A partnership has been formed between the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Health Research Authority (HRA), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
This partnership is looking to develop new assessment guidance and indicators as part of the CQC’s monitoring and inspection programme. This means that as part of inspection, an NHS Trust’s research activity will likewise be assessed. Research is recognised as a key factor in delivering quality patient care
Find out more here, including an article on the benefit of research for patients, that was published in the Royal College of Physicians member magazine, Commentary.
Museums are often perceived as dusty cabinets full off dead and ancient things, especially those institutions you’ve never heard off. You know the ones, the neglected pride of county towns that could play a vital cultural and social role but struggle for funding.
For some, technology is the answer, virtually recreating museums and their contents online, or launching fancy augmented reality smartphone apps that overlay videos of the real world with interactive computer-generated content. We certainly see the potential for such apps to make museums more exciting, especially to young people, and have recently been using them to bring dinosaurs to life.
But sadly our experience suggests visitors just aren’t keen on downloading these apps. So is there another way technology can help revitalise musuems and similar attractions?
Using the phone’s camera to scan a code on a notice board or flyer brings forward a 2D computer-generated image superimposed on the phone’s live camera feed. Users can see a troop of mammoths walk over the horizon with the real landscape behind, or have their selfies taken with a mammoth. We’ve since created our own free app that recreates augmented reality dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles and mammals in 3D, without the need to scan a code.
We deployed the mammoth and a T. rex at various events in 2017 and 2018, allowing visitors to pose for selfies. The tech was embraced enthusiastically, not just by children but by older generations as well. We found the sense of technological wonder coupled with a chance to strike a silly pose with an extinct animal really appealed to the visitors.
But when we first deployed the app at a museum, in summer 2018 at the Etches Collection on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, it challenged our thinking. In fact, it stopped us dead. When we had staff on site to show people what was possible with our own tablets and phones, the technology had an impact and people were excited to see it in action (although they did not always download the app). But no one engaged when we relied on posters and banners to encourage visitors to download and use the app.
We failed at the first step, not due to a lack of interest in the technology or in the 3D dinosaurs deployed, but due to the fundamental reluctance of visitors to download museum apps. We have since found this experience to be shared by others, such as Skybox Museum, who also struggle to get visitors to download their app deployed at their site in Manchester. In fact, the feedback we’ve received so far suggests that simply getting people to download a museum app, rather than a problem with the underlying technology, is the biggest obstacle to its success.
What makes people download apps?
To find out why, we immersed ourselves in a growing body of consumer-based research on smartphone apps. It turns out that the characteristics of an app are less important when it comes to getting people to download it than whether they trust the makers, and that brand loyalty and familiarity help build this trust. We also know that the potential for social interaction and pure enjoyment are more important than the usefulness or educational value of an app. People want to be entertained, engage with others and are wary of potential risks to their phones and personal data.
So when you’re asked to download an app at the doors of a museum, the default position is to decline. It’s a hard sell, especially if you have children in tow. Promoting the app in advance helps but, even if you overcome this reluctance, people still want a guarantee of fun.
What’s the answer? Games are an obvious possibility. Which regular museum visitor hasn’t seen a horde of children with clipboards on some form of quest or hunt? Promising a fun game is perhaps the key to getting children to try the augmented reality we know can change a museum experience.
The alternative is to make such resources available without an app, and we are exploring this. One solution might be to enable visitors to access it through their phone’s internet browser or via a standard QR code. Another idea we are trialling is to preload the technology onto a tablet hired like an audio guide at a museum’s entrance. As the software doesn’t need downloading it can be more complex, for example using locational technology such as GPS that can prompt the user to activate the device at a given spot and offer content tailored to their visit. But this would make social interaction and downloading those fun-filled selfies harder.
We believe that technology has much to offer the museums of the future. In fact, we would argue it’s essential to their survival. In particular, mixed reality, a form of enhanced augmented reality where real people and objects are displayed in virtual worlds, has some exciting potential to create immersive, engaging and educational content. But for once, the smartphone may not hold the key.
Do you feel there are any gaps in health and social care research? The NIHR are advertising the opportunity to submit your own idea, or ideas, for potential future research projects.
You can submit your idea here, and read example suggestions to help inspire you!
Once submitted, the NIHR will compare the suggestion with existing or ongoing research and will likewise seek advice from a number of stakeholders including patients and members of the public.
Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.
Supporting Health and Social Care Research
A range of resources and best practice success stories have been pulled together to make promoting research and its benefits to patient care more accessible to everyone.
The NIHR website now hosts a number of pages and resources, such as how the NIHR can help academic researchers to conduct and deliver research, and success stories from amongst the research community – access the following link to find out more.
Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.
The British Academy is currently inviting applications from UK-based early career scholars for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowships for Overseas Researchers. The Academy is an overseas nominating authority for this fellowship scheme.
Purpose of Fellowships
This scheme is for scholars in the UK who are at an early stage of their career and wish to conduct research in Japan for a period of 12-24 months.
The scheme, which is wholly funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), provides the opportunity for highly qualified young researchers based in the UK to engage and collaborate with leading research groups in universities and other research institutions in Japan. In its capacity as an overseas nominating authority for this scheme, the British Academy is able to nominate a quota of candidates each year.
Eligibility Requirements
For applicants to be considered for nomination by the British Academy, the research undertaken must be on a subject within the social sciences or humanities. Applicants must have received their PhD within the last six years prior to their application and must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. They must have a research proposal agreed with a host researcher employed at a university/research institution in Japan.
The scheme is not open to Japanese nationals, those who have permanent residency in Japan, or to applicants who have previously been awarded a fellowship under the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for Foreign Researchers.
Value
The scheme provides subsistence funding as well as a settling-in allowance and a return air ticket. The Japanese host institution may also apply through the Japanese host researcher for a “Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research” for cooperative research-related expenses.
Application Process
Applications must be submitted online using the British Academy’s Grant Management System, Flexi-Grant®.
Application and referee/head of department statements deadline and current UK host institution approval deadline: Wednesday 12 December 2018 (17.00 UK time).
Earliest start date for research: 1 April 2019.
Prof. Julian McDougll, Head of CEMP was invited to Brussels to give a talk in the Network of Experts on the Social Dimension of Education and Training (NESET II) and the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) on 22 November 2018. This is the 3rd annual conference organized by the European Commission, which is a major annual event aiming to encourage broader dialogue between policy makers at the EU and national levels and researchers, offering a fertile ground for information exchange.
The 2018 Conference focused on the topic of common European values, active citizenship and key competences. In particular, there is a need to further strengthen the promotion of common European values through education. This conference was oriented towards solutions and practices that demonstrated value and worked well for different levels of education.
As an established and pioneer researcher and educationist in media literacy, Prof. Julian McDougall and CEMP doctoral graduate Marketa Zezulkova were commissioned by the European Commission to produce a systematic review “Teaching media literacy in Europe: evidence of effective school practices in primary and secondary education”. This report detailed the latest research in the area of media literacy and media education and provided policty recommendations to the European Commission from four aspects:
Main competences to support media literacy in education: which should cover the competences of Access, Analysis and evaluation, Creation, Reflection and Action/agency. These competences work together to support students’ active participation in learning through the processes of consuming and creating media messages.
Media literacy education practices to address disinformation: The current media landscape has been marked by the spread of disinformation and ‘fake news’. Media literacy initiatives, including educational programmes involving journalists, have been shown to lessen the vulnerability of children to disinformation.
Effective teaching and learning media literacy practices at school level: which can involve various classroom-based methods (e.g. active inquiry, discussion-based learning, collaborative learning and educational leadership, game-based learning, etc.), most of which are based on active learning. Medium or genre specific pedagogical practices are commonly used in teaching and learning with media literacy (e.g. combined advertising and science literacies).
Key conditions for successful implementation of media literacy education practices in school: which is facilitated by approaches to pedagogy that combine and/or cross boundaries between spaces and roles — the classroom and the extended ‘third space’, teachers and students working in partnership to co-create learning, and professional development in hybrid combinations of physical and virtual networks.
The report ends with policy pointers for the European Commission. Based on the consolidated evidence on the ways in which media literacy can be taught, Professor Julian McDougall made suggestions to the European Commission on the best approaches to providing holisticsupport and resources to media education in the Europe.
This report has been accepted by EU and will be published online shortly:
McDougall, J., Zezulková, M., van Driel, B., Sternadel, D. (2018), ‘Teaching media literacy in Europe: evidence of effective school practices in primary and secondary education’, NESET II report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
The report also cites a mumber of other CEMP projects and publications on media literacy education, including research for the United Kingdom Literacy Association, Media Education Association, Samsumg and the US Embassy – for more information on these see https://www.cemp.ac.uk/projects/projects.php
*More information ABOUT NESET II NESET II is an advisory network of experts working on the social dimension of education and training. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture initiated the establishment of the network as the successor to NESSE (2007-2010) and NESET (2011-2014). The Public Policy and Management Institute (PPMI) is responsible for the administration of the NESET II network.
Can you tell a story of your research through photography?
That’s the challenge we set academics and research students at Bournemouth University. Photography is a great way to capture and share a different side of your research with other staff, students and members of the public. The last few years have seen our staff and students submitting a wide range of images summing up their research (last year’s entries can be seen below).
Want to enter 2019’s competition?
Whether you’re in the early stages of your research or it has come to the end, we are inviting all academics and student researchers from across the university to showcase your research through an image relating to this year’s competition theme – Place. This could include:
An image relating to the place your research was carried out,
Places that might be impacted by or benefit from your research,
The place that inspired your research
Your own interpretation of the theme
Whatever your idea is, we want you to get involved and get creative!
Here’s what you have to do:
Step 1: Take your photo.
Each image will need to be 300pi (pixels per inch) with physical dimensions equivalent to an A3 size piece of paper (297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 in). Images smaller than this tend not to have a high print quality.
Step 2: Submit the photo!
You may enter only one photo per person. Once you have the perfect image, all you have to do is submit it by emailing the Research account (research@bournemouth.ac.uk) before the deadline, along with a 100 – 200 word description of your research behind the image.
The submission deadline is 9 January 2019 at 5pm. Late entries will not be accepted.
Staff, students and the general public will then be able to vote for their favourite image. The competition winners will be presented with a prize by Professor John Fletcher in the Atrium Art Gallery, in March 2019. All photographs will be presented in the Atrium Art Gallery for two weeks in March so you’ll get a chance to see all the entries.
Considering we were late and included much of Monday’s news in the last update, this is a bumper update for you. Lots of data and lots of speculation about fees etc. We have managed to avoid the B word this week – as you will have had enough of it from all the other news sources.
Internships
Sophie Bradfield, the Policy & Campaigns Coordinator for SUBU, returns with another guest piece for us this week
Sutton Trust has published research today on graduate internships detailing that “39% of graduates in their twenties have done an internship, including almost half (46%) of young graduates under 24.” These statistics have a direct correspondence with research published in a Lancaster University HECSU-funded Graduate Resilience Project in 2016, looking at how students transition after graduating, where “45% of respondents identified a concern that they lacked relevant experience.” Pairing this with the competition for graduate jobs, it’s of no surprise that so many students seek to undertake internships. At BU gaining placements and real-world experience is a unique selling point and as BU proudly states on the placement information page “90% of our graduates have relevant work experience and this can give you a real head start in the competitive jobs market.” The Students’ Union at Bournemouth University (SUBU) is in absolute agreement that offering opportunities to gain experience can really help students to stand out from the crowd; learn transferable skills for employment; and increase employability and so we have a lot of extra-curricular opportunities on offer for students and collaborate with BU on a number of joint projects including recruiting paid students to be on programme review panels.
Congratulations to BU PhD student Dimitrios Vlachos who had his PROSPERO protocol published [1]. Dimitrios working on a project promoting the Mediterranean-style diet in childbearing age, he is supervised across faculties by Dr. Fotini Tsofliou and Prof. Katherine Appleton.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
The expert meeting included invitees from the industrial, policy and academic sectors thereby drawing on views from key stakeholders in this field. Representative organisations included the EU Intellectual Property Office, European Patent Office, CECIMO, Materialise, HP, Prodintec amongst others. Amongst the academics invited, Dr. Marc Mimler (Member of Advisory Board) of CIPPM was also in attendance.
The EU-funded project led by Professor Mendis (Principal Investigator) consists of other UK and European partners including University of Glasgow, Scotland; Added Scientific Ltd UK, Technopolis Group Vienna Austria, University of Lapland, Finland and Boehmert & Boehmert, Munich Germany. The project is currently in progress and is due for completion in May 2019.
The project aims to provide an overview of the past and current industrial applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in selected sectors whilst identifying potential challenges and opportunities in need of clarification. In essence, the Study will aim to formulate a clear picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) framework that could enhance the competitiveness of the AM sector in Europe.
Many congratulations to Dr. Nirmal Aryal, postdoctoral researcher in FHSS for his new publication ‘Blood pressure and hypertension in people living at high altitude in Nepal’ in Hypertension Research[1]. Hypertension Research is a prestigious journal published by Nature (Impact Factor of 3.4).
This is the first study of its kind to collect cardiovascular disease and risk factors related information at four different altitude levels above or equal to 2800 m and from ethnically diverse samples. This paper highlighted that despite known hypoxia-induced favourable physiological responses on blood pressure, high altitude residents (>2800 m) in Nepal might have an increased risk of raised blood pressure associated with lifestyle factors and clinicians should be aware of it. The authors previously published a systematic review paper summarizing global evidence on the relationship between blood pressure and high altitude [2].
This publication is available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41440-018-0138-x and pre-refereed version is available in BURO.
Well done!
Dr. Pramod Regmi & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References:
Aryal N, Weatherall M, Bhatta YKD, Mann S. Blood pressure and hypertension in people living at high altitude in Nepal. Hypertension Res 2018 doi: 10.1038/s41440-018-0138-x[published Online First: Epub Date]|
Aryal N, Weatherall M, Bhatta YKD, Mann S. Blood pressure and hypertension in adults permanently living at high altitude: a systematic review and meta-analysis. High Alt Med Biol 2016; 17: 185-193.
Regulating 3D printing has been the focus of attention recently, with the European Parliament adopting a resolution put forward by the Legal Affairs Committee to regulate 3D printing from the perspective of intellectual property (IP) and civil liability. The resolution was adopted in July 2018.
Around the same time, the European Commission commissioned a project exploring the Intellectual Property (IP) implications of the Development of 3D Printing signalling its commitment to this area. This project which commenced in May 2018 is being led by Professor Dinusha Mendis of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management (CIPPM) at Bournemouth University.
To speak about these developments and issues, Professor Mendis was interviewed by The Guardian for the ‘Chips with Everything’ programme recently. The link to the podcast can be found here (relevant segment from 15.10 minutes onwards).
The paper is based on research on research they undertook last year on the impact of Brexit on the social care workforce. A key finding is that, irrespective of whether they employ EU/EEA workers or not, research participants have deep concerns about Brexit’s potential impact on the social care labour market. These include apprehensions about future restrictions on hiring EU/EEA nurses, as well as fears about increased competition for care staff and their organisation’s future financial viability. This article amplifies the voices of managers as an under‐researched group, bringing their perspectives on Brexit to bear on wider debates on social care workforce sustainability.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Reference:
Read R, Fenge L‐A. (2018) What does Brexit mean for the UK social care workforce? Perspectives from the recruitment and retention frontline.
Health Soc Care Community [online first] :1–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12684
Last week was dominated by the Brexit political turmoil and no major HE reports were launched (although there are some coming later this week). The media continued to wring all the coverage they could out of the fee cut speculations and there was news on an American university who is currently registering with the OfS to takeover a London university college. And on Monday there was news for the TEF review and on accelerated degree fees.
TEF Review
The details for the Independent Review of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) have been announced. The Terms of Reference are here and the 2016 policy paper has also been shared here.
We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research. Title:Creative Technology Narrative Research Show Case
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM Date: Wednesday 21 November 2018 Room: F112 (Fusion Building) Abstract: The department of creative technology has an increasing number of student led research projects in the domain of interactive narrative. For this seminar we presents 3 short presentations from doctoral students in this area who are soon to present their work at international conferences: Farbod Shakouri – Connected Tangible Objects for Augmented Reality Narratives Introduction to exploring effective augmented space for interactive narratives, using connected tangible devices for real-time feedback. Weilai Xu – Generating Stylistic Dialogues for Narratives A discussion on presenting an approach for stylistic narrative dialogue generation and our dialogue modelling progress. Daniel Green – Discoverable Narrative & Authoring Tools A discussion on representing discoverable/observable narrative in games, authoring tools accessibility, our authoring system’s progress, and an upcoming experiment.
Here is the latest BU SWAN newsletter containing a summary of the information, activities and progress related to gender equality and SWAN work at BU from July to October 2018 . This includes information about the Department of Media Production’s Bronze SWAN Award, the work being undertaken to develop a BU Menopause Policy, and information about our high-profile research-active women in STEMM (celebrated as part of Ada Lovelace Day).