Category / Knowledge Exchange

Building Research Capacity: The key role of PhD students

BU Challenges, Knowledge Exchange, writing

Postgraduate students, especially PhD students dramatically expand a university’s research capacity. They contribute significantly to data collection, analysis, the day-to-day management of research projects, and publications that might otherwise be impossible to sustain. Postgraduate students are central to progressive research-active communities. PhD student also frequently serve as mentors to undergraduate researchers or Masters’ students, creating a cascade of learning that benefits all participants.

Beyond individual projects, postgraduate students help build research infrastructure through their contributions to lab management, protocol development, the exchange of innovative ideas, and so on. These contributions create lasting benefits to staff as well as higher education institutions.  Academic communities with PhD students often promote collaboration, provide emotional and intellectual support, and create spaces where ideas can be tested and analyses refined before wider dissemination.

This expanded capacity allows universities to pursue more ambitious research agendas and respond to complex challenges requiring multidisciplinary approaches. The postgraduate journey requires carefully planned mentorship, giving students increasing autonomy, and ownership of their scholarly contribution. This apprenticeship model has proven remarkably effective in preparing the next generation of academics for centuries.

 

This blog was created as part of the Professional Discourse in the Age of AI: an interactive writing workshop facilitated by Prof. Debbie Holley and Prof. Carol Clark in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University.  Since last week’s workshop was on the topic, we have used the help of AI in the writing of this BU Research Blog!

 

Dr. Kathryn Collins, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

GSW Food Security Academic Summit

Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

The Great South West launched its Food Security Position paper in Westminster late last year highlighting the significant contribution this region makes to the UK’s food supply. The launch event drew together policy makers from both the Commons and the Lords, leading industry and academia. The event highlighted the key food security challenges and the critical role that the South West region holds in securing our national food supply. Bournemouth University was represented by Professor Jeff Bray.

Universities across the Great South West region are researching different aspects of Food Security. To develop greater awareness of the region’s research interests and capabilities, an academic Food Security Summit is being convened in June. This event will bring the region’s universities together, showcase respective expertise and enable academic network building thereby stimulating greater collaboration. Themes to be discussed include agri-tech developments, localised supply chains, consumer decision making & economic approaches. A regional academic network will be developed and annual meetings established, reflecting the trajectory and importance of the topic.

This timely and much-needed initiative is led by Jeff Bray from BU and supported by colleagues from all Faculties. If you have a research interest in Food Security and would like to be included in these discussions, then please e-mail Jeff with a brief outline of your research focus by 15th May.

Successful 2025 Bid-generating Sandpit designed and facilitated by BU academics Catalin Brylla and Lyle Skains

Awarded & submitted bids, Industry collaboration, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

For our fourth run, 30 early career academics from ten universities came together 26-27 March in Bournemouth for a two-day sandpit funded by The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and organised by Dr. Catalin Brylla (Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion, and Social Justice) and Dr. Lyle Skains (Centre for Science, Health, and Data Communication Research).

The participants specialise in a variety of disciplines such as psychology, music, business management, environmental sciences, computing, law and social work. They brought their interests in a sustainable world and society (as represented by the UN Sustainable Development Goals) to the sandpit for networking, team-building, and funding and project development workshops, many of which were based on the successful and innovative NESTA-developed ‘Crucible’ programme (no longer online, but see the Welsh Crucible).

The success of the sandpit’s activities is highlighted by the culmination of six projects proposed to a panel of subject experts from Bournemouth University: Prof. Huseyin Dogan (computing), Dr. Emily Arden-Close (Psychology), Dr. Lyle Skains (arts practice and interdisciplinarity), Dr. Catalin Brylla (media practice) and Eva Papadopoulou (research development). These experts provided mentorship and feedback on the projects as they develop toward funding proposals. Two sandpit follow-up sessions will also aid the participants in developing their funding proposals.

To receive news of further sandpits and development opportunities, join the BA ECRN.

 

 

Promoting Human-Centred Design in Drowning Prevention

international, Knowledge Exchange, student research

The Department of Design and Engineering at Bournemouth University has a reputation for its Human-Centred Design (HCD) work.  In our interdisciplinary Sonamoni project we have HCD at its centre.  The Sonamoni project is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the University of the West of England (Bristol), the University of Southampton, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Design Without Border (DWB) in Uganda and Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB). The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties and six academics: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

Last month two staff from CIPRB, Notan Chandra Dutta and Mirza Shibat Rowshan visited DBW in Uganda, as part of so-called South-South learning. Their objective was to share (1) knowledge and experience of using HCD techniques and (2) best practices of drowning prevention in both countries. Utilizing HCD techniques, Sonamoni is working to identify and prioritize potential solutions, develop prototypes, and assess the acceptability of the interventions to reduce drowning deaths among old children under two in Bangladesh.

During the visit, Notan and Shibat participated a four-day ideation workshop with the fisher community near Lake Victoria, organized by DWB. In the workshop, different HCD tools were used along with other group activities to generate and refine ideas for the solutions. The generated ideas were recorded by visualization tools. Notan and Shibat also attended a session on the principles of creative facilitation of HCD, including the need to understand the problem, role of the facilitator and other stakeholders.  Various visualization tools were discussed, e.g.  ‘journey maps’, ‘stakeholder map’, ‘context map’ and different types of sketches.  Notan shared CIPRB’s experiences of managing the best drowning prevention practices and its challenges from Bangladesh context.

This international project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme, also includes a BU-based PhD student, Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossein.  Last week Shafkat presented our Sonamoni project in lecture to BU Engineering students at Talbot campus.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

This week – Konfer – an innovation and collaboration platform

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

Join Us for an online Konfer Training Session!

We invite you to an online training session on 20 March 2025, featuring Anna Dent-Davies and Shivaun Meehan from the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB). They will introduce Konfer, a powerful platform for navigating the UK innovation ecosystem.

For those unfamiliar, Konfer connects users with resources and potential collaborators perfectly aligned with their research or innovation projects.

During this 1.5-hour interactive online session, Anna and Shivaun will guide you through making the most of Konfer, focusing on:

· Effectively searching the platform.

· Drafting high-quality collaboration calls by addressing four key questions.

You’ll also have the chance to discuss your specific research projects or areas of interest and even begin drafting your own collaboration call during the session.

Ahead of the session, we kindly ask attendees to:

· Sign up to Konfer.

· Come prepared with an innovation challenge or collaboration opportunity in mind.

Don’t miss this opportunity to explore how Konfer can support your research and innovation goals – to book your place, please visit this link.