Category / Digital and technological futures

Favela Virtual Tours: Learning about heritage, sustainability and communities

international

Register to attend (FREE) to our Favela Virtual Tours – all welcome!

Dates:

Tuesday 16th  November at 1 pm – Favela Virtual Tour Rio, Political and economic sustainability

Tuesday 7th December at 1 pm – Favela Virtual Tour Rio, Brazil 2, Cultural and environmental sustainability

 

Would you like to travel light? Would you like to explore new places from a comfortable seat of your choice? Join us to our favela virtual tours in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)!

On Tuesday 16th November at 1 pm, professional tour guides and favela residents, we’ll take you into an online tour to get to know the favela’s everyday life, residents’ social campaigns, their leaders and favelas’ storytellers.

We will be debating on economic and political sustainability issues in and between Rio’s favelas. We will be understanding how local favela organizations mobilize residents’ rights; how they collectively articulate their agendas and how they develop strategies to boost the local economy and political resistance. These issues are link with SGDs goals, especially goals 1 (No poverty) 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

The tour

will be led by the local guides: Cosme Felippsen, from Morro da Providência Role do favelados ; Erik Martins, from Rocinha, Rocinha by Rocinha and the Coletivo de Guias from Santa Marta Santa Marta Collective, who will work together during this virtual tour.

On Tuesday 7th December at 1 pm, two favela museums director and one favela tour guide in partnership with Revolusolar, we’ll talk about protecting favela local heritage and providing solar energy for favela’s residents. These issues are link with SGDs goals, especially goals 1 (No poverty) 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 7 (Affordable and clean energy) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

The Museum of Favela (MUF) is a community-based civil society organization founded by cultural leaders living in Pavão, Pavãozinho and Cantagalo favelas. MUF aims to preserve the memory of the community, promoting the connection between residents and local culture. One current attraction is the ‘Casas-Tela’ Circuit which show different favela houses decorated with art murals. To find out more – MUF trailer

The Museum Sankofa: memories and histories from Rocinha is on the streets of Rocinha. The museum narrates what the favela o

f Rocinha really is, how this favela was constituted and where this favela’s culture came from. To find out more – Museum Sankofa

Dinei Medina and Revolusolar from favela of Chapéu Mangueira are installing solar panels to generate electricity inside the favela. They have already installed three panels in two hostels and in one public building and they developed the first solar energy cooperative insight a favela. To find our more – Solar Cooperative

These tours are part of our project ‘Promoting reflection and sharing within and across international communities’ in partnership with Bournemouth University, Oxford Brookes University, Universidad Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, University of Malaysia Sarawak and Universidade Lurio. It includes one ministry office (Autoridade Reguladora das Comunicações de Moçambique). For more information International Network.

To book tours check our International Network or through  http://bit.ly/eventfavelatour

Please follow us in our social media accounts

https://www.instagram.com/tourismvirtualstories/

https://www.facebook.com/TourismVirtualStories

https://twitter.com/TVirtualStories

 

If you are interested to organise a tour for your students, please contact us Isabella Rega at irega@bournemouth.ac.uk or Juliana Mainard-Sardon at jmainardsardon@bournemouth.ac.uk

We hope you can join us and see you soon in one of our virtual tours.

Thanks!

NIHR Bulletin

Funding opportunities, NHS, writing

RDS NEWS

New RDS event: Virtual Grant Development & Writing Workshop
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve just opened registration for the new Virtual Grant Development & Writing Workshop which will take place on the 23rd and 24th November 2021.

This is a 2-day workshop that we’re hosting in partnership with the RDS North East and North Cumbria. The 2-day workshop will provide a great opportunity to help researchers to make progress in developing their NIHR research proposal into a competitive application. Find out more.

NIHR News

NIHR welcomes Government investment in health R&D

eBulletins and Newsletters

NIHR News and Research: October 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement: In Touch

PenARC Matters – October 2021

Events

NIHR Research for Social Care (RfSC) Call Seminar: 25th November 2021, 1.30pm – 3.00pm

An event specifically for social care researchers, practitioners and users to introduce the latest call from the NIHR’s RfSC programme. Speakers include the RfSC Programme Team, the RfSC committee chair, and others including Dr Mark Wilberforce (a successful candidate), Autistica, and a public involvement expert. The remit of the call, requirements and applications processes will be covered. Find out more

Funding Opportunities

Public Health Research (PHR) Programme

21/568 Suicide prevention in high risk groups
21/569 Effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing domestic abuse
21/570 What are the health and health inequality impacts of being outdoors for children and young people?
21/571 Digital health inclusion and inequalities
21/572 Increasing uptake of vaccinations in populations where there is low uptake

 

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

4th Annual Allied Health Professions Day 14th October 2021 – Research at BU

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, HSS Our 9 Research Entities, innovation, NHS

 

AHPs Day 2021 - British and Irish Orthoptic Society

 

The Allied Health Professions (AHPs) are the third largest clinical workforce in the NHS and represent a total of 14 professions which are regulated by the Health Care Professions Council and the individual profession specific regulatory bodies. Research is supported nationally and regionally through the Council for Allied Health Professions Research and at BU through our partnership collaboration with the Applied Research Collaboration NIHR Wessex.

To celebrate the 4th Annual AHP day at BU we are showcasing some of the research that is being carried out by the AHP academic community in Dorset.

Dr Katie Collins – Research focuses on the hidden impairments following a stroke and how they impact on individuals participating in active life. I am involved in exploring health equity and the impacts of health inequality and supervising a Dorset Health Care University Foundation Trust (DHCFUT): BU match funded PhD studentship exploring interventions for successful contracture management.’

Dr Vikram Mohan – Current project which has QR funding is aimed at exploring the reliability and validity of the Total Faulty Breathing Scale (TFBS). In clinical practice abnormal breathing patterns are recognised, but there are no scales to quantify the severity of abnormal breathing patterns. These findings will be applied to conditions like Covid-19, COPD etc.

Peter Philips –  PhD – “What factors affect resilience in newly qualified paramedics in the UK ambulance service?” Aims to explore stressors that newly qualified paramedics face in their first year of registration, how they seek to cope with those stressors, and what effect these have. This research will have an impact on workforce planning, recruitment, and retention of staff in the NHS.

Helen Ribchester – PhD- Exploring sense making derived from the clinical practice experiences of student Occupational Therapists in India. An This is an IPA study including elements of poetic inquiry, with participants drawn from the students of an occupational therapy programme in an Indian university (SRIHER)

Sara Sayer and Prof Carol Clark –  ‘Heading for Trouble’ project, with pump prime funding, involving external stakeholders and an interdisciplinary team from the Faculty of SciTec (Prof Hamid Bouchachia, Prof Hana Burianova, Dr Ala Yankouskaya, Dr Shanti Shankar)  aiming to explore brain scans and  questions relating to attention and memory in professional footballers. Supporting health in football.

Dr Theo Akudjedu and Dr John Totman – working within the Institute for Medical Imaging and Visualisation (IMIV) a multidisciplinary collaboration of clinicians and scientists using a Siemens 3T MRI scanner for research projects to image liver, pancreatic and biliary disease and the brain.

Dr Ursula Rolfe – co-published with David Partlow a paramedic colleague from practice – Mental Health Care in Paramedic Practice The book provides paramedics with key information on a range of mental health conditions and their management. The roles of paramedics have changed in the last decade with increases in the number of 999 calls associated with the increasing mental health needs of people.

Dr Louise Fazakarley, Dr Katie Collins and Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill – supervising a funded MRes Carrie Tbaily ((DHCFUT) – Exploring caregiver perspectives of adults with severe and profound and multiple Learning disabilities accessing sedentary hydrotherapy.

Dr Louise Fazakarley – Pump prime funding to; examine the effectiveness of Physiotherapy in the early stage of Parkinson’s disease (PD): a review of the literature and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) consultation to identify research priorities for patients with early-stage PD

Sam Page (Dorset County Hospital (DCH)), Dr Louise Fazakarley and Dr Zoe Sheppard (DCH) -ARC Wessex NIHR funding to undertake a service evaluation relating to patients who sustain pubic rami fracture and their management at home supporting better care for patients.

Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill – research focus is on humanising practice, based on existential understandings from lifeworld approaches and focuses on what make us feel human. Humanising practices are those that incorporate fully human knowing and support a sense of connection and wellbeing. Caroline has funding from the Welcome Trust – Exploring performance arts education for the stroke rehabilitation pathway, is supervising PhD students as part of the INNOVATEDIGNITY project funded by the European Commission and NIHR funding for a multicentre RCT of community-based arts and health intervention to increase psychological wellbeing in people following stroke.

Prof Carol Clark – supervising Rosie Harper (University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) with Dr Carly Stewart (BUBS) and Sally Sheppard (UHD) on a UHD; ARC Wessex NIHR; BU match funded studentship ‘Nudging: a theoretical concept for a very practical approach to pelvic floor muscle training’ Aimed at improving adherence to exercises aimed at reducing incontinence and improving health and well-being of women. Carol is currently Co-PI with Stefi Andrew (Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust) and Dr Zoe Sheppard (DCH)on NIHR ARC Wessex Exploring digital technologies for hand rehabilitation and Danni Swaithe (UHD), Dr Louise Johnson (UHD) Dr Shanti Shankar (SciTech) NIHR ARC Wessex, exploring the role of attentional focus on learning for physical recovery in acute stroke, research initiation award.

Prof Jane Murphy Co-Lead of the Aging and Dementia Research Centre  current project includes NIHR ARC Wessex funded, DONOR project (Digital cOachiNg fOr fRailty) to investigate whether a digital approach could be used alongside support from health coaches to help the lifestyle management of older people with frailty in its early stages. The DONOR project will look at whether these technologies can reduce the burden on health and care services by offering person-centred care and advice. The multidisciplinary research team will work together with stakeholders (people with frailty, carers, health coaches and AHPs) to develop and test a new digital approach, implemented across Dorset and West Hampshire. Jane provides consultancy services, works with the Wessex Academic Health Science Network and International partners and also has funding as part of the ASPIRE project with European funding.

Dr Jonathan Williams – is currently involved in projects broadly investigating clinical and sports biomechanics, including wobble board rehabilitation for diabetic neuropathy; learning and retention of infant CPR skills, quantifying spinal stiffness and movement through body worn sensors; facilitating physical activity through wearables; measurement of player load in Badminton and shoulder sensory-motor control. He is currently supervising  MRes and PhDs projects with AHPs including Andy Watt and Debora Almeida.

Debora Almeida PhD – A novel output-based approach to infant CPR training to maximise skill retention and improve patient outcome after cardiac arrest. Paediatric cardiac arrest is a worldwide health problem with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Positive outcomes depend on high quality CPR. However, infant CPR skills decay within weeks or months after training. This project aims to create a tailored retraining schedule based on the performance and retention of iCPR skills.

(more…)

Expression of Interest

We are seeking Expressions of Interest in participating in an NIHR funded project to develop a patent protected mobile phone-based app to monitor impairment of sensory nerve function. The project will involve the development of a phone attachment device to couple vibrations from the phone to the body to assess nerve function. The developed phone attachment device will be used in a clinical study of diabetic patients. 

The position holder will participate in or wholly undertake research and technical development of the mobile phone attachment. Using 3D printed parts, the position holder will model and develop innovative attachments of different morphology and complexity that can alter the vibration characteristics of mobile phones transmitting as a probe. Good 3D modelling knowledge and skills will be required together with experience of specific software packages (e.g. Solidworks), 3D scanning of shapes and 3D printing. The vibration characteristics of mobile phones with standardised devices will be evaluated and refined to automatically calibrate different phone vibrations and provide consistent readings. The post holder would contribute or be wholly responsible for producing printed parts and liaising with project/business partners and clinicians across the team and be involved in project management and dissemination of findings.  

 This position will be of interest to those who have relevant experience in software modelling, a mechanical/electronics engineering background with relevant technical skills. Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team with experimental aptitude would be an advantage. 

 Key Objectives: 

Work within a team and effectively support the technical development of the project 

  • Develop attachment probes for different mobile phones using 3D technology 
  • Design, model and print parts on 3D printing machines and test their functionality 
  • Attend research meetings and project management meetings 
  • Disseminate research findings through joint publications  

Project management: 

  • Assist the management of the project and communicate effectively with project team and partner organisations. Liaise with project partners across hospitals and industrial partners 
  • Work with stakeholders from the Healthcare sector and user community 
  • Comply with General Data Protection Regulation, Research Governance and guidelines. 

 The post is remunerated and can be either P/T (2 years) or F/T (1 year) for suitably qualified candidates such as a PDRA or a PhD student who has completed their project work and is writing up/awaiting their viva.  

 The closing date for EoIs has been extended to 4th October, 2021. If you are interested and wish to make a formal application or want to know more about this exciting project, please contact: 

 Professor Tamas Hickish 

Tamas.hickish@uhd.nhs.uk 

Mobile: 07702255509 

 

Funding opportunities, NHS

RDS NEWS

From the RDS desk – navigating the innovation pathway 
The RDS blog this month provides a few tips on putting together an i4i application Read the blog here

NIHR News

NIHR awards £12 million to artificial intelligence research to help understand multiple long-term conditions

Major new funding opportunity for local government based public health research collaborations

eBulletins and Newsletters

NIHR Funding and support news: September 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement: In Touch

Events

HEE SW NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Awards Showcase Event
Online – MS Teams: Monday 20th September 2021 1.30pm – 2.30pm.

The event is open to everyone interested in finding out more about the awards. It will include:

  • an introduction to the HEE-NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic programme and South West region awards from the HEE SW NIHR Programme Delivery Team
  • presentations from previous awardees including an intern, pre-doctoral and postdoctoral awardees in the region.
  • a Q&A session

Join on your computer or mobile app: Click here to join the meeting

Funding Opportunities

Latest NIHR funding calls
Transforming care and health at home and enabling independence

Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRC)

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
21/554 Health Technology Assessment Programme Researcher-led (primary research)
21/555 Health Technology Assessment Programme Researcher-led (evidence synthesis)
21/556 NIHR NICE Rolling Call – (HTA Programme)

 

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

NIHR Bulletin

Funding opportunities, innovation, NHS

RDS NEWS

From the RDS (Research Design Service) desk – raising the public involvement standards in the RDS.
Patient and public involvement has been an essential element of research funding applications for many years, and the RDS has been making it an essential element in how we work. Our blog this month shows how we’ve integrated our public contributor teams to our advice-giving service, and the resulting benefits. Read the blog here.

NIHR News

Good Clinical Trials Collaborative launches new guidance consultation

Professor Lucy Chappell begins role as NIHR Chief Executive

eBulletins and Newsletters

NIHR Funding and support round-up: August 2021

NIHR ARCs – August Newsletter

Funding Opportunities

Latest NIHR funding calls

Evidence Synthesis Programme
Incentive Awards Scheme 2021

Programme Development Grants
Competition 31

 

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

HEIF Small Fund Research Project: Virtual Reality Chillout

HEIF, Knowledge Exchange

Using immersive and non-immersive virtual reality to distract children with moderate to severe eczema from itching.

Project team: Dr Heidi Singleton, Professor Steven Ersser, Professor Debbie Holley. Associate Professor Xiaosong Yang. Dr Emily Arden-Close. Yaqing Cui- (Research Assistant and software developer), Professor Liz Falconer (Virtual Heritage Ltd), Dr Sarah Thomas, Amanda Roberts (Nottingham Support Group for Carers).

Child aged 5 years using Oculus Quest 2™ Headset

The aim of this project was to co-create immersive and non-immersive VR based on the guided imagery approach to managing moderate to severe eczema, targeted at children aged between 5 and 11 years of age.

Co-creation and Evaluation

Through online surveys (n=6) and semi-structured interviews (n=6), children worked with software developers to codesign the VR Chillout software. Children selected settings, interactions, music and sound effects that they felt would best help them relax and be distracted from their eczema.

 

Two resources were developed for evaluation: a relaxing 360 video of a woodland scene (click the image to view the interactive video on Youtube) and immersive VR mobile phone games:

 

Games for mobile phones – (a) Lobby  (b) Snowy World (c) Flying over Sakura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Oculus Quest 2™, three games were developed. The first game ‘Lovely Fruit Grocery’ provides an immersive interaction experience with cartoon animals, via haptic controllers. The second game is ‘Hand Jet Flying’, which not only keeps the subject’s hand busy but also produces a highly immersive VR experience. The third game is ‘Nature Wonderland’, which focuses on presenting a visually and acoustically immersive and peaceful VR environment with animals, water, and natural elements.

Key findings

  • Evaluation of 360 woodland scene, via low-cost VR headsets: children found the experience relaxing and felt they were transported to a different space.
  • Evaluation of mobile VR software: children appreciated additional interactivity offered by the Snowy World animals and flying over Sakura landscapes.
  • Evaluation of Oculus Quest 2™software (VR game useability survey – n=10 and Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index survey- n=4): children had the opportunity to use haptic hand controllers and reported that this enhanced the distraction from their eczema. Children felt that the Oculus VR Chillout games were very immersive.

“The animals were very realistic. I enjoyed playing with them and giving them food to eat. I loved the VR games; I feel they helped me to forget my itching.”

(Child aged 11)

Next steps

  • We have started discussions with the clinical eczema teams in the South of England and RDS regarding future bidding to proceed to clinical trials.
  • We aim to build upon this work with subsequent HEIF calls.

Links

Interactive 360 Video 

VR Chillout Software Show Reel

 

TomorrowPorts conference for smart port innovators

Business Engagement, conferences, Industry collaboration, innovation

SPEED, a European Interreg project, with Bournemouth University as one of its partners, is holding a conference in September aimed at those interested in new technologies (such as smart port applications), business models and ecosystems that can lead to smarter ports.

The TomorrowPorts conference takes place in Antwerp, Belgium from 23-24 September. During the event participants will learn from use cases from smart port pioneers, get inspired by state-of-the-art smart port technologies, find tech talent to fuel the digital transformation, and get in touch with the latest thinking and frameworks. More information and tickets for TomorrowPorts are available here.

SPEED – the Smart Ports Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development – aims to build an ecosystem for smart port app development in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the UK, bridging the gap between the worlds of European ports and the nascent data science – IoT market.

The conference also provides the opportunity to nominate port solutions for an award to show that collaboration within port ecosystems is key to creating the Smart Ports of Tomorrow. The winner and two runners up are entitled to a money prize, exposure, networking opportunities, free co-working space, and access to the virtual development lab and specific toolkits. The award ceremony will be held at the TomorrowPorts Conference in Antwerp, on Friday September 24. Find out more about the award and on how to register your case here.

 

 

 

 

Systematic Review: Exploring use of mobile health technology for people who are homeless

Dr Heaslip, Dr Green, Stephen Richer (Nursing Science) and Dr Huseyin Dogan (SciTech) with Dr Simkhada (Visiting Faculty) have recently published a paper Use of Technology to Promote Health and Wellbeing of People Who Are Homeless: A Systematic Review examining current published literature around the subjects of homelessness, mobile technology usage and its impact on health.

 

The review noted that literature indicated that whilst a large percentage of people who are homeless owned a mobile phone or smart phone (around 80%). There were many barriers to the use of mobile technology when you are homeless and these include: physical damage to phones, theft, inability to charge phones, lack of data and the limited availability of Wi-Fi connections. The health impacts of mobile usage are largely associated with ‘social connectedness’. This not only included staying in touch with family and friends but also maintaining a connection to popular culture, social media, news, music and films. Current research indicated that this sense of social connection was considered of high importance by individuals who are homeless. As well as a social connection, people who are homeless found technology as having other potential health benefits, such as signposting to available support,  reminders for appointments, prompts for taking medication, health information and online health advice.

Going forward, we are currently analysing data from an extensive 100 participant, 29 item questionnaire that has been carried out with people who are homeless locally as well as analysing  qualitative data from focus groups and one to one interview (n=16 participants). This arm of our research aims to assess the availability, accessibility and utility of services for people who are homeless in the local area as well as further exploring the opportunities and challenges in utilising  mobile phones to access health and social care services. Results will be published in due course and detailed in our next blog.

NIHR Bulletin

Funding opportunities, Fusion, NHS

NIHR News

Updated guidelines for recruiting public members onto Trial and Study Steering Committees

NIHR launches Impact Toolkit
NIHR has developed an interactive dashboard that summarises, and signposts to, a range of tools to support research impact planning, delivery and/or assessment. (Will need to register for NIHR Learn if not already registered).

eBulletins and Newsletters

NIHR Funding and support round-up: July 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement – In Touch

Events

New impact short course
NIHR has launched a new e-learning course, ‘Introduction to impact through the lens of NIHR’.
In this self-paced and short e-learning course, you will get an introduction to what impact is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important to the NIHR. Find out more.

Funding Opportunities

Latest NIHR funding calls

Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award (AI Award)
Competition 3

NIHR Senior Investigators
Call 15

Programme Development Grants
Mental health call

Public Health Research (PHR) Programme
21/523 Image and performance enhancing drugs
21/524 Health impacts of housing-led interventions for homeless people

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

NIHR i4i Programme Webinar 13 July 2021

Funding opportunities, innovation, NHS

  

NIHR i4i Programme

The i4i team has a webinar coming up on 13 July for two new funding calls, including one around the theme of Children and Young People’s Mental Health. Please do share with anyone you think may be interested:

The NIHR i4i Programme is launching two new funding calls this August:

  1. i4i Connect 5 aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in need of a funding boost to reach the next stage in the development pathway, addressing a clearly defined unmet clinical need.
  2. i4i – Digital Health Technologies for Children and Young People’s Mental Health– aimed at SMEs, NHS providers or higher education institutions (HEIs), this call encourages proposals addressing a range of children and young people’s mental health conditions particularly in regions that have been historically under-served by research activity or where there is high unmet mental health burden.

The i4i team would like to invite you to attend a webinar on the 13th of July, where you can hear more about the call specifications and application process. They will have two guest speakers, Professor Chris Hollis and Dr Charlotte Hall, who will talk about how evidence-based digital interventions can address an unmet clinical need in children and young people. You can register for the webinar here.

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

DRIVE project Stories and Toolkit

Awarded & submitted bids

The DRIVE project (Digital Reading for Inclusivity, Versatility and Engagement) was funded by the UKRI under its Digital Innovation for Development in Africa (DIDA) strand. Full details of the project can be found here. The second phase of this funding has been withdrawn following the UK Government’s revision of its ODA budget.

The project was led by BU Professor Bronwen Thomas, and Jess Ruddock (a PGR from FMC) was appointed as a Research Assistant from January onwards.

The project had to be substantially revised due to the COVID crisis.  This meant all project meetings had to be held online but perhaps the biggest impact was on the digital storytelling part of the project. Initially, the plan was for DigiTales, a participatory media company based in the UK and Portugal to deliver a workshop in Nairobi, with 10-12 participants. Instead, we redesigned this part of the project, providing training for three Kenyan based facilitators to deliver the workshops in three different regions of Kenya – Nairobi, Chavakali (close to the Ugandan border) and Loita (home to Maasai tribespeople).  Jess Ruddock also took part in the training.  Following this we held three workshops in the different locations, producing 13  stories in total.  The stories can be viewed on the project website.  They represent a wide range of experiences, from Alan’s account of the stigma he suffered as a child in literature classrooms because of his visual impairment, to Faith’s account of the impact that the book Blossoms of the Savannah had on her as a young Maasai girl facing the prospect of female circumcision.  In addition to learning how to create and produce digital stories, the participants were also given training on accessibility tools for the iPads that they received

Nalotwesha and Faith on a zoom call in Loita

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog posts from one of the Nairobi participants, Alan Hebert, and from the Chavakali facilitator can also be found on the website, along with Jess Ruddock’s account of the training.

The Chavakali team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the digital stories, the project team produced a Toolkit for remote delivery of digital storytelling, co-authored by Kelvin Gwuma, Joseph Odhiambo and Scola Leuka, the three newly-trained facilitators. The Toolkit is available to view or download from the project website here along with video case studies produced by the facilitators. The website also features a preliminary project evaluation reflecting on the main findings and impact of the project so far, and how we managed to meet our objectives despite all the obstacles we faced.