BU Research Blog

Because the FIF team are lovely, lovely people we’ve decided to hold some awareness sessions to give you the valuable opportunity to make your Fusion bid the very best it can possibly be. Two sessions will take place where you can discuss your application/s with the FIF Manager, Samantha Leahy-Harland, and committee members and, in addition, Dr. Martin Pickard of Grantcraft will be running a two and a half hour session giving his expert and essential Fusion bid writing advice. Martin is a specialist in writing and supporting research grant applications and tenders, as well as providing administrative and management support services for ongoing projects (additionally there will be some 1-2-1s available with Dr Martin Pickard in the afternoon of the 20th of November).

Come along to find out what makes a great application, what the committee members like to see in proposals and errors to avoid.  

• Wednesday 13 November at 12-1pm, S203, Lansdowne – with the FIF Manager and committee members
• Monday 18 November at 2-3pm, Casterbridge room, THS, Talbot – with the FIF Manager and committee members
• Wednesday 20 November, at 9.30am – 12 midday in, CG04, Christchurch House, Talbot Campus – with Dr. Martin Pickard.
• Additionally we have arranged some 1-2-1s in the afternoon between 1pm-5pm with Dr Martin Pickard to assist you specifically with your Fusion Bids.

 If you are interested in attending any of these sessions or to book a 1-2-1 appointment please contact Fusion Fund to confirm your place and your preferred session.

For all the updated strand policy documents, application form and more information please visit the FIF intranet pages.

The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and the Interim Administrator is Dianne Goodman. Please direct all initial enquiries to Fusion Fund.

The Staff Mobility and Networking strand (SMN) of the FIF may seem like your normal, everyday standard strand but look carefully and you’ll see it’s a strand with a difference. It has 2 elements meaning even more opportunities for you! Not only is there a Standard element which includes Santander, but there is also an Erasmus Staff Mobility element too!

This strand provides support in the form of subsistence and travel costs and for staff to:

• Travel within the UK or overseas with respect to development of projects linked to research, education, professional practice or any combination thereof.  Particular focus will be placed on the creation of sustainable collaborative networks of academics or professionals linked to specific outputs or partnership developments.
• Travel within the UK or overseas for academic conferences, where one or more oral presentation is being presented and there is clear evidence of additional institutional value in terms of network creation or partnership development. 
• Travel to at least one university from the the UK Santander Universities Network or one of the Overseas Santander Partner Universities with respect to development of projects linked to research, education, practice or any combination thereof. Please see the following for a list of participating institutions
• Travel overseas in order to develop academic partnerships or lasting collaborative ventures around research, education and/or practice. 
• Undertake a programme of mobility and/or networking across a series of linked trips or visits which are inter-disciplinary, especially where they are clearly linked to the BU Research Themes or involve student and staff participation. 
• Travel in support of a Study Leave application.
• Invite external partners to visit the University. For example, this might include inviting academics from other institutions or professionals from businesses to visit BU to develop projects and/or co-convening or facilitation of an international workshop.

 Previously funded activities under this strand:

Bournemouth-Birmingham-Brasilia: Consortium Building and Joint Work (BBB).

Dr Raian Ali, a Senior Lecturer in Computing, is the Principal Investigator of the BBB project which creates a community of interest involving the computing groups of the University of Brasilia, University of Birmingham, and Bournemouth University. The three groups are focused on Software Engineering research and this timely research project focuses on adaptive software systems, particularly, cloud and service computing. Exchange visits as part of this project have encouraged partnership development and international collaborative working. 

  Archaeology Professional Practice Forum: Bridging the Gap

The ‘Bridging the Gap’ project has been a highly successful networking and information gathering exercise, which will inform and drive actions to better prepare students for careers within archaeology, to better meet the needs of the profession and to enhance both subject-specific employability and transferable skills. An Archaeological Professional Practice Forum event was held to gather information from archaeology practitioners, employers, recent graduates and current students on the nature and extent of the skills gap between graduation and entry-level employment within archaeology. It explored ways to improve the industry-readiness of our students in order to give our new graduates a competitive edge when seeking employment, and to service the needs of the profession.  

 Please be aware that the Erasmus scheme differs quite significantly from the other FIF strands. More information is on the Erasmus intranet page  and more general information can be found on the FIF intranet pages.

 The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and the Interim Administrator is Dianne Goodman. Please direct all initial enquiries to Fusion Fund.

The Study Leave strand (SL) has three sub-strands: Academic Study Leave, Internal Secondments and Industrial Staff Placements.

• Academic Study Leave This is to provide academic staff with a period of paid academic study leave, normally up to six months in duration, for the purposes of undertaking research, educational development (eg. the development of teaching programmes) or professional practice.  There must a clear benefit to both the individual and to BU and the stakeholder benefits with respect to Fusion should be clear. 
• Internal Secondments:  In order to drive interdisciplinary research at BU a limited programme of internal secondments is available.  Secondments may last up to a maximum of six months.  A secondment application must be agreed between the host and the applicant with both parties contributing to the submission.  Cases will be judged on merit in terms of the collaborative output(s) that they will deliver which might include but are not restricted to: (1) completion of an interdisciplinary book or publication programme; (2) submission of a major research grant; (3) curriculum or pedagogic development; and (4) completion of a period of professional practice or knowledge exchange project. 
• Industrial Staff Placements:  Staff have the opportunity to arrange their own placements with local and regional businesses/organisations for between two and six months.

 Examples of projects funded under this strand:

Engaging students in industry and updating professional practice

Associate Senior Lecturer, Sue Sudbury worked with Sequoia Films, which was commissioned by Channel 4 to develop an idea for their flagship documentary strand Cutting Edge and also to develop and produce an international feature-length documentary, Indian Spacemen, for BBC Storyville. Sue took ten BU students on broadcast production work experience while at the same time updating her professional practice.

 Understanding the co-creation of leisure behaviour in socio-natural environments

Dr Dorothy Fox, a Lecturer in the School of Tourism, undertook research practice with the aim of bringing new ways of thinking about the natural environment into the academic and public arena. This was achieved through primary research carried out in the UK; overseas travel to Australia and New Caledonia (in the South Pacific); the initiation of international networking; undertaking training and the development of new teaching materials for 2013-14.

Dr Fox said: “The process of applying for study leave and its execution has had a profound impact on my way of thinking about my role at BU. This has led to a change from a local perspective to an international one.”

Need to know more? Your wish is my command! Go now to the FIF intranet pages.

The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and the Interim Administrator is Dianne Goodman. Please direct all initial enquiries to Fusion Fund.

The Co-creation and Co-Production strand supports activity that embraces as many of the following as possible:

•  Demonstrates a clear, fundamental and innovative contribution to Fusion benefitting staff and students within BU. Benefits to students could include both direct and indirect benefits.
• Requires pump-priming to initiate activity which will then become sustainable.
• Delivers a series of clear, measurable and tangible outputs that deliver benefits beyond the team applying.
• Presents new, innovative projects or initiatives that are likely to have both reach and significance within and beyond BU and where possible involve inter-disciplinary collaboration.
• Leads to public engagement with a range of stakeholders.
• Demonstrates good value for money in terms of return on investment and strategic priorities.

  Duration of the activities can be between 6 and 12 months. Awards made will be between £2k and £75k.

Be inspired by reading about some of the successfully funded activities under this strand:

The Poole and Purbeck Portal is an inter-school collaboration between the School of Applied Sciences, the Media School and the National Centre for Computer Animation.

http://www.pooleandpurbeckportal.co.uk/

Centre for Face Processing Disorders at BU

Dr Sarah Bate from the Psychology Research Centre was awarded funds from this strand to develop a Centre for Face Processing Disorders at BU.  Sarah’s work explored the cognitive presentation and treatment of face processing deficits in adults and children with a range of neuropsychological conditions, such as developmental or acquired prosopagnosia (face blindness), autistic spectrum disorder, and Moebius syndrome. 

More information about this project can be found here: www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org

Want to know more? Of course you do! Follow this link to the FIF intranet pages.

The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and the Interim Administrator is Dianne Goodman. Please direct all initial enquiries to Fusion Fund.