BU Research Blog

Category / Impact

October 10, 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – support for developing your event idea

BU research, Festival of Learning, Impact, international, Public engagement, Research communication, Training, Uncategorized Joanna Pawlik

Do you have a fantastic piece of research that you’d like to develop into a public engagement event but need help or ideas? Or perhaps you have an existing event that you’d like to make more engaging or take to a new audience?

Naomi Kay (Public Engagement Officer) and Genna West (Engagement and Impact Facilitator) are on-hand to provide support for planning your event, writing the proposal or just to talk through any ideas you might have. They will be based in the locations specified below, so please stop by!

If none of the slots suit you or if you would like to speak to either Genna or Naomi specifically, then please feel free to get in touch and set up a meeting to discuss your event plans.

In addition to these drop-in sessions, a dedicated training session will take place on Monday 31 October, focusing specifically on developing a public engagement event. The workshop will explore:

How public engagement can provide an opportunity to share your research with the public
Event design for public engagement events
How to engage the audience you want to target
How best to evaluate your events
What makes a good Festival of Learning event, with examples of effective past events

There will be dedicated time and support for individuals to create a new event to submit to the Festival of Learning. Find out more and book your place via Organisation Development here.

Date	Time	Location
Wednesday 12 October	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Wednesday 19 October	11am-12pm	Fusion Building – coffee area
Thursday 27 October	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Monday 31 October – Developing a public engagement event training session	1pm-4pm	Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot campus Please book this session via OD.
Friday 11 November	12:30pm-1:30pm	EB204, Executive Business Centre
Monday 14 November	8:30am-10am	Fusion Building – coffee area
Tuesday 15 November	4pm-5pm	Executive Business Centre Cafe
Wednesday 23 November	2pm-3pm	Poole House Atrium
Thursday 24 November	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Monday 28 November	9am-11am	Executive Business Centre Cafe
Thursday 1 December	8:30am-5pm	Talbot Campus Drop In
Deadline for event submissions – 4pm on Friday 2 December

October 10, 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – What could you do?

Festival of Learning, Impact, international, Public engagement, Research communication, Uncategorized Joanna Pawlik

The call for proposals for Festival of Learning 2017 is now live!

This series of blog post aims to give you some inspiration for the type of events that would work well as part of the Festival.

There are many types of events, they come in all shapes and sizes and yes, we agree… planning your own public event can be a bit of a challenge and you may not know where to start. Alternatively, you might be on the other side of the spectrum and feel that there are not enough hours in the day for you to share all of the knowledge and wisdom that you’d like the public to benefit from. Regardless of your situation, we hope you’ll find this post helpful.

Have you ever thought about giving your audience the power to decide what the event is going to be about?

Audience-lead events can be a fantastic way of communicating your research and really enjoyable for the public.

Why?

Because people love to learn about what you do, but they also love to have the opportunity to ask you lots of burning questions!

Let me give you an example of something We consider to be a good audience-lead event…

The Great British Brain Off

Although this event did not have much to do with baking cakes, Dr Alan Gow from Heriot-Watt University likes to call himself a ‘head chef’, because he has a passion for finding a recipe for the perfect brain.

There are lots of ways in which this research topic can be approached, but in this event, the ‘head chef’ orders his audience to write down what they think is good and bad for the human brain. Little sticky notes are collected and this is when the show really begins. Dr Gow looks through each note, reads them out loud and asks people to raise their hands if they agree with the statement. Then he begins to teach. On one side of the table there are colourful rainbows which he likes to call the Brainbow. He takes a graphic that corresponds with the topic on the sticky note, for example alcohol. He then places the graphic on the Brainbow – the higher it goes, the bigger the influence it has on our brain.

In an interactive and fun way, our beliefs on what is healthy for our brain are being challenged and mapped on the Brainbow, helping the audience to better understand the needs of the human brain.

If you are interested in watching the actual event, you can find it Here

Come to one of our drop-in support sessions to talk to us about your event idea and book your place on ‘Developing a public engagement event’ training session via Organisation Development here.

This event took place as part of the British Science Festival in Swansea, 2016.

September 23, 2016

Student Engagement Toolkit

BU research, Events, Impact, Student Engagement, student research hjones

If you’re looking to engage more students with your research, then the Student Engagement Toolkit is the easiest way to demonstrate how to do this. This presents the different methods available to you to communicate your research across the student community, including how to take part in the assortment of events taking place across BU, such as 14: Live. As well as this, it provides information on how to engage students in a online context by pushing through news and press releases through our various external and internal comms. Have a go at encouraging students to take part in our Undergraduate orientated events taking place, such as SURE or BCUR which BU is hosting in April 2017. Why is student engagement with research so important? Well, it’s a great opportunity to broaden your research audience and even inspire undergraduate students to partake in their own research route. Many academics have successfully taken part in student engagement activities, including Dr Sean Beer, Dr Anna Feigenbaum and Dr James Gavin, in the past. Take a look at their thoughts surrounding events/activities they’ve taken part in.

Take a closer look at the Student Engagement Toolkit here.

Want to get involved or have some ideas of your own? Send in your idea for a 14: Live session or any other ideas you may have to the Student Engagement Coordinator

September 14, 2016

Student Engagement Opportunity

BU research, Impact, Research communication, Student Engagement hjones

Call for academics! Do you want to engage more students with your research? Then 14:Live is an excellent opportunity to interact with more students, in a relaxed setting and get them involved with what you do. Previous talks including Dr Dan Jackson and Dr Lauren Kita have proved successful and beneficial for both academics and students alike. The talks occur once a month, taking place on the 5th floor of the student centre and we’re looking for academics to lead a session after Christmas. This a great way to get students engaged in your research!

Interested? Get in touch if you’d like to take part and contact Hannah Jones/61214

September 14, 2016

NERC: New public engagement funding call

BU Challenges, BU research, Funding opportunities, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement Genna West

Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science

NERC is inviting proposals under the Planet Earth Pilot programme for public engagement projects costing up to £20k that must be delivered between January and end of March 2017.

This call initiates delivery of NERC’s public engagement strategy through:

engaging members of the UK public with relevant contemporary issues of environmental science through delivery of environmental science public engagement activity
building public engagement capacity in the environmental science research community and providing opportunities for early career researchers and PhD students to develop skills, practice and embed public engagement in their research careers
building partnerships between researchers and publics or public-facing groups, and between research organisations.

Projects will focus on broad, contemporary issues of environmental science, not specific research projects or grants.

An additional budget is available to provide matched funding up to the total value of the proposal (an additional maximum £20k) to provide training and support for the involvement of early-career researchers and PhD students in public engagement projects.

Further details of this call can be found in the Announcement of Opportunity on the NERC website.

The closing date for proposals is 16:00 on 3 November 2016.

RKEO’s Genna West (Engagement and Impact Facilitator) will be attending the information event on Thursday 22 September – please contact her for further details. The aims of the event are to:

introduce the call and give the opportunity to ask the NERC team questions
showcase examples and experiences to spark ideas
provide a forum for networking and forming collaborations.

If you’d like to discuss ideas for an event or need inspiration please contact Genna or Naomi Kay (Public Engagement Officer).

And, as always, please inform the RKEO Funding Development Team as soon as possible if you are interested in this call, so that they can support your bid.

September 7, 2016

Funding for arts and heritage

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team jcodling

money and cogs

As crowdfunding in the UK continues to grow, it is also becoming an increasingly important source of finance for arts and heritage projects. As a result local authorities, institutions, public bodies and foundations have begun to explore what this new form of finance means for the people and organisations they are supporting and how they can work with the crowd on identifying and funding worthy projects.

However, none of the matched funds to date have had a dedicated focus on arts or heritage projects. Linked to this, there has been little research done on the real impact of matched crowdfunding, such as whether or not it has the opportunity to generate more funding for the arts and heritage sector or increase awareness and public participation in supporting and initiating projects.

Crowdfunder is working with Nesta to launch a matched crowdfunding pilot aimed squarely at the arts and heritage sectors. The pilot will provide two streams of £125,000 in matchfunding to arts and heritage projects that have received backing from the crowd. Nesta is developing the pilot in partnership with Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Crowdfunder will develop the matched crowdfunding platform for the pilot.

To find out more.

To register.

September 5, 2016

Women Academics Centre Stage in Presidential Roles in Major International Professional Bodies and Conference Organisation

BU research, conferences, Fusion, Global engagement, Impact, international, Research news, Research themes Lisa Andrews

Women Academics Centre Stage in Presidential Roles in Major International Professional Bodies and Conference Organisation

3^rd International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology

10-14 July2016, University of Vienna, Austria

Professor Ann Brooks

Bournemouth University

This year’s Third ISA was held at the University of Vienna and shortly after Brexit, so I braced myself to face a barrage of jokes and recriminations about the UK vote. Well there was some gentle humour in the plenaries but the response was mainly one of pity. The conference was based in the opulence of the University of Vienna… . With its historical and contemporary position in relation to both European and global sociology this conference attracted 4,000 sociologists from across the globe. I usually find the ISA a somewhat unwieldy conference compared to the BSA and ASA but Research Committtee (RC) 32 Women in Society, has a wonderfully inclusive feel and gave coherence to the entire conference for me (see below). Increasingly some of the best conferences have women centre stage, including the ASA 2015 Conference in Chicago, with the then ASA President, Paula England, and the current ASA President and Chair of the 2016 Program Committee, Ruth Milkman (CUNY –Graduate Centre). The ASA Conference was held in Seattle in August 2016. The current ISA President is Margaret Abraham (Hofstra University, USA) who together with a team at the University of Vienna delivered a conference which did not disappoint.

A series of important and thoughtful plenaries addressed the global dimensions of the conference with the University of Vienna organising team providing an interesting European dimension addressing the Brexit issue. A generally favourable balance was achieved between global and European dimensions. The Opening Plenary featured a number of academics from the University of Vienna and they were clearly delighted at attracting over 5,000 sociologists to this impressive university as the conference base. The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna, Ulrike Felt, provided an uplifting and impressive summary of the social sciences at the University Vienna and I can see the number of applicants for positions there escalating as a result. It was also great to see governmental support for the social sciences, with Barbara Weitgruber, Director General, Austrian Ministry of Science delivering a very positive statement in support of the social sciences. Margaret Abraham’s ISA Presidential Address, found here:

http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW44_sW4Jmc

was an important statement in equity and intersectionality and made an important contribution to this lively opening Plenary. Margaret is also an important contributor to the ASA Conference, particularly in terms of the International aspects of both conferences.

While the conference lacked the celebrity appeal of the ASA, it certainly did not lack in the seriousness of the debates. One of the most interesting debates came from the closing plenary chaired by Marcus Schultz (New School for Social Research, New York), with Asef Bayat (University of Illinois) ‘Imagining a Post-Islamist Democracy’, Akosua Adomako Ampofo (University of Ghana) ‘Black Lives Matter and the Status of the African World’, Todd Gatlin (Columbia) ‘What Kind of a World Can Weather Climate Change?’ and Alain Touraine (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, France), as discussant.

Research Committee (RC) 32 Women in Society

The size of the conference meant that affiliation to specific programs proved a favoured response. I am a member of RC32 Women in Society and the program was widely regarded as one of the best at the conference. The Program Coordinators for RC32, Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Josephine Beoku-Betts (Florida Atlantic) had worked to organise an extensive range of panels and roundtables including: ‘Human Trafficking: The Labour and Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children’; ‘Twenty Years after Beijing: A Cross-National Approach to Feminist Movements and the Implementation of the Platform for Action’; ‘Global Sociology and Feminist Perspectives on Care, Care Work and the Struggle for a Careful World’; ‘Knowledge Production: Feminist Perspectives in the 21^st Century’; ‘Gender, Law and the Courts: Local and Global Struggles Against Violence’; ‘ Intersectionalities of Power in Research: Strategies for Action and Justice’; ‘Gender, Culture and Technologies in the Knowledge Economy’; ‘Muslim Women’s Struggles for a Better World through Promoting Gender Equality’; and ‘The Cities We Want: Using Visionary Methodologies to Create Feminist Alternatives to Urban Planning’. My paper was in the ‘Precarity and Gender in the Era of Neoliberal Globalization’ and I focused on relational precarity as highlighted in the work of Lauren Berlant entitled: ‘Gender, Precarity and Sexuality: The Intersection of Gender, Ethnicity, Sexuality and Class in Relational Precarity in Neoliberal Society–the Influence of Lauren Berlant’. .

The double badging of sessions with RC32 with other RCs was a really valuable dimension of the conference, this was particularly the case for the RC02 Economy and Society led by the Program Coordinator, Heidi Gottfried, which included some excellent sessions including: ‘Gender Regimes or Gendered Institutions’ organised by Sylvia Walby. A particularly interesting session was the ‘Author Meets Critics: Crisis by Sylvia Walby’. Chaired by Heidi Gottfried and with discussants Stephanie Woehl (Vienna) and Christopher Chase-Dunn (California-Riverside). This proved to be one of the most coherent and intense social and political analyses including the focus on the EU and had anticipated Brexit. Sylvia’s response to criticism was powerful and wide-ranging and pointed to the next political crisis being in the EU not the UK. She also calls for a ‘regendering of the political project’.

This was a really fascinating conference, serious in its debates and commemorating the work and loss of John Urry.

Professor Ann Brooks

August 2016

August 22, 2016

Our experience at the Orthopaedic Research Institute

BU research, Impact, innovation, international, Public engagement Francesco Ferraro

Over the past four weeks during our research project at Bournemouth University, we have carried out and participated in numerous tests and activities in the Orthopaedic Research Institute under the supervision of PGR Francesco Ferraro; some of which being more exciting, and others being more interesting.

One the simplest tests that we have carried out for the purpose of the research is the Mini-BESTest, this is a Balance Evaluation Systems Test and requires numerous subsidiary tests to be carried out for different aspects associated with balance, these include: anticipatory tests (when preparing for something to happen), reactive postural control (how you react to a change in motion), sensory orientation, and dynamic gait speeds (walking speeds and how they change in different circumstances). This was necessary in order to see how the effects of inspiratory muscle training effects balance over the course of 8 weeks.

In terms of analysis and methods, one of the most interesting tests for us involved the breathing system and using a spirometer. This device was used to measure the Forced Vital Capacity (total air volume of the lungs), Forced Expiratory Volume (how much air a person can exhale in a forced breath), MIP (maximum pressure generated by inhalation against occluded airway), and the MEP (this is the same but is the pressure generated by exhaling). For us, this was particularly interesting because it allowed us to see how a spirometer works in a hands on experience and how the data is presented and analysed.

Another series of tests involved the PrimusRS, a very impressive machine. It served to be a challenge and required lots of problem solving to carry out the tests successfully. During our use of the PrimusRS we experienced the different processes that were needed to be carried out involving; calibration, setting up, creating templates, correcting motion to improve the results, and the analysis of the final results. This was an extraordinary piece of equipment as it allowed us to carry out endurance and isometric tests (strength tests) for both flexion, extension and rotation regarding the trunk muscles, and gave us different data including power of the muscles/ movement.

Finally, the most exciting and enjoyable session to carry out involved using Virtual Reality Simulators for knee arthroscopy (operations) that surgeons all over the world travel to see. The reason for this being the most enjoyable test/session was due to complexity behind machines that looked so simple, and it allowed us to carry out practise operations teaching you the motions and procedures that would be used in real life. Other fascinating features of the virtual simulator was the way in which it introduced us to the different textures of the bone structures and tissues by giving feedback involving vibrations and stiffness of the simulator drill/ saw as well as the screen display.

As well as all of these above tests, we also are aware of the protocols and ethics of the tests that we have carried out in the duration of the project, this allowed us to experience and build up our own picture of the research that needs to be carried out before conducting the actual investigation.

Freddie and Jamie

August 8, 2016

Research Impact Metrics – useful reference cards

BU research, Impact, Public engagement, Research assessment, Research communication Pengpeng

In the Independent Review of the Research Excellence Framework, Lord Stern has called for the broadening and deepening of the definition of impact. It is recommended that ‘impacts on public engagement and understanding are emphasised and that impacts on cultural life be specifically included’.

Partnering with librarian Jenny Delasalle, Library Connect has produced a useful and attractive consolidated quick reference guide to some key research impact metrics.

You can download your own copies here –

Download the 11×17” poster

Download the larger format cards – 4 per 8.5×11″ page

It is important however, that these research metrics are used with these 2 Golden Rules in mind, as recommended by the Library Connect Librarians Feedback Group and Lisa Colledge, Elsevier’s Director of Research Metrics:

Golden Rule 1 – Always use quantitative metric-based input alongside qualitative opinion-based input

Golden Rule 2 – Ensure that the quantitative, metrics part of your input always relies on at least 2 metrics to prevent bias and encouragement of undesirable behaviour.

Original blog post – https://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/metrics

August 5, 2016

Security by Design through “Human Centered” Specification Exemplars

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Impact Shamal Faily

A year ago, we received Fusion funding to build the Bournemouth-Athens Network in Critical Infrastructure Security. The aim of this project was to build collaborative links between the BU Cyber Security Research group and the Information Security & Critical Infrastructure Protection Laboratory at Athens University of Economics & Business (AUEB). We built these links by working on a joint project, which we advanced through visits and other activities.

The aim of our joint activities was to build human-centered specification exemplars of Critical Infrastructure (CI) operating environments.
We depend on infrastructure associated with things like water, gas, electricity, or transport, but the criticality of such infrastructure is usually lost on us because it fades into the background of our everyday lives. The damage or loss of such infrastructure is only felt when it becomes unavailable, and its significance can range from mild annoyance if its means the trains are late, through to civil disorder and loss of life if we are unable to access clean water for a prolonged period. Despite their importance, there are no useful models of environments that people can use when developing or evaluating technology for CI. Our work aimed to remedy this by building specification exemplars for typical CI companies. In doing so, these would capture the human nuances associated with different aspects of CI, and help people identify possible security issues associated with new ideas before, rather than after, they are deployed in the field.

Together, a team of BU and AUEB researchers carried out work to build two specification exemplars of hypothetical CI companies. One of these was a UK Water Company (ACME Water). The other was a rail company in South East Europe (Balkan Rail). BU hosted researchers from AUEB and ran a number of workshops to identify different security aspects of these companies. In return, AUEB hosted BU undergraduate research assistants as they collected data from a Greek CI company, and ran workshops to develop and evaluate different aspects of the exemplars with AUEB researchers.

The exemplars have been made publicly available, and are modelled using CAIRIS – an open-source security design tool maintained by researchers at BU. To date, several publications have so far arisen from our preliminary work building [1] and applying the ACME Water exemplar [2, 3, 4]. We’re also using the exemplars as part of our teaching to provide case studies for Forensic & Computer Security lab exercises and seminars. Although the studies provided are hypothetical, they are grounded in real world data, and make visible to students the root causes of a variety of cybersecurity risks.

Looking forward, our work has gained the interest of a number of UK and international collaborators, and we’re looking for opportunities to build a library of human-cantered specification exemplars for many other, non-CI, environments. Such environments might include homes, and different types of ‘soft target’. Our long term aim is to make sure people don’t design security as an afterthought. Our work on BANCIS has made a small, but significant, step towards achieving this goal.

References

[1] S. Faily, G. Lykou, A. Partridge, D. Gritzalis, A. Mylonas, and V. Katos, “Human-Centered Specification Exemplars for Critical Infrastructure Environments,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers, 2016.

[2] S. Faily, C. Iacob, and S. Field, “Ethical Hazards and Safeguards in Penetration Testing,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016.

[3] D. Ki-Aries, S. Faily, and K. Beckers, “Persona-Driven Information Security Awareness,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016.

[4] A. Partridge and S. Faily, “The application of useless japanese inventions for requirements elicitation in information security,” in Proceedings of the 30th British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Fusion, 2016.

August 2, 2016

Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)

HEIF, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team jcodling

As HEIF 5+1 funding came to an end on 31 July after a run of 12 months , there is no time to stop for breath as the wheels of knowledge exchange continue to turn and HEIF 5+1+1 gears up – running from 1 August 2016 until 31 July 2017.

Following a competitive call, (with an increase in applications from previous years) twelve projects have been identified to accelerate the ethos of knowledge exchange and innovation at BU.

Progress updates will be posted by the projects teams during the year and you can follow their progress on a number of channels including the research blog . A list of the projects has been included at the bottom of this post.

For further information about knowledge exchange opportunities including HEIF feel free to contact Jayne Codling within RKEO.

PI	Project Title
Alexander Pasko	Establishing a network to disseminate the results of SHIVA project aimed to provide virtual sculpting tools for users with wide range of disabilities
Alison McConnell	Development and validation of a mobile device App to reduce blood pressure
Andrew Whittington	Sherlock’s Window: improving accuracy of entomological forensics at post-mortem criminal investigation using combined cuticular hydrocarbon and internal metabolite analysis.
Bogdan Gabrys	Data Science and Analytics Training and Engagement Services for Business
Dan Franklin	Using flow cytometry to monitor harmful algae in coastal waters: establishing a regional testing arena in Poole Harbour with global benefits
Elizabeth Franklin (Liz)	ECO-CODING: Creating a centre for DNA Meta-barcoding Ecology at BU
Kevin McGhee	Empowering service users: Assessing the potential benefits of Psychiatric Genetic Counselling
Matthew Bennett	Dinosaurs to Forensic Science: Digital, Tracks and Traces
Pippa Gillingham	Towards improving the condition of natural and cultural capital in Dorset and Hampshire
Sarah Bate	Superior Face Recognition: Generating Knowledge Exchange with National and International Security Agencies
Tom Davis	Increasing access to Music: Music Technology in Special Educational Needs (SEN) settings.
Wen Tang	PLUS+: Police Learning Using Simulations: Impact Evidence Gathering

August 1, 2016

Interactive documentary launched – Psychiatric Genetic Counselling Research Project

Business Engagement, HEIF, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team jcodling

Media and Journalism students Chelsea Nwasike and Grace Brewer have developed an interactive documentary to illustrate the project including the two recent workshops that are helping to transform approaches to psychiatric genetic counselling.

Genetic counsellors and researchers who attended the European and international workshops were interviewed and included in an interactive platform, along with videos from Dr Kevin McGhee and a ‘mental health jar’ demonstration video.

Dr Kevin McGhee explained: “By expanding healthcare professionals understanding of genetics and mental illness and providing a way for people around the world to view these discussions from the workshops, we want to raise awareness and encourage people to take better care of their mental health.

Funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) find out more about this project on the BU Research Website.

July 22, 2016

Robotics and autonomous systems: apply for innovation funding

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Impact, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team jcodling

Competiton is open now!

There will be a briefing webinar on 27 July 2016

Find out more about this competition and apply

In brief:

Innovate UK is inviting businesses to apply for a share of £5 million to develop innovative applications of robotics and autonomous systems. Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are to invest up to £5 million in robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) projects.

The aim of this competition is to help UK companies explore new RAS opportunities. It will enable them to develop capabilities for applications in many sectors of the UK economy.

We are looking for proposals that will speed up the development of RAS technologies towards demonstration and commercialisation.

Proposals can be for systems that are physical, for example a next generation robot. They can also be digital only, for example an automated decision-making system.

Robots that are independent of human control can learn, adapt and take decisions. These could revolutionise our economy and society over the next 20 years. Disruptive technologies related to RAS include mobile internet, automation of knowledge work, advanced robotics, and automated and autonomous vehicles.

These technologies have the potential for an annual economic impact of US$9.8 to US$19.3 trillion in 2025. The UK has world-leading strengths in the underlying science and engineering that contributes to RAS. It also has access to the markets that could exploit them.

Key information:

There will be a briefing webinar on 27 July 2016
The registration deadline is noon on 19 October 2016
The application deadline is noon on 26 October 2016
Projects should range in size from total costs of £50,000 to £500,000
Projects should last between 6 and 15 months
You must complete the work and incur, pay and claim for all costs before the end of March 2018
A business must lead the project
Projects with costs of £100,000 or above must be collaborative

Find out more about this competition and apply.

If you are interested in submitting to this call you must contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

July 19, 2016

EU Referendum analysis report launched at Westminster

BU research, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Research communication, Research news Daniel Jackson

A book full of insight and analysis about the EU Referendum has been launched at an event in Westminster.

‘EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign’ was collated by academics from Bournemouth University and Loughborough University and features comments and opinions from academic experts from a number of institutions – sharing views on both the Leave and Remain camps and the final Brexit outcome.

The book was published just ten days after the EU Referendum and features 100 academics across 80 chapters.

Edited by Bournemouth University’s Dr Dan Jackson and Dr Einar Thorsen, alongside Loughborough University’s Professor Dominic Wring, the book features subjects like the language of prejudice, media coverage of the campaign, and the rhetoric of the EU Referendum campaign.

The event was opened by Conor Burns MP, who is Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West. He said, “This is a fascinating report, a really academic insight into what happened only a few short weeks ago.”

Dr Einar Thorsen, Principal Academic in Journalism & Communication at Bournemouth University, said, “We always felt that there was a bit of a gap between all the fantastic research that happens in academia and politicians, so we were looking for way to get all that expertise out there very quickly.

“The idea is that it is early reflections from academics and experts in media and politics in the UK. This includes early findings and a critique of the Referendum campaign in terms of communications and media coverage.”

Dr Dan Jackson, Principal Lecturer in Media and Communications at Bournemouth University, said, “There are eight sections, ranging from parties, social media, journalism, political communication, and news & politics, so all of the key moments from the campaign are reflected upon.”

Hosted in Portcullis House in Parliament Square, the event was attended by MPs, MEPs, Lords and prominent academics, who all engaged in healthy debate about the outcomes of the Referendum and lessons that can be learned for the future.

Professor Dominic Wring, Professor of Political Communication at Loughborough University, added, “Its nice to formally launch the report at Westminster and so soon after the Referendum, while it is still fresh in peoples’ minds.

“When normality resumes, and people start thinking about Brexit again, and thinking about what happened, there is actually a lot of evidence here that puts together some of the facts for people then to distil and think over.”

The book is available to read for free in PDF form at http://www.referendumanalysis.eu/

July 14, 2016

FHSS Festival of Learning Event Attracts Crowd at the Seaside

Impact, innovation, Public engagement, Research news Kip Jones

The song “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” written in 1907 by John Glover-Kind was a popular in music halls as seaside towns became more accessible via railways. A century later it retains a place in story of going to the seaside.

The Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences’ Narrative Group use creative approaches to understand more about the lives of people in the community, which informs the education of health and social care students and professionals.

And so we asked, “Why do you like to be beside the seaside?”

July 5, 2016

BU academics launch EU Referendum Analysis report within ten days of the vote

BU research, EU, Events, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Publishing, Research communication, Research news Daniel Jackson

We are very pleased to announce the publication of “EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign”, edited by Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen (both BU) and Dominic Wring (Loughborough University).

Featuring 80 contributions from 100 leading UK academics, this publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections and early research insights on the 2016 Referendum on UK Membership of the European Union from the cutting edge of media and politics research.

Published 10 days after the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis of the campaign, including research findings or new theoretical insights; to bring readers original ways of understanding the referendum and its consequences. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary influences, from political science to fan studies, journalism studies to advertising.

The publication is available as a downloadable PDF, as a website and as a printed report.

We are hosting an invitation only launch event at the House of Commons (18 July) and an open event on Brexit in Leicester (IAMCR pre-conference, 27 July).

You can register for the conference here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-brexit-campaign-2016-uk-referendum-on-membership-of-european-union-tickets-24771805136

EU Referendum Analysis website:
http://www.referendumanalysis.eu

Direct PDF download:
http://bit.ly/EUReferendumAnalysis2016_Jackson-Thorsen-and-Wring_v1

Thanks to all of our contributors and production staff who helped make the quick turnaround possible. We hope it makes for a vibrant and engaging read!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: the Brexit campaign (Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen and Dominic Wring)

Section 1: Context
1. EEC/EU campaigning in long-term perspective (Jay Blumler)
2. From Super-Market to Orwellian Super-State: the origins and growth of newspaper scepticism (Dominic Wring)
3. Understanding the role of the mass media in the EU Referendum (Mike Berry)
4. Brexit: the destruction of a collective good (Chris Gifford)
5. How the Brexit outcome has changed our understanding of referendums (John Fitzgibbon)
6. The referendum and Britain’s broken immigration politics (Andrew Geddes)
7. The great miscalculation: David Cameron’s renegotiation and the EU Referendum campaign (Andrew Glencross)

Section 2: Politics
8. Rhetoric of excess (James Martin)
9. Myth versus fact: are we living in a post-factual democracy?(Susan Banducci and Dan Stevens)
10. Destroying and building democracy, a German view(Catherine Goetze)
11. Remembrance of Referendums Past: Scotland in the campaign (Michael Higgins)
12. Public personalities in the EU debate: Elites vs. the majority and Bullingdon resurgent(Nathan Farrell)
13. Healthier ever after? The NHS as a campaign issue (Tamara Hervey)
14. Wales, immigration, news media and Brexit (Kerry Moore)
15. The referendum campaign and the public’s constitutional understanding (David Yuratich)
16. The EU referendum and the Country of Origin principle (COO) (Irini Katsirea)
17. Calming the storm: fighting falsehoods, fig leaves and fairy tales (Alan Renwick, Matthew Flinders and Will Jennings)

Section 3: News
18. The press and the Referendum campaign (David Levy, Billur Aslan and Diego Bironzo)
19. The narrow agenda: how the news media covered the Referendum (David Deacon, John Downey, Emily Harmer, James Stanyer and Dominic Wring)
20. Newspapers’ editorial opinions during the referendum campaign (Julie Firmstone)
21. Brexit ‘mansplained’: news coverage of the EU Referendum (Emily Harmer)
22. Scrutinising statistical claims and constructing balance: television news coverage of the 2016 EU Referendum (Stephen Cushion and Justin Lewis)
23. Regulated equivocation: the referendum on radio (Guy Starkey)
24. Referendum night goings on (Stephen Coleman)
25. The view from across the pond: Brexit on American media (Filippo Trevisan)
26. A victory of the nation state: the EU Referendum in the Southern European press (Iñaki Garcia-Blanco)

Section 4: Journalism
27. How our mainstream media failed democracy (Steven Barnett)
28. Divided Britain? We were already divided… (Des Freedman)
29. Deliberation, distortion and dystopia: the news media and the referendum (Charlie Beckett)
30. UK newspapers and the EU Referendum: Brexit or Bremain?(Oliver Daddow)
31. X marks the spot but the Ys have it: Referendum coverage as a boys’ own story (Karen Ross)
32. Mind the gap: the language of prejudice and the press omissions that led a people to the precipice (Paul Rowinski)
33. ‘They don’t understand us’: UK journalists’ challenges of reporting the EU (Anna Wambach)
34. Bending over backwards: the BBC and the Brexit campaign (Ivor Gaber)
35. Bums gone to Iceland: England, Brexit and Euro 2016 (Roger Domeneghetti)
36. It’s the ‘primary definers’, stupid! (Chris Roberts)
37. Brexit: inequality, the media and the democratic deficit (Natalie Fenton)

Section 5: Campaign and Political Communication
38. Why facts did matter in the campaign (Christoph Meyer)
39. Less a soap opera, more a fantasy drama? (John Street)
40. The rhetoric of the EU Referendum campaign (Andrew S. Crines)
41. A (very) brief period of Habermasian bliss (Mick Temple)
42. The toxicity of discourse: reflections on UK political culture following the EU Referendum (Katy Parry)
43. Britishness and Brexit (Frances Smith)
44. Neither tackling lies nor making the case: the Remain side (Kirsty Hughes)
45. Break-point for Brexit? How UKIP’s image of ‘hate’ set race discourse reeling back decades (James Morrison)
46. Referendum campaign broadcasts on television: A generational clash? (Vincent Campbell)
47. Interaction and ‘the floor’ in the televised debates of the EU referendum campaign(Sylvia Shaw)
48. Comedy clubs offered a better quality of debate than the political stage (Sophie Quirk)
49. ‘Project Art’ versus ‘Project Fear’: the art establishment against Brexit (Matt Hills)
50. Notes for editors: what the campaign press releases tell us about Vote Leave and Britain (Paula Keaveney)

Section 6: Parties
51. The triumph and tribulations of Conservative Euroscepticism(Philip Lynch)
52. Celebrity politicians and populist media narratives: the case of Boris Johnson (Mark Wheeler)
53. ‘Tuck your shirt in!’ It’s going to be a bumpy ride: Boris Johnson’s swerve to Brexit (Candida Yates)
54. ‘Conservative party future?’ Party disunity, the media and the EU Referendum (Anthony Ridge-Newman)
55. Cameron and the Europe question: Could it have ended any other way? (Tristan Martin)
56. The Liberal Democrats: the EU Referendum’s invisible party (Andrew Russell)
57. The Durham miners’ role in Labour’s culture wars (Eunice Goes)
58. The immigration debate: Labour versus Leave in the battle to win public trust (Thom Brooks)
59. The age of Nigel: Farage, the media, and Brexit (Neil Ewen)

Section 7: Social Media
60. Leave versus Remain: the digital battle (Andrew Mullen)
61. The results are in and the UK will #Brexit: What did social media tell us about the UK’s EU referendum? (Clare Llewellyn and Laura Cram)
62. Automatic polling using Computational Linguistics: more reliable than traditional polling? (Massimo Poesio, John Bartle, Jacqueline Bechet, Fabio Celli, Carmelo Ferrante, Marc Poch, Hugo Zaragoza and Giuseppe Riccardi)
63. Impact of social media on the outcome of the EU referendum (Vyacheslav Polonski)
64. Talking past each other: the Twitter campaigns (Simon Usherwood and Katharine Wright)
65. Political memes and polemical discourse: the rise of #usepens (Mary Mitchell)
66. E-newsletters, persuasion and the referendum (Nigel Jackson)
67. United by what divides us: 38 Degrees and the EU Referendum (James Dennis)
68. Boris, Brexit or bust (Alec Charles)

Section 8: Voters
69. What explains the failure of ‘Project Fear’? (Jane Green)
70. Workers rights in the EU and out: social class and the trade unions’ contribution to the debate (Jen Birks)
71. ‘I want my country back’: Emotion and Englishness at the Brexit ballotbox (Russell Foster)
72. Mixed feelings: how citizens expressed their attitudes towards the EU (Darren G. Lilleker)
73. ‘We want our country back’ – stop sneering, start listening (Michael Skey)
74. Young people in a changing Europe: British youth and Brexit 2016 (Matt Henn and Darren Sharpe)
75. Bonfires and Brexterity: what’s next for women? (Charlotte O’Brien)
76. The ‘Referendum Bubble’: what can we learn from EU campaign polling? (Louise Thompson)
77. Did the EU Referendum boost youth engagement with politics? (Stuart Fox and Sioned Pearce)
78. Campaign frames in the Brexit referendum (Sofia Vasilopoulou)
79. The emotional politics of the EU Referendum: Bregrexit and beyond (Karin Wahl-Jorgensen)

July 4, 2016

Painting a picture of retirement at the Festival of Learning

BU research, Events, Festival of Learning, Impact, PG research, Public engagement sashraf

What image comes to mind when you think about your pension and retirement? Our session at the Festival of Learning, painting a picture of retirement, sought to answer this very question.

The session builds on current research funded by the Academy of Marketing into how people from South Asian view their pension savings as a money source; what informed their perceptions; and how they intend to use this money. This research used a ‘talk and draw’ approach whereby interviewees were asked to draw a picture to represent their pension/retirement and then to talk through what the images represent to them.

At the Festival of learning event attendees were also asked to draw their own picture of their pension and retirement. As a group we discussed the images that emerged and then compared and contrasted them to the images collected and themes that emerged from our earlier research.

The findings from our research will be presented at the Academy of Marketing Conference at Newcastle Business School next week. In the meantime we would like to thank all those who attended our session and shared their personal images of their pension and retirement on the day.

If you would like to know more about this research please contact Julie Robson or Samreen Ashraf.

July 1, 2016

Taking Tear Gas on Tour

BU research, Featured academics, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Post-award afeigenbaum

Our French samples of CS gas would leave our audience feeling sick, so for now we stick to power points when our tear gas research hits the road. Since the new year, members of Bournemouth University’s Civic Media team have had the opportunity to travel all around the country giving talks and workshops at UK Universities. Our Tear Gas project brings together academics, NGOs and digital designers to respond to the need for more publicly accessible information regarding tear gases’ effects on human life, animals and environments. We also consult and advise with organisation’s like Amnesty International on the policies and practices associated with the tear gas trade to help support human rights work around the world.

In February project lead Dr. Feigenbaum was invited to talk at the University of York as part of their Social and Political Sciences speaker series. Then it was over to the University of Sussex in early March, sharing two of our Fusion Funded BU Datalabs projects on Mapping Tear Gas and RiotIDs. Later in March, Dr. Feigenbaum headed into London for an invited talk on ‘Tear Gas and Other Media‘ at the University of Westminster. Then the whole team went up North in April for a RiotID workshop hosted by the University of Sheffield‘s Crick Centre as part of an ESRC Seminar Series. Postgraduate students and Senior Research Assistants Oz Demirkol and Daniel Weissmann, as well as URA Laura McKenna helped deliver a co-creation workshop alongside industry graphic design partner Minute Works and our NGO partner Omega Research Foundation.

To explore the innovative methodology our project employs, combining investigative and data journalism practices, in early May we teamed up with Kings College London‘s new Centre for Digital Culture to host a two-day investigative research workshop, bringing together academics, NGOs and journalist from around Europe. The event was co-sponsored by both MeCCSA Social Movement Network and the Political Science Association, as well as by our research groups at BU. Later that month we were back on the train headed for Keele University’s Media Environments workshop in May. Dr. Feigenbaum and Minute Works co-designed an interactive workshop using our Fusion model for how to turn research into information visualisations for making impact.

Then it was back to London in June for a double header of events on security and arms control at the University College London. First up was a paper presentation on the Wellcome Trust funded part of our research looking at the Communication of Medical Knowledge in Tear Gas History. This two day interdisciplinary and international event was hosted aat UCL’s Global Governance Institute. A symposium directly followed on History, Security and Arms Control that marked the end of Professor Brian Balmer’s AHRC project on the Biological Weapons Convention. Speaking to an audience of 50 academics, policy-makers and NGOs, Dr. Feigenbaum presented on ‘Communication Approaches to the History of Tear Gas’, highlighting how policy-based research can engage with new digital technologies, information design and digital storytelling to make meaningful interventions in arms control.

Up next, in July Dr. Feigenbaum and summer URA Lauren Weeks are heading to the International Association of Media and Communication‘s annual conference to present their paper on the project’s use of social media in addressing issues of policing and human rights. Then it’s time for a holiday!

Our Tear Gas project has brought Bournemouth University’s Fusion vision to universities around the country. This work grew out of two fusion-funded grant projects. It has benefited from Fusion’s cross-faculty collaborations, partner networking opportunities, and working with four URA students over the course of its three years. The fruits of this collaborative labour can be seen in the steady stream of invitations we receive to take our cross-partner, co-creation project on tour–sharing and inspiring about issues that matter.

Category / Impact

Festival of Learning 2017 – support for developing your event idea

Festival of Learning 2017 – What could you do?

The call for proposals for Festival of Learning 2017 is now live!

The Great British Brain Off

Student Engagement Toolkit

Student Engagement Opportunity

NERC: New public engagement funding call

Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science

Funding for arts and heritage

Our experience at the Orthopaedic Research Institute

Research Impact Metrics – useful reference cards

Security by Design through “Human Centered” Specification Exemplars

Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)

Interactive documentary launched – Psychiatric Genetic Counselling Research Project

Robotics and autonomous systems: apply for innovation funding

EU Referendum analysis report launched at Westminster

FHSS Festival of Learning Event Attracts Crowd at the Seaside

The song “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” written in 1907 by John Glover-Kind was a popular in music halls as seaside towns became more accessible via railways. A century later it retains a place in story of going to the seaside.

The Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences’ Narrative Group use creative approaches to understand more about the lives of people in the community, which informs the education of health and social care students and professionals.

And so we asked, “Why do you like to be beside the seaside?”

BU academics launch EU Referendum Analysis report within ten days of the vote

Painting a picture of retirement at the Festival of Learning

Taking Tear Gas on Tour

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The call for proposals for Festival of Learning 2017 is now live!

The Great British Brain Off

Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science

The song “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” written in 1907 by John Glover-Kind was a popular in music halls as seaside towns became more accessible via railways. A century later it retains a place in story of going to the seaside.

The Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences’ Narrative Group use creative approaches to understand more about the lives of people in the community, which informs the education of health and social care students and professionals.

And so we asked, “Why do you like to be beside the seaside?”

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