Category / Impact

GCRF Collective Programme Pre- Call Announcements

BU research, ECR Network, Funding opportunities, Impact, Research news

WATCH THIS SPACE! The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Collective Programme calls will be announced shortly.  If you are interested or require support please contact Alexandra Pekalski or call on 01202 961204. You can also find deadlines, town meeting information and expected launch dates here

Applicants from all relevant disciplines are encouraged to apply for each call and proposals should be challenge-led and interdisciplinary in nature notwithstanding which council is leading. The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) GCRF Collective Programme is a series of calls designed to enhance the overall impact across the six strategic GCRF Challenge portfolios:

  • Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure
  • Education
  • Food Systems
  • Global Health
  • Resilience to Environmental Shocks and Change
  • Security Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement

The programme is an interdisciplinary programme delivered by UK Research and Innovation and steered by the GCRF Challenge Leaders.

Please contact Alexandra Pekalski or call on 01202 961204 for further information and support.

‘4*’ paper to end the year…

BU research, Impact, Research assessment

Aligning with BU’s 2025 Medical Science strategy and the proposed department of Medical Sciences, research findings to be published in Nature Communications describe a potential new target for the control of kidney failure in diabetics. BU (co-lead authorship), in collaboration with clinicians and scientists at the universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Hong Kong, Toronto, Northwestern (Chicago), Otago in New Zealand, MRC Harwell and the pathology department in Glasgow (phew!), we have identified a metabolic signature in the kidney’s filtration cells (known as podocytes) that links insulin resistance to kidney failure. This is important because it details a mechanism which might be ‘tweaked’ in patients suffering from diabetic nephropathy – one of the most common causes of kidney failure in the world.

Paul S. Hartley.

Create: Share: Inspire: working with our students in global contexts

BU research, conferences, Impact

Professor Debbie Holley addresses an international audience at the World Education Conference (hosted by London International Education Conference) in Cambridge on 12th December. Invited to keynote, her talk covers the possibilities and affordances offered by global collaborations. Drawing on the extensive knowledge of working with the ‘digital’ to engage staff, student and communities, Debbie covers the pleasures and pinchpoints of scaling up innovation, and suggest design based learning as a possible framework for exploring and sharing concepts.

Abstract:

How can we break down barriers and encourage and inspire our students to communicate, collaborate and create together? At time when the ‘global’ is offering ever more affordances to learners, how can we as educators respond to the challenges posed by a fast moving technology sector, yet ensuring that we are delivering robust, evidence based teaching? At Bournemouth University we are exploring some of the opportunities and challenges and this talk will offer some insights as what may be possible, and some strategies for overcoming the barriers we face to make the possible happen in our own classrooms.

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BU-Community Partnership Workshop (Refugee & Migrant Leisure Network)

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Impact

Dr. Jaeyeon Choe, Dr. Varuni Wimalasiri, Dr. Nicola De Martini Ugolottiand, and Dr. Jayne Caudwell in Faculty of Management organised the Refugee and Migrant Leisure Network workshop on December 5th with community partners including Dorset Race Equality Council and Unity in Vision.

During the two-hour workshop, we discussed how to support refugee and migrant communities in Dorset including ‘vocation’ and language learning. We also discussed other mechanisms that help their re-settlement and integration such as cooking workshops, community events, music and art, all which might provide a broader scope of support such as social and emotional/psychological well-being.

We agreed that we need to listen to refugee and migrant ‘voices’ for their settlement, integration, meaning making and well-being in order to develop supportive programmes. It’s often seen that existing programmes don’t meet what refugee and migrant populations actually need. There is an urgent need to listen to their problems, challenges, so as to develop effective support programmes.

We also discussed ‘qualitative’ data that community organisations often collect including stories, lived experiences and anecdotes do not communicate well with policy makers. What will be an effective strategy to convert the ‘messy’ data (from community events, sport, music, and art) into policy making? This is a challenge for both community organisations and researchers.

Our community partners also shared that they are facing new challenges (ie funding). All councils and community organisations face difficulties in developing, managing and ‘sustaining’ support systems for refugee and migrant populations. Whilst discussing the role of a local university when supporting refugee and migrant issues, securing some funding can be one area to work on for both researchers and community groups. For example, Dr. Jaeyeon Choe recently applied for a grant with two of the community partners to support their activities as well as her own research. The proposal focuses on Syrian refugee resettlement, belonging, subjective well-being and community ‘food’ events in rural UK. We are also looking into larger/future collaborative funding opportunities together.

For BU academics, it was very fruitful to listen to and learn from community workers about refugee and migrant issues in Dorset and beyond. Besides the productive discussions, it was inspiring to see people who are passionate about supporting and working hard for refugee and migrant communities!

If you are interested in our network, please follow us:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/400355213641367?tsid=0.41635546925909617&source=result

Shaping Media Policy and Regulation

BRIAN, Impact, Knowledge Transfer, policy

Following a business engagement event on Digital Strategy and Business Transformation and subsequent publications in academic and practitioner journals, Dr Oliver’s work on the strategic digital transformations of the UKs Creative Industries and media firms has been credited with shaping Ofcom’s media policy and regulation. Ofcom recently commented that his research into the how Sky Plc had managed the digital transition over the past twenty years provided them with a unique insight into Sky’s strategic approach, and it enabled them to “think differently about their ‘growth strategy’ and diversification into new markets such as broadband, fixed and mobile telephony”. Ofcom concluded that Sky had in fact contributed to increased levels of competition in those sectors.

Ofcom also confirmed that the research had helped them to consider their remit as a communications regulator and the potential areas where they could use their expertise in the future, most notably in terms of the potential future regulation of the internet.

Dr Oliver’s research – ‘Strategic Transformations in the Media’ can be found on BRIAN.

HE Policy update for the w/e 23rd November 2018

Impact, Industry collaboration, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, policy, Research news, Student Engagement

Considering we were late and included much of Monday’s news in the last update, this is a bumper update for you.  Lots of data and lots of speculation about fees etc.  We have managed to avoid the B word this week – as you will have had enough of it from all the other news sources.

Internships

Sophie Bradfield, the Policy & Campaigns Coordinator for SUBU, returns with another guest piece for us this week

Sutton Trust has published research today on graduate internships detailing that “39% of graduates in their twenties have done an internship, including almost half (46%) of young graduates under 24.” These statistics have a direct correspondence with research published in a Lancaster University HECSU-funded Graduate Resilience Project in 2016, looking at how students transition after graduating, where “45% of respondents identified a concern that they lacked relevant experience.” Pairing this with the competition for graduate jobs, it’s of no surprise that so many students seek to undertake internships. At BU gaining placements and real-world experience is a unique selling point and as BU proudly states on the placement information page “90% of our graduates have relevant work experience and this can give you a real head start in the competitive jobs market.” The Students’ Union at Bournemouth University (SUBU) is in absolute agreement that offering opportunities to gain experience can really help students to stand out from the crowd; learn transferable skills for employment; and increase employability and so we have a lot of extra-curricular opportunities on offer for students and collaborate with BU on a number of joint projects including recruiting paid students to be on programme review panels.

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Update for REF Impact Case Study Authors: Impact section on HSS writing community in Brightspace

Impact

As we are gearing up for REF 2021, BU’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF) has organised multiple events over the next few weeks on relevant topics such as improving the quality score of research output, impact basics, developing impact case study, and impact case study writing retreat. Having attended these events before I strongly believe that these are very helpful with lots of relevant resources.

On top of that, I would like to remind you that the HSS writing community in Brightspace has dedicated ‘Impact’ section to help BU researchers make strong impact case study. For example, many of us wonder what a 4 star impact case study looks like? In answer, the impact section now includes real impact case studies related to the Unit of Assessment (UoA) 2, 3, and 20 with 4 star ranking from the REF 2014. Links are also provided for additional high ranking case studies. In addition, guidance on impact case studies for main Panel A (UoA 2, 3) and Panel C (UoA 20), and other tips and information for writing impact case studies are also available.

Please be in touch if you require any help or want to discuss on your proposed impact case study.

Dr. Nirmal Aryal, Postdoctoral Researcher (Impact)

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

 

 

CoPMRE Fifteenth Annual Symposium: Globalisation and Healthcare Report

conferences, Events, Fusion, Impact, international, Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Research communication

 

CoPMRE held its Fifteenth Annual Symposium  Globalisation and Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges in October.  The conference was a success thanks to the inspiring speakers and received excellent feedback.  You can read a full report on the conference here and authorised presentations can be found here.

Creating Impact on Business Practice and Strategy

Business Engagement, Impact, Industry collaboration

The future of YouTube was a co-created research project between Emma Parrett, Strategic Partnerships Director at OMD UK and Dr John Oliver (FMC). OMD are a strategic communications and planning agency that employs over 8,500 people in more than 120 offices globally and are the most awarded agency network in the world.

One of OMDs clients are YouTube and the challenge they faced was how to develop long-term market insight and strategic solutions in a rapidly changing media environment.The project combined imaginative and systematic thinking in a way that provided a unique insight into future media environments and how YouTube could compete using multiple strategic options.

The impact of the project and the scenario planning methodology has influenced OMD’s business practices in a number of ways. They believe that their media planning team were better able to make sense of often conflicting macro-environmental trends and are now able to find more advanced strategic insight. Additional positive outcomes were evidenced by increased usage of scenario planning, as well as staff and client understanding of a methodology which they ultimately regarded as a way of obtaining strategic solutions in a rapidly changing business environment.

Dr Oliver commented that the benefits of academics working with industry professionals to create knowledge and instrumental impact on business practices has been evidenced in this project. ​

Furthermore, the YouTube project has been written up and published in both industry and academic journals and the level of publisher downloads has run into the thousands.

The article can be accessed at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Wbaj1lnoC6sq

Why should we care about your research?: Think impact

Impact

Research impact is a relatively new concept introduced by the UK Research Council in 2009. In fewer than 10 years, it has rapidly gained momentum such that it has now become an integral part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 accounting for 25% of the total score (increased by 5% from the REF 2014). For research grant proposals in the UK and in many other countries, applicants need to clearly demonstrate their ‘impact plan’ (i.e. who is going to benefit and how?) and present ‘pathways to impact’ activities (i.e. what are you doing to increase the chance of your research making a difference?). Prof. Mark Reed on his website (www.fasttractimpact.com) suggests that reviewers of grant applications are now looking for costing of around 5% to 10% of the total budget in ‘pathways to impact’ activities.

During a one-day impact workshop on August this year Prof. Reed said that he thinks one word that best represents ‘research impact’ is ‘benefit’. Researchers use ‘public money’ which could otherwise be used in other important areas, so it shouldn’t be surprising if funders or the public ask ‘what benefit (or effect or change) is likely to come from your research?’ Thus, research should be relevant to the pressing need of the people and render benefit to the individuals or society, beyond academia.

Although impact of the research may not be predicted at the very outset and could be affected by external factors, it is now commonly agreed by the expert scientific community and research funders that well-planned impact activities with pre-determined impact goal increase the likelihood of achieving research impact. Research impact is relevant not only to established researchers but also to research students. Postgraduate research students could develop impact plans and pathways to impact activities which are feasible in a given time and available resources. Pathways to impact activities may include writing a research blog, newspaper articles, building a network with key people or organisations via social media (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn). It will help them to ‘stand out’ from the crowd and to become more competitive when looking for jobs.

Planning for research impact and thinking about ways in which to enhance the impact will help give an answer to the question ‘why should care about your work?’

These references will help to understand research impact in depth:

Reed, M.S. (2018) The Research Impact Handbook, 2nd Edition, Fast Track Impact.

www.fasttrackimpact.com

www.stephenckemp.co.uk

 

Dr. Nirmal Aryal

Postdoctoral Researcher (Impact)

Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

 

The Impact of Digital Strategy and Business Transformation

Business Engagement, Impact, Industry collaboration, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

In April 2017 Dr John Oliver co-hosted a business engagement event on Digital Strategy and Business Transformation with The Hackett Group (London). The Hackett Group are leading management consultants providing expert advice on digital transformation and benchmarking to major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 89% of the Fortune 100 and 59% of the FTSE 100.

The event formed part of a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust funded research project and was attended by senior business executives from the likes of Ofcom, the Financial Times, Astrazeneca and Bell Pottinger. At the time, the delegates commented that it was an “excellent event” that provided different perspectives on digital transformation and new ideas on how to manage strategic digital transformation within their firms.

After 18 months, a clearer picture has emerged of the impact that the presentation of findings and subsequent discussion has had on business practice. Chris Davenport, a Senior Director at The Hackett Group, recently commented that “the event influenced our strategic approach to the development of a new Digital Strategy and Analytics service for our clients. This new consultancy service has been now been launched and several of our FTSE100 clients (among others Tesco, John Lewis and Unilever) have gained insight from this. Some of these clients have already decided to invest millions of pounds into resources creating many new jobs in Digital services and Analytics departments in their firms and we expect many more to follow”.

The research findings have been published in several practice management journals, whilst the academic papers are in the final stages of peer review.