, a 65 year old woman from the Midlands in the UK, who recalls the time as a child when her parents sat her down and asked her which of them she wanted to be with. Her story, re-narrated by three players, represents how this traumatic event became an enduring memory throughout the various stages of her life.

Polly’s story is also told in more depth in two academic journal articles:

Jones, K. (2006) “Informal Care as Relationship: the Case of the Magnificent Seven” Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 13: 214-220.

Jones, K. (2005) “The Art of Collaborative Storytelling: arts-based representations of narrative contexts”. Invited paper for: International Sociological Association Research Committee on Biography and Society RC38 Newsletter, October 2005.

Other audio/video productions are also freely available on Jones’ Vimeo pages.

The KIPWORLD blog and website offer further resources.

Grants Academy applications – what to do about signatures

BU research, Guidance

On the Grants Academy application form there is a section at the end where your DD R&E (or equivalent) is required to sign, to show that they support your application.

Applicants can either:

  • submit a hard copy, with signature, to the RDU
  • submit via email a scanned version of your application (with signature)
  • or, if you are submitting a version without a signature, we will need an accompanying email from your DD R&E (or equivalent), confirming that they are in support of your application.

Please note: An individual can scan their own signature, using the Ricoh printers, then save this signature as a bmp or gif file.  This can then be inserted into the document.

 Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

The Grants Academy launches today!

BU research, Guidance

The application process is officially open!

Last week on the blog we outlined what the Grants Academy is all about.  Clicking on the   tag is a good way to refresh yourself of the relevant information.

Here are the things you need to know if you are thinking of applying:

First two-day training

The first two day training programme (Strand One) is scheduled for the 9th and 10th May.  This training is taking place off-site, at a Lansdowne Hotel.  There will be homework (!) to do on the 9th May, so you will need a clear evening too.

Further dates

There will be further Strand One training sessions scheduled for later in year (between August 2012 and July 2013).  The dates of these sessions are not yet fixed, and will be advertised in due course.  

Application process

  • In the first instance, we are interested in applicants who are available to attend the first two-day session on 9th and 10th May.  Please make sure you state your availability to attend the first session on your application.     There will be an opportunity to apply for membership and future Strand One training sessions (and Strand Two sessions), later on in the year.  

 

  • We are looking for no more than 12 participants at any one Strand One training session

 

  • The criteria for assessing applications will broadly include: 
    • potential for generating research and KE income in future
    • scope of future research plans
    • ambition, motivation and engagement
    • experience of bidding and success to date

 

  • Applicants will complete an application form, and send this to the RDU

 

  • The deadline for applications is midnight, Tuesday 17th April

 

  • All applications will be forwarded to the assessment panel, which is made up of the PVC and  four senior academics

 

  • All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application on Monday 30th April

 

  • The application form is below.

 

Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

Application Form

What is the Grants Academy?

 

How ‘ethical’ are you? Test your knowledge and win a prize!

BU research, Research Ethics

Research Ethics Quiz

Time to toss out the dunce cap and proudly adorn your thinking cap – if you get all of the answers correct, you will win a prize.  Good luck and happy ethics!

    ACROSS

    6. Outputs, impact, environment – we’re all looking forward to the submission date in 2013

    7. The main focus of this blog

    8. The team that is responsible for all operational aspects of the pre- and post-award administration of research and knowledge exchange bids and awards

    13. Stream of funding that exists to support a range of practical initiatives and pump prime activity around Fusion

    14. Describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public, involving interation and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit

    DOWN

    1. The moral principles guiding research including inception, aims, completion, publication or results and beyond

    2. Will replace EU's FP7

    3. This initiative forms part of the Fusion Investment Fund and by becoming a member this will provide staff with access to a range of support services and advice not available to non-members and is open to staff of all grades with a range of experiences, not just junior colleagues

    4. The new Publications Management System

    5. BU’s database that tracks all pre- and post-award bids and projects

    9. The best university in the UK!

    10. The creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society

    11. England's primary funding body

    12. The team that is responsible for all strategic, policy, process and quality aspects of research and knowledge exchange activity across BU, and particularly those which help to develop, enhance and stregthen our research culture

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your Office Number (so I know where to send the prize)

     

     

    The Grants Academy – Strand Three: Post-award training

    BU research, Guidance

    Strand Three – post-award training

    • The third strand of the Grants Academy will focus on post-award project management for Principal Investigators new to managing a grant.

     

    • The administrative specifics of managing a grant at BU will be covered in the awards information pack sent by RKE Operations to the PI prior to the start of the award, and for larger and/or more complex projects this will be discussed at the project kick-off meeting, led by the Research Development Officer (Research Conduct).

     

    • Strand Three is based on Vitae’s Leadership Development for Principal Investigators Framework and focuses on the skills required to successfully manage the grant, including:
      • What is expected of a principal investigator
      • Research environment and legal requirements
      • Impact and public engagement
      • Managing people
      • Project management
      • Network
      • Publishing outputs

     

    • Strand Three will offer new PIs with limited experience the opportunity to be mentored by a PI with significant experience who can advise and guide them on all aspects of research and project management.

     

    • Support will be provided to the mentor and mentee by the Research Development Officer (Research Conduct).

     

    • As part of Strand Three, the mentees will be required to complete the Vitae online resource for new PIs and their progress will be discussed during their meetings with their mentor, who will also advise where they might benefit from additional training to obtain the skills required to be a successful PI.

    How to apply

    The Grants Academy will officially launch on Monday, 2nd April.  Details about how to apply will be posted on the Research Blog on Monday.  Watch this space if you’re interested in joining the Academy.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    The impact of sustainable tribology

    BU research

    I authored a paper with colleagues from the General Engineering (Unit of Assessment 15), including Prof. M. Hadfield, Dr. B. Thomas, S. Martinez Noya, and our research sponsors Mr. I. Hensaw (Energetix Group PLC) and Mr. S. Austen (RNLI). The publication is titled “Future Perspectives on Sustainable Tribology” and was submitted to Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Journal. It has recently been accepted (22 Feb 2012) for publication. The article is the result of a two-month support for impact (REF) exercise which took place last summer (June-July 2011) and was sponsored by the Research Development Unit (R&KEO) of Bournemouth University.

    The interesting fact about the article is that the particular journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews has an impact factor of 5.367 (last five years) and is 9th out of 2009 Engineering Journals Worldwide (according to 2011 impact factor rankings) while its overall Ranking Worldwide among any Journal Indexed on Scopus is 268 out of 18854 Journals.

    I would like to post this success on the Research Blog in order to show that support for impact at least in my case was worthwhile as it triggered my interest to write this “impact” paper with colleagues from Sustainable Design Research Centre (SDRC). The paper highlights the future perspectives of Sustainable Tribology by examining the economic, environmental and social impact of three tribological case studies worldwide. Each case study highlights one aspect of a number of ongoing interlinking research strands developed by the SDRC at Bournemouth University. The importance of Environmental Engineering through Sustainable Tribology solutions in our epoch is emphasized, showing that sustainability can be achieved to a significant extent through effective sustainable and environmental friendly engineering solutions, stimulating sustainable development and providing stability to our world embracing an anthropocentric and viable growth to our societies through effective sustainable solutions (figure 1).

    To conclude, I would like to thank all the co-authors for their valuable help and contribution to the specific article while I would also like to express my regards to Prof. Mark Hadfield for the position he offered to me as a research assistant for REF support during that period and for his valuable guidance. I strongly believe it was a really beneficial project for myself as well as for Bournemouth University.

     

     

    Happy 1st Birthday BU Research Blog!

    BU research, Research news

    It is exactly one year today since the Research Blog was launched at Bournemouth University!

    Our first post was on the excellent RNLI slipways research undertaken in DEC by Prof Mark Hadfield and Dr Ben Thomas (read the story here). Since then there have been 957 posts added to the Blog, many of which were posted by academic colleagues from across BU. The Blog currently has 366 subscribers to the Daily Digest email.

    To celebrate we’re inviting all staff at BU to get more involved with the Blog to make it more exciting, interactive, collaborative and beneficial to academic staff. There are a number of ways you can get involved:

    • To subscribe to the Blog to receive the daily digest emails; this is the best way to keep up to date with research and knowledge exchange information at BU. Find out more here: Subscribe to the Blog!
    • To comment on Blog posts to share further information, resources, and perspectives, and to make connections with your colleagues. Find out more here: Interact with the Blog!
    • To add posts to the Blog to share information, experiences, successes, advice, news, etc with colleagues, and to promote your research both internally and externally. We’re strongly encouraging all staff involved in research at BU to sign up for access to add posts to the Blog and to start blogging! Using the Blog is really easy – you need no prior knowledge of blogs or websites, just an interest in research. Contact Susan Dowdleif you’d like to be set up with access to add posts.
    • To share Blog posts, either via Facebook, Twitter or email. Find out more here: Share posts from the Blog!

    The Research Blog is unique in the sector and in its first year of existence it has been a huge success in improving research communications at BU.

    Be part of something cool and get more involved in the Blog! :)

    Happy 1 year birthday, Research Blog!

     

    The Grants Academy – Strand One: The Training Programme

    BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

    The second of our posts on the new Grants Academy is all about Strand One.  

    What is Strand One?

    This is the BU-wide development and training programme linked to grant writing support in the form of access to a pool of contracted external bid advisors. 

    Intensive training

    Strand One of the Grants Academy will be an intensive training programme run over two consecutive days, held off campus.  Academics must attend both full days in order to join the Grants Academy. The sessions will be delivered by an external facilitator with support from the Research Development Unit. 

    Attendees will be required to come to the session with a draft proposal that they consider to be ready to submit for external funding (including CV). Each attendee will swap his/her proposal with another attendee on day one and will be required to read their colleague’s proposal before the second day when there will be a mock peer review panel where attendees will be required to lead a discussion on the proposal they have reviewed, taking into account everything they have learned the day before.

    All participants of the Grants Academy will be required to work on a proposal after the session, using the resources and support listed below, and to submit this proposal for external funding within six months of completing the training programme.  They may remain part of the Academy for a maximum of 18 months during which time they will be expected to have submitted a minimum of three external bids. 

    Extra training and resources for Academy members

    Completion of Strand One will result in individuals becoming members of the Grants Academy; as members they would be able to access additional training and development resources including:

    • An internal grants mentor: This person will be assigned after the training programme and will be responsible for supporting the mentee with the writing and development of their proposal.  
    • Access to an external bid advisor: The University will contract the services of a number of sector renowned and successful bid advisors who will be available to support Grants Academy members with the development of their proposals.
    • Specific funder events: The Research Development Unit will arrange specific funder events for members of the Grants Academy to find out more about funding bodies, for example, specific schemes, priorities, bid writing hints and tips, etc.
    • Funding drop-in surgeries: These drop-in surgeries will be held fortnightly over lunch and will be facilitated by the Pro Vice Chancellor plus three experienced senior academics. They will offer members of the Grants Academy the opportunity to come along and to talk to experienced colleagues about their research, for example, getting advice on their ideas, how to strengthen their bids, etc.
    • Find a funder service: This service will be provided by the Research Development Unit and will help to match academics and their research ideas and strengths with external funding bodies and open calls. The service will also advise on how proposal ideas can be tweaked so they are more closely aligned to funder priorities, and will also support academics in identifying researchers at other institutions who are researching similar areas for future collaborations. 
    • Access to a library of successful bids: The Research Development Unit will provide access to Grants Academy members to a library of successful bids, and provide support to academics in accessing this resource.
    • Access to a small travel grant to support academic networking.  Each member of the academy will have access to up to £250 to support travel in order to talk to potential collaborators, establish/join networks, etc.

    The support listed above will only be available to those academics who have completed Strand One of the Grants Academy.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    On the blog tomorrow, we’ll be telling you all about Strands Two and Three.

    The application process will be launched on Monday, 2nd April 2012.

    Taking part in EPSRC’s Digital Economy Theme

    BU research

    EPSRC logoRCUK have a cross-cutting Digital Economy Theme which aims to support research into the transformational impact of digital technologies. In December last year the BU Research Blog advertised a notice from the EPSRC who were looking to build a community of researchers to invesitgate ‘New Economic Models’ as a sub-category of the Digital Economy Theme. As my own area of research into media management investigates the transformational changes of media organisations to the digital environment, I thought it would be worth applying.

    After successfully navigating the EPSRC peer review process I was invited to attend the first of many Network Meetings in Reading. It was a very professional event, with researchers attending from across the UK and from diverse academic disciplines. The aim of the first event was to scope out the size and shape of a future research agenda into this area and to get researchers to develop collaborative projects ideas for researching new economic models.

    The EPSRC will soon be putting out a call for funded research, and in readiness for this, the Media School’s Advances in Media Management (AiMM) research group are organising a ‘Brainstorm Session’ with academics and high level media industry partners to scope out ideas to submit to this call.

    This is an excellent example of how you can get involved with shaping the future research agenda within your discipline and preparing to respond to calls before they are released.

    Coming soon….The BU Grants Academy

    BU research, Guidance, Research news

    On Monday, 2nd April we will be launching a brand new training programme – the BU Grants Academy – to sustain research and invest in early career researchers to boost BU’s collective research output. 

    Every day this week there will be blog posts focussing on different aspects of the Grants Academy.  Today its The Overview.  To find out more, please read on………

    What is the Grants Academy?

    It is a development programme for academic staff, with three distinct strands:

    • Strand One:    BU-wide development and training programme linked in 2012/13 to external grant writing support in the form of a contracted bid advisor.
    • Strand Two:    Bespoke intervention for key research groups and clusters (e.g., Research Centres, BU Research Themes, etc.) based on a bespoke version of Strand One.
    • Strand Three:  Post-Award support in the form of direct mentorship for new investigators with limited experience of research management and project delivery.

    How will the scheme benefit acadmic staff?

    Membership of the Grants Academy will enable academic staff to:

    1. improve their understanding of the research funding environment;
    2. increase the quality of their research funding proposals;
    3. unlock staff potential, confidence and motivation;
    4. enable staff to develop the skills required to design, write and structure a competitive, fundable research proposal; and
    5. to then manage awarded contracts, effectively leading to further funding.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    On the blog tomorrow, we’ll be telling you all about Strand One.

    ‘Popularizing Research’ published with opening Chapter by BU’s Kip Jones on Performative Social Science

    BU research

    Peter Lang Publishing announces the publication of Popularizing Research: Engaging New Genres, Media, and Audiences, edited by Phillip Vannini of Canada’s Royal Roads University.

    The book’s opening Chapter, “Short Film as Performative Social Science: The Story Behind “’Princess Margaret’” was written by Dr Kip Jones, Reader in Qualitative Research and Performative Social Science, who shares a joint appointment in HSC and the Media School. The Chapter outlines his fascinating and innovative approach to research and its dissemination via a fusion of the arts and social sciences.

    Jones utilizes his chapter to recount an unconventional journey to academic publishing that certainly did not follow the usual route of journal or book publication. The Chapter revisits “The one about Princess Margaret”, one of Jones’ earliest attempts at audio/visual script writing, by recalling his initial motivation and enthusiasm for finding innovative ways to express scholarship and how his thinking about the use of tools from the arts in social science has evolved since those early days. These personal experiences are then offered up as advice in a summation for both social scientists and arts practitioners who may be interested in this new paradigm of Performative Social Science through a discussion about collaboration and pathways to impact.

    Popularizing Research offers academics, professional researchers, and students a new methodological book/website hybrid by way of a broad survey of ways to popularize research. As an edited interdisciplinary book accompanied by a website featuring samples of popularized research, it will have the potential of not only telling its readers about new genres, new media, new strategies, and new imperatives for popularizing research, but most importantly it will also be useful in showing how these new processes work in the end, what they sound like, and what they look like.

    For more information and to view the video representing Jones’ contribution to the book, see his page on the book’s website under ‘Film’.

    Congratulations to BU’s newly appointed AHRC reviewers!

    BU research, Research news

    Congratulations to Neal White and Dr Bronwen Thomas in the Media School who have both been appointed as reviewers to the AHRC. This is fantastic news!

    Their membership of the AHRC peer review college will run from April 2012 until December 2015.

    College members are invited to submit peer reviews which are used by moderating panels as the basis to make decisions on whether applications are of a fundable standard. Assessments are made using a pre-defined grading scale. Typically three reviews are required for each funding proposal.

    Dr Richard Berger is already a member of the AHRC peer review college – you can read his previous blog post on the life of a reviewer here – http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2011/11/23/life-as-an-ahrc-panel-reviewer/

    This is great news for Neal and Bronwen, and also for the Media School and the University. Congratulations!

    Strategies for use of news websites in journalism education

    BU research, Fusion

    Funding Source: Association for Journalism Education
    Chief Investigators: Dr Einar Thorsen and Sue Wallace, The Media School, Bournemouth University
    Research Assistant: Dr Caitlin Patrick, The Media School, Bournemouth University

     

    Project brief

    Journalism is among the most rapidly changing industries, affected by both technological advances and shifting consumer habits. This makes it paramount for journalism education to keep pace with trends such as changing journalism practices and the migration of audiences to online journalism. One possible outcome of this imperative is for online news or magazine websites to be developed to a) showcase student reporting, b) serve as an educational tool in professional journalism practices, and c) facilitate research into news and journalism innovation. Journalism courses are increasingly making use of their own websites in one or more of these ways, but development, as in the news industry itself, has tended to be haphazard and quite often on a trial and error basis.

    This project seeks to address this problematic by conducting a survey of news and magazine websites used in journalism courses, their history, evolution and integration into education practice. The aim is not to produce a standard model to be applied in every case. Rather, the intention is to collect and share experiences to inform education and curriculum development. The sharing of best practice can also help to maintain high standards in journalism education.

     

    International survey

    Phase One of the project launched in March 2012 and involves an international survey into the use of news and magazine websites in journalism education.

    We would be most grateful if anyone involved in journalism education could assist by completing our survey:
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/websites-in-journalism-education

    We are interested in the views of both staff and students, so please circulate as widely as possible.

    The survey is completed anonymously. For staff it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to complete, with the student section possible to complete in 5 minutes. All staff and students on undergraduate and postgraduate journalism courses are encouraged to partake and we welcome your participation.

     

    Case studies

    Phase Two of the project will take place in the second half of 2012 and involve up to five site visits to observe how websites are used in live news days simulating real-life news operations. During these visits we propose to conduct follow-up interviews in conjunction with examination of websites, to scrutinise in finer detail the patterns of application and usage.

     

    Project outcomes

    This project will investigate both technological and editorial issues associated with use of websites in journalism education.

    Findings from this research project will be made available online and as contributions to relevant scholarly journals, including the AJE journal Journalism Education, outlining experiences, advice, and different models of application. The findings may also be of use to accreditation bodies and industry panels.

    If you would like further information on the project, you can view the original project brief.

    The RDU wants YOU!

    BU research, Research Ethics

    Calling all Supervisors and Staff – this is your opportunity to comment on BU’s ethics review process!

    Do you supervise students on their research projects (or do you conduct your own research)?  Are you happy with the current BU research ethics review process?  Do you have suggestions/comments/frustrations about the policies and procedures in place?

    If you find yourself gnawing at the bit with comments but not knowing how to express them, you’re in luck – I’m conducting a University-wide research ethics review, which will seek to validate implementation of a more streamlined ethics review process while also creating policies and procedures that are both robust and flexible…..and I want to hear from YOU!

    Over the past couple of weeks I have met with each School Representative to the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC) and over the coming weeks I will meet with the Deans and/or Deputy Deans to discuss the current ethics review policies and to propose changes to the process.  My aim for this review is to be as inclusive as possible, so I would like to open the opportunity to comment to all supervisors and staff involved in research here at BU.  If you’d like to meet with me as a group (School, framework, etc.), I’m happy to work out a day/time that works for everyone.  However, if you’d like to meet one-on-one, that suits me just fine as well.  Please send me an email at jhastingstaylor@bournemouth.ac.uk if you’d like to get involved!