Category / conferences

Alternative paths to access finance for small and medium scale enterprises in the UK

conferences, Funding opportunities

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) form a crucial part of United Kingdom’s (UK) economy. However, limited/or lack of access to finance continue to hinder the growth of SMEs in the country. This situation has been the compelling factor behind Bournemouth University’s seminars series on “Access to Finance for SMEs”, of which the last was held at Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, London on 13 September, 2016. This final part of the seminar series was aimed at identifying alternative sources of finance for SMEs in the UK.

professor-stella-fearnley-first-from-left-with-the-keynote-speaker-sir-john-bourn-middle-and-the-principal-investigator-professor-jens-h%d3%a7lscher-first-from-right

Professor Stella Fearnley (first from left) with the keynote speaker Sir John Bourn (middle) and the Principal Investigator professor Jens Hӧlscher (first from right)

Experts at the seminar identified the following as the reasons why there is limited/or lack of access to finance for SMEs in the UK:

  • Lenders face difficulties in accurately assessing the viability of SMEs with limited track records because of information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders. This makes it difficult for lenders to secure the appropriate information they require to make an informed decisions on SME loan applications,
  • New SMEs often end up defaulting in debt repayment,
  • There is regional bias when it comes to SME access to finance in the country. For instance, London and the South-East often obtain disproportionately more funding than SMEs in other parts of the UK.

Are there alternative sources of funding for SMEs?

Consensus was broad-based among participants that alternative sources of finance for SMEs is growing in the UK —it grew by 75% to £1.26bn in 2015—despite the fact that only 3% of SMEs are aware of these other sources. Some of the alternative funding sources that were suggested include:

  • Equity finance

This is a method of raising capital through the sale of shares in an enterprise. A presenter at the seminar showed that equity funding has improved significantly in the UK, with seed stage flows growing 48% p.a. since 2012. Other participants also observed that SMEs are often skeptical of equity finance for fear of loss of control. But the fact remains that most of them use equity finance without even realising it. For instance, SMEs often rely on angels and venture capital to raise funds for their businesses.

  • Angels and venture capital

This form of equity finance may be undertaken directly by individuals or industrial companies; and indirectly through financial institutions or government agencies. Venture capitalists on the other hand usually invest in SMEs with high return prospects. Though SMEs’ awareness about venture capital in the UK continue to increase, only 22% of them know of a specific fund to approach.

  • Business Angels

They are private individuals who invest in new SMEs with good growth prospects, in exchange for a share of the company’s equity. Business angels often invest in business start-ups and also provide assistance in the form of consultancy (sometimes free) to the SMEs.

  • Family and friends

This source of finance has long been an important route for start-ups. However, there is always the need to maintain professionalism and a formal environment for business growth which may stand against the business owner’s informal relationship with the financiers. The big mistake many companies make is that they fail to formalise the funding arrangement with friends and family.

  • Crowdfunding

This is a method of raising finance by asking a large number of people to individually contribute a small amount of money to fund a project or venture, typically via the Internet. Though it is becoming the new ‘buzz’ going around in the investment game, existing SMEs, individuals, and startups are increasingly looking to raise funds through this method. One of the participants indicated that it is cheaper, faster and easier to access finance through this source. Another participant at the seminar showed that crowdfunding in 2015 amounted to 2.5 billion pounds in the UK.

Road map to SME access to finance

On the various alternative sources of SME funding identified, seminar participants were of the view that there is the need to critically examine each of them since it will unpack their appropriateness to different economies. You can check gold price today from the reliable sources and buy them from such sources. You will get immediate cash when you sell gold Adelaide in the market through the local jewellers or traders.

Apart from individual publications, there were also proposal for pathways to impact which will include one or two edited books and potentially a Special Issue of the International Small Business Journal, the leading UK and European Entrepreneurship journal, as deliverables.

Reading Communities: Past and Present – AHRC conference, Senate House, London

conferences

Simon Frost and I recently took part in this event organised by an AHRC project based at The Open University which follows on from previous research leading to the establishment of The Reading Experience Database (RED). The event brought together book historians, literary scholars and researchers working on the borders between literature and media and cultural studies to explore a variety of examples of reading communities from Quaker reading groups and records of readers in the borrowing records of national libraries, to online book clubs and LARPs (Live Action Role Playing events). img_0020

 

This was a good opportunity for us to promote the work of the BU based Digital Reading Network, and CsJCC, based in the Faculty of Media and Communication. Simon’s paper reported on the findings of his BU Fusion funded project looking at contemporary book retailing, which was conducted in collaboration with the university bookseller John Smith’s.  Simon’s paper provided a fascinating comparison of the retail landscape using past and present photographs of the same Southampton street where Gilbert’s bookshop is based.  He boldly proposed replacing the term literary work with ‘Net Work’ to capture the idea of the work as an event which consists of people, places and bibliographic objects. The proposal plays into wider global HE strategies to study English for its social impact.

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My paper provided a comparison of two online reading communities.  The first, a Jane Austen community called The Republic of Pemberley, brings together devotees of the writer who engage in scheduled Group Reads of her work, using the website to report back and share their reading with other community members.  I also discussed how readers use social media platforms such as Twitter to share their reading, for example using the hashtag #mytolstory as they embarked on reading Tolstoy’s epic novel inspired by the recent BBC adaptation.  My paper drew on an article Julia Round and I recently published in the journal Language and Literature on online moderators, which was one of the outputs from our AHRC funded projects, Researching Readers Online and the Digital Reading Network.

 

The day provided an excellent opportunity for us to expand our networks, and establish new contacts. In particular, we were very excited to connect with researchers from the University of Malmo in Sweden whose research and philosophy for teaching English in a media context is closely aligned to our work here at BU.

BU at ATLAS annual conference

BU Challenges, conferences

BU had a strong presence at the ATLAS (Association for Tourism apic1nd Leisure Education and Research) annual conference which took place in the historic town of Canterbury, between 13-16 September, on “Tourism, Lifestyles and Locations”.

BU has been a member of the ATLAS network for many years and Dr Lenia Marques was one of the founders of the Special Interest Group on Events back in 2010. The group is very active and has several ongoing projects and collaborations amongst its members.

Several BU academics presented and discussed their research in Canterbury. Dr Hanaa Osman and Dr Lorraine Brown presented a piece of research which touches upon the status of women in tourism and which provoked debate on intercultural issues. Dr Anya Chapman presented her work on piers, which are so important for UK coastal destinations, such as Bournemouth. Dr Jaeyeon Choe presented her research on tourism and quality of life in Macao and we should congratulate her on her first attendance as the ATLAS Asia representative on the board.

Dr Lenia Marques presented her research on events and communities and practice among expats in a panel organised together with the Department of Events and Leisure and the Department of Tourism and Hospitality dedicated to “Lifestyle and communities: sharing in the digital era”. The panel, put together by Dr. Lenia Marques, Juliette Hecquet and Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, aimed at discussing new trends in the fields of leisure and tourism connected to lifestyle and the sharing economy.

Overall, the discussions at the conference were animated and friendly, raising some of the big issues of our time. Collaborations, projects and further developments will surely continue in the run-up to the next ATLAS annual conference to be held in Viana do Castelo, Portugal (12-16 September 2017) under the theme “Destinations past, present and future”.

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The Sensors and Their Applications 2016 conference

Business Engagement, conferences, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

events

The Sensors and Their Applications XVIII (2016) conference will be held on 12th-14th September in London. The Sensors & Applications series of conferences provides an excellent opportunity to bring together scientists and engineers from academia, research institutes and industrial establishments to present and discuss the latest results in the field of sensors, instrumentation and measurement.

ensors and Their Applications XVIII (2016) conference wiill be held on 12th -14th September in London.  The conference is orgnasied by the Institute of Physics Instrument Science and Technology Group. In this year, the Sensors and their Applications conference will also feature an industry session to enable the conference partcipants to showcase the industry and technology transfer activities in sensor related areas.

Invited speakers will give lectures on important recent advances within the symposium, in addition to contributed talks and poster sessions.

Conference Themes

• Optical sensors
• Chemical and gas sensors
• Sensors in biology and medicine
• Advances in sensing materials
• Nanotechnology for sensors and actuators
• Smart sensors and interface electronics
• MEMS and silicon fabrication techniques
• Imaging: integrated actuators
• Thick and thin film sensors
• Sensor modelling
• Sensor packaging and assemblies

For further details on the conference and to register, please go to the event website.

IFOMPT 2016

conferences, PG research

ifmopt-2016

I was delighted to present this month at a large international conference, IFOMPT 2016, in Glasgow. The International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) is an international body composed of many national groups specialising in post-graduate musculoskeletal physiotherapy. This is the first time the IFOMPT Conference, which is held every four years, has been hosted in the UK since 1988. This conference presented an ideal opportunity to promote the reputation of BU, the new Orthopaedic Research Institute, and AECC (where the research was undertaken).
I gave a poster presentation on work related to my PhD research into the mechanism of spinal manipulation in the treatment of neck pain. I was really pleased that there was a good bit of interest in the poster and I made useful contacts in Japan, China, USA – and Bournemouth! I was able to tempt some people I admire to my poster by posting the picture below on Twitter and sending to the Twitterati I knew were at the conference – social media works (I was not begging for attention, honest).

Come and see my poster!

Come and see my poster!

The other cool bit of technology I used for the first time at this conference was the conference app – no conference abstract booklet to have to carry around in a tacky conference bag for a couple of days.

Is a paper copy of conference proceedings now a thing of the past?

Is a paper copy of conference proceedings now a thing of the past?

The app had everything – the full itinerary, abstracts (including those of the 190 posters), and there were biographies and contact details for all the speakers and most of the delegates too. Networking can be exhausting and intimidating – this enabled me to contact people directly whom I wanted to discuss my research with and contributed to an excellent conference experience.
If you’d like to know more about the conference, or my research into the mechanism of spinal manipulation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. (You can get a copy of my poster by clicking here).

Dr Jonny Branney
Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
jbranney@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU’s Dr Inventor team to present their research at SIGGRAPH

conferences

Dr I A5_Flyer

A team of researchers from BU’s National Centre for Computer Animation will soon be presenting ‘Dr Inventor’ at SIGGRAPH in California.  Dr Inventor is the first web-based system that supports the development of scientific creativity via a computational approach.

The project stemmed from the idea that new technologies have real potential to increase scientific creativity and to overcome some human limitations.  When considering ways around an issue, we often get stuck on the problem rather than solution and tend to be limited by our own perceptions, biases and memories.  By harnessing the power of technology and existing research information available on the web, Dr Inventor overcomes some of these issues by acting as a personal research assistant.

Dr Inventor can provide researchers with a report of a variety of relevant concepts and approaches by drawing on information from web resources, allowing a researcher to take into account a much wider range of perspectives.  The programme can even assess the quality and novelty of these resources by analysing these against recognised research approaches and established quality metrics.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Dr Inventor is its ability to replicate human creativity – to a degree – and suggest new research ideas.  By trawling through huge amounts of resources and ideas, Dr Inventor can generate new concepts and angles for research.

The project was funded by the European Commission and has seen the team work with partners from all over Europe to develop the concept. For more information about the project, please visit project website (http://drinventor.eu​)

Dr Inventor Exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2016  ( 26th – 28th July) Booth 255Dr I logo
Dr Inventor Tech Talk – (Wednesday, 27 July 2016; Time: 10:30am to 11:30am)
Dr Inventor Fast Forward – (Monday 25th July) Ballroom B, 3:45-5:15 pm

Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria) – A URA Experience

conferences, PG research, student research

Louise Burgess, Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA)

When first applying to become an URA, I was unsure about what to expect. Initially, I thought my summer would be spent holding a clipboard and collecting endless lists of data for someone else to analyse. In reality, the role has been much more exciting than I could have imagined, even prompting me to investigate future careers within research. The research I am assisting with aims to examine the most effective acute recovery routine for individuals who have undergone hip arthroplasty, a reconstructive procedure which involves the replacement of the femoral head and acetabulum with an artificial prosthesis. I felt immediately welcomed by James Gavin (Lead Researcher) and the Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI) team: Tom Wainwright, (Deputy Head), Tikki Immins (Research Fellow) Shay Bahadori (Medical Device Engineer), in my URA role.

Since starting 2 weeks ago, I have been involved in:

  • Designing and implementing a testing protocolRecruitment media
  • Recruitment through designing posters and contacting volunteers
  • Advancing skills technical: electromyography (EMG), isometric strength testing, clinical recovery exercises
  • Developing my subject knowledge and understanding
  • Training on the PrimusRS Multimodal Dynamometer
  • Developing data collection spreadsheets
  • Data collection: anthropometric, handgrip strength, walk speed, muscle activity and isometric strength.
  • Data analysis (using Biometrics Datalog EMG software)
  • Conference presentation:Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria)

Attending the Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria) proved to be a valuable experience for me as both a student, and as a researcher. The morning began with a talk from Prof Tim Donovan, who covered the role of vision and eye movement in motor control. This was followed by Prof Giuseppe de Vito (University College Dublin), focussing on how old muscle responds to training and nutritional interventions. Finally, Prof Andrea Macaluso (University of Rome Foro Italico) discussed his work on physical activity levels and physiological factors underlying mobility in ageing.

The morning was followed by a poster presentation session, where I presented the findings of my dissertation project. My dissertation entitled, ‘The Incidence of Injuries and the Epidemiology of Osteoarthritis in Retired, Amateur, Rugby Union Males’ was a project I thoroughly enjoyed and despite being incredibly nervous, I really liked sharing it with others. I presented my work to other students, academics, researchers, and members of the NHS. The feedback I received during the question and answer session after my presentation was positive, with ideas how the research could be expanded in the future. Having the opportunity to take part within the symposia increased my confidence within my own research, improved my presentation skills and developed my knowledge of research in active ageing. I even won the prize for best poster presentation, a £100 Human Kinetics book voucher!

I’m not even half way through my time as a URA, but I would still highly recommend other students to apply for similar positions at Bournemouth University.

For more information on ORI please visit:

  • bournemouth.ac.uk/ori2
  • Twitter: @BU_Orthopaedic

Or to get involved with the current research please email me on:

  • Lburgess@bournemouth.ac.uk

Call for papers – 10th International Conference on Software, Knowledge, Information Management & Applications

conferences

The 10th International Conference on Software, Knowledge, Information Management and Applications (SKIMA) is going to be held from 15 to 17 December 2016 in Chengdu, China. SKIMA aims to bring together researchers and experts  in Knowledge Management, Software Engineering and Information Systems to share their ideas, experiences and insights.

The call for papers is now open.  Topics of interest for the conference include areas such as AI, cloud computing, digital healthcare technology, intelligent control and robotics, research informed learning and teaching and smar tourism.  For more information about topics of interest and details of how to submit, please click here.

The deadline for submitting papers is 15 July.

The conference will be chaired by BU’s Professor Hongnian Yu. For further information, please contact Professor Yu or Karin Ermert.

The Faculty of Science and Technology’s Second Annual PGR Conference 2016

conferences, Fusion, PG research

scitech2016

On the 18th of May the Faculty of Science and Technology held its Second Annual PGR Conference. This is a chance for the academic and postgraduate community to showcase the research that is being undertaken in the six departments within the Faculty. A total of 45 students presented their work over the course of the day, with 29 posters and 16 oral presentations.

The SciTech PGR Representatives: Hayley Roberts, Adam Roberts, Sarah Hodge and Paul Evans, would like to thank all who made the SciTech PGR conference such a success. Both Professor Christine Maggs and Professor Matt Bentley commented on how interesting it was to hear about the high quality research that PGRs in SciTech are conducting. We would like to thank both of them for their support.  We were also honoured to have Vice Chancellor, Professor John Vinney who came to open the event and listened to the first session. The day wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Naomi Bailey, Louise Pearson and Natalie Andrade, the chairs, the presenters, the judges and everyone else that helped with the organisation.

Six prizes were awarded to students who demonstrated particularly high standards:

Best poster

Winner:

Jawwad Latif (Design and Engineering)

Experimental Analysis and Modelling of Multi-layer Coating in Large Vehicles

 

Runner-up:

Catherine Collop (Life and Environmental Sciences)

An individual based model of Poole Harbour – is disturbance from human activities limiting wintering bird numbers?

 

Best 15 minute presentation

Winner:

Sarah Jeffery (Psychology)

Self-Compassion & Healthier Lifestyles: A Self-Compassion Based Intervention to Support Health-Promoting Behaviours in Emerging Adults

 

Runner-up:

Oxala Garcia Rodriguez (Life and Environmental Sciences)

Comparative phylogeography of modern humans and other organisms

Best 20 minute presentation

Winner:

Adam Roberts (Design and Engineering)

The potential of using the water hammer effect in small-scale tidal power applications

 

Runner-up:

Monica Knul (Life and Environmental Sciences)

Re-assessing the quality of published radiocarbon dates of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in Europe

Congratulations!

scitech