BU Research Blog

26 October 2016

BU’s Dr.Sascha Dov Bachmann to speak at conference convened by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)

conferences, Fusion, international, Public engagement sbachmann

Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law and Extraordinary Associate Professor in War Studies (Swedish Defence University) will present his work on Hybrid War and law fare in the 21st Century at SANDF’s First International Conference on Military Law, in Pretoria from 1 to 3 November.

The objective of the conference is to expose and bring awareness to the South African public in general and academia in particular on the importance of Military Law within a country’s legal system.

South Africa is among the leading countries in contributing military personnel and major equipment for peace missions in pursuance of its policy to promote peace and stability in the continent. The country’s important role in mediation to end conflicts, has earned it a good standing, reputation and respect among the community of nations.

As an active participant in international structures, South Africa raises the interests of the African continent and other developing countries. Since it plays a meaningful role for the success of the region and the continent, it is incumbent that it stays afloat in every spectrum possible including the development and application of Military Law.

Furthermore here at home, the community at large; to some extent the Military community; academia and jurors alike seem not to be aware of the relevance, extent and application of Military Law.

The Conference will be opened by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans the Honourable Minister N.N. Mapisa-Nqakula. The Key Note Speaker will be our former Chief Justice, Justice Sandile Ngcobo.

Dr Sascha Dov Bachmann will present the findings on an ongoing project on Hybrid War and lawfare and how it impacts on AU states and their operational capacities and abilities.

26 October 2016

UKRO Visit – Slides now available

Funding opportunities, innovation, international, Post-award Emily Cieciura

RKEO were pleased to welcome UK Research Office’s BU account manager, Maribel Glogowski for our annual subscriber visit, on Tuesday 25th October. Maribel is based in Brussels, along with the rest of the UKRO team, so is BU’s perfect partner for keeping us up to date with funding developments in the EU.

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. As a BU member of staff, you can sign up to receive email alerts direct to your inbox.

Maribel covered the following topics:

Updates on project management including post-referendum statements
Creative Europe
Erasmus+
Accessing the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges

All the slides from the day are available in the MyBU Community for the Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework. Please select the International Pathway to access these slides – more resources are being added over the coming months. All staff have been pre-enrolled into this community.

If you have any questions about this event or are considering applying to EU funding schemes, please contact Emily Cieciura (RKEO, Research Facilitator: EU & International)

25 October 2016

Visitors from Nepal at FHSS

Centre for Excellence in Learning, international, open access, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

As part of FHSS’s sustained research in Nepal Dr. Sujan Marahatta and Mr. Jiwan Sharma from Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) came to the UK to discuss further future collaborations. The Nepali visitors met with our Dean Prof. Steve Tee and Dr. Malcolm McIver FHSS’s Associate Dean for Global Engagement as well with Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Pramod Regmi and BU PhD student Mr. Jib Acharya.

BU academics have been collaborating with MMIHS for over seven years. Currently, we have three projects in Nepal with MMIHS: one funded by the Centre for Excellence in Learning on introducing CPD (Continuous Professional Development) in nursing in Nepal and coordinated by Dr. Catherine Angell; and project designed by Dr. Regmi on transgender issues in Nepal which is funded by FHSS monies, and study on returned trafficked women in Nepal which has received a small small amount of money from both FHSS and Liverpool John Moores University. Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), has been a Visiting Professor at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences for nine years so it is a long-standing working relationship. MMIHS publishes its own journal the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences which is part of Nepal Journals Online (NepJOL) and Open Access. Apart from Prof. van Teijlingen, CMMPH Prof. Hundley, Dr. Regmi, or our BU media colleague Dr. Luce (Faculty of Media & Communication) and various members of FHSS’s Visiting Faculty have published in this journal.

FHSS and MMIHS are now working towards a more formal academic relationship.

24 October 2016

Developing a public engagement event – Workshop

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement Joanna Pawlik

Don’t forget to book your place on our Developing a public engagement event, which is going to focus specifically on developing a public engagement event.

The workshop is going to take place on Monday 31st October, from 1pm-4pm at Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot campus

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

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your research and expertise by being a part of the Festival! Find out more and book your place via Organisation Development here.

We’re hoping to see you there!

23 October 2016

BU Sociology graduate invited speaker at the World Youth Buddhist Symposium

international, Student Engagement, student research Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Alexandra Jarrett is a former BU student who is graduating this year from the BA (Hons) Sociology & Anthropology programme in HSS. Prior to taking up her MA studies at the highly prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Alex was invited to the beautiful northern Thai city of Chiang Mai to present aspects of her final-year dissertation on Buddhist death rituals and beliefs.
Alex’s contribution was very warmly welcomed beyond our hopes and expectations. As her supervisor I was delighted to hear her accounts of how this experience deepened her understanding of her chosen area of interest: the anthropology of relgioun and spiritual belief systems, which she started exploring moredeeply in the Soc+ unit ‘Seekers, Believers & Iconoclasts: Sociology of Thought’. Participation in the Symposium also elevated Alex’s awareness of how much bright, energetic and keen UK students have to offer on the world stage at a dismal time when Britain seems to be wilfully stepping away from the limelight and heading out of the backdoor. Enough of the doleful thoughts – over now to Alex:
‘This summer, I was delighted to be asked to deliver a guest speech at the World Youth Buddhist Symposium in Thailand. The theme of the symposium was “The way of Peace” and I delivered a talk entitled “consumerism and the false self”. When I arrived at the university in Chiang Mai, I was overwhelmed by the setting of the symposium. The ceiling was lit up by giant lanterns and the front of the stage full of flowers. I was very impressed with the organisation of and the pride that was taken in holding this symposium.
The first day of the symposium was magnificent – the opening show began with traditional Thai dances and a flag ceremony (where I was chosen to represent Britain). Each day of the symposium began with the introduction of the honourable guests, which included Khenpo Sydogye (a famous Tibetan teacher). Over the course of four days, I learnt about different religious perspectives towards peace and how this should be achieved worldwide. As well as this, I took part in meditation and a life release ceremony involving releasing fish into the lake whilst singing and chanting mantras.

My speech was ten minutes long and discussed the influence of consumerism, social media and technology on achieving peace. I discussed the idea of how wealth can often contribute towards selfishness and how technology creates an idea of a false self where consumers become obsessed with projecting a certain image of themselves online. As well as delivering this speech, I was asked to perform a song on the final day of the symposium during the closing ceremony.
My experience at this symposium was amazing and I learnt a lot about Buddhism and different religious perspectives towards peace. The symposium was predominantly run by the Chinese so I also learnt a lot about the Chinese culture and their pride in running an organised, impressive conference.’
The entire Soc+ team is very proud of Alex and her achievements, which were featured in the BU news. We hope she will stay in touch and return to BU one day to address junior Sociology+ students as one of our most excellent and inspiring alumnae. Well done Alex!

Alexandra Jarrett and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

20 October 2016

BU THET Nepal project presented at RCM conference

conferences, international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Our THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust) funded project which trains community health worker such as Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) on mental health issues related to pregnancy was presented at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) conference today by FHSS Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland (photo). Jillian is also a community midwife at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Mental health is poorly covered in the training of health care providers in Nepal. This all the more worrying as it is also culturally a difficult sensitive topic to discuss. This makes it difficult for front-line health workers, especially generalists or non-mental health specialists, to start a discussion about mental health issues with pregnant women, new mothers and their wider families.

Our THET partnership includes the Department of Health, Physical & Population Education at Nepal’s oldest and largest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU), Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). This project is funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS). HPS funds to carry out training and capacity-building projects in low-income countries, such as Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and managed by THET (Tropical Health and Education Trust).

The partnership working has resulted in several publications on mental health and maternity care in Nepal. [1-3]

References:

Simkhada, B., Sharma, G., Pradhan, S., van Teijlingen, E., Ireland, J., Simkhada, P., Devkota, B. & the THET team. (2016) Needs assessment of mental health training for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives: a cross-sectional survey, Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 2(1): 20-26. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/15793/12738
van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Devkota, B., Fanning, P., Ireland, J., Simkhada, B., Sherchan, L., Silwal, R.C., Pradhan, S., Maharjan, S.K., Maharjan, R.K. (2015) Mental health issues in pregnant women in Nepal. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 5(3): 499-501. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/13607/11007
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E., Winter, R.C., Fanning, C., Dhungel, A., Marahatta S.B. (2015) Why are so many Nepali women killing themselves? A review of key issues Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 1(4): 43-49. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/12001

19 October 2016

Focus group on PhD mobility – UK PhD students wanted!

international, PG research Emily Cieciura

The Universities UK International (UUKi) focus group on PhD mobility will take place on Thursday 1 December 2016 at the UUKi offices, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ.

UUKi houses the ‘Go International’ Programme and UK Strategy for Outward Mobility, which aims to increase the number of UK-domiciled students spending time abroad as part of their UK degree. PhD students are heavily underrepresented in UK outward student mobility figures, and many PhD outward mobility opportunities for UK students – such as the Newton Fund China and India PhD placement calls– are very undersubscribed.

To help UUK better understand why this is the case, UUKi is holding a focus group of 16-20 UK- domiciled students, from any discipline, currently undertaking a PhD at a UK institution, who have been abroad, are considering going abroad, have decided against going abroad, or have not considered this option at all. Through this group, they hope to explore PhD students’ perceptions of mobility, as well as to better understand some of the key barriers and challenges they face when considering going abroad.

If you have any questions about the focus group at all, please direct these to – Marta Lezzerini: marta.lezzerini@international.ac.uk . See the flyer below for details of how to attend this event.

Findings from the focus group will be distributed to both the Newton Fund Network, and the Outward Mobility Network in late December.

19 October 2016

UKRO – Annual Visit on 25th October 2016

Funding opportunities, Guidance, Info Days, international Emily Cieciura

If you are thinking of applying for EU funding in the coming year, you need to be at this event!

This session will be delivered by the UK Research Office’s BU account manager, Maribel Glogowski.

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. As a BU member of staff, you can sign up to receive email alerts direct to your inbox.

The annual visit with take place from 11:30am – 15:15pm in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham Library on Talbot Campus on Tuesday, 25th of October. Lunch is provided.

This event has been developed with UKRO to include up to date information about EU funding relevant to BU’s current and future bidding activities.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

To find out about current EU funding thinking
To raise personal awareness of funding calls with relevance to BU

Within the update, the session will specifically include:

How UKRO and RKEO can help with your EU applications
Creative Europe and Erasmus+
Accessing the Societal Challenges

Maribel is based in Brussels, along with the rest of the UKRO team, so is BU’s perfect partner for keeping us up to date with funding developments in the EU.

Please book your place via Organisational Development. Spaces are filling up quickly and we need to confirm final numbers for catering this week.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Emily Cieciura (RKEO, Research Facilitator: EU & International) or Dianne Goodman (RKEO, Funding Development Team Co-ordinator)

18 October 2016

EU award for PhD student Preeti Mahato

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

FHSS PhD student Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) has been awarded a funded place on the COST Action Training School BEYOND BIRTH COHORTS: from study design to data management. This training school will run from 23-15 November in Spain.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a unique platform where European researchers can jointly develop their ideas and initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research. Preeti pal has been awarded the sum of 500 euro to cover the cost of attending the Training School and travel and accommodation costs. Preeti’s PhD project is on maternity care provision in Nepal. Preeti’s research focuses on the quality and equity of service available at birthing centres. In Nepal, birthing centres act as first contact point for the women seeking maternity services especially the basic obstetric care. She is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University).

Preeti has already published the first PhD paper ‘Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities’ in the Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM) [1], whilst another was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology [2]. Furthermore, a more general health and development paper was published this year in Health Prospect [3].

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

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): 17-30.
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/14260/1157
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

17 October 2016

Green Bubbles Open workshop: innovation in recreational SCUBA diving

conferences, innovation, international, Public engagement lmarques

Green Bubbles is a EU-funded project dedicated to sustainable recreational SCUBA diving. Recreational SCUBA diving has become a mass leisure activity engaging millions of divers worldwide. The diving industry generates large direct and indirect revenues for coastal communities and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Other benefits linked to diving include the promotion of ocean stewardship, contribution to scientific research, fostering social inclusion and personal development. Yet, diving has also negative impacts, due to damage or disturbance of habitats and organisms, and to conflicts with local communities for the access to/use of the same resources, equity issues, or cultural clashes. The central objective of Green Bubbles is to maximise the benefits associated with diving while minimising its negative impacts, thus achieving the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the system.

Poster of speakers for Green Bubbles Open Workshop

On 26-27 September, Green Bubbles had its first open workshop, in Santa Margherita Ligure, in Italy. Dr Lenia Marques, from the Department of Events and Leisure, was one

of the keynote speakers, bringing leisure and tourism integrated approaches into the discussion.

The workshop brought together many local and international stakeholders and it was a moment not only of discussion of different perspectives, but also of synergy creation.

It was a successful workshop and we look forward to seeing the developments of the rest of the project as

well as the future projects which started to emerge from this meeting.

Green Bubbles workshop

Please check out the links and follow the project on social media:

www.greenbubbles.eu

Official website: www.greenbubbles.eu

E-mail: join@greenbubbles.eu

Social media hashtags: #GreenBubblesRISE #GreenBubblesproject #sustainable #diving

For more information at BU, please contact Dr Lenia Marques, lmarques@bournemouth.ac.uk.

17 October 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – What could you do?

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement Joanna Pawlik

With the call for proposals now open for Festival of Learning 2017, we want you to get involved.

Why? There are many benefits of taking part, as the festival is an excellent opportunity to showcase your research and gain valuable feedback from members of the public. In a previous post we shared the idea of an audience-led event, which you can find here. This time we want to show you that public engagement events can also be artistic and creative.

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.

Moonbrella

At the British Science Festival 2016 in Swansea, Moonbrella was one of a number of interactive, drop-in sessions incorporated into an event called Creatures of the night. This took place in Plantasia – a tropical haven of exotic plants and animals. The location was unique in itself, but Moonbrella really stole the show.

Despite the fact that over 150 craters on the moon are named after real scientists, only 28 are named after women. Moonbrella showcases research through poetry, allowing participants to celebrate these inspirational women. At Creatures of the night, event attendees walked through the tropical garden, and as they began to climb towards the top of the dome they were given a ‘Moonbrella’ – a glowing umbrella. This owed its unusual properties to battery powered fairy lights attached inside. Additionally, there were some graphics of the scientists, and an mp3 player and headphones, which were carefully taped to the umbrella. The audience walked under the Moonbrellas, popped on their headphones and listened to poetry about a female scientist as they wandered through the tropical garden. Each Moonbrella celebrated a different scientist, and Moonbrellas could be swapped to hear about another scientist. Visually, this looked fantastic under the night sky, as the umbrellas lit up the paths between the tropical plants and for a minute it felt like you weren’t in Swansea anymore.

Moonbrella is just one of many creative ways to showcase your research through the arts! Now grab a few colouring pencils, scissors and some tape and get creative! We hope to hear more about your own amazing ideas at one of our drop-in sessions.

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

17 October 2016

Support for developing your event idea – Drop-in session Wednesday 19 October

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement Joanna Pawlik

Don’t miss our drop-in sessions where we can offer you support in planning your event for Festival of Learning 2017.

Our next session is on Wednesday 19 October and we’ll be there for you from 11am – 12pm at Fusion Building – coffee area

Come to see us and don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your research and expertise by being a part of the Festival!

We’re hoping to see you there!

14 October 2016

Czech midwifery lecturer on EU-funded visit to CMMPH

international Edwin van Teijlingen

Eva Hendrych Lorenzová, midwife and midwifery lecturer from the Czech Republic, visited the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) this passed week. Eva was awarded a travel grant as part of the EU-funded COST Action IS1405 Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM). Eva spoke to colleagues and students at Bournemouth University as well as midwifery colleagues in Weymouth, Bournemouth, Poole and the New Forrest Birth Centre.

Over the past five year, four different midwives from Continental Europe have been to Bournemouth University on an STSM exchange. Eva is the fourth one, and with Brexit most likely to be the last on this EU scheme! Each of these four midwives had a different aim for their STSM project. The first STSM midwifery visitor five years ago was Susanne Grylka-Baeschlin. She did a methodological piece of research which resulted in the translation of the Mother-Generated Index into German to be used in Switzerland and Germany. The STSM was part of her MSc project supervised by Prof. Mechthild Gross and supported by Dr. Kathrin Stoll, both based at the Hannover Medical School in Germany.

In 2013 Dr. Ans Luyben, a Dutch midwife working in Switzerland, came over to BU for ten days. She came to develop the survey content on organisational system design and culture as part of the international survey, taking place during the COST Action. The work focused on organisational system design and culture in regard to antenatal care, including prenatal screening.

Eva and Jillian 2016

The third STSM midwifery visitor in 2014 was Dr. Fátima León Larios from Spain. Her STSM was much more practical, Fátima was keen to find out more about how small midwifery-led maternity units were being run in England. BU’s Visiting Faculty and Poole Community Midwife Jillian Ireland took her to visit four different maternity units in the south of England. Jillian also organised Eva’s meeting with community midwives and midwives in various birthing centres in Dorset and the New Forrest in October 2016.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

13 October 2016

25th Oct – UKRO Visit to BU

international Dianne Goodman

This session will be delivered by BU’s account manager from the UK Research Office. UKRO are the leading support body within the UK for EU funding.

Taking place 11:30am – 15:15pm in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham Library on Talbot Campus on Tuesday the 25th of October.

This event is in development with UKRO, but will include up to date information about EU funding which is relevant to BU’s current and future bidding activities.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

To find out about current EU funding thinking
To raise personal awareness of funding calls with relevance to BU

Please book in via Organisational Development

13 October 2016

FHSS Dr. Vanessa Heaslip awarded Florence Nightingale Travel Scholarship

Awarded & submitted bids, international Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Vanessa Heaslip in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) has been awarded a Florence Nightingale Travel Scholarship. She will be using this prestigious award to travel to New Zealand and various locations in the United Kingdom. She is hoping to learn from New Zealand, which is decades ahead in tackling these issues, to establish, adapt and develop principles for implementation in the UK. Vanessa’s study funded by the Florence Nightingale Foudation is called: “Towards addressing health inequalities of marginalised communities; using Gypsy Roma Travellers (GRT) as the model.”

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

12 October 2016

Farewell, but not goodbye

international John Oliver

The Advances in Media Management (AiMM) research cluster recently said farewell, but not goodbye to Jorge Sanz-Llopis, a senior PhD student and Assistant Lecturer at University of Navarra (Spain).

Jorge has spent three months conducting research and refining his thesis as part of his International Doctorate programme. Dr John Oliver, who leads AiMM, said that “we were delighted to help Jorge develop his research and look forward to continuing our relationship with the University of Navarra”.

Jorge said of his experience “I had the opportunity to discuss various academic issues with AiMM colleagues and compare different perspectives of media business theory and practice. I want to thank BU for this amazing experience”.

10 October 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – support for developing your event idea

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement, Training 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

10 October 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – What could you do?

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement 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.

Category / international

BU’s Dr.Sascha Dov Bachmann to speak at conference convened by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF)

UKRO Visit – Slides now available

Developing a public engagement event – Workshop

Don’t forget to book your place on our Developing a public engagement event, which is going to focus specifically on developing a public engagement event.

Focus group on PhD mobility – UK PhD students wanted!

UKRO – Annual Visit on 25th October 2016

If you are thinking of applying for EU funding in the coming year, you need to be at this event!

Green Bubbles Open workshop: innovation in recreational SCUBA diving

Festival of Learning 2017 – What could you do?

With the call for proposals now open for Festival of Learning 2017, we want you to get involved.

Moonbrella

Support for developing your event idea – Drop-in session Wednesday 19 October

Czech midwifery lecturer on EU-funded visit to CMMPH

25th Oct – UKRO Visit to BU

Farewell, but not goodbye

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

Other services

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UKRI

Category / international

Don’t forget to book your place on our Developing a public engagement event, which is going to focus specifically on developing a public engagement event.

If you are thinking of applying for EU funding in the coming year, you need to be at this event!

With the call for proposals now open for Festival of Learning 2017, we want you to get involved.

Moonbrella

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

The Great British Brain Off

Other services

Don’t miss a post!

Recent posts

Search by Category

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