Category / Research news

Overview of the REF draft panel criteria – what are the subtleties between panels?

Guidance, Research assessment, Research news

At the end of July the REF team released the draft panel working methods and criteria documentation (see our previous blog post for access to the documents).

We’ve spent the week wading through the four main panel documents and have produced a very brief overview of the subtleties between the panels on key criteria (such as the use of citation data, co-authored outputs, additional environment data, etc) in a tabular format.

You can access the overview table here: REF – draft panel criteria comparison table

Unfortunately this is no substitute for reading the actual documentation (sorry!) but does highlight the key points and differences between panels.

These documents are currently open to sector-wide consultation until 5 October 2011. BU will be submitting a single institutional response coordinated by the Research Development Unit. BU staff are invited to submit feedback for consideration as part of this response. Please email all comments to Anita Somner by 20 September 2011.

links for 2011-08-02

Research news

Interesting research related webpages that were bookmarked on the BU Research Delicious pages this week:

 

 

Launch of the BU Research Development Fund

Guidance, Research news

It’s a beautiful summer’s day and to celebrate the new academic year the Research Development Unit has some exciting news – the launch of the BU Research Development Fund!

The Research Development Fund (RDF) is open to BU academics and will provide selective support to research initiatives considered to be of strategic importance to BU. There are two strands to the RDF: i) Small Grants Scheme (up to £2k per application); and ii) Large Collaborative Grants Scheme (up to £25k per annum, must include two or more Schools). It is envisaged that each year approximately 20 small grants will be awarded and one large collaborative grant.

Awards will only cover direct costs (i.e. overheads and established staff costs will not be reimbursed). Applications need to include a precise breakdown of costs calculated using full economic costing (fEC) methodology – this will be calculated for you by the CRE Operations team.

All decisions on funding will be made by the University R&E Forum (UREF).

An overview of the two schemes is provided below. For further information please read the Research Development Fund Policy.

RDF – Small Grants Scheme (up to £2k per award) – There will be three competitions per annum. Academic staff wishing to apply must submit an application form to the PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation) via the RDU by the scheme deadlines:

  • 31 October 2011
  • 28 February 2012
  • 31 May 2012

Priority will be given to applications that involve staff from two or more Schools and/or those from early career researchers.

Examples of research activities covered by the RDF include:

  • Pilot projects
  • Pump-priming
  • Interview transcription
  • Fieldwork
  • Visiting major libraries, museums, other research institutions, etc.
  • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants
  • Attendance at external networking events leading to collaborative research proposals
  • Meetings with external organisations to establish collaborations
  • Preparation of specialist material or data
  • Short-term Research Assistant support or replacement teaching
  • Research consumables and equipment (providing it is clear these would not normally be purchased by the School)

To apply for a Small Grant, please complete the RDF-SGS application form.

RDF – Large Collaborative Grants Scheme (up to £25k per award) – There will be one competition per annum. Academic staff wishing to apply must submit an application form to the PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation) via the RDU by the scheme deadline:

  • 1 December 2011

The RDF – Large Collaborative Grants Scheme aims to provide funding for the development of large-scale, complex, inter/multi-disciplinary collaborative research activities leading to external funding. Applications must involve academic staff from at least two BU Schools. Priority will be given to applications that meet the following criteria:

  • In line with BU’s emerging Research Themes
  • Include external organizations (particularly SMEs and/or international organizations)
  • In line with the strategic priorities of major funding bodies (such as the UK research councils, European Commission, etc)
  • Clearly beneficial to BU’s submission to REF2014

Examples of research activities covered by the RDF include:

  • Pilot projects
  • Pump-priming
  • Meeting expenses
  • Travel to proposed collaborators
  • Attendance at external networking events with the aim of expanding the network
  • Preparation of specialist material or data
  • Short-term Research Assistant support or replacement teaching
  • Consumables and equipment (providing it is clear these would not normally be purchased by the School)
  • Fees for external proposal support and review

To apply for a Large Collaborative Research Grant, please complete the RDF-LCGS application form.

Launch of the BU Open Access Publication Fund

Guidance, Publishing, Research news

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceBack in April it was announced that BU would be launching an Open Access Publication Fund in August 2011 (see the previous blog post here: BU’s open access publication fund to go live!).

Therefore, as of today BU officially operates a dedicated central Open Access Publication Fund (OAPF), launched in response to, and in support of, developments in research communication and publication trends. The fund is also to support research in complying with some of the major funding bodies who have introduced open access publishing requirements as a condition of their grants.

The fund is available for use by any BU author ready to submit a completed article for publication who wishes to make their output freely and openly accessible.

If you are interested in applying to the fund then you need to email Julie Northam in the Research Development Unit with the following information:

  • Name of the open access publication
  • Confirmation this will be a peer reviewed paper
  • A short justification (1 paragraph) of why it is beneficial for your research to be published in this particular open access publication
  • The cost of the open access publication
  • Likely publication date
  • Likely REF Unit of Assessment (UOA)
  • A copy of the paper

If you have any questions about the new OAPF then please direct them to me via email.

Further information:

REF draft panel criteria is now available

Research assessment, Research news

Two important REF documents are now available on the REF website:

1. The draft panel criteria and working methods for consultation. A summary of this will be added to the blog next week.

2. The analysis of panel membership is now available.

Panel criteria and working methods consultation – the consultation runs from now until 5 October. BU will be submitting a single institutional response coordinated by the Research Development Unit. BU staff are invited to submit feedback for consideration as part of this response. Please email all comments to Anita Somner by 20 September 2011.

The REF Guidance on Submissions document was released on 14 June, a summary of which can be accessed on the I-drive from: I:\CRKT\Public\RDU\REF.

Continuing importance of ‘Impact’ highlighted by HEFCE and RCUK

Research assessment, Research news

RCUK logoThe Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Universities UK (UUK) have issued a joint statement highlighting the continuing importance of the impact of research and making a commitment to developing common frameworks.  Both the REF (undertaken by HEFCE) and the Research Councils place a strong emphasis on the impact of research.

Their key aims are:

  • ensuring that their approaches to supporting knowledge exchange are joined up
  • securing greater impact from publicly funded research whilst ensuring their funding policies are complementary and work coherently together
  • ensuring that their monitoring, assessment and evaluation as well as the collection of statistical data from HEIs is proportionate.
  • supporting the training of new researchers, at both PhD and post-doctoral level, to ensure that they acquire the skills and expertise needed to maximise the impact of their own research.

The full statement is available on the RCUK website.

Upcoming Missenden Centre workshops – book your place now!

Research news

The Missenden Centre still has places available on a number excellent workshops this autumn/winter.

The Research Development Unit has some funds available to support academics and research support staff to attend. If you are interested please contact Julie Northam in the first instance.

Ensuring PhD completions for REF 2014
15/16 September
With: John Wakeford, Head of Missenden Centre and Fiona Denney, Head of Postgraduate Development at King’s College London
Special session for academic, registry and graduate school staff
http://www.missendencentre.co.uk/s1

Successful bidding: third of our day clinics
18 November
With: John Wakeford
Bring a draft or previously unsuccessful application for advice on how to turn it into an award-winning form.
http://www.missendencentre.co.uk/s4

Bidding for research funding: pathways to success
9/10 November for academics
10/11 November for research support staff
With Sarah Andrew, Dean of Applied and Health Sciences, University of Chester
Robert Crawshaw, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Lancaster University
‘The course was excellent. I think it will probably change my entire approach to writing grant proposals and will most wholeheartedly recommend it to my colleagues. So, once again, many thanks.’  Dr. Miriam V. Dwek, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, University of Westminster.
http://www.missendencentre.co.uk/s2

Effective supervision
12/13 January
Our unique preparation for supervisors and those with responsibilities for training them.
http://www.missendencentre.co.uk/s6

Speak to the Research Development Unit and book your place now!

Great events to launch the Digital Hub

Research news

We had two great events this week both hosted by the Digital Hub at Bournemouth University. The Digital Day on the 19th July took place at Kimmeridge House on Talbot Campus and the Digital Dinner at the Chewton Glen.

Both events were attended by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor John Vinney and by a range of businesses – large and small who had come to hear how Bournemouth University’s Digital Hub could provide them with knowledge and expertise to help them take advantage of the opportunities presented by the creative and digital economy.

There was a wide range of expertise on display – all of which you can find out more about on the Digital Hub website.

Delegates also had the pleasure of hearing an inspirational keynote speaker, Tiffany St James who, among a staggering array of roles, has advised the UK government on its social media and runs a series of workshops for The Guardian on digital media. Tiffany’s slides are available for download on this site. The event trended on Twitter (London) for 30 minutes #BUdigihub – testimony to the interest online and the live Twitter feed at the event.

Symplectic Elements: BU’s new research management system

Research news

I’d like to introduce you to Symplectic Elements – our soon-to-be new research management system. You might have heard colleagues talking about Symplectic Elements for a while now – the supplier (Symplectic Ltd) first visited BU to demonstrate the application in August 2009. I’m pleased to announced that we have now signed the contract with Symplectic and are in discussions with the supplier to determine the implementation plan. The aim is to have the system up and running this autumn.

Symplectic Elements is already used by lots of other UK universities, including Imperial College, Oxford, Exeter, Cambridge, UCL and Plymouth.

So what is Symplectic Elements and what benefits will it bring to BU? Symplectic Elements is a research management system. It will not replace any of our existing BU systems (such as BURO or RED) but it will link to them and join them together, sharing data between the systems. This means that BU staff will be able to add information to Symplectic Elements and it will be used in multiple systems. You will also be able to access research information from a single place. A single point of data entry will enable research information (such as publications data) to be automatically formatted and reused in other forums, such as in BU’s open access repository (BURO) and the BU staff profile webpages, without the need for duplicate or additional data entry. You will also be able to query data that appears to be missing or incorrect.

Symplectic Elements will provide academics with a simple ‘dashboard’ from which to view and manage their research information. This will also help when BU begins compiling data to meet the requirements of the REF.

How will Symplectic Elements link with the existing systems?

  • Symplectic Elements will link to our Research and Enterprise Database (RED) so you can see your current bids and projects. From within Symplectic you will also be able to link yourself to the PGR students you supervise.
  • It will link to BURO so that your research outputs are entered into the repository.
  • It will also link to a number of external publication databases (including Web of Science and Scopus) and automatically search these for your publications. When it identifies a paper it thinks might be yours it will send you an email and ask you to confirm it is your paper. If it is then all you will need to do is to tick ‘yes’ and Symplectic will create a record of your publication automatically. You will simply need to add a full-text copy of the paper (copyright permitting) and it will be uploaded into BURO.
  • Symplectic Elements will link to the new content management system and you will be able to choose which information is used on your staff profile webpage.

Timeframe for implementation: A broad steering group of representatives from across BU’s Schools and Professional Services has been formed to help feed into and guide the system’s implementation. A core project management group is currently overseeing the day-to-day tasks and will manage the initial data integration and checking. A meeting with the suppliers is scheduled for the end of the month. The system is due to go live in autumn 2011.

Further updates about Symplectic Elements will be posted on the BU Research Blog in due course!

Internal deadline expanded to include bids to: Royal Society, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust

Research news

At the start of the year ULT agreed to an enforced, mandatory internal deadline of five working days for the submission of Research Council bids via the Je-S system. This has been extremely effective in identifying and correcting errors in applications prior to bid submission, resulting in higher quality applications being submitted.

The University Research and Enterprise Forum (UREF) agreed yesterday to expand the five working days internal deadline to applications made via the E-Gap2 and Leverhulme Online e-submissions systems. This will affect all applications made to the following funding bodies:

  • British Academy
  • Royal Society
  • Leverhulme Trust

To enable BU to seriously compete for future Research Council funding, bids submitted by BU need to be of the highest quality possible. The Research Proposal Review Service (RPRS) has been established to offer advice to improve the quality of bids submitted. The RPRS is there to help you submit the best quality proposal possible – talk to Caroline O’Kane about putting your bid through the RPRS.

The decision from UREF to expand the internal submission deadline to cover these additional funding bodies is to allow sufficient time for the CRE Operations team to undertake the necessary institutional checks and also to provide the opportunity to make any required changes in a more considered, less pressured fashion. Five working days is the internal deadline advised by the Research Councils and other major funding bodies.

Academic staff will continue to be guided through the process and made aware of the internal submission deadlines by the CRE Operations team.

This change will take effect from 1 August 2011.

Research and Enterprise into Space

Research news

Space travel has been in the news recently with the last space shuttle flight on the 8th July 2011 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14063682). The ending of the operational space shuttle era which has lasted almost thirty years after its development has led to recent discussions concerning the future of NASA funding and space flight and research from national and international collaboration perspectives.

Here in the UK the European Space Agency (ESA) has a technology centre in Harwell headed by Martin Ditter. He explained the rational of the ESA UK location and the relationship with technology and research (http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/interviews/martin-ditter-of-esa-uk-harwell-research-centre/1000835.article).

In terms of enterprise ESA have recently opened a Business Incubation Centre to utilise mature space technologies to create opportunities within other business sectors. In addition Research Council, EU and KTP priorities include space as a preferred area. Other activity includes the UK Space Agency established in April 2011 as part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

At an educational level Space is identified a key subject area to enthuse young people and stimulate STEM subject interest. Space technology has a university undergraduate and master’s level presence at several universities linked with engineering studies such as electronics, aerospace, robotics and mechanical. Other related opportunities such as space tourism (http://www.virgingalactic.com/) will only increase public activity and interest in Space.

This could be an opportunity for HEI’s to develop niche research areas related to space.

REF Guidance on Submissions document released

Guidance, Research assessment, Research news

The REF2014 Guidance on Submissions document was released on Thursday and can be accessed on the HEFCE website here: REF Guidance on Submissions

We have prepared a summary document of the key points that can be accessed on the I drive: I:\CRKT\Public\RDU\REF

At the end of July the REF team will publish the draft panel working methods and criteria documents which will be open to consultation until the autumn. The Research Development Unit will be coordinating the BU response to the consultation – further details will be available once the documentation is released.

links for 2011-07-14

Research news

Interesting links tagged this week in the BU Research delicious pages:

Profiles reveal China’s rising global stature

Research news

A profiling exercise has revealed that top Chinese universities generate more research income per academic staff member than Russell Group institutions when the figure is adjusted for purchasing power. This is one of the many findings revealed by a comparison of elite groups of universities using a new Thomson Reuters application that draws on data collected for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. You can read more on all the profiles on the .

World Rankings: scholars respond to reputation survey

Research news

More than 17,500 academics (31% increase on last year) from 137 countries completed the Academic Reputation Survey. The survey (which is by invitation only for sampling purposes) data will be used alongside several other indicators to help build the 2011-12 World University Rankings, to be published in September, and will also be published in isolation from other performance indicators in early 2012 in the second of Times Higher Educations annual World Reputation Rankings. A video clip presented by Phil Baty, Editor of Times Higher Education, discussing the future of university rankings ios also available.

The Wellcome Trust has a blog!

Research news

The Wellcome Trust has an excellent blog which you can access here: http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com

The blog provides a place where researchers can share stories about the research funded by the Wellcome Trust. Over the past few months blog posts have been added about a huge variety of research projects covering everything from the neuroscience of language and masculinity and madness in the Victorian age to stem cells and drug screening and brain imaging.

Why not check it out and read about the excellent research being undertaken! As with our Research Blog you can choose to subscribe to receive regular email updates. There is a subscribe box on the right hand side of the home page.

Information Commissioner forces UEA to release data to Oxford academic

Research news

The Information Commissioner’s Office ordered the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit to disclose its CRUTEM dataset to Jonathan Jones from Oxford University after he used the Freedom of Information Act. Jones requested access to the CRU archive of world temperature data – recorded jointly with the Met Office – back in 2009, and it was in June this year the ruling was made and the University given one month to deliver the data.