Category / Research news

BU is world number one for fish biology research

Research news

Research emerging from the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Bournemouth University (BU) is rated the best in the world for the study of fish biology.

Head of the Centre, ProfessorRudy Gozlan, said: “Fish are carried by a vascular network of rivers and are the blood of millions of people that rely on healthy inland fisheries for food, business and sport fishing. We are delighted that our research contributes to that knowledge and comes in support of human communities all around the world.”

The statistic is from the bibliographic database ‘Scopus’, which calculates institutional strengths, based on article clusters. 

Institutions are ranked according to three measures:

  • Publication leadership, calculated through the proportion of articles from BU in the fish biology cluster
  • Reference leadership, calculated through the proportion of citations in the fish biology cluster that cite BU articles
  • State-of-the-art leadership, outlining how recent BU’s fish biology references are.

The accolade comes as BU researchers enter discussions with the Environment Agency regarding the testing of wild fish populations for the deadly parasite Sphaerothecum destruens.

More commonly known as the Rosette Agent, the parasite killed 90% of UK salmon in lab tests and has been blamed for the rapid demise of Leucaspius delineatus, or the sunbleak species, in parts of Europe.

Professor Gozlan said: “Since the first discovery of the Rosette Agent in wild populations five years ago we have carried out a set of tests and all species were highly susceptible to infection. We have carried out further tests in semi-natural conditions and found the same results. We looked at one wild fish population and found the disease present. In California our colleagues did the same in a population of returning salmon and found the parasite in around 40% of the fish. The Environment Agency will not determine the impact of the Rosette Agent unless they start specific health checks.”

More information on the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Sciences can be found on the centre’s webpages.

Congratulations to BU’s newly appointed AHRC reviewers!

BU research, Research news

Congratulations to Neal White and Dr Bronwen Thomas in the Media School who have both been appointed as reviewers to the AHRC. This is fantastic news!

Their membership of the AHRC peer review college will run from April 2012 until December 2015.

College members are invited to submit peer reviews which are used by moderating panels as the basis to make decisions on whether applications are of a fundable standard. Assessments are made using a pre-defined grading scale. Typically three reviews are required for each funding proposal.

Dr Richard Berger is already a member of the AHRC peer review college – you can read his previous blog post on the life of a reviewer here – http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2011/11/23/life-as-an-ahrc-panel-reviewer/

This is great news for Neal and Bronwen, and also for the Media School and the University. Congratulations!

Call for proposals – Places and Local Labour Markets

Funding opportunities, Research news, Uncategorized

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has issued a call for proposals for a research project which aims to explore the relationship between living in particular places, poverty outcomes and ethnicity by gaining a more in-depth understanding of why it is the case that:

  • Some areas produce better outcomes for ethnic minority groups in general; 
  • Some areas produce poor outcomes for ethnic minority groups in general;
  • Some ethnic minority groups (and groups within them) have different outcomes in different places.

The research will unpick variations in the structure of opportunities within local labour markets, examine the role of local social networks and take a range of other factors into account, including: how local services are organised, the changing economic context, the migration history of different groups, local political structures and issues around housing and mobility.

There is up to £100,000 available for the project, which will last for 8 months.  The proposed start date is May 2012. 

 The submission deadline is 11 April 2012.

Planning on submitting a proposal?  Then you need to contact beth.hurrell@jrf.org.uk by 15 March 2012

Looking for more information?

Martin Kretschmer in the Financial Times

BU research, REF Subjects, Research news

Professor Kretschmer, Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University (BU) has commented in the Financial Times in a full page analysis article on rent-seeking.

The article titled ‘Barriers to break through’ discusses economic rents arising from legal monopolies, such as a limited number of taxi licences, or extended periods of copyright protection. Rents allow some to grow rich at the expense of others, and create an incentive to devote resource to lobbying in pursuit of such rents. On copyright, the article says:

“Martin Kretschmer, a law professor at Bournemouth University in England, helped to fight a losing battle against a colossal creation of rents in Europe last year: the extension of copyright on recorded music from 50 to 70 years. The new law transfers €1bn out of the pockets of European consumers and into those of music companies and ageing rock stars.”

“The social argument for copyright is that it gives an incentive for artists to create work. But, as Mr Kretschmer says, ‘the fact that the extension was retrospective gives the game away really’. The Beatles have already recorded Rubber Soul; another 20 years of royalties will not make them record it again. The consensus among academics who study the term of copyright that would best balance the interests of consumers and creators, he adds, is that ’14 years is not an unreasonable starting point’.”

‘Barriers to break through’, by Robin Harding, US economics editor, 23 February, p. 11:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e316f80-5c80-11e1-911f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nyOZZ3Fk

Launch of Elsevier’s Journal of Destination Marketing & Management

BU research, Research news

In response to the significant growth in the number of publications emerging in the field and an increase in interest from policymakers and practitioners in academic research on the theme of tourist destinations, Professor Alan Fyall (School of Tourism, Bournemouth University), Dr Brian Garrod (Aberystwyth University, UK) and Dr Youcheng Wang (University of Central Florida, USA) have recently launched Elsevier’s new Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (JDMM). The ambitions of the journal are such that it aims to be the leading international journal for the study of tourist destinations by providing a critical understanding of all aspects of their marketing and management, as situated in their particular policy, planning, economic, geographical and historical contexts.

The objective of JDMM is to publish up-to-date, high-quality and original research papers alongside relevant and insightful reviews. As such, the journal aspires to be vibrant, engaging and accessible, and at the same time integrative and challenging. The journal will be of particular interest to those involved in the interdisciplinary approach of marketing and management, economic development and planning, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, retailing, policy making and public administration of tourist destinations.

Professor Fyall said: “This new journal provides a really exciting opportunity to consider the truly interdisciplinary nature of tourism destination research. JDMM is the first new journal from Elsevier in the area of tourism studies for more than 30 years which is testament to the increasing interest in the study of tourist destinations and the excellent quality and experience of the journal’s international editorial board”.

As if to confirm this prediction submissions for the first edition look like they will be both an interesting read and of the very highest quality while the journals first special issue on destination experiences (to be published in Spring 2013) has attracted widespread interest from around the world.

Find out more here: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-destination-marketing-and-management/

Impact revealed…

Research news

 

 

 

I just learnt the other day of an excellent example of some modest impact, which really made me feel that my work was worthwhile. It is so exciting when a student takes some theory and puts it into practice – successfully!

A few years ago I started researching menu description and menu engineering (publishing in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management), where I found that consumers are increasingly anxious to know where products have come from and how they are produced, satisfying the current “nostalgia” climate, which reminds of a time when “real”, “healthy”, “authentic”, “traceable” and “wholesome” were associated with food. I shared this information with participants on the School of Tourism CPD course and immediately Ben from The Drax Arms in Bere Regis put this theory into practice. Instead of sourcing his lamb for lamb burgers from a major supplier he made contact with his local farmer – wrote a story about this for his consumers to read and the burgers are now in his words ‘flying off the menu’. Based on the experience he is now actively sourcing other promising alliances.

This is a brilliant example of where research has impinged on practice and demonstrates the potential influential partnership between academics and the local business community.

Footnote:

Ben Holden, licensee of the Drax Arms is sponsored by regional brewer and pub operator Hall & Woodhouse Ltd. The CPD programme that Hall & Woodhouse students follow is designed to develop management and leadership skills consistent with the needs of a very dynamic and competitive brewing and pub operating industry. Upon completing the programme, students achieve a Certificate in Higher Education in Hospitality and Business Management and then progress to a Foundation degree as part of their ongoing personal development. For further information on School of Tourism CPD provision, contact Keith Hayman, (Head of CPD) khayman@bournemouth.ac.uk .

Meet your Food – Drax Arms

Drax Arms are proud to be supporting local Dorset farmers and being that the Lamb for our Burgers are farmed 6.6 miles away, we thought we would share the secrets as to why Dorset Lamb is the best tasting in the world.

Sarah Clarke of Fishmore Hill Farm says our Dorset Lamb is especially good which we attribute to being able to enjoy a natural lifestyle grazing on the down land.

You can find out more information about the farm and also the picturesque surroundings for their B & B by visiting Fishmore Hill Farm. 

British Science Association Media Fellowship

BU research, Research news

British Science Association logo

The British Science Association run a Media Fellowship scheme for scientists, social scientists, engineers and clinicians to spend the summer working with national news journalists to improve their communication skills and media awareness.

It’s a fantastic opportunity for researchers at any stage of their career to spend 3-8 weeks working with print, TV and radio hosts including the BBC, Guardian and Times to produce accurate, well-informed stories about developments in science.

We welcome applicants from universities, institutes and industry across the UK and application is online at www.britishscienceassociation.org/mediafellows before 11 March 2012.

Atlantic Calling Success

Research news

 I am sure that you will be pleased to know that Lloyd Figgins and David Whiddon became the first modern day, independent oarsmen to row non-stop from Morocco to Barbados in their 23ft rowing boat ‘Atlantic Calling’.  Their journey took them 60 days and 17 hours. 

Bournemouth University’s Centre for Event and Sport Research provided psychological and physiological support. They brought together people such as Olympic rower, Bobby Thatcher and David Alred (Jonny Wilkinson’s kicking coach) to help provide training and focus. UK celebrity and previous Atlantic rower, Ben Fogle even popped into the RNLI to see Atlantic Calling and provide advice. 

As a team they worked with the rowers to develop and deliver a bespoke sports science support package for the rowers prior to their departure.  This included technique analysis and development, strength and conditioning, injury rehabilitation, musculo-skeletal assessment and sport psychology support between March and November 2011.  The team included Emma Kavanagh, Joanna Hawkes, Amanda Wilding, Kelly Goodwin, Shelley Broomfield and Andy Callaway from the sports team along with other external expertise. 

This experience has proved beneficial to the University team as well as the rowers.  As Emma Kavanagh made clear, 

“As you can imagine we are all very proud of the guys and feel fortunate as a sports team to have had the opportunity to work on this project.” 

Weight loss for the rowers apparently stands at 1 1/2 stone for David and 2 stone 5lbs for Lloyd so they look a little bit different to when they departed! 

For more information on Atlantic Calling go to: 

http://www.atlanticcalling.com/Home.html

 

 

.

 

Launch of the Association for Nutrition’s Workforce Competence Model

Research news

 

As Chair of the Department of Health funded project, ‘Improving Capacity Confidence and Competence across the Workforce in Nutrition,’ I hosted, with others, the launch of the Association for Nutrition’s Workforce Competence Model: at the Royal Society, in London last week.   We should applaud our profession’s capacity to deliver such a high quality, large scale mass participation project, working across professional boundaries, to time and to budget; a project with enormous potential to influence change across the wider health & social care sector.

Nutrition has a critical role to play in tackling inequalities, especially in deprived communities at risk from poor intake and obesity. It is therefore essential that frontline workers operating in the most disadvantaged sectors of society can lead in reducing nutrition-related health inequalities by demonstrating their competence in communicating and delivering appropriate messages. The aim of the workforce model is to encourage high and consistent standards of education and training alongside robust support, recognition and progression mechanisms to ensure that the nutrition workforce is sufficiently developed and skilled to deliver the government’s targets for public health.   It was a proud moment for me.

 

Want to find out how to turn a proposal into a winning proposal?

Guidance, Research news

Then attend the Missenden Centre’s excellent ‘Winning Research Funding’ workshop on Friday 16 March in London.

Attendees are invited to take a draft or previously unsuccessful application to the workshop for advice on how to turn it into an award-winning proposal!

Further details are available from: www.missendencentre.co.uk/s1

If you are interested in attending then we have funds in the RDU budget to cover your course fees and travel. Let me know if you are interested! 🙂

The second brilliant external REF event at BU!

Research assessment, Research news

On Wednesday this week BU hosted a REF Team-supported event for universities in the south of England explaining the content of the recently released REF Panel Working Methods and Criteria documentation. This was the second REF event that has been hosted at BU in the past 12 months. The first event was held in May 2011 and you can read about it here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2011/05/25/the-excellent-hefce-ref-event-at-bu/

The event, attended by over 150 delegates from 32 institutions, outlined the similarities between how the four Main Panels will review submissions, as well as focusing on the differences between the panels particularly in how they will define and assess impact in the context of the REF.

Chris Taylor, Deputy REF Manager, spoke about the technical aspects of the REF, e.g. the timetable, element weightings, and institutional REF codes of practice, and then looked at each of the three elements of the REF in depth – impact, outputs and environment.

Prof Stephen Holgate, Chair of Main Panel A, then delivered a very interesting presentation on the similarities between the four Main Panels which have been vastly improved since the sector-wide consultation on the Panel Working Methods documentation last autumn. The Panels have put in a significant amount of work to ensuring their working methods will be as simple, transparent and similar as possible which is excellent news.

After break there were four concurrent sessions, each focusing on one of the Main Panels. Event attendees could choose to attend one session. The session were led by:

  • Main Panel A – Prof Stephen Holgate (Chair of Main Panel A)
  • Main Panel B – Prof Philip Nelson (Chair of the General Engineering sub-panel)
  • Main Panel C – Prof John Scott (Chair of the Sociology sub-panel)
  • Main Panel D – Prof Bruce Brown (Chair of Main Panel D)

After the concurrent sessions, all presenters took part in a Q&A session back in Kimmeridge House.

One of the key messages of the day was that the sub-panels will not make use of journal impact factors, journal ranking lists, or other journal scoring information to inform the review of outputs. Citation data will be provided by the REF Team to sub-panels:

  • Main Panel A: Sub-panels 1-6
  • Main Panel B: Sub-panels 7-11
  • Main Panel C: Sub-panel 18

Research collaboration (e.g. links with other institutions, business and industry, international collaboration, etc) was also highlighted at numerous points throughout the event as being of particular importance in the environment element of the assessment.

Regarding impact, Prof Holgate stressed that the assessment of impact was not necessarily linked to the size of the population affected but to the reach and significance of the impact – for example, a 4* impact case study could be for a drug that cured three people or 3 billion people.

Also interesting was the focus on 4* research being that which is transformative research and that this could be the synthesis of knowledge and the identification of a new way of doing things. A review paper could therefore be assessed as 4* if it meets this definition. Prof Holgate remarked: “we are in an era of transformation. We want game changing outputs to be submitted to the REF”.

The event was closed by Prof Matthew Bennett at 1pm after which point event attendees networked over lunch. Feedback from attendees so far has been very positive!

If you attended the session then we’d love to know what you thought! Let us know by adding a comment to this post.

The slides will be available shortly via the Blog.

NERC – Demand Management is coming…

Research news

From the 1st April 2012 NERC will be monitoring the number of proposals that institutions submit and the quality of the proposals.  In July 2012 NERC will identify research organisations with high number or proportion of uncompetitive submissions and will begin discussions with these institutions on reducing their submissions and improving their quality.  It is undecided yet whether sanctions will be applied. 

Initially uncompetitive submissions are being defined as those receiving a final grade of 6 (out of 10) or below for excellence.  Full details on the new demand management policy can be found on the research council’s website.

What does this mean for me?

BU will be closely monitoring all applications to research councils.  We have a 5 day internal deadline for research council applications to allow time to complete checks on applications before submission.

The best way to ensure that your application is of a high standard is to obtain feedback from academic colleagues.  Our internal peer review service (RPRS),  managed by Caroline O’Kane, allows you to select two academic staff to undertake a review of your draft application.  Caroline also provides feedback on content, structure, a lay perspective and whether funder guidelines have been met.  More information on using the RPRS is available here.

Call for academics to unite and stand up against the changes to the student visa regulations

Research news

The changes wrought to the student visa regulations are extremely concerning and almost certain to lead to irreversible damage to Higher Education (HE) in the UK especially in respect of its international reputation, as a consequence of an ill-conceived policy to reduce the numbers of incoming migrants to the UK that plays to popular, ill informed ideology and short-term, self-serving politics at the expense of the country. Students are an easy target, but a false one and do not indicate the changes for which the public may in fact be vying.

The ramifications for HE and the UK economy are likely to be very significant judging from the hard evidence brought to bear on the issue. According to the report ‘Estimating the Value to the UK of Education Exports’ produced by Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the profits brought in by the education of international students represents £14.1 billion, with a projected estimated profit of £26.6 billion by 2025.

Dr Jo Beall, director of education and society at the British Council, has disseminated the findings of a major study with the Economist Intelligence Unit, entitled ‘Impact of Visa Changes on Student Mobility and Outlook for the UK’. This demonstrates that the UK is now seen as having the most restrictive immigration regime of all its competitors, leading to international students taking their business away from the UK towards the USA, Australia and Canada. Nor do arguments against the control of extremism among international students carry much weight, since this not related to international students, as shown in the Home Affairs Committee report ‘Roots of Violent Radicalisation’. Furthermore, according to the British Council, international students ensure the viability of certain disciplines, such as postgraduate biotechnology and engineering courses, where they can constitute 90% of the population (see Times Higher Education, 9-15th Feb 2012 for details).

The weight of hard evidence from these various, highly reputable sources point to a dramatic and deleterious effect on the economy if we restrict international students in this way. We must not, either, forget the importance that a global mix of students brings to the pursuit, creation and sharing of knowledge. Our higher education is an elite export that brings billions to the UK economy and it seems absolutely incredible that the Government is blatantly ignoring this alarming evidence, especially during a time of grave financial hardship and austerity for the country. This evidence cannot be ignored and makes a mockery of misguided arguments that international students represent an abuse of the UK. Instead it is clear that the UK economy and reputation is reliant on international students who have until now sought in great numbers the UK’s elite export: our world-leading higher education, which is rapidly slipping from its hard-earned first position in the international tables, and is a fall that is likely to prove irreversible.

It is most concerning that academics are seemingly accepting these changes, rolling over and aping the actions of a pusillanimous UUK in the face of the Government’s HE reforms. The evidence is there and we need to stand up for important if difficult truths in the face of short term political goals. Our conversation with Phil Baty at the Times Higher indicates that the new editor, John Gill, features editor, Rebecca Atwood, are seeking interest to develop a campaign around this area. Something we feel strongly should be engaged in by all concerned academics.

 

Prof Jonathan Parker and Dr Sara Crabtree

School of Health and Social Care

NERC plans to move to shared Research Outcomes System (ROS)

Research news

NERC has been collecting research outputs data on NERC-funded research through its Research Outputs Database (ROD) for nearly a decade.  This year’s collection exercise on ROD is progressing towards its 13 March 2012 submissions deadline.

NERC has decided it will in future adopt the Research Outcomes System (ROS) as used by AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and ESRC.  By changing systems NERC expects to:

  • Reduce the reporting burden for universities by reducing the number of equivalent systems;
  • Simplify submission by moving to a more standardised questionnaire;
  • Improve how publications are handled;
  • Share information better between systems, reducing data entry and reducing transcription errors; and
  • Improve the quality of performance information available to support the case for public investment in the environmental sciences.

The research council are putting measures in place to ensure a smooth transfer to the new system before next year’s data collection and to engage with users to obtain feedback on the system so that user requirements are met.

BU Professor of Law presents in Geneva

REF Subjects, Research news

WIPO logoBournemouth University’s Director for the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM), Professor Martin Kretschmer, has been invited to speak at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

Professor Kretschmer will open the ‘Economics of Intellectual Property’ seminar series on 15 February 2012, with a presentation entitled ‘Private copying and fair compensation: An empirical study of copyright levies in Europe’.

His work is the first independent empirical assessment of the European levy system as a whole. It consolidates the evidence on levy setting, collection and distribution and reviews the scope of consumer permissions associated with levy payments.

Professor Kretschmer will present the results of three studies into printer/scanners, portable music/video/game devices, and tablet computers, including his analysis of the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries.

The full seminar series sees six presentations in Geneva between now and November, each by one of the world’s top Intellectual Property researchers. The full programme, including presentations by Professors of Stanford University and the University of Tokyo can be accessed online.

A video version of Professor Kretschmer’s and other ‘Economics of Intellectual Property’ presentations will be available after the event through the WIPO website.

Bid-writing clinic in London – an RDU-funded place available

Guidance, Research news, Uncategorized

The Missenden Centre is holding a bid-writing clinic on the 16th March, in London.

The RDU will fund a place (fees and travel costs) for an academic to attend.   This is on a first come/first served basis – so please contact Caroline O’Kane  if you would like to attend.

If you are currently working on a funding proposal then this session will be extremely useful.  Bring a draft or previously unsuccessful application to the session and receive advice on how to turn it into an award-winning bid.

  • Date: 16th March
  • Location: Woburn House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ

 

To book your place contact Caroline O’Kane 

Leverhulme session – slides available

Funding opportunities, Research news

Jean Cater, assistant director at the the Leverhulme Trust was at BU yesterday. 

At a well-attended event,  Jean talked about the range of funding opportunities available for academics, and outlined the Trust’s ethos and criteria.  She also fielded an hour’s worth of  questions.

Jean’s slides are now available – just click here to access them.

Please contact Caroline O’Kane if would like to find out more about the Leverhulme and their schemes, and to find out how we can support the development of your funding proposal.