Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
A digest of useful information for digital businesses updated every month. The briefing highlights UK and European funding, support, events and training. Compiled by the KTN in partnership with Innovate UK, Catapults, Tech City, Nesta and Open Data Institute.
Creative Industries Business Briefing
A digest of useful information for creative industries businesses updated every month. The briefing highlights UK and European funding, support, events and training. Compiled by the KTN in partnership with Innovate UK, Catapults, Tech City, Nesta and Horizon2020.
This is a reminder that Neil Grice, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Adviser from Innovate UK will be hosting a KTP Surgery for any academics who have any KTP queries or would like some help and guidance.
The Surgery will feature several 20 minute time slots which are to be booked in advance from 09.30-11.30 on Tuesday 14th April.
If you would like to book a 20 minute slot or would like to find out more about KTP, please contact Rachel Clarke Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP) on 61347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
The long-term care revolution national challenge, an SBRI competition run by Innovate UK, is now open for registration.
The aim of this competition to stimulate the development of innovative new products, services and systems that disrupt the current long-term care model, have a clear and viable route to market as well as the potential to be commercialised at scale.
More information on this funding opportunity.
Applications from consortia that include companies outside the long-term care sector are encourage to apply bringing fresh and innovative ideas to the challenges of this competition.
Competition Briefing event, 14 April 2015.
This event is an excellent opportunity receive first hand information about the competition – its scope, application process, key dates etc. as well as meet and network with peers, potential partners, market leaders & innovators in the industry
More information on the briefing event.
For queries about this competition, please contact support@innovateuk.gov.uk
Do you have a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) query? Or perhaps need some advice on how to start off a KTP discussion with a business? Neil Grice, our local KTP Adviser from Innovate UK will be on Talbot Campus from 9.30am – 11.30am on Tuesday 14th April for a series of one-to-ones with academics who would like dedicated KTP support.
To book one of these 20 minute slots, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 61347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
Click here to find out more about KTP.
Biotechnology YES, now in its 20th year, is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of ideas among early career researchers. The competition is funded by sponsorship and aims to encourage an entrepreneurial culture in the UK postgraduate and postdoctoral base for the benefit of the UK bioeconomy.
6 workshops are being held across the UK in the autumn and three of these are to be hosted by industry:
The Royal Society of Chemistry is once again sponsoring teams to compete in Chemistry YES to be run in conjunction with the Biotechnology YES workshops.
Environment YES, now in its 10th year, will once again be run alongside Biotechnology YES.
This competition is open to all bioscience early career researchers not just those funded by BBSRC.
For further information and how to apply please visit:
The April edition of our monthly business briefing for the UK’s creative industries is now live! This is a monthly publication that provides a digest of useful information about funding, financing, support and events to assist creative entrepreneurs with their innovation and growth agendas. This month’s edition offers edited highlights of a number of public funding programmes from leading organisations supporting our sector including: Innovate UK, Nesta, British Film Institute, Creative England, Creative Scotland, Horizon 2020 & more.
We regularly conduct workshops and training sessions on academic writing at home and abroad. Yesterday afternoon I did one in Kathmandu for staff at Social Science Baha and Green Tara Nepal. There were the usual comments and queries about authorship, references, length of papers or sections of 
papers, how to target the ‘best’ journalfor my article, etc. One interesting question I had not been asked before was: “How did you feel when you had your first paper published?”, followed by the question: “Who did you tell about it?” I thought that was a very nice question, and also reminded me why we do these kind of workshops for those who haven’t had the pleasure yet of getting a paper in print.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
£4m collaborative R&D funding now open ! – 23 March 2015
Innovate UK is to invest up to £4 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the growing risks of disruption to internet-enabled businesses and their digital supply. More information on this competition.
Competition Briefing Events – 25 March onwards at several locations
The event is an excellent opportunity for you to receive first hand information about the competition – its scope, application process, key dates etc. as well as meet and network with peers, potential partners, market leaders & innovators in the industry. More information & event registration page.
For queries about this competition, please contact support@innovateuk.gov.uk
Today my colleagues at the University of Aberdeen’s Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) published their latest HERU Policy Brief on ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’. The policy brief is now available on line. These policy briefs are concise summaries of the findings of research projects, presented with a focus on policy implications. Linking research findings to possible policy improvements increase the chance that our research has an impact on the wider society. Furthermore, that our research has an impact in REF terms.
This latest policy brie
f ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’ is part of a larger project called PROGRESS (Prevent Obesity GRowing Economic Synthesis Study), funded by the National Preventative Research Initiative (NPRI) and the Universities of Aberdeen and Melbourne. The project started when I was still at the University of Aberdeen, before I came down to Bournemouth more than five years ago now. Our research highlights that despite evidence that dietary interventions are the most effective way to lose weight, respondents preferred lifestyle interventions involving physical activity. Also that behaviour-change support improves effectiveness of interventions, but its value to participants was limited. A general preference to maintain current lifestyles, together with the sensitivity of take-up to financial costs, suggests financial incentives could be used to help maximise up-take of healthy lifestyle interventions. Finally, men required more compensation to take up healthier lifestyles.
Full details on methods and results are available in the health economics paper due to be published later this year, currently ‘published ahead of print’ (Ryan et al. 2014).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Reference:
Ryan, M., Yi, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Aucott, L., van Teijlingen, E. & Vale, L. (2014) Gaining pounds by losing pounds: preferences for lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity, Health Economics, Policy & Law, [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1017/s1744133114000413.
The Impact Awards from RCUK and PraxisUnico reward and recognise knowledge exchange, technology transfer and commercialisation professionals who have excelled in enabling and facilitating the achievement of impact from the outcomes of research.
PraxisUnico and the Research Councils are working together to facilitate the sharing of best practice, and to acknowledge and celebrate the work that Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) professionals do in enabling impact from UK research organisations.
The Impact Awards from RCUK and PraxisUnico reward and recognise knowledge exchange, technology transfer and commercialisation professionals who have excelled in enabling and facilitating the achievement of impact from the outcomes of research.
PraxisUnico and the Research Councils are working together to facilitate the sharing of best practice, and to acknowledge and celebrate the work that Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) professionals do in enabling impact from UK research organisations.
The Impact Awards for KEC Professionals:
The competition replaces the PraxisUnico Impact Awards and the BBSRC Activating Impact competition.
£4m collaborative R&D funding opening soon – 23 March 2015
Innovate UK is to invest up to £4 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the growing risks of disruption to internet-enabled businesses and their digital supply. More information on this competition.
Competition Briefing Events – 25 March onwards at several locations
The event is an excellent opportunity for you to receive first hand information about the competition – its scope, application process, key dates etc. as well as meet and network with peers, potential partners, market leaders & innovators in the industry. More information & event registration page.
For queries about this competition, please contact support@innovateuk.gov.uk
The all new MSc Cyber Security & Human Factors course kicked off last week with students eager to embark on their 18-36 month journey! This exciting part-time Masters in Cyber Security has been developed to meet the skills and education required by most digital enabled organisations whilst adapting the content and delivery to meet today’s student’s work-life balance. This innovative industry based MSc has taught modular elements followed by a period of research and reflection. Each module has an intensive 3 day program of lectures delivered at the University followed by 8 weeks of research activities, directed reading and reflection.
Cyberspace is a vast, complex and still evolving community that presents enterprise, industry and governments with ongoing security management challenges, as it grows on an exponential scale. The security of data is fundamental to any business, and IT professionals are increasingly aware of the complexities involved in protecting information, assets, knowledge and intellect. As cyberspace stores more and more information, specialists in security who are ahead of the game will become a critical element in reducing risk.
On this course, students will gain an understanding of the psychology of cyber security by investigating threat, vulnerabilities and impact risk; the contagion of fear, uncertainty and doubt; managing human factors in security; trust management and information assurance. Students will develop a deep and holistic awareness of Cyber Security and Human Factors.
Students will have access to a suite of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics laboratories with state-of-art simulation and analytical systems to discover, evaluate and educate the use of Intrusion Detection, Incident Management, Forensic analysis and System Penetration testing as well as incorporating Industry based skill training material and practices.
The next enrollment opportunity for this course is September 2015 (both part-time and full-time). If you’d like more information on the course please visit BU Cyber Security Unit or email the team.
You may have seen lots about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), perhaps from the KTP Academic Development Scheme or on blog posts, or perhaps even whilst in conversation with your colleagues. At Bournemouth University, we’re working hard to maximise our KTP provision and this is working..!
We currently have two KTP projects in recruitment stages where we are looking for KTP associates (a graduate hired to work on the projects, full time for the duration of the project) to fill these KTP positions.
Chantacre
Following on from a successful series of shorter KTP, this position is a 25-month fixed term appointment for an IT Systems Project Manager. This is a challenging yet potentially very rewarding opportunity to apply creative and innovative thinking, as well as strong technical skills that will result in an innovative and exploitable capability. The role will involve the creation of a mobile convergence solution within a company operating over a wide geographical area enabling information and data exchange in real time whilst maintaining data integrity and security. As this is a KTP the Associate will not only be required to research, develop and install the solution but also embed sufficient knowledge within the company to enable them to both use and develop the system in an efficient and sustainable manner.
Nautilus
This is the company’s first KTP and is for a Computer Graphics/Games Programmer for a 30-month project. The role will involve the researching of all types of 3D terrain generation applications and then the development of proprietary prototype software that will allow for rapid, automatic/semi-automatic 3D terrain content generation for use within the Virtual Battle Space (VBS) 3 game engine. In addition to this, the role will involve embedding the capability within the company to enable further development and exploitation of the software.
Both of these vacancies are in recruitment and they close on Monday 23 March. Please do share with any candidates who may be interested in these roles.
For further information about KTP, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 61347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
Following on from the launch of the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Academic Development Scheme last Autumn, the second cohort is currently in recruitment.
Academics on this scheme now are working towards a target of submitting a KTP proposal within a year of starting the scheme and are currently in various stages leading up to this. KTP is an excellent way of developing knowledge exchange whilst demonstrating impact and also bringing in income.
The KTP scheme is 40 years old this year and there is a is a lot of funding (managed by Innovate UK) to dedicate to KTP, so why not join in and find out more about KTP? KTP submissions have a 90% success rate which shows us that there is an huge potential for us to grow our KTP portfolio with a funded scheme that has such a great and solid history.
If you’re working with a business, or want to work with business, find out how KTP could work for you.
For an informal chat about the scheme or an application form, please contact Rachel Clarke Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP) on 61347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
Are you working with business?
Innovation Vouchers are open to all kinds of small businesses. Businesses can claim up to £5,000 towards the cost of expert advice if they classify as a start-up, micro or SME . The funding encourages SMEs and start-ups to seek out fresh knowledge that can help their business to grow and develop. This could include advice on an innovative idea, learning more about using design within the business or how to make the most of intellectual property.
Innovation Vouchers have in the past been available only in specific technology areas. Now a business can apply if they just meet these simple tests:
• you need specialist help to meet a business challenge
• it’s the first time you have worked with the university (a great first rung on the ladder before a KTP perhaps?)
You can apply at any time with around 100 vouchers being awarded every 3 months – for 2015 this is April and July.
For more information, visit the website Innovation Vouchers .
Innovation Vouchers are funded by Innovate UK. A short guide to help make clear what an assessor for Innovate UK competitions is looking for has been produced. All of the Innovate UK funding programmes follow a similar pattern and you should bear in mind that the questions are designed to help rather than trip you up. It is important that you answer the questions asked and cover all aspects the Guidance for Applicants describes.
BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health has a long history of working Nepal. Last month (January 7th) BU’s partner Green Tara Nepal led the dissemination of the findings of our evaluation of key health promotion initiatives in Nepal. The evaluation was conducted in collaboration with the Government of Nepal, Green Tara Trust, a UK-based charity, several national and international non-governmental organisations and three UK universities, namely Liverpool John Moores University, Bournemouth University and the University of Sheffield. The evaluation identified key government, bilateral, UN agencies national and international non-governmental organisations working in health promotion in Nepal. Their health promotion activities and approaches were documented and gaps were identified.
As a follow up to both the evaluation and dissemination event we were asked by the journal Public Health Perspectives to write an editorial on our work.1 Our editorial ‘Health Promotion: A review of policies and practices in Nepal’ highlights the research we conducted and the state of health promotion we uncovered. We also used our editorial to explain the UK notion of impact as formalised in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF). To explain to our non-academic readers the REF is a nation-wide system to assess the quality academic research in all academic disciplines. 2-4 One key part of the REF is measuring the ‘impact’ that a UK university has on society and/or the economy. This REF requires UK universities to write and submit a number of case studies that show societal impact.5 The dissemination of the health promotion research in Nepal is the beginning of a REF impact case study for Bournemouth University and our UK partner Liverpool John Moores University. The editorial is a further stepping stone in the dissemination especially since it was co-authored between UK academics, health promotion practitioners as well as a member of the Constitutional Assembly (the Nepali equivalent of Parliament). Working with policy-makers at an early stage increases the chances of our research being incorporated in national policy-making in Nepal.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)…you may have heard this term before and wondered what they are? Or maybe you’ve been part of one? Regardless of your experience with KTP, the scheme is currently in it’s 40th year of operation. That’s 40 years of government funding dedicated to collaboration between academia and business, 40 years of innovation and 40 years of successful relationships being built (and lasting!) between Universities and business resulting in stronger partnerships boosting both academic expertise and business productivity.
So, what’s so important about this scheme in terms of you? If we look at it in terms of the REF, recently for REF2014, KTP featured in impact case studies from Universities all around the country. A few examples of this include an impact case study from us at Bournemouth University, where a KTP with local company Morning Data provided an insight into the success of the project and the impact it had on the company. A brief insight into this KTP can be found here and the full case study referencing the KTP can be found here. Other examples of where KTP has informed a REF2014 impact case study is with the University of Teesside, where several KTP have been referenced in this impact case study. The University of Bristol have also demonstrated the link between KTP and impact by highlighting a KTP in one of their impact case studies.
As we move to REF2020, impact is expected to continue to play a large part of the submissions and as such, KTP is a fantastic way to demonstrate impact from research.
If you would like to receive dedicated support for KTP from the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office, find out about the KTP Academic Development Scheme which is currently in recruitment. For further information on this scheme or other KTP enquiries, please call Rachel Clarke, Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP) on 61347 or email; clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
BU staff can login below:
MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024 Call – internal deadline
BU Professor has been invited to a series of plenary and invited lectures.
An Interview of BU-lead EU H2020 FIRST project published in “Horizon”, the EU Research & Innovation Magazine
Update on Horizon Europe Guarantee Horizon Europe Update – January 2023
Research Information Network
Two new BU midwifery publications
New publications Dr. Pramod Regmi
The Year in Research 2024
First publication FHSS postgraduate student Anjana Paudyal