Category / Research news

BU Studentships Competition 2013 – Project Proposal Writing Workshop

BU research, Funding opportunities, PG research, Research news

The 2013 BU Studentships internal competition is open with opportunities for up to 50 matched funded PhD projects.

To support academics in seeking matched funding and in preparation of their project proposals, the Graduate School will be following up on the two workshops run over the summer with a further two one day project proposal writing workshops delivered by John Wakeford, Director of the Missenden Centre

There will be two workshops to help supervisors to develop and strengthen their project proposal applications to the internal competition on:

 

  •  Tuesday 23 October (9:15am – 16:30pm, in Studland House – S217 + S219)
  • Friday 2 November (9:15am – 16:30pm, in Tolpuddle Annexe – TAG20)

 It is an excellent chance to glean some expert advice from John on bid writing in general as well as honing your application for the 2013 Studentships Competition. Participants will be expected to submit a draft proposal to the Graduate School one week in advance of the workshops in order to get bespoke feedback as part of the workshop.

 A provisional programme for both days will be as follows: 

9:15 Coffee and Registration
9:30 Institutional context – information on the studentships and the support of the Graduate School. Questions. Prof Tiantian Zhang – new Head of Graduate SchoolDr Fiona Knight – Graduate School Manager
10:00 Agenda sharing (participant introductions and identifying concerns and priorities to be covered).
10:30 Introduction – National policy and recent developments. Questions and discussion.
10:45 Coffee break
11:00 Reviewing good research bid.  Teams act as reviewers and prepare outline of comments.  Plenary feedback from John Wakeford and teams.
12.00 What to do before applying.
12:30 Lunch. (Groups discuss bidding narrative)
13:15 Plenary discussion of points arising from narrative.
13:30 Advising colleagues on draft applications.  Teams act as critical colleagues and prepare advice on drafts direct at different agencies.  Plenary feedback.     Questions and discussion.
14:30 Coffee break
14:45 Writing a good application.
15:30 Reflecting after having an application turned down.
16:00 Action planning: individual participants draw up plans for progressing own research.  Participants make suggestions to the university to help those bidding for funds.
16:25 Evaluation
16:30 Close

 Similar sessions have been very well attended previously and spaces are limited. To book a place on either session, please email the Graduate School: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Launching the 2013 PhD Studentship Competition!

BU research, PG research, Research news

We are delighted to announce the launch of the 2013 BU PhD Studentship Competition for projects starting in October 2013, as part of the Fusion Investment Fund.

There will be 50 studentships available across two parallel strands:

(1)   Matched Funded projects

(2)   Fully Funded.

All proposals should match clearly to one of the eight BU Research Themes

Strand 1 – Matched Funded Studentships

  • A total of 45 matched funded studentships are available.
  • Matched-funding – 50% of the studentship costs which is equivalent to £24k (stipend of £7.5K pa plus research costs of £3k) over three years- may come from:
    • Industry/business partners,
    • Government and non-government organisations,
    • Other academic institutions
    • NHS,
    • Research Councils, or
    • Other external bodies. 
  • Priority may be given to applications that involve supervisors from two or more Schools and/or those from early career researchers.
  • Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with Deputy Dean for Research or equivalent within their School.

Strand 2 – Fully-Funded Studentships

  • A total of 5 fully funded studentships are available.
  • These are exceptional awards for highly original, timely and non-applied or “blue-sky” research projects where there is no potential for match funding.  Priority will be given to those areas where there is a clear strategic driver for a particular REF Unit of Assessment and/or the applicant can demonstrate an immense societal impact.
  • Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with Professor Matthew Bennett or Professor Tiantian Zhang in advance.

The studentships will be awarded to supervisory teams on the basis of a competitive process across the whole of BU led by Professor Matthew Bennett (PVC) and managed by the Graduate School.  Applications will be reviewed internally and assessed with awards made by a cross University Panel consisting of the academic members of UET and members of the BU Professoriate. In selecting proposals for funding emphasis will be placed on the excellence of the research and quality of proposal.  Strategic fit with one of the relevant UoA and potential for societal impact are key criteria.

Only the best projects in each strand will be funded and proceed to advert.  Full details and criteria are set out in the policy document BU Studentship Competition 2013 Policy 

Staff are asked to check the eligibility criteria carefully before applying.

To help applicants with their proposals John Wakeford, from the Missenden Centre will be running project proposals writing workshops on Tuesday 23 October and Friday 2 November 2012. Full details can be found here.

Applications on the Studentship Proposal form which can be downloaded here: Studentship Project Proposal 2013 should be submitted to the Dr Fiona Knight (Graduate School Academic Manager) via email to PhDStudentshipCompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk  no later than 5pm on 10 December 2012, who will circulate the proposals to two reviewers for evaluation and subsequently to the judging panel for decision making in early January 2013.

All general enquiries can be addressed to Dr Fiona Knight (Graduate School Academic Manager) via email to PhDStudentshipCompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust – call for proposals

Funding opportunities, Research news

What is the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust?   The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of disease and the care of the sick and the disadvantaged.  The Charity makes grants to numerous charitable causes throughout the United Kingdom in support of medical research, medicine generally and charities engaged in humanitarian work.

What is the call?    To mark the 50th anniversary of the Trust’s founding by Sir Jules Thorn, the Trustees have decided to hold a competition for a substantial capital grant in support of translational research. Submissions have been invited from universities and from within the NHS.   

The criteria are set out in the “Call for Applications” guidelines.

Process for submission

The Trust are looking for one proposal per institution.  With this in mind BU has established a process for submissions to this call. All proposals must be submitted to a special version of our internal peer review scheme (the RPRS) first and must be signed off by Matthew Bennett as PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation) prior to submission.

Applicants will initially submit a one-page outline, which will be assessed by our panel of reviewers.  Based on feedback from the panel, applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, which will also be assessed by the panel.  Final proposals will be sent to our PVC for his assessment and final approval over which proposal will be submitted to the Trust.

Key dates and deadlines

5th Oct – One page outlines submitted to the RPRS and sent for review

15th Oct – Panel feedback returned to applicants

 9th Nov – Full proposals submitted to the RPRS and sent for review

19th Nov – Applicants to finalise proposals based on revewier feedback

30th Nov – Proposals sent to PVC for review and approval

1st Dec – 31st Dec – Selected applicant finalised proposal based on PVC comments

14th Dec  – Final date for costings

31st Dec – Proposal submitted to Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust

 Would you like to apply?

 You can access the outline application form  by clicking here:  One page application form

All applications will need to be accompanied by your line manager (or equivalent) approval. Please forward an email with that approval to carolineo@bournemouth.ac.uk by the submission date.

If you have any questions about this call or the Resarch Proposal Review Service please contact Caroline O’Kane

Health and Wellbeing Conference

BU research, Research news

The HSC Health & Wellbeing Community held a very successful conference on Wednesday 19th September. More than 50 members (two thirds of the community) attended and there was a mix of speakers, posters, and interactive stands.

Carol Bond opened the day by challenging the community to use social media for networking. The audience had fun playing with QR codes.  This was followed by a short presentation from Edwin van Teijlingen on the REF. He encouraged staff to update their details on BRIAN if they had not already done so.

Picture shows Kip Jones

Picture shows Kip Jones

Attendees then heard summaries from the four presenters of the stands – Carol Bond, Kip Jones, Les Todres and BUCRU. This was followed by the opportunity to visit each stand and engage in discussion.

The morning finished with an introduction to Public Engagement by Rebecca Edwards, who also demonstrated how to remain unflustered despite interruptions from both the technology and the fire alarm!

 

Picture shows Andrew Harding, Kirsty Stanley, and Heather Hartwell

Picture shows Andrew Harding, Kirsty Stanley, and Heather Hartwell

 

Poster presentations were viewed over lunch. A variety of fascinating topics were offered by Sue Barker, Liz Norton, Andy Harding, Jilly Ireland, Eleanor Jack, Denyse King, Sheetal Sharma, Caroline Ellis-Hill, Edwin van Teijlingen, Audrey Dixon, Osman Ahmed, Heather Hartwell, and Clare Taylor.

 

 

 

Picture shows Bethan Collins and Oscar

Picture shows Bethan Collins and Oscar

 

The afternoon was given to presentations from Bethan Collins, Sid Carter, Vanora Hundley, Sarah Hean, and Angela Turner-Wilson, Marilyn Cash.

This was a very full day but so valuable in facilitating networking and highlighting the range of interesting work being done by members within the community.

 

RKE Development and Operations is launched!

Research news

We’ve had a team name change over the summer by merging the RKE Operations team with the Research Development Unit. The new team is called RKE Development and Operations, with each sub-team called RKE Operations and RKE Development respectively. The new team will be managed by me as Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, with Julia Taylor heading up RKE Operations and Corrina Dickson heading up RKE Development.

There are many benefits to be gained from a much closer working relationship, some of which have already been realised through the co-location of the teams in Melbury House. We already have posts which straddle both teams and there are efficiency gains to be made from linking our work up more effectively as well as improving communication about initiatives, bids, projects, etc and providing a more joined up level of service to academic colleagues.

There have also been some significant changes to the RKE Operations team. Five new colleagues have joined us this month – Brian McNulty, Eva Papadopoulou, Teresa Coffin and Sarah Katon have joined us as RKE Officers, and Gary Cowen has joined us as Assistant Management Accountant. A temporary structure has been put in place to cover the period from now until next summer. Rather than having three Senior RKE Officers we will have in place two – Paul Lynch will head up the pod responsible for all EU and KTP bids and awards, ApSci and BS; Jenny Roddis will head up the pod responsible for ST, MS, DEC and HSC. Thank you for all your patience over the summer whilst the team has been short staffed; we are now offering a full service again going forward.

You can access information on all the team members here: RKE Development and Operations

And can access a structure chart here: R&KEO structure chart

 

Discourses of Inclusion and Exclusion Conference – new sustainability symposium theme

BU research, Research news

I am co-ordinating a symposium on Issues of Inclusivity in the Sustainable University at the DPR annual conference to be held at the University of Greenwich, 9-11 April, 2013. The link is here.

If DPR (Discourse, Power Resistance) is new to you, it is worth saying that DPR is an annual conference, now in its thirteenth year, with an established and increasing international reputation: in 2012 41 nations were represented at the conference. Perhaps the simplest way to tell you about the conference is to give you some links. The conference website is here. You can find a list of DPR publications here together with a link to the conference journal: Power and Education.

Please consider submitting an abstract.

Chris Shiel

Study China Winter Programme 2012!

BU research, Funding opportunities, PG research, Research news

The Study China Programme, managed by The University of Manchester, is currently recruiting 200 students for the Winter 2012/2013 programme!  Study China is financed by the UK government to provide a three week student experience of Chinese language, culture and business. This  unique opportunity allows you to  experience life as a student in this fascinating, diverse country.  There are a number of bursaries available to contribute towards your own costs which are airfare and spending money, all other costs are funded by the UK government. The three partnership universities participating in this programme are :

 1) Beijing Normal University

2) Fudan University ( Shanghai )

Dates:

Arrive   – Sunday 16th December 2012

Depart – Saturday 5th January 2013

 

3) Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Dates:

Arrive –  Thursday 20th December 2012

Depart – Tuesday 8th January 2012

Eligibility: Open to Undergraduate, Masters (including PhD), Nursing Diploma, Foundation degree and HND students. You must be minimum of 18 years old at commencement of programme and holder of a valid EU/EEA passport.

Deadline: Applications will be processed on a rolling basis, it is anticipated that recruitment for this round will be completed by the end of October 2012 at the latest, so apply ASAP.

Further information & Apply:  Visit the Study China website

Read about previous BU students’ experiences on Study China here

 

New Library Resource: full text access to Nature.com

Guidance, Research news, Training

You will be delighted to discover that The Library have been able to make funds available to purchase a site licence to the full text of the journal Nature at Nature.com.  Full text access is current year plus a rolling 4 year archive.  This is complemented by access from 1997 to date (with a 12 month embargo) on Academic Search Complete and Medline Complete.

Notes on access:

  • on-campus access is IP-authenticated (therefore automatic);
  • off-campus
  • via mySearch
    • for the latest 12 months the user will need to follow the LinkSource link and if off-campus login by following the Institution login links
    • earlier content back to 1997 there will be a pdf link to the content on Academic Search Complete.

For help using e-journals, e-books, bibliographic databases (such as Scopus and Web of Science), bibliometrics and reference management contact the Library Subject Team for your School.

Media Education Summit 2012 @ BU.

Research news

This week, BU hosted the 5th annual Media Education Summit. Over 60 delegates attended from all over the world, to hear a wide range presentations and to take part in themed conversations about the scholarship of learning and teaching in our field.

Keynote speakers included Caroline Norbury, the new Chief Executive of Creative England. She set the scene for the Summit and challenged all media educators to “get out more”!

Next we had Ian Livingstone – remember the Fighting Fantasy adventure books in the 80s? He started the Games Workshop and is now President of the videogame company, Eidos, home of Lara Croft. Ian talked about his NextGen report and the ICT curriculum in schools, which is now gaining quite a lot of traction.

Paul Lewis from The Guardian shared his thoughts on collaboration and what he called “layered journalism”. He used his own reporting of the riots last year in London and Birmingham as a case study, and showed how he used Twitter both as a source and a means to get close to the unfolding story.

Jon Dovey from the University of the West of England talked about his REACT project, which is a collaboration between UWE, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter Universities. Funded by the AHRC, the project aims to bring together arts and humanities researchers and creative economy companies to work on a series of ‘Sandbox’ initiatives. It’s probably the best example of ‘Fusion’ I have ever seen, and has given us all a lot to think about.

The Media School’s Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP) started the Summit in 2008, as a forum to bring together those in the field of media and creative education. Since then we’ve been to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London and we are planning to hold the 2014 Summit outside the UK.

We filmed the keynotes, and they will start appearing on the website soon, if anyone is interested:

http://www.cemp.ac.uk/summit/2012/

Kennedy Scholarships 2013-2014

PG research, Research news

for postgraduate study at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 Open to: British citizens ordinarily resident in the UK who will have graduated by the time of taking up an award and who have spent two of the last five years studying at a university in the UK.

 Available for Graduate Programmes:

  • Special Student/non-degree
  • Master’s
  • PhD (external finding is welcomed for funded doctoral programmes)
  • Visiting Fellowship – Year of additional research towards UK PhD

 Award offers:

  • Full fees and health insurance
  • Tax free stipend of $2,500
  • Opportunity to be part of a Scholarship Programme valued by the Kennedy family and with distinguished alumni in leading positions in the UK and US.

 Closing date 28 October 2012

www.kennedytrust.org.uk

020 7222 1151

Frank Knox Memorial Fellowships 2013-2014 Harvard University

PG research, Research news

Fellowships are available for five graduates, men or women from the United Kingdom, to study for up to two consecutive years in one of the Faculties of Harvard. The value of each Fellowship is at least $26,000 plus tuition and health service fees.

 Information about the fellowships can be found here

 Details of the competition and an application form can be completed online here

 The competition is open to British citizens at the time of application normally resident in the UK who wish to attend the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, Graduate School of Design, Harvard Divinity School, Graduate School of Education, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Public Health and:

  • Are studying for a first or higher degree & will graduate in the academic year 2012-13; OR
  • Are a UK-registered PhD student hoping for an additional year as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard; OR
  • Have completed a first or higher degree and graduated most recently no earlier than 2008.

 Applications close 23.59 on Sunday 28 October 2012.

 Enquiries regarding the Fellowships are welcome. Please call Annie Thomas on 020 7222 1151.

Radio coverage of dementia research in Dorset

BU research, Research news, Uncategorized

Dementia has received a good bit of local coverage on BBC Solent over the last three days. This kicked off with a panel discussion featuring people with dementia talking about their experiences of living with dementia on Saturday ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrth3 Feature starts 1hr 4minutes into the show)

On Sunday morning dementia continued as a topic for discussion with the issue of how to make churches dementia friendly (available to listen to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrtlx (Feature starts 1hr 44 minutes into the show)).

Then on Monday morning Bournemouth University Dementia Institute were given the opportunity to talk on the News Hour about the low rate of diagnosis of dementia in Dorset and to highlight key findings from a project focusing on Dementia Friendly Tourism that Anthea Innes and Stephen Page have been leading that is currently being written up for publication. (feature starts 42 minutes into the show
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00xrtsw).

The whole notion of ‘Dementia Friendliness’ is one that is catching on in the UK and beyond with Dementia Friendly Communities being supported by the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge. The dementia work at BU embraces this concept and is actively applying it not only to the tourism and leisure research mentioned above but in our overall approach to our research and education work.

Support for your funding proposal from the RDU

Guidance, Research news

Why is the internal peer review of research proposals important?

  • The competition for research funds is high and is likely to increase.  Research Council funding presents a particular challenge – with the ESRC having one of the lowest success rates.
  • In recent years funders have expressed their growing concern over the number of poor quality research proposals they receive, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) taking the action to implement a ban on submissions from unsuccessful candidates who fail repeatedly and requesting evidence on steps institutions take to improve academic skills in producing research proposals.
  • Internal peer review has been credited with producing higher quality research proposals and increased success rates and is a process encouraged by the Research Councils.

What is the RPRS? 

  • It is a university-wide scheme, that manages the peer review of funding applications, and supports academics while they are developing or finalising their proposals.

Who reviews the applications?

  • The Peer Reviewers are a selection of BU academics who have a considerable track record in successfully gaining research funding, who sit on funding panels and who review research proposals for funders.
  • We select two reviewers to review your proposal.

Who can apply to the RPRS?

  • The service is open to anyone at BU and for any type of research funding.

What kind of feedback can I expect?

  • Peer reviewers will provide feedback on the proposed research in terms of topic selection, novel value, clarity of ideas proposed and advise on how the proposal can be further strengthened. They may also provide the names of potential collaborators where applicable.
  • The Research Development Unit will provide feedback on general structure and style, clarity of ideas, timescales proposed, estimated costs, potential funders, eligibility for funding schemes, and any potential ethical issues.
  • Feedback will be delivered within 3 weeks of submission – often before.

How do I submit an application?

  • Contact RKE Operations to obtain a rough costing for your proposal. RKE Operationswill guide you through the process
  • Send in a Word or PDF version of your electronic submission draft (such as Je-S) and submit to Caroline O’Kane
  • The Research Development Unit will undertake review of the proposal and forward to 2 experts
  • You will receive feedback within 2-3 weeks

Remember

  • Please allow sufficient time in your proposal development to allow for the  mandatory internal deadline of five working days for the submission of Research Council bids via the Je-S system.
  • This also applies to applications made via the E-Gap2 and Leverhulme Online e-submissions systems (affecting applications made to the British Academy, the Royal Society and the Leverhulme Trust).

Who can I ask for further help?

  • Caroline O’Kane in the Research Development Unit manages the RPRS and will answer any questions you have.

 

Find out how to apply for Joseph Rowntree Foundation funds

Funding opportunities, Research news

On 10th October,  Tony Stoller,  is coming to BU.  Not only is he Chair of Trustees for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, he is  also a media historian and a doctoral student at Bournemouth University.

Tony will be hosting a lunchtime session all about the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and how best to apply for JRF funds.

Tony will be talking about:

  • What is the JRF?
  • What kind of work does JRF fund? 
  • What does JRF look for in a proposal ?  
  • What can you do to maximise your success when you are applying to JRF?
  • How do you apply for JRF funds?

Why should you attend?  If your work is broadly concerned with poverty in the UK, communities and our aging society, then JRF will be  worth knowing about.  Come along and find out more about research funding opportunities.   

The detail:

  • Time:  1-2pm
  • Date: 10th October 2012
  • Place: PG146, Talbot campus

To attend: click here

For more information please contact Caroline O’Kane

 

 
  

Intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves eye-witness identification: RDF grant report

BU research, Featured academics, Post-award, Research news

In 2011 myself and Ben Parris from the Psychology Research Centre were awarded a small RDF grant to investigate whether intranasal inhalation of the hormone oxytocin can improve eye-witness identification.  We designed an experiment where participants viewed a short video-clip of a perpetrator stealing a wallet from someone’s bag.  Participants then inhaled either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray, and after a 45 minute interval to allow central oxytocin levels to plateau, were presented with a line-up of ten faces from which they had to either select the perpetrator or state that he was absent.  To date we have tested 70 participants and found a facilitation in the oxytocin condition.  In a second experiment, we asked participants to complete the ‘One-in-Ten’ task, a test of spontaneous eye-witness memory that has been well-used in previous work.  Again, we found a clear facilitation in performance in the oxytocin condition.

These findings follow recent work that has demonstrated that oxytocin can improve face recognition performance in standard cognitive tasks in lab-based settings.  In addition, work from our lab is currently under review for publication demonstrating that oxytocin can improve face recognition in individuals with prosopagnosia (face blindness).  This RDF grant has therefore given us the funding to carry out key investigations demonstrating novel applications of oxytocin inhalation in more applied settings.

I also presented findings from the oxytocin project at the April meeting of the Experimental Psychological Society, and was delighted to meet Dr Markus Bindemann from the University of Kent who is something of an expert in eye-witness identification.  We are now collaborating with Markus, and have plans to develop a bid to the Leverhulme Trust on the back of the publications that we hope will result from these investigations.  We are also about to welcome a new PhD student to our lab, who will be further developing the forensic aspect of this work in more real-world national security settings.

The pump-priming that was made available to us via the RDF scheme has provided us with the opportunity to collect the initial data and publication basis that we need to develop a large external bid, and we hope that this is the beginning of a fruitful line of research for our laboratory.

Latest BU REF Highlight Report now available

BU research, Research assessment, Research news

The latest BU REF Highlight Report (#12) is now available for BU staff to download. It covers the period from January to July 2012.

Features in this report include information about:

You can access your copy of the report from the following location on the I-drive (just copy and paste the following into Windows Explorer): I:\R&KEO\Public\RDU\REF\REF preparations\REF highlight reports

Dementia

BU research, News from the PVC, Research news

Most of us know someone touched by dementia – a friend, relative or loved one.  As the average age of our population grows ever older, the chances are some of us will be affected.

As such dementia is emerging as a new strategic priority for BU, with investment from our HEIF funds to create the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute, or BUDI as the team like to call it.  The team is growing rapidly working on a range of funded dementia projects with more in the pipeline. Working with the Director of BUDI Anthea Innes, Lee-Ann Fenge, Sue Barker, Vanessa Healsip, Michele Board have recently completed a review of Higher Education Dementia Curriculums on behalf of the Higher Education Dementia Network.  Work that reflects Anthea’s previous experience leading masters and undergraduate programmes in Dementia Studies and the dementia focus of social work and nursing colleagues within the School of Health and Social Care.  A number of research and knowledge exchange projects are underway including:

  • An ongoing programme of work funded by Bournemouth Borough Council involves the BUDI team delivering a range of activities via two different programmes; a ‘cupcake club’ and a technology group.  The evaluation report isn’t due until February 2013 so a lot is happening over the autumn months.
  • A BU Research Development Grant enabled an early collaboration between the Schools of Tourism and Health and Social Care.  This project led by Anthea Innes (HSC) and Stephen Page (Tourism) is currently being written up for publication and dissemination.  It is the first study to conceptualise ‘Dementia Friendly Tourism’ as an area worth investigation to try and improve the leisure opportunities for those with dementia and their families; but the project will also produce recommendations to  help advise tourism and leisure providers to enhance their provision to promote inclusion of those with dementia.
  • An international study GRIID (Gateway Rural International Initiatives in Dementia), involving partners from Australia, Canada, India, Sweden and the UK is also in the writing up stages following a policy synthesis and survey of Alzheimer Disease International (www.adi.co.uk) members.
  • European work is on-going too, focused on Malta where Anthea has long established links working on improving the quality of care offered in Maltese hospital wards
  • A multi-site NIHR project has just commenced exploring site loss and dementia for people who continue to live at home.  This is a collaboration between the Universities of York, BU, Cambridge, Worcester and consumer organisations; the Housing and Dementia Research Consortium (HDRC); Pocklington Trust supported by the Alzheimer Society and the Macular Disease Society

But this is just the start with money being committed by many of large funding agencies this is a societal theme of the moment.  BU is part of a large FP7 grant application currently first reserve for funding, and BU is coordinating a multimillion ESRC grant application with 12 other institution due for submission this autumn.  Working locally is also very much on the agenda.  Staff in BUDI are working for example in partnership with commissioners and clinicians across Dorset to secure funding via the NHS South of England Dementia Challenge fund with BU as the evaluator for a number of innovative local projects proposed by those delivering dementia care every day.

BUDI launched 16 May 2012 just three months ago and the progress is impressive, but there is also a long way to go to achieve its objectives of making a real contribution to improving the lives of those with dementia and those who provide support whether they be family or paid clinicians and carers.  This is not just an initiative launched from HSC but a cross BU one and I am delighted to announce the secondment of Samuel Nyman (Psychology, DEC) to BUDI to strengthen its work force and continue his existing collaboration with Anthea which includes a match funded BU PhD Studentship with Anthea Innes and Marilyn Cash which is looking at the role of gaming technology to support older men with dementia in rural areas.  BUDI is looking for staff who wish to engage from across BU and is truly multidisciplinary in its approach and reach.  There may be other who are interested in similar secondments and I would encourage them to get in touch with Anthea.  DEC and Tourism are already involved with BUDI contributing staff and time but there is huge scope for others to get involved for example in the Media School.  Why not drop Anthea a line and get in touch?

Also starting in September is Patricia McParland as BUDI Project Manager or Engagement Consultant, a post-doc appointment is pending, PhD student Ben Hicks will start soon and we will be advertising for an Associate Director for BUDI soon.  BUDI has the full support of UET and is receiving strategic investment to make things happen quickly; dementia is of the moment as illustrated by the Prime Minister Dementia Challenge launched earlier this year and it’s for BU to cease this moment.  BUDI offers the opportunity to have a real impact, to make a difference in our society, to develop practice and research and to do it quickly.  Please get involved and get in touch with Anthea or myself directly.