Category / BU research

REF Updates

BU research, REF Subjects, Research assessment

Are you new to REF?

If you are completely new to REF, or even if you know about REF but would like to find out more, we can recommend the ‘REF2014: A brief guide for research users’ document as a general introduction to what REF is and what it means.

You can find the document here.

BU Staff Circumstance Disclosure Form – DEADLINE 31 October 2012

For all REF eligible staff, it is really important that you read the BU REF Code of Practice (please click on the ‘REF’ tab from the menu bar at the top to access the document) in order to fully understand the processes and procedures employed by BU in preparing for the REF2014 assessment. The BU Staff Circumstances Disclosure process is especially important to you if you are an Early Career Researcher, you work part-time, you have been on leave or on a career break. For more information on how this applies to you, and also all other related documents, please click on the ‘REF’ tab on the menu at the top of the page. If you are still unsure after reading all the relevant documents and have questions you would like to ask, please send an email to: refcircumstances@bournemouth.ac.uk

REF Frequently Asked Questions Updated

The FAQs section of the REF official website has recently been updated. You can click on this link to see them.

 

 

 

 

Justice for Survivors at the International Criminal Court – PhD student’s publication success

BU research

Twelve months into her PhD, Law research student Ellie Smith has published an article entitled ‘Investigating Rape at the International Criminal Court: The Impact of Trauma’ in the Issues in International Criminal Justice Journal. Ellie’s current research focuses on the scope for narrative truth at the International Criminal Court, survivor perceptions of justice, and the nature of rehabilitation as a legal remedy for survivors of gross human rights violations. A second article is currently under review with the A-rated Journal of International Criminal Justice.

Ellie joined the University on a full-time studentship. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre on Human Rights, University of East London, and has 10 years of experience in the conduct of multi-disciplinary (legal and clinical) and intersectional research in the field of justice for victims of gross human rights violations, including for eight years as Lead Researcher for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. She is a member of the Victims’ Rights Working Group to the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and has also served as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel to the British Home Office on the Trafficking of Women. Ellie achieved a Degree in law from Girton College, Cambridge University (1992) and a Masters Degree in Law from the London School of Economics (2000). She qualified as a solicitor in 1994.

You can access a copy of Ellie’s article online here: http://www.iccsn.com/IICJ2012.pdf

School of Tourism’s Adele Ladkin on her FIF Staff Mobility Project: Visiting the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Themis Foundation in Andorra

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance, Uncategorized

Professor Adele Ladkin has received £5,000 funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two week long visits to the UNWTO Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra.

As part of its Capacity Building Programme, the UNWTO.Themis Foundation provides educational courses and workshops for tourism industry experts.  These are in a range of subjects, for example tourism marketing, adventure tourism and sustainable tourism.  Because of the nature of these courses and the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sectors are recruited as tutors to deliver the courses.

Adele and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO.Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO Themis Foundation are engaged in collaborative work to produce a teaching guide and intensive training course for tutors responsible for delivering tourism capacity building courses and workshops as part of the UNWTO.Capacity Programme.  The Themis Foundation enables UNWTO Member States to devise and implement education, training and capacity building policies, plans and tools that fully harness the employment potential of their tourism sector and effectively enhance its competitiveness and sustainability.  Working with Ms Figueras, Adele will provide input into teaching methodologies commonly used in tourism programmes.

The collaboration has arisen as the School of Tourism is part of the Themis TedQual Network and aims to support activities undertaken in the areas of education, training and tourism capacity building. The impact of the collaboration will be practical through the dissemination and use of the teachers guide and the training course by highly experienced tourism subject experts. The collaboration and pedagogic approach will also be presented at an appropriate tourism educator’s conference. This knowledge exchange opportunity demonstrates the Schools commitment to supporting tourism education initiatives.

Adele will be spending time in Andorra at the headquarters of the Themis Foundation to work directly on the course materials as well as on-line collaborative working. The visits will enable Adele to spend a concentrated period of time working on the project, and will also give her further insight into the activities of the Themis Foundation.  She plans to undertake the first visit later this year – weather permitting as the mountain roads into Andorra are often covered in snow!

Lifelong Health & Wellbeing Sandpit – places still available

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 first is  Lifelong Health & Wellbeing Sandpit which is being held on 24.10.12

Attending this sandpit 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.

Value of conference attendance?

BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

October is the month of the annual Alzheimer Europe (www.alzheimer-europe.org) meeting. This year three BUDI team members attended the rather nice setting in Vienna a draw for everyone, although we all had very different agendas and expectations. Alzheimer Europe is one of my personal favourite conferences as I’ve been going for years and it creates the opportunity to meet with new and catch up with a range of international colleagues, and is actually the main reason I go to these kind of events; yes it is good to present the work, and as a team we had two posters and three oral presentations this year, which is not bad for an Institute only in existence for 6 months, but it is the networking aspect that provides inspiration and creates new ideas and new collaborations that motivates me to go to these kind of events.

Patricia McParland is BUDI’s project manager, she has presented at a few dementia conferences in the last 3 years but for this conference her main concern was to ensure her cutting edge work doctoral work, that she is in the final throes of writing up, on public awareness of dementia is getting out there as this is an area of increasing policy concern both in the UK and internationally and many are starting to work in this particular area. As well as presenting a poster on her doctoral work that received positive attention, she presented a paper reporting on one of BUDI’s project about Dementia Friendly Tourism. The concept of Dementia Friendly Tourism has caught the imagination of many we speak to about our dementia work and this proved to be the case again in Vienna. Colleagues from France, Spain and Jersey were particularly interested in this project and keen to explore how these ideas could be applied to their regions; we will see what transpires over the coming months in the way of collaboration but this is a nice example of the added value of going to a conference.

Clare Cutler is a research assistant in BUDI and has just started her PhD exploring experiences of war and dementia, as an Early Career Researcher Clare was thrilled to be attending her first interational conference, and her excitement was contagious! but she was also rather anxious about giving her first presentation on one of BUDI’s projects, GRIID, Gateway to Rural International Innovations in Dementia, on behalf of an international team. She needn’t have worried as she went down a storm; mainly because she said at the beginning that she was nervous, this was her first presentation and then let out a big sigh as she finished. This created a huge amount of goodwill to her personally as well as her giving a presentation on an innovative interational partnership project. We had received the support of Alzheimer Disease International (www.alz.co.uk) to conduct part of this study and the opportunity for further discussion about working together to target rural areas and developing countries is another of the added value benefits that being in Vienna brought for me this year.

I presented a paper on a recently completed evaluation of a telehealth project to diagnose and follow up people with dementia living on the Shetland Isles and Grampian, rural areas of Scotland. The added value of this work relates to the INTERDEM (www.interdem.org) meeting that was held the day before the conference. (This is another example of added value by the way, going to other meetings around a conference.) Interdem is an application/invite only pan European network of highly active psychosocial researchers in the dementia field; as a member I was also able to take my BUDI colleagues in their student roles, a new doctoral and just about to complete doctoral student, to this full day meeting and they found this an amazing experience as many of the ‘names’ of long established dementia academics are part of this group which is always a buzz to meet people you’ve quoted for the first time, who offered real warmth, enthusiasm and support for their work. The Interdem meeting this time round was a mix of presentations (including one from the task force on technology and dementia that I co-lead)  and working groups developing bid ideas, collaborative papers and general brain storming about how to take forward new work in the field. The technology task force has been working on a bid around exergaming and dementia and we used the lunchtime slot to meet to work up our ideas further  (more added value) as well as updating Interdem members about our progress with this bid during the meeting itself. But we also discussed new bid ideas and telehealth, the focus of my Alzheimer Europe paper, was one of the favoured topics; one of our jobs now is to see the details of a long-awaited funding call  (JPND) due out December 2012 and get writing another EU bid.  We also agreed to write a collaborative paper on technology and dementia, but a successful meeting is one that generates new work from my point of view!

My other bit of dissemination work was a poster about ongoing research evaluating dementia care in Maltese hopsital wards. The added value about this relates to the conference venue being in Malta next year and I am sure this has partly influenced the invitation, of the Maltese Dementia Society member who is a long standing collaborator of mine as well as being the local organisor for the 2013 meeting, for me to give a plenary there next year!

So in all, the value of going to conferences for new researchers, is undoubtedly to present their work, to meet esteemed colleagues and the resultant ‘buzz’ this brings, to learn about other research in the field and to start their own networks (a good example of this is Patricia joining a writing team for a methods related paper, more added value!). For me it is a chance to catch up with people and to discuss potential new collaborations. In previous years it has also been about keeping a profile of the work of my team, this year it was about starting to create a profile for a new BU team to an international audience. I am pleased to report that all boxes were ticked this time round!

Are we born to yawn?

BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Fusion, R & KE Operations, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research themes

Yawning consistently poses a conundrum to neurologists and neuroscientists. Increasingly, evidence is found to link neurological disorders through the commonality of yawning episodes and contagious yawning. Despite discrete incidences (such as parakinesia brachialis oscitans) in brain stem ischaemic stroke patients, there is considerable debate over the reasons for yawning, with the mechanism of yawning still not fully understood. Cortisol is implicated in the stress response and fatigue; repetitive yawning may be the link between neurological disorders and with a strong correlation between yawning and a rise in cortisol levels. Evidence has now been found in support of the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis that proposes cortisol levels are elevated during yawning [1]. Additional data is in press, and further research is planned with longitudinal consideration to neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and stroke. Funding for such initiatives is currently being sought.

[1] Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(5), e4:1-9. Doi: i-www.jmr.org/2012/e4/

Hear about Julia Round’s experience of the ‘Comic Arts Conference’ made possible by a £1200 award from the Fusion Investment Fund

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

I applied to the BU Fusion Fund under the Networking and Staff Mobility strand for travel funding to attend the Comic Arts Conference, held annually in San Diego, CA.  This year marked the 20th anniversary of this extremely important academic conference, which is organised by the Institute for Comics Studies (http://www.instituteforcomicsstudies.org/) as part of Comic-Con International. Like the Comic-Con itself, theCAC has grown in size and stature since its beginnings, and now invites presentations from academics, teachers, professionals, critics and fans and throughout the Comic-Con weekend it attracts a wide audience. 

This year the interdisciplinary programming included presentations from political, transmedial, educational, historical, cultural and ethnographic perspectives, as well as many more. These included panels such as ‘Subaltern Counterculture and the Strengths of the Underdog’ and ‘Teaching with Comics’ as well as crowd-pleasing subjects like the continuation of the ‘Whedonverse’ (discussing the comics of Buffy and Willow, amongst others) and ‘The Dark Knight Rises: Is Batman Broken?’ in which academics Travis Langley and Robin Rosenberg expanded on their recently published monographs.  Friday’s sessions included ‘Images of Nation’, ‘Revolution and Reaction’ (featuring comix creator and historian Trina Roberts who talked about her new comic Lily Renee: Escape Artist) and two afternoon sessions in which scholars such as Arlen Schumer, Mark Evanier, Charles Hatfield and Andrei Molotiu discussed the work of comics legend Jack Kirby from a variety of perspectives.

My aims for attending the conference were to promote the comics scholarship taking place in the UKand (of course!) the research and teaching being done here at BU. My presentation (‘Comics Scholarship in the UK’) discussed my experiences of launching and editing Studies in Comics journal, of joint conference organisation and collaborative activities between various UK comics scholarship initiatives, and reflected on the future possibilities for comics scholarship in the UK and the role of BU and Studies in Comics in enhancing these. 

I was also able to arrange an interview with key transmedia scholar Henry Jenkins and conduct an interview with comics creator Charlie Adlard (artist on The Walking Dead), both of which will soon see publication.  Henry Jenkins’ theories of transmediality form a key part of teaching on BACOM and BAENG units such as Adaptation, Alternate Worlds and Narrative Structures, and so current BU students will benefit directly from this opportunity. Research presented by other conference delegates will also inform future teaching on these courses.   

Attending the CACwas obviously a fantastic networking opportunity and I was honoured to meet pioneers of comics scholarship such as David Kunzle, John Lent, Vicki Green and  Joseph ‘Rusty’ Witek.  These scholars spoke about their forays into comics research back when the field was unrecognised and the term ‘graphic novel’ was yet to hit the public consciousness.  They also offered suggestions for the future of comics scholarship, suggesting that the field should keep its sense of humour and identity and ‘write to express not impress’ (John Lent).  It was particularly gratifying to see these trailblazers receive a standing ovation for all their work towards the creation and development of comics studies as a field in its own right and to meet them in person.  There was also an extra round of applause for John Lent (pictured below), whose International Journal of Comic Art continually seeks to expand the scope of comics studies and has paved the way for the acceptance of journals such the one I edit (Studies in Comics) by academic presses. 

At the other end of the scale, I also met participants in The Power of Comics’ Field Study programme (an initiative whereby undergraduate and postgraduate students earn college credit for conducting research while attending the convention: http://www.powerofcomics.com/fieldstudy), who presented their findings from the past few days.  Their projects included a study of dealer versus consumer attitudes; ‘cross-play’ experiences; aggression in geek culture; the volunteer experience and a comparative study with sporting events, amongst others.  I hope that making contact with future scholars such as these will benefit BU in the future. 

The core benefits I got out of attending theCACwere gaining primary research material through interviewing both a leading international scholar and a leading comics creator; the opportunity to meet both new and established scholars working in my discipline; disseminating my own research and promoting the reputation of BU; and (in due course) the publication of two interviews and a review of the conference in a peer-reviewed academic journal.  I am also in touch with a number of new contacts and we are discussing future research collaborations.  As an international visitor to theCAC, I was struck by how far so many of the attendees had travelled (from all overAmerica, as well as the rest of the world) and feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to attend such a global gathering.

Carbon Reduction Event 2012 – Get Involved!

BU research

BU has accepted an invitation to be the specialist educational sponsor at a Govtoday-hosted Carbon Reduction event in November. Adrian Newton (ApSci) is the lead academic on this and we have been working closely with Govtoday to gather as much information about the event as possible (i.e. more about the event, who will be attending, how will BU benefit, etc.).  The attached document provides an overview of all the information gathered. You can also visit the event’s website for more detail: http://www.carbon-reduction.co.uk.

We want to ensure we capture all available expertise/research in the field of carbon reduction, so we’re casting a wide net. Could you please get in touch if you would like to get involved? There are several ways you can get involved, to include:

  • Would you like to attend the event on 27 November? This will provide an opportunity to present your research to public sector decision makers. We can send up to four delegates. Please let me know if you’d like to attend.
  • If you do not wish to attend, but would like to see your work featured in the presentation to be given on behalf of BU, then please send relevant PowerPoint slides to me for inclusion.
  • Would you like to provide materials for the exhibition space? If so, please provide details of your research that you would like to feature.

This is a fantastic opportunity for BU to show off our strengths and experience in research and knowledge exchange, particularly CPD and training!

LAST CHANCE – sign up here for the Dementia luncheon!

BU research, Research themes

Prof. Anthea Innes, the director of the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI), is planning a dementia lunch as part of the BU Research Theme development. The BU Research Themes were launched almost a year ago at the first of the BU-wide Fusion events. The Themes are society-led, encourage cross-School working and collaboration, and will be the main vehicle through which BU research is presented externally in future.

At BU, we are proud of the way in which we demonstrate the fusion of research, education and professional practice, and Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) demonstrates the benefits that this collaborative way of thinking can bring to our dementia work in three ways:

  1. By working across schools, it is possible to draw on the strengths of academics with a wide variety of disciplines.
  2. By working with local service providers and engaging with local people, we can strengthen, develop and consolidate links with these key stakeholders.
  3. BUDI will promote the fusion of research, education and practice. Our locally relevant evaluation and research will be combined with international research evidence so that we can develop training courses and other educational activities to inform and shape professional dementia care in the region.

Would you like to get involved in this exciting cross-school initiative? If so, please fill in the form below and we’ll sign you up. The lunch is planned for Wednesday, 28 November at La Piccolo in Lansdowne (http://www.lapiccolaitalia.co.uk/) from 1200-1400. Act fast – this is on a first-come-first-served basis and there are only a few spots left!

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your School / Professional Service (required)

    Would you like to learn more about Scopus and BRIAN? Then come along to one of our workshops!

    BU research, Guidance

    The aim of these workshops is to support academic colleagues to learn more about Scopus and BRIAN, and how they can use these systems to monitor their publication impact, identify where to publish, identify potential collaborators and also to help them to ensure their Scopus and BRIAN profiles are up to date and optimised.  Matthew Bennett will do an initial presentation about the two systems and this will be followed with the opportunity for participants to look through their own Scopus and BRIAN profiles together with Library and RKEDO (formerly RDU) staff.

    They will take place on both the Lansdowne and Talbot Campuses on the following dates:

     15 October 10am – 11am CG21 Talbot Campus

    23 October 2:30pm – 3:30pm S102 Lansdowne Campus

    31 October 9am – 10am S102 Lansdowne Campus

     Please book a place if you would like to attend by following this link

    Book now for the multidisciplinary Sandpit at BU!

    BU research

    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 which produces unique and innovative outputs and fosters new partnerships.

    BU academics such as Adele Ladkin and Janet Dickinson have participated in EPSRC sandpits and are fans of this approach and for the experience it provides. To help BU staff start to develop relationships with staff from other disciplines and to get a taster of a sandpit, Julie Northam, myself and expert bid writer Dr Martin Pickard of GrantCraft are facilitating sandpits at BU. The first focuses on Lifelong Heath and Wellbeing and is aligned with the , three 1-Research Council UK cross-thematic areas and is taking place 10-3 on 24.10.12

    Attending this sandpit 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 the sandpits to ensure they are effective; you can register for a place on the Staff Development website.

    Changes to the external Staff Profile Pages

    BU research, Guidance

    After helpful feedback from staff, we have agreed to temporarily remove the charts that appear on your external staff profile pages.  These were a snapsnot of your publications, co-author network (which only showed current BU staff), and map of science (which isn’t clear as to what it shows).  We will consider re-activating the available charts when they have been improved and become more meaningful.

    The staff profile pages are currently not mapping across all ‘Authors’ listed within BRIAN for publications.  Therefore, the staff profile pages have been amended so that publications now have an author title of ‘Authors at BU’.  Development is underway for a complete list of authors to be shown and this will be provided shortly.

    FIF Launch Week – Focus on Co-Creation and Co-Production strand

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

     The popular Co-Creation and Co-Production (CCCP) strand is open to applications.  This strand was most popular of the three open to staff in the July round with 38 applications.

     A total of £246, 102.96 was awarded to successful applicants, to get ahead of the competition please note an important addition to the strand policy:

    Successful bids will need to have benefits to the student experience at the core – and be able to demonstrate how this will occur, so hitting the Education point in the BU Fusion triangle is now more important than before.

    Applications that do not satisfy how education at BU will be improved will not be looked at favourably by the panel.   To review the full strand developments and how this has affected the policy, you can view the updated FIF CCCP policy sept.

    Our successful CCCP applicants have been blogging about their activity on our Research Blog, I hope that you will be successful in securing funds in this round and will join them!  Read their blogs below:

    Sarah Bate who has used Fusion Investment funds to develop the Centre for Face Processing Disorders at BU – Watch out for the Centre’s regular updates on the Research Blog, and also check out www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org for more information.

    Hossein Hassani is leading an inter-disciplinary project to characterize the socio-economic drivers underpinning change in freshwater host biodiversity that lead to the emergence of immuno-suppressant related human disease.

    Don’t forget to take advantage of the intervention programmes running this October and November!

    For further details about the fund please see www.bournemouth.ac.uk/FIF

    Best of luck!

    Adele Ladkin secures Fusion Investment Funding to visit the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in Andorra

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

    Professor Adele Ladkin has received funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two week long visits to the UNWTO Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra.

    As part of its Capacity Building Programme, the UNWTO.Themis Foundation provides educational courses and workshops for tourism industry experts.  These are in a range of subjects, for example tourism marketing, adventure tourism and sustainable tourism.  Because of the nature of these courses and the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sectors are recruited as tutors to deliver the courses.

    Adele and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO. Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO Themis Foundation are engaged in collaborative work to produce a teaching guide and intensive training course for tutors responsible for delivering tourism capacity building courses and workshops as part of the UNWTO. Capacity Programme.  The Themis Foundation enables UNWTO Member States to devise and implement education, training and capacity building policies, plans and tools that fully harness the employment potential of their tourism sector and effectively enhance its competitiveness and sustainability. Working with Ms Figueras, Adele will provide input into teaching methodologies commonly used in tourism programmes.

    The collaboration has arisen as the School of Tourism is part of the Themis TedQual Network and aims to support activities undertaken in the areas of education, training and tourism capacity building. The impact of the collaboration will be practical through the dissemination and use of the teachers guide and the training course by highly experienced tourism subject experts. The collaboration and pedagogic approach will also be presented at an appropriate tourism educator’s conference. This knowledge exchange opportunity demonstrates the Schools commitment to supporting tourism education initiatives.

    Adele will be spending time in Andorra at the headquarters of the Themis Foundation to work directly on the course materials as well as on-line collaborative working. The visits will enable Adele to spend a concentrated period of time working on the project, and will also give her further insight into the activities of the Themis Foundation.  She plans to undertake the first visit later this year – weather permitting as the mountain roads into Andorra are often covered in snow!

    ESRC Festival of Social Science @BU features ‘Methods to Diversity’ and the film, Rufus Stone

    BU research

    BU’s involvement in the ESRC Festival of Social Science includes a one-day event entitled, “Pathways to Impact: ageing, diversity, connectivity and community” on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (GMT) being held at the Executive Business Centre, 7th Floor.

    The day will feature stimulating activities and informal discussions about diversity, the potential damage of discrimination experienced by many older gay and lesbian citizens, and what can be done about it. 

    Equality South West’s Chief Executive Katie Pratt will start off the day with highlights from their survey, “Pride Progress & Transformation”.

    Members of BU’s LGB Research Advisory Committee will be on hand to informally share their experiences of working on BU projects.

    A screening of the award winning, Bournemouth produced short film, Rufus Stone will follow Rufus Stone the movie blog.

    Following a networking lunch, the big event of the day is the launch the Method Deck, Methods to Diversity – a learning tool to inspire agencies, practitioners and communities to think about diversity within their ageing population. Methods to Diversity is a playful compendium of information, practical tips and engaging exercises to help agencies and community groups think creatively about their approach to working with older lesbian and gay people.

    Space is VERY limited (60 participants) and will fill up fast.  If you are interested in attending, please register quickly at http://esrcfestival.eventbrite.com

    The event is free, including lunch and a set of the Methods to Diversity cards. 

    Any questions?  Please contact Dr Lee–Ann Fenge lfenge@bournemouth.ac.uk.

    Joseph Rowntree Trust session – slides available

    BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news

    Thank you to everyone who came to the Joseph Rowntree Trust session yesterday, presented by Tony Stoller – Chair of the Board of Trustees.  Tony gave an extremely informative overview of the varied and fascinating work of the JR Trust and Housing Foundation.

     Please click here to access the slides:   JRF presentation – 10th October 2012

    Funding:  It is worth re-iterating that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is not a grant-making organisation and generally does not accept speculative enquiries for funding.The JRF issues ‘calls for proposals’ and invites submissions to them.   Via the JRF website you can sign up for alerts – this is the best way to keep in touch with the latest funding opportunities.

    If you have any questions about JRF and their work please contact Tony Stoller himself:

    tstoller@bournemouth.ac.uk

     or even better,  Emma Stone who is the Head of Research:

    Emma.stone@jrf.org.uk

    FREE – Vitae Research Staff Conference, 8 November 2012

    BU research, REF Subjects, Research assessment

    This conference will focus on the role of research staff and research staff associations in leading and supporting sector change. The plenary will have an international emphasis to reflect progress in setting up the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICoRSA).

    Research staff associations represent the interests of research staff and their colleagues by interacting with institutional management and administration, informing institutional policy, and facilitating the organisation of training activities and career development session for other researchers.  Research staff associations can be crucial agents in embedding the implementation of the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (‘Concordat’) and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Research Environment.

    Research staff are well placed to inform, represent and develop the skills and knowledge base of research staff colleagues in the areas that matter most to them. Research staff associations are in a unique position to co-ordinate the responses of research staff to policy changes that affect their working conditions, professional development and career opportunities and to ensure that the provisions introduced and delivered by higher education institution employers are tailored to their needs and that research staff participate in their development.

    For more information, please visit this link

    http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/916-532601/Vitae-Research-Staff-Conference-2012.html

     

    September Early Career Forum – How to get that first grant or paper…..

    BU research, Research news

    In September we held the second of our open forum meetings for Early Career Researchers (ECRs).  These meetings provide  an opportunity to ask for advice and guidance from a team of experienced academics and research managers in an informal setting. Questions can be about anything related to research – from publications to projects to funding to research strategy! The Forums also provide an opportunity for ECRs to network with colleagues from across the University.

    The September meeting was well attended by ECRs from Schools across the University, and they met with Prof Bogdan Gabrys, Assoc Prof Richard Berger,  plus Jennifer Roddis and myself from the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office.

    The discussions related getting started – how to get that first grant, or first paper when you don’t have a track-record (apart from your Phd research). One of the key messages here was to work on your profile, and there are various ways you can approach profile-raising.  Here are some of the key messages that emerged from this theme:

    Publishing: Remember, your Phd is a valid piece of research!  You might want to talk to your supervisor about targeting likely publications and jointly publishing on your Phd topic or theme.  Regularly publish if you can.  Get your name out. 

    Don’t be afraid to take a tangent:  A useful message from this meeting was don’t be precious about your research area.  You may miss opportunities if you are not prepared to follow a research path on a tangent.  After completing your Phd it can be challenging to find topics to research or publish on.  Take a look at your literature review and early drafts of your Phd.  Examine the abandoned strands of argument and research questions you decided not to pursue.  These could present themselves as great opportunities for research and publication, as they are related to your Phd topic, but not restricted by it.   This is one way that you might expand your research out of your Phd subject.

    For example, Richard Berger won a BBC grant that was not strictly in his subject area.  He felt out of his comfort zone for the 8 weeks of the project.  However, he learned enormous amounts about new methodolgieis, delivering research, and presenting his work, which has stood him in good stead for his further research work.

    Networking: Getting involved in networks is an effective part of raising your profile.  Attending conferences is a good start. You might start by choosing conferences with the best repuation, or by going to small conferences, where you may find other academics like you!  Over time, you will naturally get to know the other conference attendees (peopl you sit next to etc).    If you find someone you like, you might want to start presenting together. 

    This was the experience of one of the senior academics – they started presenting together, then started to write together, then started their own journal on the subjects that they are interested in.   Starting your own journal is not as hard as it sounds.  You could publish online, and academics from around the world like being invited to be on editorial boards.  Its worth a thought. You can try submitting papers to conferences – but bear in mind that there is a lot of competition, with probably a 20% chance of your paper being accepted, but if you don’t try, you won’t know!

    Networking funds?  Ask in your School if there are funds available for attending conferences.  Each School has a different way of doing things, so it is worth asking around. Investigate the research councils and other funders, which offer networking grants.   You could organise your own conference – this would be a great opportunity to generate some funds, plus a fantastic way to create your own network.  Host it at the EBC, write about it on the reserach blog, write about it on other blogs, advertise it through online networks.    

    Cold calling:  When you are cold-calling, make sure you have something to offer – be honest and be upfront.  The worst that can happen is that you receive a polite no, or are ignored!   Maybe don’t always email potential collaborators. If they are within BU knock on their door and be pursuasive!  Research groups at other institutions may well be looking for speakers on certain topics.  Do some research, find out, offer yourself as a speaker.

    Online communities: there are networks of excellence that operate online.  Join in and find like-minded people.   A good opportunity to make connections and raise your profile.

    Research Grants:  Take advantage of schemes such as the Grants Academy and Research Proposal Review Service.   Subscribe to the research blog for news on internal funding opportunities.  Bid for Phd studentships. Talk to colleagues – maybe you could collaborate?  Use Research Professional and look for open calls.  Don’t focus only on the big research council grants – these are highly competitive, and generally are looking for a research grant track record.  Look for smaller funding opportunities – charities, foundations and even regional funding agencies are often good places to start.  A good piece of advice:  stay away from scary deadlines until you are ready!   

    Prepare to fail! You will get rejections – because everyone gets rejections for papers submitted to journals, and for research grant applications.   When you suffer a rejection your first reaction will be emotional.  Take time to reflect.  Then go back to your proposal and take a constructive look.  The work won’t be wasted, as you will be able to re-work it for another journal or another funder.

    BRIAN: make sure your profile is up to date.

    Make the most of internal support available:

    One of the ECRs who attended has helpfully set up a Facebook page called ECR BU – here is the link:

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/265825716854423/

    What next?

    If you’re interested in coming to one of the next ECR Forums you will need to book to confirm your attendance (this is so we can order enough food and refreshments in advance). The next Forums are scheduled as follows (rooms to be confirmed):

    19 November 12:30 – 15:00 on the Lansdowne Campus

    11 December 12:30 – 15:00 on the Talbot Campus