Category / student research

Academic Career Pathway to Research Funding – new pages

Guidance, PG research, student research

I posted last week a whizzy picture demonstrating the academic career pathway to research funding.  This has now been turned into new pages on the blog for each stage of an academics career in research.  The pages highlight the type of funding that you can aim for, what training and development is available to support this (through the RKEDF), and further resources that will support you in applying for external funding.  As well as the main summary page, there is a page for students, research fellows, senior research fellows, associate professors, and professors.

Have a look at what’s available through each stage of an academics career.  Links to these pages are also available in the Research Lifecycle – Your research strategy section and in the Research Toolkit.

If you have any queries about how to get started with your research strategy then please contact your RKEO Research Facilitator.

 

British Conference of Undergraduate Research 2017 takes place in Bournemouth

Student Engagement, student research

This week Bournemouth University will be welcoming hundreds of undergraduate students from over 60 universities to present their research as part of the 2017 British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR).

The annual conference is an opportunity to celebrate student research from across many different disciplines.  Since 2011, BCUR has been hosted by a different British university, with this year’s event taking place in Bournemouth.

BCUR gives students an insight into an academic conference and an opportunity to network with other student researchers, post graduates and practicing academics.  It also helps them to develop their confidence and presentation skills alongside honing academic strengths, all of which can help to boost their employability.

“We’re delighted to be hosting BCUR at Bournemouth University,” says Dr Mary Beth Gouthro, conference co-chair and BCUR Steering Committee member, “We’ve been supporting BU students to attend BCUR since its start at UCLAN in 2011 and the feedback we’ve received has shown how much they value and benefit from the experience.  Over 100 BU students submitted an abstracts to take part in BCUR this year, which is wonderful to see.”

“It’s really important to be able to share and celebrate the research being undertaken by our undergraduates,” explains Dr Luciana Esteves, conference co-chair, “Taking part in research, whether as part of a dissertation, alongside a business or as part of a placement, is a great way to develop skills which can be applied to many different careers.

“It can also help students to tackle real-world problems and develop contacts that may help them once they have graduated.  During the course of the conference, we’ll be hearing from students who have worked on fascinating projects with charities, government organisations and businesses as part of their research.”

BCUR will take place in the Fusion building on 25 & 26 April.  To find out more details about the conference visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/bcur17

You can find out more about some of the research BU’s students will be presenting here.

Student Research Assistant – awarded projects

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, student research

The following is a list of current awarded projects, complete with live job links, for the summer round of the Student Research Assistantship (SRA) scheme:

 

Prof Alan Breen – Spinal Image Processing Assistant

Prof Alison McConnell – Cardiorespiratory Physiology Research Assistant: Development and evaluation of a mobile device App to lower blood pressure

Dr Anita Diaz – Enhancing public engagement with co-creating science through our science co-creation website

Dr Ann Bevan – Understanding behaviour change towards healthy diet patterns in women of childbearing age

Dr Ann Luce – Student Research Assistant: Media and Midwifery

Dr Anna Feigenbaum – Building a Database on Housing in London

Dr Anya Chapman – Climate Change and Seaside Piers: Student Research Assistant

Prof Barry Richards – Research support for a book and for teaching on the psychology of politics

Dr Brad Gyori – Mobile Application Research Engineer

Dr Carol Clark – Exploring the evidence relating to intrinsic factors that predict falls

Dr Christa van Raalte – ‘Understanding Media Careers’ – Student Research Assistant

Dr Darren Lilleker – Post-Truth: the challenge to liberal democracy

Dr David Botchie – Gender and SME finance in Ghana

Dr Debbie Sadd – Digitisation of Volunteer Stories

Dr Desiree Tait – Exploring data relating to a pain beliefs questionnaire

Dr Desiree Tait – Self-monitoring in pregnancy: women’s views

Dr Donald Nordberg – Governing the BBC

Dr Elvira Bolat – ‘Investigating Forms of Leadership in a Digital Age’ – Student Research Assistant

Dr Elvira Bolat – Marketing industry competitions and their role in fusing research, education & professional practice

Prof Iain MacRury – Research Assistant: Global University Advertising Survey Data Project 2000-2017

Dr Ishmael Tingbani – SME Finance, Investment and Performance: Typology and Impact

Dr Jae Yeon Choe – Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces Research Assistant

Dr James Gavin – Daily Activities as Training Exercises for Orthopaedic Patients

Dr Janet Scammell – To co-create a systematic literature review for publication to support funded research study

Dr Janet Scammell – Qualitative data analysis from an education evaluation project and co-create project publication

Dr Jian Chang – Research Centre Web Developer

Dr Jian Chang – Virtual and Augmented Reality Content Developer

Prof Julian McDougall – Digital Outreach Research Assistant

Karen Thompson – Carbon Reduction Programme Analysis

Dr Katherine Curtis – A review of literature on the availability, use and impact of health Apps among an older people

Dr Lorraine Brown – Female Muslim tourists in the West

Dr Lucy Lu – Global Engagement Assistant

Dr Marcin Budka – Public engagement assistant

Mathew Charles – Digital Research Programmer

Dr Mehdi Chowdhury – Research Assistant: International migration and the trade in cultural goods

Dr Mel Hughes – Evaluating models of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in research

Dr Michael O’Regan – Dietary acculturation and Food Cultures at BU project

Dr Michele Board – ‘Evaluation of dementia training designed for hospital care staff’

Dr Michele Board – Student Research Assistant to review the literature on ‘What factors enable a more humanised approach to care in a residential setting

Dr Milena Bobeva – Research Assistant

Dr Milena Bobeva – Research Assistant in exploring the value of project-based experiential learning

Dr Nan Jiang – Optimising a web based decision making tool for cancer care

Dr Neelu Seetaram – An investigation of the types of tourism taxes imposed at destinations worldwide

Dr Nigel Williams – A visual tale of 3 Cities

Dr Rosie Read – From fieldwork to published article: Turning student ethnographic research co-produced publications

Dr Sangeeta Khorana – UK Trade Policy Post Brexit

Dr Shamal Faily – CAIRIS

Sharon Docherty – Visual perceptions and falls

Dr Shelley Thompson – Women, Science and Journalism Student Research Assistant

Simon Thomas – An investigation of the placement year on student’s career expectations

Dr Steven Trenoweth – A literature review of the factors affecting mental distress of Post-Graduate Research (PGR) student

Dr Tim Breitbarth – Sport and Society: Public Perceptions and Social Media Conversations about the Social Value of Sport

Dr Vanessa Heaslip – Mobile Web App for Migrants Project – Student Research Assistant

Dr Vanessa Heaslip – Supporting Educational Attainment, Progression and Aspiration of young, white disadvantaged males

Dr Viachaslau Filimonau – Food donations in the UK grocery retail sector – The role of local charities

Dr Viachaslau Filimonau – Tourism and (food) waste – a systematic literature review of an emerging research domain

 

Please promote these vacancies to students where applicable.  All jobs are live on MyCareerHub, our Careers & Employability online careers tool.  You will need to use your staff/student credentials to login.

Please do look out for SRA updates on the BU Research Blog.

If you have any questions about this scheme, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP and Student Projects) on 61347 or email sra@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

What is FoMO and how do you deal with it?

Student Engagement, student research

Students and staff attended 14:Live in the Student Centre, on Tuesday afternoon to hear from Dr Miguel Moital about FoMO.

FoMO is a fairly new area of research which looks into the psychology behind the ‘Fear of Missing Out’.

With the upcoming festival season, the session looked at FoMO in relation to festivals and marketing tactics used to convince consumers to attend.

Much of the research has been conducted by events management undergraduate students Ellie Taylor and Helena Jarman who previously worked on the topic as part of their dissertation.

Ellie was the pioneer conducting the first dissertation on the topic, whilst Helena worked with Dr Miguel Moital during June-July 2016 as a Student Research Assistant. Helena collated and organised material around FoMO in events leading up to the organisation of a workshop for local event professionals. The students created and provided a large amount of material for 14:Live.

The fear of missing out is a psychological fear that comes from a heightened sensation that everyone but us appears to be having more fun. Social media can often make us feel as though we’re missing out on socially driven events and experiences, because of posts from friends, family or even strangers.

FoMO appeals are often used by marketers to sell an event or product to consumers. Marketers often use specific communication tactics which play on someone’s emotions. This can include using ‘highlights videos’ and using techniques such as ‘75%’ sold out. This then encourages you to book early or attend at the risk of ‘missing out’ on the event.

Dr Moital commented “We looked at the types of emotions felt when experiencing FoMO, what it is people miss out on, how people may behave when they feel FOMO, the types of communication tactics that can be used when designing FoMO event marketing appeals, and what strategies can individuals reduce the levels of FOMO,”

“The session was very interactive and it was great to see a mix of colleagues from faculties and professional services, as well as a number of very engaged students.”

If you’d like to hear more about FoMO please contact Dr Miguel Moital.

14:Live is monthly lunchtime session, that discusses the different areas of research being undertaken here at BU. If you’d like to hear more about 14:Live please contact Hannah Jones.

‘How boards strategize’ explored in new student-staff study

student research

Marg Concannon

The strategy work of boards of directors has been a puzzle in the corporate governance literature for a long time. But the picture is becoming clearer, thanks to a paper soon to be published and co-written by a Master’s graduate and staff member in the Faculty of Management at BU.

After the financial crisis the work of boards became especially pertinent, for companies and public policy. Some boards — think of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS — manifestly failed both in strategizing  and in monitoring the performance of managers. The shortcomings contributed to a long, global economic malaise. Margaret Concannon earned an MSc in Corporate Governance with Distinction at BU in 2015 with a dissertation that examined how the work of boards has changed. Now, writing with Donald Nordberg, Associate Professor of Strategy and Corporate Governance, her study has become a journal article, due to appear soon in European Management Journal.

Donald Nordberg

Their paper, “Boards strategizing in liminal spaces: Process and practice, formal and informal,” shows how the theory of liminality, developed in anthropology to study rites of passage and adapted in organisation studies, can explain how, after the crisis, the increasingly hierarchical nature of the monitoring work of boards has pushed often strategy off the formal agenda. But strategizing has emerged again in new, informal settings and spaces, where the creativity possible in liminality can reassert itself. The paper explores what benefits that brings — and what risks.

BU alumni supporting innovation projects at BU

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Student Engagement, student research

Dominika Budka is currently working on an innovation funded (HEIF) project called: “Dinosaurs to Forensic Science: Digital, Tracks and Traces”. She graduated last year  (2016) having completed an MSc Forensic and Neuropsychological Perspectives in Face-Processing

Forensic technology and tools are advancing across the board, with the analysis of digital trace evidence being an exception. The techniques and tools used to capture and analyse footwear evidence have not changed in over a hundred years. This project is already changing the status quo by translating academic research on human and dinosaur tracks into tools for forensic practitioners to use. The product that has been  developed, DigTrace, is an integrated software solution for the capture and analysis of 3D data whether in a forensic context (footwear evidence) or in the study of vertebrate tracks and footprints. One of the  recent successes is the exhibit  the project team are  organising at the very prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, to be held in London in July.

 The project team were looking for a dissemination officer to help spread the word about the software and engage user groups both within the UK and overseas.  Dominika’s role involves working with external stakeholder groups, organising dissemination events, developing training materials and events for academics, crime agencies, forensic specialists, and UK police forces.

About working on the project, Dominika comented,  “I’m thrilled to be able to contribute to the project, which is not only well-aligned with my interests, but has also a huge potential for impact in terms of improving societal security. I’m working with a unique product set which can enhance global security by improving forensic practice, as well as criminal intelligence gathering and ultimately prosecution. The forensic context of the project is what I find most interesting as it links directly to my MSc”

To find out more about the project – click on the link: Dinosaurs to Forensic Science: Digital, Tracks and Traces

 

New publication: vital signs obstetric charts

PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Congratulations on the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences team which had its paper ‘Vital signs and other observations used to detect deterioration in pregnant women: an analysis of vital sign charts in consultant-led UK maternity units’ accepted by the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia (published by Elsevier). 
The paper compares: (i) vital sign values used to define physiological normality; (ii) symptoms and signs used to escalate care; (iii) 24 type of chart used; and (iv) presence of explicit instructions for escalating care. The authors conclude that the wide range of ‘normal’ vital sign values in different systems used in the UK and the Channel Islands suggests a lack of equity in the processes for detecting deterioration and escalating care in hospitalised pregnant and postnatal women. Agreement regarding ‘normal’ vital sign ranges is urgently required and would assist the development of a standardised obstetric early warning system and chart. The lead author of this new paper is FHSS Visiting Professor Gary Smith, his co-authors include FHSS staff Vanora Hundley, Lisa Gale_Andrews and Edwin van Teijlingen as well as three BU Visiting Faculty: Debra Bick (King’s College London), Mike Wee (Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Richard Isaacs (University Hospital Southampton).

Innovation funding now featured on Instagram !

Business Engagement, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, student research

Forming part of a media package to support innovation funding at BU, a new Instagram Account is now live. Oliver Cooke a third year student on the BA Honours Media Production course is developing a number of different media channels to showcase the range of Higher Education Innovation Funded (HEIF) projects at BU.

It can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/heif_at_bu/

This first image to go live comes from Matthew Bennett’s submission to the Research Photography Competition. (Read more about the HEIF project Matthew is leading on here: Dinosaurs to Forensic Science: Digital, Tracks and Traces

(Research Photography Competition now in its third year.)

Ollie is also working on a short video documentary and website as part of this project.

Ollie’s  experience with HEIF came from the time on his  work placement last year.  He worked within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) as the Student Engagement Co-Ordinator and had the chance to be involved in a number of initiatives including HEIF. Whilst reflecting on his time in RKEO and ideas for his Graduate Project, it was clear  that there are many interesting projects at BU.

Commenting on his chosen topic Ollie comented “It also struck me that here was an ideal opportunity to create some really engaging media content in order to showcase the innovation journeys and provide more information about innovation and knowledge exchange at BU. This will aim to highlight the people involved with HEIF at BU, as well as the research.”

Ollie has just started filming and the first footage has been shot involving Andrew Whittington (PI)  and BU student Christopher Dwen who are working on the project: “Sherlock’s Window: improving accuracy of entomological forensics at post-mortem criminal investigation using combined cuticular hydrocarbon and internal metabolite analysis.”

(Sherlock’s Window was also featured in the latest edition of the Bournemouth Research Chronicle: Edition 6, January 2017, Page 22.)

Bournemouth University students to present their research in Parliament

student research

Bournemouth University students, Georgia Robertson and Jordan Ezra, will be presenting their research in Westminster as part of the annual ‘Posters in Parliament’ event.  Around 40 undergraduates from universities all over the UK will be presenting their research to politicians, policy makers and fellow students.

As a country, we face a number of big challenges – energy provision, health and wellbeing, as well as issues such as sustainability – all of which research can help solve.  Posters in Parliament is designed celebrate the research of some of the UK’s undergraduates, as well as highlighting the achievements of the next generation of researchers, some of whom may well go on to tackle some of our biggest challenges.

Georgia Robertson, an Events & Leisure Marketing student, will be presenting her research into business-to-business marketing, which she began while on her placement year.

“Over the years, email marketing has developed a negative stigma, perhaps because of an increase in unsolicited contact in an attempt to generate businesses leads.  These are known as lead generation emails.  This stigma has led to a dramatic drop in engagement in business-to-business email marketing campaigns, which means it’s important for those involved in the campaigns to know how to optimise their success,” explains Georgia.

“I analysed data from over 500 lead generation email campaigns from my placement to see which variables influenced the success of those campaigns.  These included the subject line, email content and the links in the email.  By exploring these variables, I was able to identify the factors that led to success in email marketing campaigns, which I hope will be useful to businesses trying convert email contacts into customers.”

Jordan Ezra is a Digital Media Design student.  For his final year dissertation, he chose to explore the gradual dissolution of human rights by different world governments and intelligence agencies.

“I’m interested in current world events and particularly how the erosion of human rights has been justified by events of the last 20 years.  My research has shown that it’s becoming more difficult to tell the truth – an interesting conclusion, given the rise of ‘fake news’ stories,” says Jordan.

“By analysing events of the last 20 years, I found that legislation across the world is limiting our human rights through increased surveillance and co-operation with corporations, among other issues.  My analysis showed that the justification for this dissolution is related to events such as September 11 Twin Towers attacks and subsequent war on terror.  There’s an increasingly blurred line between privacy and security, which is beginning to spark debates around the need for more transparent democracies.”

Georgia and Jordan will be presenting their research in Parliament on 14 March.  Posters in Parliament is part of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR), which Bournemouth University will be hosting in April.  If you’d like to attend and support some of the BU students presenting their research at BCUR, please register on Eventbrite here.

Congratulations to your winners of the 2017 Research Photography Competition!

PG research, Student Engagement, student research

Bournemouth University researchers have given us a glimpse into some of their fantastic research, for the Research Photography Competition. The competition which ran in its third year challenged BU academics and students to capture the impact of their research in a single image.  Researchers from across BU and all its faculties entered the competition.

Entries to the competition demonstrated some of the research taking place both here at BU and across the globe from forensic investigation, midwifery in Nepal, meeting the identity needs of older people and looked at repairing trust in the service sector.

The competition saw an overwhelming response with close to 1000 votes from BU staff, BU students and the wider BU community.

Vice Chancellor John Vinney congratulated the winners on 9 March in the Atrium Art Gallery.

“It’s been brilliant to be able to announce the winners. There’s a great diversity of winners that really encapsulate the range and impact of research here at BU,” commented Vice Chancellor John Vinney.

Below are your winners:

 1st Place- “This is Me. I am Ron” by Chantel Cox

Chantel Cox, PhD Student, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

Chantel is a PhD student from the Faculty of Health and Social Science. She is looking at the cultural processes that underpin healthcare professionals meeting the identity needs of frail older people.

On winning first prize Chantel commented,

“It’s very exciting to win. It’s really good to get your research known about and out there in a different format. I’d like to use photography somehow in my research, so it’s really inspired me.”

2nd Place- The Compound Eye of Calliphora Vomitoria (Bluebottle fly) by Christopher Dwen

Christopher Dwen, Forensic Research Assistant, Faculty of Science & Technology

Christopher is a Forensic Research Assistant from the Faculty of Science & Technology. He’s been looking at the blood feeding activities of flies at crime scenes, as these can often be confounding. These patterns can help in instances of violent assaults.

3rd Place- A Concerted Effort to Repair Trust by Samreen Ashraf 

Samreen Ashraf, Lecturer in Marketing, Faculty of Management

Samreen is a Lecturer in Marketing from the Faculty of Management.

Samreen is a Lecturer in Marketing from the Faculty of Management. Samreen has been looking at the service sector and examining trust repair endeavours from various stakeholders’ perspective related to three different contexts: mis-selling financial services (e.g. PPI); HR issues in the retail sector (e.g. Sports Direct) and safety issues within the leisure sector (e.g. Alton Towers).

All entries from this year’s Research Photography Competition are currently being exhibited in the Atrium Art Gallery until 22 March.

PCCC success with industry-student collaborative research

Fusion, innovation, Student Engagement, student research

A project led by Dr. Georgiana Grigore, a member of FMC/CMC’s Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre, has received a prestigious industry award.  The Millennial Rules project won an award for Excellence in Research Presentation at the Media Research Awards, hosted by Mediatel on the 23rd of February. This is an example of innovative fused activity where students work with experts from media organizations and their tutors to develop and co-create excellent research.

Neil Sharman, a freelance researcher, delivered a guest talk for Consumer Culture and Behaviour that led to a collaborative project with the Marketing Society, Metro, Mail Online and CrowdDNA.  As part of this collaborative work, three students from the Marketing Society – Jack Goss, Iona Kelly and Emily Richardson – won £1,000 between them after impressing judges with their marketing insights. The students were selected with 10 others to take part in a special workshop day all about Millennials and the Media. The workshop was part of a research project for the Mail Online and Metro newspaper, which aimed to discover more about how Millennials use media. James Harrison, president of the BU Marketing Society at the time, added: “This was a really great opportunity for our members to take part in and the Marketing Society is pleased to have helped make it happen. We continually strive to organise events and opportunities that inspire our members and develop their knowledge in the world of marketing and advertising.”

 Neil, who came up with the idea of the project was impressed with the student’s enthusiasm. He said: “We had some start students in the room and we learnt lots from the insights they produced. They represented BU and their generation brilliantly.” Throughout the day the students worked on a range of tasks to define their marketing and advertising insights with help from experts at the Mail Online, the Metro and CrowdDNA. Neil wishes to pass his thanks onto the Marketing Society for contributing to the success of this project.

 

More details about it can be found here: http://www.millennialrules.co.uk

 

Vianna Renaud, Placement Development Advisor for FMC and doctoral student in CEMP, publishes article in the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Phoenix journal

PG research, Publishing, student research

The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) is the professional body for careers and employability professionals working with higher education students and graduates and prospective entrants to higher education.

As the focal point for sector-wide research and expert opinion, this issue of Phoenix focused on current best practice surrounding placements. With membership of over 2,800 careers and employability practitioners in over 160 HE institutions, as well as in other sectors and overseas, it is a leading source of current practice and information.

‘Bournemouth University has an established history of PAL leaders, and has successfully trialled Placement PAL pilot projects, with the 2016-17 year being the first year that Placement PAL was implemented across the campus. Contributing to this dedicated issue was a wonderful opportunity to share our success with the greater UK HE university community, potentially creating Best Practice amidst the sector.’

‘Given the growing numbers of BU students choosing a sandwich placement experience, this issue contains a wide range of related current and topical issues. As both a practitioner and researcher in the field, I would highly recommend staff to read this issue.’

http://communications.agcas.org.uk/newsletters/7/issues/747 

 

Research Photography Competition: voting closes Friday!

Student Engagement, student research

‘Can you convey the impact of your research in a single image?’ That’s the challenge we set BU academics and students this year. The overwhelming response saw researchers from across the university getting creative and utilising their photography skills. The photos give just a small glimpse into some of the fantastic work our researchers are doing both here at BU and across the globe.

Researchers from across the university, working in areas as diverse as science, marketing, health and forensic investigation submitted images to the competition. Now we want your help to pick the winners!

To vote click on the ‘Vote’ button below your favourite image on this page. Or vote by liking an image via our Facebook album. Perhaps a particular research subject strikes a chord with you, or you find a certain image especially evocative – whatever your reason, the competition winners are for you to decide!

The deadline for voting is 3 March and the winners will be announced in the Atrium Art Gallery on 9 March, by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney at 2pm. If you would like to come along to this free event please order your tickets here.

The full exhibition will then be on display in the Atrium Art Gallery from Thursday 9 March until Wednesday 22 March, so drop by and take a look.