Category / Research assessment

Nominations invited from academics to join the BU REF Circumstances Board

Research assessment

ref logoThe BU REF Circumstances Board has been established to oversee the individual staff circumstances process for the post-2014 REF exercise. This includes:

  • determining whether individual staff circumstances submitted by BU academics meet the REF eligibility requirements;
  • verifying the evidence provided;
  • calculating the reduction in outputs using the methodology set out in the REF guidance documentation and the ECU case studies;
  • contributing to BU’s culture of equality and diversity.

The Board is chaired by a HR Manager with support from the Equality and Diversity Adviser and a member of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office. These post-holders will be selected based on their prior knowledge and expertise in individual staff circumstances and equality and diversity issues. Membership will also include two academics and an early career researcher (ECR).

We are now seeking expressions of interest from academics who are interested in joining the Circs Board. Successful applicants will be required to attend meetings of the BU REF Circumstances Board (schedule tbc, but likely to be one or two meetings per year), ensure they are aware of the REF guidance and regulations, undertake equality and diversity training, and promote a positive culture of equality and diversity at BU. We therefore ask for your commitment, active contribution and, most importantly, confidentiality due to the sensitive work of the Board. In return you will be involved in an important cross-University committee, gain an insight into the REF and equality a diversity (both highly topical issues in the sector), and be engaged in academic citizenship.

Nomination procedure:

The vacant roles on the BU REF Circumstances Board are:

  • 2 x academic representatives
  • 1 x early career researcher (ECR) representative

Anyone interested should submit an expression of interest stating your interest in equality and diversity, why you think equality and diversity is important for the REF and why your involvement would strengthen the BU REF Circumstances Board (max 300 words). You must also state whether you are applying to be an academic member or an ECR. Your nomination should state your name, job title and Faculty.

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 11th December 2015. Nominations should be emailed to Julie Northam, Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange (jnortham@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Expressions of interest will be reviewed by a panel of reviewers who are responsible for agreeing on which applicants to invite to serve on the BU REF Circumstances Board.

Eligibility:

Applications are invited from any BU staff member on an academic contract, however, you must be independent from REF preparations (for example, applicants cannot be UOA Leaders, impact champions or output champions).

ECRs in this context are defined as members of staff who started their careers as independent researchers on or after 1 August 2015. In line with the REF guidance, an individual is deemed to have started their career as an independent researcher from the point at which:

  1. They held a contract of employment which included a primary employment function of undertaking ‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’, and
  2. They undertook independent research, for example, leading or acting as principal investigator or equivalent on a research grant or significant piece of research work.

 

If you have any queries, please speak with Julie Northam in the first instance.

EPSRC report on REF case studies

Research assessment

EPSRC logoThe EPSRC have issued a report ‘Investing in excellence, delivering impact for the UK‘, which analysed 1,226 case studies submitted to the REF, which covered a timespan of two decades.  This enabled the EPSRC to explore and understand how their investments have delivered benefits across many areas of the UK economy and society.

They found that over 85% of the impact case studies in engineering and physical sciences involved research and/or researchers who were funded by EPSRC, demonstrating the critical role of the council in supporting excellent research that delivers impact. The impact case studies cite over £1 billion of EPSRC funding coupled with a similar level of funding from other sources including government, EU and industry and provide strong evidence of the high levels of additional investment that EPSRC support can attract.

Please click on the link above to read the full report.

 

 

New BU Guide: Open Access and Depositing your Research

BRIAN, Guidance, open access, Research assessment

To support academic colleagues in depositing their research open access the BURO Team in Library and Learning Support have produced a brand new guide – Open Access and Depositing your Research.  Colleagues will find this guide particularly useful if you are…

  1. New to depositing your full text research in BURO via BRIAN
  2. Depositing your work as part of the Mock REF/internal review exercise

Guidance is provided in the following key areas:Open access and depositing your research

Please note: this guide is in development and more sections will soon be added. The guide will shortly appear on the deposit page in BRIAN.  The BURO Team welcome any feedback.

Please note: during this short period around the Mock REF/internal review exercise increased levels of deposit mean the BURO Editorial Team may take a little longer than usual to make your research open access and respond to any queries about your outputs. In recognition of this the online nomination form provides an option to indicate that you have submitted the your full text to BURO via BRIAN even if you are unable to provide a BURO web link for each of your outputs at the time of form completion.

Mock REF – depositing your research outputs: BURO UPDATE

BRIAN, open access, REF Subjects, Research assessment

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise invites academic colleagues to submit one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014), which will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.  You can find the Individual Outputs Nomination Form here.

Where possible all nominated outputs (specifically journal articles and conference contribution with ISSN) should be made available Open Access, by uploading them to the institutional repository Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) via BRIAN.  The SHERPA RoMEO website will help you to upload the correct open access version of your work.  You will need to provide the BURO web link (e.g. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/xxxxx) for each output in the nomination form.

Please note: during this short period of increased levels of deposit the BURO Editorial Team may take a little longer than usual to make your research open access and respond to any queries about your outputs. In recognition of this the online nomination form provides an option to indicate that you have submitted the your full text to BURO via BRIAN even if you are unable to provide a BURO web link for each of your outputs at the time of form completion.

Looking ahead you should aim to make your research outputs open access as an integral part of you publication process and deposit your full text within 3 months of acceptance.

For more guidance about the mock REF:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

Have you been involved with an event designed for the external community?

Guidance, Research assessment

Then we want to hear from you! 🙂

The University is currently compiling the data for the annual Higher Education – Business & Community Interaction survey (HE-BCI) due to be submitted to HESA shortly. Data returned is used to calculate our HEIF grant.

We are asked to submit details of social, cultural and community events designed for the external community (to include both free and chargeable events) which took place between 1 August 2014 and 31 July 2015.

Event types that should be returned include, but are not limited to:

  • public lectures
  • performance arts (dance, drama, music, etc)
  • exhibitions
  • museum education
  • events for schools and community groups
  • business breakfasts

We cannot return events such as open days, Student Union activity, commercial conferences, etc.

All events that we ran as part of the Festival of Learning, ESRC Festival of Social Science and Cafe Scientifique series are likely to be eligible for inclusion and we will collate this information on your behalf centrally.

If you have been involved with any other event which could be returned, please could you let your contact (see below) know the event name and date, whether it was free or chargeable, the estimated number of attendees, and an estimate of how much academic time was spent preparing for (but not delivering) the event:

  • SciTech – Norman Stock
  • FoM – Rob Hydon
  • HSS – Deirdre Sparrowhawk
  • FMC – Mark Brocklehurst
  • Professional Service – Julie Northam (RKEO)

The data returned is used by HEFCE to allocate the HEIF funding so it is important that we return as accurate a picture as possible.

Nominate your outputs now for the mock REF internal review

BRIAN, open access, Publishing, Research assessment

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise is now taking place. Academic staff are invited to submit from one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014) and these will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.

The review exercise is open to all academic staff and if you wish to be considered for the review and have not yet nominated your outputs, please do so through this link as soon as possible:

https://bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/mock-ref-light-touch-internal-review-individual-outputs

The nomination form will close on 19th October 2015.

Refer to this blog post for more info:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

First Mock REF exercise to begin soon!

BRIAN, REF Subjects, Research assessment

ref-logo

The first mock exercise in preparation for the next Research Exercise Framework is due to take place soon. This mock REF exercise is open to ALL academic staff and staff will be invited to submit up to FOUR outputs published since 1 January 2014. This first exercise will be a ‘light touch’ review to gauge all eligible outputs and their likely contribution to the unit of assessment(s).

More information and guidance regarding this mock exercise will be provided shortly. Meanwhile, early preparations can be made by ensuring that all outputs and their full texts are deposited into BURO via BRIAN where possible. You can refer to this blog post for a quick guide to uploading your full text.

Also, please see below for your reference, the list of all Unit of Assessment Leader(s).

  • Edwin van Teijlingen : UOA 3 – Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
  • Ben Parris : UOA 4 – Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
  • Raian Ali; Keith Phalp : UOA 11 – Computer Science and Informatics
  • Zulfiqar Khan : UOA 12 – Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Tim Darvill; Ross Hill : UOA 17 – Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology
  • Dean Patton : UOA 19 – Business and Management Studies
  • Sascha-Dominik Bachmann : UOA 20 – Law
  • Jonathan Parker : UOA 22/23 – Social Work and Social Policy/ Sociology
  • Holger Schutkowski : UOA 24 – Anthropology and Development Studies
  • Julian McDougall : UOA 25 – Education
  • Stephen Page : UOA 26 – Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism
  • Bronwen Thomas : UOA 29 – English Language and Literature
  • Neal White : UOA 34 – Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
  • Iain MacRury : UOA 36 – Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management

As mentioned above, more information and guidance will be released shortly so do watch out for it.

Uploading your full text to BRIAN – 3 easy steps!

BRIAN, Post-award, Publishing, Research assessment, staff profile pages

If you are unsure of how to upload the full text of your publication onto BRIAN to be deposited in BURO, these are the three easy steps you can follow!

Step 1 – Ensure publication record already exists in your BRIAN account. If it does not, click on the ‘+’ sign next to it –

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 21.46.29

You will see a search box on the following page. Enter the title of your publication in the search box. If the record of your publication already exists within BRIAN, you simply need to scroll to it and ‘claim’ it. Otherwise, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘create manual entry’. You can then populate all relevant information of your publication on the following page. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to ‘save’ your record!

Step 2 – Once the publication record exists within BRIAN, click on the the blue arrow up icon, and you will be taken to the deposit page

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 21.50.50

Step 3 – Locate the correct version of your full text in accordance with the policy advice from Sherpa romeo; and then click ‘upload’.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 21.53.49

When the upload is complete, you will be notified on the screen that your full text is under review by the BURO team. Once approved by the BURO team of its legality, the link to the full text in BURO will be created and the link will also appear on your Staff Profile Page. If at any point you are unsure of this process, please send an email either to BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk or BURO@bournemouth.ac.uk for assistance and advice.

 

 

Education / learning research at BU – UoA25 call

REF Subjects, Research assessment

CEMP_LOGO_SLIDEcel-logo-web

The Learning Research Group, convened by CEL and CEMP, is now in the first stages of more formal planning for the REF submission under the Unit of Assessment for Education (UoA25).

In order to plan strategically for the allocation of development funds and for the development of Environment and Impact, colleagues across BU who wish to be included in the provisional REF ‘team’ for UoA25 should, by the end of September, return an updated research plan: UoA 25 Researcher plan Update Sept 15   to Julian McDougall, UoA25 lead.

Sharing My Experiences Supervising an Undergraduate Research Assistant!

Research assessment, student research

As the Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) working with me sadly finishes today, wanted to briefly share my experiences.  The URA brought a useful practitioner perspective as well as creativity and was a pleasure to work with, working independently under supervision.  She achieved so much in six weeks:  After an induction, she subscribed to Blogs, attended the Festival of Learning along with meetings and webinars for networking.  Time was spent reviewing the Research Excellence Framework (REF) guidance and identifying good practice from previously submitted case studies.  Working with academics, evidence to date was collated for two potential REF case studies for two Units of Assessment.  Many outputs were produced e.g. Blog postings; a seminar presentation well attended by cross-Faculty and central staff provoking much interest; resources to empower staff to develop their own case studies; online resource; poster production.

The URA developed many transferable skills and hope that the process enhanced her student experience.  Through mentoring from a PhD student, she is now interested in pursuing a cross-Faculty PhD sometime in the future.  However, it has very much been a two-way process and I have also developed skills and intelligence from managing the role.  The process will likely inform a case study for my Teach@BU portfolio as well as future bids and I hope to continue working together by co-creating outputs.

All that’s left to say is thank you very very much to her, the PhD student who mentored her, and the organisers of the scheme.  I thoroughly recommend staff to apply to the scheme and students to apply for such roles – it’s win win!

My experiences of the undergraduate research assistantship

Research assessment, student research

I’m an Occupational Therapy student at BU, just going into my third year.  This summer I have been working with HSS Impact Champion, Zoe Sheppard, on the endeavour to monitor and measure the impact of research.  This has involved exploring methods of dissemination, investigating the demonstration of impact, and working on two research impact case studies.  As a result I have come to understand the value of reciprocal public engagement, and learnt that some of the best impact examples don’t happen by chance, but are within reach and in our control. I have collated my findings into a toolkit which will hopefully support you to plan and pursue your own research impacts.

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to explore the difference research can make, and this has inspired me to think about my own post-graduate research options. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Zoe in particular, and everyone else who have been so supportive of me over the last few weeks.

Jo George

Lunchtime Seminar on Measuring and Monitoring Research Impact 1-1.50pm, Wednesday 19th August in R301!

REF Subjects, Research assessment, student research

For those who will be around, please come along to support Jo George’s lunchtime seminar to hear her ‘Reflections on Measuring and Monitoring Research Impact from my Undergraduate Research Assistantship’.  She will present her findings around what makes a good impact case study, the case studies she has been working on, as well as her personal learnings.  Hope you can make it!

HEFCE Open Access Policy – Adjustments and Qualifications

BRIAN, Guidance, Publishing, REF Subjects, Research assessment

hefce-logoOn Friday (24 July 2015), HEFCE announced a number of adjustments and qualifications to its policy for open access (OA) in the next REF following consultation with HEIs. The key adjustment is that:

 

  • From 1st April 2016, authors will have until 3 months after publication to deposit outputs in our Institutional Repository (BURO) via BRIAN.  This is a temporary measure for the first year of the policy, to allow time to transition to a new way of working.

 

  • From 1st April 2017, the transition period will end, and in order to comply with the Open Access policy, authors will be expected to deposit outputs in (BURO) via BRIAN within 3 months of acceptance.

 

In light of these adjustments, it is recommended that authors still deposit outputs as soon as possible after acceptance to ensure continued compliance with all OA policies.

The circular and updated policy are available through the links below, if you have any queries or require further information on Open Access at BU including the Open Access Publication Fund, please contact Peng Peng Hatch at pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk.

View this circular letter on the HEFCE website at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2015/CL,202015/

View the full updated HEFCE policy at:  http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/Year/2014/201407/

Introducing Jo George, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Fusion, REF Subjects, Research assessment, student research

Hello, I will be working within the Health and Social Sciences Faculty with Impact Champion, Zoe Sheppard, over the next six weeks on the endeavour to monitor and measure the impact of research.

My work will involve:

  • Exploring methods of dissemination
  • Conducting literature searches to investigate the demonstration of impact
  • Working on two research case studies from the Health and Social Social Sciences Faculty

I can be found in R613 and contacted at jgeorge@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any ideas or challenges you’d like to discuss. I will be sharing my findings towards the end of my six weeks here.

I look forward to meeting you,

Jo

The Future of Research Practice

REF Subjects, Research assessment

NealWhite

 

 

 

Blog post by Professor Neal White, Faculty of Media and Communication

 

The Future of Research Practice

At a HEFCE sponsored conference run at Goldsmiths in London last week, a very large body of academics invested in the Future of Practice Research in the Arts and Humanities, gathered to hear HEFCE’s position on the area.

Following a stimulating keynote on the history and value of Undergraduates in this area by the artist Anne Tallentire, Professor Emeritus Central Saint Martens University of the Arts London, the audience was given an update on the state of play from HEFCE’s perspective.

In doing so Ben Johnson, Research Policy Adviser and then Steven Hill, Head of Research Policy at HEFCE, underlined the critical importance of practice research and the wide range of outputs considered in the recent REF. Central to their statements was an analysis of the amount and the impact of practice research submitted to the Panels. Writ large was the fact that one third of the overall REF submission was practice research and here was the first surprise, from HEFCE and REF position, this was a disappointing figure.

The reason for this, as Professor Bruce Brown (Pro VC Research at of Brighton University, lead of Arts and Humanities Panel D) expressed, was the overall balance of text and non-text outputs; simply put, there were not enough non text outputs at 36% of the submission. The apprehension had been that in UoAs 34-35 at least, these figures should have been reversed, with 64% practice research expected.

With many institutions hesitant about how to capture and articulate not only practice research, but specifically Impact, we were reassured that we had nonetheless delivered exceedingly high levels of world leading and international research in the REF – around 80% in total (BU return to Impact in UoA34 was 60/40 – 4*/3*), underlining our role in articulating and facing head on societal challenges to the human condition and ways of life. And so we were reminded of our contribution to not only the search for new knowledge, but our contributions to ‘enhanced understanding’ (a key definition outlined by HEFCE) in terms of the recovery of lost knowledge, and the testing of existing knowledge.

So what do we need to do in order to increase the amount and quality of practice research as will be expected, to deal with a problem that has for many been attributed to the confidence of our institutions, and those who lead the returns, for we were told, it does not reflect what is going on in UK Higher Education, as designers, performers, artists and other creative intellectuals continue to undertake and are leading the world in practice research.

In later presentations, and woven throughout the day were themes and concerns about practice research and its status in the Academy, running from staff requiring PhD’s, to the poor auditing tools available to them and the lack of understanding in the sciences, who largely run the exercises. Many points were highly valid, and some very familiar, but at the end of the day, HEFCE, who was in listening mode noted down and responded to the key suggestions and proposed actions.

More practice research figures it was agreed should and will be appointed to bodies like the British Academy. There would be less emphasis on the PhD from HEFCE in this area. A separate research practice policy lobbying body such as exist in Science would be supported. Overall, it was clear the value that practice brings, with HEFCE underlining the contributions to economic, social and cultural values in particular.

HEFCE and the REF need and expect much more non-text outputs – the role of practice in particular in the communication and engagement with research across the board should not and cannot be underestimated, they declared. They want and expect more scholarly forms of practice research, an area in which we now lead the World. But together, the next job is also to ensure that the government does not dismantle one of the liveliest and most engaged research bases in the World, aided and abetted by disciplinary divisions; the power bases of science and the arts respectively. Least we forget, the contribution to GDP from the fast growing sector of our economy, the creative industries was recorded in 2014 at £71.4 Billion (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/creative-industries-worth-8million-an-hour-to-uk-economy).

In briefly summarising all of the fascinating discussions and agreements, for there was much consensus, was a single line, delivered by Bruce Brown at the end of his own presentation in the morning that made an awful lot of sense to those of us trying to persuade our colleagues of our own value. The argument for practice research is won he declared on behalf of HEFCE and REF, the future of research practice is clear. We simply need to ensure that we can now; ‘Get over it and get on with it’.

Neal White is Professor of Media Art. He contributed to BU’s leading return in the RAE in 2008 and REF 2014, with one of two Impact Case Studies. He currently is REF leader for UoA34 and heads Experimental Media Research in the Faculty of Media and Communication.

The social sciences at BU

Research assessment

In response to an open email invitation, a group of social scientists from across BU met on Tuesday 17 March to discuss prospects for inter-Faculty collaboration. As in previous meetings between FMC and HSS colleagues, it was apparent that there were opportunities for more collaborative work than currently exists, and that there is considerable enthusiasm for developing links. A growing presence of the social sciences in BU, and of BU in the social sciences, was felt to be essential to BU’s development as a university with a rich intellectual community. If you haven’t received the report from this meeting by email, and would like to do so, please email Prof. Barry Richards (brichards@bmth.ac.uk)