Category / Research communication

Suicide reporting toolkit shortlisted for Scottish award

BU research, Fusion, Fusion themes, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Research communication, Research news

A collaborative project between Bournemouth University and the University of Strathclyde has been shortlisted at this year’s Herald Higher Education Awards.

The Scottish awards, organised by The Herald newspaper and recognising excellence in the HE sector, has shortlisted the Suicide Reporting Toolkit, produced by both universities, in its Research of the Year category.

Created by Dr Ann Luce (Bournemouth University) and Dr Sallyanne Duncan (University of Strathclyde), the Responsible Suicide Reporting model enables journalists – and journalism students – to make ethical decisions about their storytelling whilst under pressure from various news processes. It embeds global media reporting guidelines on suicide — World Health Organisation (WHO), Samaritans, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) — within journalism practice and functions within the storytelling process so journalists can question their choices as they produce content.

The toolkit has been supported by IPSO, The Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, The Ethical Journalism Network and the Public Media Alliance. It has also been endorsed by the American Association of Suicidology and has been used by thousands of journalists worldwide.

Dr Ann Luce, Associate Professor in Journalism and Communication at BU, said, “I am absolutely thrilled and honoured that The Suicide Reporting Toolkit has been shortlisted for the Herald Higher Education Awards in the Research Project of the Year category. Responsible media reporting of suicide can changes lives for the better. It can tackle stigma, point to helplines and support and can give those with lived experience a voice.

“We know from research that reporting suicide responsibly requires sensitivity and compassion. Journalism has the potential to cause harm to vulnerable people if journalists do not report suicide responsibly and ethically. The Suicide Reporting Toolkit offers practical resources for both journalists and journalism educators to help them achieve just that.”

The Herald is owned by Newsquest, with the media group showing strong support for the toolkit. The Awards will take place virtually on 17 June 2021.

The toolkit can be found at www.suicidereportingtoolkit.com and for more information about communication and journalism courses, visit the BU website.

Conversation article: UK-India trade deal: why the timing is crucial for both nations

BU research, Research communication, the conversation

The UK and India have announced a new enhanced deal on trade at a virtual summit. The deal aims to double trade between the two countries by 2030 and declares their joint commitment to start working towards a comprehensive free-trade agreement, for which discussions are due to commence in the autumn.

Britain and India announced £1 billion of new trade and investment as part of this new Enhanced Trade Partnership. Indian investments worth £533 million will be made in Britain, including £240 million by the Serum Institute for production of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines and sales business. At the same time, £446 million worth of export deals were announced by British businesses in India. This builds on a trade relationship that was already worth £25.5 billion in 2019.

At the summit the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, also launched a Roadmap 2030 to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in five areas: people-to-people relationships, trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate action and healthcare cooperation.

Deeper ties

The new deal is expected to generate additional employment in both countries, grow bilateral trade and unlock new opportunities in sectors such as food and drink, business services such as law and accounting, advanced engineering, defence, education, energy, life sciences and healthcare. It will also reduce barriers, both tariff and non-tariff, for businesses at a time when the prospects for global growth after the COVID-19 pandemic remain uncertain.

The deal is particularly interesting due to its size and intended scope. The UK and India are the 5th and 6th biggest economies in the world. India is the largest single market, of about 1.4 billion people, that the UK has committed to negotiating a free-trade deal with to date.

India is Britain’s sixth-largest non-EU trading partner, whereas Britain is barely inside India’s top 20. This points to significant scope for growth on both sides. Once agreed, the free-trade deal is likely to be extremely significant, fostering innovation and technology cooperation as well as skills transfer and knowledge-sharing between the two nations.

At present, however, India is facing a particularly devastating health threat following the latest outbreak of COVID-19. The UK government and the diaspora have been supporting India with things like ventilators, oxygen generation units and a clinical advisory group, but the subcontinent is so large and populous that there is only so much that can be achieved.

The new agreement can potentially help by easing the pain of economic contraction for India in 2021, while supporting both partners as they commence rebuilding efforts to recover from the pandemic.

Britain and the Indo-Pacific

The deal will likely strengthen the geopolitical positions of both nations in a part of the world that is dominated by China. The UK’s recent Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy articulated the importance of an Indo-Pacific region with “open societies”.

The UK signalled a willingness in the review to play a larger role in the region, committing to a larger naval presence to ensure freedom of navigation. It has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free-trade bloc of 11 Pacific nations including Japan, Australia and Canada.

The UK has also become an official dialogue partner of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. All this, including the trade deal with India, seeks to help the UK to “unlock opportunities in the region” and establish an outward-looking global Britain.

Finally, announcing an UK-India agreement before the EU-India summit on May 8 gives the UK a first-mover advantage over the trading bloc that it has just left behind. In keeping with the UK-India deal, facilitating investment, regulatory cooperation and trade barriers are at the top of the agenda at the summit. The EU is also seeking to make progress on a free-trade agreement, as well as several other treaties on specific aspects of trade. Modi had been due to visit Porto, Portugal for the occasion, but this has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

The UK-India declaration for an Enhanced Trade Partnership symbolises the commitment of both countries to bolster what Modi has referred to as “living bridge” between the two countries in light of their shared history, culture and democratic values. It is these common attributes – together with complementary skills and capabilities – that make the UK and Indian natural partners despite the geographical distance, especially at a time when both the economies will have to address the economic rebuilding agenda after the pandemic.

Sangeeta Khorana, Professor of Economics, Bournemouth University

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

BUBS Consumer Insights Research Theme

BU research, Knowledge Exchange, Research communication, Research news, research staff

BUBS Consumer Insights Research Theme based in the Department of Marketing Strategy and Innovation draws together a team of 13 researchers addressing how consumers think, feel, and behave.

We adopt a broad interpretation of the consumer, including Business to Business and Business to Consumers, and include foci from the consumption of products or services to understanding the way consumers think, their attitudes and behaviours. Consumer Insight bridges the gap between research and practice by providing relevant and actionable insight that resonates with business and delivers societal impact. Consumers are at the heart of all organisations and this gives the Theme a strong core purpose with wide and diverse application.

This theme bridges the gap between academic research and practitioner needs providing awareness to enable businesses to efficiently target their resources. In addition, we also provide a better understanding of how consumers think and behave and thereby enable organisations to respond more effectively to their needs. There is significant grant crafting and project management expertise and we find that a consumer perspective is often a useful addition to funding applications rooted in a range of disciplines.

The range and diversity of Consumer Insights are demonstrated by our involvement with projects that span, for example: Food waste reduction in the EU; The legalised Canadian cannabis retail market allowing online stores to advertise CBDDY: buy pure cbd oil; Online branding of charities; Food consumption patterns; Learning gain in marketing education; Religion and retail banking; Ethical consumption; Consumer identity; Fashion/luxury branding. Find out if insurance covers medical marijuana in Florida on DocMJ’s website.

The theme members include: Ediz Akcay; Samreen Ashraf; Sean Beer; Elvira Bolat; Julia Hibbert; Hiroko Oe; Kaouther Kooli; Danni Liang; Juliet Memery; Maria Musarskaya; Helen O’Sullivan;

The theme is convened by: Chris Chapleo (cchapleo@bournemouth.ac.uk) and Jeff Bray (jbray@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Please do get in touch if you are interested to hear more about the work of the theme or would like to discuss any potential collaborations.

Free online course – Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research

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

Interested in clinical research and what’s involved? Are you contemplating a career in healthcare or the life sciences, or, do you want to find out more about the role of clinical research in improving healthcare?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above questions, then why not sign up to FutureLearn’s Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research course?

The course has been developed by the University of Leeds and is be available from Monday 24th May, via this link.

It is completely free and all online, lasting 4 weeks.

This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. By completing the course you will have achieved 16 hours of CPD time.

Remember – support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance website.

Conversation article – Boris Johnson’s phone: what can hackers do with your mobile number?

BU research, Research communication, the conversation

Boris Johnson’s personal phone number has been publicly available on the internet for 15 years, it has been revealed. Listed at the bottom of a 2006 press release, the number has reportedly been accessible online from the time the prime minister was shadow higher education minister through to his rise to Number 10.

That such a high-value mobile number has been publicly available for so long has raised cybersecurity concerns. If hostile states had access to the number, it’s possible they could have used it to spy on the prime minister. That would pose a serious security risk to the UK.

Hackers and cybercriminals place a high premium on our mobile phone numbers – with which they can do a lot of damage with very little effort. While there is currently no evidence that Boris Johnson’s data and communications have been compromised, having your mobile phone number being freely available significantly increases your vulnerability to cyber-attacks.

Impersonation

One such cyber-attack is the “SIM swap” – a very common technique that’s difficult to stop. It’s usually used by hackers to exploit a high-value individual’s exposed phone number.

SIM swaps see hackers call up the victim’s mobile phone provider, impersonating them and requesting to “port-out” the phone number to a different carrier or a new SIM card. They can use other publicly available information – such as the victim’s date of birth and their address – to make a more convincing case.

On completion of the port-out, the phone number activates on the attacker’s SIM card, and the hacker can send and receive messages and make calls as if they were the victim.

Phone companies have been aware of this problem for years, but the only routine solution they’ve come up with is offering PIN codes that a phone owner must provide in order to switch devices. Even this measure has proved ineffective. Hackers can get the codes by bribing phone company employees, for instance.

Access

Once hackers gain control of a phone number, they can then access their online profiles – on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and WhatsApp – which are all usually linked to the mobile number. All they need to do is ask the social media companies to send a temporary login code, via text message, to the victim’s phone.

This was reported to be the case for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whose mobile phone SIM swap resulted in hackers posting offensive messages to millions of his followers. Other high-value individuals have also fallen victim to these kinds of attacks, including the actress Jessica Alba, and online personalities like Shane Dawson and Amanda Cerny.



Read more:
The real phone hacking scandal is in your pocket

Aside from posting offensive messages, hackers have been reported to use the accounts to spam, steal identities, access private communications, steal cryptocurrency, and maliciously delete mobile phone data.

Surveillance

Hackers can also use another even simpler method to attack a phone – though some advanced spyware is needed to make the attack stick. Hackers armed with someone’s phone number can send them a text message with a hyperlink within it. If clicked, the link allows spyware to infiltrate the phone, compromising much of its data.

Jeff Bezos stood outside, smiling and wearing a grey suit
Jeff Bezos’ personal phone was found to contain spyware in January 2020.
lev radin/Shutterstock

It appears this method was used to infiltrate and spy on Jeff Bezos’ phone in 2020, after reports found it to be “highly probable” that a text sent from Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, delivered the spyware to Bezos’ phone. Similar spyware has been used to monitor the phones of journalists and human rights activists.

It is possible that Boris Johnson’s mobile phone has never been hacked, in spite of the 15 years that his number was freely available online. However, seeing as the exposed phone numbers of high-value individuals can be taken advantage of by criminals or hackers from hostile states, tight new security measures should be put in place to avoid such an oversight happening again.

Edward Apeh, Principal Academic in Computing, Bournemouth University

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

Mapping the Creative Coast: a south coast university consortium survey

Research communication

BU is a member of the recently-formed Coastal Creatives Consortium (see below) and as such, we are now putting out this invitation to the broader digital creatives industry in the region to participate in an online survey, outlined here. Please engage your industry contacts so that we can build as deep a database as possible, with which ultimately to promote and leverage funding for coastal-based academic-industry research.

uosblack_jpg

Do you work in the digital creative industries around Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Chichester or the Isle of Wight? Please take 5 minutes to help with our research on potential relationships and collaborations with universities in the South-Central region.

We are inviting you to participate in an online survey for the Coastal Creatives consortium of regional universities (Bournemouth, Bournemouth Arts, Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton and Southampton Solent). The consortium’s mission is to conduct research into the South-Central region’s digital creative industries and to assess the demand for industry-university collaborative research, development and educational needs and funding. This project is run from the University of Southampton and participation is voluntary.

The research question is: What kinds of research collaboration and partnerships (if any) would regional digital creative industries like to establish with local universities?

Seth Giddings (University of Southampton)

Jo Stark (University of Portsmouth).

‘Mapping the Creative Coast’ project, University of Southampton, ERGO 63710 (version 2 17/3/21)

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/siah/about/themes/mapping-the-creative-coast.page

COVID-19: Should psychologists know how to deal with this?

BU research, Research communication

Mental health psychology practitioners (MHPPs) are likely to experience stress related to the responsibilities of their role as it exposes them to other people’s traumatic life experiences, a phenomenon called “vicarious traumatisation”. This refers to the emotional and cognitive disruptions faced by therapists, as they engage in therapeutic relationships with survivors of traumatic events. During times of excessive stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to examine the factors that might enhance coping skills and resilience in this group of professionals, as their role in fighting off the negative psychological effects of COVID-19 is crucial. The term “resilience” refers to a group of factors that promote positive mental health and well-being in individuals exposed to threatening conditions, traumatic experiences, or severe adversity.

In a study conducted in the UK by researchers at BU (Dr Constantina Panourgia, Dr Ala Yankouskaya, Dr Agata Wezyk, and Miss Zoe Taylor) in collaboration with University of West London and UCLy in Lyon, participants were invited to talk about their reality, including the effects of vicarious traumatisation on their well-being and strategies they employed to sustain positive mental health and demonstrate resilience.

According to the MHPPs who participated in the study, the pandemic affected them and their clients in different ways. Frequent occurrence of relationship violence, the effects of unemployment, suicide attempts, loneliness, and increased use of alcohol were among the topics their clients highlighted as factors affecting their stress and well-being. Also, the unavailability of stress relief strategies that people usually employed rendered MHPPs’ roles in supporting their patients more vital than ever. However, many of them perceived this as an extra burden and reported feelings of inadequacy and anger. Sleeplessness, flashbacks of their clients’ stories, helplessness, vulnerability, identification with patients’ fears, as well as a tendency to question their abilities as practitioners, were among the symptoms MHPPs experienced.

The MHPPs who participated in this study also reported several mechanisms they employed to maintain positive well-being and develop resilience during these unprecedented times. The importance of frequent, systematic supervision sessions was described as the key factor affecting their well-being and helping them set boundaries between their personal and professional lives. Moreover, practising yoga, meditation, and using delta 8 carts were described as useful tactics in building stress resilience, along with taking up new hobbies and avoiding social media. Finally, seeking social support, having self-awareness, and being able to manage their emotions were reported as key factors in helping them distinguish among their different roles (parents, friends, and therapists) and perform their duties.

The need to train and prepare MHPPs for situations that can be described as collectively traumatic was highlighted by this study’s results. The development of strategies and follow-up care programmes to alleviate the symptoms of vicarious traumatisation might help this group of practitioners develop resilience and be less susceptible to occupational risks, resulting in better outcomes for service users.

For more details: https://uwlpress.uwl.ac.uk/newvistas/article/id/121/

NIHR welcomes new vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery

nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research news

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and partner organisations across the health research ecosystem have welcomed the publication of a bold and ambitious vision for the future of clinical research delivery in the UK.

This UK-wide vision sets out the ambition to create a patient-centred, pro-innovation and data-enabled clinical research environment, which empowers everyone across the health service to participate in delivering research and enables people across the country to take part in research that is of relevance to them.

The vision has been developed through the cross-sector Recovery, Resilience and Growth programme, with NIHR working alongside the NHS, regulators, medical research charities, life sciences industry, the UK government and devolved administrations.

You can read more here.