BU Research Blog

11 August 2016

THET maternal mental health training in Kathmandu

conferences, international, Public engagement, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

Today we completed the second day of training of health teachers, lecturers in nursng, public health and the like in Kathmandu. We called it the National Workshop on Mental Health Education & Research and this two-day workshop was held in a hotel in Kathmandu. It was organised by Tribhuvan University in collaboration with Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Mental health is high on the global agenda and want to raise the issue more in Nepal. The three universities are working together on an education intervention training Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi on mental health issues and mental health promotion. The project is funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) from DfID and managed by THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust).

Key speakers on the first day of the workshop included: the VC of Tribhuvan University, Dr Gangalal Tuladhar MP and former Education Minister of Nepal, Dr Khem Karki (head of the Nepal Health Research Council), Dr Chandra Kala Sharma, Prof Shyam Krishna Maharjan and Prof Krishna Acharya.

This workshop is part of this capacity building process and the audience of largely university and college lecturers will take some of the learning back with them to improve the education of health workers in Nepal.

The second day of the workshop concentrateed on research methods for community-based projects such as this our THET funded one in the mental health field. Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen reminded the audience that it is important that novel mental health interventions like ours are properly evaluated, and that the people doing the evaluations have the appropriate research skills. The next group of UK volunteers are due to travel to Nepal in September.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

11 August 2016

Public Health in Nepal: Vitamine A

international, open access, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

This week we published an editorial in the Journal of Biomedical Sciences on the question: “Is early diagnose for Vitamin A deficiency better than the current supplementation programme of Nepal?”
The editorial concludes that prevention is still better than cure, but instead of a mass Vitamin A supplementation in Nepal, we need a health promotion intervention aiming to increase the intake of relatively cheap vegetables and fruit (containing β carotene). In addition we need better surveillance and help to identify children with Vitamin A Deficiency and provide them with Vitamin A supplements. The primary focus should be on adopting sustainable food based approaches to combat vitamin A deficiency. In Public Health terms: rather than a blanket coverage of Vitamin A supplementation to whole population we should consider a targeted intervention aimed at those who need it most.

Reference:
Simkhada P, Sathian B, Adhikari S, van Teijlingen E, Roy B. (2015) Is early diagnose for Vitamin A deficiency better than the current supplementation programme of Nepal?. J Biomed Sci. 2(4):28-30.
http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JBS/index

10 August 2016

A great opportunity from the collaboration of Bournemouth University and Nuffield Foundation

innovation, international, student research, Training Francesco Ferraro

The Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) has been hosting four Nuffield Foundation-funded college students this summer as part of Nuffield’s Research Placement programme. Two of the students (Jamie Singleton and Freddie Corrie-Deane) are working under the guidance of FHSS PhD student Francesco Ferraro, who is supervised by Professors Alison McConnell, Tom Wainwright and Dr James Gavin.

Jamie and Freddie joined us on the 25th of July and they are already familiar with many research aspects, such as: writing a review, dealing with ethical issues, using complex devices and tackling statistical issues.

Francesco has found the experience of working with the students rewarding from many perspectives: “I do trust their questioning and their will to learn and understand more, as it will help the project adding new questions. Conducting research is not simply a duty to search for results; producing research involves the ability to share it, by allowing others to join, bringing their own curiosity and surprise”.

A quote from Richard Feynman sums up the project so far “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

Here are a few thoughts from those involved in Freddie and Jamie’s Nuffield placements:

“Joining a research study, I knew I was in for a hefty chunk of reading, and with a pessimistic outlook I thought it would all be dry and bland, and that it would be the source of countless days of boredom. Thankfully I was wrong, and while I did have to spend an obligatory day or two reading background information, studies and manuals; the rest of this placement has been involved with the workings of brand-new machinery in the Orthopaedic Research Institute and going out into the local community to talk with people, both of which have been challenging and engaging in all of the right ways to make this experience an enjoyable one.

Our engagement in the community started very early into the placement, on the second day in fact, when we tagged along with Francesco (Our PhD Student overseer/mentor) to an area of sheltered housing to help him give a talk on his study, it was some really good hands on experience (it didn’t hurt that we were offered a biscuit or two). Following this line of talking to people, Jamie and I have spent the last couple of days walking around the gardens by the seaside talking to people and filling out surveys.

We have also spent a day or two engrossed in the outstanding labs in the Orthopaedic Research Institute, equipped with an amazing range of equipment from a pair of surgery VR simulators that bring in experts and surgeons from all over Europe, to the intricate and ever useful Primus Machine which has more potential and customisable positions than there are hours in the day and so understandably has just as many uses.”

Freddie

“During the past two weeks at Bournemouth University, we have had lots of hands on experience and witnessed the fun sides of research and also, the not-quite side. The latter, quite funnily enough, involved vast amounts of background reading and studying of protocols. The more enjoyable hands on experience however, consisted of being introduced to and working in the Orthopaedic Research Institute Labs testing out protocols. Much to our disappointment… we had to use numerous fun and expensive pieces of equipment, it was at this point we knew this was the right place to be.

Amongst playing around with expensive machinery such as the PrimusRS and the Virtual Reality machines, we got to do some real work. This work was tough yet enriching and consisted of explaining what the research was about and why it is essential to a sheltered community, and of course when asked, accepting the offer for tea and biscuits. Visiting the shelter did give me an insight into the recruitment process for research projects, and I was quite surprised of how laid back it was.

Next, this time for real we did have work to do such as reading protocols, resources, and informative documents needed to produce our review which was not the most exciting experience however, it was made up for by the interesting walks we went on, through the Lower Gardens, in order to gather vital information that we needed for our project analysis of the PASE questionnaire.”

Jamie

“I was really excited to visit our Nuffield students who are working with Francesco Ferraro at Bournemouth University. I was particularly keen to see how they have been integrated into the team working on a real life application. I was surprised by the highly technical, world class, equipment available to the team. I was also surprised to see how health care is being ‘gamefied’ with the balance app and the ‘Grail’. Thank you for having us.”

Rachel Delourme (STEM Advisor & Sustainability Co-ordinator at Cornwall Council) and Shayan Bahadori (from Nuffield Foundation).

“Freddie and Jamie have been a huge asset to Francesco’s work over the past couple of weeks. They have worked together as a team to solve problems and test solutions, and I can see how all three of them have benefitted from the experience. I’d recommend hosting Nuffield placement students to anyone; they’ve been a pleasure to have around and they’ve both made valuable contributions to our work.”

Alison McConnell

8 August 2016

Small companies offered £1.2m to seek out global partners

Business Engagement, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange jcodling

Innovate UK has launched a fund to encourage small British firms to work with international businesses and to help them enter global markets.

UK businesses looking to create international business networks can apply for funding to enable commercial research and innovation partnerships. It will also help businesses explore ideas for future collaboration.

Innovate UK is funding this competition. It is open to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The funding will enable SMEs to carry out short feasibility studies and spend time abroad. The competition will encourage UK firms to create long term partnerships with overseas companies. It will also help them gain a better understanding of collaborative opportunities.

Competition information

The competition opens on 5 August 2016
The deadline for registration is noon on 21 September 2016
The deadline for application is noon on 28 September 2016
A UK SME must lead the project
A UK SME can carry out the project on their own or work with other UK partners
Only UK SMEs will receive funding
Innovate UK will fund projects with eligible costs of up to £30,000
Businesses may receive funding of up to 70% of their total project costs
Projects should last up to 4 months

Click here for further information and how to apply.

5 August 2016

Health Promotion intervention planning in rural Nepal

international, PG research, student research, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

Today and yesterday Green Tara Nepal (GTN) staff spent discussing and planning their health promotion intervention in the district of Dhading. The sessions included feedback by the GTN on progress to-date as well as a discussion of their perceptions of the various relevant health needs in the community. BU has been working with GTN for over seven years. [1] Yesterday BU professor Edwin van Teijlingen gave an interactive workshop on communication skills. This morning BU’s Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) outlined key health promotion concepts and theories to the fieldworkers.

This particular post-disaster health promotion project grew out of years of research-based interventions run by GTN and the needs seen in areas affected by last years’ serious earthquakes in Nepal. The project has received support from various funding agencies, including Green Tara Trust, a London-based Buddhist charity. The training is being held in Dhadingbesi, about four hours drive away from the capital Kathmandu. The various photos with this blog show the results of a social mapping exercise. These included some beautifully hand-drawn maps of the individual wards in the area, indicating where the health post is situated, but more importantly the house of currently pregnant women.

Several GTN project have been, or ar currently, evaluated by FHSS Ph.D. students. The GTN project in Pharping has been evaluated by Sheetal Sharma, who has published several papers from this research.[2-4] The GTN project in Nawalparasi is currently being studied by Preeti Mahato, who has also already published from her thesis research despite being less than halfway through. [5] Prof. Padam Simkhada is external supervisor for both these BU Ph.D students.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P, Stephen J, Simkhada B, Woodes Rogers S, Sharma S. (2012) Making the best use of all resources: developing a health promotion intervention in rural Nepal. Health Renaissance 10(3): 229-235. healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/7141_24852_1_PB.pdf
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Angell, C., Simkhada, P. (2016) Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 147 https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0938-4
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sharma, S., Mahato, P. (2016) Sustainable Development Goals: relevance to maternal & child health in Nepal. Health Prospect 15(1):9-10. healthprospect.org/archives/15/1/3.pdf
Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2016) Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(1): 18-30. http://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=jam
Mahato, P.K., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C., Sathian, B. (2015) Birthing centre infrastructure in Nepal post 2015 earthquake. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 5(4): 518-519. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/14260/11579

5 August 2016

THET-project planning meeting in Kathmandu

Fusion, international, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

This week we had our latest planning meeting for the BU-led and THET-funded project in Nepal. The project has been running for over a year (following a six-month delay due to the terrible 2015 earthquake in Nepal). The project brings highly experienced UK health volunteers to train local community-based maternity care practitioners about the key mental health issues in pregnancy and after birth. The Centre for Midwifery & Maternal Health (CMMPH) works in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the Department of Health, Physical and Population Education at Nepal’s largest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU). Our project is part of the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS), which funds health partnerships to carry out capacity-building projects in low-income countries, including Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET.

Halfway through the project we had an update meeting at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu to discuss and plan the second half of the project which runs until the spring in 2017. The maternal mental health project is a good example of BU’s FUSION approach as it combines Education (through the training of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives) by UK volunteers (representing the Practice-element of FUSION) in an intervention that is Research-based in both its design and evaluation. The next group of UK volunteers is due to go out to southern Nepal in September 2016. The photo on the top shows one of the UK volunteers (a midwife from Aberdeen) in action with the aid of a Nepali translator during the latest training session in Nawalparasi in May 2016.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (CMMPH) and Prof. Padam Simkhada (LJMU & BU Visiting Faculty)

4 August 2016

Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – International Pathway

Funding opportunities, international, Knowledge Exchange, Training Emily Cieciura

We have previously posted about the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework. Here, we introduce another of the pathways: that focusing on funding research via non-UK, international funders. This includes EU research.

Woman's Eye and World Globes For international activity, there will be a range of sessions, drawing on the current priorties in BU’s Global Engagement strategy There will be spearate sessions for major international funders, including US National Institutes of Health and other US-based funding agencies. There will also be exploration of applications to funders with an international mandate, such as Newton Fund calls. Importantly, with so many international funders available, we will be hosting sessions dedicated to finding the right international funders for researchers to consider. We’ll also be running a session giving information and examples relating to building partnerships and working with stakeholders. More events will be added to this pathway in 2017-18, and beyond, with a focus on emerging priorties for BU.

Euro_Flag For the European dimension, we are planning a wide range of sessions relating to European funding opportunities, by a mix of online resources and face-to-face sesions introducing the EU funding landscape and key calls. Sessions will draw on the knowledge of BU staff and external facilitators. At these events, you will be introduced to the details of specific call types within the three pillars of Horizon 2020, including, where possible, the experience of fellow-academics, who have been directly involved in receiving EU funding. We will also be inviting external experts to expand the range of calls to which BU academics apply. Important to EU bids, we’ll run a session giving information and examples relating to building robust partnerships and working with stakeholders. In common with other pathways, there will be practical sessions to help you the systems invovled. For the EU, this will include use of the Participant Portal, to plan and support your bidding activity. Often overlooked, we will also be running events to raise awareness of EU funding outside the flagship Horizon 2020 scheme, such as COST, Interreg and Creative Europe. Early in the 16/17 academic year, we will host our, always popular, annual UKRO information day for BU academics and research support staff.

We’ll be populating the the OD website with more information and the booking link over the coming weeks. We’ll also be providing a timetable of all events as soon as possible. In the meantime, updates will be posted on the BU Research Blog and the Faculty blogs.

3 August 2016

Creative Industries – new 5 year strategy

Business Engagement, innovation, international, Knowledge Exchange jcodling

The Creative Industries Council’s new 5 year strategy proclaims amazing news for the Creative Industries. With the sector growing at 8.9% a year (making it the second fastest growing sector), the UK’s Creative Industries is vital to the UK’s economy.

The 2016 strategy refresh is demanding but attainable, with a focus on driving economic value, through support for business growth, job growth, exports and inward investment. The sector seeks to build on existing trade relationships and to unlock the potential of the sector in international markets with a primary focus on the USA and key territories in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Review the Nesta/Creative England report on the Geography of Creativity . This includes rich content about regional opportunities.

29 July 2016

What a difference a game makes

international Edwin van Teijlingen

This time in Nepal I noticed for the first time that ordinary people know about Bournemouth. Over the past seven years, since I started at Bournemouth University, I have struggled to explain to taxi drivers, people sitting next to me on public transport, etc. where Bournemouth is situated. This time for the first time I am getting nods and positive signs of recognition. This has little to do with Bournemouth University’s various health and media research collaborations in the country, but it is all to do with The Cherries!

It started last year with Bournemouth’s first successfull year in the Premier League. AFC Bournemouth winning games against some of the top English team during last season has made AFC Bournemouth well-known among many Nepali football fans. So thank you to AFC Bournemouth for no longer having to explain that I work in Bournemouth at Bournemouth University. And that Bournemouth is about two hours away by train from London, southwest of London on the coast to be precise.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinal Health

Bournemouth University

29 July 2016

Fieldwork preparation in Nepal

international, PG research Edwin van Teijlingen

If you have a number of research projects running in the same location it pays to combine some of the preparation. Thus as part of five different studies and one PhD project, I’m currently in Kathmandu. The projects are (1) the THET-funded intervention in Nawalparasi; (2) the CEL-funded qualitative research led by Dr. Catherine Angell on CPD (Continuous Professional Development); (3) the FHSS-funded project on transgender which is led by Dr. Pramod Regmi; (4) the FHSS-funded project with Pourakhi which supports Nepali women returning home after having been abroad as migrant workers; and (5) the Green Tara Trust funded project on improving maternal health care in Dhading and Nawalparasi, and the FHSS PhD project is that of Mrs. Preeti Mahato. Two of the project and the PhD topcic are closely related as all three cover maternity care in one for or another in Nawalparasi. The planning meetings we are having in Nepal involve planning training sessions and workshops, resource allocation and research preparation.

Fortunately, it is not all work. Today I enjoyed Kheer (Achar and Chana) for lunch in the Green Tara flat in Kathmandu a lovely rice pudding with slightly sour green vegetables and chick peas (see photo). The actual meal is traditionally health tomorrow but as this is the weekend the staff brought it one day forward so that I could join in too.

Finally, I like to thank colleagues who gave me mobile phones and a camera. One of the mobile phones is already in use by one of the Nepali charity workers in Kathmandu. I bought a new battery and memory card for camera in the UK and it is working fine, the photo with this blog has been taken with the donated camera!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (writing from Nepal).

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health Research

26 July 2016

International collaboration awards for research professors

Funding opportunities, international jcodling

The Royal Society, under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), invites applications for its international collaboration awards for research professors. These enable outstanding UK research leaders to develop international collaborations with the best research professors from around the world, to work on some of the global challenges and problems facing developing countries.

The objectives of the challenge awards are to:

•support the best UK scientists in establishing sustainable collaborations with internationally leading scientists based overseas;

•promote collaboration and sharing of knowledge through reciprocal visits between the visiting research professors and their research groups;

•support outstanding research through collaboration with the aim of addressing global challenges facing developing countries and benefiting people in these countries;

•facilitate the development of multidisciplinary collaborations and approaches that could help address the complex research questions posed by global challenges;

•attract outstanding international scientists and their teams to the UK’s best universities and research institutions;

•strengthen UK science and open up new opportunities to exploit and translate research for economic benefit.

Global challenge themes include: sustainable health and well-being; sustainable resources; sustainable growth; sustainable local research and innovation capacity.

Click here for further information including eligibility and the application process.

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.

19 July 2016

Irena Paszkiewicz represents BU students at 2016 LARASA World Leisure Congress in South Africa

conferences, international, student research lmarques

MSc Irena Paszkiewicz (Faculty of Management) was representing BU students at the first World Leisure Congress on the African continent which was hosted by the Leisure and Recreation Association of South Africa (LARASA) in Durban, from 27 – 30 June 2016. Bournemouth University was also represented by two members of academic staff, Dr. Lenia Marques and Dr. Dorothy Fox.

The aim of the 2016 WLO Congress was to explore “Challenges, Choices and Consequences” by creating a platform for professionals from diverse fields to interact, share and present a context for leisure services and opportunities. Speakers and delegates represented many countries, communities and academic fields. The benefits of leisure has been widely documented and the congress highlighted the importance of an integrated approach using leisure services to improve the human condition, transform spaces and boost the economy (www.larasa.org.za).

Irena presented her MSc research, supervised by Dr. Lorraine Brown, with the topic “Food as a Leisure Social Practice among Polish Immigrants in the UK’, receiving positive feedback. The event also served as a good platform for Irena to increase her network around these topics (in the photo, Irena with Maliga Naidoo – President of Larasa and Chair of 2016 WLO Congress and Prof. Miklos Banhidi, responsible for many youth-related projects worldwide).

Another important part of the experience, was the interaction with the international field school (with students from South Africa, Canada, Brazil and The Netherlands) about the Green Hub Project in Inanda Dam. The project involved a range of cultural tourism and ecotourism products in the area. The field school students, hosted by the Durban Green Corridor (DGC), organization that offers adventure and eco tours along the uMngeni River Valley, presented their recommendation for the Inanda community development at the congress.

Finally, on the 2^nd of July Irena visited Durban July Races, a very colourful and important event in South Africa. This allowed the close involvement to research and data collection of a project lead by Dr Lenia Marques on the social dimensions of the event experience.

Altogether, it was a very challenging and valuable experience which hopefully will add to Irena’s future research work, but also professional and personal skills. This professional journey was only possible with the support of Global Horizons Fund from Bournemouth University.

(text by Irena Paszkiewicz)

14 July 2016

BUDI presents at the iNav international conference in Bad Gastein (Austria)

international, PG research, Public engagement mobrien

Dr Jan Wiener, Dr Ramona Grzeschik and Mary O’Malley represented Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 1^st Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNav) in Bad Gastein from 26-30^th June 2016. The iNav is a meeting that aims to bring together a diverse group of scientists from backgrounds such as (cognitive) neuroscience, animal behaviour and ethology, theoretical neurobiology and robotics to shed some light into the neural systems involved in spatial cognition and navigation.

Mary presented a poster showcasing her PhD research with the topic “How do we get there? The effects of cognitive ageing on map reading abilities.” – a study using ‘you-are-here maps’ and a virtual care environment to investigate orientation experiences of older people with memory difficulties.

Ramona presented a poster with preliminary results of her study on “Effects of Aging on Landmark Recognition” that investigates what features of landmarks are helpful for older people to memorize a route. Jan gave a talk about “The effects of typical and atypical ageing on orientation and navigation behaviour” where he presented two studies about the effects of ageing on different route learning strategies.

Jan additionally co-hosted a discussion on how compatible virtual reality navigation is with real-life navigation

14 July 2016

UKRO Conference Report – important EU funding updates

Funding opportunities, Guidance, international Emily Cieciura

The UK Research Office (UKRO) is the European office of the UK Research Councils. It delivers a subscription-based advisory service for research organisations (in the main UK HEIs) and provides National Contact Point services on behalf of the UK Government. UKRO’s mission is to maximise UK engagement in EU-funded research, innovation and higher education activities. One way UKRO supports this mission is through the annual conference.

The slides are publicly available via the UKRO website. To access further subscriber-only information, including events notifications and news, BU staff members can register today!

The 2016 UKRO Annual Conference took place at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow on Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July 2016. Please follow the links below to access slides and other information from the event:

Conference Programme

Biographies of Speakers

Presentations:

Thursday 30 June 2016

Opening plenary session

Horizon 2020: Are We On the Path to Success?
Mr Wolfgang Burtscher (DG RTD, Deputy Director General)

European Research Council: An Update and Future Directions
Mr Theodore Papazoglou (ERCEA, Head of Unit, Support to the ERC Scientific Council)

Parallel sessions 1

A) Horizon 2020 Health Challenge: Zika, Ebola & Antimicrobial Resistance
Ms Line Matthiessen (DG RTD, Head of Unit, Fighting Infectious Diseases and Advancing Public Health)

B) Being Ethics Ready and Compliant
Ms Maria Filipa Ferraz De Oliveira (ERCEA, Head of Ethics Sector)

C) Horizon 2020 Funding for Research into Migration and Mobility
Ms Elisabeth Lipiatou (DG RTD, Head of Unit, Open and Inclusive Societies)

Parallel sessions 2

A) Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Reporting: IT’s That Time of the Year Again…
Ms Cathy Souto Enriques (REA, MSCA Project Advisor)

B) Funding Research for a Secure Society
Mr Graham Willmott (DG HOME, Head of Unit, Innovation and Industry Security)

Friday 1 July 2016

Open Innovation: The Future of EU Innovation Funding? Ideas for Creating a European Innovation Council
Ms Sophie Laurie (NERC, Associate Director of Innovation and Translation)
Mr Matthew King (DG RTD, Head of Unit Open Innovation)

Parallel sessions 3

A) Open to the World: Co-Funded Calls and How it Works in Practice
Mr Diego Sammaritano (DG RTD, Policy Officer, R&I Cooperation with China)

B) Open Science: Opening Up Scientific Information in Horizon 2020
Ms Joy Davidson (Collaborative Research & Services Provision Manager, University of Glasgow)

Parallel sessions 4

ELO Profiles for the Future of EU Funding
Ms Angela Noble (University of Edinburgh, Manager – Europe)
Ms Philippa Shelton (University of the West of England, Bristol, Senior Research Business Development Manager)
Ms Kimberly Cornfield (UCL, Head of EU Proposal Management)

Managing Intellectual Property in Horizon 2020
Mr Jakub Ramocki (EU IPR Helpdesk, Intellectual Property Advisor)

If you would like to discuss potential EU funding activity, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International. To see related articles, just search for ‘UKRO’ on the BU Research blog.

11 July 2016

ERC Deadlines

Funding opportunities, international Emily Cieciura

The deadlines for the European Research Council calls are quickly approaching.

Please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU and International if you intent to apply for:

Advanced Grant with closing date of 1st Septmber 2016
Proof of Concept Grant with closing date of 4th October 2016

Why not sign up for ERC email alerts so that you keep up to date with ERC news and events?

9 July 2016

FoL debate highlighted on USA website

Festival of Learning, international, PG research, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week’s Festival of Learning debate on the motion: “Advising pregnant women to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy is symptom of the Nanny State and another step towards the medicalisation of childbirth” has just been hightlighted in the USA. Our work featured on Jeffery Nicholas’ thoughts on social reality, a site established by Prof. Jeff Nicholas (click here!). Prof. Nicholas is a philospher based at Providence College with an interest in midwifery in society.

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ Liz Norton and Edwin van Teijlingen affiliated with the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) argued in favour of the motion. Donna Wixted, Joint Bournemouth University (BU)-Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, doctoral student and Greta Westwood of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust & the University of Southampton argued strongly against the motion. The exciting debate was chaired by Prof. Vanora Hundley from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

9 July 2016

Presentation PhD student Jib Acharya in Liverpool

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Mr. Jib Acharya (FHSS) gave an interesting presentation yesterday about the qualitative research findings of his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University. Jib’s PhD research focused on the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of poor women in Nepal about healthy eating and the study also identifies major food barriers.

His mixed-methods approach combines a quantitative questionnaire survey with qualitative research. Jib’s research project is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. Some of the preliminary findings of this FHSS thesis have already been published in two scientific journals [1-2].

References:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Assessment of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards healthy diet among mothers in Kaski, Nepal, Participation 17(16): 61-72.
Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal, Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare 1(2): 97-118. http://dspace.chitkara.edu.in/jspui/bitstream/1/560/1/12007_JMRH_Acharya.

6 July 2016

New CMMPH paper by PhD student Sheetal Sharma

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today saw the publication in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth of the paper ‘Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal’ with as lead author FHSS PhD student Sheetal Sharma [1]. This paper argues that pregnancy and childbirth are very much socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of what a particular society expects women to do (or not to do) during pregnancy, birth and/or the postnatal period. The study explored beliefs around childbirth in Nepal, a low-income country with a largely Hindu population. The paper then sets these findings in the context of the wider global literature around issues such as periods where women are viewed as polluted (or dirty even) after childbirth.

Sheetal is doing very well with her PhD publications as a few weeks ago her major quantitative findings paper was published in PLOS One [2]. Both papers are published in Open Access journals and therefore easily available to researchers, health promotors, health care providers and health policy-makers in low-income countries. Sheetal evaluated a research project funded by the London-based charity Green Tara Trust. Her PhD is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Vanora Hundley and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen all nbased in CMMPH with external supervision from BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada (liverpool John Moores University).

References:

Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Angell, C., Simkhada, P. (2016) Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 147 https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0938-4
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144

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What a difference a game makes

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Irena Paszkiewicz represents BU students at 2016 LARASA World Leisure Congress in South Africa

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