Category / BU research

UKCGE Route to Recognition for Supervisory Practice: Deadline for Submission 19 June 2023

Are you an established research degree supervisor?

Would you like your supervisory practice acknowledged at national level and join a growing number of BU staff who have gained recognition?

Come to the Supervisory Lunchbite session on Wednesday 10 May 2023 for support about the application process!

The UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) has developed the Good Supervisory Practice Framework (GSPF) and the Research Supervision Recognition Programme to allow established supervisors to gain recognition for this challenging, but rewarding, role.

  • Acknowledging the Complexity of Your Role
  • Identify your professional development needs
  • Recognition of your expertise by a national body.

Further details and how to apply can be found here.

  • Individuals to complete application form, including 2 supporting statements from a co-supervisor and a PGR.
  • Individuals to submit application to the Doctoral College by Monday 19 June 2023, including email support from your Deputy Dean for Research & Professional Practice
  • Doctoral College to submit applications to UKCGE by Friday 23 June 2023
  • UKCGE to review application and feedback to individuals.

In line with the UKCGE guidance, individuals should send their completed application to the Doctoral College (fknight@bournemouth.ac.uk) before the BU Window Closing date below:

BU Window Closes UKCGE Window Closes Expected Outcome
19 June 2023 23 June 2023 September 2023

Book here to attend the Supervisory Lunchbite on Wednesday 10 May 2023 for support about the application process!

Athena SWAN – tell us your views by this Friday

At BU, we are proud of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and to improving the staff experience for all colleagues. We would like your feedback to help us progress our work in this area. 

The Athena SWAN charter is an initiative run by AdvanceHE. It is a framework to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. We are proud to have an institutional Athena SWAN bronze award and of our five departments, who hold departmental bronze SWAN awards.  

To inform our ongoing programme of gender equality work and future submissions for Athena SWAN awards, we want to hear your views on the inclusiveness of our culture. Your responses will help us to identify good practice, as well as areas for development. Please complete our survey by 23.59 on Friday 31 March.  

The survey will take 10 minutes to complete. It is open to all BU colleagues and we want to encourage everyone to take the time to share your feedback with us. This will help us get the best understanding possible of what is working well and what we need to address to continue to support all genders of our community equally. The survey refers to gender in broad and inclusive terms, encompassing those who identify as women, men or non-binary. All responses will be anonymous and no data will be used to identify individuals.  

If you are a line manager, please encourage your team to complete the survey, so that we get as many responses as possible. Thank you.

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2023

 


Have your say

PRES will launch on Monday 17 April 2023 for postgraduate research (PGR) students to complete.

Look out for an email from the University containing your unique link to the survey.


We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying with us. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a University we could do better. This is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at Bournemouth University. We also kindly ask that all supervisors encourage their PGRs to participate in the survey.

Thank you to all PGRs who completed the 2022 PRES survey – we listened to you and your feedback has helped us to enhance your PGR experience in a range of areas.

This year the survey will open on Monday 17 April 2023 and close on Monday 15 May 2023. Upon completing the survey, PGRs will be entered into a free prize draw where you can win one of four prizes of a £50 Love2shop gift voucherTerms and conditions apply.

In addition, and as thank you for taking part, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

How do I take part?

PGRs will receive an email from the University on Monday 17 April 2023 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.

What will I be asked?

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential, and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research culture, community, progress and assessment, responsibilities, support, research skills, profession development, opportunities, and overall experience.

Why should I take part?

Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.

More information

If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2023

We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

For any PRES related queries, please email: PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk

Research process seminar. Automated content analysis using machine learning. 3pm on 28th March on Zoom

Hi all,
After a short break, the research process seminar series is back, with a seminar almost every week between now and mid June. Unlike other seminar series’ that often showcase the findings and outcomes of research, we pay attention to the process of research: the methods, the challenges, the successes and failures and the reflections we collect along the way.
Today we are delighted to welcome an external speaker, Rainer Freudenthaler (Universität Mannheim), who is talking about automated content analysis using machine learning
This session will focus on measuring explicit and implicit bias and implicit racism in ethnic minority reporting. We use semi-supervised machine learning to distinguish explicit and implicit stigmatization of ethnic and religious groups in German journalistic coverage (n = 697,913 articles). The talk will engage with how we validate the method, what the strengths and weaknesses of the method are, etc.
It promises to be a really interesting session.
It is at 3pm, Tuesday 28th march on Zoom
https://bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/9292103478?pwd=UzJnNTNQWDdTNldXdjNWUnlTR1cxUT09

Meeting ID: 929 210 3478
Passcode: rps!4fmc

Hope to see you there. All welcome
Dan and Sae

Opportunity: NIHR Committee member development scheme

The NIHR is seeking to appoint members to their Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme committees as Committee Member Development Scheme (CMDS) Participants. They are one year development opportunities are for nurses and midwives currently at Band 6 or above, or in an equivalent academic role who have a good understanding and experience of front-line health and care practice. Read more information here.

Giving PGRs a voice…participate in a PhD study exploring research culture

I’m currently seeking PhD students in Science and Technology AND Arts and Humanities disciplines to participate in a research study exploring positive research cultures for PGRs.

I’m interested in PhD student experience, your thoughts on what makes a positive research culture and giving PGRs a voice. Participants must be PhD students, at BU, who started at least 6 months ago.

You will be invited to an online interview which will take approximately 45 minutes.

Participation is voluntary and any involvement will remain anonymous.

This work is part of my PhD and not my role in the Doctoral College.

Click the flyer for the Participant Information Sheet and if you are interested, please fill in this short demographics survey.

Any questions, please email Natalie Stewart at nstewart@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 

Updated Intention to Bid form – March 2023

Since the introduction of the new electronic ITB form on 24 January 2022, there have been incremental updates and the current e-ITB form is now available.

The e-ITB form continues to give a better user experience, creates a more efficient administrative control process for Research Development and Support (RDS) and provides accurate reporting outcomes for management.

 

Updated ITB form: The  Intention to Bid (ITB) form and the updated Research Costings Request Sheet are both available now in the Policies & Procedures/Research/Pre-award section of the intranet under Research > Pre-award. Please complete the Research Costings Request Sheet and attach it to the e-ITB form for completion. PDF copies of all submissions can be printed or saved but there are limitations to editing a form once it has been submitted.

Please send RDS the completed e-ITB form and Costing Request Sheet by the latest 4 weeks before the deadline.

 

Bid Enquiry Process: If you have more than 4 weeks to the submission deadline and need advice or support regarding a bid, please access the same form link and select ‘Enquiry/Advice on Bidding’. This ensures that the pre-award team will see your Enquiry, rather than emailing a sole officer who may not be available at the time.

 

As a service, RDS is committed to delivering service excellence to enable BU’s academic community to deliver and grow world-leading research for societal benefit. The program of work continues to look at processes to enhance the user experience.

 

Changes include improvements to the pre- and post-award support being offered. Building on the delivery of a new Principal Investigator report which is currently in the final stages of being rolled out, and continuing our collaboration with the Transformation Team.

Association between Traumatic Injuries and Heart Rate Variability- Systematic Review Published in PloS One by an MSPH PhD Student

Rabeea is a 2nd year PhD student who is based in the Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health. As a part of her PhD, her systematic review on the association between traumatic Injuries and HRV has recently been published as an open access research in PloS One.

It is the first systematic review to provide evidence on the relationship between non-acute traumatic injuries and Heart Rate Variability  (RMSSD, SDNN and LF/HF) ratio. This also highlights paucity of evidence and calls for further research in the field, especially in the Military research- the focus of Rabeea’s PhD.

The co-authors on this paper are Rabeea’ supervisors: Prof. Ahmed Khattab (MSPH, BU), Prof. Christopher Boos (Department of Cardiology, UHD), and Prof. Alex N Bennett (DMRC, Stanford Hall).

Traveling with pets: designing hospitality services for pet owners/parents and hotel guests,

Are you a PET / DOG PARENT ?

New research paper on TRAVELING WITH PETS

Buhalis, D. and Chan, J. (2023), Traveling with pets: designing hospitality services for pet owners/parents and hotel guests, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol.34. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2022-1192

#pets #dogs #travel #tourism #hotel #hospitality #marketing #management #consumerbehaviour #service #HongKong

Pet-friendly hotels are growing rapidly. The prevalence of pet adoption has largely resulted from loneliness due to social distancing that happened during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Many hotels around the world aim to become pet-friendly to satisfy the growing demand. Hoteliers believe that the popularity of pet-friendly hotels will continue, as pet owners often treat pets as their kids. This study aims to investigate how pet-friendly hotels need to design and manage pet-friendly services and policies. Using grounded theory methodology, this research conducts interviews with 25 pet-friendly hotel managers from Hong Kong (HK). The study includes hotels from different hotel categories and classifications. It examines the conceptualization of pet-friendly service design, drawing on a service blueprint. Building on the service marketing and service blueprint literature, this research provides a synthesis that reflects how pet-friendly hotels can serve both guests with and without pets.

The findings reveal that pet-owner’s service expectations are formed on anthropomorphism, that is, an inclination to attribute human features to non-human entities. Hotel managers and those with pets personally understand better how pet-friendly service can be adapted to meet the expectations and requirements of pet owners while accommodating guests without pets. The market for pet-friendly hospitality is growing, with high-profit potential from pet owners who are willing to spend generously. Data were collected from selected pet-friendly hotels in HK through interviews with pet-friendly service providers. The research is qualitative and exploratory in nature. It aims to explore and examine the multilevel pet-friendly hospitality service design from a managerial perspective. This research enriches the literature on anthropomorphism theory, the design of pet-friendly services and the application of service blueprint. The research offers explicit suggestions for the design of pet-friendly hospitality services. A pet-friendly hotel service blueprint is developed. This can help managers to develop essential pet-friendly policies and service collaborations between internal departments and with external specialist organizations, maximizing the value for all stakeholders. The study explores a rapidly emerging market and scrutinizes its specific design requirements. It extends theoretical insights by enriching the anthropomorphism theory and broadening the conceptualizations of service blueprint based on anthropomorphism theory.

https://www.academia.edu/98737451/

Conversation article: Bones like Aero chocolate – the evolution adaptation that helped dinosaurs to fly

Dr Sally Reynolds writes for The Conversation about new research into the structure of dinosaur bones…

Bones like Aero chocolate: the evolution adaptation that helped dinosaurs to fly

Dinosaurs once dominated Earth’s landscapes.
AmeliAU/Shutterstock

Sally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University

It’s sometimes difficult to imagine how the planet we call home, with its megalopolis cities and serene farmlands, was once dominated by dinosaurs as big as buses and five-storey buildings. But recent research has helped deepen our understanding of why dinosaurs prevailed: the answer may lie in their special bones, structured like Aero chocolate.

Brazilian palaeontologist Tito Aureliano found that hollow bones filled with little air sacs were so important to dinosaur survival, they evolved independently several times in different lineages.

According to the study, aerated bones evolved in three separate lineages: pterosaurs, technically flying reptiles, and two dinosaur lineages theropods (ranging from the crow-sized Microraptor to the huge Tyrannosaurus rex) and sauropodomorphs (long-necked herbivores including Brachiosaurus). The researchers focused on the late Triassic period, roughly 233 million years ago, in south Brazil.

A macro close-up shot of an opened bar of Aero chocolate, with the corner broken off, exposing the unique bubble texture from which it gets it name.
Hollow dinosaur bones, structured a bit like this chocolate, proved to be a major advantage.
Kev Gregory/Shutterstock

Every time an animal reproduces, evolution throws up random variants in genetic code. Some of these variants are passed on to offspring and develop over time.

Charles Darwin believed evolution created “endless forms most beautiful”. But some adaptations emerge spontaneously time and time again, a bit like getting the same hand of cards on multiple occasions. When the same hand keeps cropping up, it’s a sign that evolution has hit upon an important and effective solution.

The variant the Brazilian team studied was aerated vertebrae bones, which would have enhanced the dinosaurs’ strength and reduced their body weight.

Light but mighty

Your regular deliveries from Amazon or other online retailers come packed in corrugated cardboard, which has the same advantages as aerated bones. It is light, yet tough.

Corrugated cardboard or as it was first known, pleated paper, was a man-made design experiment that was hugely successful and is now part of our everyday lives. It was patented in England in 1856 and was initially designed to support top hats which were popular in Victorian England and the US at the time.

Three years later, Darwin published his On the Origin of Species which outlined how evolutionary traits that create advantages are more likely to be passed on to future generations than variants which don’t.

Close up of stacked brown recycled carton
Cardboard is strong and light.
Shawn Hempel/Shutterstock

CT scan technology allowed Aureliano and his colleagues to peer inside the rock-hard fossils they studied. Without the modern technology, it would have been impossible to look inside the fossils and detect the air sacs in the spinal columns.

The study found no common ancestor had this trait. All three groups must have developed air sacs independently, and each time in slightly different ways.

The air sacs probably enhanced oxygen levels in the dinosaurs’ blood. The Triassic period had a scorching hot and dry climate. So more oxygen circulating in the blood would cool dinosaur bodies more efficiently. It would also allow them to mover faster.

The air sacs would have buttressed and reinforced the internal structure of the dinosaurs’ bones while creating a greater surface area of attachments for large, powerful muscles. This would have enabled the bones to grow to a far larger size without weighing the animal down.

In living birds aerated bones reduce overall mass and volume, while enhancing bone strength and stiffness – essential features for flight.

Palaeontology not only tells the story of what might have been for Earth, had it not been for that infamous asteroid, but also helps us learn about the evolution of still living creatures.

Prehistoric connections

Echoes of this dinosaur legacy lie in many animals alive today. It is not only long-dead animals which found this type of adaptation useful. Many bird species living today rely on hollow bones to fly. Others animals use the air sacs to buttress and strengthen their large bones and skulls, without weighing them down.

An excellent example of this is the elephant skull. Inside elephant skulls are large air sacs which allow the animal to move its massive head and heavy tusks without straining the neck muscles.

Anatomy of a flat bone.
OpenStax College, CC BY

The human brain is also protected by two layers of hard, compact, bone (inner and outer tables) which sandwich a layer of softer, spongey and aerated bone in between, known as the diploe. This allows our skulls to be light, but strong and able to absorb shocks to cranium.

These are examples of convergent evolution in which animals are faced repeatedly with the same problem, evolving similar – but not always identical – solutions each time. Animals today are playing by the same evolutionary playbook as the dinosaurs.The Conversation

Sally Christine Reynolds, Principal Academic in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

BU CEDARS SURVEY 2023

BU CEDARS SURVEY 2023

Culture, Employment and Development in
Academic Research Survey

BU CEDARS survey 2023

We are delighted to inform you that BU is launching the Bournemouth University Culture, Employment, and Development in Academic Research survey (CEDARS). It runs from today Monday 20th March 2023 to Friday 21st April 2023 and is open to all staff who are research active.

What is it? – a UK survey that explores the views and experiences of researchers and those supporting them across UK higher education institutes.

Who can complete it? Anyone who is research active at BU (especially researchers/principal investigators).

Why is it important? Because this is an opportunity to share your experiences and idea- and to influence the research culture, BU policies, and initiatives.

When it is running? March 20th – April 21st 2023

Learn more on how BU supports the careers of researchers

 

Please, help us to get a realistic picture, and fill out our survey here: BU CEDARS survey 2023