This cross-UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) guidance session, will support and inform early career researchers and innovators who intend to submit an application to the above call. Additionally, mentors of early career researchers are also welcomed and encouraged to attend.
This event will begin with a discussion about the guidance, insights into the writing fellowship grants and talks from successful fellowship grant holders.
This will be followed with 1-2-1 support and a grant writing workshop for those wishing to submit for the next round.
The intended learning outcomes of this session are:
To understand what is expected of a FLF proposal.
By the end of the session, you will have a good grasp of what is generally required for applications to the scheme and hopefully inspire you to submit
For the first session on Wednesday 16th January, there will also be follow-up workshop will focus on developing your proposal on the 16th February 2019.
This workshop directly supports and is targeted towards those academics proactively working within the context of BU2025 Actions: 28, 29 and 30.
The expert meeting included invitees from the industrial, policy and academic sectors thereby drawing on views from key stakeholders in this field. Representative organisations included the EU Intellectual Property Office, European Patent Office, CECIMO, Materialise, HP, Prodintec amongst others. Amongst the academics invited, Dr. Marc Mimler (Member of Advisory Board) of CIPPM was also in attendance.
The EU-funded project led by Professor Mendis (Principal Investigator) consists of other UK and European partners including University of Glasgow, Scotland; Added Scientific Ltd UK, Technopolis Group Vienna Austria, University of Lapland, Finland and Boehmert & Boehmert, Munich Germany. The project is currently in progress and is due for completion in May 2019.
The project aims to provide an overview of the past and current industrial applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in selected sectors whilst identifying potential challenges and opportunities in need of clarification. In essence, the Study will aim to formulate a clear picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) framework that could enhance the competitiveness of the AM sector in Europe.
You are warmly invited to participate to the final dissemination event of our AHRC e-Voices: Redressing Marginality International Network, titled Creativity and Marginality. The event will take place on December 5 (4pm-8pm), Lawrence Lecture Theatre and The Lees Gallery.
The Creativity and Marginality Symposiumwas conceived of, following a series of workshops and events held in the UK, Kenya and Brazil, as part of the AHRC E-Voices: Redressing Marginliaty Network (evoices.cemp.ac.uk). This network focuses upon marginalized groups across different geographical regions that are using technologies in a range of ways to bring voice to their experiences of marginality.
In this symposium BU academics across faculties will present their own research which resonates with the theme: addressing creativity in practice, research method and outcome and with socially marginalized groups. The symposium will be followed by the opening of an exhibition featuring a small selection of pieces presented at the ShiftEye Gallery in Nairobi Kenya. It will also include some pieces from other projects. Finally the evening will conclude with a screening of the documentary Aji-Bi: Under the Clock Tower (2015) by Moroccan director Rajaa Saddiki. A film about a group of Senegalese migrant women working as hairdressers and stranded in Casablanca.
Regulating 3D printing has been the focus of attention recently, with the European Parliament adopting a resolution put forward by the Legal Affairs Committee to regulate 3D printing from the perspective of intellectual property (IP) and civil liability. The resolution was adopted in July 2018.
Around the same time, the European Commission commissioned a project exploring the Intellectual Property (IP) implications of the Development of 3D Printing signalling its commitment to this area. This project which commenced in May 2018 is being led by Professor Dinusha Mendis of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management (CIPPM) at Bournemouth University.
To speak about these developments and issues, Professor Mendis was interviewed by The Guardian for the ‘Chips with Everything’ programme recently. The link to the podcast can be found here (relevant segment from 15.10 minutes onwards).
Welcome back to the wonderful world of Knowledge Exchange and Impact! We may not have blogged for a while, but we have been working hard to ensure that BU’s research and knowledge is informed by society for the benefit of society. Here are a selection of our achievements for the last month:
Public Engagement
We ran 10 successful events for the ESRC Festival of Social Science (3-10 November), reaching around 350 people across Bournemouth and London. Research projects across all four Faculties were highlighted and topics encompassed sex, sexuality and gender, creative responses to ageing and loneliness, face super-recognisers, responsible online gambling, visual storytelling for impact and the inevitable Brexit. Plus, there were dogs from Caring Canines, who pretty much stole the show.
November’s Cafe Scientifique was attended by 44 people, who came to hear Dr Xun He’s talk on how behaviour is shaped by other people’s actions. Next month (4 December) Dr Rebecca Rendell will be discussing the physiology of living life to the extreme. Cafe Boscanova, 650 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, 7.30-9pm. (Upcoming events at Cafe Scientifique.)
Social Media
The impact officers collectively joined Twitter (check out the account here) and successfully used the platform to promote various public engagement events as well as keep academics informed about all things REF and impact.
Student Engagement
Dr Deborah Gabriel discussed political issues surrounding race in the education system at October’s TalkBU chat session. Later this month (22 November), Dr Jane Healy will be talking about hate crime directed towards people with disabilities. Follow #TalkBU and @BU_Research on Twitter, or the BU Research blog for regular news, research and event updates.
Throughout October, strategy meetings for each UOA were held, where members of RKEO’s Impact team, UOA leads, impact champions and PDRAs agreed a plan of action for the submission of BU’s impact case studies to REF2021. The REF website has a searchable database of all the 2014 impact case studies here.
Team Members: Update
We said goodbye to Jane Kavanagh-Lauridsen, who had been covering Genna del Rosa’s maternity leave. She is off to the University of Southampton to be their Business Engagement Manager – and of course we wish her well.
Since the last KEIT post, four new Impact Officers have been working with the different faculties to help develop impact case studies and promote research impact generally. If you haven’t already met them, they are: Amanda Edwards (FST), Matt Fancy (FM) Amanda Lazar (HSS) and Brian McNulty (FMC).
If you would like support or advice on all things impact and knowledge exchange, please contact the relevant person below:
In the UK, £4.7 billion is being expected to be invested in R&D over the next 4 years. Will you be ready to apply?
Much of this funding will be available to academia, in partnership with business, through Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund competitive grants. Writing these grants is an art in itself, because word counts are tight and the demand for detail high. And then there is the human factor – convincing five under-pressure assessors that your idea is novel, experimental, leading edge, etc. These are the people who will score you and ultimately decide whether you make it to the fundable zone…
BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office is hosting a technical writing workshop, where the art of writing these grants will be unpacked by a successful bid writer, who has won them, spoken with the assessors to learn how to win even more of them, and is almost in daily contact with the funder, Innovate UK.
The workshop, on 10th December 2018, will include discussions on:
• Knowing your funder – vital background on what makes Innovate UK tick…
• Knowing your assessors – vital tips to improve your score…
• Unpacking the application questions – what you must write and how you must write…
After the workshop attendees will have the opportunity to have a one-to-one session with the bid writer to discuss project ideas and to explore suitable grants.
This workshop directly supports and is targeted towards those academics proactively working within the context of BU2025 Actions: 28, 29 and 30.
The third issue of RKE News is now available. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide a termly update of internal and external research and knowledge exchange news, successes and opportunities.
This issue focuses on research at BU and BU2025, some of the many funding opportunities which are available and upcoming events.
I hope this information is helpful and of interest to you. If you would like to send in any stories or ideas for inclusion or if you have any feedback in general, please let me know.
CoPMRE held its Fifteenth Annual Symposium Globalisation and Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges in October. The conference was a success thanks to the inspiring speakers and received excellent feedback. You can read a full report on the conference here and authorised presentations can be found here.
Three weeks ago I had a pleasure and amazing opportunity to attend and engage with fantastic research training – the 4th European University Association (EUA) Funding Forum. The forum took place in one BU’s current and established Erasmus+ links – the Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona, Spain).
The 4th EUA Funding Forum, titled ‘Frameworks that empower, universities that deliver’ has primarily focused on macro-level changes that affect models and processes that EU universities traditionally apply.
The opening talk by Joseph Garrell I Guiu, Rector of Ramon Llull University (Spain); Jose Manuel Pingarron Carrazon, Secretary General of Universities (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and Rolf Tarrach, President of the European University Association, highlighted the roles of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in a deeper engagement with social issues. This naturally can be done via education. However, research and business engagement would require different models of thinking in relation to funding. Investments should be attracted from elsewhere and with the purpose of HEIs being at forefront of sustainable living. BU with its new BU2025 vision and strategic plan puts a large emphasis on responsibility. However, to deliver an evidence-based impact would require reconsideration of processes and in many cases steeping out of the HE comfort zone and take risk by implementing different but importantly efficiency-based approaches.
Following the opening talk, Thomas Estermann, Director, Governance, Funding and Public Policy Development at EUA has presented astonishing statistics on how various HEIs within the EU operate in terms of attracting investment and students. Photo below show extract from the slides, presented by Thomas Estermann.
4th EUA Forum, Thomas Estermann
Thomas Estermann stated that the UK has a 20% decrease in attracting any sort of investment that supports HE sector. This is mainly driven by a lesser exposure to funding opportunities that the UK had access to but also nation-wide issues with decreasing student numbers. This left me wondering what can be done to minimise the gap.
Elvira Bolat, 4th EUA Forum
The event took place over two days, 18-19th October, and was an amazing opportunity to meet a frontline of EU HEIs’ leadership. Combination of plenary sessions and masterclasses offered the participants, not only an opportunity to network, but hear stories of ‘brave’ approaches to leading and managing HEIs and to learn about i.e. new types of partnerships within the HE context that can generate funding to support HEIs’ missions or importance of integrating business intelligence systems and management structures to inform HEIs’ processes.
One of my favourite talks was a panel formed by Mikulas Bek, Rector of Masaryk University (Czech Republic); Francisco Jose Mora Mas, Rector of Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) and Petra Wend, Vice-Chancellor of Queen Margaret University (United Kingdom).
The 4th Funding Forum Plenary Panel I
The panel shared personal professional stories of their HEIs’ journeys in tackling financial uncertainty. It was quite refreshing to see how HEIs are moving, although I must admit this is a slow follow-up on some comprehensive business models, towards evidence-based decision-making via data mining and data-based intelligence. It is uplifting for me to witness the shift in HE leadership mindset, as my and Dr Gelareh Roushan’s PhD student, Claudia Vanzellotti, is exploring how for instance social media intelligence is embedded into small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) strategic decision-making. In era of Big Data HEIs ought to observe trends around own sector but also other related and unrelated contexts which will spark ideas for efficient processes and funding models that will generate impact. Listening to students and open consented online conversations is also something educators should be doing in order to adapt pedagogical models and deliver effective and exciting education experiences.
Overall, attending the 4th Funding Forum had a number of immediate benefits for me:
Expansion of networks with various organisations (i.e. HEIs, governments, other public organisations and businesses);
A better understanding of the HE environment, challenges and future areas of consideration, critical for the UK HEIs operating in post-Brexit context;
Knowledge around the latest thinking in the debate around sources of funding for HEIs – the programme covered sessions around leadership, evaluation of economic impact of research activities, on how to develop income-generating partnerships, on designing institutional efficiency strategy, university management and overview of next generation of EU funding;
Feeding lessons learned on HE strategic directions into design of new UG and PG programmes across the Business School departments as well as within global engagement models we ought to consider.
Of course following BU’s Fusion I would like to reflect on some teaching and pedagogical lessons I gained from attending the 4th Funding Forum. In particular, I learnt about new TEL tool, Sli.do, that is alternative to Mentimeter and Kahoot and allows engaging large groups of students via Q&A feeders or group discussions to stimulate a better understanding and critical thinking around the content. I already experimented with the Sli.do during several talks in October/November 2018 period and found it easy to use, from both facilitator and audience perspectives. In addition I am planning to use the interviewing / conversational approach to Panel session discussions during the conference that Dr Kaouther Kooli, Dr Julie Robson and I are co-organising with the University of Manouba in Tunis this December.
Last but not least the training, funded by Erasmus+, enabled me to meet and network with the host institution’s colleagues. BU’s Business School has a long lasting and successful relationships in terms of staff and student mobility with the Universitat Ramon Llull (URL). URL is located in fantastic location, Barcelona, and has amazing facilities which are combined by modern architecture and historical buildings.
Quite impressed by Ramon Llull University campus. It is our Business School’s @BUAACSB1 current Erasmus partner so I recommend all students to consider coming and spending a semester abroad here @GlobalBUpic.twitter.com/K6zcm7qY9G
— Dr Elvira Bolat👩🏻💻👩🏻🏫🤳🏻💡🏃🏼♀️🏖 (@Elvira_MLady) October 18, 2018
URL did truly amazing job with hosting the 4th Funding Forum, showcasing its facilities, professionalism of staff and students and warm hospitality of Catalonian capital.
Overall it has been an amazing experience, which will feed into many more exciting professional projects for me personally but also for the Department of Marketing, the Business School and BU. To conclude this post, I would like to leave you with this slide:
The 4th EUA Funding Forum: Presentation by Thomas Estermann
To survive, HEIs need to experiment, expand their external networks and defend their autonomy.
If you wish to experience something new, learn, network and enhance your knowledge in areas of research and/or education, and/or professional practice, I would highly recommend applying for the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Training funding.
Elvira Bolat, Principal Academic in Marketing (The Business School), e-mail:ebolat@bournemouth.ac.uk
On Wednesday 17th October special guest Dr Owen Green (University of Huddersfield) joined us for a concert of multi-channel, surround-sound music in the Allsebrook Lecture Theatre. Owen diffused a range of fixed-media musical work from the University of Huddersfield during the first half, beginning with Dr Alex Harker’s guitar-derived Fractures, then on to Dr Elena Hidalgo’s Origen, and concluding with Professor Pierre Alexandre Tremblay’s mesmerising asinglewordisneverenough1.
After a short interval we heard two works featuring performances from Owen – Neither the Time nor the Energy (2015, revised 2018, live, for cardboard and truculent electronics), and an improvised duo featuring bowed cardboard box (Owen Green) and cello (Laura Reid). It was a rich and varied programme, and our thanks go to Owen Green for his inspiring performance and excellent musical selections. Once again, student volunteers from our BSc Music & Sound Production Technology provided crucial help rigging the loudspeaker system. Thanks to all who attended!
The Postgraduate Research Live Exhibition is your opportunity to showcase your research this academic year with the Doctoral College.
Calling all PGRs! Exhibit your research or research journey at this PGR Live Exhibition on Wednesday 5 December, followed by a free festive social for PGRs and Supervisors.
This is your opportunity to display your research to all of BU in creative and innovative ways during this open live exhibition.
Follow this link for full details on how to submit, joint submissions are accepted.
The conference was attended by over 1,400 participants from 51 countries in Europe and beyond. During the event more than 1,000 academic presentations were delivered in more than 100 themed sessions and two plenary sessions by Prof. Eszter Hargittai, Dr Lina Dencik as well as Prof. José Van Dijck and Dr Thomas Allmer. The plenaries focused on the central theme of the conference, ‘Centres and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation’ and addressed some of the most pressing pan-European issues in the field of media and communication. One of the sessions, delivered in the format of a critical intervention, focused on the issues surrounding the exploitation of academics in the field. Among the conference organising committee members was Dr Paweł Surowiec of the Faculty of Media of Communication, who also serves as the ECREA’s Treasurer. For more information about the conference follow #ECREA2018 or speak to the ECREA Coordinator in the Faculty, Dr Einar Thorsen (Ass. Prof.). The next biennial ECREA conference, 8th European Communication Conference, will take place between 2-5 October 2020. The event will be hosted by the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal.
CEMP convened the 12th Media Education Summit in Hong Kong last week. It was the biggest MES so far, with 170 delegates from 27 countries attending at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Feedback from delegates has been overwhelmingly positive – see the MESHK18 twitter thread – including invitations from prospective hosts in Asia. North America and central Europe for future years and several CEMP Ed-Doc enquiries have already been made by delegates from Hong Kong, China and Japan. Here are two examples:
I would like to thank you once again for a wonderful time in Hong Kong. For me it was a learning experience like no other, an experience that i shall never forget. (Doctoral student, Malta).
First of all, thank you so much for producing such a lovely conference for 170 participants from 27 countries including me.I know how hard you have been working on the preparation and facilitation. Few people can do such matter. Take a sound rest and nice tea of Hong Kong, please. (Professor, Tokyo)
Researchers who presented have been invited to submit their work to Media Practice and Education, the journal edited in CEMP and BU doctoral graduate Marketa Zezuokova teamed up with South Island School to run this year’s youth strand, concluding with the school students forming a ‘flipped panel’ to field questions from the academics.
All the keynotes, the Youth MES video and Karen Fowler-Watt’s film with Fergal Keane will be available on the CEMP site in due course.
MES is a big project and the team at the event (Karen Fowler-Watt, Mark Readman, Annamaria Neag and Julian McDougall) are grateful to the people who make it happen at BU – Laura Hampshaw and Lokesh Sivakumar.
Watch this space for an announcement soon about the next MES!!
At the recent October Cafe Scientifique event, Dr Curie Scott from the Centre for Excellence in Learning asked a packed audience at Café Boscanova in Boscombe, Bournemouth these questions.
Ageing populations
As a trained medical doctor and educator of health professional students, Curie became aware of the impact of ageing populations. In 2017, global population trends reversed: there are now more people over 65 years old than under five years old (United Nations, 2013). Nearly one in five people currently alive in the UK will get to their hundredth birthday (Department for Work and Pensions, 2011).
We are ageing. But we remain uncomfortable about talking about it.
Using drawing to discuss ageing
For her research, she was interested in whether drawing might help us talk about our future. She invited health professional students and people over 60 to a specially designed Drawing Programme to think about their future ageing. This was a four week expressive mark-making workshop-based programme. Examples of drawings were on display at the cafe. Of the five drawings linked to ageing, the masks (below) were the final drawing as it was the most personal.
Challenging the accepted Cultural ‘truths’ about ageing
It is clear that ‘older people’ are an ‘othered’ group. That is, we want to separate ourselves from being labelled ‘old’. The Drawing Programme facilitated openness and a willingness to consider the myriad ‘what-ifs’ of ageing. Participants noted ‘truths’ or ‘assumptions’ of ageing which they had absorbed from their surrounding Culture ageing. These were predominantly negative:
Ageing is relative, dependent on one’s age
Ageing is about decline with core and peripheral losses
With ageing, one is concealed and outcast from society
With increasing age, one is less valued
Ageing as a discussion topic is taboo
Ageing is ugly and is especially harsh to women
These myths echoed responses by those at Café Scientifique. Comments about the future included concerns about ill health, dependency, and loneliness. Positive aspects were about greater confidence, time to enjoy leisurely pursuits and have more time with family and friends.
Returning to the research, over the three month study period, participants interrogated their assumptions. They disentangled from dominant negative threads and chose new ways of being. They described some powerful shifts in thinking and behaviour. They shared a stronger internal sense of agency and choice – not that ageing would just ‘happen’ but that we all have choices we can make for and about our future ageing.
At the deepest level of consideration, participants could visualise themselves, and indeed accept, that they were likely to become old. They took control of the time they had left. At 73 years old, Veronica (not her real name) declared that the study propelled her into fulfilling her lifelong dream of playing the saxophone. With a strong family history of deaths in their sixties, Eva (not her real name) responded by changing her health behaviour and asking for health screening tests.
Drawing helped adults to think, explore, and articulate on the emotive topic of their future ageing. Curie ended with a line from the poem ‘Snow’ by poet laureate Carol Ann Dufffy which is carved on a stone in Durlston Country Park.
If you are interested in knowing more about the drawing workshops or perceptions of ageing, contact me at cscott@bournemouth.ac.uk
“Creating and sharing stories: 
Conversation article: London Marathon – how visually impaired people run
Horizon Europe News – December 2023