Category / BU2025

Introducing our RCATS project: ‘Resolving the extinction crisis: sustainable and technological solutions for biodiversity and society’

BU2025, Impact

Rates of biodiversity loss across the world are now so alarming that it is generally recognised there is an urgent need to halt this loss of species that is largely being driven by human activities (e.g. last month’s UN Biodiversity conference, COP15). Indeed, the UN describe current extinction rates as the largest loss of life since the time of the dinosaurs. It is thus timely that we were recently awarded funding from BU’s Research Capacity Transformation Scheme for our project on preventing biodiversity loss for the benefit of both society and the natural world by developing sustainable solutions based on data collected using the latest technologies.

 

Our project is bringing researchers together from across BU and working with our match funders and external partners to deliver an integrated programme of research on biodiversity and sustainability that ranges from the social sciences through to the development of new analytical processes in the laboratory and engineering new technologies to monitor biodiversity. Our work focuses around four post-doctoral research projects that work in synergy with five match-funded PhD studentships. Work by the PhDs includes understanding extinction risks in critically endangered species in fragmented habitats, and identifies how schemes to reconnect and rewild habitats can reverse biodiversity losses. Our post-doctoral researchers will assess the relationships between society, consumer choices and public policy to benefit biodiversity, and identify how human-driven environmental changes are affecting biodiversity in terms of the behaviour, physiology and genetics of animal populations and communities.

 

If you want to hear more about our project, including how you can get involved, we are holding an open meeting for Bournemouth University staff on 24th January from 1 to 2 pm in Create lecture theatre. We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Rob Britton & Pippa Gillingham (Project leads)

Two rejections in one week

BU research, BU2025, ESRC, Featured academics, Fusion, Uncategorized

This week I had the pleasure of receiving two rejection emails from two different national organisations. On Monday the BSA (British Sociological Association) apologised for not putting my name forward to join the ESRC DTP (Doctoral Training Partnerships) Peer Review College.  The BSA panel received “a high number of applications which were all of a very high standard. A maximum of only three names could go forward and I’m afraid, on this occasion, your application was not successful.”

On Wednesday this was followed by an email from the NIHR Global Health Research Project which did not exactly offered a rejection: “Thank you for expressing your interest in joining the Advisory Planning Committee for the NIHR Global Health Research Shared Learning Event Series planned for early 2023.  We were delighted to receive plenty of interest and have selected a small group to make up the committee, bearing in mind that we were looking for diversity in topics, geography, and gender.  Despite this, we are keen to maintain engagement with you and obtain your advice regarding some of the arrangements for the Series. Should this be acceptable, we would be grateful if you could complete the following survey, which should only take about 5 to 10 minutes:…”  From the words ‘despite this‘ I gathered that I am not included in the ‘small group to make up the committee‘.

Putting my name forward for research committees like these is two-fold: (1) raise Bournemouth University’s profile nationally; and (2) fulfill my part FUSION’s  ‘professional practice’.  Contributing to the latter is always slightly more difficult for a sociologist than an academic with a health or social care background.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

Research Leadership Training Programme – Open for nominations

BU2025, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

Following on from the successful pre Covid Research Leadership programme, (consistently rated 4+ out of 5), we are running a similar face to face programme in 2023. This programme supports the development of all academics including Early Career Researchers, Mid-Career Academics, Senior Research Leaders and Associate Professors.

 

Participants will :

  • Be helped to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to lead teams to successfully deliver funded research projects, in line with stakeholder and funder requirements.
  • Gain an understanding of effective team leadership and team working within a research context in order to be able to devise strategies to get the best out of teams in the challenging environment of research.
  • Be equipped with an understanding of their strengths and limitations in order to be confident in developing their leadership skills in line with their career stage and future aspirations and be more confident to expand their funded research activities.

 

Quotes from previous cohort(s):

“Totally relevant to tasks we have to undertake and very enjoyable learning experience”, (Early Career);

“Excellent workshop, learned a lot of useful information I didn’t know”, (Mid-Career); and

“Fantastic tools were given for future leaders both in research and academic leadership”, (Senior Research Leader).

 

There is a MS Forms here. The deadline is the 9th December 2022.

Please be aware that is NOT a course on bid writing.

 

If you have any queries, please contact RKEDF@Bournemouth.ac.uk

New Research Impact, Engagement and Communications Sharepoint Site!

BU research, BU2025, ECR Network, Featured, Fusion, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, R & KE Operations, REF Subjects, Research communication, research staff, Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

We are proud to launch our new Research Impact, Engagement and Communications Sharepoint site!  

This is your one stop shop for all things impact, public engagement and research communications within RDS. 

On the site, you will find resources for communicating your research, increasing its impact and engaging the public with your research. 

You’ll find links to RKEDF training sessions, guides to impact, public engagement and research communications along with information about useful contacts within RDS and news about the REF. 

The site is easily navigable and is divided into three sections: 

 Research Impact: 

This section outlines how we can help you to plan, accelerate and evidence the impact of your research and includes resources, contact details of our Impact Advisers and links to useful information on impact pathways, the REF and impact training. 

Public Engagement with Research: 

In this section, we explain how we can help when you want to engage with the public to share your research. The ways to do this are many and varied but ultimately, high quality public engagement has huge benefits for BU, for society and for you – the academic. Here you can find links to advice, training and funding along with the contact details of our Public Engagement team and details of how to join the thriving BU Public Engagement Network.  

Research Communications: 

Here, we offer you support and guidance on the different ways of sharing your research with different audiences. This includes working with the media (including our partnership with The Conversation), writing for the web and using social media. 

The site will be updated regularly and has been designed to be as user friendly as possible. Please make sure you bookmark and keep checking back regularly for updates and news. 

 

 

Register to attend The 14th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference | Keynote speaker announced

BU research, BU2025, Doctoral College, Events, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research Supervision, student research

Registration to attend the 14th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference is now open. All members of the BU community are welcome so please do spread the word.

The full oral presentation list will be released in due course.

This year we are delighted to announce our keynote speaker is Professor Anna Feigenbaum, with her talk ‘networking from below’.

Abstract:

As postgraduate research students and early career researchers you likely hear the word “networking” all the time. You must network at conferences, network for participant recruitment, network for jobs. You need to network for funding bids, network for sharing your research with the public and network for making an impact. But what is this elusive art of networking? In this talk Professor Anna Feigenbaum will introduce her career approach of “networking from below”. This includes building ‘survive and thrive’ networks with doctoral student colleagues, learning how to approach senior academics, identifying what you have to give and how to best ask for the support or collaboration you want to receive. Delivering this practical advice, Professor Feigenbaum will share her 4C principles for networking success: curiosity, clarity, coordination, and care.

We hope many of you can join us in supporting and promoting the postgraduate research culture and community at Bournemouth University.

IMSET publishes position paper on long-term sustainability

BU2025, humanities, international, open access, Research communication, Research news

Fabio Silva of the Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, together with a group of co-authors from 32 other institutions, has led the publication of a landmark position paper in the journal Sustainability entitled Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée.

Stemming from a transdisciplinary workshop held online during 2020, the paper argues that current crises – in land use, biodiversity, novel pathogens, water management – can only be fully understood by doing research over timescales that greatly exceed the lifespan of any individual human. This so-called longue durée is the key to fully understanding the full extent of socio-environmental processes and their implications.

 

The spatial and temporal scales of key social and environmental processes of interest

 

As well as identifying key processes and challenges, IMSET and colleagues set out how key issues may be addressed by fully integrating humans into environmental modelling and planning. By including ancient human activity and future outcomes in our mission statement, we aim to provide a manifesto for developing an integrated approach towards socio-ecological systems in the long term.

—

Silva, Fabio, Fiona Coward, Kimberley Davies, Sarah Elliott, Emma Jenkins, Adrian C. Newton, Philip Riris, Marc Vander Linden, Jennifer Bates, Elena Cantarello, Daniel A. Contreras, Stefani A. Crabtree, Enrico R. Crema, Mary Edwards, Tatiana Filatova, Ben Fitzhugh, Hannah Fluck, Jacob Freeman, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Marta Krzyzanska, Daniel Lawrence, Helen Mackay, Marco Madella, Shira Yoshi Maezumi, Rob Marchant, Sophie Monsarrat, Kathleen D. Morrison, Ryan Rabett, Patrick Roberts, Mehdi Saqalli, Rick Stafford, Jens-Christian Svenning, Nicki J. Whithouse, and Alice Williams. 2022. “Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée“ Sustainability 14: 10234. DOI: 10.3390/su14161023

 

 

New paper on Amazonian Dark Earths involving IMSET researchers

BU2025, Publishing, Research Centres

Today, Nature Communications published a long-expected Matters Arising in response to a 2021 paper in the same journal: “A new hypothesis for the origin of Amazonian Dark Earths“. The new paper, involving more than 50 leading scholars involved in research on prehistoric Amazonia, affirms a human origin for the dark earths found throughout the central and eastern Amazon basin.

Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are distinguished by their exceptional fertility and richness of archaeological remains. Evidently produced by various kinds of human activity, including but not limited to manuring, rubbish deposition, and biomass burning, they are a distinctive feature of later indigenous settlement of the Amazon river basin.

The paper synthesises diverse archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and historic data to demonstrate the human origin of ADEs. Source: Lombardo et al. 2022

For more information see: Lombardo, U., Arroyo-Kalin, M., Schmidt, M. et al. Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths. Nat Commun 13, 3444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31064-2

What’s New at WAN?

BU research, BU2025, Women's Academic Network

We are enjoying a busy second semester at the Women’s Academic Network, now in its 9th year. Here we provide a brief snapshot of what’s been happening and what’s coming up.

Following our excellent Research Masterclass on Focus Group Discussions with Dr Emma Pitchforth, University of Exeter and Professor Edwin van Teijlingen of FSS in Semester 1, our second Research Methodology Masterclass workshop will be held on May 25. This time we will be covering Psychosocial Visual Methodologies, including learning about Social Dreaming techniques. Workshop facilitation will be offered by Dr Lita Crociani-Windland, University West of England. Lita is a British Psychoanalytic Council Scholar and Director of the UWE Centre for Social Dreaming and an expert is her field.  Register with WAN.

More Semester 2 events:

We have enjoyed two highly successful, open-to-all webinars recently.

On April 29, Pro-Chancellor Dr Sue Sutherland OBE introduced three eminent, media profiled, Independent Sage speakers, Professor Susan Michie, Professor Christina Pagel (UCL) and Dr Deepti Gurdasani (Queen Mary) for a powerful, punchy and candid discussion on the Online harassment and abuse of female scientists in the public sphere

On March 17 the BU Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Vinney, opened Women’s International Day at WAN with this year’s prestigious speaker, Jess Phillips, Labour Party MP for the constituency of Birmingham Yardley and Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. This was a hugely powerful and entertaining recorded session with one of the UK’s most authentic, audacious, witty and eloquent politicians speaking on the topic of ‘Another Year of Violence Towards Women and Girls!’ 

 What else is going on?

The ever-popular WAN Writing Retreat is being held on July 11. Please register your interest.

WAN takes its responsibilities to support the career profiles of our women colleagues very seriously. Our annual Writing Retreat is a great opportunity to get down to some seriously inspired writing in a supported environment where your writing experience is facilitated by experienced and prolific women scholars.

Coming up: WAN speaker/panel series: ‘Gilead Now? Resisting the March of Misogyny’. We are in the process of planning a number of events under our rolling new series that draws on Margaret Atwood’s dystopic Handmaid vision to explore reminiscent manifestations of women’s oppression emerging in contemporary societies.

Not yet a WAN member?

All women academic/PGR across any academic discipline can join WAN.

For more information and to register interest in events please contact:

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree: scrabtree@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

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

BU Integrity Week: 16th to the 20th May 2022

BU research, BU2025, Clinical Governance, data management, Doctoral College, ECR Network, Events, PG research, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy

Unlock greater potential by maximising your awareness and understanding of Integrity! 

The ability to utilise integrity in research, writing and teaching is vital for academic success. However, continuing to retain your integrity is fundamental but this can only be achieved by maintaining an ability to keep up-to date with the rules constituting academic dishonesty. Not so unlike technology rules and guidelines are continually changing. How then do you develop and maximise your understanding of honesty and dishonesty and continue to retain Integrity?  BU’s Integrity Week will give you the skills and resources to do just that! 

The importance of Academic Integrity will be highlighted at Bournemouth University’s Integrity Week. 

Organised by cross faculty departments for students, staff and faculty, the week will comprise of a combination of interesting workshops, cross faculty and professional presentations where experts will share their knowledge on differing aspects of honesty and dishonesty. Panel discussions, open to all, will provide a lively forum for the sharing of experiences. 

Reasons to attend! 

  • Unlock and achieve greater success through integrity
  • Discover Integrity resources 
  • Acquire skills to utilise integrity in research, writing and teaching
  • Learn how to maintain integrity in an evolving world of change

This will be an unparalleled week of opportunity for students, staff and faculty to ensure that through awareness and understanding BU stays at the forefront of everything that Integrity represents.  

 

Check out the programme and book here

Apply now for travel grants for impact development 

BU research, BU2025, Business Engagement, ECR Network, Funding opportunities, Impact, Knowledge Exchange

Grants of up to £200 are available via the Research Impact Fund to facilitate relationship building with external stakeholders such as policymakers or industry contacts leading to impact development. 

The aim of this is to support ad-hoc requests leading to impact development, such as media appearances, meetings with policy makers, meetings with industry contacts, or attendance at industry/policy/third sector events where network-building (leading to potential impact) is the key reason for attending. 

The funding can be used to meet with new stakeholders, organisations or groups or meet with existing stakeholders to gather testimonials or other evidence to demonstrate how research has made a difference (e.g. has resulted in real world impact). 

Please note that the travel fund cannot be used to fund conference attendance except in instances where attendance will result in achievable impact or evidence of impact. 

Eligibility:  

You will be eligible to apply if you meet the following criteria: 

  • You are an ECR and / or you are new to research, or 
  • You can demonstrate you have emerging impact from existing research 

Please familiarise yourself with BU’s Research Impact Policy and Research Impact Fund Guidance Notes before applying. 

The online application form can be completed here. 

Please contact researchimpact@bournemouth.ac.uk with any queries.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEIF Funded Project: VR Igloo

BU research, BU2025, HEIF, Impact

Developing and evaluating a novel interactive virtual reality intervention for children with eczema

Team: Dr Heidi Singleton, Yaqing Cui, Dr Xiaosong Yang, Dr Emily Arden-Close, Professor Steven Ersser, Professor Debbie Holley, Dr Sarah Thomas, Richard Glithro, John Moran, Dr Andy Hodder and Amanda Roberts (Nottingham Support Group for Carers (NSG) of Children with Eczema).

Aim: To co-create a complex VR health intervention based on the guided imagery approach to treating eczema (Ersser et al., 2014); targeted at children (aged between 7 and 11 years of age) (complex intervention development). This intervention is not a medical device but addresses a clinical issue and can be used at hospital or in the home. Our processes and outputs will be congruent with some of the staging of complex intervention development advised by the Medical Research Council (2021).

Evidence from our small-scale PPI project (Singleton et al. 2022), points to the need for an interactive VR innovation that provides an immersive experience to distract from itchy eczema with minimal requirements for contact with the child’s face or hands. To tackle this problem, we will design and develop a prototype system of an interactive “mini-VR igloo headset”. We will work with the Department of Design and Engineering to design and develop the prototype.

The two initial ideas for the engineering of the igloo are presented below. In keeping with a person-based approach these ideas will be discussed with our PIER group and will form part of the developmental work with our Nottingham based charity stakeholder partner.

This HEIF funding will enable this cross faculty team to work together (with external partners and Voice), with some additional paid staff to accelerate and maximise the development of a complex intervention to enhance its potential for impact. It will also provide us with several prototypes to test at BU events.

 

 

 

Are you an Early Career Research? Would travel this summer enable you to develop and external funding proposal? Apply now!

BU research, BU2025, Strategic Investment Areas

BU Research Blog | How do I get involved with the Strategic Investment Areas at BU? Insight for academics and professional service staff | Bournemouth UniversityBournemouth University (BU), as detailed within BU2025, is prioritising support for strategic growth around the scope of four far reaching and interdisciplinary Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs): Assistive Technology (AT); Animation, Simulation & Visualisation (ASV); Medical Science (MedS) and Sustainability, Low Carbon Technology & Materials Science (SCLTMS).

Each theme has an extensive scope and engagement with this call, from all BU’s disciplinary areas (including the arts, humanities, business, law and social sciences), is strongly encouraged. Growth of the SIAs is founded on interdisciplinary collaboration to leverage external funding and deliver societal impact.

In 2022, in recognition that COVID-19 has made it exceptionally challenging for early-career researchers to undertake the networking activities required to develop collaborative research proposals, there is an additional stream of internal funding available to enable colleagues to undertake networking/pilot data collection activities in summer 2022 with a view to developing and submitting a collaborative research proposal in late 2022/early 2023.

Please note, there is no one definition of an early career researcher. For example, the AHRC suggests that early career researcher is typically within eight years of their doctorate or within the first six years of their first academic appointment, excluding any career breaks.   However, BU recognises the diversity of academic career paths within the organisation and therefore invite colleagues to outline to the panels why they are classified as an early career researcher, as opposed to setting fixed criterion that may exclude some colleagues unfairly.)

The funding available can be spent in May, June and July 2022 (and cannot be rolled forward into the next financial year) and can be used to travel, network, attend conferences and/or collect pilot data. The funding will be allocated on a rolling basis, assessed by members of the SIA Steering Group. Apply by one of the following deadlines to secure funding:

  • 4th April, 2nd May and 23rd May (applications should be emailed to sia@bournemouth.ac.uk on each deadline day).

Each early career researcher can apply for any size of award up to £5,000.

For the full policy document and application form, please refer to the Staff Intranet or email sia@bournemouth.ac.uk

Call for game-changing research concepts in 2022: what could you do?

BU research, BU2025, Strategic Investment Areas

What could you do to change the world? Call for expressions of interest to develop the Strategic Investment Areas is now open!

The University is now looking for amazing, game-changing research ideas to enable us to grow as an institution, enrich our education and have a demonstrable impact on society. To enable this to happen, we have four Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs), each with a broad scope that is inherently interdisciplinary in nature.We now invite you to put forward your ideas and help bring these areas to life. These will be reviewed by our SIA Steering Groups and our SIA External Advisory Boards before the University Leadership Team endorses the strongest concepts for development.If successful, you will then receive dedicated, tailored support to turn your research concept into a reality. This is your opportunity to grow an area of research for which you and BU will be known for in the years to come.

What is a game-changing research concept?

This is the big question and the answer is that we don’t know until we know! In order to ensure that our brightest and best minds have an equitable opportunity to put their ideas forward to become institutional priorities, each year, the University – facilitated by Research, Development & Support (RDS) – makes a call for ‘game-changing’ research concepts that will enable the growth of one or more SIA. This is open to all academic staff (including research staff).Successful concepts are those which enable the growth of the SIAs (as defined by their scope), accelerate institutional research and knowledge exchange income, advance interdisciplinary research and deliver societal impact. EoIs are welcomed from all academic career stages and disciplines– especially from under-represented areas (as it is essential that our future research trajectory reflects the diversity of society).It is intended that these concepts will be the legacy by which BU is known for post-2025, and the opportunity to develop the scope of the SIAs is a career-enhancing opportunity.  Leaders of these strategic concepts for growth need to be committed to utilising the institutional support offered in order to make the concept a lived reality making a demonstrable difference to society through the acceleration of world-class research.

To learn more, and to apply, please read the policy document and complete the expression of interest form, available on the Staff Intranet or email sia@bournemouth.ac.uk 

FAQs

What is the process and the timescale?
Applications for EoIs are now open, with a closing date of 23rd May at 10am.  SIA Steering Groups will then review the concepts and agree which are prioritised for review by our External Advisory Boards. Shortlisted applicants will then have the opportunity to revise their EoIs in light of any feedback, before the final concepts are selected for enhanced institutional support in August 2022.

Do I have to be a Professor to apply?

Absolutely not! (Although, of course, our professorial colleagues are very welcome to put forward brilliant concepts). We actively welcome EoIs from all career stages, especially early to mid-career researchers. We also actively encourage applications from colleagues with protected characteristics, in recognition of the importance of growing a diverse research community that reflects wider society.

The titles of the SIAs sound very science-based, am I eligible to apply if I work in the arts, humanities or social sciences?
Of course. We strongly encourage input from all disciplines, but more crucially, interdisciplinary research collaborations.

What sort of institutional support is on offer at the end of the process?
It will depend on what you need to make the concept a reality. Read the policy document available on the staff intranet for further details, or email sia@bournemouth.ac.uk for a copy of the policy document and an EoI template.

I’m really interested, but I’d like to learn more, what can I do?
We have a number of virtual drop-in sessions that you can attend over the next few weeks. These include:

  • Briefing sessions for our external partners on their future research needs
  • Briefing sessions from our SIA Steering Groups
  • Drop in-support sessions from RDS
  • If you would like to receive details of any of these, or have any further queries, please email sia@bournemouth.ac.uk

Can you give me some examples of ‘game-changing’ research ideas?
There are many sources of inspiration, you might like to ready more about research which started at the University of Oxford, the Made at Uni campaign, University of Loughborough’s game changers or search some of the REF 2014’s highest performing impact case studies.

Deadline approaching | Apply now for a cluster of postgraduate researchers and postdoctoral research fellows

BU research, BU2025, Funding opportunities, PG research, Postgraduate Research

RESEARCH CAPACITY TRANSFORMATION SCHEME – Call for expressions of interest

Apply now for a cluster of postgraduate researchers and postdoctoral research fellows – closing date for EoIs on 7th March

Bournemouth University’s (BU) recognises that postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and postdoctoral research fellows (PDRFs) are critical to a high performing research environment. Working under the direction of academic research leadership, they provide academic staff with research capacity, which enables the production of research outputs, strengthens research impact, and increases grant bidding.

 

Key information

The Research Capacity Transformation Investment Scheme is focused on building capacity to undertake cutting-edge research securing external research funding. A cluster hiring approach will be used to appoint inter- and/or multi-disciplinary teams of PDRFs and PGRs that focus on a common theme to create “clusters” undertaking strategically important and targeted research. The scheme will invest in:

  • 10 PDRFs and 10 PGRs in September 2022, across 2-5 clusters
  • 5 PDRFs and 5 PGRs in September 2023, across 1-2 clusters.

The clusters need to build critical mass in areas of research strength and provide a team-based, fused experience for PDRFs and PGRs that is anchored in one or more existing high performing entities, such as Research Centres or Institutes. Applications must include external match-fund partners for the PGR studentships.

Full details of the scheme, including the policy document, can be found on BU’s staff intranet.

Application Process

The application process will be in two stages:

To ensure there is timely progress, Research Development & Support and the Doctoral College will manage the funding application process 2022, with oversight of the recruitment process.

The indicative timetable for the 2022 allocation and recruitment is as follows:

Date Action
Monday 7th March 2022 Closing date for submission of EoIs (see Appendix 1) at 12 noon
Monday 21st March 2022 Successful applicants invited to provide a full application form (see Appendix 2)

Unsuccessful applicants notified
Monday 25th April 2022 Closing date for submission of full applications at 12 noon
w/c Monday 16th May 2022 Successful outcomes announced and recruitment to commence

Unsuccessful applicants notified
June 2022 Adverts for positions to close
July 2022 Interviews and selection
From 1st September 2022 Successful PDRFs to start (funding available from 1 September 2022)
From  26 September 2022 or 23 January 2022 Successful PGRs to start (funding available from 26 September 2022 with an alternative start date of 23 January 2023)

 

Submission Deadline:

Before completing the EoI or full application form, please ensure that you have read all the relevant guidance (including the policy document) and information available on the Staff Intranet.

Applications should be emailed to researchcapacitytransformation@bournemouth.ac.uk before the following deadlines:

Monday 7th March 2022          Closing date for submission of EoIs at 12 noon

Monday 25th April 2022          Closing date for submission of full applications at 12 noon

 

Supporting Documentation

Recruitment of PGRs will be in line with the BU Match-Funded Studentship Allocative Process .

For additional queries, please email researchcapacitytransformation@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

FAQs

  • What can I request?
    • Each proposal should contain a request for a minimum of 2 PGRs and 2 PDRFs, to a maximum of 5 PGRs and 5 PDRFs, or any combination.
  • Do I have to find a match-funding partner for the PGR element of the scheme?
    • You must be able to produce evidence of external partners providing match-funds at the full application stage.
  • Why can’t I request funding for one PDRF or one PGR?
    • This scheme is intended to provide investment into research teams, rather than discrete pockets of activity.
  • What type of proposal is likely to be supported?
    • It is recommended that you review the criteria against which applications are assessed against to ensure that you demonstrate how your proposal meets the criteria.
    • Colleagues are reminded that reviewers of concepts are likely to be from a wider range of disciplinary areas. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you write your proposal is a way which is clear for all to understand and avoids highly technical or discipline specific language.
  • I’m still confused. Where do I go for help?