Category / Featured academics

Agile Learning Environments amid Disruption

Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Dawn Morley and Debbie Holley

Dr. Dawn Morley and Prof. Debbie Holley, both in the Department of Nursing Sciences, published a chapter in the book: Evaluating Academic Innovations in Higher Education during COVID-19.  Their chapter Agile Learning Environments amid Disruption (pp 19–34) appeared just before Christmas in this edited collection.

The book addresses the need of evaluating innovative or non-traditional academic schemes for understanding their feasibility in extraordinary educational environments. The individual chapters are enriched with robust appraisals of policies and practices linked to academic innovations in higher education during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. The case studies report wide-ranging teaching, learning and academic support practices within online, open, blended and distance learning models. The findings supply two domains of scholarship: evidence-based scenarios through real-world case studies, and a critical evaluation of educational quality through research-informed argument. The evidence gathered from countries, such as Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the UK show empowering and deterring elements of academic innovation amid disruptions. Although this book highlights academic innovations in disruptive situations, they emerge as powerful tools and approaches to be considered in traditional face to face learning.

 ‘Agile Learning Environments amid Disruption: Evaluating Academic Innovations in Higher Education during COVID-19’ is now available online!! Please check the publisher’s website access is free:  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-92979-4

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Research reflections 2022 – Your highlights: The SPEED project

BU research, EU, Featured, Featured academics, Research communication, Uncategorized

Dr Deniz Cetinkaya, Principal Academic in Computing, writes about the SPEED project, an EU project to use advances in technology and data science to support new port ecosystems, which has just been completed… 

The SPEED project (Smart Ports Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development) is funded by the EU European Interreg 2 Seas program, run for the European 2 Seas region (Belgium, France, Netherlands and the UK).

The project has been running for over four years now, since 2018, and we have completed it successfully and managed to deliver all expected outputs in our work package. BU has been one of the leading partners together with Antwerp Management School in Belgium.

A port at sunset The SPEED project aimed to develop and support the growth of a connected port solutions ecosystem backed by data science and IoT technologies. It helped to empower a cross-border community of port authorities, port stakeholders, data science and IoT entrepreneurs and knowledge centres to become a leading smart ports innovation ecosystem and hub for smart port application development.

The project was shortlisted for the 2021 IAPH (The International Association of Ports and Harbours) Sustainability Awards by The World Ports Sustainability Program in the category ‘Resilient Digital Infrastructure’. We have published and presented a conference paper in the 20th International Conference in E-Society in March 2022 and another paper in the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in June 2022.

SPEED Smart Ports Innovation Portal is an open community platform to connect and bridge the worlds of port operations and smart technologies. You can check the SPEED Portal for more information and to register. SPEED Portal is one of the deliverables of the SPEED Project, and is developed and maintained by BU. Major events, outputs and some deliverables are shared on the portal.

We had the dissemination and closure event for the SPEED project as well as a networking opportunity for future collaborations on 25th of November 2022. The one-day event was very successful with several presentations and discussion sessions, and many BU students, colleagues and external guests from different disciplines attended the event.

More information is available on the SPEED website and https://www.smartportsecosystem.com/

You can also contact the project’s PI Dr Deniz Cetinkaya dcetinkaya@bournemouth.ac.uk or Co-I Dr Gernot Liebchen gliebchen@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Research reflections 2022 – Your highlights: DONATION project

BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Research communication

Dr Rounaq Nayak, Lecturer in Sustainability, writes about the DONATION project, which explored the impact of the cost of living crisis on food aid programmes… 

The research success I have had is with a project that I started at the beginning of the year, titled ‘Design of a social sustainability and food utilisation matrix for food banks (DONATION)’, using the Charity Impact fund (internal call).

The fund helped me explore the impact of the cost of living crisis on various food aid programmes in the UK (including food banks and community markets in Dorset, Leicestershire and Shropshire).

I would term this project a success due to 3 reasons: it gave me the chance to carry out research in a new topic area, it allowed me to network both within the university as well as with key stakeholders outside the University, and apply successfully for seed funding from the British Academy.

Findings from the study were published in a Call for evidence on the UK Parliament website, which is a first for me. Detailed findings will also be published as a peer-reviewed paper in a special issue journal that is widely read by audiences in the sector.

Vegetables in packaging in a food bankWhat started out as a small project that was awarded £2500 at the start of the year has led to a larger project with a defined theme (£7900) that is attracting interest from various stakeholders such as BCP, Bristol City and Oxfordshire Councils, key stakeholders associated with food aid programmes in the UK, and charities that work with vulnerable populations.

The findings have also led to the identification of a new group of clients that need access to food banks due to food and fuel poverty – people working full-time jobs and on an annual salary. Based on these findings and the gravity of the situation identified through this project, I am aiming to apply for a UKRI New Investigator Grant in the autumn of 2023.

Research reflections 2022 – Your highlights: ECHO project showcase event

BU research, EU, Events, Featured, Featured academics, Research communication, research staff, Uncategorized

Dr Jane Henriksen-Bulmer, Principal Academic in Computer Science, writes about a three-day event that took place at BU in early December to mark the end of the ECHO project, which aims to strengthen the proactive cyber defence of the European Union…

This is the largest event we have ever arranged and the culmination of the H2020 pilot programme (consisting of only 4 projects, including ECHO) on Cybersecurity. BU is the one of only 3 universities involved in the project, with most of the partners being from industry (44 partners in all). We are the only project partner from the UK, so we have a lot to be proud of.

Presentations took place as part of the ECHO dissemination event

This event was the showcase for all the outputs from the ECHO project and we had an impressive line-up of prominent guests and speakers, both local and from Europe. On top of that, we involved 4 cohorts of students in the event, from L5 through to L7, so this truly is a fusion exercise where learning, teaching and industry come together to showcase the best of what we can do when we ‘fuse’ the three aspects.

The 3 days were jam-packed with excitement starting on the Monday with a kick-off event where we had talks from a number of prominent speakers from across Europe including ENISA, DG CNECT, Accenture, DSTL and ESET.

This was followed by a series of student-led workshops run by our final year undergraduate and master’s students (Huseyin’s Human Factors unit) where they interviewed the ECHO partners and conducted Human Factors evaluations on the Early Warning System, which went really well.

On Tuesday, we and our ECHO guests spent the morning recording some footage on the Green Screen in the Faculty of Media and Communication, which they are going to turn into an animation that we hope to use for dissemination. This was followed by a visit to BAE Systems’ STEP facility in Christchurch, where my final year business IT students presented their ideas for how the various plug-ins created as part of ECHO can be commercialised, which went down really well.

Students sat at computers

Students take part in an exercise as part of the ECHO event.

Then, on Wednesday we had the Incident Response Scenario where a group of second year students (Cagatay’s Ethical Hacking Unit) played blue team, defending multiple systems under attack. They then used the Early Warning System to raise tickets to warn of the attack as it was happening. It was a real eye-opener for them to see how this might play out in real life and they had a fabulous day, as did the observers and guests.

Overall, the whole 3 days were a resounding success, we have really enjoyed the experience (although we now must sleep!) and are hoping to host similar events in the future, watch this space!

Research reflections 2022: Your highlights

BU research, Featured, Featured academics

As we come to the end of 2022, we’re taking a look back at some of our research and knowledge exchange successes from across the year.

In today’s blog post, Professor Jane Murphy, Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, shares some of her highlights… 

“I started this role on 1st April 2022 – April Fool’s Day, ironically! At the same time, I started a new funded project – the DIALOR ( DIgitAL cOaching for fRailty) project, which has been funded by the NIHR ARC Wessex and is a digital health coaching project for people in the early to moderate stages of frailty.

Starting a new role and a project on the same day was quite interesting and there was lots to prepare and get up and running but I was really fortunate to have a huge amount of support from my predecessor.

It’s been brilliant to join such an inspiring and forward-thinking leadership team and also great to work with colleagues across the Faculty in a different role.

It’s been a really exciting year for the Faculty in terms of research. We obviously had the REF results in May, with lots to celebrate from our submission, and some major research successes and funding awarded – such as Professor Edwin van Teijlingen’s NIHR grant for drowning prevention work in Bangladeshi children.

We’ve also had a lot of new staff join us this year and, in particular, early career researchers (ECRs) within the Faculty, and I’ve started work this year on understanding how we can better promote a positive research culture.

One of the initiatives that I’ve implemented is a new ECR Community Hub, which I’m running in partnership with Professor Lee Ann Fenge so we have both the health and social care perspectives. We’ve had a couple of meetings to date and will have more in the New Year but it gives our new ECRs and research staff an opportunity to come together, have a conversation, and meet with myself and Lee Ann.

We’ve also established a new Professoriate Group which is going to be chaired by Professor Vanora Hundley for professors and associate professors.

We’re making the most of our new fantastic new building – it’s made such a difference being able to walk down the corridors and bump into people and make those connections. Next year, we’ll be looking at ways to use the building to bring our research to life and thinking creatively about how we can bring people into our lovely building and show them what we’re doing.

We’re also building exciting partnerships, such as our links with University Hospitals Dorset. We had the research event in October, which was really successful, and we’ll be having more engagement events to help develop new pathways to grow research and support clinical academics who want to conduct research in partnership with us.

We’re building similar models with Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Dorset County Hospital as well, so it’s very much a Dorset-wide approach, strengthening and growing the region as a place to engage with education and research, with the capability to improve patient care and public health.

I think as a Faculty, we’re in a really strong position. We have ambitious targets for our research income and knowledge exchange but underpinning that, we’re thinking our strategy and processes and what we need to put in place to help us grow and develop and help us achieve those targets. I’m looking forward to continuing to build on this work in 2023!”

Two rejections in one week

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

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

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

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

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

Migrant labour, the not so nice side of the FIFA World Cup

BU research, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Football has been referred to as ‘the beautiful game’.  And to be fair, there has been some brilliant football at the men’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Qatar’s records on human rights have been widely criticised in the run up to this global event. The global media have spent a lot of time on commenting on several social and economic issues in Qatar, such as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, the role and status of women, and the exploitation of migrant workers.  Migrant workers from South Asia, including those from Nepal, have helped build the stadiums and roads leading up to it, provide the security at venues, take the suitcases of the conveyor belts at the airport, and serve fans and visitors food and drink at the venues.  Many of these migrant workers are exploited not just by employers in Qatar, but also by labour agencies in their home countries.  The risks are high, especially for those migrant workers who do the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs (i.e. the 3Ds). 

As researchers conducting research in the area of migration and health, we are worried that when the world cup finishes next weekend the world’s media will move on from Qatar and the attention will disappear from the exploitation of migrant workers in the Middle East (and elsewhere).  We all know that the media’s focus will shift to on another global event, next week or next month.  We want to make sure that spotlight stays on this global problem.

 

Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Congratulations to Dr. Daisy Wiggins

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Congratulations to Midwifery Lecturer Daisy Wiggins on the publication of her paper ‘Could a decision support tool be the key to supporting choice for women regarding place of birth?’ and her co-author Prof. Vanora Hundley.  This paper, based on her Ph.D. studies, has been accepted by the international journal Midwifery (academic publisher = Elsevier).

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis recognised as Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate for the third year

BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Publishing, Research communication, Research news

Congratulations to Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, who has been recognised by Clarivate™ as one of the world’s most influential researchers who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade.

Dimitrios Buhalis

Clarivate provides information, data and insights to universities, nonprofits, funding organisations, publishers, corporations, government organisations and law firms across the world to help accelerate and advance innovation.

Fewer than 0.1% (1 in 1,000) of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists received the Highly Cited Researchers™ distinction in 2022.

Highly Cited Researchers have demonstrated significant and broad influence reflected in their publication of multiple highly cited papers over the last decade. These highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations for a field in the Web of Science™.

Professor Buhalis has been named as a Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Social Science for the past three years.

He said: “It is extremely rewarding to know that the research I’ve been doing in the last 30 years has been useful to many other researchers to build their research and develop this concept. It is also very rewarding to know that the research has an impact on society, bringing value to different stakeholders and communities around the world.

“Of course, the research has been happening with many collaborators, including students and researchers and colleagues from all over the world, and most have been co-authored with several of my 200 collaborators.”

Professor Buhalis is a strategic management and marketing expert with specialisms around information communication technology applications in the tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure industries.

“All my research is about relevance and impact on business practice and global policy and it is cutting edge,” he said.

‘It is forecasting the future and identifies enabling technologies that bring value to different stakeholders and, by doing so, designing a better future.”

He added: “Being able to forecast the future and identifying technologies that can support progress is a critical element of the research, and that is why it is published early, before other researchers engage in inquiry, and that’s why it’s widely cited.”

“My advice would be to follow your heart, make relevant and useful cutting edge research that contributes to society globally, and citation will follow.”

Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey on her new publication

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured academics, international, PG research, Publishing, research methods, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network, writing

This morning the editor of the international journal Sociological Research Online email to inform us that the paper “Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population” has been accepted for publication [1].  This methods paper, on the topic of conducting in-depth interviews, grew out of Orlanda’s postdoctoral research into support for people who are recreational (non-medical) users of Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS).  This is the seventh paper from her PhD research [2-7].

Well done,

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

References:

  1. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population, Sociological Research Online (accepted).
  2. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) The case for ‘anabolics’ coaches: selflessness versus self-interest? Performance Enhancement & Health, 10(3) August, 100230
  3. Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2022) Mixed-methods research on androgen abuse – a review, Current Opinion in Endocrinology & Diabetes 29(6):586-593.
  4. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E, Trenoweth, S. (2021) Libido as a reason to use non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 29(3):276-288,DOI: 10.1080/09687637.2021.1882940
  5. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S. (2020) Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 27(5): 377-386. DOI 10.1080/09687637.2019.1705763
  6. Harvey, O., Keen, S., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Literature Review into what they want and what they access. BMC Public Health 19: 1024 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7288-x https://rdcu.be/bMFon
  7. Harvey, O., (2019) ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids, HED Matters 2(2):16-19.

Best paper award

BU research, COVID-19, Featured academics, open access, Research news, writing

Lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for many people, but particularly so for people with an eating disorder.

Dr Laura Renshaw-Vuillier and her team (Dr Rachel Moseley, Dr Maddy Greville-Harris, and Dr Liz May, with the help of Rhiannon Surman) conducted a study on the effect of the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic on over 200 people with a diagnosis of an eating disorder, during June-July 2020. Out of all the papers published in the journal of Eating Disorders in 2021, their paper has been selected for the Best COVID-19 2022 Research Paper award.

Their study found that over 80% of the people surveyed reported worsening of their eating disordered symptoms during the pandemic. Particularly, they found that difficulties managing unpleasant emotions, changes to routine due to lockdown, and unhelpful social messages were key triggering factors, and many of their surveyed participants reported using eating disordered behaviours to cope with the pandemic.

Other papers have now also reported on the devastating impact the pandemic had, and how this currently creates unprecedented pressure on already stretched eating disorder services. As such, people have to wait years before being assessed or receiving treatment, for this condition that has among the highest mortality rates of all psychiatric illnesses, with suicide a major cause of death.  This is a real crisis and Laura and her team are working hard trying to find workable solutions, such as developing an intervention to help people manage their emotions in a healthier way.