Category / Research communication

BU signs up to Jisc agreement with the American Psychological Association

BU research, Guidance, open access, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research communication, Research news, writing

BU authors can now publish OA for free in select journals with American Psychological Association. Read on to find out more!

Authors affiliated with UK institutions participating in APA’s Jisc agreement may publish open access in hybrid journals published by APA at no cost to the author, provided that:

  • The article’s corresponding author is affiliated with a participating institution’s UK campus.
  • The article is accepted after August 1, 2022.
  • The article is an original peer-reviewed research article or review article.

All articles under this agreement will be published under the CC-BY copyright license. Upon publication, articles will be made immediately open access.

You can find further information on how to submit an article for consideration and other key information, such as maximum number of articles, here.

As a reminder, BU holds a number of agreements with key publishers, many of which allow you to publish open access for free. You can read more about them here.

If you have any queries, please contact the Open Access team.

Dr Yutaka Matsubayashi receives Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) Springboard Award to support research

BU research, ECR Network, Featured, Featured academics, Research communication, Research news

Dr Yutaka Matsubayashi has been named as a recipient of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) Springboard Awards – the first time one has been awarded to a Bournemouth University researcher.

More than 40 Springboard Awards, totalling over £4 million, have been awarded to biomedical and health researchers in their first independent post to help launch their careers.

Dr Matsubayashi, a Lecturer in Systems Biology at BU, has received the grant to support his research investigating the mechanisms that orchestrate basement membrane formation – working towards the invention of future therapies.

The basement membrane is a scaffolding structure that supports almost all animal tissues, and the research has possible clinical applications for many medical conditions caused by basement membrane deficiency – such as kidney failure, skin fragility, and brain haemorrhage.

The grant will be used to employ a research assistant, and a network of collaborators inside and beyond Bournemouth University will also support the work.

The Springboard Awards provide up to £125,000 over two years and a personalised package of career support to help biomedical scientists to launch their research careers.

Dr Suzanne Candy, Director of Biomedical Grants & Policy at the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: “Together with our partners, we are fortunate to be able to support this talented group of researchers doing excellent science. Our strategic ambition is to help create an open and progressive research sector. By investing in these individuals and teams, we are broadening the range of people and disciplines engaged in biomedical and health research, across all regions of the UK, and globally.

“We look forward to supporting our award recipients and seeing how their research has a positive impact on the health of people everywhere.”

April Update for (PGR) Researcher Development, Culture and Community

BU research, Doctoral College, Events, Featured, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Publishing, Research communication, research methods, Research Training, Student Engagement, student research, Training

Desk set up with plant, light, note pad, mouse, keyboard and computer screen.

Check out the April e-newsletter.

All ‘monthly update for researcher development, culture and community’ e-newsletters are available in a dedicated content area on the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme Brightspace unit.

If you have any questions about the e-newsletter or would like to feature content, please contact Natalie [Doctoral College Programme Manager].

#StepForward and become an NHS Research Ethics Committee member

BU research, Clinical Governance, nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research news, research opportunities, Research Training

The Health Research Authority are inviting people to #StepForward and become a Research Ethics Committee (REC) member.

REC members meet virtually to review exciting new research studies for some of the biggest challenges in health and social care, including cancer, dementia and COVID-19.

It’s important that committees have insight from different perspectives so that we can all trust their decisions. The HRA are particularly looking for people with no healthcare or research experience.

You’ll be provided with regular training and support and it’s a great opportunity to work with people from a range of backgrounds and learn new skills.

You can find out more here. Alternatively, if you have any questions about being on a REC, please get in touch with Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor, and Alternate Vice Chair of the West Midlands – Black Country Research Ethics Committee.

Future of Complex Innovative Trial Design

BU research, international, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized

The latest Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) publication on the last day of March is an editorial in the Nepal Journal of  Epidemiology.  This editorial ‘The Promising Future for Complex Innovative Trial Design in Clinical Research’ has as its lead author, FHSS’s Visiting Faculty Dr. Brijesh Sathian.

 

Reference:

  1. Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Banerjee, I., Asim, M., Kabir, R. (2023) The Promising Future for Complex Innovative Trial Design in Clinical Research. Nepal Journal of  Epidemiology, 13(1):1256-1257.

 

GoodBye JeS, Hello TFS

Funding opportunities, Research communication, Research news

 

 

 

UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Simpler and Better Funding (SBF) programme has been creating a funding service that is easy to use and supports everyone involved in research funding.

The new Funding Service is designed to be simpler and more intuitive to use. It will provide consistent information requirements and assessment criteria, making it simpler for applicants and assessors.

Guidance on the application process will be supplied within the service, reducing the need to look for additional information in multiple places.

UKRI will continue to operate the existing system (Je-S) for application and award management. When applying for an opportunity on the UKRI funding finder, you will be taken directly to the correct application system.

Over time, opportunities will be transitioned to the new service. For the details of each council transitioning from JeS have a look at this page.

If you have projects in planning stage get in touch with RDS and we can help you with any queries about transitioning to the new service and calls affected by the move.

If you have not used the Funding Service before, the first step is to create an account. The process is straightforward and quick, so you can get started on your application as soon as possible.

RDS will continue to support you as before from your bid preparation stage and approvals before submissions to award management in the new service.

Conversation article: Bones like Aero chocolate – the evolution adaptation that helped dinosaurs to fly

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

Dr Sally Reynolds writes for The Conversation about new research into the structure of dinosaur bones…

Bones like Aero chocolate: the evolution adaptation that helped dinosaurs to fly

Dinosaurs once dominated Earth’s landscapes.
AmeliAU/Shutterstock

Sally Christine Reynolds, Bournemouth University

It’s sometimes difficult to imagine how the planet we call home, with its megalopolis cities and serene farmlands, was once dominated by dinosaurs as big as buses and five-storey buildings. But recent research has helped deepen our understanding of why dinosaurs prevailed: the answer may lie in their special bones, structured like Aero chocolate.

Brazilian palaeontologist Tito Aureliano found that hollow bones filled with little air sacs were so important to dinosaur survival, they evolved independently several times in different lineages.

According to the study, aerated bones evolved in three separate lineages: pterosaurs, technically flying reptiles, and two dinosaur lineages theropods (ranging from the crow-sized Microraptor to the huge Tyrannosaurus rex) and sauropodomorphs (long-necked herbivores including Brachiosaurus). The researchers focused on the late Triassic period, roughly 233 million years ago, in south Brazil.

A macro close-up shot of an opened bar of Aero chocolate, with the corner broken off, exposing the unique bubble texture from which it gets it name.
Hollow dinosaur bones, structured a bit like this chocolate, proved to be a major advantage.
Kev Gregory/Shutterstock

Every time an animal reproduces, evolution throws up random variants in genetic code. Some of these variants are passed on to offspring and develop over time.

Charles Darwin believed evolution created “endless forms most beautiful”. But some adaptations emerge spontaneously time and time again, a bit like getting the same hand of cards on multiple occasions. When the same hand keeps cropping up, it’s a sign that evolution has hit upon an important and effective solution.

The variant the Brazilian team studied was aerated vertebrae bones, which would have enhanced the dinosaurs’ strength and reduced their body weight.

Light but mighty

Your regular deliveries from Amazon or other online retailers come packed in corrugated cardboard, which has the same advantages as aerated bones. It is light, yet tough.

Corrugated cardboard or as it was first known, pleated paper, was a man-made design experiment that was hugely successful and is now part of our everyday lives. It was patented in England in 1856 and was initially designed to support top hats which were popular in Victorian England and the US at the time.

Three years later, Darwin published his On the Origin of Species which outlined how evolutionary traits that create advantages are more likely to be passed on to future generations than variants which don’t.

Close up of stacked brown recycled carton
Cardboard is strong and light.
Shawn Hempel/Shutterstock

CT scan technology allowed Aureliano and his colleagues to peer inside the rock-hard fossils they studied. Without the modern technology, it would have been impossible to look inside the fossils and detect the air sacs in the spinal columns.

The study found no common ancestor had this trait. All three groups must have developed air sacs independently, and each time in slightly different ways.

The air sacs probably enhanced oxygen levels in the dinosaurs’ blood. The Triassic period had a scorching hot and dry climate. So more oxygen circulating in the blood would cool dinosaur bodies more efficiently. It would also allow them to mover faster.

The air sacs would have buttressed and reinforced the internal structure of the dinosaurs’ bones while creating a greater surface area of attachments for large, powerful muscles. This would have enabled the bones to grow to a far larger size without weighing the animal down.

In living birds aerated bones reduce overall mass and volume, while enhancing bone strength and stiffness – essential features for flight.

Palaeontology not only tells the story of what might have been for Earth, had it not been for that infamous asteroid, but also helps us learn about the evolution of still living creatures.

Prehistoric connections

Echoes of this dinosaur legacy lie in many animals alive today. It is not only long-dead animals which found this type of adaptation useful. Many bird species living today rely on hollow bones to fly. Others animals use the air sacs to buttress and strengthen their large bones and skulls, without weighing them down.

An excellent example of this is the elephant skull. Inside elephant skulls are large air sacs which allow the animal to move its massive head and heavy tusks without straining the neck muscles.

Anatomy of a flat bone.
OpenStax College, CC BY

The human brain is also protected by two layers of hard, compact, bone (inner and outer tables) which sandwich a layer of softer, spongey and aerated bone in between, known as the diploe. This allows our skulls to be light, but strong and able to absorb shocks to cranium.

These are examples of convergent evolution in which animals are faced repeatedly with the same problem, evolving similar – but not always identical – solutions each time. Animals today are playing by the same evolutionary playbook as the dinosaurs.The Conversation

Sally Christine Reynolds, Principal Academic in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

European research project to promote local food purchasing and reduce food waste

BU research, EU, Featured, Research communication

A new European research project will enable consumers to find and buy local food supplies, reducing waste and supporting sustainable purchases.

FoodMAPP logoThe FoodMAPP project – being led in the UK by Bournemouth University (BU) – will develop a searchable map-based platform that will enable consumers to search and buy food products directly from local suppliers.

Currently within Europe food is transported, on average, 171km from farm to fork. 26 per cent of global carbon emissions come from food and large volumes of food are wasted.

The FoodMAPP project aims to address these challenges by enabling consumers to identify and purchase local sources of food in real time to shorten supply chains and reduce food waste, while also providing additional sustainable income to food producers and providers.

A consortium of European partners, comprising academic partners in Croatia, Hungary, Spain and Belgium and industry partners in France & Austria will support the project.

BU’s involvement in FoodMAPP will be led by Associate Professor Jeff Bray and supported by an interdisciplinary research team from across the university including Professor Katherine Appleton, Professor Juliet Memery, Dr Roberta Discetti and Dr Vegard Engen.

Dr Bray said: “Our current food supply system is not sustainable both in terms of its ability to reliably provide the right nutrition for a growing world population and in terms of the environmental footprint of current practices.”

“The project aims to transform local food supply reducing food miles, reducing food waste and increasing localised food supply resilience.”

The FoodMAPP project team gathered outside a building

The FoodMAPP project team

BU led on the development of the four-year project, which has been awarded €584,200 from Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, alongside additional funding from UKRI to support BU’s continued inclusion.

The European coordinator is Associate Professor Vinko Lešić from Zagreb University (Croatia) and partners include Ghent University (Belgium), Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) and CREDA (Centre for agro-food economics and development, Spain) alongside partners from the food industry – Institute Paul Bocuse (France) and Ronge & Partner (Austria).

International Women’s Day 2023 – #EmbraceEquity

Featured academics, Research communication

Today is International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity, with a number of missions including women’s health, women in sport, and women at work.

Our research is supporting these missions in many ways – from improving care for mothers, their babies and families around the world; to exploring women’s sport and the inequalities in sports governance; and supporting women in business.

We’re proud of the contribution of our female academics across research, education and practice, and the difference they make to society and to the BU community.

To mark International Women’s Day, Dr Ann Luce and Dr Roya Haratian have shared their biggest achievements while at BU:

A head and shoulders image of Dr Ann Luce

Dr Ann Luce

“I work in the area of suicide prevention and my biggest achievement to date was when our Dorset Suicide Response Team was told by Public Health England that we had saved twenty lives through our de-escalation strategy. This was following a cluster of suicides at a local railway station back in 2019. It was humbling to know that my research and hard work had saved others from having to go through the ordeal of suicide bereavement.”

Dr Ann Luce, Associate Professor in Journalism and Communication

 

Dr Roya Haratian

Dr Roya Haratian

“In 2019, I led the Athena SWAN process for the Department of Design and Engineering, along with our Head of Department and the self-assessment team, and two years later, we were delighted to receive a Bronze Athena SWAN Award. Since then, we’ve set up an inclusivity committee to advance our work in this area. I also work closely with our female students and SUBU’s Women in STEM Society, supporting and promoting their engineering activities.”

Dr Roya Haratian, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Science & Engineering

Read more about our commitment to gender equality on the BU website

Conversation article: School rugby should not be compulsory and tackling needs to be outlawed – here’s the evidence

BU research, Featured, Research communication, the conversation

BU’s Dr Keith Parry co-authors this article for The Conversation about the risks of playing rugby at school…

School rugby should not be compulsory and tackling needs to be outlawed – here’s the evidence

David Fuentes Prieto/Shutterstock

Keith Parry, Bournemouth University and John Batten, University of Winchester

Rugby has a higher rate of injury than most other sports frequently played in schools in the UK. It is a collision sport where players purposefully tackle each other, which can result in serious injury, such as to the head and neck.

The risks of injury, and particularly brain injuries, from playing rugby are now widely recognised. And yet it remains a compulsory sport in many schools.

Tackle rugby should not be compulsory in any school, for any age of children. Where rugby is compulsory, it should be non-contact.

What’s more, schools should provide children and their parents with information on the dangers involved with playing sports like rugby at school.

School rugby

Research with 825 teenage school rugby players over one season found that more than one in three of the children suffered an injury from playing full-contact rugby. Almost half of these injuries were serious enough that the child could not return to play rugby for 28 or more days.

These injury concerns are also recognised by teachers. Our research has found that 67% of teachers in charge of school PE believe rugby union is the sport that puts children at the greatest risk of harm.

Despite the high risks involved with playing rugby, our research also shows that it is one of the most common sports in schools. We surveyed 288 state-funded secondary schools in England and found that rugby union was played in 81% of these schools. It is more common for boys to play rugby, but over half of the schools offered rugby for girls.

What is more worrying is that rugby is compulsory in the majority of the secondary schools we surveyed. Where schools offered rugby for boys, in 91% of cases it was compulsory. And 54% of schools that taught rugby to girls made it compulsory.

The risks of playing

In elite sport, understanding of the risks of playing rugby is growing. Concussion is the most common injury suffered by elite-level rugby players according to the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the governing body of rugby in England. Professional rugby union players are more likely than not to have suffered a concussion after playing just 25 matches.

This rate of injuries is growing. Some attempts to improve safety in the wider sport have been made. In community rugby, for example, the permitted tackle-height has been lowered.

But research has found that lowering the tackle height might not reduce the number of concussions suffered by players.

Tackle during a rugby game
28th September 2019. Marcus Watson of Wasps Rugby Football Team is tackled during a Premiership Rugby Cup game between Northampton Saints and Wasps, September 28 2019.
atsportphoto/Shutterstock

Repetitive head impacts, such as those that happen in rugby, can also cause neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy and dementia.

Nearly 200 former players are suing the governing bodies of rugby. These players are suffering from neurological impairments and claim that World Rugby, the RFU and the Welsh Rugby Union did not protect players enough from permanent injuries.

Current England player Courtney Lawes has recently said that he would have reservations about his children playing professional rugby, because the financial benefits are not worth the injuries that come from playing the sport.

The risks remain at amateur levels. Amateur rugby players are also taking legal action against the same governing bodies who, they say, did not protect them from brain injuries during their playing careers.

For a number of years, academics and medical professionals have been calling on the UK government to remove the tackle from rugby in school physical education. However, considerable resistance to removing tackling remains.

Rugby, particularly at school level, does not need to include tackling. Safer versions of the sport, such as tag rugby, already exist.

Rugby can be played without tackling and still provide a wide range of physical and mental health benefits that help children stay physically active and maintain psychological wellbeing. School rugby must change to keep children safe.The Conversation

Keith Parry, Head Of Department in Department of Sport & Event Management, Bournemouth University and John Batten, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, University of Winchester

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

March Update for (PGR) Researcher Development, Culture and Community

BU research, Doctoral College, Events, Featured, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Research communication, Research Training, Training

Desk set up with plant, light, note pad, mouse, keyboard and computer screen.

All ‘monthly update for researcher development, culture and community’ e-newsletters are available in a dedicated content area on the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme Brightspace unit.

If you missed the March e-newsletter, you can check it out.

If you have any questions about the e-newsletter or would like to feature content, please contact Natalie [Doctoral College Programme Manager].

Finding answers to the problem of workplace bullying in Film & TV

BU research, Research communication

18-months ago we published a major study of the UK’s unscripted TV labour market. We found that a staggering 93% of professionals in this sector had experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment at work. An industry defined by highly sought-after creative work had a shadow side. The picture to emerge was one of a troubled workplace in pressing need of reform. Our report made six recommendations that had implications for both government policy and structural change within the industry.

As the issue of bullying in TV has become more widely acknowledged, we have welcomed a number of recent industry initiatives and interventions introduced to deter it (including a campaign to encourage the reporting of bad behaviour and a free Bullying Advice Service). Yet despite these positive developments, not enough attention has been given to the underlying factors that contribute to workplace bullying. There remains an assumption that this is simply a problem of ‘a few bad apples’, when – in reality – it is the condition in which apples are kept that largely determines the damage caused by a bad one.

In our latest publication we examine this issue in more depth. We argue that it is the nature of television work, its organisational structures and the culture of the industry that creates a set of conditions that makes bullying particularly likely. Many of the characteristics shown by our study to be commonplace in television work, are precisely those identified in the field of organisational psychology as risk factors for workplace bullying. This being the case, we call for a risk management approach to this problem; one that systematically recognises, appraises and minimises these risks.

Christa van Raalte, Richard Wallis & Dawid Pekalski (2023) More than just a few ‘bad apples’: the need for a risk management approach to the problem of workplace bullying in the UK’s television industry, Creative Industries Journal, DOI: 10.1080/17510694.2023.2182101