BU Research Blog

January 10, 2017

Made in Dorset – Made for the Future: Invitation to attend sandpit on 1st February 2017

Funding opportunities, Training Emily Cieciura

Reminder to book by 20th January 2017.

If you have local business contacts who would like to attend, please send them the link to this blog post.

Engineering underpins human progress. …. Their work literally creates the fabric of society, whether the buildings we live and work in, the energy that powers our world or the transport networks that we use every day…. As with medicine, engineering expertise only comes with practice, by means of exposure to real-world dilemmas and techniques for addressing them. Engineering the Future

BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) will be hosting an event on Wednesday, 1st February 2017, at the Lansdowne Campus, exploring how BU can engage with the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering agenda.

What does this mean for me…?

Here are some examples of how you could contribute to this day:

Personalised healthcare requires technology but also input from those working directly with the end users and the medical profession to ensure efficacy and uptake
Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering does not exist in a vacuum and must respond to the changing global social, economic and political landscape
Animation and augmented reality already assist in visualisation and development across the engineering field, including automated production systems, infrastructure projects and forensic engineering
People are at the heart of any organisation – how do we ensure that engineers have effective management skills and managers understand the complexity of this sector?

So, who should attend?

We want anyone who thinks they might have something to contribute. We will also be inviting relevant external attendees to contribute to the day.

What do I need to prepare in advance? What will the day entail?

Absolutely nothing in advance. During the session, you’ll be guided through a process which results in the development of research ideas. The process facilitates creativity, potentially leading to innovative and interdisciplinary research ideas. These ideas will be explored with other attendees, and further developed based on the feedback received.

What if I don’t have time to think about ideas in advance?

You don’t need to do this but it will help. Attendees will come from a range of backgrounds so we expect that there will be lively conversations resulting from these different perspectives.

What about afterwards? Do I need to go away and do loads of work?

Well… that depends! This interactive day will result in some novel research ideas. Some of these may be progressed immediately; others might need more time to develop. You may find common ground with other attendees which you choose to take forward in other ways, such as writing a paper or developing a new placement opportuntity.

What if my topic area is really specific, such as health?

Your contribution will be very welcome! One of the main benefits of this type of event is to bring together individuals with a range of backgrounds and specialisms who are able to see things just that bit differently to one another.

So, is this just networking?

Definitely not! It is a facilitated session with the primary intention of developing innovative research ideas, which also enables the development of networks. It gives you the opportunity to explore research ideas which you may develop over time, together with the chance to find common ground with academics from across BU and beyond.

So, how do I book onto this event?

This event will take place on Wednesday, 1st February 2017. Please only book to attend if you can particpate in the full event from 09:45 – 14:00. There will be additional networking time from 14:00 – 15:00. To book, please complete the application form and return this to Dianne Goodman by Friday, 20th January. As places are limited, this will be assessed to ensure good mix of attendees with different perspectives. Places will be confirmed w/c 23/1/17.

This event is part of the new Research Knowledge Exchange Development Framework.

January 10, 2017

Writing academic papers: Workshop in Nepal

international, Knowledge Exchange, open access, Public engagement, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Bournemouth University has been working on a small research project with Pourakhi, a voluntary organisation which helps female migrant workers returning to Nepal, for over a year. Pourakhi advocates for the rights of women migrant workers. Last week they invited me to present a workshop session on Academic Writing & Publishing, this morning I run such workshop. The content of the workshop is based on years of experience of running similar workshops at Bournemouth University, many Higher Education colleges across Nepal and a COST-funded workshop in Malta a few years ago. The eight people (staff and volunteers) who attended the workshop were generally inquisitive and keen to get their work into print. Most of the paper we have written about aspects of academic writing and the publishing process have been published in Open Access journals. [1-8] Therefore, we can easily give workshop attendees copies and/or give them the links to the online version on the web.

Prof Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

Hundley V, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P (2013) Academic authorship: who, why and in what order? Health Renaissance 11 (2):98-101 www.healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Download/vol-11-2/Page_99_101_Editorial.pdf
Pitchforth E, Porter M, Teijlingen van E, et al. (2005) Writing up & presenting qualitative research in family planning & reproductive health care, J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 31(2): 132-135.
Simkhada P, van Teijlingen E, Hundley V. (2013) Writing an academic paper for publication, Health Renaissance 11 (1):1-5. www.healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Pp_1_5_Guest_Editorial.pdf
van Teijlingen, E., Ireland, J., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sathian, B. (2014) Finding the right title for your article: Advice for academic authors, Nepal J Epidemiol 4(1): 344-347.
van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Bick, D. (2014) Who should be an author on your academic paper? Midwifery 30: 385-386.
van Teijlingen, E, Simkhada PP, Rizyal A (2012) Submitting a paper to an academic peer-reviewed journal, where to start? (Guest Editorial) Health Renaissance 10 (1): 1-4.
van Teijlingen, E, Simkhada. PP, Simkhada, B, Ireland J. (2012) The long & winding road to publication, Nepal J Epidemiol 2(4): 213-215 http://nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/7093/6388
Hall, J., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E. (2015) The journal editor: friend or foe? Women & Birth 28(2): e26-e29.

January 6, 2017

Higher Education and Research Bill in the House of Lords – round up before the committee stage

Fusion, innovation, international, Public engagement, Training jforster

The committee stage in the House of Lords starts on Monday. The list of proposed amendments stands at 85 pages. We will be keeping an eye and reporting on the progress of the bill and progress can be tracked on the new House of Lords pages here. The bill itself (if you need it for reference) is here. So here is a round up ahead of the debates next week

My blog for the BU research blog on the Commons third reading
The Guardian 31^st December
UUK blog and briefing 6^th December raises the same 7 issues that they raised in the commons (which we support) -the briefing is attached. UUK also flagged three of these issues in a joint letter to the Guardian with GuildHE, calling for the Lords to amend the Bill to address probationary degree awarding powers, to stop the OfS validating degrees and to stop the government interfering in academic standards and course funding. Their 7 original issues were:

Ensuring the powers of the Office for Students and the Secretary of State are compatible with the principle of university autonomy
Separating ‘quality’ and ‘standards’ in the bill, and ensuring that academic standards continue to be owned by the sector
Protecting students, employers and the reputation of the sector by ensuring a suitably high bar to for new entrants
Strengthening checks and balances for giving and removing Degree Awarding Powers and University Title
Removing the ability for the OfS to validate degrees and clarifying its role as regulator
Ensuring the duties of the OfS reflects the diverse range of activities carried out by universities
Ensuring that the autonomy of the research councils is protected within the new UKRI structure.

The written evidence and transcripts of the Committee’s sittings are available on the Higher Education and Research Bill 2016-17 page of the Parliament website. This includes BU’s submission – we were one of only 11 HE institutions to submit individual responses (out of 63 sets of evidence). We did not attempt a comprehensive review as this was evidence submitted to the Public Bill Committee and not a consultation, so we addressed a selection of the relevant issues, but one of them was the way that the TEF approach muddles standards and quality – and these issues are noted in the Wonkhe blog on the difference between quality and standards. We were also concerned about the link between fees and the TEF, as noted, with other concerns, in our green paper response (see the VC’s blog for HEPI on this).

Amendments

This includes a number of government amendments, some of which are fairly technical (as happened in the House of Commons) and as in the commons there are a number of amendments that relate to things that are not covered in the Bill (and that the government will resist) – e.g. issues relating to immigration, student loans (Wes Streeting MP: Labour Lords will fight student loan repayment ‘scandal’), Syrian refugees, registering students on electoral registers, Sharia finance. Some of these amendments are very similar to those raised in the House of Commons – e.g. the OfS reporting on international student numbers. Several issues were previously raised, and dismissed, in the green paper process such as changing the name of the “Office for Students” to “Office for Higher Education” and suggesting that all registered providers should be subject to the same freedom of information requirements as universities are now. Changes relating to Brexit and immigration include “a condition that requires the governing body of the provider to collaborate with other registered higher education providers and with the OfS in the promotion of English higher education abroad through the GREAT Britain campaign, the British Council, or otherwise”.

New and interesting proposals include amendments to transfer all the powers of the Competition and Markets Authority relating to universities to the OfS, and to disapply the Prevent strategy.

Research Professional have an article about the government amendments to the bill strengthening the role of the OfS director – which have been welcomed across the sector.

In terms of changes to the detail of the Bill itself

There are some high level changes proposed– which reflect a great deal of sector concern, e.g. including provisions up front which state that universities are autonomous institutions which must uphold the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech. One amendment states that universities should not be “for profit” organisations.

There are long insertions in the bill relating to a new Quality Assurance Office to replace the Quality Assessment Committee in clause 23. See the Wonkhe blog on the difference between quality and standards

There is a proposal to replace the TEF with ratings on a scale of 1-10 which “may only be awarded for each aspect of each course separately” and “may not be published as an average or otherwise summarised for a course or a provider”. Other TEF related proposals include suggestions about verifying the metrics that will be used (ensuring that they will be linked to teaching quality, statistically valid etc.) and that the TEF arrangements must be approved by Parliament. On this topic:

a blog was published by the VCs of the University of Essex and East Anglia yesterday which argues that the NSS is an important part of the TEF because it ensures that the student voice is part of the process.
Times Higher 3^rd January – challenging why we need a TEF at all
the Chair of the TEF panel, Chris Husbands (VC of Sheffield Hallam) has written on Wonkhe – busting 5 myths about TEF.
Wonkhe have published an interesting analysis of the TEF metrics and benchmarking and how they work complete with data about the current likely outcomes of the TEF.
Wonkhe report that Professor John Raftery, vice chancellor for London Metropolitan University, has written for the Telegraph on the TEF, calling for the metrics to include a measure for number of qualified teachers in universities – something BU also called for in our TEF consultation response.
An expert in dyslexia has written a blog for Wonkhe on potential benefits for disabled students as a result of the implementation of the Teaching Excellence Framework with its focus on “split” metrics.

There is a proposal for a joint committee to be established by UKRI and OfS which will look at various aspects of how the Bill is operating and the sector, such as the health of the higher education sector, work relating to equality of opportunity, the health of different academic disciplines, knowledge exchange, skills development (amongst other things).

There are some helpful proposals about the confidentiality of concerns about institutions that may be at risk of sanction by the OfS.

There are extensive proposals for amendments to the information collection and publication requirements for the OfS – including contact hours, mental health of students, academic freedom and freedom of speech,

There are also extensive proposals for amendments to the process and requirements for new alternative providers. See also:

On research structures the amendments are towards the back of the Bill.

I have noted above the reference to the OfS and UKRI working together, and there are other proposed changes that link the OfS and UKRI such as requiring the OfS to consult with UKRI before awarding research degree awarding powers.
There are proposals to require particular experience for people on the UKRI board (see the proposed amendments to Schedule 9).
One amendment requires UKRI to encourage and facilitate co-operation between UK and overseas education and research establishments, and there are amendments requiring UKRI to recognise institutional autonomy.
One amendment requires UKRI to recognise Research Council autonomy and subsidiarity in decision making. There is a proposal (in clause 95) to ensure that funding is allocated separately to each council, Innovate UK and Research England and cannot be varied without parliamentary approval.
Similar Brexit/immigration related amendments as for the OfS are proposed relating to reporting on overseas staff and students.

January 1, 2017

New editorial co-authored by CMMPH Dr. Catherine Angell

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Fusion, international, Knowledge Exchange, open access, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

In the final week of 2016 the journal Health Prospect published our editorial on the importance of introducing nursing CPD in Nepal [1]. This editorial is based on a collaborative study between BU, Liverpool John Moores University (LJUM), Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal, Nepal Nursing Council (NNC), and the Nursing Association of Nepal (NAN). The BU part of the study is led by Dr. Catherine Angell based in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and funded by a small grant from BU’s Centre for the Excellence in Learning. Two of our co-authors from LJMU Dr. Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada are also Visiting Faculty at BU. The project is a true FUSION project as the Research, will inform Education (in the form of CPD) which will in turn improve Practice (of the many thousands of nurses in Nepal).

Health Prospect is an Open Access journal and therefore freely available for any one to read online.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Simkhada, B., Mackay, S., Khatri, R., Sharma, C.K., Pokhrel, T., Marahatta, S., Angell, C., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2016) Continual Professional Development (CPD): Improving Quality of Nursing Care in Nepal, Health Prospect 15 (3):1-3 http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HPROSPECT/article/view/16326/13255

December 30, 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Collard on new publication

international, open access, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today saw the publication of a new methods paper by Dr. Sarah Collard, post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the academic journal Health Prospect. This new paper addressed some of the key methodological issues associated with Internet-based Focus Groups (FGs) or the so-called Online Focus Group Discussions [1]. Traditional face-to-face FG discussions are a popular qualitative research method used a wide-range of areas, such as political sciences, marketing, health service research and sociology to name but a few disciplines. More recently, internet-based FGs have grown in popularity due to the growth of: (a) the internet, both in terms of technical capacity and number of users; and (b) the improved quality of communication software (e.g. Skype). This paper highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of conducting FGs online. Building on our experience of conducting traditional and internet-based FGs.

Dr. Sarah Collard is affiliated with BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR). Health Prospect is an Open Access journal therefore this article is freely available to any reader across the globe.

Reference:

Collard, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2016) Online focus group: New approaches to an ‘old’ research method, Health Prospect 15(3):4-7.

December 29, 2016

Promoting evidence-based policy-making in Nepal

Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

We had the honour to speak to Parliamentarians (MPs) in Kathmandu today (December 29th) as part of workshop to promote evidence-based policy-making. The workshop was organised by a consortium of three UK universities: Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Bournemouth University and the University of Sheffield. Fund the Fund supported this Advocacy Workshop with Parliamentarians and Policy Experts on HV and AIDS (Discussion series IV) in the Himalayan Hotel in Lalitpur in Kathmandu Valley. The workshop was attended by some 30 MPs from all major parties and three or four former ministers. The drive to increase evidence-based policy-making in Nepal is led by Dr. Gangalal Tuladhar MP.

Prof. Padam Simkhada from LJMU and BU Visiting Professor addressed ‘key challenges on evidence-based health care delivery in Nepal’ and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences compared selected different health-care systems in high-income countries.

December 5, 2016

How to Write a 4* Article

BRIAN, Guidance, Publishing, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Training, writing sastringer

Prof. Mark Reed

A fortnight ago Prof Mark Reed, Professor of Socio-Technical Innovation at Newcastle University and the man behind Fast Track Impact, tweeted some thoughts on how to write a 4* paper for the REF. He went on to explain his thinking in more detail in a guest post on the Research Fundementals blog, the post is published here with the authors permission.

_____________
How do you write a 4* paper for the Research Excellence Framework (REF)? It is a question I’ve asked myself with some urgency since the Stern Review shredded my REF submission by not allowing me to bring my papers with me this year to my new position at Newcastle University.

Obviously the answer is going to differ depending on your discipline, but I think there are a few simple things that everyone can do to maximize their chances of getting a top graded research output.

I’m going to start with the assumption that you’ve actually done original, significant and rigorous work – if you haven’t then there is no point in reading any further. However, as I am increasingly asked to pre-review papers for colleagues across a range of disciplines, I am seeing examples of people who write up work as a 2* or 3* paper that has the potential to get a better score. I should point out that I believe that there is an important role for 1* and 2* papers, and that I regularly write these on purpose to address a problem of national significance and frame it for the specific, narrow audience that is likely to be able to benefit most from my work. However, whether I like it or not, as a Professor in a research-intensive University, there is an expectation that I will be submitted as a 4* researcher, which means I need a few 4* papers as well.

You can see some more detailed thoughts on what I think makes 4* for different types of paper in this Tweet:

How to write a 4* paper for #REF pic.twitter.com/7P8fKw1pfU

— Mark Reed (@profmarkreed) November 23, 2016

As you’ll see from the discussion under that tweet though, my more detailed thoughts probably only apply to Units of Assessment across panels A-C, and probably isn’t relevant to the arts and humanities.

Having said this, I think there are a number of things we can all do to maximize the chances of our work being viewed favourably by REF panelists.

Write to the criteria: when I was learning to drive, my instructor told me that in the test I should make sure I moved my head when I was looking in the rear view mirror, to make sure the examiner noticed I was using my mirrors. We’re all used to writing to the criteria of funding calls, and in fact we are all perfectly used to writing papers to the criteria of our target journals. In the last REF, research outputs were judged against three criteria: originality, significance and rigour. Whatever the interpretation of these criteria in your discipline, have you made it explicit to REF panelists reading your work exactly what is original, and why it is so original? Have you explained and effectively justified the significance of your work? And have you included evidence that your methods, analysis and interpretation is rigorous, even if you have to use supplementary material to include extra detail about your methods and data to get around journal word limits?

Get REF feedback before you submit your work for publication: find out who is going to be reviewing research outputs for REF internally within your Unit of Assessment at your institution and ask them to review your work before you submit it. They may be able to make recommendations about how you might improve the paper in light of the REF criteria. Sometimes a little bit of extra work on the framing of your research in relation to wider contexts and issues can help articulate the significance of your work, and with additional reading and thinking, you may be able to position your work more effectively in relation to previous work to demonstrate its originality more clearly. Adding a few extra details to your methods and results may re-assure readers and reviewers that your approach is indeed rigorous. This is not just about doing world-leading research; it is about demonstrating to the world that your work is indeed world-leading. For me, these criteria are nothing new and are worth paying attention to, whether or not we are interested in REF. Meeting these three criteria will increase the chances that you get through peer-review and will increase the likelihood that your work gets cited.

Analyse and discuss good practice in your own area: the only way to really “get your eye in” for REF is to actually look at examples of good and poor practice in your own area. Below, I’ve described how you can design an exercise to do this with your colleagues. You can do it yourself and learn a lot, but from my own experience, you learn a lot more by doing this as a discussion exercise with colleagues who work in your area. If you can, take notes from your discussion and try and distill some of the key lessons, so you can learn collectively as a group and more effectively review and support each others’ work.

How to organize a discussion to work out what makes a 4* paper in your area:

Identify top scoring institutions for your Unit of Assessment (UOA): download the REF2014 results, filter for your UOA (columns E or F), then filter so it only shows you the outputs (column J), and then filter for 4* (column L), showing only the institutions from your UOA that had the highest percentage of 4* outputs. Now for those institutions, look across the table (columns L-P) to see which has the highest proportion of outputs at either 3* or 4*. For example, an institution may have 80% of its outputs graded at 4* and 15% graded at 3*, meaning that 95% of its outputs were graded at 3-4*
Download a selection of papers from the top scoring institutions: go to your UOA on the REF website, find and click on the institutions you’ve identified in step 1, under “view submission data”, click on “research outputs”, copy and paste output titles into Google Scholar (or your search engine of choice) and download the articles. You may want to select outputs randomly, or you may want to go through more selectively, identifying outputs that are close to the areas your group specialize in
Repeat for low scoring institutions so you can compare and contrast high and low scoring outputs
Discuss examples: print copies of the high and low scoring outputs, labeled clearly, and in your next UOA meeting, let everyone choose a high and a low-scoring example. Given them 10-15 minutes to quickly read the outputs (focusing on title, abstract, introduction, figures and conclusions so you’re not there all day) and then ask the group (or small groups if there are many of you) to discuss the key factors that they think distinguish between high and low scoring outputs. Get your group(s) to distill the key principles that they think are most useful and disseminate these more widely to the group, so that anyone who wasn’t present can benefit.

It would be great if I could tell you that these are my “three easy ways to get a 4* paper” but doing work that is genuinely original, significant and rigorous is far from easy. If you have done work that is of the highest quality though, I hope that the ideas I’ve suggested here will help you get the credit you deserve for the great research you’ve done.

December 2, 2016

COST Action Training School attended by FHSS Postgraduate Researcher Preeti Mahato

international, Student Engagement, Training pmahato

Last week I attended COST Action Training School BEYOND BIRTH COHORTS: from study design to data management which was conducted from November 23- 25 in Valencia, Spain. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a unique platform where European researchers can jointly develop their ideas and initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research. The specialist training to which I was invited focused conducting longitudinal cohort studies especially birth cohorts.
Various aspects of birth cohort were discussed during the training which included data collection, development of standard operating protocols for analysis of samples, techniques and tools to study biological samples, different methods of data analysis, and data management. Training also included the use of the R-package for data analysis and management. There were presenters from different countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Malta who were associated with the COST Action.
Overall this training was very helpful and I found it interesting to discover more about the COST Action, their objectives and activities and also about the data on birth cohorts including designing cohort studies and ways to analyse the data. I am sure it will help with my PhD fieldwork which links with the THET-funded project on mental health training for community maternity care providers in Nepal. My fieldwork in Nepal starts in January 2017. I would like to thank the EU for the funding and FHSS for the co-funding of the travel expenses.

November 17, 2016

Successful HEA Reaccreditation

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Training Jacqueline Priego

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) has reaccredited TeachBU and the PG Certificate in Education Practice until 2020 as routes to gaining national recognition as HEA Fellows. HEA Fellowship is an international recognition of a commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning in higher education and demonstrates that education practice is aligned with the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). To date over 75,000 individuals have become Fellows of the HEA.

The Accreditation Panel commended Bournemouth University on its commitment to the professional development and recognition of all staff that teach and support learning and the Academic Career Matrix, which further embeds the UK Professional Standards Framework within HR policies and processes.

They commented that the Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) is a driver of significant change and improvement across the institution and promotes research-engaged teaching which is aligned with the UKPSF. They also felt that there is an impressive infrastructure in place to support and develop the TeachBU provision and that participants are well supported by the clear guidance provided in the handbook which explains the requirements of each descriptor very well. Processes are well defined and the templates provided support applicants to structure their application to present the evidence of practice required.

We now have over 60% of BU academic staff with either HEA Fellowship and/or a recognized teaching qualification, with the ambition of raising this to 100% by 2018. Further details about TeachBU are available online here (via the ‘Working at BU’ tag on the staff intranet), together with details about upcoming introductory sessions and submission deadlines.

Dr Sue Eccles
November 2016

November 7, 2016

Royal Academy of Engineering – SME Leaders Programme

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Training jcodling

Are you working with engineering companies that would be interested in this funding opportunity?

Why not send them this information in order that they can consider making an application ?

The Royal Academy of Engineering, sponsored through the Enterprise Hub, invites applications for its small- and medium-sized enterprises leaders programme. This supports promising leaders of high growth engineering SMEs. Recipients receive a grant of between £10,000 to £15,000 towards the cost of training courses and executive education for themselves.

This scheme is open for applications by SMEs until 4pm on 24 November 2016. For further details on the scheme click on this link.

October 17, 2016

RKE Development Framework – online materials launched for ‘Introduction to the UK Research Councils’

Training Jennifer Roddis

RKEO have today launched the first of their online sessions for the RKE Development Framework. The materials available introduce the basics of UK Research Council funding, and can be found through myBU.

To access the materials for ‘Introduction to the UK Research Councils’, please login to myBU, and access the community ‘BU: Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework’. From here, you can navigate through the pathways (see left hand side of screen) to the Research Council Funding pathway and then into the session materials.

Any feedback on the materials is very welcome; we anticipate that these will be expanded on and improved over the coming months and feedback will be important in this. To provide feedback, please email RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk.

October 10, 2016

Festival of Learning 2017 – support for developing your event idea

Festival of Learning, international, Public engagement, Training Joanna Pawlik

Do you have a fantastic piece of research that you’d like to develop into a public engagement event but need help or ideas? Or perhaps you have an existing event that you’d like to make more engaging or take to a new audience?

Naomi Kay (Public Engagement Officer) and Genna West (Engagement and Impact Facilitator) are on-hand to provide support for planning your event, writing the proposal or just to talk through any ideas you might have. They will be based in the locations specified below, so please stop by!

If none of the slots suit you or if you would like to speak to either Genna or Naomi specifically, then please feel free to get in touch and set up a meeting to discuss your event plans.

In addition to these drop-in sessions, a dedicated training session will take place on Monday 31 October, focusing specifically on developing a public engagement event. The workshop will explore:

How public engagement can provide an opportunity to share your research with the public
Event design for public engagement events
How to engage the audience you want to target
How best to evaluate your events
What makes a good Festival of Learning event, with examples of effective past events

There will be dedicated time and support for individuals to create a new event to submit to the Festival of Learning. Find out more and book your place via Organisation Development here.

Date	Time	Location
Wednesday 12 October	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Wednesday 19 October	11am-12pm	Fusion Building – coffee area
Thursday 27 October	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Monday 31 October – Developing a public engagement event training session	1pm-4pm	Student Hall, Talbot House, Talbot campus Please book this session via OD.
Friday 11 November	12:30pm-1:30pm	EB204, Executive Business Centre
Monday 14 November	8:30am-10am	Fusion Building – coffee area
Tuesday 15 November	4pm-5pm	Executive Business Centre Cafe
Wednesday 23 November	2pm-3pm	Poole House Atrium
Thursday 24 November	11am-12pm	Naked Coffee Shop (next to RLH, Lansdowne)
Monday 28 November	9am-11am	Executive Business Centre Cafe
Thursday 1 December	8:30am-5pm	Talbot Campus Drop In
Deadline for event submissions – 4pm on Friday 2 December

September 26, 2016

New THET project paper published

international, open access, Publishing, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

Today saw the latest publication on our BU-led THET in Nepal. The paper ‘Needs assessment of mental health training for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives: a cross-sectional survey’ was published the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences [1]. This paper reports on a quantitative survey with nearly all Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi District in the southern part of Nepal. The findings illustrate the lack of training on mental health issues related to pregnancy and childbirth in this group of health workers. Thus the paper’s conclusions stress the need for dedicated training in this field.

This is the third publication linked to our mental health and maternity care project. In Nepal mental health is generally a difficult to topic to discuss. THET, a London-based organisation, funded Bournemouth University, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and Tribhuvan University in Nepal to train maternity workers on issues around mental health. This latest paper and the previous two papers are all Open Access publications. The previous two papers raised the issue of women and suicide [2] and outlined the THET project in detail [3].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

Simkhada, B., Sharma, G., Pradhan, S., van Teijlingen, E., Ireland, J., Simkhada, P., Devkota, B. & the THET team. (2016) Needs assessment of mental health training for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives: a cross-sectional survey, Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 2(1): 20-26. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/15793/12738
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E., Winter, R.C., Fanning, C., Dhungel, A., Marahatta S.B. (2015) Why are so many Nepali women killing themselves? A review of key issues Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 1(4): 43-49. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMMIHS/article/view/12001
van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Devkota, B., Fanning, P., Ireland, J., Simkhada, B., Sherchan, L., Silwal, R.C., Pradhan, S., Maharjan, S.K., Maharjan, R.K. (2015) Mental health issues in pregnant women in Nepal. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 5(3): 499-501. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/13607/11007

September 20, 2016

New paper Dr. Catherine Angell on CPD in Nepal

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Fusion, international, Knowledge Transfer, open access, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Catherine Angell (FHSS) who just had her paper ‘Continual Professional Development (CPD): an opportunity to improve the Quality of Nursing Care in Nepal’ accepted in Health Prospect. The paper is co-authored with BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada both based at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Dr. Rose Khatri and Dr. Sean Mackay (also at LJMU), Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery and Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), and our colleagues in Dr. Sujan Marahatta and Associate Professor Chandra Kala Sharma. Ms. Chandra Kala Sharma is also the president of the Nepal Nursing Association (left in photo). Health Prospect is an Open Access journal, hence freely available to anybody in Nepal (and elsewhere in the world).

This paper is first of several based on a study aiming to improve CPD in Nepal and it is partly funded by LJMU and partly funded by BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL). The CEL-funded part of the project centres on focus group research with representatives of the Ministry of Health & Population, the Ministry of Education, the Nepal Nursing Association and the Nursing Council, and Higher Education providers of Nurse Education (both form Government-run universities and private colleges). The focus group schedule will include starter questions to initiate discussions around the kind of CPD nurses in Nepal need, its format, preferred models, the required quality and quantity, and ways of checking up (quality control). In addition we will be asking a subgroup of nurses registered in Nepal about midwifery skills as midwifery is not recognised as a separate profession from nursing in Nepal. Hence there will be three focus groups specifically about midwifery CPD: one at MIDSON (the Midwifery Organisation of Nepal), one with nurses providing maternity care in private hospitals and one with nurses doing this in government hospitals.

The research is a natural FUSION project in the field of nursing & midwifery as it links Research in the field of Education to help improve Practice in Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

(CPD): an opportunity to improve the Quality of Nursing Care in Nepal, Health Prospect (Accepted)

September 16, 2016

Postgraduate Short Course Opportunities!

PG research, student research, Training hjones

PhD and MSC students! Are you looking to develop additional laboratory skills or about to undertake your own research work? Then now is your chance to get involved in some upcoming short courses at Liverpool Science Park. By working in a laboratory setting, these courses give you a chance to attain or further practical skills. With a high staffing level, this doesn’t just bring a wealth of experience, this also gives you a chance to discuss, interact and ask questions with researchers working both in academia and within the field. Please see below and follow the links for more information on how to book.

24 September- Discovering Practical Microbiology

30 September- Laboratory Skills

1 October- Introduction to Mammalian Cell Culture

3 October- Practical Skills in Drug Discovery

8 October- Genomics and Bioinformatics

5 November- Skills in Analytical Science

Accommodation? They’ve got you covered with bed and breakfast available for £32-£47 a night at Hatters Hostel

For more information email BioGrad.

September 12, 2016

AHRC Engaging with Government Programme

Training Becca Edwards

The AHRC have launched the Engagement with Government Programme, a three day course taking plan in March 2017 to provide researchers with insights in the policy making process and develop appropriate skills.

It is open to ECRs working in any areas of the AHRC’s subject domain.

The course will be held in London, 7th-9th March 2017. The call for applications closes on 7th October.

This is a great opportunity to develop the skills to ensure your research is shaping policy. Further details can be found on the AHRC’s website.

August 30, 2016

2 Nuffield students gaining hands-on research experience at BU

PG research, Public engagement, Student Engagement, student research, Training inessel

Group pic Nuffield During the last 4 weeks, Sophie and Rose (left and middle in the picture), two AS level students, have spent their summer holidays gaining hands-on laboratory research experience at BU during their Nuffield Research Placement. Together with Dr Simon Dyall and PGR Isabell Nessel (right in the picture), they have worked on a research project which is investigating ways to increase the intake of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in preterm infants. Rose and Sophie have been helping to develop and validate a method to measure the fatty acid content of preterm formula milks by using gas chromatography (see picture).

“As for the internship, I enjoyed it a lot. It was nice getting out of the classroom and working on something that had the potential to help people. I learnt a lot of new skills that’ll help me when I’m writing my application for university as it will show that I already have experience in a laboratory as well as give me a head start to any laboratory work I do in my degree. It’s shown that things often don’t go as smoothly as planned and you have to do a lot of problem solving and repeating along the way, but it’s also made clear to me that I do want to head in the direction of research in the future.” – Sophie

“This is the first year BU has offered Nuffield Research Placements and Sophie and Rose have been excellent students. The Placements give students the opportunity to get hands-on experience of working in a research environment, meet new people and learn new skills, and importantly help them decide if a degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subject is right for them. It has been a pleasure to host Sophie and Rose this year, and they have been of great help to our work.” – Simon GC Nuffield

“For me it was an excellent opportunity to develop my mentoring skills, get the chance to inspire younger students for a career in research, and getting some extra helping hands for my project. The girls were eager to learn and motivated for the lab work and I wish them all the best for their studies. Overall, it was a nice experience which I would recommend to other PGRs and their supervisors.” – Isabell

Many thanks to Sophie and Rose for their help and to the Nuffield Foundation for the organisation of the placements!

The Nuffield Foundation offers Nuffield research placement for motivated students during the summer holidays to discover what a career in STEM might look like. If you would wish to find more about the program or think of offering a placement yourself next year please click here.

If you would like to learn more about our research, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

Isabell

August 23, 2016

Bringing FUSION to Nepal

Fusion, innovation, international, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, Research Integritiy, student research, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

We have written in many previous BU blogs about progress of our THET-funded project in southern Nepal (e.g. here AND here ). Today’s blog reflects on the use on BU’s unique FUSION approach in our project ‘Mental Health Training for Maternity Care Providers in Nepal‘.

Our BU-led project brings highly experienced health professionals, such as midwives, health visitors or mental health nurses, to Nepal to work as volunteer trainers. The training is aimed at community-based maternity care practitioners and addresses key mental health issues relevant to pregnancy and for new mothers and offers the required communication skills. These health professionals will bring their experience as health care providers as well as trainers in the field of mental health and maternity care/midwifery, mental ill-health prevention and health promotion. They volunteer for two to three weeks at a time to design and deliver training in southern Nepal.

The Centre for Midwifery & Maternal Health (CMMPH) collaborates in this project with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the Department of Health, and Physical & Population Education at Nepal’s oldest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU). The project is supported in the field by a local charity called Green Tara Nepal. Our project is part of the Health Partnership such as Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET (Tropical and Health Education Trust).

Our maternal mental health project is a good example of BU’s FUSION approach as it combines EDUCATION (through the training of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives in Nepal) by UK volunteers (representing PRACTICE) through an intervention which is properly evaluated (representing RESEARCH) is a perfect example of BU’s FUSION in action. Moreover, the project will be partly evaluated by FHSS’s Preeti Mahato as part of her PhD thesis research. This PhD project is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell (CEL & CMMPH), BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (based at LJMU) and CMMPH’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.BU’s focus on the FUSION of research, education and professional practice is a unique variant of the way UK universities (and many abroad) blend academic teaching, research and scholarship. FUSION is a key concept derived from BU’s strategic Vision & Values).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Category / Training

Made in Dorset – Made for the Future: Invitation to attend sandpit on 1st February 2017

Higher Education and Research Bill in the House of Lords – round up before the committee stage

New editorial co-authored by CMMPH Dr. Catherine Angell

How to Write a 4* Article

COST Action Training School attended by FHSS Postgraduate Researcher Preeti Mahato

Successful HEA Reaccreditation

Royal Academy of Engineering – SME Leaders Programme

RKE Development Framework – online materials launched for ‘Introduction to the UK Research Councils’

Festival of Learning 2017 – support for developing your event idea

New paper Dr. Catherine Angell on CPD in Nepal

Postgraduate Short Course Opportunities!

AHRC Engaging with Government Programme

2 Nuffield students gaining hands-on research experience at BU

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