BU Research Blog

Message from the Higher Education Academy “Following on from the HEA-funded Public Engagement in the GEES Disciplines seminar at Manchester Metropolitan University in April 2012, a Good Practice Guide is being prepared. We are looking for short (c.500 words) case studies of public engagement in GEES disciplines to be included in the Guide. Case studies should broadly follow the following format: (1) Brief context (e.g. department, programme, type of public engagement – general public, industry, local community, schools etc.), (2) the nature of that public engagement (what you did and how you did it), (3) the benefits of the activity for all those concerned, and (4) any longer term / sustainable impacts arising from the activity. Please also provide (5) links to any useful resources, and (6) provide a suitable, copyright-free image for use in the publication.

If you have a short case study that you would like to be included in the Guide, or have any questions, or suggestions for other inputs, please contact Dawn Nicholson (d.nicholson@mmu.ac.uk) as soon as possible. The completed Guide will be compiled for the end of June and so there is a very short deadline for any contributions of Friday 14 June”

Dr Dawn Theresa Nicholson
Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow

School of Science and the Environment
Manchester Metropolitan University
Chester Street,
Manchester M1 5GD”

The official opening ceremony of the care home Hamble Heights, located in the Southampton area, took place on the 2nd May 2013. Professor Anthea Innes, Director of Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) was invited to give an opening speech and to cut the official ribbon with the first resident of the care home. The organisers of the event were delighted to have a high profile academic in dementia opening the care home.

Cutting of the official ribbon

We had a tour throughout the care home and as an architect I was pleased to see dementia-friendly architectural features which included high visibility of the social areas; for instance, a high percentage of residents can see the social areas when leaving their rooms. Also, the care home offers distinctive front doors to the bedrooms, which help residents with the identification of their bedrooms, and provides the possibility of personalising their own space. Another characteristic that may help residents to retain a sense of having a home are the outside spaces attached to bedrooms on the ground floor where residents can sit and take the sunlight, undertake gardening activities and have their own pets. All their gardening appliances have the seal of approval from this website.

Outside spaces of ground floor bedrooms

Hamble Heights will also be part of a PhD studentship project which takes the shape of a partnership between BU and Quantum Care entitled ‘Promoting well-being for residents with dementia living in a purpose built care environment’. This doctoral project aims to contribute to academic and practice knowledge about how to improve the lived experiences of people with dementia living in care homes. This proposal builds on current strengths and expertise within the BUDI, the Psychology department in DEC and sports science in the School of Tourism. The study will enable collaborative work between the academic community, and practitioners (Quantum Care) in line with both Government policy directives and University emphasis on cross-disciplinary and cross-school collaboration. If you would like to know more about this PhD studentship, please follow the link:
http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/graduate-school/the-school-of-health-and-social-care/

Ever wondered what wildlife is lurking in your back garden? Well now’s your chance to find out! Heather Dixon is the coordinator of a local project that is being co-sponsored by the Bournemouth Natural Science Society as well as Bournemouth University and a variety of wildlife societies in our area. She will be telling us all about the project and what it hopes to achieve and, more importantly, how we can all get involved!

Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology.  Enjoy listening to a short talk from a guest speaker before engaging in debate and discussion around the topic. You can find out more here or by visiting the Cafe Scientifique website.

As ever, the talk will start at 7.30pm at the fabulous Cafe Boscanova. Doors open at 6.30pm and drinks/snacks will be available for sale.

The call to run an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science has now opened! This is a fantastic national festival that celebrates the best of social science and engages a much wider public with the key issues that social scientists are addressing. Last year, we put Bournemouth on the Festival map, running no less than four events. We are keen to see as many of our social scientists take part in this exciting public engagement initiative as possible.

The ESRC tells us that “This year the festival will run from 2-9 November.  There are two types of application:

• You are able to apply for a maximum of £2,000 support from the ESRC to run an event.   The closing date for supported applications is Monday 3 June 2013.
• You are also able to hold an event but not apply for funding.  Applications are being invited notify us of your event, which you would like to be included in the Festival programme.  Non-funded applications are due by Friday 7 June 2012.

The Festival welcomes event applications targeting a non-academic audience including young people, third sector, the public, business or government.   Please note that organisations external to the ESRC are also welcome to apply for support and to participate in the Festival. 

For more information about the Festival or to make an application please visit www.esrcfestival.ac.uk“.

If you would like to make an application to run an event as part of the Festival, please do not hesitate to contact Becca in the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office. She can help you brainstorm an idea for the Festival of Social Science and  draft your application form.

Mayank Anand, a research student from DEC, has recently presented his work on Lubricant condition monitoring for the in-service lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) at the SET Conference, in the House of Commons.

Mayank’s PhD  is supervised by Prof Mark Hadfield and Dr Ben Thomas from BU, Mr Steve Austen (Head of Engineering) from RNLI and in-kind supported by BP Technology Ltd.

Tobias Ellwood MP (for Bournemouth East) attended the conference to speak to Mayank has posted on his website details of his work and his experience on his website. Click here for full details.

Congratulations to Mayank and DEC for taking BU research to the heart of government!

Registrations are now open for all the events included within the Festival of Learning.

There are a huge number of free to attend events.There are too many to list here, but they include:

• How to self publish (staying solvent and sane).
• Waiting for the monsoon: Nepal through my lens, a photo and storytelling exhibition
• Bioblitz
• Social media for the terrified
• Rufus Stone the movie: Community screening and feedback
• Science and the media: Issues, debates and controversies
• The fastest men on no legs: Disability, prosthesis and the role of technology in elite sport
• 20 years of law at BU
• Equipping the business leaders of the future
• Walking in the footsteps of our ancestors
• Public engagement in renewable energy and technology issues

To download an overview of what will be happening on which days, please click here. For a copy of the full Festival programme, you can download this here or contact Naomi Kay to request hard copies are sent to you.

Public engagement is at the heart of Bournemouth University – we are committed to ensuring the knowledge we create is shared with society. With this in mind, please do tell your friends, family and colleagues outside of BU all about the wide range of activities that are on offer – all are welcome!

The Centre for Citizenship, Identity and Governance (CCIG) at the Open University is holding a one forum (co-organised by the Creating publics project and Enactments programme) exploring enacting public engagement, with a fantastic line up of speakers. Which include:

Re-enacting the public university

Professor Rebecca Boden (University of Roehampton): ‘Rethinking an “open university”‘, embedding the academy in a social economy’

Dr Joel Lazarus (People’s Political Economy and University College, Oxford): An analysis of the recent flourishing of critical education initiatives in the UK: critical education at the heart of social transformation

Co-production and co-authorship in research

Dr Morag McDermont (University of Bristol): Productive Margins? Problematics of academics and community organisations co-producing research

Professor Les Back (Goldsmiths, University of London): title tbc

 Digital articulations

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou & Dr Kate O’Riordan(University of Sussex) : Sustaining networked knowledge: expertise, feminist media production, art and activism

Dr Nick Mahony & Dr Hilde Stephansen (Open University): Making participation public: building agendas and sites for collective action

Full details, including how to register, can be found on CCIG’s website.

The event will take place in Milton Keynes on 23rd April