Category / Research news

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • BBSRC have announced their Japan Partnering Awards. Maximum funding up to £50,000. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • BBSRC have also announced their Brazil Partnering Awards. Maximum award £100,000. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • BBSRC are supporting India Partnering Awards up to £25,000. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • US Partnering Awards are also available from BBSRC. Maximum grant up to £50,000. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • To stimulate joint working in topics important to BBSRC’s strategy, applications are invited for its international workshops scheme. Maximum award £10,000. Closing date: 27/11/13
  • The British Academy intends, through their scheme of Mid-Career Fellowships, both to support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding and engagement with humanities and social sciences. Awards up to £160,000. Closing date: 18/09/13
  • The MRC and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine invite applications from West Africans and European Union nationals only for three prestigious global health research fellowships. Closing date: 09/10/13
  • NERC is inviting research proposals to its International Opportunities Fund (IOF). Up to £50,000 is available. Closing date: 17/10/13
  • NERC is providing funding for small pilot/development in the use of the very latest, class-leading technologies via their 2013-14 Pilot Project Grants Competition. Maximum grant £6,000. Closing date: 27/09/13
  • NERC invites expressions of interest for its Technology Proof of Concept programme with grants of up to £150,000 available. Closing date for EoIs: 16/09/13 and full proposal closing date: 03/10/13

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

Capturing a yawn: initial observations – Dr Simon Thompson

Yawning presents scientists and clinicians with an intriguing phenomenon. There is continued uncertainty over its neuroanatomical origin, the neuro-chemicals involved, mechanisms involved, and its reasons of functionality. Apart from being able to visually (and aurally) observe a person yawning, it has been difficult to quantify until now.

Researchers suggest that yawning may play an important role in the protection of our immune system, by regulating hormones, and particular reflexes, when we are exposed to psychological or physical stress or fatigue (Thompson, & Zisa, 2012).

The stress hormone, cortisol may be a part of this complex response because of its involvement in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (Wikipedia, 2013). Cortisol, known systematically as 11-beta-11, 17, 21-trihydroxypregn-4-ene-3, 20-dione (IUPAC, 2013), is measured reliably in saliva as well as in the blood. The exact relationship between cortisol and yawning is thought to be either as a precursor to the yawn or as a result of yawning since, curiously, cortisol is found to be elevated after yawning (Thompson, & Bishop, 2012).

The yawn is produced by stretching the muscles along the jaw-line; however, the extent of stretch and volume of yawn varies between people. Measuring the level of electrical muscle activity using electromyography (EMG) at the muscle site during the yawn phase is in the region of millionths of a volt and may be sustained for several seconds.

Male and female volunteers aged between 18-53 years were exposed to conditions that provoked a yawning response in a randomised controlled trial here at Bournemouth University. For the first time, the yawn was quantified and a profile of EMG data (sine wave) was obtained.

Initial observations find that of a sample of yawners and non-yawners, induced by presentation of yawning stimuli, the people who yawned had elevated nerve activity from 50 (at rest) to 175 (after stimuli presentation and yawning) (see Photo) compared with those who did not yawn who exhibited 10 (at rest) to 80 (after stimuli presentation). Yawners generally had higher level of electrical muscular jaw activity both before and after yawning.

Further research is continuing into the “yawning envelope” (EMG wave) with the hope that, together with cortisol measurement, this new information may form part of a potential diagnostic tool to identify untoward early neurological sequelae that are indicative of neurological disease.

IUPAC – International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry., 2013. www.iupac.org/home/about.html, Accessed 18.08.2013

Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research 1(5);e4:1-9. Doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241

Thompson SBN, Zisa L., 2012. Ill-health, stress, cortisol levels and yawning. In SBN Thompson (Ed.), Psychology of trauma: clinical reviews, case histories, research. Portsmouth: Blackwell-Harvard-Academic: 125-132

Wikipedia, 2013b. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamic%E2%80%93pituitary%E2%80%93adrenal_axis, Accessed: 18.08.2013

 

 

 

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • As part of the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) wish to commission new, multi-disciplinary and innovative research projects to develop greater understanding of how questions of ethics and rights play out in a security environment, with a focus on governance. The total investment for this Call is £2 million – £2.5 million. A Town Hall meeting is scheduled for 23/09/13. Closing date: 21/10/13
  • The ESRC are offering c. 50 Training Bursaries to improve the standards of research methods and to stimulate the uptake of high quality training courses in research methods across the UK social science community. Bursaries are up to £1,000.
  • A three month secondment opportunity to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) is open to EPSRC funded PhD students. Closing date: 04/10/13
  • The US National Institutes of Health have opened their R01 (Research Project Grant) scheme. Closing date: 05/10/13
  • NERC have opened their Standard Research Grant call. There are special grants available for new investigators. Grants from £65,000 to £1.2m. Closing date: 21/01/14 with another date in July 2014.
  • Industry Fellowships are available from The Royal Society (with support from BBSRC, EPSRC, NERC and BP Ltd). Closing date 04/10/13
  • The Medical Research Council is inviting applications to their Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership (ITTP) PhD studentship scheme. Closing date: 20/11/13
  • The Royal Society is also offering University Research Fellowships. There are c.35 fellowships are available with a length of tenure of five years in the first instance, which may be extended for a further three years. Closing date: 17/09/13
  • The Technology Strategy Board is offering funding to support Unlocking the Hydrocarbon Energy Market. The aim of this competition is to support business-led innovation that leads to supply chain opportunities for hydrogen energy technologies and that addresses key market barriers to the use of hydrogen as an energy vector. The total cost of projects is expected to range in size from £250k to £1m. A briefing event for potential applicants will be held on 23/09/13. Applicants must register by noon on 23/10/13 and the deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 30/10/13. 
  • The Wellcome Trust is inviting applications to their Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowships for Clinicians. The total cost of a Fellowship would not normally exceed £350 000. Closing date: 15/11/13

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

 

HSC student wins Santander Travel Grant to go to Yale

Mrs. Anita Immanuel has just been awarded a travel award from Santander to visit the Yale Cancer Centre in the USA. Anita studies the quality of lives of adults in Dorset who have survived cancer of the blood or immune system. Cancer is a devastating disease and with the advances in treatment patients are living longer, however left with debilitating side effects which can negatively affect their quality of life.

Anita’s research will identify any unmet needs in this group of patients and will give a better understanding into comprehensive survivorship care thereby maximising quality of life. This study uses a mixed methods approach in examining the quality of lives of these patients who have been treated for a haematological cancer. Data will be collected across three Dorset hospitals: The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Poole Hospital and Dorset County Hospital.

Dr. Helen McCarthy, Consultant Haematologist at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Anita’s clinical supervisor, highlighted: “At Yale Cancer Centre Survivorship Clinic, Anita will be introduced to their comprehensive survivorship care programme which can help improve the quality of lives of adults treated with cancer in Dorset.

Dr. Jane Hunt, the lead supervisor and senior lecturer at Bournemouth University’s School of Health & Social Care added: “The survivorship programme at the Yale Cancer Centre Survivorship Clinic integrates a multidisciplinary approach for following up patients treated for cancer by leading experts, which differs significantly from our own. I am convinced Anita’s PhD study will benefit from collaborating with the Yale experts.

BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Anita’s third supervisor, commented “We are grateful to Santander for this funding. We know Anita’s research will significantly contribute to the underdeveloped area of research on adult haematological cancer survivors”.

For more about Santander Awards see: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/graduate-school/pgt-santander-mobility-awards/

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) are establishing a £25M UK Regenerative Medicine Platform. Stage 1 – Research Hubs. Closing date: 01/10/13. Stage 2 – Research Consortia. Closing date: 18/09/13
  •  The NHS NIHR has issued a call for proposals to the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme concerning diseases of the skin, chronic pain and sarcopaenia and its effects on older people. Closing date: 01/10/13 
  • The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £8m in collaborative research and development via the Technology-inspired innovation call. Awards up to £500,000. Registration by 25/09/13 and Expressions of interest are to be submitted by 25/09/13 
  • The Technology Strategy Board and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) are to invest up to £4m in  feasibility studies which use environmental data to develop new solutions to business problems. A briefing webinar for potential applicants will be held on 8 October 2013. Awards up to £200,000. Closing date: 06/11/13 
  • This Technology Strategy Board and Medical Research Council Biomedical catalyst programme offers early and late stage funding to innovative small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and researchers to develop solutions to healthcare challenges.  Maximum grant is £250,000. Registration closing date: 02//10/13 and closing date for applications: 09/10/13. A feasibility call is forthcoming later in 2013
  •  The Wellcome Trust is offering Research Fellowships to medical, dental and veterinary graduates. Closing date: 20/09/13 
  • The Wellcome Trust, through the Master’s Award is offering scholars the opportunity to undertake basic training in research and methods through a one-year Master’s course in the History of Medicine or Medical Humanities. Strong preference is given to applicants intending to make a long-term academic career in the subject. Closing date: 01/05/14

Please note that some funders specifiy a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

 

How do I submit to eBU?

eBU: Online Journal is the new journal for the BU community. It works on the basis of immediate publication (after an initial quality check) and open peer review in a safe internal environment. Authors then have two options – either publish on the external arm of eBU or publish their paper in an external journal.

Author guidelines and editorial policies are on the eBU site, and submitting manuscripts could not be easier. Follow these simple steps:

1. Access the eBU site by following this link (or when on campus type ‘ebu’ into your web browser address bar) – http://ebu.bournemouth.ac.uk

2. Use your BU credentials to log in to eBU. Click on the ‘Login’ tab on the eBU site, or alternatively follow this link – http://ebu.bournemouth.ac.uk/index.php/ebu/login

3. Logging in as an author with your BU credentials will take you to your ‘Author Submission’ homepage. To submit a manuscript, follow the instructions under ‘Start A New Submission’ (below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Follow the 5 steps to complete manuscript submission.

 

eBU is now live with papers for comment!

 

eBU can now be accessed

I am delighted to announce that eBU, the online BU journal that operates on the basis of immediate publication and open peer review, is now live with two papers ready for comment.

Jane Murphy (HSC), Louise Worswick (HSC), Andy Pullman, Grainne Ford (Royal Bournemouth Hospital) and Jaana Jeffery (HSC PhD student) suggest that e-learning is a great way to deliver nutririon education and training for health care staff who are involved in the care pathway for cancer survivors. The abstract can be found below:

Health care professionals are in a prime position to provide diet and lifestyle advice, but there are gaps in their own knowledge and education highlighting the need for improvements in teaching and learning approaches. This paper presents the rationale for the design, implementation and evaluation of an e-learning resource to deliver nutrition education and training for health care staff who are involved in the care pathway for cancer survivors. The findings of the evaluation are discussed and the importance of the resource in terms of its impact upon the provision of nutrition, diet and lifestyle advice in practice for the delivery of care and support of cancer survivors.

This paper can be accessed here –

http://ebu.bournemouth.ac.uk/index.php/ebu/article/view/9

Dorothy Fox (ST) uses original research to discuss the dynamics of doctoral supervision and provides recommendations for improving supervisory practice. The abstract can be found below:

Abstract:

This article reports an exploratory study of the professional relationships between supervisors who co-supervise management doctoral students in England. It draws on the concept and theoretical framework of emotional geographies (Hargreaves 2001) to understand the affective elements of these relationships. Team supervision has become mandatory in many Western universities and whilst the advantages and disadvantages of this development have been identified, the relationship between supervisors has not received the same attention. This is despite the evidence from students that positive or negative relationships within the supervisory team are of critical relevance to a successful outcome. Data from 13 in-depth interviews with supervisors was analysed and the emotional geographies are revealed. Further analysis showed that differences within the relationship are resolved in ways that are either ‘autocratic’, ‘overtly democratic’ or ‘covertly democratic’. With the aim of improving the quality of supervisory practice, the implications for doctoral supervision are discussed.

This paper can be accessed here –

http://ebu.bournemouth.ac.uk/index.php/ebu/article/view/8

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • The BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship supports scientists who have demonstrated high potential and who wish to establish themselves as independent researchers. Closing date: 23/10/13
  • BBSRC / FSA have announced a joint call for Early Career Research Fellowships. Closing date 23/10/13
  • ELRHA call – The Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) aims to improve health outcomes by strengthening the evidence base for public health interventions in humanitarian crises. Seed funding up to £10,000. Closing date: 10/09/13 for Expressions of Interest
  • The EPSRC Digital Economy Theme wishes to encourage user-driven research in the emerging area of Internet of Things. Closing date: 24/10/13
  • There is call for Expressions of Interests for the EPSRC / Jaguar Land Rover Programme for Simulation Innovation. Maximum award £1m. Closing date: 27/08/13
  • The EPSRC, through the RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET),  invites academics to enter the Telling Tales of Engagement competition. Maximum award £10,000. Closing date: 10/10/13
  • ESRC has announced the third call for proposals for their early careers scheme, Future Research Leaders which supports outstanding early career researchers to carry out excellent research and to develop all aspects of their research and knowledge exchange skills. Maximum award £312,500. Closing date: 24/10/13
  • Nesta is supporting arts projects across Wales with its Digital Research and Development Fund. Closing date: 09/09/13
  • NERC invites proposals for its call for NERC PURE associates to transfer knowledge in the field of Probability, Uncertainty & Risk in the Environment. Closing date: 30/09/13
  • People Awards and Society Awards from The Wellcome Trust, support projects that enable the public to explore biomedical science, its impact on society and culture, its historical roots and the ethical questions that it raises. Closing date 04/10/13
  •  The Wellcome Trust has a scheme for postdoctoral scientists who have recently decided to recommence a scientific research career after a continuous break of at least two years. The Career Re-entry Fellowships are particularly suitable for applicants wishing to return to research after a break for family commitments. Closing date: 27/09/13
  • The Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for the most promising newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to make an early start in developing their independent research careers, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas. Maximum award £250,000. Closing date: 27/10/13

Please note that some funders specifiy a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

CEMP Research and Innovation Bulletin

The updated CEMP bulletin is here.

CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 25.7.13

Whilst there is no cluster meeting to review this, due to annual leave colleagues are encouraged to have a look since there are a number of good ‘leads’ here and several imminent deadlines for calls people have identified for applications.

Next academic year, we’d like to encourage colleagues to approach CEMP to provide support for developing research ideas into projects or matching proposals to funding, as well as responding to the bulletin items.

 

 

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

  • The Academy of Medical Sciences is supporting starter grants for clinical lecturers up to £30,000. Closing date 11/09/13
  • The AHRC is inviting proposals for projects to explore Big Data from an Arts and Humanities perspective. Funding for either smaller projects of up to £100k, or larger projects of up to £600k is available on a fEC basis, with the AHRC meeting around 80% of the fEC.  Closing date: 12/09/13
  • BBSRC has a call for the Support for development of bioinformatics tools and computational approaches to the biosciences. It is anticipated that successful grants will not exceed £150k. Closing date: 10/09/13
  • Nominations for BBSRC-funded researchers are now open. Closing date: 06/11/13
  • BBSRC is supporting professional internships for PhD students. Closing date: 05/08/13
  • BBSRC Policy Internships for BBSRC and NERC funded PhD students are available. Closing date: 09/09/13
  • Big Data consortium call from The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts. Applications invited for no more than £300k. Closing date:  13/09/13
  • Digital R&D Fund for the Arts Research+ call  provides an opportunity for existing projects, or projects that are due to start very soon, that are NOT funded through the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, to apply for a grant to support a researcher to work on the project. Applications are invited up to a limit of £50,000. Rolling closing date to end December 2013
  • EPSRC – high-voltage direct current (HVDC) networks for offshore grid. Closing date: 24/09/13
  • Manufacturing the Future Challenge call from the EPSRC – up to £5m allocated and no closing date
  • ESRC – invites expressions of interest for the establishment of its Social Science of the Nexus network plus. Town meeting – 02/09/13 then deadline for Expression of Interest – 03/10/13
  • ESRC – appointment of a DEGRP research strategy group. Closing date: 05/09/13
  •  The Urgency Grants Mechanism is a pilot launched by ESRC, on behalf of RCUK, is to enable a response to urgent or unforeseen events (for example the August 2011 UK riots), where there is a strong case for immediate research. Provide grants for up to 24 months of work, to a maximum amount of £200,000 (100% fEC) of ESRC funding. Closing date: Not given.
  • IC Tomorrow has launched the Digital Innovation Contest – Sport. Awards up to £25,000. Closing date: 14/08/13
  • JPI Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change and the Belmont Forum are inviting  proposals for their food security and land use change call. Funding of up to 3m Euros. Closing date: 30/09/13
  • MRC-funded senior clinical fellowship at Harwell. Closing date: 09/04/14
  • The National Science Foundation has a call – ecology and evolution of infectious diseases programme. Award amount not given. Closing date: 20/11/13
  • NERC invites applications for its postgraduate skills development awards. Total budget for the scheme is £1m. Closing date:  30/08/13
  • NERC invites applications for its Arctic research station programme. Closing date: 31/03/14
  • The Royal Society invites applications for its research professorships. The scheme provides salary costs, a one-off start-up grant and research expenses. Appointments are usually made for up to 10 years. Closing date: 13/03/14
  • The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £10m in highly innovative collaborative R&D projects in the field of low carbon vehicles, closely aligned with the aims of the newly announced Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and the joint government and industry automotive sector industrial strategy. Registration closing date: 06/11/13 and submission closing date: 13/11/13
  • The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £1.5m in collaborative research and development (CR&D) to encourage companies to rethink the design of products, components and/or services, with the potential to reduce their environmental impact by a factor of four in the Design Challenges for a Circular Economy call. Closing date: 04/09/13
  • The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £2.5m in feasibility and collaborative R&D projects to encourage the development and commercialisation of innovative processes that will generate high-value chemical products through industrial biotechnology and bio-refining through its Sustainable High-value Chemical Manufacture through Industrial Biotechnology 2 – Technical Feasibility call. Closing date: 16/10/13
  • The Wellcome Trust invites proposals for its cross-disciplinary Sustaining Health call. This call supports small awards in the order of £250,000 (exceptionally up to £500,000) for up to two years. Closing date for concept notes: 27/08/13
  • The Wellcome Trust is also supporting the Senior Investigator Awards. Awards are worth up to £425k per year and for any duration of up to seven years. Closing date: 22/11/13 (future rounds are available)
  • The Wellcome Trust – Strategic Awards. These provide flexible forms of support to excellent research groups with outstanding track records in their field. The support available can be tailored to the needs of individual groups with agreement from the Trust and might be justified in terms of the added value they will provide. Closing date: rolling deadline
  • The Wellcome Trust invites proposals for its intermediate fellowships for researchers in India. The total award for an Intermediate Fellowship typically amounts to INR 3.5 Crores. Preliminary application deadline: 26/8/13 and invited full application deadline: November/December 2013
  • The Wellcome Trust is providing support for new investigator awards in biomedical science. An award can be worth anything up to £425k per year and for any duration up to a maximum of seven years. Closing date: 22/11/13
  • Wellcome Trust–Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Postdoctoral Fellowships. Closing date 22/11/13

Please note that some funders specifiy a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

British Society of Criminology Annual Conference 2013

Last week the University of Wolverhampton hosted the annual conference of the British Society of Criminology. The Parellel sessions covered a wide range of topics including policing, prisons, diversity, media and culture and gender. Highlights for me were papers on cyberstalking by Italian teenagers and the development of websites that sell illicit drugs with a specific focus on the techonology behind one site Silk Road.

For anyone with a specific interest in prisons and offender welfare some interesting prelimary findings from the largest UK survey of prisoners were presented and this research will be published over the next few months with the first pblication due out at the end of July.

There was also a fascinating paper on research into the experience of prisoners that was conducted by a group of prisoner officers who undertook training in ethnographic research  and were assigned to research prisons where their status as a prison officer was unknown. The paper focused on the impact that undertaking the research had upon the prison officer researchers.

My paper , Exploring female drug-taking during the First World War generated a lively discussion on the female role in drug dealing and law-breaking.

It was an excellent conference and I would like to thank Rosie Read for supporting my application to the Society and Social Welfare Community Budget which enabled me to attend.

CEMP Conversation / Cluster

Audio extracts of our CEMP conversation last week are here:

(1) Discussion of Marketa Zezulkova’s book chapter on a holistic approach to media literacy:

Marketa’s article: discussion

(2) Discussion of Richard Wallis’ journal article on media literacy and policy discourse: Richard’s article – discussion

And a reminder that the final CEMP Research & Innovation cluster meeting of the year is this Thursday the 11th July, 10-11am in the CEMP office, Iain MacRury is joining us to discuss a new AHRC call.  The latest version of the CEMP R&I bulletin is here: CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 4.7.13

 

 

Major Funders – Update

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.