Category / Research news

Ethical fundraising : Protecting vulnerable adults from aggressive fundraising techniques

BU research, Festival of Learning, Research Ethics, Research news

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge

There is growing awareness in the government and media of the importance of recognising and responding to the risks posed by financial abuse of vulnerable older people. My last two blogs have focused on financial scams and mass marketing fraud, but it is now becoming recognised that the charity sector are also employing dubious marketing techniques to elicit money from vulnerable individuals.

The marketing techniques and fundraising methods of charities have come under the spotlight since the death of Olive Cooke, 92, in May. Although her family insist that the numerous approaches she received from charities were not to blame for her death, the fact that she received 267 charity letters in one month alone started alarm bells ringing. Some charities working with emotionally upsetting issues (such as animal cruelty) sometimes employ shocking imagery which has been described as psychoactive advertising (Bennett, 2015). These types of marketing approaches seek to evoke a positive emotional response to fundraising, but can be upsetting for those who receive such material through the post.
As a result of governmental concern about the fundraising methods employed by some charities, changes will be
introduced as amendments to the Charities Bill. This new legislation will tighten rules on how fundraisers approach people who are vulnerable, and how vulnerable adults should be protected from high-pressure marketing tactics.

Some charities have already responded to these concerns by suspending operations with call centres which use
high pressure fundraising techniques.It is interesting to note that although the government is seeking to put a brake on aggressive fundraising techniques, this comes at a time when the remit of the Charity Commission to effectively regulate the sector has been reduced due to budget reductions following the UK Treasury’s Comprehensive Spending Review 2014–15. This has resulted in a reduction in the Commission’s regulatory engagement with charities. As part of the government response to concerns about unethical fundraising tactics, Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), will chair an urgent review of fundraising self-regulation.

It is important that the charity sector develop good practice guidance which embraces the responsibility to safeguard vulnerable groups, and put an end to working with companies which use aggressive fundraising techniques.

The National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work at BU is currently working collaboratively with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) to develop good practice guides and advice for professionals working with vulnerable citizens and their families/carers about responding to the risks posed by financial scams. We will be hosting an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science on 10th November to explore with the sector how we develop better responses to safeguarding those most at risk of financial exploitation. Details of how to book onto this event will be posted in the near future.

Reference:

Bennett, R. (2015) Individual characteristics and the arousal of mixed emotions: consequences for the effectiveness of charity fundraising advertisements, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 20: 188–209

The Innovation Projects Open Call

BU research, Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research news

Announcement of Opportunity

The Innovation Projects Open Call will fund projects that increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research outputs by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users, particularly businesses.

Funds will be used to support projects which focus upon generating user applicable outputs from past and/or current NERC supported research and which translates them into outcomes that achieve impact.

The Innovation Projects Open call will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015.  This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 24 months, starting in April 2016.  NERC anticipates seeing a range of requests within the £125k limit/24 month limits, reflecting the range of potential projects and activities.

 

For further information: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/innovation-projects/

Funding available to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Research news

Announcement of Opportunity

 The Follow-on Fund is a ‘proof of concept’ fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research.

This funding picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off and enables those research outputs to be further developed so their commercial potential can be realised.

Examples of activities funded include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets. Proposals are invited for projects pursuing any of these approaches or, indeed, others.

The Follow-on Fund will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015.  This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 12 months, starting in April 2016.

For further information: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/followon/

 

Workshop Metastable Dynamics of Neural Ensembles Underlying Cognition

BU research, Research communication, Research news

Is the traditional view on cortical activity dynamics, in which the cognitive flow of information wanders through multiple attractor states driven by task-dependent inputs, still a valid model? This picture has been recently challenged both empirically and from the modelling perspective.

The interpretation of the collective dynamics of neuronal assemblies underlying perception and cognitive processing is a very active debate, touching the essence of our understanding of neural computation, and hence one of the most exciting topics in neuroscience. This workshop will address a range of modelling and data analysis approaches which focus on metastable nonlinear dynamics underlying perceptual and cognitive functions in cortex.

The workshop will take Place in Prague, on the 23rd of July of 2015 in the context of the 23rd Computational Neuroscience Meeting; and will have the participation of some of the world-leading scientists in the area. Please find more information in the following link: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/2015/03/metastable-dynamics-of-neural-ensembles-underlying-cognition-workshop/

Who is doing what in the EU?

BU research, EU, Research communication, Research news

I love reading about research and one of the publications that is on my lunch-time reading list is research*EU. This publication brings together short summaries of projects funded by the EU. One thing which often comes to mind is how often I see research that is relevant to BU’s research areas. Each of the summaries has a link to the CORDIS (Community Research and Development Information Service) record for the project which gives access to publicly available reports, articles and, importantly, the project partners. As of July 2015, this now includes information regarding Horizon 2020 projects.

June researcheuHere are some examples from the current edition, with a focus on Seas and Oceans: Studying earth’s final frontier, that are relevant to BU:

  • ARROWS: ARchaeological RObot systems for the World’s Seas –  CORDIS / Project Website
  • REMPARK: empowering patients and improving treatment of Parkinson’s disease – CORDIS / Project Website
  • POVCON: Poverty in the face of conflict – CORDIS
  • INTERMODAL BIKE: Multi-modal integration of cycling mobility through product and process innovations in bicycle design – CORDIS / Project Website
  • FISHMETABOLOME: Fishing for markers of effluent exposure using metabolomics CORDIS
  • METIS2020: Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for Twenty-twenty (2020) Information Society – CORDIS / Project Website

Why not take a look at projects on CORDIS so that you can focus your academic network development on the key players in your field? Can you take a project forward to the next level?

CORDIS is not just a record of existing projects, though. You can also search for partners, advertise your area of expertise to others or find partners in a particular location. There is also a News and Events section for you to explore.

You can find out more about CORDIS via YouTube videos:

 

 

 

 

 

Funding Opportunities

BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

money bucketMedical Research Council, GB

Radiation oncology and biology

While the MRC already supports some research in this area, we wish to encourage a wider range of applications relevant to medical research. Research proposals may cover the spectrum of research from studies that explore important cellular and molecular mechanisms, through to more translational medical research that would underpin the development of new health interventions.

The MRC would particularly welcome applications on the following topics:

  • Improving the therapeutic effects of radiation in the treatment of cancer, including but not limited to combining radiation with drugs and biological agents, interactions with the tumour microenvironment, scheduling, and biomarkers of response.
  • Studies of approaches to improve long term health and minimise morbidity after radiation exposure, including radiotherapy treatment.
  • Understanding the fundamental processes associated with radiation injury from initial damage to pathogenesis, at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ levels.
  • Research into the pathways involved in radiation carcinogenesis including, but not limited to, DNA damage signalling and repair, individual susceptibility and gene-environment interactions.
  • Development of novel biological approaches from radioprotection to treatment of radiation toxicity.

Applications are considered in competition with other applications received, but the Board/Panel will take into account the need for enhanced investment in this area.

Applications should be submitted to the relevant research board or panel in accordance with our standard deadlines. Applications that extend beyond a core health focus can be funded in partnership with BBSRC and EPSRC.

Cross-Council applications will be assigned a lead Council, which will draw on expertise from across Councils to take a single funding decision.

 

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, GB

Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation feasibility studies

Up to £20,000 available for feasibility study projects to further broaden the knowledge base in intelligent automation within the manufacturing industry.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, under the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation, invites proposals for feasibility studies. Funding enables academic staff to undertake feasibility studies to broaden the knowledge base in intelligent automation.

Studies should aim to identify and develop ideas and approaches from other disciplines that can be applied to novel intelligent automation systems. A particular focus is on developing research areas that have not been applied widely within the manufacturing domain before. Possible areas may include the following: psychology; service robotics; computer science and artificial intelligence; soft robotics; 3D machine vision.

Funding available The maximum funding available for each feasibility study is £20,000. Grants will normally be of a maximum of six months duration. The studies are being funded at 80% fEC i.e. if your bid is successful you will gain a maximum of £20,000. Equipment The funding is intended to cover the costs of the PI and support staff in the completion of the feasibility study. Estates/indirects, consumables or equipment costs are not included in the grant. Any additional support you may need could be through matched funding. Eligibility All academic staff at UK Universities and associated Research Institutions who are able to hold a UK Research Council grant as Principle Investigator are eligible to apply.

Closing Date: 28th July 2015

 

Innovate UK, GB

Virtual and augmented reality contest

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are exciting technologies at an early stage of development. We are looking to provide support to businesses that want to apply these technologies in new and untested areas. Innovate UK is offering up to six businesses a maximum of £35,000 each to encourage innovation around VR/AR across the themes of music, retail, healthcare, education, construction and tactile technology.
The recent re-emergence of VR and AR has caused enormous excitement across a wide range of sectors.  The application of such technologies – not just for entertainment or information-sharing, but also in more technical and industrial contexts – offers users entirely new ways of perceiving and interacting with the digital world.  Through our IC tomorrow programme, we are looking for proposals from companies with innovative digital ideas relevant to developing these immersive technologies.  The companies will not only benefit from funding, but also the opportunity to collaborate with commercial partners  to accelerate development of their technologies. We want to see solutions with potential appeal to a wide commercial market. Successful applicants will be expected to trial their proposed solutions with their industry partners for at least three months.
  • trial your technology with major industry players while keeping your intellectual property
  • secure up to £35,000 to develop your solution
  • receive promotion, support and advice to speed up the commercialisation of your solution.

Closing Date: 18th August 2015

 

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, GB

Healthcare technologies grand challenges – NetworksPlus

The Healthcare Technologies Theme has recently announced a new long term strategy. To support this challenge-led approachEPSRC invites applications for NetworkPlus proposals that seek to establish new research communities around one of the Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges.

The aims of the NetworkPlus awards are to:

  • Bring together experts from across all relevant research areas, with particular focus on those in engineering and physical sciences.
  • Bring focus to the relevant challenge area and identify new research strategies and opportunities for addressing the challenge.
  • Engage with interested users of research, including business, clinicians, patient groups and policy makers, to shape future research directions.
  • Identify and address the barriers to achieving the challenge.
  • Initiate preliminary or feasibility research to tackle the challenge.
  • To be collaborative rather than competitive in nature and work together where appropriate (e.g. joint events).

Networks are intended to be UK-wide and must have representation from several disciplines and institutions. It is essential that user engagement is considered in the wider network membership. Each proposal must explain the fit to the chosen challenge area and demonstrate evidence of how they will connect with on-going excellent research in the UK to grow and develop the network.

Peer review for this call will consist of a multi-stage process. Applicants should submit an Intention to Submit by 08 September 2015; those who have not submitted an intention to submit will be ineligible for this call. The closing time and date for full proposals is16:00 on 06 October 2015.

 

Economic and Social Research Council, GB

UK in a changing Europe senior fellowships

We are inviting proposals from senior UK based academics for Fellowships as part of the Council’s initiative on the UK in a Changing Europe. The aim of the Fellowship programme is to provide evidence and analysis across the broad range of issues and policy areas affected by the UK’s position in a changing European Union (EU).

The initiative will focus on the implications of changes in governance, policies and social and political attitudes within both the EU and the UK and the implications of these for the UK-EU relationship. Within that broad remit, it is planned to focus mainly, though not exclusively, on the following broad areas:

  • Foreign and security policy
  • Banking and financial services
  • Social policies
  • The impact of EU law

We anticipate supporting up to six fellows, dependent on quality of the proposals. The maximum amount available for each Fellowship is £200,000 at 100 per cent full economic cost (fEC) of which ESRC will pay up to 80 per cent and the host institutions is expected to support the remaining 20 per cent. Projects are expected to last for a maximum of 12 months in the first instance with the possibility of extension, subject to negotiation with individual fellows. Over the course of the grant the fellows on average will be expected to contribute at least 40 per cent of their time. Fellowships will be expected to start from January 2016. The closing date for proposals is 16.00 on 10 September 2015. Shortlisted applicants will be required to attend an interview in London during the week commencing 2 November 2015 (date to be confirmed), applicants must therefore be available for interview this particular week.

Appointed Senior Fellows will be required to work closely with the initiative Director Professor Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London. Potential applicants are strongly advised to familiarise themselves with the Executive summaries from the scoping reports.

 

Innovate UK, GB and other funders

Malaysia-UK research and innovation bridges competition

Innovate UK, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) are to invest up to £14.4 million in collaborative research and development projects to stimulate innovation in response to Malaysia’s urbanisation challenges.
This competition focuses on finding new commercial solutions to challenges that Malaysia is facing as climate change increasingly impacts upon its cities and its urbanisation trajectory, with the solutions expected to emerge through the translation of existing, excellent research.
The aim of the competition is to bring together companies (small-to-medium-sized companies and/or larger businesses), research and technology organisations, academics, public sector bodies and charities from Malaysia and the UK for the joint industrial research to develop innovative products, processes or services that meet critical challenges existing within the following five sectors:
  • health and well-being
  • improving environmental resilience and energy security
  • future cities
  • agritech (used to solve explicit urban food and nutrition issues)
  • digital, innovation and creativity
This investment from the UK side has been made possible through the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills-managed Newton Fund: www.newtonfund.ac.uk.  The goal of this competition is to find innovative solutions, through a collaborative consortium-driven approach. The principal market a project must consider is Malaysia. Projects must be collaborative, involving both UK and Malaysian participants. There must be a minimum of one UK business, one UK research organisation, one Malaysian business and one Malaysian research organisation in each project.
On the UK side, projects can be business-led or research organisation-led, and should preferably involve other non-business partners. The lead partner should be able to demonstrate a clear route to commercialisation of the proposed product/s or service/s, and should have a primary focus on the translation of research and/or knowledge. Given the heavy focus on translation of research, research organisations’ participation can be up to 50% of total project costs. Small or micro businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.
For each project we expect the total UK and total Malaysian participant project costs to be £1m-£1.75m on each side, although we would consider projects outside of this range. Projects should last 24-34 months.
The competition involves a two-stage application process.  This competition opens on 30 June 2015.
Applicants must register by noon UK time 30 September 2015. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon UK time on 7 October 2015.

Innovation projects

The specific aim of the Innovation Projects Open Call is to increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research outputs by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users, particularly businesses. Funds will be used to support projects which focus upon generating user applicable outputs from past and/or current NERC supported research and which translates them into outcomes that achieve impact. Since the strength of the relationship between end-users and researchers is often what underpins the likelihood of success of any translational and knowledge exchange activity, it is essential that end-users are involved in both the development and delivery of proposals.

The Innovation Projects Open call will not fund commercialisation work (please see the Follow on Fund) or research (please see other NERC funding).

Applications should fall within the NERC science remit and the science the work builds on must have been funded by NERC.

The Innovation Projects call is open to applicants based in:

  • UK higher education institutions (HEIs)
  • NERC research centres
  • independent research organisations (IROs) approved by NERC.

Deadline information Applications are invited between 14 July and 5pm, 22 October 2015.

 

Department of Health including NIHR, GB and other funders

Efficacy and mechanism evaluation programme – researcher-led workstream

The remit of the EME Programme includes clinical trials and evaluative studies of novel and repurposed interventions.  The term intervention is meant in the broadest sense and includes any method used to promote health, prevent and treat disease and improve rehabilitation or long-term care.

We support studies in patients which seek to:

  • evaluate clinical efficacy of interventions (where proof of concept in humans has already been achieved);
  • add significantly to our understanding of biological or behavioural mechanisms and processes;
  • explore new scientific or clinical principles;
  • include the development or testing of new methodologies.

The EME Programme WILL support:

  • research which seeks to determine definitive proof of clinical efficacy and size of effect, safety and possibly effectiveness;
  • studies that use validated surrogate markers as indicators of health outcome;
  • laboratory based, or similar, studies that are embedded within the main study, if relevant to the remit of the EME Programme;
  • pilot and feasibility studies where the later main study would be within the remit of the EME programme.

The EME Programme WILL NOT support:

  • confirmatory studies or trials of incremental modifications and refinements to existing medical interventions;
  • proof of concept, proof of mechanism in humans, nor ‘confidence in effect’ studies;
  • research into ‘global health’, where ‘global health’ can be defined as ‘areas where the health need is identified in developing countries (i.e. including diseases of developing countries), or where the health need does not yet exist in the UK but might in the future and the problem can be best addressed in developing countries;
  • research involving animals (funding is focused on clinical and applied health and care research. The EME Programme therefore does not itself fund basic research or work involving animals and/or animal tissue. See the NIHR research page for more information).

Closing Date: 10th November 2015.

 

‘Meet the Editors’ at BU Midwifery Education Conference

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

Slide1Dr. Jenny Hall and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are holding a lunchtime at today’s (Friday 3rd July 2015) BU Midwifery Education Conference (#MidEd15) in Business School.  The one-hour session is advertised under the title ‘Believe you can write!’  Both BU academics are editors and on editorial boards of several prestigious health journals across the globe.       Slide2

Over the past few years CMMPH staff have written and published several articles on academic writing and publishing.  Some of these papers have been co-authored by BU Visiting Faculty, Dr. Bri jesh Sathian (Nepal), Dr. Emma Pitchforth (RAND, Cambridge), Ms. Jillian Ireland (NHS Poole) and/or Prof. Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University).

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Jenny Hall

CMMPH

Twitter accounts:  @HallMum5   /   @EvanTeijlingen

Realist methodologies – it’s a case of C+M=O don’t you know

BU research, PG research, Research news, student research, Training

1401Having led some seminars at BU, and dipped my toe in to teaching, as a useful mechanism and resource, I have often wondered what contexts make for a good workshop. It would be my suggestion that some or all of; insightful means of relating content; inspiring delivery; a variety of taught and practical exercises; and an opportunity to network and socialise are needed for an enjoyable workshop experience. These are the contexts which I hypothesize to be conducive toward a good workshop outcome. My experiences of workshops in my early career researcher and PhD journey to date have been mostly positive, but I have never experienced all of the above in equal high measure – UNTIL NOW!

This week I have attended a 3 day workshop on Realist Methodologies. The workshop was hosted by the University of Liverpool, but delivered on their London campus in the heart of the city’s financial district.

The content and resources was communicated and contextualised by facilitators Justin Jagosh (University of Liverpool), Geoff Wong (University of Oxford) and Sonia Dalkin (Northumbria University) in a manner that was informative, insightful and engaging. There was a good mix of taught material and hands on exercises. However, there were also chances to present and constructively discuss your work to the wider and interdisciplinary group, and opportunities for one on ones with the facilitators to discuss and (de)construct your own realist projects. In addition, there was also an opportunity to chat in an informal setting over some pizza, pasta, beer and gin & tonics! All of this led to enhanced reasoning, a mechanism, with an outcome of increased understanding.

So in a way that is succinct and accessible, what is realist methodology and what how can it be applied in research? I’ve actually dropped in some hints in the two larger paragraphs above… Before the methodology is outlined, firstly it is useful to discuss the philosophical position on which realist methodologies are based.

Critical Realism

Realist methodology and evaluation is underpinned by the critical realist philosophical works of the likes of Roy Bhaskar and Andrew Sayer (to name a few). This furthers a philosophical position that “…there exists both an external world independent of human consciousness, and at the same time a dimension which includes our socially determined knowledge about reality.” (Danermark et al., 2002: 5-6). On this basis, it is possible to be a positivist and objective ontologist (what is) whilst, at the same time, being an epistemological interpretivist (what it is to know).

Going deeper (stay with me!), Roy Bhaskar proposed three realms of reality. The actual, (objective entities that manifest in the real world), real (Subjective structures, phenomena and agency that act as causal mechanisms in the real world) and the empirical (Observable human consciousness and perspectives on the actual and real). As Easton states, “The most fundamental aim of critical realism is explanation; answers to the question “what caused those events to happen?”” (2010: 121).

Realist Evaluation

Based on this, and in the context of evaluating social programmes, realist evaluation is a research approach that seeks to ‘scratch beneath the surface’ and offer a ‘real’ and plausible account of “…what works for whom, in what circumstances, in what respects and how.” (Pawson et al., 2005: 21). It does so by proposing that the outcome (O) of social programmes or interventions rest the conceptual relationship between mechanisms (M) and context (C) – expressed as the ‘O=M+C’ formula.

However, integral to mechanisms are both resources (typically the programme or intervention) and reasoning. With it sometimes hard to adequately illustrate and distinguish these two characteristics in the CMO configuration, Dalkin et al (2015) propose a new iteration of Pawson and Tilley’s (1997) original CMO formula – expressed as ‘M(Resources) + C→M(Reasoning) = O’. I’m afraid you’ll have to come and ask me in person for my CMO configuration!

In conjunction with findings and evidence from existing literature to inform research protocols, this conceptual formula is used to gather data, and interrogate to ‘scratch beneath the surface’ as to what happens in social programmes and interventions, why, for whom and in what context. Finally, and importantly to note, realist evaluation has no methodological prescriptions – although it is particularly suited to mixed methods and qualitative research methods.

The realist methodology community is a very friendly and collegiate one. Do get in touch to discuss this approach. If I can’t help you (for example, I haven’t discussed realist synthesis – a kind of systematic review approach using the realist philosophy and CMO configuration), I can pass you on to someone who might be able to (The RAMASES JISCMail list is a good start).

My next workshop has a lot to live up to!

 

 

References

Dalkin, S. M., Greenhalgh, J., Jones, D., Cunningham, B. & Lhussier, M. 2015. What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation. Implementation Science, 10.

Danermark, B., Ekstrom, M., Jakobsen, L. & Karlsson, J. C. 2002. Explaining Society: Critical realism in the social sciences, London, Routledge.

Easton, G. 2010. Critical realism in case study research. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 118–128.

Pawson, R., Greenhalgh, T., Harvey, G. & Walshe, K. 2005. Realist review – a new method of systematic review designed for complex policy interventions. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 10, 21-34.

Pawson, R. & Tilley, N. 1997. Realistic Evaluation, London, Sage.

BU publications in Taylor & Francis top 20 most read articles

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research

SDRC has developed a significant research portfolio in collaboration with industrial partners within corrosion, corrosion modelling, corrosion simulation, in-situ and remote corrosion condition monitoring.

SDRC industrial partners in corrosion research include The Tank Museum at Bovington, Defence Science & Technology Laboratory Ministry of Defence and Wessex Institute of Technology.

SDRC researchers have delivered invited guest speaking on the above topics in corrosion at the University of Oxford, Cranfield University, Institute of Physics and University of Southampton.

This activity also led to organising the 1st BU-International Tank Museums Conference at BU and organising a special session at the recent Contact & Surface conference that included solving corrosion issues through Surface Engineering.

Recent publication “Optimisation of interface roughness and coating thickness to maximise coating–substrate adhesion – a failure prediction and reliability assessment modelling” has made to the top 16th in the top 20 most read Taylor & Francis publications list with 409 article views/downloads.

Another recent publication “Modelling of metal-coating delamination incorporating variable environmental parameters” now stands 2nd in the above list with 1161 article views/downloads.

It is worth noting that the first publication was available since April 13, 2015 and the later publication was available since December 15, 2014. The rest of the papers (except one Feb 7, 2014) in the Taylor & Francis most read articles list were available since April-Aug 2012.

If you have interest in the above research area or would like to know more please visit SDRC webpage or contact

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)