Category / Creative, Digital & Cognitive Science

CEMP Research & Innovation Bulletin

Funding opportunities

Here is the updated CEMP Research & Innovation bulletin and agenda for the next cluster meeting – CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 28.3.13_KE

The cluster meeting is on Thursday March 28th, 9.30-11.30 in the CEMP office.

Thanks to Kris Erickson for these updates.

The ‘thinktank’ reading for discussion at the meeting is SURRENDERING THE SPACE Convergence culture, Cultural Studies and the curriculum

Thanks to Ashley Woodfall for this.

Expressions of interest in the funding opportunities in the bulletin and / or to confirm meeting attendance, please email julian@cemp.ac.uk.

 

 

 

Squeezing the pips from a conference with social media

BU research, Uncategorized

Please forgive the self-publicity, but I would like to share my recent use of social media to promote BU, research, a conference and papers.

Last week, I attended the annual International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) in the US, where I presented three papers, one with a US co-author. It’s the largest conference in the field, drawing 101 papers over three days and attendance in the order of 150-175 academics, graduates and some practitioners.

To broadcast involvement in the conference, I used my personal blog to present a daily summary of interesting papers:  http://fiftyonezeroone.blogspot.co.uk/. The blog posts have had over 210 visits so far and were also circulated on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. There have been many re-tweets (RTs), plus appreciative emails and direct messages via Twitter.

A short summary of “top 10 research tips” was written for the prmoment.com website which has around 30,000 users, worldwide. It was posted on the site’s blog and is included in this week’s publication: http://blog.prmoment.com/ten-pr-research-tips-from-bournemouth-universitys-professor-tom-watson/

The outcomes of this type of activity will be long-term and hard to measure, but as I was the only UK delegate at IPRRC this year, it has given BU, our research and industry knowledge an international platform of expertise and insight to present ourselves. The capital cost was almost nil, as I used my own netbook, Wi-Fi was free and the time component was less than an hour a day. Try this approach at your next conference or internal event.

Tom Watson presenting at IPRRC 2013

CEMP Research & Innovation Bulletin 14.3.13

BU research, Funding opportunities

The CEMP Research & Innovation Cluster bulletin for the meeting on 14.3.13 is here: Cluster bulletin and agenda 14.3.13.

The focus of the cluster is pedagogic research and innovation. Any colleagues interested in collaborating with CEMP to pursue any of the funding opportunities in the bulletin – please email Julian McDougall.

Cluster meetings take place every other Thursday. In the Thursdays in between, the bulletin will be posted here.

Media School team wins US grant for CSR research

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured academics, REF Subjects, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

A three-member Media School research team has been awarded a grant for research into Corporate Social Responsibility communication amongst employees.

Dr Tasos Theofilou, Dr Georgiana Grigore and Prof Tom Watson (L-R) gained the grant from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, a research center at the Penn State College of Communications.

They will be conducting a study in the UK and Romania to link with a previous study undertaken in Greece by Dr Theofilou. The study supports travel and the employment of research assistants for research in summer this year. Prof Watson, the project PI, has been named as a Page Legacy Scholar for 2013.

“Within the Media School’s Public Relations Research Group (the PRRes Gang), there is considerable expertise in CSR,” said Prof Watson.

“Dr Grigore is an organiser of an international CSR conference to be held at BU in the autumn, whilst Dr Theofilou is pioneering research into harnessing ‘scepticism’ as a factor in developing effective CSR communication within corporate organisations.

“This grant is very positive recognition of BU’s standing internationally within public relations and corporate communications research.”

# Arthur W. Page was a highly respected pioneer of public relations and corporate communications in the US from the late 1920s to the late 1940s at the telecoms giant, AT&T.

(L-R) Dr Tasos Theofilou, Dr Georgiana Grigore and Prof Tom Watson

 

Competition open!

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

The website is now live and features all the details of how to enter the competition.

The competition has already been presented to students at BU and AUB – we go on the road next week to start promoting it at other UK universities.

Details of both the competition and the festival can be found at www.bfxfestival.com

BFX

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

In November 2012 the VFX Hub – a HEIF funded initiative from BU and AUB, launched BFX, a 5-day festival of Animation and Visual Effects that will be held annually in Bournemouth.

One of the highlights of BFX will be a competition which aims to discover the best new talent in Visual Effects and will run from July to mid August 2013, with the winners being announced during the festival in September. Competitors will be expected to form teams of 4-6 members and will have to submit a written creative and technical treatment that explains in detail how they intend to produce an animated or VFX sequence in answer one of five specific briefs. Following the recent award of Fusion Funding the VFX Hub team will be presenting BFX to an international audience at FMX in Stuttgart during April, as well as pitching the competition to Animation and VFX students at several other UK Universities in the coming weeks – with the aim of attracting teams from at least 8 other institutions. The teams will live on campus at BU free-of-charge for the duration of the competition and each member will receive a £70 per week stipend towards their cost of living expenses. The work produced by the teams will mentored throughout the 6-weeks by professionals from Soho VFX companies Framestore, Double Negative, Cinesite, MPC and The Mill.

The rest of the festival itinerary will be updated on the website as events, venues and personalities are confirmed; it will include master classes, workshops, screenings, an exhibition and advice on careers and education.

Euro PR history network backed by Fusion

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, EU, Featured academics, Fusion, Uncategorized

IHPRC at EBC - Scene for first EPRHN meeting

A proposal to develop an innovative Europe-wide network of researchers in the history of public relations field has been supported by the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF).

The European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) was formed in mid-2012 by Prof Tom Watson and backed by EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education & Research Association) as a priority project for the next three years. It was set up to identify archives and resources, undertake collaborative research, and prepare bids to European research bodies and PR industry organisations.

The field of public relations history has been developed at BU over the past four years, mainly through the establishment of the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC).

Prof Watson said: “there has been increasing interest in the conference and PR historical research in Europe over the past 3-4 years but it has largely focused on national histories, personalities or phenomena. Collaborative research, across national boundaries, has yet to emerge. There is little shared knowledge of archival resources, where they exist or can be created.”

So far, 35 academics and practitioners from 12 countries have shown their interest in EPRHN. Its first publication, a catalogue of archives and resources in seven countries has just been published.  A EPRHN planning meeting will be held at BU after IHPRC in June.

Within The Media School, the network will also help develop European aspects of the Centre for Media History (CMH). CMH is already developing relationships with universities in Sweden and northern Germany. CMH and EPRHN will, it is hoped, foster the recruitment of PGR students interested in media and communication historical research.

The Fusion funding will allow EPRHN to hold a planning event at BU after IHPRC in late June and for Prof Watson and Dr Tasos Theofilou, who is working with him on both PR history projects, to attend EUPRERA’s annual conference in Barcelona in October. At EUPRERA, they will hold the network’s first formal meeting and workshop. [Photos by Minna-Liisa Nurmilaasko, PROCOM Finland].

IHPRC 2012

Fusion supports new PR research collaboration in Asia

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

Prof Tom Watson teaching at Chulalongkorn University

For several years, the Media School (TMS) has been developing a relationship with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Chula, as it is known, is rated as the No.1 university in the kingdom.

The SMN award allows the development of a collaborative project between TMS and the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chula to organise an academic conference on public relations in Asia in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The conference will provide a platform for academic research on public relations history, current theory and practice, and future trends. In particular, it will investigate Asian (i.e. non Anglo-American) perspectives of public relations and will be the first dedicated conference to do so.

Prof Tom Watson, who is a co-chair of the conference, says the SMN funding “will lead to the development of a sustainable academic and research partnership between the two universities. It will enable BU staff participation in cross-cultural research with Thai colleagues. The conference will also place BU in a leadership role on research into cross-cultural communications and international public relations.”

Dr Ana Adi is working with Prof Watson on the project. She taught at Chula in mid-2012 on a staff exchange. She and at least one other TMS academic will be attending the conference and presenting papers.

The conference collaboration started with attendance by Chula’s Dr Napawan Tantivejakul at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2011 at BU, which began a dialogue about a joint conference with an Asian focus. This was cemented when Prof Watson visited Chula in November last year as a visiting professor and negotiated the arrangements. It is hoped that there will be 16 speakers, plus two keynotes, and 50 delegates at the November event.

Developing a working paper at BU

BU research, Fusion, PG research, Publishing, Research themes

I would like to make you aware of an exciting development at BU.

A multi-disciplinary group of BU academics has been meeting over the last 6 months in order to design a online journal that is capable of acting as a central focus for the dissemination of the high quality research and scholarly outputs from UG and PG dissertations, post graduate researchers, early career researchers and established academic staff. The group has designed a developmental working paper online journal that will support ‘would be’ authors and their potential publications. Although particular emphasis has been given to maximising high quality outputs of UG and PG students and early career academics, this online journal will be capable of supporting the potential of all those engaged in research and scholarship at BU.

Below are a series of Q & As:

 

What’s the name of the working paper?

The provisional title is eBU: Working Papers Online

 

How is the working paper structured?

The working paper will not be limited to any one discipline or allied to any one particular methodology, but will aim to publish articles driven by the key BU Research Themes: (Creative and Digital Economies, Culture and Society, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Environmental Change and Biodiversity, Green Economy and Sustainability, Health, Wellbeing and Ageing, Leisure and Recreation, Technology and Design). Apart from the build-up to launch, the working paper will have no deadlines or specific calls for papers. Instead, the working paper will work on a rolling submission process.

A set of author guidelines and details about formats are currently being considered and written. However, the guidelines are likely to accommodate a wide range of formats.

 

What are the submission processes for staff and students?

It is envisaged that staff will act as gatekeepers and encourage undergraduate and master’s students to submit high quality work into a format this is publishable. Post-graduate researchers and academic members of staff will be able to submit papers on their own accord.

After a short review from the editorial board, two designated BU academics will provide an initial quality check. The paper will then be uploaded to the internal intranet working paper site. This will allow any member of staff or student to read and offer feedback. However, within a few weeks the two designed reviewers will then provide a more comprehensive and detailed critical review. All reviews will take place in a safe, secure and INTERNAL environment. After a detailed review, students will then be encouraged to make any recommended changes and submit to external publication/or make their work available to be published on external working paper website.

This working paper is set to go live in March.

 

Further information

If anyone is interested in becoming involved in helping to create this online journal, and/or at an editorial level please get in touch with Andrew Harding (aharding@bournemouth.ac.uk), Andrew Adams (aadams@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Fiona Knight (fknight@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

BU Creative & Digital Economies Research Theme

This theme has started to develop and has grown in  interest and critical mass over the past 12  months. Previous theme meetings have discussed the focus and direction of BU’s engagement in these important areas of economic and societal activity.

Another theme meeting is being arranged for 16th January (12-2pm) and in preparation for this I’d like to present the latest draft of theme. I’d be grateful if you could have a look at comment accordingly.

This theme brings together two emerging growth areas of economic and societal importance. The ‘Creative Economy’ is a significant contributor to economic wealth and growth in Europe and provides millions of jobs in the creative industries.  Closely aligned to this, the ‘Digital Economy’ represents the composite interaction of people, processes and digital technologies. By fusing both the creative and digital economies, this research theme aims to engage with the big socio-economic questions, not only of today, but into the future.

Scope of theme: what is included?

This theme would cover any area of investigation where the creative and digital economies have relevance, meaning and potential socio-economic impact.

How does this theme interlink with the other BU themes currently under consideration?

Since the digital world is increasingly embedded in all areas of life, we would see this theme linking with all other BU research themes. The drive toward multi-disciplinary research should encourage theme leaders and members to collaborate on the important social and economic questions of our time.

What are the big questions?

This theme aims to address a number of both societal and economic issues and questions.

Societal

  • How will digital technologies transform the way we work and communicate?
  • How do people engage with digital technologies?
  • How will stories be created and conveyed through digital media in the future?
  • What roles do trust, data protection and privacy play in a digital society?
  • What are inclusive communities and how best can we achieve them?
  • How do individuals and communities most effectively make their voices heard?
  • What is the role of social innovation and exchange in a digital world?

 

Economic

  • What are the determinants of economic performance and sustainable growth?
  • How can new digital products and services generate growth, jobs and help address social challenges?
  • How can the environment be improved to allow for early stage ideas and ventures to grow?
  • How do you building the case for investment in emerging digital infrastructure and platforms?
  • How has the digital world transformed new business models?
  • How are new business opportunities in and across new digital value networks and communities created?
  • What is economic value of intellectual property and who owns it?
  • How is the economic value of information and content exploited?

How does this link to the priorities of the major funding bodies?

Having reviewed the strategic funding priorities of various funders, it is clear that they are taking a more strategic approach to target investment where they believe impact will be greatest. Whilst producing research outputs with ‘societal impact’ has gained traction within academia the idea that research outputs should have an ‘economic impact’ suggests that funders will make strategic investments in ‘market driven’ research. Key words like creativity, innovation, and exploitation act like beacons in many funders strategic plans where the notion of the ‘transformative’ effects of digital technologies need to be understood. Broadly, funders investing in this theme are looking for research that;

  • Focuses on the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of community life, cultural, future society, and the economy.

 

  • Emphasises  the impact of digital technologies on how cultural products are made, distributed, and accessed, as well as transforming revenue streams and business models.

 

  • Contributes toward the creation of innovative new products and services that generate economic growth and jobs.

 

  • Is multi-disciplinary and collaborative research in order to better understand and find solutions to problems.

 

  • Engages with the business community in terms of co-created outputs and knowledge transfer.

 

  • Identifies impact goals, strategies for achieving them, and recording, measuring and communicating impact.

London 2012 – BU Creative & Digital Economies Exhibition

Whilst the excitement of the London 2012 Olympics fades into the memory, many stakeholders are turning their attention to idea of ‘Legacy’.

A successful application to the BU Small Grants Scheme enabled a small team in the Media School to promote our Creative & Digital Economies Research Theme at the Olympic venue in Weymouth. Working in partnership with UK Trade & Investment, we curated an exhibition of work by leading South West based creative businesses.  This project provided a unique opportunity to associate BU with an enviable and well-respected collection of successful innovators, whilst showcasing our engagement with the Creative & Digital Economies.

The exhibition was very successful and attracted over 100 local and national Creative Industries businesses. One of the recurring themes during conversations with these companies was the need for a greater understanding of appropriate business models, and in particular, how to develop new media technologies that translate into products and services.

The exhibition undoubtedly provided a unique opportunity associate BU with a once in a life time event, but there were more tangible outputs in the form of;

  • Exploring the potential for a KTP project with Entertainment One.
  • Scoping the potential for a joint Cisco Olympic legacy project.
  • Developing a dialogue with two local authorities for them to be involved in the BU Festival of Learning next year.
  • Using the local creative business network for a grant application to the Creative Industries iNets

 

Report from the ESRC Festival of Social Science

BU research

Bournemouth University was host to an ESRC Festival of Social Science event on 8 November 2012.  The one-day conference, organized by Professor Martin Kretschmer and colleagues from the Law School, sought to explore the complexities of developing empirical research to support public policy in domains such as copyright law.   In attendance at the conference were stakeholders from the Intellectual Property Office UK, the Cabinet Office, law professionals and academics from around Europe.  The day was structured around a series of panel discussions by representatives from policy, the media industry, and law, prompting lively debate around questions such as: ‘What is the status of qualitative research in policy decision making?’ and ‘How can we reconcile the differing legal and academic standards for evidence?’.

The conference was video recorded with the help of research assistants from the Media School and will be made available in full as a series of digital conference proceedings.

The conference was also an opportunity for Professor Kretschmer, Dr. Kris Erickson and Dr. Dinusha Mendis to present the findings of research they carried out during the IPO consultation on the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property.  The research seeks to evaluate possible economic impacts of any future change to UK copyright law to permit parody, caricature and pastiche of existing works.  Currently, parody is not explicitly permitted under UK copyright law.  The authors hope that this type of empirical research will help to illuminate complex public policy questions and strengthen the role of academic research in the policy process.

Below you may view a detailed presentation of the research from the ESRC event.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWbgZ63Ug9k

 

 

 

How Web 2.0 might revolutionise our research

BU research

Many of you will be familiar with the revolution that the internet is undergoing, with its growth of social networking, web applications, blogs and wikis. What I had not appreciated, until very recently, is what the full implications are for how we go about our research. I am sure that colleagues in DEC and the MediaSchoolare well ahead of the curve on this, but for the rest of us, the penny is perhaps only just beginning to drop. I recently attended a fascinating conference hosted by the European Social Simulation Association in Salzburg. This is a group of researchers united by a common interest in using computer programs to simulate human behaviour, and its implications for human society. This was very much a new arena for me; I was really attending to learn something about the agent-based modelling approaches that are the flavour of the month in these circles. But what most impressed me was the way researchers are now using web technologies to access data to explore in their models. For example, although I’d heard of “crowdsourcing” before, I’d never really seen it in practice, and what it can deliver. I was most impressed by groups using tools such as Twitter, together with mapping applications such as Google maps, to produce highly informative maps showing the movements and wellbeing of large numbers of people. A great example is what the LSE is doing to map happiness – yes, really – http://www.mappiness.org.uk/. Another example, from the University of Leeds, has been using Twitter to map the movements of commuters in and out of the city. What is perhaps most astonishing is that large numbers of people seem keen to participate in these research projects. Potentially useful tools being used by this research community include open source mapping initiatives such as Open Street Map http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and Maptube http://www.maptube.org/, as well as Survey mapper http://www.surveymapper.com/current.aspx. You might find this reference useful if you’re interested in learning more – http://ssc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/524

Proposed Copyright Hub to Streamline Copyright Licensing

Publishing, Research Integritiy

Recommendations for the establishment of a Digital Copyright Exchange, contained in a final report into its feasibility, have just been published following a Department of Business, Innovation and Skills funded study undertaken by Richard Hooper, click here.

Given the amount of digital material available and likely to be created in the future, it is essential to streamline the process of copyright licensing. Having easier mechanisms to obtain the appropriate copyright licences will benefit rights holders and potential licensees.

The report recommends the creation of a not-for-profit industry-led, industry-funded Copyright Hub, and the establishment of a steering group to drive forward and oversee the design and implementation of the Hub.

The Copyright Hub will have five main purposes, to:

  • act as a signpost and be a navigation mechanism to the complex world of copyright
  • be the place to go for copyright education
  • be the place where any copyright owner can choose to register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted
  • be the place for potential licensees to go for easy to use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing
  • be one of the authoritative places where prospective users of orphan works can go to demonstrate they have done proper, reasonable and due diligence searches for the owners of those works before they digitise them

The Government’s response to these proposals is awaited.

Creative Industries Convergence in a digital landscape – TSB Challenge

Funding opportunities, Research themes

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is investing up to £1.8m in feasibility projects that address the converged nature of the digital landscape. The programme will be delivered in three parts during 2012. Projects are sought which focus on convergence in hyper-local media models, content origination tools, and analytical feedback and metrics tools.

The TSB has identified convergence as a priority in its strategy for the creative industries (seewww.innovateuk.org under Publications). This competition is a first step in the TSB’s active commitment to explore the impact that convergence is having on emerging and innovative businesses. The feasibility studies supported under this three-part programme may also develop into submissions to a follow-on competition planned for 2013.

 

Challenge 2 focuses on projects that will lead to true cross-platform origination of content, the collaborative generation of ideas, and new business models for content based on cross-media formats and consumption.

Challenge 2 opens on 16 July 2012 and the deadline for applications is noon 22 August 2012. Successful challenge 2 projects must begin no later than 1 November 2012.

 

The competition is open to small and micro companies. Projects must be led by a business working either singly or collaboratively. Academics can apply but only as a partner in a consortium. Projects can attract up to 75% public funding. The total grant for each project will not exceed £56,250 and the total project size will not

exceed £75,000. Projects should last up to 12 months.

 

More information, click here

To apply for this competition you must first register. You can do this by going to the web page for this competition at www.innovateuk.org under Competitions. When you register you will get access to all the supporting

information you need to read before you apply, including the Guidance for Applicants and the application form.

Competitions helpline:

0300 321 4357

Email: support@innovateuk.org