Category / Research communication

The Friday Prof-ile: Fiona Coward

Featured academics, Friday profile, Research communication

Welcome to The Friday Prof-ile – a chance to get to know some of our recently appointed Professors and Associate Professors a little better. Every Friday, we’ll be asking a different person the same set of questions to get an insight into their life, work and what makes them tick. 

This week, we’re chatting with Associate Professor in Archaeological Sciences, Fiona Coward… 

Fiona Coward looking at the head of a dinosaur model

Fiona Coward

  • What are your research interests? What made you want to study these areas?

I’m interested in how humans evolved – not just our physiologies, but also our brains and behaviour. In particular, I’m interested in how human social lives have evolved; all primates and especially Great Apes, our closest living relatives, are highly social animals, but human social lives are global in scale, and I study how the way our ancestors made a living have shaped our sociality and cognition. I’m particularly interested in the role material culture – aka stuff, or objects – plays in this process. Are practices such as crafting, technology, trade, exchange and gifting a key part of what makes us human?

  • What has been your career highlight to date? 

Getting to walk casually through a door in the Natural History Museum marked ‘staff only’ and wander through the ‘backstage’ areas going through drawers!

  • What are you working on at the moment?

I’m looking at the origins of urban living. Humans as a species have been around for about 300,000 years and for most of that time we lived in very small groups that moved frequently across the landscape to find food by hunting and gathering. Why, then, in just the last 20,000 years or so (the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms!), have we suddenly become a majority urban, agricultural species? What were the implications of this change in lifeways for the wider ecosystem, and are there lessons we can learn from understanding how and why early villagers and farmers lived that might help mitigate our impact on the world today, and hence help us face the current climate crisis?

  • If you weren’t an academic, what would you be doing? 

I would probably be a data analyst in the civil service – they offered me a job right after Bournemouth University did!

  • What do you do to unwind?

Reading, writing and watching fantasy and science fiction, and singing along (badly but loudly) to unfashionable music.

  • What’s the best thing about Bournemouth?

The seafront! Also, it’s a small, friendly community with lots of beautiful landscape easily accessible, but also in easy reach of bigger cities if required. Perfect!

  • If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why? 

An everlasting notebook and pen. OK, I cheated there a bit. If I’m not allowed to cheat, then a bar of Divine milk chocolate and gingerbread.

  • What advice would you give to your younger self? 

Not being a d**k does actually pay off!

RKEDF: Research Methods Training Fund – Applications Open

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research communication

An unsuccessful grant application can be demoralising so make your next bid successful! Remember, there can be many reasons for the lack of success! Some beyond your control others not!  Funders feedback will help to evaluate why your bid was unsuccessful and along with training via the Research Methods Training Fund you can look forward to future success!  

 The Research Knowledge Exchange Development Framework has announced this fund specifically targeted at academics who have submitted unsuccessful bids!   The aspiration is that by reinvigorate the research methodology via a training workshop successful recipients will aim to resubmit their bid within a 12-month period! 

 

FAQs 

How do I apply?  

MS Form application 

 

When do I need to have booked and paid for the course by?  

By Wednesday 1st June 2022 

 

When is the closing date?  

Friday 22nd April 2022 

 

Who selects the successful applicants?  

DDRP and RDS Panel will offer support to those in scope 

 

Examples of courses that you might choose: 

NCRM research courses  

NCRM training overview 

Oxford Qualitative Courses: Short Courses in Qualitative Research Methods 

Oxford Qualitative Courses – from specialists in qualitative research methods — Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford 

Qualitative Research Methods Courses 

Qualitative Research Methods Courses | University of Oxford (oxforduniversitystores.co.uk) 

 

Examples of methodological support you might choose: 

Residential research retreat 

Research Design Service South West (nihr.ac.uk) 

 

BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth Associate Editor

BU research, Featured, Featured academics, international, open accecss, Publishing, Research communication, Uncategorized, writing

A few weeks ago I was invited as Associate Editor for BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth to draft a few paragraphs about how my research links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an international scientific journal published by Springer.  The edited version of my draft was put online earlier today, click here for access.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH  (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

 

Introducing the BMC Series SDG Editorial Board Members: Edwin van Teijlingen

The Friday Prof-ile: Tom Wainwright

Featured academics, Friday profile, Research communication, Uncategorized

Welcome to The Friday Prof-ile – a chance to get to know some of our recently appointed Professors and Associate Professors a little better. Every Friday, we’ll be asking a different person the same set of questions to get an insight into their life, work and what makes them tick. 

This week, we’re chatting with Professor in Orthopaedics Tom Wainwright.

Tom Wainwright

Tom Wainwright

What are your research interests? What made you want to study these areas?  

Primarily I am interested in helping to improve the treatment of patients with hip and knee arthritis. Firstly, looking at strategies and interventions that can help patients avoid the need for surgery, and then secondly, when surgery is indicated, looking at how surgical recovery can be optimised. Arthritis is a significant socioeconomic and health burden, and at a patient level can have a hugely detrimental effect on a patient’s quality of life and daily activities. It is therefore, in my opinion, both an interesting and important research topic.

What has been your career highlight to date? 

Being the lead author of the highly cited/downloaded ERAS Society international consensus guidelines for hip and knee replacement surgery. I was the first, and I am still, the only non-surgeon to ever lead the formation of an international ERAS Society guideline.

What are you working on at the moment? 

I am currently leading a number of externally-funded research studies. These include a trial of how best to provide physiotherapy for patients with hip arthritis, and two studies that will reveal brand new insights into the post-operative functional recovery trajectories of patients following hip and knee replacement.

If you weren’t an academic, what would you be doing?

I would probably be working clinically as a physiotherapist.

What do you do to unwind? 

Spend time doing activities outdoors with my family and friends. I like to run, bike, and spend time in the sea. I love to snowboard and surf, and play cricket and football. I also like to cook and travel.

What’s the best thing about Bournemouth? 

The beach and surrounding coastline and countryside. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful spot.

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why? 

To be able to teleport! I could surf in Portugal before coming to work, and pop to Canada at the weekends to snowboard! It would also save on my carbon footprint and mean I don’t have to do any travel booking paperwork for work trips!

If you were stranded on a desert island, what one luxury item would you take with you? 

A piano. I played as kid and would love to have the time to pick it up again and practice.

What advice would you give to your younger self? 

Remember to be present, and enjoy the small moments.

BU’s new Read and Publish deal with Cambridge University Press

BU research, Guidance, open access, Research communication, writing

We have a new Read and Publish deal with Cambridge. By entering the location and institution you will see the publishing agreement as below and also have links to eligible journals.

To be eligible, articles must:

Conversation article: Protecting children in the metaverse – it’s easy to blame big tech but we all have a role to play

Research communication, the conversation

Professor Andy Phippen writes for The Conversation about child safety in virtual spaces…

Protecting children in the metaverse: it’s easy to blame big tech, but we all have a role to play

Newman Studio/Shutterstock

Andy Phippen, Bournemouth University

In a recent BBC news investigation, a reporter posing as a 13-year-old girl in a virtual reality (VR) app was exposed to sexual content, racist insults and a rape threat. The app in question, VRChat, is an interactive platform where users can create “rooms” within which people interact (in the form of avatars). The reporter saw avatars simulating sex, and was propositioned by numerous men.

The results of this investigation have led to warnings from child safety charities including the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) about the dangers children face in the metaverse. The metaverse refers to a network of VR worlds which Meta (formerly Facebook) has positioned as a future version of the internet, eventually allowing us to engage across education, work and social contexts.

The NSPCC appears to put the blame and the responsibility on technology companies, arguing they need to do more to safeguard children’s safety in these online spaces. While I agree platforms could be doing more, they can’t tackle this problem alone.

Reading about the BBC investigation, I felt a sense of déjà vu. I was surprised that anyone working in online safeguarding would be – to use the NSPCC’s words – “shocked” by the reporter’s experiences. Ten years ago, well before we’d heard the word “metaverse”, similar stories emerged around platforms including Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel.

These avatar-based platforms, where users interact in virtual spaces via a text-based chat function, were actually designed for children. In both cases adults posing as children as a means to investigate were exposed to sexually explicit interactions.

The demands that companies do more to prevent these incidents have been around for a long time. We are locked in a cycle of new technology, emerging risks and moral panic. Yet nothing changes.

It’s a tricky area

We’ve seen demands for companies to put age verification measures in place to prevent young people accessing inappropriate services. This has included proposals for social platforms to require verification that the user is aged 13 or above, or for pornography websites to require proof that the user is over 18.

If age verification was easy, it would have been widely adopted by now. If anyone can think of a way that all 13-year-olds can prove their age online reliably, without data privacy concerns, and in a way that’s easy for platforms to implement, there are many tech companies that would like to talk to them.

In terms of policing the communication that occurs on these platforms, similarly, this won’t be achieved through an algorithm. Artificial intelligence is nowhere near clever enough to intercept real-time audio streams and determine, with accuracy, whether someone is being offensive. And while there might be some scope for human moderation, monitoring of all real-time online spaces would be impossibly resource-intensive.

The reality is that platforms already provide a lot of tools to tackle harassment and abuse. The trouble is few people are aware of them, believe they will work, or want to use them. VRChat, for example, provides tools for blocking abusive users, and the means to report them, which might ultimately result in the user having their account removed.

A man assists a child to put on a VR headset.
People will access the metaverse through technology like VR headsets.
wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

We cannot all sit back and shout, “my child has been upset by something online, who is going to stop this from happening?”. We need to shift our focus from the notion of “evil big tech”, which really isn’t helpful, to looking at the role other stakeholders could play too.

If parents are going to buy their children VR headsets, they need to have a look at safety features. It’s often possible to monitor activity by having the young person cast what is on their headset onto the family TV or another screen. Parents could also check out the apps and games young people are interacting with prior to allowing their children to use them.

What young people think

I’ve spent the last two decades researching online safeguarding – discussing concerns around online harms with young people, and working with a variety of stakeholders on how we might better help young people. I rarely hear demands that the government needs to bring big tech companies to heel from young people themselves.

They do, however, regularly call for better education and support from adults in tackling the potential online harms they might face. For example, young people tell us they want discussion in the classroom with informed teachers who can manage the debates that arise, and to whom they can ask questions without being told “don’t ask questions like that”.

However, without national coordination, I can sympathise with any teacher not wishing to risk complaint from, for example, outraged parents, as a result of holding a discussion on such sensitive topics.

I note the UK government’s Online Safety Bill, the legislation that policymakers claim will prevent online harms, contains just two mentions of the word “education” in 145 pages.

We all have a role to play in supporting young people as they navigate online spaces. Prevention has been the key message for 15 years, but this approach isn’t working. Young people are calling for education, delivered by people who understand the issues. This is not something that can be achieved by the platforms alone.The Conversation

Andy Phippen, Professor of IT Ethics and Digital Rights, Bournemouth University

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

Managing Rejection: RDS Support available to ….

BU research, Research communication, Research news

…repurpose unsuccessful applications amazing ideas not yet funded.

Huff, so your grant application was unsuccessful! Don’t get too comfortable in the pit of despair and generally feeling demoralised. The imposter syndrome monster eats these thoughts for breakfast!

But in all seriousness, do not to be too hard on yourself. The UK research funding systems is extremely competitive, and the reality is, even great research won’t be funded. So, see this as an opportunity to tweak the research design, get that all important key stakeholders onboard and rethink that postdoc’s training plan… so take 2 (or more).

Rocky meme - YouTube

There is so much to think about when you want to repurpose a previously unsuccessful funding application:

  • What can you do to make the second iteration successful?
  • Where will you apply, to which funder?
  • What sort of scheme will you apply for?
  • How can you increase your chances of being funded?
  • Have things moved on in your field since you applied previously?
  • Has any new research come out that changes the research landscape in your field?
  • Do you need to update the research?
  • Will you apply to the same funder, for example, if the research is a really good fit for the funder and the project is a good fit for the scheme?
  • Will you apply to a different funder?
  • Do you want to take a different approach to applying for funding?
  • Do you want to take some time to develop your funding profile before you apply for a large-scale grant?

The list is endless, but the Research Facilitators are here to help. We offer and organise one to one support to help you get to grips with the process of reshaping an application. Prompting you to answer/think about the above questions. But if you’d prefer a group effort and peer to peer advice and guidance. The Research Facilitators are running quarterly workshop open to all who wish to repurpose an unfunded application or would like to contribute to the support of others. Scheduled dates below:

Date Time Location
Monday 7th March 2022 09:30 – 11:30 Online
Friday 20th May 2022 09:30 – 11:30 Online
Thursday 7th July 2022 09:30 – 11:30 Online

The workshop covers:

  • Where to start – the things you will need to consider;
  • How to approach the unsuccessful application in order to improve it;
  • The fit to funder in terms of eligibility, subject remits and criteria for funding;
  • The types of schemes available;
  • How to pitch your research and structure the main proposal.

To book on please click HERE.

The Friday Prof-ile: Sam Goodman

Featured academics, Friday profile, Research communication, Uncategorized

Welcome to our new series, The Friday Prof-ile – a chance to get to know some of our recently appointed Professors and Associate Professors a little better. Every Friday, we’ll be asking a different person the same set of questions to get an insight into their life, work and what makes them tick. 

This week, we’re chatting with Associate Professor in English, Sam Goodman.

Sam Goodman

Sam Goodman

What are your research interests? What made you want to study these areas?  

I have always been interested in Britishness and national identity, and this is the broad umbrella under which all my research has tended to take place, whether about twentieth-century and contemporary literature and culture, or the work I have done on alcohol, medicine, and colonial India.

I think I’ve always been interested in this subject because Britain has been in the midst of an identity crisis for what has seemed like the entirety of my adult life – this crisis has been going on since the end of the Second World War and the end of the British Empire but seemed to become acute from the 1990s onwards what with the nostalgia of ‘Cool Britannia’ and the growing popularity of historical fictions, the rebooting of so-called quintessentially British characters like James Bond, jubilees, the Olympics, and also the rhetoric leading up to Brexit. I suppose I’ve always been interested in (as Patrick Wright puts it) what it means to live in an old country, and how that affects the literature, culture and identities of the people within it.

What has been your career highlight to date?  

So many come to mind! In research terms, I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to go to conferences and visit archives in various parts of the world, and having the chance to read through Ian Fleming’s papers in the US, or J. G. Farrell’s manuscripts in Trinity College library, Dublin was really exciting. Appearing at the Hay Festival and all the work I have done with the BBC has definitely been a highlight too – especially attending the Leicester Square premiere of Spectre, even though I wasn’t allowed to talk about it for a week afterwards!

When it comes to teaching, it has to be the writing and development of the unit Media & Trauma with my colleague Ann Luce – working on this unit made me think differently not just about how I teach, but about how a trauma-informed approach to working with people and tackling challenging subjects makes such an enormous difference to student wellbeing and the campus community as well as society more widely.

What are you working on at the moment?  

As it happens, my latest book,  The Retrospective Raj: Medicine, Literature and History After Empire, was just published with Edinburgh University Press so I am at a point where I’m taking a (much-needed) breather and considering my next long term project. In the meantime, I’m editing a special issue for the Journal of the Social History of Medicine, I have just submitted a piece on colonial memoir to Literature & History, sent off a public-facing article for The Cats Protection magazine, and I am now working on an article on space and place in the novels of Graham Swift.

If you weren’t an academic, what would you be doing?

Working with animals in some capacity. I always had notions of being a vet but was never good enough at science GCSE… I could definitely see myself working for a charity or for a foundation somewhere though.

What do you do to unwind? 

Anything that takes me away from looking at a screen! I’ve long been a runner, and like a lot of people I ran miles and miles in lockdown which was a great way to clear my head at the end of a working day, and meant I got to explore new places near me I’d never been to before. I’m also a drummer, much to the delight of my neighbours.

What’s the best thing about Bournemouth? 

For me, it’s Charminster. I’ve always loved the international shops and restaurants of Charminster; I love to cook, so it’s a great place for ingredients and inspiration.

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why?  

Eidetic memory; it would make archival trips just so much easier…

If you were stranded on a desert island, what one luxury item would you take with you? 

A cafetière and lifetime supply of dark roast; I’m approximately 70% coffee and wouldn’t survive without it.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Keep your vinyl; MiniDisc is a scam.

If you’re a recently appointed Professor or Associate Professor and you’d like to be featured in the series, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk to find out more and get involved. 

Conversation article: Mosquitoes might be attracted to certain colours – new research

Research communication, the conversation

Dr Cassandra Edmunds writes for The Conversation about new research which explored mosquitoes’ attraction to different colours…

Mosquitoes might be attracted to certain colours – new research

Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Cassandra Edmunds, Bournemouth University

There’s no question that finding yourself covered in mosquito bites quickly takes the shine off a pleasant summer evening. But mosquitoes are more than a nuisance. They’re also the deadliest creatures on Earth, owing to the diseases they spread.

A lot of research on mosquitoes is dedicated to understanding their behaviour and preferences for who they bite. Vision is an important sense in biting insects, including mosquitoes. Although they don’t rely on their vision alone – smell and temperature work with visual cues to help mosquitoes locate a host.

Previous research has sought to link particular colours (or the wavelengths of light which we see as distinct colours) to mosquitoes’ host-seeking behaviour. However, the results have been mixed, with the same mosquito species showing preferences for different colours in different studies.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications is the latest to explore mosquitoes’ attraction to different colours. Could this research tell us how to avoid being bitten simply by adjusting the colours we wear? Let’s take a look.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments on three disease-spreading mosquito species: primarily Aedes aegypti, but also Anopheles stephensi and Culex quinquefasciatus.

In one experiment they used a wind tunnel equipped with cameras to track the mosquitoes’ flight patterns. The tunnel was designed to encourage them to behave as naturally as possible.

On the floor of the tunnel were two small coloured spots; one to represent the colour (wavelength) of interest and a control (white). Some of the colour samples were chosen to mimic different skin tones, including one to represent the colour of tanning lotion.

In mosquitoes, only the females bite, because in most species they require a blood meal to complete the reproductive process. So 50 mated but unfed female mosquitoes were released into the wind tunnel, where they would naturally search for a host.

After an hour carbon dioxide (CO₂) was released into the wind tunnel. CO₂ is exhaled by humans and other mammals. While it’s odourless to us, mosquitoes can smell it and use this scent to help guide them to a source of blood.

Seeing red

Before the odour stimulus was released, the Ae. aegypti mosquitoes largely ignored the coloured circles on the floor, instead exploring the ceiling and the walls of the tunnel. But once CO₂ had been introduced they started to investigate the coloured circles, particularly as the wavelength increased from 510 nanometres (nm) to 660nm.

These longer wavelengths represent colours in the orange and red end of the spectrum, though the Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were most attracted to the red, and then black. Notably, these orange to red wavelengths are the same as those given off from human skin tones. Blue, green and violet weren’t any more attractive to the mosquitoes than the control.

When the skin tone spots were used, they were more attractive to the mosquitoes than the control, but no preference was observed for any particular skin tone.

A mosquito on skin.
The researchers wanted to explore the role of colours in attracting mosquitoes.
nechaevkon/Shutterstock

Previous experiments have shown mosquitoes are more attracted to contrasting colours, like a chequerboard pattern, than one solid colour. The researchers also showed the mosquitoes different spots against both similar and contrasting backgrounds. Ae. aegypti were more interested in spots with a high contrast to the background. Scientists believe this helps the mosquitoes distinguish between an object (person) and the background, even in low light. The contrast was more important in attracting the mosquitoes than the colour itself.

Similar to Ae. aegypti, An. stephensi were attracted to black and red, with little interest in the lower wavelengths. Cx. quinquefasciatus showed interest in violet/blue and red (interestingly, opposite ends of the tested spectrum).

The researchers conducted a separate experiment in insect cages to explore the mosquitoes’ attraction to real skin tones. Six volunteers from different ethnic backgrounds were recruited to help with this test. The control was a white glove in one window and the volunteers’ hands were held one at a time in the other window to see if the mosquitoes were attracted to any particular skin tone.

The mosquitoes were more attracted to the hands than the white glove, but as with the dots, there wasn’t a preference for a particular skin tone.

What does this all mean?

This study shows that mosquitoes are attracted to the colours found in human skin, but only in the presence of CO₂, suggesting the smell of human or mammal respiration may act as the initial cue. This confirms previous research which has found CO₂ attracts mosquitoes.

The researchers found that colour and contrast were important factors for Ae. aegypti who showed a preference for red, then black. An. Stephensi were interested in colours similar to Ae aegypti, though preferring black over red. Meanwhile, Cx. quinquefasciatus were interested in a range of colours.

As the researchers recognised, their experiments didn’t account for some of the other factors that affect mosquitoes’ choice of host. These include chemicals released from human skin, the temperature of the skin, and sweat on the skin. It would be interesting for future experiments to include these factors.

So what does this mean for the average person who doesn’t want to get bitten? You could try wearing white, blue or green and avoiding black, red and orange. Definitely avoid red and black checked patterns. If there are plenty of mosquitoes on your property, pest control experts wisconsin can help.

While adjusting your clothing may reduce your risk of being bitten, there’s no guarantee it will, or how effective this will be, particularly given the apparent variation in colour preferences between species. But these findings do suggest that with more research, colour could potentially be used as a tool in mosquito control.The Conversation A professional from Moxie Pest Control Tulsa will be able to tell you what exact issue you have and can come up with a customized solution as well.

Cassandra Edmunds, Lecturer in Forensic Biology, Bournemouth University

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

The Friday Prof-ile: Mel Hughes

Featured, Featured academics, Friday profile, Research communication

Welcome to our new series, The Friday Prof-ile – a chance to get to know some of our recently appointed Professors and Associate Professors a little better. Every Friday, we’ll be asking a different person the same set of questions to get an insight into their life, work and what makes them tick. 

This week, we’re chatting with Associate Professor in Social Work, Mel Hughes.

Mel Hughes

Mel Hughes

What are your research interests? What made you want to study these areas?   

As a social worker, I am interested in marginalised groups and communities currently under-served by health and social care research. My main interests in both education and research are in valuing the expertise of people with lived experience and using my platform as an educator and researcher to amplify these voices through co-produced and participatory methods.

What has been your career highlight to date?   

There are two that immediately come to mind. The first was seeing a copy in print (and on Amazon!) of the book I co-authored and edited with people with lived experience and social work colleagues on Statutory Social Work Interventions: The lived experience. It was a genuine collaboration, and it was exciting hearing from all the contributors as they received their copy in the post.

The second was receiving a phone call (whilst walking on the beach) from Advance HE to say I had been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship. As an Associate Professor I am as passionate about education and the student experience as I am about professional practice and research. It felt like acknowledgment of my value as an educator.

What are you working on at the moment?   

I am co-authoring and editing a textbook on Social Exclusion in the UK: the lived experience and leading on a special issue of the British Journal of Social Work written by people with lived experience rather than about people with lived experience. I am also leading on an ESRC research bid on democratising public involvement in research, where we are seeking to build capacity of researchers to work alongside marginalised communities currently under-served by health and social care research.

If you weren’t an academic, what would you be doing? 

I started my career as a social worker in substance use and mental health services. I would like to think I would still be in practice. I secretly crave the idea of being in the great outdoors on some sort of community project or farm.

What do you do to unwind?  

Walking, walking and walking (usually with a dog pulling me along)

What’s the best thing about Bournemouth?  

The BU Social Work and PIER Partnership teams. I can honestly say I have never worked with a more supportive group of people.

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why?   

Invisibility. The quality that best combines the social work and academic role is curiosity (or being nosey). Oh to be a fly on the wall!

If you were stranded on a desert island, what one luxury item would you take with you?  

A comfy bed.

What advice would you give to your younger self? 

Stay true to your values.

If you’re a recently appointed Professor or Associate Professor and you’d like to be featured in the series, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk to find out more and get involved. 

The Friday Prof-ile: Bryce Dyer

Featured academics, Friday profile, Research communication, Uncategorized

Welcome to our new series, The Friday Prof-ile – a chance to get to know some of our recently appointed Professors and Associate Professors a little better. Every Friday, we’ll be asking a different person the same set of questions to get an insight into their life, work and what makes them tick. 

Bryce Dyer

This week, we’re chatting with Associate Professor in Product Development, Bryce Dyer 

What are your research interests? What made you want to study these areas? 

My research interest is the design or debate surrounding the technology we use for sport and physical activity. I love it as it bolts together my constant inquisitive inner dialogue and my hobbies.

What has been your career highlight to date? 

There have been a few, but winning and then giving the Brunel Award Lecture at the British Science Festival a few years ago was one that stood out for me. The talk brought together everything I’d done in teaching, research and my professional practice at that point in my career and I then had one of those great days where the talk went really well, I got a few laughs and I had a very large and positive crowd giving me a real grilling. It was a lot of fun.

What are you working on at the moment? 

I did a lot of research and projects on the run up to the 2021 Paralympic Games – I’m now writing them all up and publishing them all before my attention turns to seeking out new opportunities ahead of the next Olympic & Paralympic Games.

If you weren’t an academic, what would you be doing?

I would have pursued my ‘sliding doors’ decision of serving in the armed forces or have wanted to have been a professional athlete if I’d have been good enough. I was good enough to crawl through a ditch or go marching through the snow somewhere for hours on end but despite making a school team once for throwing the discus (due to what I still call one single ‘hand of god’ throw that could never be repeated), I never chose my parents well enough to have the physical capacity of being an Olympian.

What do you do to unwind?

Competitive sport and the training needed to then not come last doing it.

What’s the best thing about Bournemouth?

The huge variety of terrain, geography, and landscapes within a small radius of the town.

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why? 

Immortality. It’s always a struggle to have enough time to cram in everything I’m wanting to do. The list just keeps getting longer.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what one luxury item would you take with you?

My MP3 player with an abundance of questionable choices of music on it (despite then having to come up with how I’m going to power it when the battery runs out).

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Just keep going – you’ll make all the right judgement calls in the end.

If you’re a recently appointed Professor or Associate Professor and you’d like to be featured in the series, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk to find out more and get involved. 

Hard to reach or hard to engage?

BU research, international, PG research, Postgraduate Research, Publishing, Research communication, Research news, Research Training, student research, Uncategorized, writing

Congratulations to FHSS PhD students Aniebiet Ekong and Nurudeen Adesina on the acceptance of their paper by MIDIRS Midwifery Digest [1]. This methodological paper reflects on their data collection approaches as part of their PhD involving African pregnant women in the UK.

This paper provides a snapshot of some of the challenges encountered during the recruitment of pregnant Black African women living in the UK for their research. Though there are several strategies documented to access/invite/recruit these ‘hard-to-reach population’ these recruitment strategies however were found to be unsuitable to properly engage members of this community. Furthermore, ethical guidelines around informed consent and gatekeeping seem to impede the successful engagement of the members of this community. It is believed that an insight into the experience and perceptions of ethnic minorities researchers will enhance pragmatic strategies that will increase future participation and retention of Black African women across different areas of health and social care research. This paper is co-authored with their BU PhD supervisors: Dr Jaqui-Hewitt Taylor, Dr Juliet Wood, Dr Pramod Regmi and Dr Fotini Tsofliou.

Well done !

Pramod Regmi

  1. Ekong, A., Adesina, N., Regmi, P., Tsofliou, F., Wood, J. and Taylor, J., 2022. Barriers and Facilitators to the recruitment of Black African women for research in the UK: Hard to engage and not hard to reach. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest (accepted).

FHSS Women in Science

BU research, Featured academics, international, Research communication, Research news, research staff, Women's Academic Network

 

Tomorrow Friday 11th February is the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  To celebrate this event we would like to highlight the contributions of three BU female academics in the sciences in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences: Jane Murphy, Rebecca Neal and Amanda Wilding.

Jane Murphy

Prof Jane Murphy – Professor in Nutrition, Co-lead for the Aging and Dementia Research Centre

Jane is a role model as a female research leader committed to solving key nutrition problems in older adults. She has won funding from prestigious organisations like the Burdett Trust for Nursing and NIHR. Jane’s research has direct impact in practice through her clinical lead role in the Wessex Academic Health Science Network. She influences high standards in education and practice in her role as an elected council member for the Association for Nutrition.

Dr. Rebecca Neal– Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology.

Rebecca is an Early Career Research excelling in traditionally male-dominated field of Sport and Exercise Science. Her work in the field of Extreme Environmental Physiology is published in prestigious physiology journals and she has been the recipient of external and internal grants to advance her work. Rebecca contributes greatly to transferring her research finding to the end user, through public engagement events, magazine articles and podcasts aimed at raising the awareness of the issues and needs of individuals exercising in extreme environments.

Dr. Amanda Wilding– Senior Lecturer in Sport Psychology

In addition to teaching Sport and Exercise Psychology, Amanda works as a Sports Psychologist in professional male football and Army rugby. Her involvement working in male dominated sports lead to her being invited to lead a workshop on Women in Sport  to women at the Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia.

Wessex REACH Initiative – ECR group discussion dates

BU research, ECR Network, Research communication

Are you interested or involved in research?
Wessex REACH Initiative- training/mentorship/funding support

  • The Wessex REACH Initiative is an NIHR funded Incubator working to increase health and social care research capacity in the Wessex region. To help ensure that everyone has access to the training and support they need, we are undertaking a series of group discussions to explore experiences of accessing training/mentoring/funding opportunities. All discussions will be held online.
  • We would really like to speak to anyone who is in the early stage of their research career. You may be an early career researcher, a first time Principal or Lead Investigator or someone who has not held research funding previously but would like to.

    Available dates

  • Mar 21: 12pm-1pm
  • Mar 28: 10am-11am
  • Mar 29: 11am-12pm
  • Apr 4 : 1pm-2pm

    Expression of interest

Email your preferred date to info@wessexreach.org.uk

  • Further enquiries:

Eunice Aroyewun, info@wessexreach.org.uk