BUDI’s January 2016 Newsletter
Category / Biodiversity, Environmental Change & Green Economy
BU: A Fairtrade University – ten years in, up for an award and Fairtrade Fortnight on the horizon.
In 2005, myself, Amanda Williams and Sarina Mann were passionate about Fairtrade.
We set up BU’s first Fairtrade Steering Group (still going strong), Sarina and I wrote a booklet to explain the concept https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/the-global-perspective/files/2015/04/GuidetoFairTrade-final.pdf , and then we worked hard to gain accreditation for BU from the Fairtrade Foundation – achieved in 2006.
Ten years later, and I am delighted to say that we have retained our Fairtrade status throughout the period. The Steering Group meets each term (different membership but I have been constant). We have supported Bournemouth to become a Fairtrade Town and worked with Poole. We have delivered countless workshops. We are still running events. We continue to explore initiatives to educate others (collaborating with students, business, schools and faith groups). We continue to explain how Fairtrade, as an alternative, offers those in developing countries the opportunity to sustain themselves.
Fairtrade continues to be an element of BU’s sustainable development work.
This year, we have entered the South West Fairtrade Business Awards and have been notified that we shall be a ‘finalist’. The Awards are free to enter for all sizes of business in the South West region. Entrants can win either a bronze, silver or gold level Award – so while we are not sure at this point what we shall get – fingers crossed!
http://www.bristolfairtrade.org.uk/#!business-awards-2016/c21qo
Irrespective of what we win, it promises to be fun. The Awards Ceremony in 2016 will be hosted by Liz Earle MBE – one of Britain’s leading business women. She is best known for her passion for botanical beauty, natural health and wellbeing, as well as for environmental and sustainable sourcing. One of her latest ventures is Liz Earle Fair and Fine Jewellery (100% certified Fairtrade).
Later this year we shall also be holding further events to mark our ‘Ten years Fairtrade” celebration. Information will be forthcoming.
But before then, can I just end with a reminder to you all:
Fairtrade Fortnight is the 29 February – 13 March. The theme this year is
‘Sit down for Breakfast, stand up for farmers’.
We shall be celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight at venues across campus but we also need others to participate. Could you hold an event in your Faculty/Department – a Fairtrade Breakfast perhaps? Even better if you were able to introduce Fairtrade into your teaching during that two weeks – brilliant!
We should all be proud of BU’s Fairtrade commitment!
2016 Geovation Challenge – ‘How can we better manage water in Britain, sustainably?’
Competition offering cash prizes for the most innovative ideas that can be turned into a commercial success. The 2016 Geovation Challenge question is ‘How can we better manage water in Britain, sustainably?’
Funding body: Ordnance Survey
Maximum value: £ 20,000
Application deadline: 27/01/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Background
The Geovation Challenge was initiated, funded and managed by Ordnance Survey. Its current collaborators include Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, OCG, Springwise and United Utilities.
Objectives of Fund
The GeoVation Challenge aims to encourage open collaboration in addressing communities’ needs where geography is a key enabler. Open innovation, data, tools and information can be combined to create new ventures which generate social and environmental value.
The current GeoVation Challenge is focused on tackling the global issues around water. The Geovation Challenge question is ‘How can we improve water use in Britain sustainably?
Value Notes
The Programme is divided into two parts:
- Part one (phases one to three over a period of six months) provides a total of £10,000 in funding.
- Part two (for those who successfully deliver a prototype at the end of this and move on to phase four which is another six months on the Programme) provides an additional £10,000 in funding.
Funding will be given during each of the phases to progress the idea to the next level.
Those who are successful at phase four will receive help in seeking extra funding so that they have more than one source of investment and can move toward product launch.
Match Funding Restrictions
Match funding is not a specified requirement.
Who Can Apply
The Challenge is open to UK based organisations and residents over 18 years of age. This includes community groups, entrepreneurs, developers, innovators and local authorities.
Those who join the Programme will be expected to spend a minimum of 20 hours per week working on their project and attending core workshops at the Geovation Hub in London.
Restrictions
The following cannot enter the competition:
- Members of the civil service.
- Individuals involved in the administration of the GeoVation Awards Programme.
Eligible Expenditure
This year’s GeoVation Challenge is focused on tackling the global issues around water.
Ideas must help address the GeoVation Challenge question: ‘How can we better manage water in Britain, sustainably?’
The Geovation Water Challenge is focusing on five themes:
- Too little water.
- Too much water.
- Poor water quality.
- Ageing infrastructure.
- Water use behaviour.
How To Apply
Deadline(s):
The deadine for submission is 27 January 2016.
Frequency: Biannual
Link to guidelines: https://geovation.uk/challenge/#challenge
Useful Links
GeoVation
http://www.geovation.org.uk/
Geovation Challenge 2015: Water
https://geovation.uk/challenge/#difference
Useful Contacts
GeoVation
Ordnance Survey
Urban Innovation Centre
1 Sekforde Street
Clerkenwell Green
London
EC1R 0BE
E-Mail: challenge@geovation.uk
If you are interested please contact the funding development team within RKEO.
HSS Writing Week 4th-8th January – How can Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit support you?
The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is holding a Writing Week between 4th-8th January 2016 aimed at supporting staff to find time in their busy academic diaries to prioritise writing grant applications and papers for publication.
The Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit offers methodological and statistical collaboration for all healthcare researchers in the area. It supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across Bournemouth University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. It incorporates the Dorset office of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service who offer free methodological support to researchers who are developing research ideas in the field of health and social care.
BUCRU will be supporting Writing Week in HSS by holding two drop-in sessions on Tuesday 5th January and Thursday 7th January 12-2pm in R508 Royal London House. We would also like to extend the invitation across the other Faculties for anyone who feels we may be able to support them. For those unable to attend the drop-in sessions, we would be delighted to arrange an alternative appointment.
Please see further information here, contact our adminstrator Louise Ward on 01202 961939 / bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or visit our website. We look forward to seeing you!
Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme launched
The Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) has recently been launched. Bournemouth University is a participating member.
The scheme, announced at WSD-U-2014, is led by Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). IUSDRP is not yet another network but conceptualised as a systematic programme to pursue and publish research on sustainability. It meets a perceived need for a university-based set-up, focusing on research projects, scientific publications and PhD training on matters related to sustainable development.
It has a special focus on developing countries, whose participation in such networks is very limited. Members of IUSDRP have already collaborated in various papers published in indexed journals, and are actively seeking further cooperation via externally-funded projects and joint PhD training. Further details can be seen at: http://iusdrp.mmu.ac.uk/
A new paper has just been published by: Chris Shiel, Walter Leal Filho Arminda Paco, Luciana Brandli (2016). Evaluating the Engagement of Universities in Capacity Building for Sustainable Development in Local Communities. Evaluation and Program Planning, 54 (2016) pp. 123-134.
You can download the article and other articles here:
http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1S6JtY2iclgdU
The paper reflects on the potential of universities to play a role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working, thereby addressing the paucity of studies that consider the evaluation of the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development in local contexts. In order to achieve success in such initiatives, elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are required. The assessment in this paper is based on evidence relating to community engagement activities obtained from a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The extent to which capacity building in terms of sustainable development forms part of these initiatives is considered in depth, together with the different forms that this might take, as well as an evaluation of some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development and that this role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.
If you are interested in gaining further details about the network, please contact cshiel@bournemouth.ac.uk
HSS Writing Week 4th-8th January – How can Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit support you?
The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is holding a Writing Week between 4th-8th January 2016 aimed at supporting staff to find time in their busy academic diaries to prioritise writing grant applications and papers for publication.
The Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit offers methodological and statistical collaboration for all healthcare researchers in the area. It supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across Bournemouth University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. It incorporates the Dorset office of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service who offer free methodological support to researchers who are developing research ideas in the field of health and social care.
BUCRU will be supporting Writing Week in HSS by holding two drop-in sessions on Tuesday 5th January and Thursday 7th January 12-2pm in R508 Royal London House. We would also like to extend the invitation across the other Faculties for anyone who feels we may be able to support them. For those unable to attend the drop-in sessions, we would be delighted to arrange an alternative appointment.
Please see further information here, contact our adminstrator Louise Ward on 01202 961939 / bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or visit our website. We look forward to seeing you!
Ecosystem Services Partnership 2015 Conference, South Africa
Over 350 delegates from around the world attended the Ecosystem Services Partnership conference this year (9-13th Nov 2015) in Stellenbosch – near Cape Town, South Africa. Being fortunate enough to attend this year myself, I presented my research on assessing cultural ecosystem service; a multifaceted approach using various techniques including participatory GIS, spatial mapping, GPS tracking of visitors and use of existing data sets explored in relation to the New Forest.
Themed around nature, people and prosperity, the conference aimed to centre on the dialogue between public and private sector utilisation of the ecosystem services concept.
The largest conference of its kind, the keynote speakers were diverse. Highlights included Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition’s Mark Gough (the coalition aims to build clear guidance on how business can effectively and measure natural capital just like financial capital is measured). The conference was closed with an inspiring and convincing talk from ‘Gross Domestic Problem’ author Lorenzo Fioamonti (Professor of Political Science at the University of Pretoria) about the downfalls of using the GDP statistic as the only measure of an economy.
Arjan Gosal is currently working as a Research Assistant on the HEIF project: Modelling Natural Capital in Dorset.
Creating Impact: BU Partner of 1st German CSR Communication Congress
More than 200 communication and corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals attended the 1st German CSR Communication Congress last week in Osnabrueck. Due to management academic Dr Tim Breitbarth’s involvement in initiating, organising and moderating this successful event, BU was recognised as one of its academic partners.
This first congress was based on a collaboration between the German Public Relations Association (DPRG), the European Business Ethics Network Germany (DNWE) and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). Dr Breitbarth is a founding member of the CSR working group within the DPRG.
Welcoming speeches (e.g. from a representative from the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs), the keynote (from the editor-in-chief of a well-known business magazine), the panel discussion (e.g. with the director corporate sustainability of Tchibo and a board member of Transparency International Germany) and special workshops of the 1.5-day congress revolved around the rising relevance of internal and external CSR communication – e.g. in the context of increasing pressure to report on CSR; the need for constructive stakeholder dialogue; and in order to manifest internal support for sustainability strategies. Dr Breitbarth moderated the workshop on social media and online communication.
Mainly, attendees came from large firms like Aldi, Audi and German Telecom; internationally successful SMEs; leading sustainability and communication agencies; and influential civil society organisations. Reviews of the congress are widely available in respective German media. Feedback from participants very much suggests that the event built-up specific knowledge, provided inspiration to solve individual challenges and helped to create valuable business contacts. The second congress will be held in 2017.
BU featured by Kidney Research Charity
Bournemouth’s biomedical research features in this season’s Kidney Research UK ‘Update’ magazine (page 13). We share this issue with Lauren Laverne (sort of)!
KRUK is one of Britain’s leading kidney research charities and has awarded us an Innovation Award to identify genes that underpin the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in diabetes. The innovative part of the research is that it uses the fruit fly Drosophila – a novel tool in the research armoury that has helped us understand the genetic basis of human development and behaviour as well as cardiovascular disease. Research at Bournemouth will use unique genetic tools to establish how insulin signalling maintains the expression of evolutionarily conserved genes that regulate kidney function in both flies and humans. This simple model organism has enormous power to help us identify new pathways of clinical significance to CKD – a condition that affects and kills thousands of people every year in the UK.
If you are keen to learn more about the research – email me at phartley@bournemouth.ac.uk
New HEIF project commences: Modelling Natural Capital in Dorset
UK government policies relating to economic growth and the environment explicitly identify the need to create ‘a green economy, in which economic growth and the health of our natural resources sustain each other, and markets, businesses and Government better reflect the value of nature’ (Defra 2011). Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Local Nature Partnerships (LNP), including those in Dorset, were specifically created to support achievement of this goal. Key challenges are the need to assess the economic value of ecosystem services and to factor them into decision making; and the need to develop integrated and multisectoral approaches to spatial development that improve synergies and reduce trade-offs, while supporting the sustainable management of natural resources.
This project is designed to overcome these challenges, through the development of a modelling toolkit that will enable the value of ecosystem services to be assessed and mapped, then linked with economic activity. While analysis of ecosystem services is now a major international research endeavour, linkage with economic activity (such as the inputs and outputs of different industrial sectors) is at a very early stage. The toolkit to be developed by this project will therefore be both innovative and timely. By piloting the toolkit using Dorset as a case study, this project will deliver a proof of concept, with potential global applicability if successful.
Funded under the Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) initiative, any questions regarding the project can be addressed to P.I. Prof. Adrian Newton or Research Assistant Arjan Gosal.
Public engagement success – Biology Week in local school receives thousands of visitors
Saturday 10th – Sunday 18th October saw the celebration of Biology Week nationwide. To join the celebrations Genoveva Esteban and Daniel Franklin from the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (SciTech) took part in the Family Festival of Science on 10th October at the Thomas Hardye School (Dorchester), which was attended by over 1,500 visitors. Drs Esteban and Franklin organised two hands-on activities: Organisms that light up their world (funded by the Royal Society of Biology), with help from Wei-Jun Liang (Scitech) and his students who prepared some amazing glowing bacteria; and Ecology under the Microscope (funded by the British Ecological Society), showing how food chains work. Visitors came from far and near…Stroud Valley, Oxford, Devizes, Cranborne, Lyme Regis, Bournemouth, Wimborne, Portland, Sherborne and, of course, Dorchester. Visitors’ age ranged from babies in arms up to Year 12 helpers aged 17 and beyond to great grandparents. A very busy but tremendous day for everyone involved. Special thanks go to Mrs Judith Wardlaw, other staff at Thomas Hardye School and to all the 6th Formers that helped on the day.
BU very well represented in this year’s ERCS Festival!
The ESRC website lists its Festival events for 2015 and amongst the interetsing events is a record number of BU events! The full list can be found on the ESRC webpages, click here!
Pathways to impact: part deux!
This event aims to engage participants who attended a previous one-day ESRC Festival of Science event which took place in 2012 entitled, “Pathways to Impact: ageing, diversity, connectivity and community”.
Creatively mapping the coast
Children will have the chance to take part in a creative mapping exercise using coastal artefacts and pictures to create their own sensory and emotional maps of the topic, starting with the question of ‘how does it make me feel to be here?’
Safeguarding vulnerable adults from financial scamming
Older people are increasingly at risk of falling victim to financial scams that target vulnerable people, including mass marketing fraud via post, telephone or email and doorstep fraud.
This event will give practitioners, agencies and members of the public, the opportunity to come together to learn more about the threats posed.
Church as place: ethnography
This event asked the question:
- what meanings of place and space are constructed by secular or non-specifically religious and religious visiting of church buildings?
Creativity and dementia: making a connection
Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) will bring dementia awareness to life through running creative activities including a performance from the BUDI Orchestra – made up of people affected by dementia and musicians – poetry and technology such as IPads and Nintendo Wii.
Child deaths and poverty: disadvantaged British children!
Are British children disadvantaged compared to children in other Western countries? An analysis of data from global sources compares the standards of mortality, poverty and health funding for children and adults in Britain vs. those in 20 other Western countries.
Copyright reform: the implications one year on
One year ago, in October 2014, the UK Government introduced major changes to the Copyright Law with the aim of promoting innovation and creativity. These included a range of exceptions and limitations benefiting users as well as educational and cultural institutions.
Enhancing social life through global social research – event 1
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
Fused all ways: transdisciplinary insider research
A group of researchers from Bournemouth University are researching the lived experience of students entering higher education from and in ‘non traditional’ contexts. By bringing together research, educational practice and students as research co-creators, a unique lens is created through which to observe the question.
Increasing fruit and vegetable intakes: Why? How? – Event 3
The 5-a-day campaign went global after a recommendation from the World Health Organisation that we should all be eating a least 400g of fruit and vegetables per day. Variations on this message are repeated in countries all across the world. But does the message cause more confusion than good?
Enhancing social life through global social research – event 2
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
Enhancing social life through global social research – event 3
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Bournemouth University listed in top 800 global universities
Bournemouth University ranked just over the half way line in the top 800 universities in the world. Bournemouth University is in good company in the bracket (401-500) with other well-known universities such as the University of Cagliari (Italy), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Curtin University (Australia), University of Waikato (New Zealand), Louisiana State University (USA) or the University of Tampere (Finland) to name but a few.
The full list of 800 universities is available here!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
FOOD HARVESTING FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Researchers from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Fotini Tsofliou, Angela Turner-Wilson, Anne Mills and Juliet Wiseman, working in collaboration with Sarah Watson (Sustainable Food City Partnership) received a Grants Academy Pilot Scheme Award from BU. This funding has enabled us to undertake some exciting new work in the field of Community Food Programmes (CFP). These are widely used services that support people to access food. However at present there is little information from the users on the role of CFPs in building the capacity of the community towards healthy eating.
Focus groups provided fascinating insights into people’s views around food growing in the community. For example, participants said:
“it’s (community gardens) really good for your mental health, your physical health, growing things and for the children as well ‘cos a lot of children think peas come from a pan or from the freezer.”
“they (children ) enjoyed harvesting.”
“yes and they’ve (children ) learnt they can and they’ve eaten them”
“if it brings people together kids take ownership of it”
Work continues with gaining understandings of the role of cooking classes and lunch clubs in relation to community’s health and wellbeing.
Indonesian primate and elephant research programme: it started with FIF
Thanks to Fusion Investment Fund support in 2013 (sabbatical to myself that set things in motion) and 2014/2015 (SMN&CCCP for Ross Hill, Vijay Reddy and myself), we have managed to establish a well running training and research platform in Sumatra, Indonesia. The first students to benefit were MRes students Rosanna Consiglio and Helen Slater. They have written (more or less actively) about their experiences in their online blogs: Rosanna: http://indonesiasikundur.blogspot.co.uk/ and Helen: http://pisforprimate.blogspot.com/. Rosanna’s August post sums up the incredible experience she’s had during 8 months in Indonesia.
Ross and I also had a very productive time during our much shorter 2-week training and networking visit at the start of the fieldwork in January 2015 and we cannot wait to go back again in January 2016 thanks to a new FIF SMN grant to expand the network and training platform to include exciting new research and training opportunities in ecotourism and conservation of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant in a wider region throughout the iconic Leuser Ecosystem.
During our visit we started up a now well-established research and training programme on Landscape Ecology and Primatology, we call it LEAP. 
LEAP brings together a team of landscape ecologists, primatologists, biogeographers, and specialists in remote sensing, carbon stock assessment and forest inventory, led by myself and Ross Hill. Thanks to FIF funding and the impetus created by our visit to Indonesia we have presented several staff-student posters and papers at international conferences about LEAP research and had team meetings with other UK collaborators in Liverpool. We have now submitted several funding applications, of which our successful Marie S Curie Intra-European fellowship application is most notable because we will have a postdoc starting in October to analyse the data that our MRes students are returning with.
The aim of LEAP research is to develop methods for rapid assessment of forest structure and relate this to carbon stocks stored in tree biomass and habitat quality for keystone species. This research programme fits perfectly into the concept of FUSION as it includes a range of opportunities for students to get a global experience whilst contributing to world-leading new research with national and international scientists on applied conservation issues that are globally important. The programme is inter-disciplinary within life and environmental sciences but also includes colleagues from tourism Vijay Reddy and Susanna Curtin, to develop eco-tourism opportunities in the region and we welcome further collaborations.
Our personal visit to Indonesia has been instrumental in making Bournemouth University visible to the local stakeholders from the charity programme Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), the university of North Sumatra (USU), forestry and wildlife departments, and the people at the Sikundur field site. 
We could show the important skills we bring to this collaboration and are now well embedded into various research opportunities. We are the main primate community researchers at this field site (although Prof Wich from Liverpool John Moores and the SOCP remain the prime orang-utan researchers) and can truly call it a Bournemouth University field site.
The success of this developing international multi-disciplinary network has resulted in an opportunity to expand the focus to the critically endangered Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus). For that project we have been applying for several external funds with a Marie S Curie application for a postdoc fellowship due in on the 10th of September 2015 with a new collaborator, Dr Gaius Wilson from India.
We have been tweeting about the research, as have our students (e.g. #sikundur), and recently, a BU funded UG Research Assistant, Matthew Hammond, from the media school started up our new website. We plan to launch it fully at the start of this academic year. He also created the new logo you can see above give the research programme and learning platform a recognisable logo and to advertise all the exciting things that are happening at BU.
So what’s next for LEAP? The elephant conservation programme – work in progress.
Starting in September/ October: a PhD studentship, Kelly van Leeuwen, to study Ugandan savannah chimpanzees and their landscapes as part of the Institute for Landscape Studies and Human Evolution (ISLHE); a PhD studentship, Chris Marsh, to study the primate community of Sikundur; an MRes student, Emma Hankinson, to study the primates at Sikundur; Marie S Curie funded postdoc fellow, Cici Alexander, studying methods to assess carbon and analyse remote sensing data at Sikundur based on photographic data from drone-mounted cameras; and of course the launch of our website and various grant applications and conference submissions.
Please do not hesitate to contact me or Ross if you are keen to become involved in LEAP.
FoL event and an opportunity to get involved in co-creating conservation research
On Sunday Anita Diaz and Gitte Kragh joined with Michelle Brown and Darren Cook from the National Trust (NT) to run a joint BU-NT FoL workshop on the special species of Studland. We introduced our 70 guests to the amazing NT Cyril Diver project where Citizen Scientists and BU staff, BSc, MSc and PhD students have worked together to repeat a classic 1930’s survey of all the wildlife of Studland.
meeting the plants
Our guests learnt how these surveys help conservation by helping us understand how species respond to environmental change over time. Then we invited our guest to participate in lots of face-to-face opportunities to meet up-close some of the wonderful wildlife!
snakes
and spiders
Guests stroked snakes, stared spiders in their (8) eyes and squeezed spongy sphagnum mosses as they learnt about their ecology and how we can help conserve these and other wildlife.
If you would like to volunteer on the Cyril Diver project, or just find out more, then please contact Michelle on
Michelle.Brown1@nationaltrust.org.uk
No experience is needed as there are experts on hand and it’s a great way to learn and contribute to conservation while having fun!
Do you need a KIC?
The European Institute for Innovation and Technology (A European Commission body) has announced their Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) calls for 2016:
- EIT Food: Food4future: sustainable supply chain from resources to consumers
- EIT Manufacturing: Added-value manufacturing
To find out more and how you can get involved, the first port of call is the dedicated website, which includes slides outlining the announcement and timeline. There is also specific information for potential partners in the HE sector.
If you are not sure what a KIC does, the EIT website details:
As new types of partnerships within the European innovation landscape, KICs are characterised by the following features:
- High degree of integration: each KIC is organised around an independent legal entity, gathering world-class KIC partners from all the innovation dimensions. The specificity of the KICs is to integrate, for the first time at EU level, education and entrepreneurship with research and innovation. The EIT does not address education, research and innovation independently but instead simultaneously, as constitutive elements of a single innovation chain, to deliver incremental and disruptive innovation.
- Long-term perspective: each KIC is set up for a minimum of seven years to contribute to overcoming fragmentation via world-class, long-term, integrated partnerships. This long-term perspective enables partners to commit to a strategic initiative for a longer time than in traditional innovation policy initiatives. It also ensures that the KIC is able to focus on short-, mid- and long-term objectives, remaining agile enough to adapt to emerging needs from the field in which they operate.
- Efficient governance: strong leadership is a pre-requisite; each KIC is driven by a CEO and KIC partners are represented by single legal entities for more streamlined decision-making. KICs must produce annual business plans, including an ambitious portfolio of activities from education to business creation, with clear targets and deliverables, looking for both market and societal impact.
- The co-location model: each KIC consists of five or six world-class innovation hotspots, building and leveraging on existing European capacities. A co-location centre brings together diverse teams of individuals from across the Knowledge Triangle together in one physical place (usually within partners’ universities or companies), acting as a hub for many KIC activities, and combining competences and skills developed in different areas of specialisation at a pan-European level.
- KICs culture: Europe needs to embrace a true entrepreneurial culture, which is essential for capturing the value of research and innovation, for setting-up new ventures and actual market deployment of innovations in potential high-growth sectors. KICs are doing just this by integrating education and entrepreneurship with research and innovation and operating according to business logic and a results-oriented approach.
Still not sure? Take a look at the websites for the existing KICs: EIT Raw Materials, Climate-KIC, EIT Digital, EIT Health and KIC Innoenergy to see who is involved and what they have achieved.
BioBeach
The BU Bio-Beach Fusion Investment Fund project aims to increase biodiversity, public engagement and research on sustainable coastal development through design and build of novel structures that can be fixed to existing coastal defences on Bournemouth seafront. http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/impact/bio-beach/
With so many ‘known unknowns’ in terms of materials that could withstand this extreme environment this proved extremely challenging. Several designs for features, including artificial rock pools were developed by BU staff, which involved UG and PG students in focus groups.
Bournemouth Borough Council Tourism and Coastal Management staff supported the design process throughout and commissioned public artists and designers Ecclestone George to build 12 concrete ‘artificial rock pools’ to be installed on the groynes at Boscombe.
On 17th June 2015, small, medium and large pools were fixed across two groynes on Boscombe beach in an experimental array and will be monitored by BU staff and students. Prior to installation, the texture and roughness of the structures was recorded with a 3D laser scanner. Monitoring will include monthly assessments of the condition of the structures and the colonisation process.
Following successful field trips to Boscombe beach around 30 pupils at Avonbourne College and Harewood College from Years 7 – 9 worked on ideas and prototypes for the BioBeach project after school, supported by BU student ambassadors and the AspireBU outreach team. The pupils came up with designs inspired by everything from rubber ducks to scuba divers, which were made of sustainable and recycled materials including old rope and tyres.
Fay Lyon, Science Teacher at Avonbourne College, said: “I think it has been brilliant. They have really loved it”. “I think it’s the fact that it’s real world application of science – it’s really useful. These are genuine problems that need to be solved and they can contribute something for that. They have the chance to make a real difference.”
Several students gained the Bronze Crest Award from the British Association of Science.
http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/crest-bronze
In August 2014, BU STEM Outreach Team and BioBeach RA Ben Thornes took the project to the Green Man Festival Brecon Beacons, Einstein’s Garden – the largest Science public engagement event in BritainBioBeach to Einstein’s Garden
http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/08/08/a-summer-of-science/
BioBeach will feature at NERC public engagement event on Boscombe beach 4-5 July 2015.
BU Biobeach have provided materials for the new Seafront Visitor Centre displays and aquaria at Boscombe, that features interpretation of the Bay and its marine wildlife and BU Research
The project is on-going and we are seeking new opportunities to create new features and undertake further research and development.
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