BU Research Blog

Keeping Upright: the role of our perception of vertical

How do we tell where vertical is? What does this mean? Why should we care? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this month’s talk by one of our own team of organisers , Dr Sharon Docherty from Anglo European College of Chiropractic. As well as finding out how our perception helps us interact with the world around us, you will be able to test your own perception of vertical and see how it compares to that of others in a live interactive experiment.

Does this line look straight to you? Find out more on TUESDAY NIGHT at the next Cafe Scientifique. For full details, please see the Cafe Scientifique Bournemouth website. The venue is Cafe Boscanova, doors at 6.30pm, the interactive fun starts at 7.30pm. As ever, snacks and drinks will be for sale.

Maritime Archaeological Days About the Wreck – Open Event

There will be presentations on the progress of the archaeological, scientific and outreach project on the Swash Channel Wreck and an outline of local maritime archaeology. There will also be an opportunity

to view the recently created copy of the Apothecaries Jar from the wreck, pictures of which were recently posted on this site.

Talks:

–          Paola Palma (Project Manager): ‘Little’ Science on the Wreck  

–          David Parham (Senior Lecturer): The Excavation of the Wreck

–          Gordon Le Pard (Project Officer): Maritime Archaeology in Dorset

The event is free, but if you want to attend please let us know at madaboutthewreck@bournemouth.ac.uk

In this extended blog post you’ll find details of lots of new and exciting developments in the world of public engagement and impact, including funding calls.  As ever, if you are looking to develop engagement and impact around your research, please contact Becca in the Research and Knowledge Exchange office on 01202 961206 or redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk. She can help you brainstorm ideas, develop funding proposals or point you in the direction of further help. If you have any information that you would like to share, email Becca and she will include it in her round-up of information.

Events to attend

• The BIG Event 2013 is now taking bookings (early bid registration ends 31st March 2013). The British Interactive Group invites its 500+ members to this three day interaction event to keep up to date in all things STEM engagement related.
• Bristol University, is organising a History Day, including a women’s history taster session and free creche. For further details, click here

Interesting things to read

• Roger Highfield has written a blog post on ‘How I write about science’ on the Wellcome Trust blog. Click here to read more.
• On the LSE Impact Blog, is a piece by Martin Eve discussing ‘Open Access, the Impact Agenda and resistance to the neoliberal paradigm’.
• Professor Tim Darvill’s has been quoted in the Observer article: “Stonehenge remains a mystery as scientists ask: was it a health spa, or a cemetery?”

Training opportunities

• Want to take your research to the masses through TV? Click here for a range of training opportunities including how to catch the idea of a TV producer, how to shine on TV and understanding the process of making TV.
• AHRC and CARD are sponsoring a postgraduate training event on Engaging with Communities: Arts and performance-based collaborative training. The event is free to attend, although places are limited.
• Research, Researchers and the Media – an immersive three day course aimed at all academic staff, researchers and PGRs.
• CCIG Forum: Enacting public engagement: collaboration and critique within/beyond the university

Funding and awards

• The Society of Biology has announced the Science Communication Awards 2013. Deadline is 31 May 2013; two prizes are available for the New Researcher Prize and Established Researcher Prize.
• The Foundation for Canadian Studies have announced their Outreach Awards for Canadianist or Canada-linked teaching and research. Further details can be found here
• The AHRC have announced the Cultural Value Project Call – which wishes to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture.
• NERC Knowledge Exchange projects call, closing date for expressions of interest 26th March. Details can be found here
• ESRC Retail Knowledge Exchange opportunities. Deadline is 30th April. More details can be found here
• For details of both the People and Society Awards from the Wellcome Trust, please click here
• The Institute of Physics, is offering up to £1500 for Public Engagement Grants. For more details, click here
• Royal Society Industry fellowships. Closing date 5th April. Full details can be found here

In this extended blog post you’ll find details of lots of new and exciting developments in the world of public engagement and impact, including funding calls and opportuntities…  As ever, if you are looking to develop public engagement and impact around your research, please contact Becca in the Research and Knowledge Exchange office on 01202 961206 or redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk. She can help you brainstorm ideas, develop funding proposals or point you in the direction of further help. If you have any information that you would like to share, email Becca and she will include it in her round-up of information.

BU public engagement in action

• Check out Dr Sarah Bate discussing her research into prosopagnosia at last week’s Cafe Scientifique. You can see her talk here and watch the discussion section here. Next month’s talk is ‘Keeping Upright: the role of our perception of vertical’ by Dr Sharon Docherty.

Festival of Learning

• The full Festival of Learning website, including the on-line programme is due to go live on 1st April. You can expect to wide a very wide range of marketing activities going live across April and May.
• Do you want to talk to people about the Festival of Learning? Could you spread the word using our printed marketing materials? If so, please contact Becca and she will ensure that you receive Festival leaflets or programmes for distribution.
• Event organisers can expect to receive shortly a detailed marketing update and an event check-list. If in the meantime, you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Becca or Naomi in the Festival team.

Opportunities

• The AHRC have called for expressions of interest for researcher participation for a AHRC/BBC workshop on Scottish, Historical, Cultural and Artistic Identify. To learn more, click here
• Could you write a short article about your research that would be suitable for publication in the Guardian or the Observer? Enter to become part of the next generation of science writers, via the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize in association with the Guardian and the Observer.
• The Science in Public Conference 2013, has a call for papers here -the keynote speaker is Prof Harry Collins from Cardiff University.
• The Impact Awards are currently open for nominations. Categories include: Business Impact – Achieved, Business Impact – Aspiring, Collaborative Impact, KT Professional of the Year
• The Royal Geographical Society is running a range of training workshops which could be very useful for public engagement activities, including off-site safety management training and camera trapping
• DECC is looking for tenders to develop a public engagement planning brief for the British Energy Challenge. Full details can be found here

Funding

• NERC Knowledge Exchange projects call, closing date for expressions of interest 26th March. Details can be found here
• ESRC Retail Knowledge Exchange opportunities. Deadline is 30th April. More details can be found here
• For details of both the People and Society Awards from the Wellcome Trust, please click here
• The Institute of Physics, is offering up to £1500 for Public Engagement Grants. For more details, click here
• Royal Society Industry fellowships. Closing date 5th April. Full details can be found here

Interesting things to read and watch

• The British Science Festival’s latest science news digest can be found here – learn about future plans to visit Mars…
• Pat Loria has written a thought provoking piece on the need to implement centralised impact management systems, published on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog, which you can find here

Public engagement activities outside of BU

• The Wellcome trust has detailed science and medicine themed events (funded through their public engagement awards) here – learn more about fascinating activities including Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men and Food For All Seasons.
• Cambridge Science Festival and Oxfordshire Science Festival are both in full flow!

AHRC/BBC workshop on Scottish Historical, Cultural and Artistic Identity

The AHRC is collaborating with BBC TV on a seminar that brings together BBC commissioning and editorial staff with arts and humanities researchers specialising or with interests in questions around ‘Scottishness’ and Scottish identity/identities.

The year 2014 will be an important year for Scotland, with the XXth Commonwealth Games being held in Scotland, the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme and the planned referendum on Scottish independence. The BBC is in the planning stages of commissioning programmes to mark this important moment in the history of Scotland and in the history of its relationship with the UK and the wider world.

Expressions of interest are invited from researchers from all disciplines within the arts and humanities to participate in a half-day AHRC/BBC workshop on Friday 26th April to explore ideas that will help feed into BBC TV programming.

Further information is available at: www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Scottish-Historical,-Cultural-and-Artistic-Indentity.aspx

Cafe Scientifique this month will be led by Dr Sarah Bate (Senior Lecturer in Psychology) who will give a talk on ‘Face blindness:  When everyone is a stranger’.  Sarah’s research explores disorders of face recognition particularly prosopagnosia (‘faceblindness’). Faceblindness is a relatively unknown condition that affects one in fifty people. Come along to find out what causes this fascinating condition and what it’s like to live in a world surrounded by strangers. This has been a popular topic in the media in recent months with articles in The Independent  and The Daily Mail.  You can find out more about her research here.

Door’s open at Cafe Boscanova at 6.30pm this evening, with the talk starting at 7.30pm. As ever, Cafe Boscanova will be serving drinks and light snacks.

BU engages:

• Dr Andrew Mayers, Senior Lecturer in Psychology (DEC), took part in a live radio interview last Thursday with Hot Radio (a community station operating from AFC Bournemouth’s stadium complex). In a series of discussions during the lunchtime show, he talked about his work in postnatal depression, improving sleep for adults, and tackling children’s sleep problems. You can listen to the interview with Andy here.
• Dr Dinusha Mendis interviewed by BBC on her research into 3D Printing and IP Law, more details can be found here
• Dr Darren Lilleker spoke last Friday at the Bournemouth Housing Forum conference (part of the Bournemouth 2026 partnership) on political communication and localism. You can watch a clip here
• Prof Jian Zhang and Dr Richard Southern have had their work on the Bystander Effect featured by Reuters News

Forthcoming events at BU

• Interfacing with older LGBT citizens and challenging discrimination: 17th and 18th April. Register for the event, here. Who should attend? Representatives from both statutory and voluntary groups are invited to Bournemouth for two days—to learn about our research, view the award-winning film, Rufus Stone, and take part in exercises drawn from the Method Deck-Methods to Diversity, a learning tool to inspire agencies, practitioners and communities to think about diversity within their ageing population. The two days will feature stimulating activities and informal discussions, the potential damage of discrimination experienced by many older gay and lesbian citizens, and what can be done about it. What you will gain by attending? Participants will go away from the two days of activities with new knowledge about growing older as gay or lesbian. They then will be equipped to return to their groups with training in organising their own meaningful exercises around interfacing with older gay and lesbian citizens in their organisations and reducing discrimination in their communities. Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the Method Deck – Methods to Diversity and a DVD of the award-winning film, Rufus Stone, upon completion of the two-day training.
• Register for Festival of Learning updates here and encourage your friends and family to do so also!

Interesting things to read and watch

• British Science Association What’s on South newsletter, including details of Reading Science Festival, can be found here
• The LSE simple guide to podcasting series continues here
• David Willetts praises public engagement in science. You can read more here
• Bogged down by your REF impact case study? You can read more about the bigger picture here
• UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: What has the King’s Speech done to improve public awareness about stuttering
• British Science Association: Science News Digest – including “scientists attacked over claims that ‘junk DNA’ isn’t junk after all”
• Not sure when to go public with your research findings? Read this blog post by our Prof Matthew Bennett for his reflections.

Training and conferences

• You can register now for the British Science Festival, Science Communication Conference 2013 taking place on 16/17 May.
• If you are thinking about building creative partnerships, the NCCPE have developed a great set of sources from their Engage 2012 conference, which you can find here

Public engagement events to attend

• The Cambridge Science Festival is nearly with us! They have a fantastic programme of events from the 8th-26th March which you can check out here – if you go to anything, let Becca know what you think worked well and what.
• Oxfordshire Science Festival is also fast approaching! Taking place from the 9th-24th March. Full details can be found here – again let Becca know what you think
• If you’re in Bristol on 20th March, Bristol University has an event on Representing Alzheimers’s: exploring Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia through films and science

Public engagement opportunities

• The British Science Association is offering Media Fellowships, which would allow you to spend 3-6 weeks working with a media host. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop invaluable communication skills. For more details, click here
• Get involved in citizen science with the Bournemouth Naturally . Project co-ordinator Heather is looking for colleagues at BU to get involved, click here to email her or learn about the exciting forthcoming events on the project website. The next event is a walk taking in the varied habitats Kinson Common has to offer on Wed 13th March, 10am. Meet entrance off Kinson Road (Opposite Brook road, BH10 5ES, SZ070957)
• Get your students enthused with public engagement! The British Science Association is offering a student bursary scheme for students to attend the British Science Festival
• Get involved in the London Science Festival, 2013 – see how to apply here

Funding opportunities

• The Biochemical Society is offering Scientific Outreach Grants of up to £1000 for outreach events that communicate the excitement of bioscience to young people and the community. For more details, click here
• The Institute of Physics, is offering up to £1500 for Public Engagement Grants. For more details, click here
• Impact awards from Praxis Unico. Check our more details here
• For details of both the People and Society Awards from the Wellcome Trust, please click here

If, like me, you are dreaming of the weather being a  bit warmer and long summer evenings, you might be interested in opportunities to take your research out of the university to some of the UK’s most exciting music festivals.

A number of opportunities have been brought to my attention which I am very keen to BU does not miss out on! Please do contact Becca if you would like more details, or an idea of support available to develop your ideas and take them to the Festival loving public.

Bestival

• We have an opportunity to be part of the science tent at Bestival. You can get a sense of the sort of activity that works well from University of Southampton’s write-up, here – the more creative and interactive the better – and don’t forget that science can be understood in very broad terms! The Festival blurb says: “Bestival’s Tomorrow’s World field is all about envisaging an inspired, sustainable, green and fun future. Alongside the solar powered Bandstand and Besti-versity Tent is our very popular Science Tent. An eclectic mix of science and technology, with a splash of art; the Science Tent brings together scientists with an exciting and revolving range of interactive demonstrations and exhibits”. If you want to get involved, please contact Becca
• We have the opportunity for speakers at Bestival in the Besti-versity tent – this would suit the most engaging speakers! The Bestival website says:  “If you’re up for some mind-expanding experiences at Bestival 2012 then you need to check our new Besti-versity Tent which will be inspiring one and all with a series of compelling talks by the cream of the future-thinking crop, running the gamut of intrigue from the weird & wonderful to the scientific and downright nerdy!” Again, if you want to get involved, please contact Becca.

Camp Bestival:

• If you have got a brilliant idea or on-going activity to engage young people (and their parents!) then get in-touch. We might have an opportunity to take a family friendly activity to this family focused festival, just down the road from BU at Lulworth Castle. If you want to get involved, please contact Becca

Green Man Festival:

• There is also an open call for activities at the Green Man Festival in “Einstein’s Garden’s vibrant program of workshops, installations and performances blends science and nature with entertainment, art, craft and design. If you have an artistic boffin brain then please get in touch with your outstanding idea”. For full details, click here. BU has been to Einstein’s Garden before – read all about it on this blog post. If you want to get involved, please contact Becca