Category / Research Centres

Open Call for HEIF Knowledge Exchange Project Applications 2024

Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) February 2024 Open Call

HEIF funding is now available for innovative Knowledge Exchange projects.

Research England provide universities with funding for knowledge exchange (Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)) to enable them to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions and work with business, public and third sector organisations, community bodies and the wider public, to exchange knowledge and increase the economic and societal benefit from their work.

The primary purpose of the funding is to support a small number of projects which can include:

  • significant projects that are underway and require a further injection of funds;
  • existing knowledge exchange projects to develop these ideas to the next stage of development;
  • projects with ambition that require a seed funding, capacity building, proof-of-concept or launchpad (please note that follow-up funding to support further development of your successfully funded HEIF-projects will be available to apply for in the 2024-25 academic cycle; we encourage applications for this call as an opportunity to kick-start your work).

The HEIF FEBRUARY 2024 OPEN CALL fund supports the ambition of the UK Government’s Plan for Growth to support and incentivise creative ideas and technologies that will shape the UK’s future. Further developing BU’s work in this area will also enable us to support UKRI’s aims to support cooperation and collaboration, as well as developing our academic talent. The aim is to provide a platform for academics to take their knowledge exchange ideas to the next stage of development or to completion.

If you would like to discuss your application or your project’s eligibility, there will be a drop in session on Thursday 29th between 1pm – 2.30pm in the Reception Area of Dorset House (BUBS). Or you can contact Dr Wendelin Morrison, the Knowledge Exchange Manager by email wsmorrison@bournemouth.ac.uk

Key details

Amount: This year, £50000 of BU’s HEIF grant will be allocated through this open call, to support up to 6 knowledge exchange and innovation projects.

Timeframe: Projects should span a maximum of 4 months. The funds awarded must be spent by 31 July 2024.

Closing date: Friday, 8 March 2024

The link to the Guidance and Application form is below – please ensure you DOWNLOAD a copy to your own computer and do not edit directly on the SharePoint: HEIF February 2024 Open Call.docx

Socio-Ecological Transition Seminars – Spring 2024 events

We are delighted to share the spring 2024 calendar for our Socio-Ecological Transition Seminars (SETS). This seminar cycle’s discussions will revolve around the global crisis of waste and the unsustainability of current modes of production and consumption, analysed across sectors and geographical contexts, in its societal, organisational, political, and ethical dimensions.

We have a confirmed calendar of international distinguished speakers:

April 3rd h 3 pm: A public sociology of waste, Myra Hird

Myra J. Hird, Professor in Environmental Studies at Queen’s University (Canada). Myra holds a PhD from Oxford University and is a distinguished interdisciplinary scholar researching the global waste crisis and will present her recent book A Public Sociology of Waste (2022, Bristol University Press).

April 24th h 3 pm: Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability, Manisha Anantharaman

Manisha Anantharaman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Center for the Sociology of Organisations, Sciences Po Paris (France). Manisha holds a PhD from University of California Berkeley, and her research focuses on the politics of ecological transition and sustainability. Manisha will present her recent book Recycling Class. The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability (2024, MIT press).

29th May h 3 pm: The Social Life of Unsustainable Mass Consumption, Magnus Boström.

Magnus Boström, Professor of Sociology at the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science (CESSS) at Örebro University, Sweden. Magnus’ research interests include politics, representation, consumption, action, and transformative learning in relation to various transnational environmental and sustainability issues. Magnus will present his recent book: The Social Life of Unsustainable Mass Consumption (2023, Rowman & Littlefield)

All seminars are online on Zoom:

https://unitn.zoom.us/j/85334570893Meeting ID: 853 3457 0893

Passcode: SETS

SETS is a joint initiative between the Research Group on Collective Action, Change, and Transition at the University of Trento, the Centre for Sustainable and Socially Responsible Consumption at Bournemouth University, and the Environmental Sociology Section at the University of Orebro. The seminars are open to a diverse audience, including academics, students, practitioners, social movements, and the non-specialist public.

SETS aims at reflecting with critical instruments and theories on socio-ecological transformations in times of crisis – with a special focus on everyday life and the sphere of social and ecological reproduction. In particular, the seminars aim at eliciting reflection on the different practices and “fields” where struggles and transformative action take place. The seminars are open to a diverse audience, including academics, students, practitioners, social movements, and non-specialist public.

Dr Roberta Discetti, SETS co-founder

MIL Eco-Lab: Media & Information Literacy for Healthy Ecosystems

logo - science, health, and data communications research group

MIL Eco-Lab: Media & Information Literacy for Healthy Ecosystems

Cluster Lead: Julian McDougall

This new research cluster, located in SHDC, will generate and support research to inform policy and practice for the role of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in: promoting societal resilience to misinformation; improving the health of communication ecosystems and supporting better health, science and data literacies.

This new cluster will form an MIL Eco-Lab to support and grow capacity for:

  • Research-informed MIL, working with a theory of change;
  • Education and training in MIL (including for better health and science communications);
  • Designing third spaces for MIL practice;
  • Evaluating MIL for ecosystem health (moving beyond solutionism, for positive consequences and social change);
  • Intersecting with the work of the Media and Information Literacy Alliance charity in advocacy spaces (including health, science and data communications).
  • Fostering productive inter-disciplinary and international environments for doctoral research in MIL and pioneering research in the field, where significant, for health, science and data communications.

Colleagues who are interested in finding out more about this cluster and discuss how your research can contribute, with no obligation to join, are invited to share your availability here for a zoom workshop later this month. And / or if you would like to chat about this 1-1, just email me and we can set that up.

Thanks for reading,

Julian

Reminder: Research Cafés 2nd Tues & 4th Thurs

Come along to BU’s “Research Café”: a twice-monthly informal and open-format online sessions for all things research (including practice-related research). These sessions are hosted and supported by BU academic staff members, for staff and research students.

  • 2nd Tuesday of the month, 1300-1400, Zoom
  • 4th Thursday of the month, 1300-1400, Zoom

The sessions are open to all—academic staff, student, professional support staff, ECRs, profs, whoever!

Each session will be a drop-in; no need to RSVP unless a special session has been announced. You can pop in for 5 minutes or the full hour, have your lunch and/or a cuppa, and talk about research at Bournemouth.

Where requested, we can set up dedicated sessions on topics of interest. Some suggested areas include (but are not limited to!):

  • Networking, making connections for collaborations
  • Sharing experiences on projects and committees
  • Exchanging support and advice
  • Applying for grants
  • Publication strategies
  • REF strategies

The Research Cafe is hosted by Lyle Skains and sponsored by the Centre for Science, Health, and Data Communications Research. 

Media coverage BU’s kidney research in Nepal

This week Bournemouth University organised two dissemination events for our risk of kidney disease study in Nepalese migrant workers in the Middle East and Malaysia.  A previous blog reported on the first event in the capital Kathmandu (see details here!) .  These dissemination events have generated a loads of media coverage in Nepal, both in Nepali and in English. 

The study was led by Bournemouth University and a charity in Nepal which whom we have been collaborating for two decades, called Green Tara Nepal.  This important study, the first of its kind, was conducted among the Nepalese migrant workers and a comparison group of non-migrants from the same community.  This study was funded by The Colt Foundation, based in the UK. In the field it was supported by the Madhes Province Public Health Laboratory, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration and University College London (UCL).

Dr Pramod Raj Regmi (Principal Academic in International Health in Bournemouth University’s Department of Nursing Sciences) is the lead researcher and our team further comprises researchers Dr Nirmal Aryal and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen (both from BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences), and in Nepal clinicians: Prof Dr Arun Sedhai, Dr Radheshyam KC and Dr Shrawan Kumar Mishra.

 

 

 

Prof Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

SPARC Seminar: Cities of (physical) culture 25/09/23

Cities of (physical) culture

 “Green” Urban Infrastructures, Physical Activity Promotion, and their Margins

 

Amid a worldwide growth in urban populations and an increasing policy focus on creating “smart”, “sustainable” and “wellness” cities, the relationship between cities and physical activity has been changing from the end of the 20th century.

Previously confined in specific urban areas, the pursuit of active physicality has been progressively seen as contributing to a range of urban functions (from health promotion to social cohesion) in the city itself. This has been particularly relevant for urban leaderships facing the need to regenerate dismissed industrial areas and to promote urban diversity and citizenship in increasingly unequal cities.

Yet, as urban initiatives aim to build “the city of the future” including by changing how urban residents move within it, what forms of urban citizenship these interventions envision, and what hierarchies of belonging and deservingness do they (re)produce? How are these processes lived and negotiated by urban dwellers differently positioned at the social and spatial margins of the city?

This seminar draws on research conducted in Italy (Turin) and Brazil (Sao Paulo) to explore how “sustainable” urban policies and the urban spaces and infrastructures they create shape the ways in which urban inequalities are manifested and negotiated through leisure and physical activities in contemporary cities.

This seminar will be held on Monday 25th September

from 14:00-15:00 at F109 Fusion, Talbot Campus

For more information, please contact:

Sport and Physical Activity Centre (SPARCfuturestudents@bournemouth.ac.uk

Nicola De Martini Ugolotti, Senior Lecturer In Sport, ndemartiniugolotti@bournemouth.ac.uk

Alessandra Bueno, Visiting fellow BUBS abueno@bournemouth.ac.uk

Announcement: Research Café

Announcing a new “Research Café”: twice-monthly informal and open-format online sessions for all things research (including practice-related research), starting in October. These sessions are hosted and supported by BU academic staff members, for staff and research students.

  • 2nd Tuesday of the month, 1300-1400, Zoom (first Tues session will be 10 Oct)
  • 4th Thursday of the month, 1300-1400, Zoom (first Thurs session will be 26 Oct)

The sessions are open to all—academic staff, student, professional support staff, ECRs, profs, whoever!

Each session will be a drop-in; no need to RSVP unless a special session has been announced. You can pop in for 5 minutes or the full hour, have your lunch and/or a cuppa, and talk about research at Bournemouth.

Where requested, we can set up dedicated sessions on topics of interest. Some suggested areas include (but are not limited to!):

  • Networking, making connections for collaborations
  • Sharing experiences on projects and committees
  • Exchanging support and advice
  • Applying for grants
  • Publication strategies
  • REF strategies

Keep an eye out for calendar invitations; if you don’t receive an invitation and you’d like to, please contact Lyle at lskains at bournemouth.ac.uk.

The Research Cafe is hosted by Lyle Skains and sponsored by the Centre for Science, Health, and Data Communications Research. 

IMIV MRI Research Project Scheme 2023 – 2nd call closing 1st Oct

Earlier this year, we were delighted to award 80 hours’ scanning time to a study examining the impact of cold water immersion on depression, under the IMIV MRI Research Scheme 2023.

The second call for applications for the Scheme is currently still open, but closes on 1st October.

Under the scheme, imaging research projects can apply for up to 100 hours of scanning time on the IMIV’s state-of-the-art 3T Siemens Lumina MRI scanner.

  • The focus of the scheme is on multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional projects, and priority will be given to projects with a clinical partnership.
  • All research projects must have a Bournemouth University researcher as lead or co-lead applicant.
  • Projects must be able to demonstrate how they will lead to peer-reviewed academic outputs and external funding applications for further MR imaging studies.

Please note: the award does not cover any additional expenses related to scanning, or other aspects of the project.

For further information and an application form, please email imiv@bournemouth.ac.uk.

INRC seminar by Dr Jie Sui, Friday the 8th of September at 14.00 h, Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion).

We want to draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on this Friday, the 8th of September, from 14:00 h to 15:00 h at the Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building). There will be a networking event after the talk with coffee and biscuits.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Jie Sui (University of Aberdeen), invited by Dr. Ellen Seiss. Prof Dr Sui is renowned for her studies investigating the unique self, self-representation, and social interactions in VR. Her research combines multiple neural recording modalities, such as EEG and fMRI, with computational modelling.

The title of this exciting talk is: “Understanding the Self: Prospects for Translation”. Please find the abstract below.

We warmly invite you to attend this seminar.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Abstract:

“An understanding of the self helps explain not only human thoughts, feelings, and attitudes but also many aspects of everyday behaviours. This talk focuses on a particular perspective on self-processes. This perspective highlights the dynamics of the self that best connects with the development of the self over time and its realist orientation. We are using psychological experiments and data mining to comprehend the stability and flexibility of the self in different populations.

In this talk, I integrate experimental psychology, associative learning theory, computational neuroscience, and machine learning approaches to demonstrate why and how self-association affects cognition and how it is modulated by various social experiences and situational factors.”

INRC seminar by Dr Jie Sui, Friday the 8th of September at 14.00 h, Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion).

We want to draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on Friday, the 8th of September, from 14:00 h to 15:00 h at the Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building). There will be a networking event after the talk with coffee and biscuits.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Jie Sui (University of Aberdeen), invited by Dr. Ellen Seiss. Prof Dr Sui is renowned for her studies investigating the unique self, self-representation, and social interactions in VR. Her research combines multiple neural recording modalities, such as EEG and fMRI, with computational modelling.

The title of this exciting talk is: “Understanding the Self: Prospects for Translation”. Please find the abstract below.

We warmly invite you to attend this seminar.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Abstract:

“An understanding of the self helps explain not only human thoughts, feelings, and attitudes but also many aspects of everyday behaviours. This talk focuses on a particular perspective on self-processes. This perspective highlights the dynamics of the self that best connects with the development of the self over time and its realist orientation. We are using psychological experiments and data mining to comprehend the stability and flexibility of the self in different populations.

In this talk, I integrate experimental psychology, associative learning theory, computational neuroscience, and machine learning approaches to demonstrate why and how self-association affects cognition and how it is modulated by various social experiences and situational factors.”

IMIV MRI Research Project Scheme 2023 – Call Re-opens

The Institute of Medical Imaging and Visualisation (IMIV) has re-opened its call for applications for the IMIV MRI Research Project Scheme 2023.

Under the scheme, imaging research projects can apply for up to 100 hours of scanning time on the IMIV’s state-of-the-art 3T Siemens Lumina MRI scanner.

  • The focus of the scheme is on multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional projects, and priority will be given to projects with a clinical partnership.
  • All research projects must have a Bournemouth University researcher as lead or co-lead applicant.
  • Projects must be able to demonstrate how they will lead to peer-reviewed academic outputs and external funding applications for further MR imaging studies.

Please note: the award does not cover any additional expenses related to scanning, or other aspects of the project.

Deadline for applications: 1st October 2023. 

For further information and an application form, please email imiv@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Women’s World Cup Forum hosted by Sport and Physical Activity Centre (SPARC)

Against the backdrop of the Women’s World Cup, the Sport & Physical Activity Centre (SPARC) hosted the Women’s World Cup (WWC) Forum on July 17th.

Featuring presentations from Dr Beth Fielding-Lloyd (Sheffield Hallam University), Anika Leslie-Walker (Nottingham Trent University) and Dr Rafaelle Nicholson (Faculty of Media & Communication, BU), the forum set out to explore the contemporary nature of women’s football and how academic work aligns to the apparent pace of growth. Attendees were invited back the following day and spent a productive day unpacking issues raised at the Forum and explored potential areas for further academic exploration.

One week prior to the event, former England International Karen Carney, authored an Independent Report for DCMS, titled Raising the Bar: Re-Framing the Opportunity in Women’s Football. The report offers a comprehensive review of the growth opportunities for the game at professional and grassroots level, but also highlights the significant challenges facing the game. The report, and indeed the SPARC Forum, invited us to look behind the mask of the landmark event and how narratives of ‘progress’ at such landmark events (attendances, media interest, coverage, taglines: the WWC for example is branded ‘Beyond Greatness’) can present a false picture of progress, highlight myths of women’s empowerment and indeed mask new/existing expressions of power.

In particular, discussion at the Forum focussed on developing a sustainable and inclusive fan base for the game (beyond landmark fixtures, average Women’s Super League (WSL) attendance stands at 2,800), funding and diversity issues within the talent pathway, safe fan experience/spaces (marked by religion, gender and race), gender pay disparities, the lessons of prior mergers and governance structures, and broadcasting rights (the UK’s domestic broadcasters offered just 8% of that which they paid for the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar) and media representations (that oft tended to reinforce, as opposed to challenge, dominant gender power relations). Indeed, and even as the Forum was in full-swing, the Australian team (The Matildas) broadcast a video highlighting pay disparities, the England team expressed their disappointment over a lack of agreement over their bonuses, figures from the Carney report suggested that 71% of attendees at WSL games reported their experience was ‘short of expectation’, and highlighted that there exists a significant lack of understanding of minority ethnic fans.

As the women’s game grows and transitions from a Football Association-owned entity to a new independently owned management structure (currently named New Co.) this is indeed an exciting time for women’s football. However, the Forum & workshop reinforced the need to peek behind the shiny spectacle of the World Cup and address some of the challenges that continue to be faced in the development of a sustainable, equitable and inclusive ‘product’. After two long, yet productive, days participants left with a compelling commitment to engage with key stakeholders and undertake a programme of work that aims to address inequalities in the game and influence policy, practice and strategy.