Category / Fusion

Socially-Adaptive Cloud gets the 3 Bs

BU research, Fusion

 

Brasilia-Birmingham-Bournemouth Social-Adaptation in the Cloud The BBB Project

This project creates a community of interest which involves academics from the computing groups of University of Brasilia, University of Birmingham , and Bournemouth University . The three groups are focused on Software Engineering research and this project involves exchange visits and the establishment of joint work.  BBB co-operatively initiates a timely thread of research on “Socially-Adaptive Cloud SaaS”. We are investigating core engineering foundations required to enable end-users to formulate Software-as-a–Service adaptation decisions at runtime. This focuses on the collection of users’ feedback about the quality of SaaS which could be used by the SaaS to adapt autonomously.

BBB welcomes any potential collaboration with interested academic and industrial institutes to exchange knowledge and join us to work in this area.

The project is funded by the The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand of Bournemouth University.

 

 

Euro PR history network backed by Fusion

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, EU, Featured academics, Fusion, Uncategorized

IHPRC at EBC - Scene for first EPRHN meeting

A proposal to develop an innovative Europe-wide network of researchers in the history of public relations field has been supported by the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF).

The European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) was formed in mid-2012 by Prof Tom Watson and backed by EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education & Research Association) as a priority project for the next three years. It was set up to identify archives and resources, undertake collaborative research, and prepare bids to European research bodies and PR industry organisations.

The field of public relations history has been developed at BU over the past four years, mainly through the establishment of the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC).

Prof Watson said: “there has been increasing interest in the conference and PR historical research in Europe over the past 3-4 years but it has largely focused on national histories, personalities or phenomena. Collaborative research, across national boundaries, has yet to emerge. There is little shared knowledge of archival resources, where they exist or can be created.”

So far, 35 academics and practitioners from 12 countries have shown their interest in EPRHN. Its first publication, a catalogue of archives and resources in seven countries has just been published.  A EPRHN planning meeting will be held at BU after IHPRC in June.

Within The Media School, the network will also help develop European aspects of the Centre for Media History (CMH). CMH is already developing relationships with universities in Sweden and northern Germany. CMH and EPRHN will, it is hoped, foster the recruitment of PGR students interested in media and communication historical research.

The Fusion funding will allow EPRHN to hold a planning event at BU after IHPRC in late June and for Prof Watson and Dr Tasos Theofilou, who is working with him on both PR history projects, to attend EUPRERA’s annual conference in Barcelona in October. At EUPRERA, they will hold the network’s first formal meeting and workshop. [Photos by Minna-Liisa Nurmilaasko, PROCOM Finland].

IHPRC 2012

Working with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Themis Foundation in Andorra. School of Tourism’s Adele Ladkin on her FIF Staff Mobility Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

In September of last year, Professor Adele Ladkin received funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two visits to the UNWTO.Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra. 

As part of its Capacity Building Programme, UNWTO.Themis provides educational courses for tourism industry experts.  Due to the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sector are recruited as facilitators to deliver the courses.

Adele has just returned from her first visit to Andorra where she and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO.Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO.Themis Foundation have been writing a teaching guide, and developing an intensive training course for the facilitators.

As a provider of educational courses, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is committed to sharing best practice in tourism teaching and learning. The purpose of the course is to assist and train facilitators to provide UNWTO Themis courses.  Along with practical guidance, the course aims to ensure that facilitators understand and articulate the philosophy and strategic issues of the UNWTO, UNWTO.Themis and their programmes.

The visit provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge exchange, with Adele gaining an insight into the latest educational activities being undertaken by UNWTO.Themis, and for her to share her expertise in developing tourism educational materials.  As Adele states:  “This has been a very intensive visit with us working collectively on the educational materials.  It also gave me the opportunity to discuss the potential for further research collaboration, which is great news for the School of Tourism and BU.”  Adele will return to Andorra for the second visit later in the year.

Women in academia and FIF SMN Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

 There are currently 18, 465 professors across British Academia; only 3,790 (20.5%) are female.  The number of female professors has increased by 1.5% since 2010[i]. At this rate of increase (0.75% per year) it will take 119 years for women to achieve equal numbers in the professoriate (and that is assuming the total number of professors stays the same!). At the same time the ratio of women to men is roughly equal at undergraduate level.  At Phd the number of women starts to decline, through to postdoctoral, to lecture, to SL to professor. We might imagine this as an inverted pyramid.

With these concerns in mind, I have recently been asked to edit a symposium in the journal European Political Science (which I will now co-edit with Stephen Bates [University of Birmingham]) about the status of women in political science.  While there are clearly issues which impact upon women’s careers across the academy (and I have written about this elsewhere),  the aim of our symposium is to map the way in which women are positioned in my own discipline, political science, across Europe.  Space and resources have meant that we are beginning with a ‘snapshot’ with contributions from Finland, Germany, Spain and the UK and authors will be asked to map the ‘state of play’ in political science in their own country.  From here the intention is to then move to a discussion about what possibilities and opportunities lie ahead for women.  While the symposium is about political science, there are clearly wider themes applicable beyond our discipline; about women in academia more generally their opportunities for entrance, engagement and progression.

 The FIF SMN networking grant gives me the opportunity to attend the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Gender and Politics Conference in Barcelona.  Here I am hoping to meet with the ECPR Gender and Politics Group steering committee and discuss the ways in which European Political Science currently seeks to tackle this issue. We are also hoping to apply for funding for a full scale data collection project, looking at best practice elsewhere and developing tools and recommendations to support and promote women within the profession.

 

 

[i] 2012 data from Higher Education Statistics Agency; 2010 data from the Equality Challenge Unit

Fusion Investment Funding – An educational game for nursing student engagement in caring for people with dementia

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

Dr Christos Gatzidis (DEC) and myself, along with BUDI colleagues Michele Board and Patricia McParland are delighted to have been awarded funding to develop an educational game for nursing students. Thanks to the funding we will be able to recruit a Research Assistant who will develop technical aspects of an interactive 3D virtual game which will respond to a European Union Directive for including dementia education in pre-registration nursing programmes.
Colleagues from HSC and BUDI will help in the preparation of detailed information to be incorporated in the game. Its veracity (and user-friendliness) will be assessed by people who have dementia and those who care for them. We will be presenting our developed game to a number of audiences, both in person and in print, once the project has reached completion in 2014 and will be offering updates along the way.

Rick Fisher, HSC

Buzz around Rufus Stone continues to create academic, cinematic and community impact

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

“Anyone of any age and background can sit and watch this film, understand it, learn from it and emotionally connect to it”.— Dr Patricia Leavy in The Qualitative Report

The short film, Rufus Stone, (Kip Jones, Author and Executive Producer), seems to move from strength to strength. The movie was based on research as part of Research Councils UK funded research at Bournemouth University and a project of the national New Dynamics of Ageing programme.

                       Harry Kershaw, Martha Myers-Lowe &Tom Kane

Rufus Stone was screened as part of an ESRC Festival of Social Science event at BU in November for representatives of health and social care organisations. Participants went away from the day of activities with new knowledge about growing older as gay or lesbian in rural settings. Attendees each received a set of Method Deck cards produced by the research team to encourage their own groups in discussion and activities around these issues.

A Masterclass is in the planning stages for late April where representatives from both statutory and voluntary groups can come to Bournemouth for two days, learn about our research, view the film and take part in exercises drawn from the Method Deck. They then will be equipped to return to their groups with training in organising their own meaningful exercises around interfacing with older gay and lesbian citizens in their organisations. By partaking in the two days of activities, participants will receive copies of the Method Deck and the film. Stay tuned for details.

Freshers on HSC’s “Exploring Evidence to Guide Practice’ unit as well as Social Work students have had recent screenings as part of their learning experiences. There will be future opportunities for BU students to take advantage of this ‘home grown’ successful learning resource.

The film was screened in January at Birkbeck/University of London’s very modern Gordon Square cinema in Bloomsbury for their Doing Critical Social Research seminar series.  A lively discussion followed with what seemed a very appreciative audience.

Cambridge University welcomes Rufus to the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse cinema on the 22nd of February at 4 p.m. as part of their Arts and Science Researcher Forum. A Q&A with Jones and Rufus Stone’s director, Josh Appignanesi, will follow the screening, BU’s Trevor Hearing will moderate.

There will be a screening of Rufus Stone in March at Talbot campus hosted by BU Media School’s Narrative Group. Following the film, Jones will discuss the use of narrative research, biography and autobiography in creating the film’s story and script.  Great chance to catch the film if you haven’t seen it already. 18 March, Kimmeridge (KG03) at 1 p.m.

Community screenings at local cinemas in Poole and Wareham are set for the BU Festival of Learning on June 5th at the Lighthouse and June 12th at the Rex. Both start at 1 p.m. with refreshments and conversation to follow. We are particularly hoping to draw crowds of a range of ages and backgrounds from local communities.

                       William Gaunt, Lin Blakley & Niall Buggy

For information, registration and/or ticket details for all future screenings, check the sidebar on Rufus Stone the movie BU microsite.

Buzz around the film has also hit the net. The Sociological Imagination features the trailer for the film on its pages and discusses ‘Turning Research into Film’. The Qualitative Report frequently features updates about Rufus Stone in its Weekly Report and recently ran a review of the film by author and educator, Patricia Leavy.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) “Impact of Social Science” web pages recently interviewed Kip Jones about Rufus Stone. Topics covered include: “How did Rufus Stone come about?” “What is the relationship between the research and the film?” and “What advice to you have for social scientists interested in using tools from the arts?” 5 Minutes with Kip Jones: “we engage in the creative process and open new doors for communication”.

As well as winning two awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival last summer, the film has also recently featured in the Torin (Italy) Film Festival and the UK Jewish Film Festival in London.

An academic article by HSC’s Kip Jones, Lee-Ann Fenge, Rosie Read and Marilyn Cash goes live in Forum: Qualitative Social Research, an on-line journal, shortly. The paper outlines the research behind the film, then presents in-depth life stories of four of the research participants.

Jones has also recently published , “Connecting Research with Communities through Performative Social Science”, which makes a case for the potential of arts-based social science to reach audiences and engage communities.

FIF – The Poole & Purbeck Portal

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

The Poole and Purbeck Portal is a new inter-school collaboration between the School of Applied Sciences, the Media School and the National Centre for Computer Animation – made possible by the Fusion Investment Fund.

The Portal will be launching in February, creating a shop window to showcase excellence in research from both our Academics, and our Students – further cementing BU’s leadership in the region. The Portal will engage the key stakeholders in the area; and work with the local community to provide the answers to the big questions relating to the regions rich natural environment, heritage and future.

Through the engagement of key stakeholders, new partnerships will emerge – students will benefit from work placements, research projects, and potentially graduate employment. The university will benefit from these new collaborations by, for example, increased consultancy projects.

The Portal itself was constructed within the ethos of the Fusion Fund – 2nd year media students were recruited to design and build the website, Red Balloon & the VFX Hub were commissioned to create a film-integrated animation promotional video, opening up cross collaborative streams across the University.

Fusion Investment Funding – Devils and Dolls Reseach Project

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion

Jim Pope and myself are extremely pleased to have gained Fusion Funding for our ‘Devils and Dolls’ research project.  This project will investigate children’s responses to Roald Dahl’s (anti)heroines, looking at Matilda and The Magic Finger. 

We have arranged to visit four local primary schools to conduct workshops with their current Year 6 students.  Our methodology will employ a qualitative approach through a range of activities to be conducted in-class with groups of Year Six children.  These hour-long sessions will revolve around discussing key scenes from the book and film and asking the children to give written and verbal opinions on whether these characters are heroic; how they are similar to/different from other heroes, and so forth. We currently estimate we will be running the session with around 100-200 children during the spring term.

We will be presenting our research as a conference paper (full abstract below) at the ‘Devils and Dolls’ conference (Bristol University, 27 March 2013) and intend to write our findings up into a full article over the summer.  We’re very excited about this project which we think is an excellent opportunity to engage in primary research into a severely under-represented area: the responses of child readers to children’s fiction and its uses in education.  We’re also especially delighted to have received this funding as it will enable us to make new networking contacts with local schools that will benefit BU in future research in this area.  The study will directly inform our future teaching on Children’s Literature unit (BA English Level I) and we hope the proposed outputs will also promote the research and media teaching being done here at BU at both a national and international level.

Lost little girls (with scary powers): how do children respond to Roald Dahl’s heroines?

Jim Pope and Julia Round

Bournemouth University

Depictions of the child in literature for children are often stereotyped and dichotomous: for every Dennis the Menace there is a Peter Perfect, and it often seems there is little in between the two poles. But the depiction of the individual child can contain a similar tension within itself and some child characters (Matilda, The Magic Finger) are shown to have the capability for innocence and destruction in equal measure. These children are neither saintly nor monstrous, and thus they don’t easily fit the stereotypes of children’s literature.  How do children interpret and respond to these characters?

This paper considers examples of the ‘little girl’ who, despite innocent appearance, can wreak great destruction.  It begins by summarising critical opinion on the subject and the narrative stances of Dahl (whose morals and messages are generally very clear and didactic).  Extracts, clips and theory are used to demonstrate that such characters cannot be clearly defined as a ‘devil’ or a ‘doll’ and that in fact there is a great deal of tension within each character.  These dichotomies are explored and reflected upon using relevant extracts and clips.

However, ‘lit crit’ like this all too often begins and ends with a point of view or an argument to be built. When critics talk authoritatively about the tones, styles, messages and impacts of children’s lit, they are writing from the perspective of an adult with things to say. The response of adult critics is itself in a multiply dichotomous position – the adult commenting on the child’s interpretation of the child character created by an adult. How far do we wish to go with such conflicted criticism? Should we not instead consider how modern child readers understand these modern heroines – are they pleased to see characters like these behaving badly (sometimes) yet still winning? 

The paper concludes with presentation of findings from a small reader-response study, in which we discussed extracts and clips from the books with groups of child readers.  Their responses and reactions to these characters are used to reflect upon the critics’ conclusions and the texts themselves.

Fusion supports new PR research collaboration in Asia

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

Prof Tom Watson teaching at Chulalongkorn University

For several years, the Media School (TMS) has been developing a relationship with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Chula, as it is known, is rated as the No.1 university in the kingdom.

The SMN award allows the development of a collaborative project between TMS and the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chula to organise an academic conference on public relations in Asia in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The conference will provide a platform for academic research on public relations history, current theory and practice, and future trends. In particular, it will investigate Asian (i.e. non Anglo-American) perspectives of public relations and will be the first dedicated conference to do so.

Prof Tom Watson, who is a co-chair of the conference, says the SMN funding “will lead to the development of a sustainable academic and research partnership between the two universities. It will enable BU staff participation in cross-cultural research with Thai colleagues. The conference will also place BU in a leadership role on research into cross-cultural communications and international public relations.”

Dr Ana Adi is working with Prof Watson on the project. She taught at Chula in mid-2012 on a staff exchange. She and at least one other TMS academic will be attending the conference and presenting papers.

The conference collaboration started with attendance by Chula’s Dr Napawan Tantivejakul at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2011 at BU, which began a dialogue about a joint conference with an Asian focus. This was cemented when Prof Watson visited Chula in November last year as a visiting professor and negotiated the arrangements. It is hoped that there will be 16 speakers, plus two keynotes, and 50 delegates at the November event.

FIF – Staff Networking and Mobility Project- Visiting Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in South Korea

BU research, Fusion, Research news

The University’s Fusion Investment Fund (Staff Networking and Mobility) has provided an excellent opportunity for building up international cooperation in research, education and professional practice. Over the years we have developed many international links with China, US, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey etc. These international links have played a significant role in our research activities through joint publications, developing research projects, submitting research proposal for external funding.

GIST is a world-class technical university which has recently started to focus on bridging art and technology, and is setting up a national research institute for art-technology fusion supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea. This matches extremely well with the ethos and practices of the NCCA that has been undertaking cutting edge research marrying art with technology.

Dr. Xiaosong Yang met Prof. Lee at SIGGRAPH2012 and had a long discussion exploring collaborative ideas. Prof. Lee has been working on physical simulation for many years, and has produced many quality publications on top journals, including SIGGRAPH (ACM Transactions on Computer Graphics). As we (Dr Yang and Prof Zhang) have been working on character animation for many years, both Prof Lee and us at the NCCA are strong players in our respective specialist subject fields and have complementary strengths. In order to consolidate our relationship and develop winning research projects, this proposed collaboration will start with joint research on physically based character animation.

Dr. Yang will give one week visit to Prof. Lee’s research lab at GIST around May/June 2013. The network activities, including guest lectures/talks, visits and meetings, will aim at promoting joint world-class research, exploring collaborations for joint-publications and future funding bids.

Researchers: Dr. Xiaosong Yang, Prof. Jian J Zhang (The Media School)

Xiaosong Yang   Jian J Zhang

Sport and Human Rights

BU research, Fusion, Research news

The Leisure and Recreation Theme starts its 2013 Seminar series with a session by Dr Andrew Adams on sport and human rights.  Recently Andrew has published on topics including:

Sport and leisure ethics, rights and relationships and, Do the Olympics help in securing or removing human rights? An exploration of the Olympic Game’s role as a catalyst for political change and human rights enhancement.

This promises to be a lively and thought provoking session with refreshments!

Wednesday 30th January at 2.00pm. TAG 01 

Developing a working paper at BU

BU research, Fusion, PG research, Publishing, Research themes

I would like to make you aware of an exciting development at BU.

A multi-disciplinary group of BU academics has been meeting over the last 6 months in order to design a online journal that is capable of acting as a central focus for the dissemination of the high quality research and scholarly outputs from UG and PG dissertations, post graduate researchers, early career researchers and established academic staff. The group has designed a developmental working paper online journal that will support ‘would be’ authors and their potential publications. Although particular emphasis has been given to maximising high quality outputs of UG and PG students and early career academics, this online journal will be capable of supporting the potential of all those engaged in research and scholarship at BU.

Below are a series of Q & As:

 

What’s the name of the working paper?

The provisional title is eBU: Working Papers Online

 

How is the working paper structured?

The working paper will not be limited to any one discipline or allied to any one particular methodology, but will aim to publish articles driven by the key BU Research Themes: (Creative and Digital Economies, Culture and Society, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Environmental Change and Biodiversity, Green Economy and Sustainability, Health, Wellbeing and Ageing, Leisure and Recreation, Technology and Design). Apart from the build-up to launch, the working paper will have no deadlines or specific calls for papers. Instead, the working paper will work on a rolling submission process.

A set of author guidelines and details about formats are currently being considered and written. However, the guidelines are likely to accommodate a wide range of formats.

 

What are the submission processes for staff and students?

It is envisaged that staff will act as gatekeepers and encourage undergraduate and master’s students to submit high quality work into a format this is publishable. Post-graduate researchers and academic members of staff will be able to submit papers on their own accord.

After a short review from the editorial board, two designated BU academics will provide an initial quality check. The paper will then be uploaded to the internal intranet working paper site. This will allow any member of staff or student to read and offer feedback. However, within a few weeks the two designed reviewers will then provide a more comprehensive and detailed critical review. All reviews will take place in a safe, secure and INTERNAL environment. After a detailed review, students will then be encouraged to make any recommended changes and submit to external publication/or make their work available to be published on external working paper website.

This working paper is set to go live in March.

 

Further information

If anyone is interested in becoming involved in helping to create this online journal, and/or at an editorial level please get in touch with Andrew Harding (aharding@bournemouth.ac.uk), Andrew Adams (aadams@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Fiona Knight (fknight@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Rural Dementia care, Lessons from Canada

Fusion

Good Day All

 You are invited  to a one hour presentation by Professor Debra Morgan from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She will discussing her work in Rural Dementia Care.

 I had the pleasure of meeting Debra when I went to Canada in  November, and to spend time with the Rural Dementia Care team members, and visit the Rural and Remote Memory Clinic. It was very inspiring to see the services and developments for people with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers. I realised that our definition of rural and there’s is very different!! 

Debra is a nurse by professional background and has developed these services in Saskatchewan. This is a great opportunity to hear more about her work in rural dementia care so I hope you will be able to come along to meet and ask her some questions, on 30th January, 12-1, EBC, 202.

 Please do let Michele Board mboard@bournemouth.ac.uk know if you plan to attend.

 You can find out more about Professor Morgan at http://www.cchsa-ccssma.usask.ca/ruraldementiacare/index.html

 

Visit to Canada following successful Fusion Bid

Fusion

Following a successful fusion bid I (Michele Board) visited Canada in November 2012 to explore opportunities for research, education and practice that can be transferred to the BU/UK context. I was also promoting the newly formed BU Dementia Institute (BUDI), and build on our growing research interests with two Universities in Canada. The trip also included: a visit to the Canadian Alzheimer Association based in Toronto, Professor Pia Kontos at Toronto University, a Dementia memory clinic in Saskatoon, and delivering the key note presentation at fifth meeting of the Knowledge Network in Rural and Remote Dementia Care in Saskatoon.

Professor Pia Kontos at Toronto University was very interesting. Her research on person centred care reinforces the focus we have in our undergraduate nursing programme. She shared her creative approach for the dissemination of research, for example through drama and a new project she is undertaking around clowning. It is hoped ‘clowning’ will help build relationships with those suffering with dementia. See more information about her work at  http://www.torontorehab.com/research/kontos.html

The Alzheimer’s Association education team, in Toronto, were very interested to hear about BUDI and the education we have undertaken with Nursing Homes. They also look to the UK as leaders in the formation of a dementia strategy, and the PM taking a lead in promoting and funding dementia research. They are working towards the formation of a dementia strategy.

Visiting the memory clinic in Saskatoon was very interesting. The principle of the memory clinic was fundamentally the same as the memory clinic I have been working in. However, where they differed significantly was on two aspects: all data they collected about patients and their carers/NOK, was used in research, and the use of Telehealth to provide ongoing monitoring and support to clients in remote areas of Saskatoon. Post graduate psychology students were offered placements with the team in the memory clinic. The students actively participated in research whilst developing their skill in cognitive testing. Patients and carer satisfaction was obvious, but it was also supported by the data collected of user satisfaction with the service provided. See this link for more information about the clinic and their research http://www.cchsa-ccssma.usask.ca/ruraldementiacare/

 

The memory clinic team, led by Professor Debra Morgan, have an annual conference inviting key stakeholders to hear about research undertaken in the previous year, offer suggestions for research plans and share best practice. There is a poster presentation and an award given to the best student poster. I was asked to be one of the reviewers of the posters and was impressed by the quality and diversity of research outputs from the memory clinic.

 

The key note presentation had four parts: an overview of BUDI and potential areas of mutual interest; the work I have undertaken in the memory clinic; my PhD findings and a tourist guide to Dorset! It was well received with many questions and expressions of interest in our work and visiting Dorset.

 

Finally the photograph shows me on the right, standing next to  Professor Morgan, Duane Munish and post graduate student, outside the universities ‘Faculty Club’! A definite potential for a fusion bid I’m sure.

Faculy Club University of Saskatchewan

Engaging students: The Research Apprenticeship Summer Scheme in the Psychology Research Centre

BU research, Fusion, Uncategorized

In the last round of applications to the Fusion Investment Fund Dr Ben Parris, Dr Sarah Bate and Professor Sine McDougall from the Psychology Research Centre applied for, and were awarded, funds to pay for five summer placement positions that enabled our most promising students to gain a greater insight into life as researchers on a full-time basis. For a period of 9 weeks the students became part of one of the research laboratories in Psychology.  The students were responsible for experiment preparation, data collection, and data preparation and joined in lab discussions. Three RA positions were open calls; two were allied to REF impact case studies. All 2nd year students were invited to apply for the positions. Linking in with the employability strand on the undergraduate course the students were asked to provide an up-to-date CV and a 500-word summary on how the summer placement scheme would benefit them in their future career. The five selected candidates were housed in P106, which was converted into dedicated office space where the RAs could base themselves over the summer period and interact with each other and with postgraduate students and members of staff.

The scheme had a large impact on research. The five students on the scheme contributed to literature reviews, data collection, experiment programming and lab discussions for several members of staff in the Psychology Research Centre. Whilst they were each allied to a particular member of staff, others in the Centre sought their help when there was a bit of down time on the main project on which they were working. Whilst it is too early to list research outputs that have benefitted from this scheme, clearly the data collected, the literature reviewed, and the experiments programmed have all contributed towards the research goals of members of the Psychology Research Centre. Overall, data from over 200 participants were collected at a time when it is particularly difficult to recruit and test participants. Moreover, given that the scheme represents effective training for those seeking a career in academia, the full-time positions gave students the opportunity to engage in professional practice. Furthermore, by allying two positions with impact case studies the scheme involved their engagement with bodies external to the university (e.g. Poole Hospital).

Feedback from the students themselves provides useful insight into the utility of the scheme to them. All students reported great satisfaction with the scheme, having learned how to conduct a piece of research properly. They report having learned useful technical skills that they can apply to their final year projects. Most importantly they report direct benefits for their final year of study. Not only have they used their time wisely in thinking about the project which forms a large part of their final year (and degree as a whole) but the students reported that one of the biggest benefits was improvements in article reading skills.  Two of the students commented how extra reading for lectures now seems a lot easier; they can now read and extract important information in half the time.  This has enabled them to explore a much broader range of papers, which has increased their understanding of Psychology.  One student wrote ‘My general understanding of Psychology has been greatly improved, igniting a much stronger passion for the subject than I have ever felt before and the impact that this has had on my University work is extremely valuable to me’. Another wrote ‘Since starting back in term one, I have found that reading journal articles has become an easier process for me. I am now able to look at any article from any topic area and understand more fully what I’m reading, and where to go to find the information that is relevant for the task at hand’. As a final example, one of this year’s RAs wrote ‘The opportunity to continue to study, conduct research and become more familiar with programs such as SPSS throughout the summer means that the return to the final year is considerably less daunting and I feel more confident about designing and conducting my own study’.

A final important consequence of this scheme neatly highlights one of the benefits of fusion.  Admittedly an unintended consequence of the scheme, engaging potential researchers of the future had the consequence of making researchers of the present feeling somewhat trapped in the past. One of the apprentices took it upon himself to introduce us to the potential of Twitter and Facebook for participant recruitment. This has now been incorporated into our participant recruitment strategy. The Facebook site attracted 80 ‘likes’ within a few days (I believe that number is now much higher) and has since been used to recruit participants.  This will increase the efficiency with which all members of the Psychology Research Centre complete research. In short, the masters became the apprentices.

Fusion Investment Fund – One week to get your applications in!

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

Please be aware of the upcoming deadline for submitting your application to the Fusion Investment Fund!

The upcoming round of funding has a deadline of 1st December – committees will then meet in January to decide which proposals get funding, with decisions going out to applicants in mid-January.

I will be posting specific details about some of the proposals throughout 2013, I hope these will be useful to help illustrate what the funds can be used for and why certain applications were successful in a particular strand.

We have already planned interventions to take place in the Spring leading up the next round of funding which has a 1st June deadline. Feel free to drop me an email about these.

To apply to fund please see the intranet pages here.

 

Good luck!

Sam Furr

FusionFund@bournemouth.ac.uk