Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) was represented at the Alzheimer’s care show held at the Olympia in London on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th May 2014. This is a large event at which organisations and businesses showcase what they offer for people with dementia and those who support them. Dr Fiona Kelly, Dr Rick Fischer and Clare Cutler were kept busy at their stand, made distinctive by its brightly coloured banners and tulips. Delegates to our stand heard about the training and awareness work we do, our research, particularly into creating sustainable dementia friendly communities and our consultancy, including advising on dementia friendly design. Dr Kelly’s presentation on Achieving Excellence in Dementia Care stimulated interest both in the topic and in the work we do at BUDI to promote good practice.
Category / Public engagement
BUDI’s 2014 Open Pubilc Meeting
Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) held its third open meeting at the university on 14th May, with this year’s theme being dementia friendly environments. The day was well attended by practitioners, family carers, the general public and people with dementia. It started with a lovely buffet lunch sponsored by Alzheimer Research UK, providing an opportunity for delegates to network and to browse the information stands hosted by themselves and BUDI Ph.D. students. The open meeting was formally opened by Professor Gail Thomas who praised the innovative work being carried out by the BUDI team. Delegates then heard presentations from Dr Fiona Kelly on dementia friendly design, Dr Jan Wiener on the use of eye tracking technology to explore navigation skills and difficulties, Kathrin Büter on using computer technology to support dementia friendly design in hospitals. This session closed with a presentation by architect Niall McLaughlin on his work with communities and older people to design care homes that meet everyone’s needs and are inspirational, therapeutic spaces. The final part of the day involved a question and answer session where delegates and presenters discussed some of the issues raised during the day including how to ensure that the concept of good design filters down to those commissioning, designing and using buildings that people with dementia also use. This successful event is sure to have got people thinking and sharing some of what they heard and we look forward to holding similar events in the future.
Getting on Board with the Bournemouth and Poole Sustainable Food Cities Partnership:
Bournemouth and Poole Borough Councils were recently successful in a collaborative bid to become one of only six UK cities, to receive matched funding and support from the UK Sustainable Food Cities Network, over a 3 year period. BU is one of the funding partners; a number of BU staff are already contributing to what is an exciting development for the region.
The Sustainable Food Cities Network is an alliance of public, private and third sector organisations committed to promoting sustainable food. The Network comprising the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain aims to help people and places to share challenges, explore practical solutions and develop best practice in all aspects of sustainable food (Sustainable Food Cities 2014).
There are now opportunities for others to be involved. We have identified a number of potential project areas (at undergraduate and Master’s level) where students in particular, might wish to participate and where further research would support the work of the Partnership. Potential topic areas relate to the broad range of aspects related to sustainable food and drink including: the impacts of climate change, food security and food waste, food poverty, health and nutrition, well-being, food tourism, Fairtrade, community growing, the conversion of grey to green spaces, local food production, food marketing and distribution.
Information Session: If you are interested in finding out more, an information session on the Partnership and the student project opportunities will be held on Thursday June 19th from 2.00 – 3.30 pm in TAG31.
A more detailed list of the potential projects is available upon request. If you would like a copy of the list or you are unable to attend the information session and would like to discuss any of these potential projects or other ways that BU students could assist and be engaged with the Sustainable Food Cities Partnership, please contact one of the following BU staff and partnership members:
Dawn Birch – The Business School – dbirch@bournemouth.ac.uk
Chris Shiel – School of Applied Sciences – cshiel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Jill Quest – The Media School – jquest@bournemouth.ac.uk
Media School Academics Join EU CyberPark Project
The EU COST funded CyberPark project brings together participants from 21 countries to explore how ICT can help attract more users to engage with public spaces more efficiently, enhancing their health and wellbeing. With the emergence of social media, wearable technologies and devices such as Google Glass, a future where technology is embedded in the environment and where landscapes respond to the people who pass through them may no longer be just science fiction fantasy. The CyberPark project will explore how nature and the digital can be brought closer together, drawing on the expertise of urban planners, architects, anthropologists and researchers from the arts and humanities.
Bronwen Thomas, Sue Thomas and Sam Goodman from the Media School’s Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community will all be contributing to the four-year project from May 2014. Bronwen Thomas is Director of the Centre and an Associate Professor in the Media School. She has published widely on new media narratives and organized the Location-based Storytelling symposium here at BU in 2012. Sue Thomas is a Visiting Fellow in the Media School, and recently published a book on Technobiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2013) exploring the relationship between nature and cyberspace. She is currently developing ideas around digital well-being. Sam Goodman is Lecturer in Linguistics in the Media School, with research interests in Medical Humanities and literary representations of space, place and landscape.
You can read more about the project on Sue Thomas’s new Wired Well-being column for The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/cyberparks-will-be-intelligent-spaces-embedded-with-sensors-and-computers-26837
Full details of the COST action can be found at
http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/tud/Actions/TU1306
Dementia Awareness Week
This week is the designated UK Dementia awareness week. We kick started our contributions early with our 3rd annual public meeting on the 14 May focusing on Dementia Friendly Environments where we also gave a preview of our new video which we are launching this week as part of BUs commitment to raising awarenss about dementia – click here to view what local people with dementia and carers have said what it is like to live with dementia in Dorset:
We had a stand at the weekend at the London Annual Care Show aimed at the general public to raise awareness of dementia. We are also doing a cake sale today in the atrium all proceeds to the Alzheimer Society music groups which is in keeping with our current BSO project focusing on the power of music on the well-being of those with dementia – the BU Baking Club and BUDI team have made some scrummy looking cakes – I am sure they will go fast!
Come and support the Festival of Learning team – Saturday 17th May, Bournemouth Square
Find out more about BU’s upcoming Festival of Learning in Bournemouth Square on Saturday.
Staff and students will be promoting the event with fun free activities in the Square from 11am to 6pm on Saturday 17 May.
This includes the chance to take part in hands-on soap making sessions and fun, psychology experiments.
There will also be a bubble artist, who will be hosting interactive bubble-making classes.
Barry Squires, Public Engagement and Impact Manager at BU, said: “This event will be a great chance to find out more about our Festival of Learning – and have fun in the process.
“The hands-on activities led by students and staff are suitable for all ages, and you can hear about the fantastic range of free events that we’ll have on offer during the Festival of Learning.”
The Festival of Learning runs from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 June, with more than 150 free events and activities open to the public – from workshops tackling children’s sleep problems to talks exploring why we’re obsessed with eating spicy foods and an archaeology walk looking at the history beneath Hengistbury Head.
Find out more and sign up for the events by heading to the Festival of Learning website.
Cafe Scientifique – Horrors or Heroes: Learning to love parasites
In September last year one of our own academics, Josie Pegg, took to the stage at Bestival’s “Bestiversity” to deliver a talk on Horrors or Heroes: :Learning to Love Parasites.
In case you didn’t get the chance to come along, she’s agreed to do it all over again, this time at your local Cafe Scientifique. Every first Tuesday of the month we get together in Boscombe’s Cafe Boscanova to hear about ideas in science of technology over a glass of wi
ne and then engage in stimulating discussion. Have a look at our website to find out more about the venue and future events.
Tuesday 3 June: Horrors or Heroes: Learning to love parasites
Parasites are the stuff of horror movies, they not only consume their host but can be capable of controlling their host’s body and mind in the most freakish of ways.
But this is only half the story.
Around 75% of all species are parasitic, and parasites play an essential ecological role, prove unlikely allies and in fact are in many ways responsible for life as we know it.
Josie’s talk will challenge you to take a fresh look at parasites, and decide whether they really are horrors or heroes.
Doors open from 6.30pm for a 7.30pm start.
What are Knowledge Transfer Partnerships?
I have recently joined the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Officer, after nearly 4 years working in the Bournemouth University Careers and Employability Service. This is a new role and is dedicated to working with BU academics and industry to promote KTPs and as such develop and manage the University’s KTP portfolio.
What are KTPs?
A KTP is part-funded by the government and the aim of this scheme is to encourage collaboration on projects between businesses and academics. KTPs had previously been called the Teaching Company Scheme, which you may have heard of, however a rebrand a decade ago saw the TCS become a KTP. KTPs are managed by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and provide benefits to all parties involved – this scheme offers a fusion of academic and industry collaboration supported by an associate (graduate).
What’s in it for you?
KTPs are an excellent way of bringing in income and developing knowledge exchange with a clear pathway to impact.
Key benefits are as follows:
- Facilitates research impact
- Increases research funding, including supervision time for the Knowledge Base Supervisor (academic) to the Associate, this time averages at half a day a week
- Contributes to the University’s REF submission
- Improve links with industry partners
- Apply knowledge to innovative business-critical project
- Raise your profile among colleagues/the Institution
KTPs are valuable to business as they provide a distinct transfer of knowledge to an innovative project which is set to add significant value to a business.
Bournemouth University has run various KTPs over the years, the following case studies document how good the KTP has been of benefit to each party (Academic Partner, Company and Associate).
These include:
- Bournemouth Churches Housing Association – To address service, quality, organisational and management issues by selecting and implementing relevant tools to assist the task
- Strainstall Group Ltd – To enhance quality management processes to ensure an effective contract review mechanism, to improve the efficiency of and reduce financial risk from tender response and bidding activity
- Wessex Chemical Factors – To develop and implement a database-driven marketing programme, thereby enabling it to capitalise on its expertise, product range and customer base
Further case studies and information on KTPs can be found on the KTP website.
If you would like to discuss any KTP ideas you would like to develop or chat about any aspect of KTPs, please do contact me on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk
School of Tourism Undergraduates Highlight Research at National BCUR Gathering
School of Tourism had an impressive presence at last week’s BCUR (British Conference of Undergraduate Research) gathering held at University of Nottingham www.bcur.org. Now in its fourth year, the 2014 conference was the biggest yet with 350 undergraduate students coming from university’s all over the UK and beyond. The students were joined by other undergraduates from a wide cross section of disciplines including: London School of Economics, University(s) of Cambridge, Aberdeen, Leeds, Exeter and Reading, Roehampton & Newcastle, Trinity Dublin and Tennessee. Topics ranged from genetic engineering; Preparing youth for the UK labour market; to advances in water purification, archaeology and recent controversies in the meat industry affect buying behaviour. Katie Azulay, is studying a BSc (Hons) Sports Development and Coaching Sciences and said “BCUR is an experience I will never forget. Seeing other students research from all around the world was extremely interesting, as well as presenting my own research to them – a proud moment representing BU”. Katie presented her research on ‘Investigating the impact of motivational interviewing on exercise adherence among Exercise Referral Scheme patients with a BMI <35’.
BU’s wider presence at BCUR ties nicely into raising the profile of undergraduate research in future from a successful Fusion Bid led by Luciana Esteves to host SURE@BU (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence) in March 2015. The SURE@BU gathering is meant to give students the opportunity to gain key experience and skills, but also make their work visible to potential employers or placement hosts. There will be awards and prizes for the best posters and oral presentations. It is hoped that the successful hosting of SURE@BU places BU in a position to also host the national BCUR gathering in 2017.
The School of Tourism final year undergraduate students saw the true benefit of participating at BCUR in Nottingham last week. Adam Doherty, who studying BSc (Hons) Sport Psychology and Coaching Science said “I thoroughly enjoyed it and was amazed at the wide variety of research that was being conducted at this level (Undergraduate). I learnt a vast amount about subjects in which I had little or no prior knowledge of and I was glad to be able to showcase my work to others who were equally interested”.
Adam’s research is entitled “Is there a science behind saving penalties? A study looking into the psychological approach in a goalkeepers positioning and movement from 12 yards”.
ST Staff and Students at BCUR
ST student presents at BCUR
Other ST students also took part earlier in the year in BCUR’s led up event called Posters in Parliament, held in the Jubilee Room at Houses of Parliament. Amber Madkour studying BSc (Hons) Sports Development and Coaching Sciences presented her research on ‘Exploring Feminity in fitness: Crossfit as a site for empowering embodiment for Women’ and Rachel Luff presented hers on ‘An Investigation into volunteer management techniques used to achieve expected volunteer experience at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity’. A number of MP’s were also on hand during the day to meet and chat with students on their research. This included among others David Blunkett, Angela Smith, Simon Hart, and Mark Williams. There was a judging panel made up of Ben Wallace MP; Sean Coughlan, Education Correspondent at the BBC; Professor Julio Rivera, President of the US Council of Undergraduate Research; and Katherine Harrington of the Higher Education Academy.
Amber had the following comments about profiling her research in Parliament “Partaking in this event allowed me to share what I have learnt by discussing the focus of my dissertation with other students and academics. Being able to present my research in Parliament is a day I will remember looking back at my University career, and I am very proud to have such an opportunity”. Rachel Luff, who also took part said “The feedback I gained was very positive, people saying how interesting and relevant my topic is, this reaffirmed my interest in the research and took away from the ‘dread’ of the dissertation journey. The benefits from this opportunity has outnumbered the extra work I initially put in”.
Amber Madkour presents in Parliament
Rachel Luff presents in Parliament
Students and academics involved in BCUR activity are encouraged to seek platforms to share their research, including Reinvention – International Journal of Undergraduate Research. Reinvention is an online, peer-reviewed journal, dedicated to the publication of high-quality undergraduate student research, and only houses papers written by undergraduate students or papers written collaboratively by undergraduate students and academics.
Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre Opening Ceremony with Chris Packham
I was delighted to be invited to the opening of the Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre this weekend. Myself and Julie Gill our Placements in the Faculty of Science and Technology watched as guest of honor Chris Packham cut the red ribbon and the public were let in to enjoy the new facilities. Many staff and students both old and new were present, as Bournemouth University has been closely associated with Hengistbury for many years. Our students in Archaeology, Anthropology; Ecology, Geography and Forensic Science have spent many a happy hour working alongside researchers either out in the field or on the archaeology collections managed at the site.
We are really pleased to be one of the Project Partners on the successful HLF bid behind the new Centre, and are looking forward to creating more placements and projects in the coming months. One of our MSc Osteoarchaeology students Gabrielle Delbarre has been responsible for working on the new archaeology displays, and you can find more about these and the rest of the facilities by visiting the facebook page below:
https://www.facebook.com/HengistburyHeadVC/photos_stream
Latest PR research presented in Sydney
Research on the measurement and evaluation of public relations campaigns was presented by Professor Tom Watson (Media School) at an industry event in Sydney on Tuesday.
Prof Watson was the lead speaker at the Measurement & Evaluation Briefing organised by the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) in Sydney. He focused on the latest models of communication performance management and other developments that are reported in the soon-to-be published third edition of Evaluating Public Relations which he has co-authored with Paul Noble.
“There was a full house at the PRIA Briefing and it was a great opportunity to discuss practice-led research and brief delegates about Bournemouth University, which is seen as a world player in PR research,” he said. The audience were mainly practitioners from agencies and in-house operations.
Also speaking were Prof Jim Macnamara of University of Technology Sydney and John Croll, CEO of iSentia, the largest communications analysis firm in the Asia Pacific region. It was hosted by Mike Watson, the PRIA national chair who had flown in from Melbourne especially for the briefing.
In the previous week, Prof Watson gave a public lecture at Macquarie University in Sydney on the CSR checklist which he has developed. It was attended academics and students from three universities. This was the Australian launch of the CSR checklist, which has been developed from research undertaken in the Public Relations Research Group.
(L-R) Prof Tom Watson, Mike Watson, Prof Jim Macnamara, John Croll
Bournemouth University Academic at Biennial Conference of the International Law Association
Dr. Sascha-Dominik Bachmann will attend the Biennial Conference of the International Law Association in WASHINGTON/USA. As a UK member of the Committee on Nuclear Non Proliferation http://www.ila-hq.org/en/committees/index.cfm/cid/1025/member/1 he will be part of the Committee’s presentation of a draft paper to the Conference. ILA is a leading international academic NGO with consultative status at the UN. The main objectives of the Association are the study, clarification and development of both public and private international law. It is in the work of the various International Committees that these aims are pursued and biennial conferences provide a forum for comprehensive discussion and endorsement for the work of these committees.(http://www.ila-hq.org/).
How to Boost Your Research Impact through Policy Work
A short while ago I attended an excellent SHARE Network and Vitae event on influencing policy, which was set in the context of universities increasingly seeking to demonstrate their value to society through mechanisms like the REF impact assessment.
There were speakers from both academia and the civil service, including the former President of the British Academy, Sir Adam Roberts, and Fellow of the Institute for Government, Dr Catherine Haddon. The discussions focused on how policy relevance can be used as one possible measure of research impact. The speakers really stressed how government ideas become much more powerful when backed by recognised research, so civil servants and Ministers are very keen to develop better links with academics.
Although the event was aimed at Arts, Humanities and Social Science researchers, most of the learning points are transferable to other disciplines so I’ve pulled together my Top 10 Tips on how to influence public policy from the day:
1. Start now!
Opportunities to engage in government policy development are limited so you need to get in there very early. Be aware that it’s very hard to get Government to accept evidence that says their idea isn’t going to work.
2. Build your relationships
Good relationships with the policy teams and Special Advisors in Government are therefore essential, and you should also think about who else influences policy in your area, e.g. special interest groups, policy communities (highly connected individuals and advocacy coalitions/collaborations) and downward links. You need to build a foundation of support at all levels of Government, not just Ministerial. Don’t always expect immediate pay off though – sometimes it’s about building contacts and networks for future activity.
3. Raise your personal profile
Check your internet visibility – most policy analysts in Government will only get as far as the first two pages on Google. If you’re not on there, they won’t be interested in talking to you. Also boost your use of social media – institutional blogging is the way forward! Try and get on the management committees of NGOs and voluntary bodies, because from that stems the opportunity to influence via research.
4. Get ready for the big one…
Policy influencing and impact doesn’t have to start with a publication, and forget any previously hold notions that policy making is in any way structured or logical! The key thing is to be prepared. Work out how to identify the policy windows (where a government policy idea coincides with a political trend and an emerging problem to bring the topic centre stage) and be ready to bring them solutions, not problems. However, don’t be afraid to have a strong view or say, “you might want to think about xyz if you pursue that policy”.
5. …but don’t wait to be asked
While you’re waiting for those policy windows do look around for other opportunities to engage through consultations, expert advice, subject-relevant campaigns, tenders for Government-commissioned research, and research for the European bodies. Let me know if this is an area that you want to explore and I’ll send you some details of where to look.
6. Use Select Committees
Oral evidence has the highest status. Written submissions are rarely referred to, but they get you in the door for an opportunity to give oral evidence. Get to know the Clerks and Special Advisors to the Select Committees (ask the Clerk who the relevant Special Advisor is) – because if they don’t know you, you won’t get invited to give evidence.
7. Work on your communications
Any evidence for policy development needs to be very concise – max of one page. It’s also good to develop a strap-line and get your elevator pitch sorted for policy influencing and media appearances. Importing ideas from abroad can establish authority of an idea, and politicians love international case studies so use them where possible in your evidence. Consider developing a bank of applications and a basic CV for research that you can then use as a template for bids into government research – otherwise there is no way you’ll be able to respond within the specified timelines. Be aware that anything you say when influencing policy could be published, so it’s worth putting in writing what you said to avoid any ambiguity.
8. Think about the people dimension
History is contextual and subjective – you need to understand people’s perspective of the history of a topic before you can influence their thinking and therefore policy development. Always put the people you are fighting for at the centre of any campaigns and policy influencing that you do – personal stories are always powerful.
9. Policy work is a great development opportunity
Use the experience you gained from writing your REF impact case study to make your future research more societally-relevant. Undertake as many public talks as possible to help you develop your positions and opinions to feed into policy development.
10. Don’t give up!
Perhaps most importantly, all the speakers said that demonstrating policy relevance can be tortuous and long-winded, but was well worth it in the end – so don’t give up!
If you’d like to find out more the following resources might be of interest:
- The slides from the SHARE event provide some more background and detail to the Top 10 Tips.
- The AHRC ‘Guidance on planning and demonstrating effective policy engagement’ is a really good introduction to influencing public policy.
- The LSE Impact blog is an excellent example of institutional blogging at another University.
- AHRC and the Institute for Government offer a 3 day course on government engagement (other dates should be available soon).
- The Institute for Government provides additional advice and support for researchers interested in policy and political engagement.
ARTS in Research (AiR) collaborative still accepting members
We are still accepting participants interested in joining the new Arts in Research (AiR) Collaborative that met for the first time recently.
At our first gatherings, there was great interest in the ‘next step’ or working with professionals from the arts to develop our arts-based academic work. One of the first projects that we are developing is a series of workshops over a year for academics who are interested in pursuing creative means of carrying out research and/or disseminating it, whether that be via lectures, presentations, publications or other means of diffusion to reach a wider public.
- One possibility, for example, is Creative Writing for Academics, an away day in a quiet place with an expert guide.
- Another is a day spent in TV production studios, particularly learning ways to edit video shot on still cameras, phones, ipads, etc.
- A third possibility being explored is a day at The Lighthouse, taking advantage of Lighthouse professionals to explore the use of drama, performance poetry, music, etc in academic work.
Read more about the principles behind AiR
The AiR Collaborative is based at HSC in the Centre for Qualitative Research, but is a cross-Schools cluster and is open to academics and post-grad students across both campuses.
The only requirement to join is to express your interest and send a ‘selfie’ to Kip Jones!
“Kip on the Beach”
CSR checklist proposed at Dubai conference
A critical analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory and practices was given by Professor Tom Watson of the Media School in his keynote speech at the 4th Middle East Public Relations Symposium in Dubai.
The symposium, held on March 19-20 at Zayed University, brought together academics from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon and Qatar with leading practitioners from the UAE’s semi-governmental bodies and regional and international PR agencies.
In his address, Prof Watson launched a CSR checklist developed from research and recent literature.
“CSR is increasingly part of the language and practices of business and communicators, but it has been moving away from the moral philosophies and attitudes that formed it,” he said. “Often ‘CSR’ is seen as a method for gaining business advantage rather than participation in society. The checklist has been written to assist managers and communicators develop meaningful and effective CSR strategies and actions.”
Research into employee engagement with CSR that Prof Watson is conducting with Dr Tasos Theofilou and Dr Georgiana Grigore of the Media School strongly influenced the checklist’s preparation. Their research is supported by the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University and the Public Relations Research Group.
Platform for future research
“A relationship between BU and Zayed University has developed over the past four years. It offers a platform for future collaborative research into CSR and other communication issues,” Prof Watson said.
During his visit, he met Zayed’s Dean of the College of Communication and Media Sciences, Prof Marilyn Robinson, and Associate Dean, Dr Gaelle Duthler, and staff at its Abu Dhabi and Dubai campuses. His visit was sponsored by Zayed University as host of the MEPRA Symposium.
Prof Watson also chaired a Symposium panel on crisis communication in which experts discussed communication management of the missing MH370 aircraft crisis.
Prof Tom Watson addressing the MEPRA Symposium
BU Researchers launch a new online copyright resource at the AHRC Creative Economy Showcase London
Following the internal launch at BU on the 14th February 2014, BU Researchers at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) launched the Copyrightuser.org at The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Creative Economy Showcase.
The event was held at Kings Place, London, on Wednesday 12th March 2014. The Showcase demonstrated the outputs and innovations of AHRC investments in the Creative Economy through presentations, workshops and exhibitions. The sectors exhibited on the day, included fashion, design, video games, architecture, broadcasting, archives, digital technologies and dance.
Amongst the various funded initiatives showcased on the day, Copyrightuser.org held a prominent exhibition stand and exhibited the website which was complemented by large posters, bookmarks and myth/reality cards (illustrated below) which explained the most common myths about copyright.
This high-profile event was attended by over 450 delegates and included policy-makers, business leaders in the creative industries, knowledge exchange practitioners, directors of research in universities, senior representatives from partner organisations in the Creative Economy, other strategic funding agencies in the sector, representatives from the AHRC’s investments in the Creative Economy and other stakeholders.
Keynote speakers included amongst others Sebastian Conran (Designer), the Hon David Willetts (Minister of State for Universities and Science), Ed Vaizey MP (Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) and Professor Rick Rylance (CEO, AHRC).
Highlights from the day can be streamed here.
Copyrightuser.org was funded by the BU Fusion Investment Fund in 2012 and was developed by the Business School’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) in collaboration with Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP). Following the success of the Fusion Funded project, the CIPPM-led team went on to secure RCUK funding provided by CREATe in August 2013 to extend the scope of the project. Phase II of the copyrightuser.org is now underway.
The launched online resource aims to make UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public. This 1-minute video captures the concept behind the Copyrightuser.org project.
Using quantitative and qualitative methods the site aims to provide answers to the most pressing concerns that creators and the public have about copyright law. To achieve these aims, interviews with creators where conducted and a video for each creative sector was produced demonstrating their thoughts and questions about copyright, see the musicians video here for example. Secondly, 200 frequently asked questions posted by users online were sourced, analysed and coded down to the 20 most common.
The Copyrightuser.org has so far been received very well as evidenced by the positive feedback from various organisations, individuals, legal professionals and the creative industries.
During the launch, the website received 232 visits; and has now received over 1,558 visits to date.
Please also visit our twitter page – @copyrightuser to keep up with the Copyrightuser.org developments.
The copyrightuser.org team consists of:
Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator & Co-Director CIPPM)
Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer and CIPPM Research Assistant)
Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (PhD Candidate (Copyright) and CIPPM Research Assistant)
Professor Martin Kretschmer (Principal Investigator & Director CREATe)
Dr. Kris Erickson (Co-Investigator, CREATe).
The team is further assisted by a Production Team consisting of Marco Bagni (Art Direction, Design and Animation), Sar:co (Music and SoundFX), Davide Bonazzi (Illustrations) amongst others and an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow) amongst others.
Significant Professional Practice Role and Contributions
Dr Zulfiqar Khan, Director Sustainable Design Research Centre has been appointed as Industrial Advisor (voluntary role) by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). The role of Industrial Advisor (IA) is to evaluate membership applications where candidates are usually not required to attend a membership interview. IA also evaluates Fellowship applications of the Institution. IA provides an evaluative report to the IMechE Professional Review Committee (PRC). IAs are appointed by the IMechE to provide expert guidance to the Institution staff, the Professional Review Committee and where necessary, other committees who are involved in the membership application process.
“The Industrial Advisor’s prime responsibility is to undertake an initial peer assessment of applications in a variety of situations where an interview is not normally required:
- Applications for transfer of Member to Fellow
- Applications from existing CEng, IEng or EngTech registrants
- Applications via a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA)
- Applications via the European Mobility Directive (EMD)
Industrial Advisors will normally assess applicants from their indicated areas of expertise.”
If you are interested to know more about the IMechE, its membership/registration please click on the link or contact
Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)
Director Sustainable Design Research Centre
Faculty of Science & Technology
FIF supporting work with the BSO to create a BUDI orchestra
An orchestra for people with dementia and their families faciliated by players from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and BU Music students has been funded following a successful application from Ian Jones, Ian Davis and I to the FIF CCCP strand. The kick off meeting with the musicians, students and the BUDI team was held on the 5 March and we are currently in the process of recruiting people with dementia, and their carers if they wish, to participate in a 10 week programme that will start in April and culminate with a performace at the Winton Life Centre on 14 June as part of the BU Festival of Learning. This is the first project that we are aware of where a symphony orchestra works with people with dementia giving them the opportunity to relearn instruments, learn instruments for the first time while combining this with the choir approach of many initiatives in the UK and worldwide which acknowledge the power of music for the well-being of those with dementia. The team working on this project are very excited about the possibilities this project offers, not just as an example of public and community engagement, and a fused approach to working between students, researchers and professional musicans that engages with those living in our community, but because it ensures that we address one of the fundamental myths that often surround dementia of decline in abilities, when in fact people with dementia can learn new things!
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