Category / BU research

Open call for NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellows and NERC Policy Placement Fellows

BU research, Research news

 

NERC are seeking to award a number of part-time Knowledge Exchange Fellows (KE Fellows) and Policy Placement Fellows, whose objective will be to increase the impact of NERC-funded science through a programme of work of their own choosing.

The KE Fellowships are intended to enable the sharing and flow of knowledge and expertise between the NERC funded researchers and their user communities.  The KE Fellows can be a focus for a school /department KE activity arising from NERC funded research. It is understood that in some cases a mix of funding will lead to an opportunity to generate impact but it is essential that NERC funding has played a key role. 

Focus of the Fellowships

The applications should focus on accelerating and amplifying economic impact and improvements in the quality of life from NERC-funded research through working with business, NGOs or government bodies. This could include:

  • strengthening existing partnerships
  • developing new relationships
  • researching new market opportunities
  • providing case studies of knowledge exchange from NERC-funded research
  • providing briefings and reports suitable for policymakers

 

Details of the two types of fellowship are:

       1. Knowledge Exchange Fellowships (KE Fellowships)

 

  • Up to four fellowships are available for those who submit a work plan of their own choosing to generate impact from NERC-funded research in their host institution.
  • KE Fellowships will cover the KE Fellow’s salary including superannuation, NI and specific allowances, plus up to £40k for travel and other associated work plan costs.
  • KE Fellowships are based in the institution where they are employed, and open to researchers at any stage of their career.
  • KE Fellows can last for a minimum of one year to a maximum of three years. Candidates can apply to spend between 20% and 80% of their time on the fellowship.
  • KE Fellows have to be employed by the host institution for the duration of their fellowship.

 

       2. Policy Placement Fellowships

 

  • Must be organised in collaboration with a policy-making body, for example a government department, devolved administration or agency. The placement is for a fixed term, for a specific project.
  • Placement is jointly funded by NERC and the partner organisation on a 50:50 basis.
  • Minimum length of placement will be six months and the maximum three years.
  • Placement fellows will be expected to spend at least 50% of their fellowship in the partner organisation’s offices, although some work might require time to be spent at other locations in the UK or abroad.

 

Closing date for applications: 10 June 2013

Interview dates: 16-18 July 2013

 

For further information on how to apply please visit the NERC website

Alternatively, if you have any queries please contact keschemes@nerc.ac.uk, 

or call Lynne Porter on 01793 411791.

 

 

 

Insurance and meerkats

BU research

What do insurance and meerkats have in common? On the face of it – very little. For comparethemarket.com, the well-known insurance aggregator, the combination has proven to be extremely successful and has captured the public’s imagination. The campaign achieved its 12 months targets in just 9 weeks and Aleksandr, the main character, has his own Facebook fans, is followed on Twitter and has received numerous marriage proposals.

Comparethemarket.com, or should that be Comparethemeerkat.com, was just one of the advertising campaigns reviewed by Dr. Julie Robson at a recent presentation on “Changes in Insurance Advertising” for the Bournemouth Insurance Institute.

Julie’s talk examined how advertising content, structure and style have changed over time. Beginning with one of the earliest forms of insurance advertising, as early as the 1700s, where fire insurance plaques were placed on the front of the insured’s building, signifying which company the property was insured with. She then tracked through the decades of change in advertising to today’s advertisements looking at visual prominence; the use of puns, metaphors and ambiguity; emotional vs. rational appeals; and the increasing use of digital technology within the sector.

Julie also examined what advertising works in a recession and how to get the most from your marketing budget before going on to look at some of the trends for the near future.

The Insurance Institute of Bournemouth has over 1,000 members and is part of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the leading professional body for the global financial services profession.

Dr. Julie Robson specialises in financial services marketing. She has presented her research at internal conferences and published in academic journals on a range of marketing topics in the banking, insurance, broker and Islamic finance sectors. She has secured grants from the ESRC and HEIF to support this work and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Bank Marketing. Julie is currently Chair of the Qualifications Examination and Assessments Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and a past President and current Education Secretary for the Bournemouth Insurance Institute.

EPSRC Strategic Advisory Routes – time for you to have your say!

BU research

EPSRC logoThe EPSRC has recently commissioned an independent review of its strategic advisory routes. The review will focus on how the EPSRC obtains and utilises strategic advice at the Council and Theme levels and both the mechanisms and sources for obtaining such advice and how this influences strategic decision-making. Initial areas covered as part of the review are:

  • Nature of advice – who decides what advice is sought and needed;
  • Structures – to review the adequacy and effectiveness of the structures in place for obtaining strategic advice;
  • Credibility of Advisory Sources – assurance over the extent to which the individuals and bodies providing advice are credible sources;
  • Roles and responsibilities – to review the effectiveness, and clarity, of roles and responsibilities of those involved in commissioning, and those providing, strategic advice in EPSRC;
  • Provision and utilisation of advice – to review the effectiveness of the advice provided (e.g. its robustness and the degree to which it is free from bias or vested interest), and its value (e.g. its relevance and timeliness) in informing EPSRC’s strategic planning and decision making.
  • Transparency – to review the clarity and transparency of the strategic advisory processes to EPSRC’s wider stakeholder community;
  • Cost-effectiveness of the mechanisms and processes used. .

BU has been invited to submit evidence to assist in this review and I am collating responses. Please take a couple of minutes to complete this short survey; all responses will remain confidential. The deadline for completing the survey is 10am Tuesday 23rd April.

Book on the Digital Economy Sandpit now!

BU research

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

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

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

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

Attending one of the sandpits will:

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

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

PhD student from BU presented his research to the MPs at the House of Commons, London

BU research, PG research, Research news

Mr Mayank Anand, a research     student in BU’s School of Design, Engineering & Computing, recently attended the SET for Britain at the House of Commons in London. SET for Britain is an annual national research conference which is organized by The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and aims at promoting early-stage and early-career research  scientists, engineers and technologists of Britain.

Mayank presented his research on Lubricant condition monitoring for the in-service lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) which is supervised by Prof Mark Hadfield and Dr Ben Thomas from BU, Mr Steve Austen (Head of Engineering) from RNLI and in-kind supported by BP Technology Ltd. The project has also been kindly supported by the members of Sustainable Design Research Centre. Mayank’s abstract was chosen out of hundreds of leading research applications from around the UK to appear amongst the 60 finalists at the conference and drew a great deal of interest from MPs and other participants.

The MPs for the constituency of Bournemouth, Mr Tobias Ellwood (East Bournemouth) and Mr Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) kindly attended the conference to speak to Mayank about his research.

On presenting his engineering research to the MPs, Mayank said, “it was a unique experience speaking to the MPs about my project and to see their enthusiasm for research. They asked valuable questions and there was a great deal of discussion about the different aspects of the project. It also gave me an opportunity to learn that how an individual research at the university level can contribute to the overall research outputs of UK and helps the government while making research based decisions”. Mayank added “My work also received attention from the industry people in terms of how the approach I adopted in my research can be applied to other engineering applications. This was a real boost to my confidence as not only my work was appreciated but also considered to be useful extensively. Networking with the other researchers from universities across the UK was an added bonus to get to know about their research and share ideas in common research interests”.

Writing a successful proposal: live web chat and twitter feed this Friday

BU research

Universities are under increasing pressure to gain external funding and with budgets shrinking across the HE sector, this can be a difficult process.

To provide a little help, the Guardian are running a live web chat on Friday 12 April between 12-2pm for academics, whether a first-timer or old hand, to share experiences, advice and tips for writing and managing the process of a successful research grant proposal. You can also follow the live chat on Twitter using the hashtag #HElivechat

My experience of the BU peer review scheme for research bids

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Grants Academy, R & KE Operations, Research assessment, Research news

My experience of the BU peer review scheme for research bids – Dan Jackson

Constructing a credible research bid is not an easy process. Anyone who has experienced this will attest to the headaches, confidence crises, as well as the very practical obstacles of application forms that include boxes that defy common sense! Building an internal deadline and peer review process into this might seem like another unnecessary headache.

Our experience of putting a Higher Education Academy (HEA) collaborative teaching grant included all of the above. As a relatively inexperienced grant consortium, we requested internal peer review, and found it to be an invaluable process. We submitted a draft version of the whole bid document to the reviewers and got very useful feedback from two colleagues who were familiar with the funding body. Not only that, we continued the dialogue with the internal reviewers over the next few weeks leading up to the grant deadline.

This is what I would recommend to anyone undertaking the internal peer review process:

  • Build it into your bid deadline from an early stage.
  • Give them as much of the bid document to comment on as possible. The more feedback the better.
  •  Choose your peer reviewers carefully – RKEO can help here – you ideally want people with experience of the particular funding body so as to give you the inside line.
  • If necessary, continue the dialogue with the reviewers after you receive the feedback.

Who can I ask for further help?

  • Caroline O’Kane in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development team manages the RPRS and will answer any questions you have.

 

 

Dr Vijay Reddy was invited to an influential UN conference on Sustainable Tourism

BU research

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy from the School of Tourism was invited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Paris Office to moderate an intergovernmental conference session on “Tourism Growth – Sustainable, Green and Inclusive?” at the 3rd Annual Conference of Partners of the Global Partnership of Sustainable Tourism (GPST) on 26 March 2013.

Dr Reddy commented that “I was pleased to moderate the conference session advancing the green economy and tourism theme and we (the participants) came up with several priorities for consideration by the UNEP and its global partners in future. I see this as an excellent opportunity to highlight BU’s tourism reputation and develop fruitful partnership with these leading global organisations advancing sustainable tourism initiatives”.

Hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development in Bonn, this important conference and sessions were attended by partners and representatives from many organisations including the Tourism Departments of the Governments of Mexico, South Africa, Mozambique, France, Philippines, Thailand, Morocco, South Korea and Madagascar; and leading international organisations such as the World Tourism Organisation – UNWTO, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation – UNIDO.

BU internal peer-review scheme for your research proposal

BU research, Funding opportunities, Guidance

Why is the internal peer review of research proposals important?

  • The competition for research funds is high and is likely to increase.  Research Council funding presents a particular challenge – with the ESRC having one of the lowest success rates.
  • In recent years funders have expressed their growing concern over the number of poor quality research proposals they receive, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) taking the action to implement a ban on submissions from unsuccessful candidates who fail repeatedly and requesting evidence on steps institutions take to improve academic skills in producing research proposals.
  • Internal peer review has been credited with producing higher quality research proposals and increased success rates and is a process encouraged by the Research Councils.

Who reviews the applications?

  • The Peer Reviewers are a selection of BU academics who have a considerable track record in successfully gaining research funding, who sit on funding panels and who review research proposals for funders.
  • We select two reviewers to review your proposal.

Who can apply to the RPRS?

  • The service is open to anyone at BU and for any type of research funding.

What kind of feedback can I expect?

  • Peer reviewers will provide feedback on the proposed research in terms of topic selection, novel value, clarity of ideas proposed and advise on how the proposal can be further strengthened. They may also provide the names of potential collaborators where applicable.
  • The Research Development Unit will provide feedback on general structure and style, clarity of ideas, timescales proposed, estimated costs, potential funders, eligibility for funding schemes, and any potential ethical issues.
  • Feedback will be delivered within 3 weeks of submission – often before.

How do I submit an application?

Will the RPRS help with unsuccessful applications?

  • Yes, if you have a unsuccesful proposal, the RPRS will provide feedback on your submission on how you could potentially improve the style of the proposal, advise on other possible funders and provide other useful information.   The system works as for as yet unsubmitted drafts.

Remember

  • It is now mandatory for all Research Council applications to go through the RPRS
  • Please allow sufficient time in your proposal development to allow for the  mandatory internal deadline of five working days for the submission of Research Council bids via the Je-S system.
  • This also applies to applications made via the E-Gap2 and Leverhulme Online e-submissions systems (affecting applications made to the British Academy, the Royal Society and the Leverhulme Trust).

Who can I ask for further help?

  • Caroline O’Kane in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development team manages the RPRS and will answer any questions you have.

FIF SMN strand now closed

BU research, Funding opportunities

The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand which was open for applications assessed on a rolling basis has now closed. We have funded a good number of applications received and news of these have and will continue to be publicised here on the blog. The FIF scheme reopens in late April/early May with an application deadline of 1 July. Please check the blog for details soon.

The Fusion in Action conference is taking place on Thursday 18 April in Kimmeridge House from 12pm. Book now to attend the conference (via the Staff Development Webpage) and come along to see a showcase of the best of Fusion at BU. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about how you can get involved.

BRIAN – Depositing Full Text Articles

BU research, Guidance, Publishing

Full Text Articles should be uploaded through BRIAN to comply with Bournemouth University Academic Publications Policy on Open Access.

As most publishers allow the Accepted Version of journal articles to be made available this is the version we recommend authors deposit via BRIAN. The Accepted Version is the author-created final version that incorporates referee comments and is accepted for publication. It should not have the publisher’s typesetting or logo applied.

Supplementary files of various file formats can also be deposited as files or as zipped folders.  A listing of publishers, their journals and policy on archiving in BURO is provided by theSHERPA/RoMEO project; see http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php.  BURO staff will liaise with the copyright holder regarding the inclusion of full text for other publication types.

Depositing files step by step

When in BRIAN, click on ‘my publications’ to see your full list of publications.  Each record will show a summary screen and below the title of each record you will see a set of six tabs. Click on the ‘Full text’ tab (the second tab from the right).

  

Click on the link ‘Manage full text’ where it says ‘Manage full text for this publication’.  The File management box will open. Browse and select the file(s) you wish to deposit. Click on Upload’. As indicated above, please include your final version in the first instance.

Books are rarely allowed, although some publishers will permit the use of a sample chapter.  BURO staff can liaise with the publishers on your behalf to check permissions.

Click on ‘Grant’   to confirm you are depositing the file(s) for possible dissemination via BURO. This process does not transfer copyright to BURO.  When you have deposited the files you wish to transfer to BURO click on ‘Home’ in the top left hand corner of the screen to return to your BRIAN profile home page.

If you have any queries about BRIAN, please contact BRIAN@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.

Book on the Digital Economy Sandpit now

BU research

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

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

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

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

Attending one of the sandpits will:

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

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

Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) – Tsinghua Partnership

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion, Grants Academy

A new Fusion fund travel grant has been awarded to Dr. Hongchuan Yu, lecturer in the Media School (National Centre for Computer Animation, NCCA) in order to help develop an important strategic relationship with the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The hope is that through collaboration and the sharing of academic resources both institutions will be able to deliver a high quality research work.

The State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Technology and Systems, attached to Tsinghua University, China, was in July, 1987. It is the most prestigious State class Laboratory in Artificial Intelligence field in China. On the meeting for celebrating the 10th anniversary of the State Key Lab Development in October, 1994, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Technology and Systems won “Gold Cattle” Prize. In 1997, it was selected as the experimental lab.

The laboratory consists of a central lab (the intelligent technology and systems), and three branch labs (intelligent signal processing, intelligent image processing, man-machine interaction and media integration). They are mainly engaged in basic research on the principles and methods of artificial intelligence, including, intelligent information processing, machine learning, intelligent control and artificial neural network theories; and the research on the applications relating to artificial intelligence, mainly including intelligent robots, speech, graphic, image, word and language processing.

The talent researchers at Tsinhua are very important to BU as the staffs and research postgraduate students of NCCA need much more chances to collaborate/exchange with international colleagues in depth. This will further benefit the REF activity of NCCA (UoA34, Art and Design) as well.

It is hoped that this relationship will include research collaboration with the activities of NCCA. The initial discussion focuses on a potential project of “3D facial expression editing system”, which delivers a prototype system of 3D facial expression editing based on video and 3D scanning data for potential game market.

It is intended that Tsihghua PhD students and academics will visit BU regularly under the banner of the NCCA for research projects, seminar presentations and to discuss further research and academic.

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:

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.

CMC Conference – Co-creating and Co-producing Research Outputs with Final Year Undergraduate Students

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Uncategorized

The conference:  Organised for and by Level H students from three undergraduate degrees and to be held in the Executive Business Centre (7th floor) Wednesday 15th of May 2012.

We will invite 2 keynote speakers, 6 academic and industry contacts and will host an end of conference dinner for all involved. The event will be widely diffused through FB, twitter and a dedicated youtube channel. 

Journal of Promotional Communications: CMC’s first in-house journal will be launched at the conference and will bring together the top 7 conference papers.

Our aim: To attract 40 students to sign up to this years conference! Get the local business community excited about the work our students are doing and a platform to engage with our students.

How it benefits us:  It gives us an opportunity to co-produce research outputs with our dissertation students.

How it benefits students: It is a great way of celebrating top student work and help students disseminate more widely.

How it benefits the university: Provides a highly visible manifestation and online product of the quality of work being produced by students at the end of their undergraduate university career. It clearly contributes to the university Fusion agenda by providing the mechanisms necessary for co-creation and co-production of research outputs to take place.

Wider community:Academics from other institutions, relevant industry contacts, local press, potentially family of students and local business leaders will be invited to this prestigious event and all will have access to the online journal.

Who should I contact: Janice Denegri-Knott the project leader on JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk