Category / BU research

REF 2021 – the results are in!

BU research, Featured, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research communication, Research news

The wait is over and the REF 2021 results have now been published.

We’re delighted to reveal that 94% of our research has been found to be internationally-recognised or above, with 19% found to be world-leading in quality.

95.7% of our research was found to be delivering considerable impact or above, with 31.5% achieving an outstanding impact score.

This means that we have held and improved upon our position from REF 2014 while dramatically increasing the size of our submission. We submitted more than three times the number of staff than in REF 2014, and by maintaining quality, we have shown how the breadth and depth of our research portfolio has grown.

Highlights include:

  • UOAs 14 (Geography and Environmental Studies), 15 (Archaeology), 18 (Law), and 34 (Communications, Cultural and Media Studies) all scored 100% 4*+3* for impact
  • UOAs 15 (Archaeology) and 32 (Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory) scored 100% 4*+3* for environment
  • UOA 24 (Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism) scored 80% 4*+3* for outputs
  • UOA 34 (Communications, Cultural and Media Studies) is in Q1 for impact

Equality and diversity were key drivers in developing our submission, and we took a collaborative approach with a broad range of academic and professional staff working together to make our submission as inclusive as possible.

In total, we submitted 1,209 research outputs and 47 impact case studies across 13 Units of Assessment (up from eight UOAs in REF 2014) – which represents a huge amount of time, work, and energy from colleagues across the university.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the REF 2021 in some way – this is a moment to reflect and feel proud of everything we have achieved.

More information about our submission can be found the BU website and the full REF 2021 results are available on the REF website.

 

FUN Project dissemination and networking event

BU research, BU2025, Events, HEIF, Impact, Strategic Investment Areas, Uncategorized

FUN_logo
FUN (Feeling the UNfelt: Assistive Technology accessible digital environments with a haptic interface) is a 2-year HEIF funded research project designed to help address the current lack of (freely) available accessible software resources for children and young people (CYP) who have physical disabilities, specifically with a focus on learning about the physical world through gameplay and haptic feedback. The project is a partnership between Bournemouth University and Livability Victoria School in Poole (find more about the project here).

As the FUN project is coming to its end (finishing on 31st July 2022), we organised a dissemination and networking event on 5th May in the Executive Business Centre. The main aim of the event was to present and demonstrate our project outputs and discuss its future potential with relevant internal and external academics and professionals, thus setting the stage for building wider impact. There were four presentations, one guest talk, two demo sessions, and a discussion at the end. Besides BU academics working on this and other related Assistive Technology projects, there were external people with various backgrounds related to special education, including teachers, technicians, consultants, occupational therapists, and assistive technologists, coming from BU, Livability Victoria School, Langside School, Treloar School and College, and the ACE Centre.

After opening the event, Dr Vedad Hulusic, the PI on the project, invited Prof Christos Gatzidis, the convener of the Assistive Technology (AT) Strategic Investment Area (SIA) who gave a brief presentation on the AT SIA strategy and other related AT-related projects at BU. This was followed by the FUN project presentation by Dr Mark Moseley, a postdoctoral research assistant on the project. At the end of his presentation, Mark gave a short demo of the FUN educational games and invited everyone to try them themselves using either touchscreen or eye-gaze interaction.

FUN Accessible level builder FUN games demo

The guest speaker was Prof Pedro Encarnação from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP). In his talk titled “The use of physical and virtual robots to promote inclusive education” he covered his group’s work on physical and virtual robots and presented the results showing the success of virtual environments for children and young people in the educational setting. This was followed by a presentation by Dr Huseyin Dogan and Dr Paul Whittington who talked about the case studies of user ability detection, accessibility requirements capture, and provision of Assistive Technology recommendations – the work their group has been working on for the past few years. In the end, there was another demo session and a discussion on the past, present, and future of AT, instigating great participation by all participants.

FUN - Guest talk FUN - AT Projects

The FUN games are being finalised and will be freely available both as standalone (executable) as well as web-based (running in a web browser) software. The aim is to have these games available in as many special schools across the UK and beyond, and in homes of CYP who will be able to use them independently without required supervision and assistance. The users will be able to create personal profiles and configure all required accessibility and game features to make their experience as FUN as possible, as well as to create new in-game content for themselves and their peers. The event participants had very positive feedback on the FUN project and games and anticipated a significant impact through the improvement of the quality of life of CYP with physical disabilities, their parents, caregivers, and teachers. The FUN team plans to extend this project by strengthening existing and creating new collaborations. The extensions will be multidirectional involving co-design with practitioners, changing practices, policies, and curricula in special schools, and having such games being used in educational institutions allowing CYP with profound disabilities to have FUN while learning.

“I really enjoyed the day – fascinating, inspiring & really positive.“ – Teacher, Livability Victoria School

“Haptic device easily put on/off, providing good feedback to a child. Worth considering use with adults with learning disabilities.” – Occupational therapist, Langside School

“The students involved whom I work with enjoyed the sessions + it was something that enhanced their self-esteem.“ – Teacher, Livability Victoria School

“It can be easily adapted to make it accessible to a wider range of individuals.“ – AAC consultant, ACE Centre

“Very good, simple to setup and use.“ – Technician/Music teacher, Livability Victoria School

Research Integrity Week – starting next week

BU research, PG research, Research Concordat, Research Ethics, research integrity, Training

Come join us next week, for an exciting series of keynote speakers and bespoke workshops discussing many subjects under the theme of research integrity.

We start the week of events with a talk by James Parry, Chief Executive of UK Research integrity Office (UKRIO).

UKRIO is an independent charity, offering support to the public, researchers and organisations to further good practice in academic, scientific and medical research. They promote integrity and high ethical standards in research, as well as robust and fair methods to address poor practice and misconduct. They pursue these aims through their publications on research practice, in-depth support and services for research employers, their education and training activities, and by providing expert guidance in response to requests for assistance from individuals and organisations.

Established in 2006, their aims are to:

  • Promote the good governance, management and conduct of academic, scientific and medical research.
  • Share good practice on how to address poor practice, misconduct and unethical behaviour.
  • Give confidential, independent and expert advice on specific research projects, cases, problems and issues.

James directs UKRIO’s work programme and leads its advisory service, responding to queries and concerns about research practice from researchers and the public.

Join us online or in person on Monday 16 May 2022 at 10.30 am.

You can register your place here via Eventbrite.

RDS Research Facilitator focus to change – update one

BU research, Research news

Exciting changes are coming to you from August 2022 in terms of the support provided by RDS’ Research Facilitators.

As agreed at the December 2021 Research Performance and Management Committee, the focus of the Research Facilitators will change from Faculty-facing to funder specialisms, based on the major funders. The current post titles will change to ‘Research Facilitator for…’:

Contacts for each post will be confirmed next month. The focus of the Research Facilitator support will remain unchanged, which is to identify potential funding opportunities through horizon scanning and cascade these across BU; and within their funder specialisms – provide support to researchers to develop their bids through building research teams (including external collaborators as well as inter/multi-disciplinary teams within BU) and, advising on bid content and structure to ensure a high-quality bid is submitted to external funders. Support for all other types of bids will be provided through Faculty Leadership and Research Mentors.

The change to funder specialisms will mean that we can provide support to a larger number of academics through funder focussed briefings, scramble events, STEAMLabs (to form interdisciplinary ideas linked with external collaborators), and training through the RKEDF. We have already started transitioning to funder-focussed training, and opportunities are already available to you, such as:

  • Leverhulme Trust Research Project – Outline Stage – workshop 11/5/22
  • AHRC Research Development and Engagement Fellowships (ECR and Standard – open calls) – workshop 25/5/22
  • ESRC New investigator – workshop 8/6/22, and also
  • Repurposing Your Unsuccessful Grant Applications – workshops 20/5/22 and 7/7/22

In addition to Research Facilitators, there are several support options in place to support you through the pre-award process and finding funding opportunities tailored to you. BU have invested in Research Professional, which enables you to target opportunities specifically for your research area. If you are new to Research Professional, this link provides you with help guides and bi-monthly webinars to help you get started. In addition, weekly funder briefings will continue this academic year, and the programme for 2022/23 will ensure a greater focus on specific opportunities each week. We will also be trialling a user-friendly ‘funding opportunities’ newsletter shortly.

More information will be communicated in June to help you navigate the pre-award process and we will also confirm contact names for each funder specialism. Further communications will outline the changes leading up to August 2022. Stay tuned!

RDS Funding Development Briefing – Wed. 11/05/22

BU research, Events, Funding opportunities

The next RDS Funding Development Briefing will be on Wednesday (11/05/22) at 12 noon.

There will be a spotlight presentation on the Royal Society Industry Fellowships call.

In case you are not sure where/how to join, please contact my colleague Alexandra Pekalski for further details.

Thank you to all of you who have engaged in the sessions to date, we are looking forward to meeting you again.

Reminder – Research Impact Basics training this week

BU research, Impact, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Research Training, Training

A reminder that we still have space on our training session Getting started with research impact: what is it? this Thursday 12 May at 2pm, to book via OD please click here.

This session will also be repeated on 12 October at 2pm, and we have several other RKEDF impact-related workshops coming up over the next couple of months; please use the links below to book onto them via OD:

Evidencing Impact 14 June, 2pm (repeated on 12 October, 2pm)

Impact and Funding Applications 30 June, 2pm

As part of the newly announced Research Conference: Building Impact on 7 June we will also be holding live sessions on the Anatomy of a Case Study, investigating what an excellent case study looks like. This will be repeated online the following day (8 June, 2pm) for those who can’t make it so do look out for booking links for this too.

If you have any questions, please contact the Impact Advisors – Amanda Lazar or Beth Steiner.

Sexual Violence Staff and Student Conference at BU

BU research, conferences, Featured academics, hate crime, Research news, Student Engagement, student research

Sexual Violence Student Conference: Legislation, Policy and Opinion

On 27 April staff and students from across BU came together in the new Bournemouth Gateway Building to share research and ideas on the topic of sexual violence.  The event was organised by Jane Healy, a criminologist in the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work in FHSS, in collaboration with Jamie Fletcher from Law, FMC, and Kari Davies from Psychology, FST.  The combination of social sciences, social work, psychology and law created a dynamic and exciting environment as students from all four disciplines were exposed to intriguing and engaging presentations on this broad topic.

From Law, second year student Teodora Nizirova, alongside lecturers Jamie Fletcher and Karolina Szopa, presented a fascinating paper on the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which at present distinguishes rape (as penile penetration) from sexual assault (which includes penetration from other sources). They proposed a gender-neutral definition of rape as an alternative to the current non-penile sexual assault charge, as a method of recognising the extent of the harm caused to those individuals who identify as non-binary or who are not in heteronormative relationships. Their presentation sparked a flourish of comments and debate from students and staff in attendance, and more about their proposal can be read here 

Jamie followed up by leading a discussion on R v Lawrence [2020] EWCA Crim 971, a recent case in the Court of Appeal, which held that lying about having a vasectomy did not negate consent in sexual intercourse, something which again produced much thought and debate from those in attendance.

Not to be outdone by the stimulating presentations from our Law Department, Psychology colleagues were quick to showcase the breadth of research they are currently undertaking on sexual violence. This included papers from Rachel Skinner, Psychology lecturer, on the relationships between rape myths and sexism/misogyny and an appeal from Rachel for those interested in this topic to collaborate with her on future work.  Two online papers swiftly followed: Ioana Crivatu, postdoctoral research assistant, presented on her qualitative study on group participation in sexual offences, and Ellie Reid, research assistant, shared findings on consistency and coincidence factors in sexual offences cases.  Kari Davies, lecturer in Psychology, concluded Psychology’s input by providing a whistle-stop tour of the variety of different work she and her colleagues are collaborating on, including BU’s contribution to “Project Bluestone” (which is a large project exploring rape and serious sexual offence investigations alongside colleagues from other institutions across the UK – more info here) as well as collaborative work on crime and policing in Switzerland with Maggie Hardiman.

Arguably saving the best for last (in my opinion), the Social Sciences and Social Work team finished off the afternoon with two and a bit papers from HSS.  BA Sociology student Sam Cheshire provided a confident and theoretically informed paper on his final year dissertation study, which involved interviewing survivors of domestic abuse and social services professionals. He emphasised the interlocations of power, violence and agency in his interpretation of the data, positioned within Foucauldian and neoliberalist concepts and structures. Orlanda Harvey, Lecturer in Social Work, then presented on her own project working with women survivors of domestic violence and highlighted the continuing taboo of disclosing sexual violence within relationships, providing strategies that she and Louise Oliver are using to engage with participants in a safe and supportive environment.

Finally, with only minutes remaining, Jane Healy concluded the afternoon with a very brief overview of her research into disabled women’s experiences of sexual violence, and shamelessly plugged her contribution to a book on “Misogyny as Hate Crime” which is available here (and will soon be available in the library collection).

The afternoon drew to a close with a rallying cry for more cross-faculty events for students and greater collaboration for staff on this topic.  The combination of distinct yet intersecting disciplinary work created an eclectic and refreshing mix of papers that provided much food for thought for staff and students alike. Students Teodora and Sam are to be particularly applauded for presenting for the first time to an audience of peers and academic staff.

Kari is keen to expand on collaborative expertise across BU in the fields of criminal justice, policing and sexual violence and is putting together a Sexual Violence working group. Please get in touch with her if you’d like to join.

Many thanks also to Kari for funding the tea and biscuits that kept us going through the afternoon! We are already looking forward to the next event.

Policy Influencing training sessions

BU research, ECR Network, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, parliament, policy, Training, writing

Time is often a barrier stopping colleagues from using their research to influence policy. These training sessions are designed with the ‘doing’ built into the training day. Each programme will help you move onto the next step and produce some of the key materials to influence policy with your research. So when you get back to your desk we aim for you to feel ready to push the ‘send’ button! There’s a choice of half day, full day and multi session programmes and all sessions will be delivered online by Carys Davis, Director of The Other Place Public Affairs.

We particularly urge colleagues who do not have a ‘ready to go’ policy brief for their research to attend a session.

Email Sarah to book a session (state the name of the training course in the subject line of the email).

See here for the full details of each training course. Brief details below:

Policy into practice: from academia to influence – NOW POSTPONED, UPDATES COMING SOON (DO EMAIL TO EXPRESS INTEREST)

This is our flagship multi-session programme aiming to inform and support colleagues to produce content ready to share their research with policy makers and wider audiences. You’ll create three outputs – a policy brief, an elevator pitch and a set of recommendations based on your research. During the mentoring you’ll work with the expert trainer to ensure your content is ideal for political audiences. More details here.

 *There are limited spaces available on this training session because it is an intensive support model including bespoke mentoring.*

Session 1 (full day) – Tuesday 10 May, 10-16:30; session 2 is a 1:2:1 mentoring session (choice of dates/times); session 3 is a half day on Tuesday 7 June 09:15-12:45. Colleagues must be able to commit to all three sessions.

Introduction to Parliament and Policy Influencing – Wed 8 June

A full day training session which covers the knowledge and skills to begin policy influencing. More details here.

Wed 8 June, 10:00-16:30

International Researchers – Introduction to Parliament and Policy Influencing – Mon 13 June

A full day session specifically for international colleagues. This introduction covers the need-to-know essentials and will fill in gaps for colleagues less familiar with the British political system. While the training will cover more background knowledge it is still focussed on getting colleagues started with policy influencing. More details here.

Monday 13 June, 10:00 – 16:30

Moving from academic form to effective policy writing – Fri 10 June (morning)

A half-day session: Friday 10 June, 09:30-13:00

Changing from academic form to policy writing can be challenging and may need a different approach. This session introduces colleagues to short form policy style and provides templates to get you started. This training also includes expert feedback after the session on your final policy piece.  More details here.

Effective policy presentations – Tue 21 June (afternoon)

A half day session: Tuesday 21 June, 13:00-16:30

What do policy makers want from a research presentation? How do colleagues grab interest, open dialogue and establish relationships? More details here. Again there is expert feedback after the session on your final output.

Email Sarah to book your place.

Paramedic science book launch this Friday

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Events, Featured academics, Publishing, Training, Uncategorized, writing

Coming Friday the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has the pleasure of hosting the official launch of a new Mental Health Care in Paramedic Practice written by BU’s Dr. Ursula Rolfe and Mr. David Partlow, Somerset County Council Adult Social Care Strategic Manager.  The launch will take place in the Bournemouth Gateway Building at noon on May 6th in room BGB 302.

Mental Health Care in Paramedic Practice is the first guide written specifically to support paramedics in understanding a range of different mental health conditions in their practice.  This new book provides essential information on recognising and managing a range of conditions.  It offers case studies written by paramedics with first-hand experience of managing mental health issues, and includes a section on legal changes and policy descriptions as well as on the importance of interprofessional working. One of the online reviewers declared that this is an important read for Emergency Medical Service staff.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

Reference:

Rolfe, U., Partlow, D.  (eds.) (2022) Mental Health Care in Paramedic Practice, Class Publishing  [ISBN: 9781859599242]

Research Professional – all you need to know

BU research, Funding opportunities

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. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to Research Professional. 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 Research Professional.

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 Research Professional. 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 Research Professional. They are holding two monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with Research Professional. 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 second Tuesday of every other month. You can register here for your preferred date:

10th May 2022

12th July 2022

13th September 2022

8th November 2022

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. Previous recordings can be found here if you can’t attend a session.

Have you noticed the pink box on the BU Research Blog homepage?

By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.

Upcoming Research Impact Workshops

BU research, ECR Network, Impact, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, policy, Research Training, Training

We have several RKEDF impact-related workshops coming up over the next couple of months; please use the links below to book onto them via OD:

Getting started with research impact: what is it? 12 May, 2pm (repeated on 16th September, 10am)

Evidencing Impact 14 June, 2pm (repeated on 12 October, 2pm)

Impact and Funding Applications 30 June, 2pm

As part of the newly announced Research Conference: Building Impact on 7 June we will also be holding live sessions on the Anatomy of a Case Study, investigating what an excellent case study looks like. This will be repeated online the following day (8 June, 2pm) for those who can’t make it so do look out for booking links for this too.

If you have any questions, please contact the Impact Advisors – Amanda Lazar or Beth Steiner.

The Postgrad Awards 2022 | Nomination deadline extended!

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research

Help shine a spotlight on postgraduate talent with The Postgrad Awards 2022!

Nominations close: Sunday 8 May

Do you know a postgraduate research student, supervisor or university staff member at Bournemouth University who has made an outstanding contribution to the world of postgraduate study?

Nominations are currently open for the fourth year of The Postgrad Awards – a series of awards from FindAMasters and FindAPhD that seek to celebrate the underrepresented postgraduate community. Award categories include:

  • Outstanding Contribution to Postgraduate Student Diversity
  • Outstanding Contribution to Postgraduate Student Wellbeing
  • Masters Student of the Year
  • PhD Student of the Year
  • Masters Teacher of the Year
  • PhD Supervisor of the Year

How to nominate

Nominations are made online using the Postgrads Awards nomination form.

Before you submit your application, please ensure you’ve read the T&Cs. There is also an FAQ section to answer your most common questions and give you some hints and tips about entering. Good luck!

Why nominate someone for a Postgrad Award?

Student winners are awarded a cash prize of £500, an international platform to showcase their commitment to postgraduate study, and recognition from their academic communities.

For academics and professional support staff, the Postgrad Awards bring invaluable exposure to university initiatives and academic outputs on FindAMasters and FindAPhD’s internationally-popular platforms.

Find out more about the 2021 winners.

 

RDS Funding Development Briefing on Wednesday 27/04/22

BU research, Funding opportunities

RDS Funding Development Briefing will be on Wednesday (26/04/22) at 12 noon. There will be no spotlight presentation this week.

Please not that there will be no briefing next week (04/05/2022).

Hopefully, you will be joining NIHR Information Session organised by our BU colleagues on Wednesday 27th April at 10am. More information you may find on Research Blog.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.