Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors
Following the first Postgraduate Researcher Development Steering Group I am happy to circulate a new Training Needs Analysis template.
This template can be used to help guide the conversation around researcher development and record ongoing development.
Public engagement is becoming ever more important within academia, as researchers are expected to be accountable, approachable and relevant. Communicating your work to different audiences, building links to communities, involving the public in your research and demonstrating impact.
The University of Surrey are looking to train and inform doctoral researchers and early career researchers about how to get involved with ongoing projects, or to start their own.
They are running an entire day of training and expert discussion in collaboration with the University’s Community and Public Engagement team.
Workshops will include; working with external partners, media skills, planning public engagement into your research and REF impact case studies. The panel discussion will give the views of experienced professionals and researchers at different career stages and from diverse organisations.
You can either attend the full day or select sessions.
Date: Wednesday 11 March 2020
Time: 10:00 – 16.30 (lunch will be provided)
Location: 13BA01, Stag Hill Campus, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH
Surrey staff and speakers from several external organisations will present on diverse aspects of public engagement.
This event is open to all postgraduate researchers and staff.
Find out more and book your place here
For any questions about the event, please email rdp@surrey.ac.uk with the subject ‘Public Engagement Day’
Congratulations to FHSS PhD student Isabell Nessel who published part of her integrated PhD thesis in the Journal for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition last week.
The paper “Long‐Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Lipid Peroxidation Products in Donor Human Milk in the United Kingdom: Results From the LIMIT 2-Centre Cross-Sectional Study” resulted from a collaboration between BU (Isabell Nessel, Prof Jane Murphy, Dr Simon Dyall – now at the University of Roehampton), Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Prof Minesh Khashu), and St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Laura De Rooy) (1). Full text can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jpen.1773
This paper shows for the first time that donor human milk in the UK has very low levels of essential fatty acids, which are important for brain and eye development. Furthermore, donor human milk has higher lipid degradation than preterm and term breast milk. This could have important implications for preterm infant nutrition as exclusive unfortified donor human milk feeding might not be suitable long term and may contribute to the development of major neonatal morbidities.
This study followed from a narrative review Isabell and her supervisors Prof Minesh Khashu and Dr Simon Dyall published last year, which suggested that current human milk banking practices might have detrimental effects on essential fatty acid quality and quantity in donor human milk (2).
Isabell
Reference
We Need Your Help
PGR & Supervisor Views
Postgraduate Researcher Development Needs
The Postgraduate Researcher Development Steering Group aims to support Faculty enhancement in postgraduate researcher development opportunities.
In order to do this effectively, we need to gain an understanding of what is required.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to fill in our surveys to obtain this information.
Postgraduate Researcher: bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/pgr-development-pgr
Supervisor: bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/pgr-development-supervisorv2
Closing date: Tuesday 10 March
Many thanks in advance.
In the last month we had several FHSS-Psychology success stories. The first one was a recently accepted joint publication between Mr. Paul Fairbairn and Dr. Fotini Tsofliou in the Department of Rehabilitation and Sport Sciences, Dr. Andrew Johnson in BU’s Department of Psychology. The joint paper is called ‘Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study” in the British Journal of Nutrition [1].
Secondly, Dr. Sarah Collard in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and FHSS Visiting Professor Katherine Barnard-Kelly are to be congratulated on their publication: ‘Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes’ [2].
And last, but not least, Dr. Bibha Simkhada in the Department of Nursing Science together with FHSS colleagues Dr. Michele Board and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology were awarded £17,180 in the most recent internal GCRF call. Their proposed project ‘The key issues in Dementia in South Asia’ will run from 2020-2021. Both Dr. Simkhada and Dr. Shanker are Global Engagement Lead (GEL) in their respective departments.
Good to see so many great cross-BU collaborations!
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Fairbairn, P., Tsofliou, F., Johnson, A., Dyall, S.C. (2010) Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study, British Journal of Nutrition (accepted).
Collard, S.S., Regmi, P.R., Hood, K.K., Laffel, L., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Naranjo, D., Barnard-Kelly, K. (2020) Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes, Practical Diabetes 2020; 37(1): 19–23.
GOOD-PRACTICE SHARING
Safeguarding Researchers: Preparing & Supporting PGR Fieldwork
Discover effective practices and contribute to a sector-wide standard for support and guidance in safeguarding postgraduate researchers undertaking fieldwork.
8th March 2020. University of Glasgow
This workshop will explore effective practices in, and opportunities to enhance, the support for researchers undertaking fieldwork, during the preparation phase, whilst they are away and on their return.
What to Expect
This workshop will consider:
Date & Venue Cost
18th March 2020. UKCGE Member: £195
University of Glasgow. Non-member: £295
Thursday 13th February 09:30 – 16:00 Poole House
Systematic and scoping reviews are a great way of publishing quality publications. They are also highly valued as REF submissions, especially in the health field.
One of the most important aspects for a systematic review is to create an effective and professional search strategy.
This session will provide information on effective search strategies – with advice from the library to specific researchers, as well as advice on writing scoping and systematic reviews from academics with experience in this field.
Both staff and postgraduate students should consider writing up their literature reviews as journal articles. For more information about how scoping and systematic reviews can help improve your academic career please see the blog.
Click to book. Any queries, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk.
Performative Social Science (PSS) is an arts-led method of research and dissemination developed by Jones at Bournemouth University over ten years and is recognised internationally. Recently lauded by Sage Publications, they described PSS as pioneering work that will ‘propel arts-led research forward’ and be a ‘valued resource for students and researchers for years to come’.
Performative Social Science (PSS) is positioned within the current era of cross-pollination from discipline to discipline. Practitioners from the Arts and Humanities look to the Social Sciences for fresh frameworks, whist Social Science practitioners explore the Arts for potential new tools for enquiry and dissemination.
‘Kip Jones brings the genre of what he calls performative social sciences forward with wide-ranging theoretical, academic, and artistic products in a various media that takes up how social scientists can use art for investigation and dissemination.’ —“Embodied Methodologies, Participation, and the Art of Research” by Madeline Fox
Dr Kip Jones, Reader in Qualitative Research and Performative Social Science retires from Bournemouth University at the end of February, but will continue with PhD supervision on a part-time basis. He has four potential publications in discussion with publishers, including a volume on PSS.
Congratulation to FHSS PhD student Sulochana Dhakal Rai who just published her latest article in the Journal of Asian Midwives. The paper ‘Caesarean Section rates in South Asian cities: Can midwifery help stem the rise?‘ [1] is highly topical in this Year of the Nurse and Midwife (see Bournemouth University’s earlier event on YouTube).
Caesarean section (CS) is a life-saving surgical intervention for delivering a baby when complications arise in childbirth. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a rate of CS from 10% to 15%. However, CS rates increased steadily in recent decades and have almost doubled from 12.1% in 2000 to 21.1% in 2015. Therefore, this has become a global public health problem. This scoping review gives an analysis of the rising CS use in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The authors conclude that the increasing CS rates in South Asian cities, particularly in specific groups of women, present a challenge to hospital staff and managers and policy-makers. The challenge is to avoid ‘Too Much Too Soon’ in otherwise healthy urban women and avoid ‘Too Little Too Late’ in women living in remote and rural area and in poor urban women.
This paper is co-authored by Dr. Juliet Wood and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), Dr. Pramod Regmi Lecturer in International Health in the Department of Nursing Science, Dr. Amudha Poobalan at the University of Aberdeen, Dr. Malin Bogren at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Prof. Rafat Jan at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan and Dr. Ganesh Dangal at Kathmandu Model Hospital in Nepal and Dr.Keshar Bahadur Dhakal based at Karnali Academy of Health Science also in Nepal. This is Sulochana’s second PhD paper, her first paper was published last year [2].
References
Congratulations to Dr. Pratik Adhikary on the fifth (and final paper) from his PhD in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. This latest paper ‘Support networks in the Middle East & Malaysia: A qualitative study of Nepali returnee migrants’ experiences’ was recently published in the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health [1].
This is one of the few studies focusing on the support networks of Nepali migrant worker in the Middle East and Malaysia. The previous four papers have focused more on living conditions and working conditions of migrant workers as well as occupational health and safety abroad [2-5].
References:
An online resource for postgraduate research students to support your wellbeing, learning and research.
Explore the website and find; research, top tips, videos and downloadable action plans. Whether at the beginning, middle or end of your research, there will be something here for you.
The Wellbeing Thesis content has been developed by the University of Derby, King’s College London, Student Minds and PGR student co-creation panels.
For nearly a decade BU researchers have published widely about the hazards and risk of Nepali migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East [1-9]. Despite the fact that most migrant workers end up in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in their host countries, only a minority report poor working environments. For example, in Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in FHSS only just over a fifth of migrant workers reported that their work environment in the Middle East or Malaysia was poor or very poor [4]. This relatively high level of satisfaction appears to seems contradict reports in local media on the risks associated with Nepali migrants working abroad, especially focusing on the football world cup in Qatar [7], official reports that many hundreds of bodies of dead Nepali migrants return home every year [10], and the fact that many of these Nepali migrant workers end up doing the jobs the local populations finds too dirty, dangerous and demeaning (colloquially referred to as 3D-jobs). Why do so many who travel abroad take to do risky, dirty and otherwise undesirable jobs, but still assess their working environment as not too bad?
More theoretical papers on the drivers of migration have referred to many interconnected factors and links [11-12]. Local drivers in Nepal include poverty, lack of employment opportunities, having a history of work-related migration, a growing culture of migration (i.e. it becomes more or less an expectation) and many more. One local element that is perhaps too easily ignored is that many Nepali migrant workers would have ended up in dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs at home too. And the risk, on for example building sites in Nepal might be even greater than that in Qatar or elsewhere in the Middle East as some of the photos below illustrate. These photos of an accident involving an external building lift were taken today on a building site in Kathmandu. 
References:
Martine Hardwick, Lecturer in Law and PhD Candidate in the Department of Humanities and Law, has published a timely commentary in the Bournemouth University Law Review looking ahead to a change in the law on 31 December 2019. On this date, opposite sex couples will finally be able to register their civil partnerships – which until now has been reserved for same sex couples.
However, this change in the law raises important questions for cohabiting couples. Despite longing for more protection and fairness from the law, co-habiting couples will not be presented with the opportunity as heterosexual couples to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Instead, they will still be bound by the strict rules of formation and dissolution which mirror those of marriage.
Questioning whether the UK has missed an opportunity to provide more rights for cohabiting couples and highlighting a solution drawn from France in the form of Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), Martine argues that learning lessons from the French legal system has to be the way forward in giving cohabitants protection while respecting their autonomy.
1. Be curious. Be a detective. Be ready to be surprised by answers you never expected. It should, in the end, be a good story that you can tell.
2. Insure that the method fits the question(s). This can often take some time. Be willing to investigate until you find the right method. This will save you a lot of grief later.
3. Explore methods. Combine them, expand them, reinvented them, but be prepared to then follow them.
4. If your research question is about people, find a way to really involve them in the process, not just answer some stupid questions.
5. Don’t panic if you method produces a lot of data. Swim in it. It’s fun and it is here that the surprises bubble up. Whatever you do, try to avoid reducing the amount of data by ‘categorizing’ it. (I detest little boxes.)
6. Think hard and long about how you want to share the results of your efforts. Text is only one of many possibilities. Really try to get your personal interests out of the way in this process and let the data lead you in selecting a format or art form.
7. Research is about discovery; Dissemination is about putting your findings into action. Ideally, we can be creative at both.
8. About half of your effort (and time) should be on producing the research, the other half on creating the outputs.
9. Creative outputs produce unexpected outcomes. Be willing to experiment, ‘go it alone’. ‘Doing’ and ‘making’ produce additional findings. Use them, they are rich and you’ve earned them.
10. Be willing to make 100 versions, then one more (Sister Corita Kent). It’s that last one that you will use.
Note: Remember, oh ye serious social scientists, that in Big Science, some of the greatest discoveries were made through mistakes and acknowledging the unexpected. Therefore:
Rule 11: Be curious about the history of your craft. Soak up as much as you can. It will both inspire and lead you.
This article by Kip Jones originally appeared on his
personal KIPWORLD blog and was then published by Creative Quarter and Social Science Space.
This is the second time in a week that I have the pleasure of announcing a paper by our PhD student Orlanda Harvey. This PhD-based paper ‘Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs’ has been accepted by the scientific journal Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy (published by Taylor & Francis) [1]. Orlanda’s PhD is a mixed-methods study of social workers working with people using un-prescribe /recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) in several high-income countries including the UK.
With her success in publishing Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis format. Such Integrated Thesis allows PhD candidates to incorporate material that has been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. Apart from the inclusion of such materials, the Integrated Thesis must conform to the same regulations as the traditional PhD thesis. Including Orlanda’s previously published review on AAS [3] she is well underway to putting together a well-balanced Integrated Thesis supported by her Faculty of Health & Social Sciences supervisors: Dr. Margarete Parrish, Dr. Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.
Of course, last week Orlanda already featured in the December of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [2]. See also my BU Research Blog of four days ago (click here!).
Congratulations!
Prof . Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
BU staff can login below:
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
BU Professor has been invited to a series of plenary and invited lectures.
Research Information Network
3MT Competition – register to attend
Promoting South-South collaboration and learning
We can help you engage more people in your public engagement event
Calling all PGRs! Apply for the May Research Café by 14 March
Horizon Europe info days 2025