BU Research Blog

Category / EU

Welcome to the EU section of the blog! Emily Cieciura (BU’s Research Facilitator – EU and International), Jo Garrad (Funding Development Manager) and Dianne Goodman (Funding Development Co-ordinator) together try to take the pain out of finding and applying for EU funding by horizon scanning many sources and placing the most important information on this page.

We blog as often as possible on everything from calls for proposals and partner searches, to networking event opportunities, all the latest on Horizon 2020 and international funding. We also use the blog to disseminate information on EUADS (BU’s EU academic training initiative), how to write brilliant proposals, how to find partners and other top tips!

March 20, 2017

HE policy update w/e17th March 2017

EU, policy, Research assessment, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework jforster

Brexit:

Research Professional illustrates the Brexit threats to research positioning and job losses by highlighting the difficulties facing an EU astronomy consortium. The consortium represents seven countries, led by the UK, but will move headquarters to an EU member state from January 2021. The move means the UK will lose the project’s leadership and the 12 UK universities may not continue post-Brexit. Research Professional notes that while access to research infrastructures is available to non-EU states, the EU membership plays a significant role in decisions on where to locate facilities. Gerry Gilmore (the consortium leader, from University of Cambridge) stated:
“The UK will lose substantial scientific leadership and influence in the EU. There is going to be bad news all around. I don’t think people realise how many new jobs and new opportunities have just been destroyed.”
The EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill has survived the parliamentary process and received Royal Assent on 16^th March (BBC). This bill allows the Prime Minister to notify the EU of the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU. The Lords made two amendments to the Bill – one relating to Parliament having a “meaningful vote” on the final arrangements and one requiring a guarantee for EU citizens to remain in the UK. The bill was approved by the House of Commons, which rejected the Lords bill and then went back to the Lords under what is called “ping-pong”. The Lords voted again on both issues but the House of Lords majority backed down and the bill was passed. The PM is expected to trigger article 50 later in March.
2018/19 EU student and staff guarantees: During oral questions in the Lords Baroness Royall of Blaisdon pressed the government spokesperson (Viscount Younger of Leckie) when announcements would be made regarding fees and access to loans for 2018/19 EU student starters. Leckie gave a side stepping response: “The noble Baroness makes the important point that there are uncertainties arising from Brexit, but the Government have moved rapidly to give assurances to this sector… “We have also provided similar assurances that EU nationals starting courses in 2016-17 and 2017-18 remain eligible for Research Council postgraduate support. As I have said, we will ensure that students starting in 2018-19 have the information well in advance”

International students:

The debate over the inclusion of international students in the long-term migrant numbers continues. Even senior ministers are rebelling – Boris Johnson, Phillip Hammond and Liam Fox have all protested, although Jo Johnson continues to toe the party line backing the PM’s stance to include international students within the original immigration statistics. Liam Fox spoke out this week about the value of overseas campuses.
On Monday the House of Lords defeated the government on the Higher Education and Research Bill (HERB), approving an amendment to prevent international students being counted as long-term migrants. The government have responded that “the proposed amendment would create a situation where we were potentially unable to apply basic visa checks, or impose conditions on a student visa. It would also mean that fresh primary legislation were needed just to make minor, technical changes to immigration rules.” (Wonkhe)
HERB is scheduled to have its third reading in the Lords on 22 March 2017 and then will go back to the Commons. The PM’s stance on international students seems rock solid (Financial Times) and Theresa May is not expected to waiver – the parliamentary ping pong regarding international students will surely make headlines over the coming weeks.
Meanwhile there are worries about student recruitment. Politics Home quotes an Office for National Statistics release stating the number of students coming to the UK dropped by 41,000 in 2016.

Higher Education and Research Bill:

The HE and Research Bill has finished its third reading in the House of Lords (although it will have to go back if the House of Commons makes any changes, as seems likely). The report stage in the Lords is on 22nd March – usually only technical or minor amendments are made at this stage. The current version of the bill as amended by the Lords is here.
The surprise amendment on international students is referred to above.
The government won the final vote on the proposed amendment that would have required UKRI and OfS to jointly revoke research degree awarding powers, the amendment was defeated. Wonkhe report that Lord Mackay made an impassioned speech noting that it was “extraordinary” that the OfS was not required to have any expertise or experience regarding research, and yet had the unilateral power to revoke research degree awarding powers, but to no avail. The Bill continues to say that research degree-awarding powers should be made by the OfS with advice from UKRI.

With long debates, late nights and a large number of amendments, it is fair to say that HERB has received an excellent level of scrutiny within the Lords. Lord Prior of Brampton notes: “Everyone who has contributed [to the Bill debates] can take some credit for having improved it considerably. For me, it is a good example of the value this House can bring to a Bill of this kind.”

HEFCE 2017/18 funding to universities: The grant letter details the overall funding to the sector for 2017/18. It includes doubled funding for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (£60m pa), an additional £17m increase for mainstream quality-related research, a reduction of £40m for teaching (including a reduction in PGT FTE funding rate), maintaining the disabled students premium at the 2016/17 level, the inclusion of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions (£32m), cuts to the student premium budget for full time UG of £20m (part time UG funding remains static). Institutions will receive individual allocations in April although with a publication embargo in force until May. Capital allocations will be announced in March.

Student Loans Sale: A parliamentary question tabled by Steve McCabe requested publication of the ‘in-depth market testing exercise associated with the same of the student loan book. Jo Johnson has responded: “The Government ran a market testing process with a cross-section of potential investors in the student loan book from the end of September into November 2016. This sought feedback on potential sale structures and key features of the transaction and informed the design of the sale. This was a commercial rather than a public process and was conducted under non-disclosure agreements. We do not intend to publish a report of the details. Protecting the details of the conclusions of market testing will help the ongoing sale process achieve value for money for taxpayers.”

Student Fees: On Thursday 16^th the Petitions Committee released its latest decisions regarding recent petitions with a high number of signatures. This included a petition to government to change the University fees from £9250 back to the £3000 fee. The Committee agreed to wait for the Higher Education and Research Bill to complete its passage through Parliament before deciding whether to schedule a debate – effectively this was a dismissal of the petition.

Research Excellence Framework The responses to the REF2021 consultation were due in by midday on 17^th March.

There has been a lot of focus on one area, the definition of “research active staff” for the returns – there are some interesting views:
HEFCE blog (and BU’s reply) – HEFCE are proposing a negotiated definition for each university, BU is proposing all staff should be returned, including teaching only
Royal Society blog on Research Professional – they say staff shouldn’t be returned at all, it should be institutional
The PVC (Research and Enterprise) from Hertfordshire says on Times Higher Education that the solution is flawed and that clarity is needed

There are many other issues in the REF consultation, including the portability of outputs, which will have important consequences for institutions and their staff. The HEFCE REF consultation on the implementation of the REF 2021 closed on 17 March 2017. You can read BU’s response here.

March 16, 2017

MSCA IF 2017

EU, Events, Funding opportunities, international, RKE development framework Emily Cieciura

As the European Commission celebrates the support of over 100,000 researchers through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, RKEO are pleased to confirm our arrangements for supporting this high profile call in 2017.

Support

There will be a two-day bid writing retreat on 18th and 19th April and, subject to demand, this will be repeated on 4th and 5th July, with bookings now open
Materials are already available on the MyBU Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework Community and will be extended as more materials are made available for the 2017 call
External bid writing support, where appropriate

Timeline

As this is a highly popular call, RKEO need to carefully manage the flow of work within RKEO but also for all your colleagues, who work together, to ensure that each application is approved and submitted correctly.

The call will open on 11/04/17, when further information will be posted on this blog.

Please ensure that the Intention to Bid is submitted to RKEO by 30/06/17. You can, of course, let us know earlier than this date that you intend to apply, so that we can provide you, and your potential fellow, with as much support as possible, right up to the closing date of 14/09/17. It is expected that early drafts will be sent to RKEO at the beginning of August, allowing time for all those involved to manage their workloads.

Communication

Once we know that you are thinking of applying, even before submitting the Intention to Bid, we can keep you up to date with announcements from the funder and other sources of help and support.

If you are considering applying and would like to receive updates, please contact Dianne Goodman, RKEO’s Funding Development Team Co-ordinator, so that we can register your interest and provide useful information, such as the indicative timetable for actions prior to submission. If you are ready to submit your Intention to Bid, you can do this now, via Dianne. The allocated Funding Development Officer can then contact you.

If you have any queries or comments about this scheme, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International

March 16, 2017

Creative Europe – Current Calls

EU, Funding opportunities Emily Cieciura

Through the Creative Europe programme, the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency is promoting the following calls and their closing dates:

Distribution Selective Scheme – Support for the transnational distribution of European Films 2017	Distribution – selective support, MEDIA, Creative Europe	Open	01/12/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 14/06/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA/19/2016
Support for Film Festivals EACEA 16/2016	MEDIA, Film Festivals, Creative Europe	Open	24/11/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 27/04/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA 16/2016
Distribution – Support to sales agents 2016	MEDIA, Distribution – support to sales agents, Creative Europe	Open	16/06/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 03/10/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA/01/2016
Support for Content Development of Single Project 2017	MEDIA, Development single projects + slate funding, Creative Europe	Open	17/11/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 20/04/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA 20/2016
Distribution Automatic Support 2016	Distribution – automatic support	Open	29/04/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 01/08/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA/09/2016
Distribution Automatic Support 2017	Distribution – automatic support, MEDIA, Creative Europe	Open	28/04/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 01/08/2018 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA/18/2016
Promotion of European Works Online EACEA 26/2016	Promotion of European audiovisual works online	Open	06/04/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA 26/2016
TV Programming 2017	MEDIA, TV programming	Open	24/11/2016 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time), 30/05/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA 23/2016
Support to European Platforms 2017	European platforms	Open	06/04/2017 – 12:00 (CET/CEST, midday Brussels time)	EACEA/06/2017

If you are interested in applying for any of these calls, please contact Emily Cieciura, REKO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, in the first instance.

March 14, 2017

UKRO News

EU, Research news Emily Cieciura

Through BU’s subscription to UKRO, we have been advised of the following news items, which represent a ‘mere taster’ of all the updates provided by UKRO to their members.

To make full use of BU’s subscription to this service, why not register now?

Science With And For Society (SWAFS) Brokerage Event Presentations and Video are now available on the UKRO website.
The public consultation on the mid-term evaluation of the Erasmus+ programme is now open
The RISE Coordinators’ Day FAQ and Presentations are now available on the UKRO website
The White Paper – Future of Europe: Reflections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025 has been published by the European Commission
Improve your public engagement using the EU Guide to Science Communication
eHealth Week 2017 will have the theme Data for Health: the key to personalised sustainable care – Register for this event in Malta, 10-12 May.
Draft documentation for Secure Societies future calls is available to UKRO subscribers.

Please note: You will need to sign in or register as a BU staff member to access many of these items, as part of BU’s UKRO subscription. Links have only been given to resources in the public domain.

If considering applying to EU calls, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, to access further support.

March 14, 2017

Researcher Mobility – Make use of EURAXESS

EU, Funding opportunities, Global engagement, Research Training Emily Cieciura

EURAXESS – Researchers in Motion is the European funded service, supporting the mobility of researchers across 40 countries. It is also the gateway for the Science4Refugees initiative.

The EURAXESS Portal has recently been revamped, making finding information much easier. There is a simple initial search based on who you are and what you need. You don’t need to register to access many of the features but if you do, you will be able to access even more and be able to interact with the EURAXESS community! It only takes a few moments to set your own EURAXESS account.

Services include:

Search for and posting job opportunities
Career development training
Partnering between individuals and organisations in both academia and business
Practical information and support concerning living and working in Europe such as visas, finding accommodation, pensions and health care…
Information for researchers wishing to relocate outside Europe – EURAXESSWorldwide has dedicated teams in ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam), Brazil, China, India, Japan and North America (US and Canada)
A personal profile once you have registered, so that you can be located by others looking for your expertise

If you would like to discuss using EURAXESS as a researcher, in order to promote BU’s research activity, supporting incoming researchers to BU or other related purpose, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International and BU’s EURAXESS Institutional Contact.

EURAXESS is also included as one of the highlighted resources within the Research Toolkit > Research Staff pages on this blog.

March 13, 2017

HE policy update w/e 10th March 2017

EU, Global engagement, policy, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework, Student Engagement jforster

Budget: There was very little about HE in the budget this time, as expected, apart from the announcement of the outcomes of the consultations on PG doctoral loans and part-time maintenance loans (see below). The announcement of a £300m fund for brightest and best research talent, including for 1,000 new PhD places and fellowships focused on STEM subjects has been widely welcomed across the sector. There were lots of announcements about technical education

T-levels will be introduced, with 15 clear routes into employment
There will be an increase of over 50 per cent in number of hours training for 16-19 technical students including a high quality three month work placement, this will result in a £500m a year investment in 16-19 year olds
Maintenance loans for those who undertake higher level technical qualifications at the new institutes for technology and national colleges
Up to £40m investment in pilots to test the effectiveness of different approaches to lifelong learning
Up to £40m investment in pilots to test the effectiveness of different approaches to lifelong learning

Postgraduate doctoral loans: the government response has been published to the consultation which took place earlier in the year. BU responded to this consultation.

The new doctoral loan will provide a contribution of up to £25,000 to the costs of study rather than covering the full fees and living costs of a student. It will be paid directly to the student rather than to the student’s institution.
The proposal to cap the number of people who could receive loans at each institution was not supported and so this has been dropped – it will be available to all eligible students for all eligible programmes – including all Level 8 programmes, up to 8 years long. Students receiving other government funding, such as through the NHS or a Research Council grant, will not be eligible.
Repayment arrangements will be the same as for the existing masters loan.

Part time maintenance loans: The government has issued their response to the consultation earlier this year. BU responded to this consultation.

Part-time students will be eligible for maintenance loans from the academic year 2018/19
Students undertaking distance learning courses and Level 4 and 5 HE qualifications are likely to be eligible from academic year 2019/20 (this is subject to the passing of the HE and Research Bill – it will only happen when the Office for Students has been established and has put in place the new regulatory framework for providers)
The new loan arrangements will be reviewed after five years
Loan amounts each year will be based on the intensity of study. We had some concerns about this because it may make it harder for students to stretch the funding over the whole course
Maintenance loans for students undertaking distance learning courses will come in later as the Government needs to ensure a robust system of controls is in place
Part-time maintenance loans will be means tested
Repayment terms will mirror the process for part-time fee loans and the full-time undergraduate student finance system

Non-continuation: HESA have issued a summary of the 2015/16 non-continuation rates. OFFA have responded to the indicators expressing disappointment at the higher non-continuation rates for young students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and earmarking this for attention in the Fair Access Agreements due for submission in April.

Higher Education and Research Bill and the TEF: the House of Lords have used the third reading of the TEF to make a number of amendments to the HE and Research Bill against the government. The Vice-Chancellor has blogged on the BU Research blog about what this means for the TEF. It is not at all clear what will happen next – if the amendments are not reversed, then TEF will go back to the drawing board in terms of what the OfS would do with it– but that would not affect the HEFCE- run year 2 process that has already started. Other amendments include one that requires universities to ensure that students are registered to vote as part of student registration. The debates in the Lords on the bill continue next week – more amendments are to come including more on migration and loans (including Sharia compliant finance), cheating, Prevent and UKRI.

New DLHE: HESA have responded to the enormous consultation on the DLHE last summer (over 130 questions) with a second one, which sets out their proposals for the new version of DLHE and asks for responses by 7^th April – this one is much shorter (only 6 questions plus a space for more comments). We’ll be preparing an institutional response. Data will not be available until 2020.

DLHE will be centralised. The survey will be delivered both online and through telephone interviews, in order to achieve an overall response rate of at least 70% per provider
Survey at 15 months – replacing the 6 month and the longitudinal one (that was not used in league tables or the TEF)
It will also ask about previous and planned activity (to get away from problems associated with a “snapshot”
Linked to HMRC data on earnings and self-employment and other HESA study information including placements (from 19/20)
New question on entrepreneurship and three new ‘graduate voice’ measures of outcomes from the perspective of the respondent. These will measure the extent to which the graduate’s current activity reflects on three distinct areas of development:
- Utilisation of what has been learned
- Orientation toward their future goals
- A sense of meaningfulness or importance.
Optional question banks including research student experiences, subjective wellbeing, Net promoter score, graduate choice, impact of HE. HE providers will be able to add their own questions to the end of the survey.

Brexit

Caroline Lucas MP asked a question in Parliament this week: Whether it is his policy to seek for the UK to remain a member of the Bologna Process after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU; and whether he plans that UK university degrees will be considered compatible with degrees in EU member states under the Bologna Process following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. [66647]

Jo Johnson MP replied “The Bologna Process, which created the European Higher Education Area in 2010, is an intergovernmental agreement among 28 countries in the European region. It is not an EU body and therefore UK membership will not be affected by the UK’s departure from the EU.”

March 6, 2017

Interreg Opportunities

EU, Funding opportunities, innovation, international Emily Cieciura

Following the successful visit by UK Interreg Territorial Facilitators to BU on 21st February 2017, please find out more about the current Interreg call, which is open from 1 March until 30 June 2017.

It is targeted at public authorities and non-profits

National, regional or local authorities
Other organisations in charge of defining and implementing regional policy instruments
Non-profits

Projects must focus on one of these topics

Research and innovation
SME competitiveness
Low-carbon economy
Environment and resource efficiency

Support is available on the call website, including instructional videos, partner search, online project self-assessment, project feedback before submission and a demo of the application form.

If BU academics are interested in applying for this call, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International

March 6, 2017

News from the European Parliamentary Research Service Blog – Gender, EU funding and EU Challenges

EU, Funding opportunities, international, policy Emily Cieciura

Please follow the links below to read about current thinking. An awareness of EU thinking could prove useful in the development of a considered application….

Gender

Marcin Grajewski writes – Equality between women and men is one of the European Union’s founding values. Under the “Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019” policy plan, the EU seeks to increase female labour-market participation, reduce the gender pay gap, promote equality between women and men in decision-making, fight gender-based violence, and promote gender equality across the world. However, despite all efforts, such as adopting legislation on equal treatment, gender inequality remains a serious problem in Europe.

The note offers links to commentaries, studies and reports from major international think tanks on issues relating to gender inequality in the EU and other related topics.

Challenges For The EU

Written by Marcin Grajewski – The European Union faces challenges, such as in relation to migration and stagnant economic growth, which test its ability to offer solutions to its citizens. Some politicians and analysts have called for a reform of the EU to shore up popular support for European integration 60 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which led to the creation of what is now the Union.

This note offers links to recent commentaries, studies and reports from major international think tanks on the state of the EU and possible reforms. Earlier papers on the State of the Union can be found in a September edition of ‘What Think Tanks are Thinking’. Other issues in the series offer links to reports on euro area reform and the impact of Brexit on the EU. They were published in September 2016 and in February 2017 respectively.

Guide To EU Funding 2014-2020

Vasilis Margaras writes – Finding the appropriate funding sources for a local authority, a public entity, a company or a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) can be a major problem. Information is scattered across many different sources and is often confusing and outdated. Read more…

The EPRS ‘Guide to EU Funding 2014-2020’ is a basic introduction to EU funding opportunities for regional and local authorities, NGOs, businesses, professionals and citizens. The objective is to provide an accessible list of the most important EU funds, and to provide potential beneficiaries with appropriate information on the opportunities the funding offers.

Why not register for updates from the European Parliamentary Research Service Blog so that they are delivered direct to your own inbox!

If you are considering applying for EU funding, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International.

March 6, 2017

HE policy update w/e 3rd March 2017

BU research, Business Engagement, EU, Global engagement, innovation, international, policy, Public engagement, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework jforster

Industrial Strategy

The Government launched the Industrial Strategy Green Paper and consultation at the end of January. The paper focuses on improving Britain’s innovation and productivity in key areas alongside upskilling the workforce to become world leading. The government suggest a number sectors to support:

clean energy
robotics
healthcare
space technology
quantum technology
advanced computing and communications

The document references the role of Universities as innovation leaders, challenges us on taking a greater role in commercialisation and pushes for more cooperation with business. There is also a focus on skills and particularly on technical education with a proposal for new Institutes of Technology. There is an emphasis on rebalancing the difference in Britain’s economic geography through infrastructure investment and asks for suggestions about how to ensure that research funding is distributed across the country. There is a link to a speech by Greg Clark here.

The approach taken the Green Paper has been criticised by the House of Commons BEIS Committee in their report issued today. The criticisms centre on the view that the document is not sufficiently ambitious, only setting out incremental proposals and that is insufficiently industrial and not very strategic (see the article in The Times by the committee chair). We were pleased to host a Universities UK regional roundtable today with representatives from across the South-West – we’ll update more about the content next week. The consultation ends in April, we are preparing a BU response – if you would like to contribute please contact policy@bournemouth.ac.uk

Brexit and immigration

The House of Lords are continuing their discussion of the Bill that will confirm that the government can trigger Article 50 and start negotiations for the UK to leave the EU. On Wednesday the Lords voted to force the government to give a guarantee to EU citizens living in the UK that they will be protected when the UK leaves the EU. This amendment is likely to be over-ruled in the House of Commons in due course, but it is important to recognise the concern across the UK about this issue, and the impact on our EU staff of the continued uncertainty.

The House of Lords European Union Committee publishes its report on the impact of Brexit on Gibraltar, in which it makes clear that the UK Government has a ‘moral responsibility’ to ensure that Gibraltar’s voice is heard, and its interests protected, throughout Brexit negotiations with the EU. Of all the British Overseas Territories, only Gibraltar is part of the EU and was therefore eligible to take part in the referendum of June 2016. 95.9% of votes cast in Gibraltar were for the UK to stay in the EU, by far the strongest vote for ‘remain’ of any area eligible to participate in the referendum. Yet the territory is now set to leave the EU along with the UK, and faces significant challenges as a result. The report refers to evidence given by Professor John Fletcher

You will recall that at the Conservative Party conference in November, a consultation on potential changes to immigration rules for international students and staff was announced but was postponed. In the meantime, the Home Affairs Committee is conducting an inquiry into developing a consensus on effective immigration policy. This includes an opinion survey open to all run by National Conversation – it is worth taking a look and responding to it.

UUK International have issued a report on mobility in the 2014-15 graduating cohort which demonstrates a correlation between outward mobility and improved academic and employment outcomes – particularly for under-represented groups (who are particularly under-represented when it comes to mobility).

Higher Education and Research Bill

The Higher Education and Research Bill reaches the report stage in the House of Lords next week. One opposition amendment was passed by the House of Lords in committee stage, seeking to define the role and function of universities. Responding to the debates in the House of Lords and discussion with the sector, a large number of helpful additional government amendments have now been proposed along with further amendments proposed by peers. One key amendment proposed jointly by the government and opposition includes a definition of institutional autonomy to replace the opposition amendment that was passed. Further proposed amendments include changes to allow for higher fees to be charged for accelerated degrees – although not to increase the total cost of a degree. You can see the latest set of draft amendments here and a letter from the Minister here.

HEFCE student data

Times Higher Education report on new HEFCE data – 90,600 UK and EU students began full-time taught postgraduate courses at English universities in 2016-17, up by 16,100 (22 per cent) on the previous year. The number starting part-time grew more modestly, but still shows an estimated increase of 8.6 per cent (5,900) to 74,900. This is likely to be partly attributable to the new PG loans. The picture on international post-graduate students is more mixed. The THE article continues “According to Hefce, full-time domestic and EU undergraduate enrolments also grew by 1 per cent to a record 408,000 students in 2016-17, However, 2016-17 is “likely to be a peak year as the declining population of 18-year olds, the consequences of the EU referendum and the transition from bursaries to loans for nursing students will put downward pressure on the number of entrants in 2017-18”.”.

Credit transfer in higher education – following the announcements last week about changes to the HE and Research Bill relating to credit transfer and accelerated degrees, we are still waiting for the government response to last summer’s insulation, but ahead of that they have released research into both areas:

On credit transfer it is clear that there isn’t much evidence – and suggests a wider range of benefits for students, employers and institutions. It lists a similar lists of challenges with the idea to those identified in last summer’s consultation – but also identifies lack of demand as one of the challenges – but linked to awareness amongst students. A requirement to publicise the availability of existing schemes is the minimum we can expect from the government response. But the note about “rigid and inflexible admissions timetable whereby enrolment for most courses is typically only allowed once a year” may hint at another. As we said in our response to the consultation, cohort identify is a good reason for this sort of “inflexibility” – and a curriculum which is based on progression from one area of learning to the next is another. . The Guardian covers the story here.

The accelerated degrees literature review also includes a case study. The review includes some potential areas for action that are highlighted by the research – including agreeing a definition of a standard accelerated degree, promotion of positive messages about them, monitoring information about real costs, outcomes and experiences for staff and students, and changing funding – interestingly “additional and sustained central funding” – which will be very interesting if it turns up in the consultation response.

HESA finance data for UK HE

HESA released data on the financial position of UK higher education providers. According to HESA, the data reveals a total income for the HE sector of £34.7 billion in 2015/16. Income from tuition fees was £16.8 billion representing 48.4% of total income. The sector’s total expenditure was £33.0 billion, of which £18.0 billion (54.6%) was spent on staff costs.

Accounting standards for higher education providers changed for 2015/16 so that this year’s data is not comparable with previously published HESA finance data. HE providers submitted re-stated figures for 2014/15 based on the new standards, but transitional changes, such as an inflation of staff costs, are reflected in these figures so they should be interpreted with caution.

March 2, 2017

Seminar: Topic Derivation in Twitter

BU research, EU, Global engagement lxu2012

As part of Service Computing Seminar Series funded by EU H2020 FIRST (virtual Factory: Interoperation suppoRting buSiness innovaTion). We would like to invite you to the seminar:

14:00-15:00 Tuesday 7^th March 2017
PG143 (Thomas Hardy Suite, Talbot Campus)
Speaker: Prof. Prof Jian Yang, Director of Research, Department of Computing, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Title: Topic Derivation in Twitter

Abstract: As one of the most popular social media, Twitter has attracted interests of business and academics to derive topics and apply the outcomes in a wide range of applications such as emergency management, business advertisements, and corporate/government communication. Since tweets are short messages, topic derivation from tweets becomes a big challnege in the area. Most of existing works use the Twitter content as the only source in the topic derivation. Recently, tweet interactions have been considered additionally for improving the quality of topic derivation.

In this talk, we introduce a method that incorporates social interactions such as mention, retweet, etc into twitter content to derive topics. Experimental results show that the proposed method with the inclusion of temporal features results in a significant improvement in the quality of topic derivation comparing to existing baseline methods.

In this talk, we will explain the general idea of Matrix Factorisation and how it is applied in topic derivation, the experiment set up, and experiment results analysis.

Biographical Information:

Dr. Jian Yang is a full professor at Department of Computing, Macquarie University. She received her PhD in Multidatabase Systems area from The Australian National University in 1995. Before she joined Macquarie University, she worked as a senior research scientist at the Division of Mathematical and Information Science, CSIRO, Australia , and as an assistant professor at Dept of Computer Science, The Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales.

Dr. Yang has published over 200 papers in the international journals and conferences such as IEEE transactions, Information Systems, Data & Knowledge Engineering, CACM, VLDB, ICDCS, ICSOC, CAiSE, CoopIS, CIKM, etc. She is the member of steering committee of the prime international conference on service oriented computing (ICSOC). She has been general chair and program committee chair of several international conferences such as ICSOC. She has served as program committee member in various international conferences such as: ICDE, CAiSE, ICSOC, ER, CoopIS, ICSOC, BPM, ICWS, SCC, WISE, etc. She is also a regular reviewer for journals such as IEEE Transactions on Knowledge & Data Engineering, Data & Knowledge Engineering, VLDB Journal, IEEE Internet Computing, etc.

Her main research interests are: web service technology; business process management; social network based data analysis; interoperability, trust and security issues in internet.

March 2, 2017

Public Engagement Opportunity at the Poole Maritime Festival!

EU, Events, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Public engagement, Research communication, Student Engagement, Uncategorized Joanna Pawlik

It’s that time of year where The Festival of Learning is heading back on-tour and taking BU’s research out to some exciting locations. One of our stops this year includes the Poole Maritime Festival on Saturday 20^th May.

Whatever stage you’re at in your research career, academic or PhD, we’re looking for participants to display and promote their research at the festival. This could be through table-top activities, posters, interactive displays – we’re open to ideas! It would be fantastic if your activities fitted into the theme of maritime heritage and environment but if your research isn’t directly related, we’d still love for you to get involved.

We’re expecting lots of interested members of the public with Poole Harbour Boat Show and the Seven Seas Festival forming part of Poole Maritime Festival’s exciting programme. The Boat Show alone attracted over 15,000 people in 2015! The Festival is linked with European Maritime Day, originally created in 2008 to give Europe’s community of maritime professionals a forum to meet, exchange knowledge and forge partnerships. It is a unique opportunity to promote Poole, local businesses and Bournemouth University’s research to an international audience!

If you’d like to get involved, need some idea inspiration or for any more information, drop me an email jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk. If you can’t get involved this year, still make sure that you head down to the Maritime Festival this year, taking place from the 15^th-21^st May.

February 20, 2017

Opportunity: Publish your European Project in the Research*eu Results Magazine

BU research, EU, Impact eknight

The research*eu results magazine published by the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) is looking for European projects to feature in its publications. Research*eu results is published 10 times a year, featuring results from the most successful EU-funded research and development projects. The magazine covers projects in Biology and Medicine, Social Sciences and Humanities, Energy and transport, Environment and society, IT and telecommunications, Industrial technologies, and Space.

If you have a completed EU-funded project and would like to get your results published please contact the CORDIS editorial team at editorial@cordis.europa.eu. Priority is given to those projects which have resulted in the development of a new technology with potential for commercialisation over the next few years, or in potentially game-changing research for a specific field of science.

February 14, 2017

Interreg Visit Next Week: Last chance to sign up!

BU research, EU, Events, Funding opportunities eknight

Tuesday 21^st February, 10.30-16.00 at the EBC

Next week Interreg are coming to BU to run sessions on their funding application process and how to develop a successful application.

Interreg is an economic development programme that funds research and innovation, social inclusion, employment, climate change and resource efficiency projects which take place across EU countries and regions. These projects aim to find common solutions to common problems which exist in multiple countries. BU has been awarded and is involved in projects from the Channel, 2 Seas and Atlantic schemes.

The event will include a number of sessions including;

An Introduction to Interreg: The Interreg programmes, how they are different from each other and from other EU funds. This will also cover the types of project that are funded.
Tips on How to Develop a Good Interreg Project: Lessons from the selection process by Sallyann Stephen from The Department for Communities and Local Government, based on her experience on the Interreg project selection panel.
How to Apply: the two stage process going through the selection criteria and the key documents involved.
The opportunity to discuss your own ideas and get advice on how to develop them.

This event is open to staff from other universities and company’s across the south, if you have a network or partner that you think would be interested please invite them to book onto the event.

For further information on this event please contact: RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk

February 10, 2017

HE Policy update w/e 10th February 2017

EU, Global engagement, international, policy, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework, Student Engagement, Training jforster

Dear all

The Chair for the Office for Students (OfS) has been confirmed as Sir Michael Barber, Wonkhe profile his career here. Recruitment for the OfS Chief Executive is underway.

Higher Education and Research Bill– amendments are being submitted for the House of Lords report stage. One focusses on students and academic staff at HE providers stating the government has a duty to encourage international students, ensure UG and PG students are not treated as long-term migrants, maximise British and international research collaboration, especially in EU, and provide favourable employment conditions for non-British individuals offered employment at a HE institution. The amendment is not expected to be accepted. Another relates to changes to the repayment terms of student loans. The Lords Report stage is on 6^th March and the list of amendments is expected to grow further.

EU Withdrawal Bill – This week MPs discussed:

A clause advocating a strict timetable of parliamentary scrutiny throughout the negotiations with the EU.
The rights of EU nationals living in the UK
The impact of withdrawal on a number of different industries
The role of the devolved Nations in negotiations and repatriated powers.

The bill was passed by vote in the Commons on Wednesday. No amendments were accepted. It was anticipated that there might be a push to a vote on residency rights for EU nationals. A leaked letter from the Home Secretary, reputedly aiming to quell backbench rebellion on the subject, stated the future rights of EU citizens in Britain would be settled by a separate Immigration Bill. “..the Government remains committed to providing reassurance to EU nationals here and UK nationals in the EU as a priority once Article 50 has been triggered… I’d also like to reassure colleagues that Parliament will have a clear opportunity to debate and vote on this issue in the future… after we leave the European Union we will have an immigration system that supports our economy and protects our public services, and that should mean securing the rights of EU citizens already here, as well as establishing a new immigration system for new arrivals from the EU once we have left. But this isn’t just about ensuring British businesses and our public sector have access to the right workers, we owe it to those many European citizens who have contributed so much to this country to resolve this issue as soon as possible and give them the security they need to continue to contribute to this country.”

EU citizens featured regularly during Prime Ministers Questions this week. Sarah Wollaston (Con, Totnes) called on the PM to commit to guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. May responded this was a priority for the early stage of negotiations. James Berry (Con, Kingston and Surbiton) said his constituency was “enriched” by skilled workers from abroad. The PM assured him the “brightest and best” would still be welcome after Brexit, including from the EU, but the Government still aimed to lower net migration.

Meanwhile ministers are pressing Lords as they want the EU Withdrawal Bill passed by Tues 7 March. It is expected the Government will trigger article 50 on Thursday 9^th March during the EU Summit.

UUK Brexit Priorities: Universities UK have provided a succinct briefing covering Brexit priorities for the HE sector and make some new and interesting points. This calls for three short term transitional arrangements:

Confirm rights to reside and work in the UK post-exit for EU nationals that are currently working in the university sector and their dependants. (This is in the white paper.)
Confirm that EU students starting a course in 2018–19 and 2019–20 will continue to be eligible for home fee status, and be eligible for loans and grants.
Signal that the government will seek to secure continued UK participation in the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme. (This is in the white paper.)

Six exit priorities:

Residency and permanent right to work for EU nationals currently working in the university sector, and their dependants, with full access to public services.
Continued UK participation in the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme until the close of the programme period in 2020 (even if post-Brexit).
Close collaboration with European partners to deliver excellent research (including seeking access to Horizon 2020 successor programme)
Continued access to Erasmus+ and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programmes (widely discussed but absent from the white paper)
An outcome which allows for the continued recognition of professional qualifications between the UK and the remaining 27 EU member states
Preserving and building on regulatory and standards equivalence with other EU countries.
Finally a call to push the HE agenda within domestic policy change including simplifying visas (students and staff), further research investment, and government targets for UK student mobility.

Brexit – educational influence: The BBC have analysed the leave vs remain voting trends and highlight at local ward level that the strength of the leave vote was strongly correlated with lower educational qualifications. If the proportion of the ward electorate with a degree was 1% lower, on average the leave vote was 1% higher. The level of educational qualification accounts for 2/3s of the voting preference, adding in age and ethnicity accounts for 83% of the variation in votes.

Sale of student loan book: The government announced their firm intention to sell the student loan book this week. The sale has attracted much press attention and has been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent, the Times, contrasting views from HEPI and Critical Education and a thought provoking article in the Financial Times which criticises the governments self-imposed rules and states selling an asset whose value, at the government’s cost of borrowing, exceeds its price in the market will worsen the government’s finances, not improve them. An Early Day Motion (929) also heard Labour and Scottish National Party MPs protest the sale. Terms and conditions of loans or the mechanisms of repayment cannot be changed and the loans will continue to be serviced by HMRC and SLC. The purchasers would not have the right to directly contact borrowers. The loan value is estimated at £4bn by the government. The sale process may take several months as it involves securitising the remaining future repayments on the loans and selling securities representing the rights to these to a range of purchasers. The government has announced its intention to utilise the sale to obtain a short term cash boost earmarked to reduce the national debt. An article in iNews crunches the numbers including comment from Martin Lewis, consumer finance expert.

Falls in applications: The Guardian continue the story of the falls in applications and longer term recruitment trends following the release of UCAS data last week.

Widening Participation: An interesting Telegraph article by Chris Wilson, Co-CEO of the Brilliant Club, describes successes in training and placing early career researchers in schools. The scheme aims to increase school attainment including exposing pupils to high level equipment, however, it also had a beneficial effect on increasing the number of WP pupils attending high tariff HE institutions. 53% of free school meals pupils enrolled on this Scholars programme secured a place at a highly-selective university – compared to the national 5% progression rate.

The Fair Access Agreement guidance was also launched this week. As anticipated it continues pushing universities on the school sponsorship agenda. This is particularly interesting when contrasted with the closure announcement of another university technical college this week, as reported in FE Week.

Finally the Sutton Trust have published Global Gaps Comparing socio-economic gaps in the performance of highly able UK pupils internationally. It draws on the 2015 OECD Pisa data for reading, maths and science and tells a familiar story whereby bright but poor pupils fall behind by over 2 school years. It acknowledges these gaps occur throughout the developed world whilst calling on government to establish ‘highly able’ fund to improve the life chances of high attainers in poorer schools.

Parliament is now in recess until 20 Feb so no further bill developments are expected.

There will not be a policy update next week.

February 9, 2017

Interreg visit BU on 21st February, sign up now

EU, Funding opportunities, RKE development framework eknight

There’s still time to sign up for the Interreg visit on Tuesday the 21^st February 2017 10.30-16.00 at the EBC.

If you are unsure about Interreg here are a few reasons why you should come along to find out more.

It funds coastal regions in Europe with Bournemouth eligible for several schemes. Regional funding means BU can be a participant for funding that other UK universities can’t.
If you have networks or partners (academic or industrial), in coastal areas of the UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal or Ireland, your research could be eligible for funding.
If you have potential partners who are strongly placed to strategically lead a regional consortium, in which BU can play the role of academic expert, you could invite these partners along.
BU has been awarded funding as the academic participant/non-Lead Partner for projects from the Channel, 2 Seas and Atlantic schemes.
Interreg funds projects on all the following areas;

Research and Innovation
Competitiveness of SMEs
Employment and mobility
Better education and training
Low-Carbon economy
Combating climate change
Environment and resource efficiency
Sustainable transport
Social inclusion
Information and Communication Technologies

After Brexit we may not have this opportunity so get it before it’s gone!

This day has the rare opportunity to ask advice from experts that sit on the decision panel. Book now so you don’t miss out.

For more information about what the day involves, click here.

February 8, 2017

Erasmus+ Key Action 2 – Online Info Day on 16th Febraury

EU, Funding opportunities, Info Days Emily Cieciura

If you are interested in finding out more and applying to the Erasmus+ Key Action 2: “Cooperation for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices” – Sector Skills Alliances (SSA) call, then why not sign up to this online info day?

This INFODAY will focus on:

Sector Skills Alliances for Skills needs identification (Lot 1)
Sector Skills Alliances for Design and delivery of VET (Lot 2)
Sector Skills Alliances for Implementing a new strategic approach a “Blueprint” for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills” (Lot 3)

Find out more about this call. Registration will soon be opened on the event webpage.

February 3, 2017

HE policy update w/e 3rd February 2017

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, EU, Fusion, Global engagement, international, policy, Research Training, RKE development framework, Student Engagement jforster

Higher Education and Research Bill – the House of Lords committee stage has finished with no further amendments (other than non-controversial and welcome government amendments). Unlike in the House of Commons, where time was more limited and there was a great deal of focus on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), student loans, the impact of Brexit and limits on international students rather than the detailed content of the Bill, in the House of Lords there has been much more detailed analysis of the Bill and very lively debate about issues such as institutional autonomy, the role and governance of the research councils and the role of the Office for Students. The other issues were also discussed, but none of the many amendments proposed by a long list of peers were approved. Assurances have been given by the government that the points made in the debates will be considered and so it is likely that further government amendments will be proposed at the report stage, which is likely to be in late February or early March. The Bill will then have to go back to the House of Commons, as it has been amended. Research Professional have a helpful summary of the position.

In related news, Mark Walport has been appointed as CEO of UKRI and has written for Times Higher Education. He notes: “We cannot sit on our laurels, or even our Nobel prizes. Research and innovation funding is still largely delivered by organisations siloed in traditional disciplines, allowing some imaginative proposals to fall between the cracks. Solving many of the most important fundamental research questions and tackling the challenges facing society requires an interdisciplinary approach.”

Brexit – the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) bill – the (very short) Bill was passed on its second reading this week. The committee stage is next – unlike the HERB (dealt with in the Public Bill Committee), this will be a committee of the whole House of Commons, which is scheduled for 6-8 February. The current 142-page list of proposed amendments is quite interesting and will probably grow. The Bill will then go to the Lords, where there may be further attempts to amend it.

After refusing to agree that the government would issue a white paper on Brexit, one was rushed out on 2^nd February after the Bill was passed. BBC Newsnight reported that it was issued at 4 am and has typos in it, but at 77 pages, it attempts to cover a lot of ground. There has been grumbling from the sector about the things that it doesn’t cover (e.g. Erasmus), and although there is no new news in it for us, there is some reassurance too. It refers to commitments already made on guaranteeing EU research funding. In the migration section it refers to students as its third point – so very high up the agenda – in fact it is the ONLY group referred to specifically. The paper says that “the Government recognises the important contribution made by students and academics from EU Member States to the UK’s world class universities. A global UK must also be a country that looks to the future”. No assurances about what that means, but it is helpful, especially as it doesn’t say anything like that about any other sector. In Science and Innovation, it says nice things about universities and refers to the Industrial Strategy. It includes lots of reassurances about continuing to apply for funding. It also says “we would welcome agreement [from the EU] to continue to collaborate with our European partners on major science, research and technology initaitives”. The White Paper will no doubt be discussed alongside the Bill in the Committee Stage, and we will see what comes next.

Bell Review – The UUK review of sector agencies, chaired by Sir David Bell, has published recommendations. In order to reduce costs to the sector and ensure focus and a strategic approach, the report recommends streamlining the current list of sector agencies from 9 to 7 by merging the Equality Challenge Unit, the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership foundation for Higher Education. In addition, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) will become self-financing through its commercial activity and will no longer take subscriptions from providers. To ensure efficiency and a more strategic focus on data, the report recommends that HECSU, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Jisc and UCAS should form a strategic delivery partnership with a focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data-related functions and services –writing on Wonkhe Sir David confirms that this group has already been formed. Link to the main report here.

UCAS applications data – this has been released today and is widely covered in the academic press.Wonkhe have a nice summary and they pull out some key charts

30,000 fewer applications across the sector than a year ago (5% down)
First decline in overall applications since 2012 and nearly wipes out increases since 2013
Not spread evenly across the sector
Drop in EU applications – a shame as some had predicted a surge of applications this year while home fees and student loans are still in place, and may be a sign of a permanent decline, (see the last HEPI report on this question)

Factors that are cited include:

Brexit uncertainty for EU applications –-around 6000 applications down
Nursing – driven by financing changes – 5000 down. Also influenced by drop in mature applicants
Mature student applications are down across the board – believed to be a result of more jobs and higher wages (so people not retraining), as well as nursing funding – 12000 applicants down
Demographic dip in 18 year olds and a decline in students taking BTECs is apparently behind a 7000 drop in 18 year old applications.

The numbers are a bit of a guess as these categories overlap.

On Wonkhe, Fleur Nielsen from the Council of Deans of Health says it’s not time to panic (yet). She comments on the difference between applications and admissions, and also notes that there is still a challenge of increasing numbers (as required by the government) when there are limits on placements (which is appoint that BU has consistently made in consultations on this topic). “The scale of the fall in application numbers is not the critical factor for universities or the health and social care sector. Courses that were previously heavily oversubscribed can survive a significant dip in application numbers as long as the quality of applicants is good, and our members report that this remains so.”

HESA has published its Open Data Strategy 2017-2021 – following the consultation last year. Importantly, the strategy says that HESA will migrate its current range of data publications to open data, free of charge to users, over the next 5 years, publish more data openly and establish a user group.

Inclusive teaching and learning in HE – the Department for Education have published a report by the Disabled Student Sector Leadership Group. This is an independent group made up of representatives of a number of relevant sector bodies and 6 UK universities. The report encourages higher education providers (HEPs) to look at how they can support and offer the best environment for disabled students.

It considers the requirement to provide ‘reasonable adjustments’ under the Equality Act 2010, and suggests actions to mitigate risks associated with that, including how providers can adopt a strategic approach to reasonable adjustments.
It sets out the benefits of inclusive practice to higher education providers
It provides examples of simple actions to affect change

Widening Participation: HESA has released statistics on widening participation from the 2015/16 academic year. It shows that progress is slowing although there are range of different angles on the data (thanks to Wonkhe for these links):

Oxford University bucks national trend and accepts fewer state school students, figures show – The Telegraph
Cambridge intake no longer most privately educated – BBC
One in ten new undergraduates from poor background as inequality gap gets wider – The Times

Technology-Enhanced Learning: The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) have published a report on the impact of technology on universities (Rebooting learning for the digital age: What next for technology-enhanced higher education?). The report reviews best practice around the world to show how technology is benefiting universities and students through better teaching and learning, improved retention rates and lower costs:

in the US, curriculum redesign using technology-enhanced learning produced better student outcomes in 72 per cent of projects and average savings of 31 per cent;
the University of New England in Australia reduced student drop-out rates from 18 per cent to 12 per cent via learning analytics; and
at Nottingham Trent University, 81 per cent of first-year students increased their study time after seeing their own engagement data.

You can read about BU’s Technology Enhanced Learning Toolkit on the CEL website.

February 2, 2017

Secure Societies Brokerage Event

EU, Events, Funding opportunities, Info Days Emily Cieciura

The Network of Secure Societies National Contact Points – SEREN3, in collaboration with the European Commission is organising this brokageage event, which will give details of the calls for proposals H2020-CIP 2017, H2020-SEC 2017 and H2020-DS-2017, which will be published on 1 March 2017 under the Societal Challenge – Secure Societies: Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

The event will take place on 6 & 7 March 2017, at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Brussels. The event is free but you must register by 4th March 2017.

Main Topics

Critical Infrastructure Protection
Disaster Resilience: Safeguarding and securing society
Fight Against Crime and Terrorism
Border Security and External Security
General Matters on Security
Digital Security

Why to participate?

Information about the calls
Networking possibilities
Answers to your questions linked to call areas
Details on the legal and procedural conditions

Find out more and register.

Category / EU

HE policy update w/e17th March 2017

MSCA IF 2017

Creative Europe – Current Calls

UKRO News

Researcher Mobility – Make use of EURAXESS

HE policy update w/e 10th March 2017

Interreg Opportunities