Booking is open for the next ambassador event taking place on Wednesday 7th November. The event will run from 10.30am-4pm. Delegates will be able to find out more about public engagement at King’s College London; take a tour of the Museum of Life Sciences; and discuss relevant topics, informed by suggestions on the booking form. If you are a member of the scheme, please book here www.survey.bris.ac.uk/nccpe/peanov12. Find out more about the scheme here.
Category / Public engagement
Members of BU’s Centre for Face Processing Disorders attend Prosopagnosia Open Day at Birkbeck
Last Friday saw the second annual ‘Prosopagnosia (Face blind) Open Day at Birkbeck, University of London. I was delighted to again receive an invitation to talk about my research at the event, along with Dr Kirsten Dalrymple (Dartmouth College, USA) and Professor Martin Eimer (Birkbeck, UK). However, the highlight of the day was listening to the stories and thoughts of the people with face blindness who attended the day. The public engagement event was designed to have an initial ‘closed session’ which was only accessible to people with face blindness and the researchers working with these people, whereas the media were invited in for an ‘open session’ in the afternoon. In the earlier session, us researchers were privileged to be offered a unique insight into the everyday experiences of people with face blindness, in addition to receiving their feedback about research participation and particular issues that we might like to explore further.
We heard some very emotional and sometimes heart-breaking first hand accounts of what it is like to live with face blindness, and all 
the delegates clearly took a lot away from the day. I also invited some other members of the Centre for Face Processing Disorders to accompany me to the event, and we all agreed the experience was invaluable for us as researchers. Here’s some reflections on the day from our group:
Dr Nicola Gregory (Postdoctoral Research Fellow):
“The main think I took away with me was the importance of remembering that when we as researchers engage with people with prosopagnosia we must always be mindful of the impact that this condition has on people’s lives. We may spend a lot of time reading about case studies in academic journals and thinking in terms of cognitive processes which may or may not be deficient, but meeting and chatting to people with prosopagnosia and hearing their stories was a wonderful reminder that ultimately prosopagnosia affects people, not just their cognitive functioning.”
Amanda Bussunt (final year BSc Psychology student completing her dissertation in the Centre for Face Processing Disorders):
“I thought the day was extremely insightful, and it really opened my eyes to the reality of what individuals with face blindness actually have to cope with on a daily basis. It was great being able to talk to people and get a real perspective, rather than reading it out of a journal article. I now have a better understanding of how they feel as research participants and how the experience could be made more comfortable for them, which will help me massively when I carry out the testing for my project.”
Overall it was a fantastic day, and we wish to send our thanks to the team at Birkbeck for their hospitality and for demonstrating the importance of public engagement in the research process.
BU is taking part in Biology Week!
BU’s Dr Genoveva F. Esteban and Dr Demetra Andreou will be taking part in the Society’s of Biology’s Biology Week, with help from Mrs Judith Wardlaw ( Industry Partnership Development Manager at The Thomas Hardye School). The event will discover the hidden world of water – capturing images of microscopic wildlife living in fresh waters, including those microscopic organisms that live inside others. Year 10 biology students and the Student Voice council will use the images to inspire a design for a banner depicting the “Wonders of Biology at Thomas Hardye School”. The banners will be used at a diverse range of public events, including the popular Dorchester Community Lectures organised by the Thomas Hardye School.
For more details about Biology week, please click here.
For further details about the event, please contact Genoveva directly.
Cafe Scientifique: Professor Jeff Bagust’s talk “Cardiac Foxtrot” now available on YouTube
For those of you that missed Cafe Scientifique this month, or you want to listen to the talk again, our friends at AECC kindly recorded Jeff’s talk which is now available to view on YouTube here.
For more information about forthcoming Cafe Scientifique events in Bournemouth, you can keep up to date with details on the website, via Facebook, twitter or by e-mail.
Cafe Scientifique Bournemouth is a great success!
Last night witnessed the inaugural Cafe Scientifique in Bournemouth, and we are pleased to report that it was a great success!
With 45 people snugly squeezing into the amazing Cafe Boscanova, Prof Jeff Bagust gave a fascinating, entertaining and accessible talk on the “Cardiac Foxtrot” which covered the topic of heart rhythms, how they are influenced and why our hearts need to respond to changing conditions. After Jeff’s talk (and re-fill of the superb refreshments on offer), a lively discussed ensued. You can see the conversation on twitter here.
The organising team (Jonny Branney, Sharon Docherty, Becca Edwards and Naomi Kay) received some great feedback, with comments including “a great night out – keep ’em coming” and “these events will maintain their enjoyability”. For those of you that missed out, next month’s event is on Tuesday 6th November titled “The Fastest Men On No Legs: Oscar Pistorius, Prosthetic Limbs and the Role of Technology in Elite Sport” by BU’s Bryce Dyer.
On a personal note, as a recently appointed Research Development Officer for Public Engagement, I am delighted to see so much enthusiasm for this event. As a relatively new resident in Bournemouth (who for a number of years struggled to find this sort event locally) I am really proud to see such a vibrant community of people come together and have so much fun whilst learning about fascinating research.
Don’t forget that Cafe Scientifique will be taking place on the first Tuesday of every month. You can keep up to date with details on the website, via Facebook, twitter or by e-mail.
If you have an idea of how to engage more of the general public with research, please do not hestitate to contact me on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206.
Cafe Scientifique Tonight at 7pm
Tonight marks Bournemouth’s first Café Scientifique, taking place at Café Boscanova with doors opening at 7pm going on until 9.30pm. Entry is free; just buy yourself a coffee or a glass of wine from the bar to keep our lovely hosts happy!
Kicking off proceedings will be the AECC’s Professor Jeff Bagust, who is also a Visiting Researcher at BU. Jeff will be delivering a talk entitled “Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – The Cardiac Foxtrot”. This fascinating and entertaining talk will cover the topic of heart rhythms, how they are influenced and why our hearts need to respond to changing conditions. We will then have an open forum for discussion, allowing you to ask any question you can think of and engage in enlightening conversation.
For anyone who can’t make the launch event on the 2nd October, a podcast of the talk will be recorded, available from the AECC website. Café Scientifique will then take place on the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm, each time guaranteeing a welcoming environment and an enlightening discussion.
Seen But Seldom Heard… Preview film now available!
Missed last Friday’s Seen But Seldom Heard performance? Well, you missed out! But don’t worry, you can learn a bit more a bit more about the project and the incredibly inspirational kids that are involved through a documentary preview, which can be found here.
Please do share it with your colleagues, friends and family!
If you have any queries with regards to the Seen But Seldom Heard project, please contact Dr Carrie Hodges
ESRC Festival of Social Science CIPPM event: What Constitutes Evidence for Copyright Policy? Programme confirmed!
Event: What Constitutes Evidence for Copyright Policy?
This event is co-sponsored by CREATe, the AHRC/EPSRC/ESRC Centre for copyright and new business models, University of Glasgow
November 8th 2012
7th floor of Bournemouth University’s Executive Business Centre
89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB, close to the main line railway station.
This interactive event offers the opportunity for discussion on evidence for copyright policy between social scientists, policy-makers and producers and users of copyright works. Copyright law is a topical and contentious area that affects a wide range of stakeholders with differing views on copyright policy. The need for evidence-based policy on copyright policy was emphasised in the Hargreaves Review and has led to several calls for evidence from stakeholders. The responses they provide to the Intellectual Property Office are varied in nature and quality; the IPO has responded by issuing guidelines on what constitutes acceptable evidence (which itself is contested).
“Besides being a matter of pressing public concern, copyright also attracts the interest of a broad range of social science disciplines each with its own rules of evidence. The emphasis on economic growth as the objective of copyright policy has shifted the need for evidence in the direction of economics but economic evidence is not always easily available. Nor it is the case that only quantitative evidence is regarded as valid.”
The event, which is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, will take the form of panel and round table discussions between policy-makers from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), stakeholders from the creative industries and academics from economics, sociology, law and cultural studies with expertise in copyright. The focus is on what evidence from these fields of study is relevant and useful to policy-makers and those seeking to put their case to them. The event is open to members of the public.
The event is free and all interested parties are welcome. However, there are a limited number of places, therefore if you would like to reserve a place, please contact Dr Rebecca Edwards on (redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk)/ 01202 961206. Please also contact Rebecca for any other queries that you may have relating to the event.
Programme:
10.30 Registration and coffee
11.00 Welcome: Sally Weston (BU Head of Law)
11.10 Guide to digital interaction: Dr. Dinusha Mendis (BU)
11.15 Introduction: Prof. Ruth Towse (BU)
11.30 Example: The Parody Project
Speakers: Dr. Kris Erickson, Prof. Martin Kretschmer (BU)
11.45 Session 1. Policy-makers’ view on evidence for evidence-based policy.
Speakers:
Tony Clayton (Chief Economist, Intellectual Property Office)
Pippa Hall (Economic Advisor, IPO)
Linda Humphries (Assistant Director, ICT Futures, Cabinet Office)
Chair: Prof. Martin Kretschmer
12.30 Session 2. Stakeholders’ view of evidence for copyright policy.
Speakers:
Peter Bradwell (Open Rights Group)
Frances Lowe (Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Director, PRS for Music)
Andrew Prodger (CEO, BECS)
Jeremy Silver (Chairman of Musicmetric and Specialist Adviser on Creative Industries to Technology Strategy Board)
Chair: Prof. Hasan Bakhshi (NESTA, CREAG)
13.30 Lunch break
14.30 Session 3. Social scientists’ view of evidence for copyright policy.
Speakers:
Dr. Christian Handke (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Tom Hoehn (Imperial)
Prof. Joost Poort (IvIR Univ. Amsterdam)
Dr. Nicola Searle (Abertay)
Dr. Davide Secchi (BU)
Chair: Prof. Philip Schlesinger (Glasgow)
15.45 Session 4. Open discussion with audience on all sessions
Chair: Prof. Charlotte Waelde (Exeter and chair, Copyright Research Expert Advisory Group CREAG)
16.00 Tea break
16.30 Session 5. Lawyers’ response to evidence for evidence-based copyright policy.
Speakers:
Prof. Ronan Deazley (Glasgow)
Prof. Lilian Edwards (Strathclyde)
Prof. Christophe Geiger (CEIPI, University of Strasbourg)
Prof. Paul Heald (Illinois & BU)
Chair: Sir Robin Jacob (UCL)
Open discussion
18.00 Drinks
19.00 Close
‘Gamify your PhD’ – BU Graduate wins national competition!
Wellcome Trust recently ran a ‘Gamify Your PhD’ competition, which focused on the ‘gamification’ of research thesis ideas from biomedical sciences or medical humanities.
The winning entry was created by the Force of Habit team, which included BU Graduate Ashley Gwinnell. The game is called Dysbiosis, a shoot-em-up which according to Wellcome Trust “places the gamer within the gastrointestinal tract, shooting down harmful bacteria in an addictive immunological battle for digestive health.”
Dr Christos Gatzidis, who was the lecturer for the games development-related units Ashley did whilst studying at BU says: “It is always great to see our students doing really well with any type of highly visible games production project or competition, particularly if it is on excursions like this which involve and promote public engagement with science, as this one by Wellcome Trust does.”
Ashley notes that “you wouldn’t have necessarily noticed it was me who won as it’s all under my newly formed limited game development company (Force Of Habit – http://forceofhab.it/ ) which I’ve started recently with a friend. We were the only team at the jam who were a collaboration between two companies (with Clockwork Cuckoo) – everybody else was a self-contained company unit. In that sense we did incredibly well as we’d never worked with our artist and animator!”
More information about the ‘Gamify Your PhD’ Wellcome Trust competition can be found on the foundation’s official site. A YouTube video has also been created that summarises the game and it can be also downloaded from on the Force of Habit website if you want to play it in full.
Congratulations to Ashley and Christos!
This Friday! Seen but Seldom Heard: Taking disability, poetry and the human voice to the next level
Liv Torc
This Friday marks the 2nd event in the series of “Seen but Seldom Heard” events that are helping to give young disabled people a voice through poetry. Taking place in the Marconi Lecture Theater at Talbot Campus this event features voices of professional performance poets alongside the students from the Victoria Education Centre performing their work.
‘Seen but Seldom Heard’ is an on-going collaboration between academics from Bournemouth University, pupils from Victoria Education Centre and performance poets, Liv Torc and Jonny Fluffypunk, which enables young people living with a disability to find a voice through poetry. The teenagers involved have produced potent and emotive poems which explore perceptions and representations of disability within society using their own individual and collective experiences. Find out more on their website along with examples of poems produced by the young people and a taste of what the event will involved.
After the stunning success of their inaugural event at the ICCI360 Arena in Weymouth you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity to see these performances so please RSVP now to reserve your place! The performance will begin at 5:00pm and will be followed by a drinks reception where a poetry book will also be available for purchase with proceeds going towards the funding of a Poet in Residence at Victoria Education Centre.
Where: Marconi Lecture Theatre
When: 5pm Friday 21st September
Cost: Free but you should RSVP now to reserve your place!
Cafe Scientifique Talk Update- The Fastest Men On No Legs: Oscar Pistorius, prosthetic limbs & the role of technology in elite sport
For years debate has circulated around Oscar Pistorius and allowing him to compete in able bodied events at the Olympics when he may or may not have an unfair advantage. Most recently he sparked further debate himself in the criticisms of the length of Alan Oliveira’s blades directly after his defeat in the 200m Paralympic final. So what’s the difference? Does running on prosthetics give you an advantage over the able bodied, or simply level the playing field? Can longer blades give you the advantage over the other competitors?
Cafe Scientifique’s second event, coming up on Tuesday 6th Novemeber, Bryce Dyer, a senior lecturer in Product Design at Bournemouth University, will attempt to answer some of these questions.
Bryce will discuss and explore the recent controversy surrounding the use of prosthetic limbs in elite sport, what we know, what we don’t and how what was once initially seen as disability is now redefining sport as we know it, before allowing you time to ask him any questions you may have.
Tomorrow’s Water – CIWEM’s Youth Water Prize – congratulations to Sam Cook, Dr Genoveva Esteban and Dr Andréa Galotti!
Sam Cook, a pupil from Poole Grammar School, worked with Dr Genoveva Esteban and Dr Andréa Galotti from the School of Applied Sciences to win the national competition organized by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). The competition is aimed at pre-university students, encouraging educational projects focused towards improving quality of life and/or the environment through topical water issues.
Sam won a trip to Stockholm, Sweden where he represented the UK at the international Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Poole Grammar School also received a £300 grant. His project investigated populations of diatoms in freshwater habitats and their importance as indicators of water quality.
Diatoms are single-celled organisms invisible to the naked eye but very important because they are primary producers; they can photosynthesise like plants and produce useful energy from sunlight in order to survive. Diatom populations in rivers are currently being used as biological indicators to investigate ecological health as part of the European Water Framework Directive.
The competition is an initiative by the CIWEM which works towards creating a clean, green and sustainable world. CIWEM is the only independent professional body, and registered charity with an integrated approach to environmental, social and cultural issues.
Sam’s project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The Nuffield placement was arranged via biology teacher Jo Barnes at Poole Grammar, and Judith Wardlaw, Industry Partnership Development Manager at The Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester who facilitated the arrangements for the placement, and competition entry on behalf of the Nuffield Foundation and Wessex Setpoint.
Sam said: “I successfully applied for a Nuffield Science Bursary to gain experience of working in a laboratory setting before applying to university. I entered my project into the Tomorrow’s Water competition, which was an invaluable experience. I was able to present my work to people in the water industry and was thrilled when they chose my project to represent the UK at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.
The international finals were amazing. I had three interviews with the international jury and also was able to attend the opening of World Water Week. I even shook hands with the Crowned Princess of Sweden! After the interviews there were many social events, including a tour of Gamla Stan – Stockholm’s old town – and a traditional dinner in a local restaurant, a boat trip to Sandhamn Island, bowling and a games night. The week was made extra special by the people I met; I’ve made lots of new friends with people from right across the planet.”
Posted on behalf of Dr Genoveva Esteban
Carers experiences to inform direction of dementia work at BU
On Monday 10 September Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) held our second public engagement event (the first was back in May when we held a public meeting that also served as the launch of our Institute). The focus this time was on hearing the experiences of carers of people with dementia from across Dorset with the aim of finding out what they felt were the key issues terms of dementia services locally; and also to gather their views about future work that BUDI should prioritise that could be captured under our remit of research, service evaluation, consultancy and education.
The carers were very open and shared their experiences of getting a diagnosis for the person with dementia from short (minority of examples) to protracted and difficult journeys (this is sadly a common finding across the UK and beyond). There were lots of examples of difficulties encountered after receiving a diagnosis too; a lack of peer support, a lack of sign posting to follow to help access help and support, a lack of concern from service providers. There were positive examples too, with specialist dementia care units being a marked improvement compared to general hospital wards and agency staff coming in to the person with dementia/carers own home to deliver personal care. What is remarkable, and again from previous research, if the creativity and perseverence carers display in finding help, finding practical solutions to the challenges of caring, finding activities that are meaningful and enjoyable for both carer and the person with dementia, I say remarkable as the absence of help and support for commonly reported problems is something that really needs to be addressed. Local clubs run by the Alzheimer’s Society and AgeUK were really valued by carers but had often been found after considerable difficulty, this might partly explain why carers were telling us that they would like more sign posting, in the words of one carer ‘a hitch hikers guide to dementia’, something that provides a short checklist with more detailed information to follow up on if requried. This was said within the context of acknowledging the wealth of information available on the internet and via service providers, but this is a maze to navigate and what carers in our forum said was that they needed the information in a simple and more accessible format.
When we asked carers what they thought BUDI should be focusing our work on, they had some really interesting things to say: ‘more opportunities to talk like this’ being one, the idea of public engagement and having a chance to have a say was something they really valued. Ideas for training courses we should run to address the lack of knowledge about dementia from care providers they had encountered were readily given. Ideas for research projects focusing on carers needs, activities for people with dementia and carer support and general information giving have given us food for thought in how we turn these ideas into research projects that can be matched to funding opportunities.
We knew from previous experience of working with carers that it was important to have space for their relative with dementia to also be able to attend. In the end, of the eleven carers who participated, four brought their relative with them. We had organised a separate room with BU colleagues experienced in working directly with people with dementia offering a range of activities as well as the opportunity to share their experiences and thoughts about memory loss and what they felt was important about living with dementia; the discussion highlighted the importance of family and being able to talk to peers – the space we had created during our carers forum offered the opportunity to have this peer discussion. The activities that we offered that were most popular with those with dementia were Apple I pads and Nintendo DS games, technology that is often rarely offered to people with dementia based on negative expectations of the ability of people with dementia to be able to learn new skills and to engage with gaming technologies (something we are addressing via a technology club we are running for Bournemouth Council).
Engaging with a range of stakeholders is one of BUDI’s aims; we want to work in partnership with local people, to develop collaborative ways of working and to engage with local issues – after all one of our aims is to make a real contribution to improving the lives those affected by dementia. Our next engagement event is likely to bring together different stakeholders, carers, people with dementia, service providers as well as our academic community at BU working in this field. This is necessary as an academic institution can’t often deliver practical solutions directly, rather we need to find ways to influence and inform policy and practice based on our empirical work, but to do so requires acknowledging and embracing the starting points and concerns of those most directly affected by dementia, those with the diagnosis and those who provide the support and care.
Guest Lecture – What happens when the oil runs out?
This years series of nine community lectures at The Thomas Hardye School are set to start up this month so be sure to get your tickets soon! Details of the first fascinating lecture are below
Title of Lecture: ‘What Happens When The Oil Runs Out’?
Speaker: Professor Chris Rhodes.
Date of Lecture: Monday 24th September, 2012.
Time: 7.00pm.
Venue: The Thomas Hardye School – Theatre.
Across the world, 30 billion barrels of crude-oil are produced each year, not only for fuel but to make practically all products ranging from plastics to pharmaceuticals. Nearly all of our food also depends entirely on oil. However, world oil production is set to declining within 5 years. If we continue as we are, Western-Civilisation will collapse, and our salvation requires a re-adaption of how we live, from the global to the local; to a world of small communities far less dependent on transportation. Technology will not save us, unless we cut our energy use and particularly our demand for oil.
NB: Aspects of fracking, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind power and nuclear fusion will be covered within the lecture content.
Professor Chris Rhodes is a writer and researcher who became involved with environmental issues while working in Russia during the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. He studied chemistry at Sussex University, earning both a B.Sc and a Doctoral degree (D.Phil.); rising to become the youngest professor of physical chemistry in the U.K. at the age of 34.
He has published more than 200 peer reviewed scientific articles and 3 books. He is also a published novelist, journalist and poet. His novel, “University Shambles” was nominated for Brit Writers’ Awards 2011: Published Writer of the Year. He has most recently published an illustrated children’s book, “Hippy the Happy Hippopotamus”.
Chris has given numerous radio and televised interviews concerning environmental issues, both in Europe and in the United States – including on BBC Radio 4’s Material World. Latest invitations as a speaker include a series of international lectures regarding the impending depletion of world oil and the need to develop oil-independent, sustainable societies.
Admission: By ticket only (no charge, but donations welcome on the night)- available from School Reception, as from 08.45hrs on Tuesday 11th September,’12 and up to the day of the lecture itself.
A jar of moles!
I took the day off on Wednesday last week and did some really cool stuff in London, including watching Oscar Pistorius in the 100m semi-finals at the Olympic Stadium, having a lovely veggie lunch in Neal’s Yard, learning about Londinium at the Museum of London, and visiting a street art exhibition by Mr Brainwash. A fabulous, if not quite bizarre, day!
We also visited the Grant Museum of Zoology at the UCL campus at Euston which was amazing. This is a tiny museum, only one room, but it is jam packed with skeletons, pickled things in specimen jars and taxidermied animals, all housed within a Victorian-era style room. You almost have to blow the dust from the exhibits! Particular highlights were a jar stuffed full of moles (both repulsive and fascinating), a domestic cat with half its skin peeled back, a selection of elephant skulls, a display of pickled animal brains, and a badly taxidermied owl (why can they never get the eyes right?!). I also noticed a number of iPads set up around the museum for visitors to engage in dialogue about the exhibits either by adding comments or by answering questions about the museum, conservation policy, the role of science in society, etc. Apparently the responses are used to help the museum to make decisions about how it should be run and the information gathered is routinely shared with other museums. The museum was free to get in and I thoroughly recommend it as an excellent way to spend an hour in London.
So you may be wondering why I am writing about this on the BU Research Blog. Those of you who are regular readers of the blog may remember a post I added last summer about the amazing La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles (Excellent example of public engagement in research, resulting in societal impact) in which I discussed how the museum has made research part of the exhibition and visitors can see researchers at work and discuss the excavation with them. Well the Grant Museum of Zoology was similar and is no doubt doing wonders for UCL’s public engagement and research impact work. Not only does visiting the museum give members of the public the opportunity to venture onto UCL’s campus, the researchers work on-site and visitors can engage in dialogue with researchers at work. Each week a team of PhD students from disciplines across UCL spend time in the museum to engage with visitors – discussing their research as well as student life. The museum also features work from UCL researchers who are invited to co-curate exhibitions and installations about their current research with the aim of giving visitors a glimpse of what happens inside the University’s labs and workshops. The museum also regularly hosts activity sessions for school children from across London giving them the opportunity to learn from the collection.
This struck me as an excellent example of public engagement and research impact on many different levels and theimportance of generating a two-way dialogue with public audiences around research. I wondered how we could replicate this at BU and my immediate thoughts were that we can’t – we don’t own any prime real estate in London that we could convert into a museum for starters! However there are a number of key features that make this museum a success in terms of public engagement and research impact – including the crucial role of PhD students in public engagement activities, the benefits of presenting research findings in non-traditional academic outlets, inviting members of the public onto campus, encouraging feedback and discussion, and working with schools to engage school children with research and life at a university.
We already do some of this at BU and have significantly invested recently in support for public engagement, which is one of the enablers underpinning the BU2018 strategy. The BU Festival of Learning scheduled for June 2013 provides a fabulous opportunity to showcase the breadth of activity from across the University, and RKE Development and Operations are always happy to work with colleagues on developing ideas for public engagement / impact activities. If you have any ideas for public engagement activities or would like support from us in developing ideas, then contact my colleague Rebecca Edwards who will be be happy to talk your ideas through with you.
RCUK Digital Economy Theme: ‘Telling tales of engagement’ Competition 2012
The RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET) is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of your research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience. Closing date is 10th October.
Research Councils UK defines impact as ‘the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy’. Impact embraces all the diverse ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. These include (but are not limited to):
- Fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
- Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy
- Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output.
A key aspect of this definition is that impact must be demonstrable. It is not enough just to focus on activities and outputs that promote impact, such as staging a conference or publishing a report. Evidence of the research impact is required, for example, that it has been taken up and used by policy makers or has led to improvements in services or business.
Following on from the DE Impact Review conducted earlier this year, Digital Futures 2012 provides a great opportunity for digital economy researchers to not only demonstrate the academic impact of their research but also show the wider impact.
For full information, please visit the website.
If you would like to explore public engagement and impact around your research, please contact Becca on 01202 9(61206)
Cafe Scientifique: Prof Jeff Bagust – “Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – The Cardiac Foxtrot” – 7pm, 2nd October, Cafe Boscanova
With only 4 weeks to go until the launch of Cafe Scientifique at Cafe Boscanova (don’t forget to put Tuesday 2 October in your diary!), we are pleased to announce that our first speaker will be Prof Jeff Bagust who will be giving a talk entitled:
“Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow – The Cardiac Foxtrot”.
This fascinating and entertaining talk will light footedly glide us through the world of heart rate rhythms, how they are influenced and why our hearts need to respond to changing conditions.
The short talk will start at 7pm, followed by plenty of time for discussion. Cafe Boscanova will be selling their usual drinks and a small snack menu.
For those of you who missed our earlier post, Cafe Scientifique at Cafe Boscanova is a new public engagement venture being run jointly by Bournemouth University and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic. It will run on the first Tuesday of every month (starting in October) and over the next few months we will be bringing you a diverse range of speakers and subjects. All of this for the price of a coffee/glass of wine! Watch this space for more information on upcoming events.
Anyone interested in giving a talk should contact Becca Edwards for more information.
Festival of Learning – update
Many thanks to all those of you that submitted a proposal to run an activity during the Festival of Learning. I am delighted to report that we have received over 100 proposals for inclusion at the Festival. This indicates fantastic support from colleagues across all schools, which I believe will really help us showcase the best of BU next summer.
Given the volume of proposals that we have received, we are still in the process of reviewing and allocating funding for all these events. In some cases, this will mean developing the proposals directly with you in-order to ensure accurate costings and marketing. An internal steering group has been convened in-order to help us do this and regular updates on progress will be made available.
There is considerable work going on behind the scenes, and I am delighted to announce that Naomi Kay has now joined us a dedicated Events Co-ordinator for the Festival. I will be back in touch in the next few weeks to discuss the next steps relating to your event. After we have agreed how to progress with you, Naomi will contact you directly with regards to your availability and space requirements. However, if you require further information sooner, please do feel free to contact Becca directly on 01202 961206.
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