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Apply now: the Research Impact Fund is open for 2021/22!

Funding opportunities

We are pleased to announce that the Research Impact Fund is now open for applications.

This call is for researchers at all stages of their careers to support the planning and development of impact from new or ongoing research. For 2021/22, the fund has been split into two strands:

Strand 1: To support the development of new research partnerships and networks, to lay the groundwork for future research projects.

Strand 2: To provide support for emerging impact from existing underpinning research.

Who can apply?

Strand 1 is aimed at early career researchers (those who are within 7 years of completing their doctorate, or equivalent experience, and are not associate professors / professors) and staff who are new to research (academic staff who have not published an academic output, or received internal or external funding for research). The funding aims to support colleagues to engage with key stakeholders at the very beginning of the research process, to establish partnerships and networks to support the co-creation of research questions. The panel would like to fund multiple projects and therefore particularly welcome applications for projects up to £2,000.

Strand 2 is aimed at academic staff with existing research which has the potential for impact, or is starting to result in impact. The funding aims to support the development of research impact across BU and begin to identify potential case studies for post-REF2021 exercises. The panel would like to fund multiple projects and therefore particularly welcome applications for projects up to £4,000.

What we’re looking for

Applicants need to demonstrate a clear understanding of how their research – whether proposed or existing – can lead to impact. The UKRI defines research impact as “an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia”.

For strand 1, the emphasis is on establishing and developing relationships with partners, organisations and research users that will lead to impact in the future. This may involve:

  • Collaborating with partners to apply for external funding
  • The co-creation of research questions
  • Building relationships with policymakers and policy brokers
  • Creating a stakeholder advisory group to suggest additional activities for achieving impact, as well as reviewing and providing feedback on proposed activities.

With strand 2, the focus is on maximising the potential of existing research by identifying activities that will translate outputs into impact/s.

This may include, but is not limited to:

  • Developing printed and digital resources
  • Collating further data sets
  • Creating briefings and information leaflets for policymakers
  • Updating and developing websites to disseminate findings and encourage/monitor use
  • Identifying additional potential beneficiaries and stakeholders
  • Undertaking media activity to raise awareness, change opinions or attitudes, mobilise action or influence decisions by people with power.
  • Creating new methods of engagement with the research findings, e.g., video, podcasts, apps etc.
  • Developing associated educational resources based on insights.

Application process

To apply, please first read the policy and guidance notes. Then submit the relevant online form. PDF versions are supplied so that you may preview the form, but must not be submitted:

Strand 1 application form

Strand 1 application form pdf version

Strand 2 application form

Strand 2 application form PDF version

Applications must be submitted by Friday 10th December.

If you have any questions about your application, please email Amanda Edwards.

Applicants are strongly advised to attend the surgery session on applying for internal funding for impact and public engagement on Thursday 18 November and / or book a 1-2-1 session with an Impact Advisor. Find out more about the surgery and book a place here.

BU’s Research Principles

Putting the Research Impact Fund into strategic context, under BU2025, the following funding panels operate to prioritise applications for funding and make recommendations to the Research Performance and Management Committee (RPMC).

There are eight funding panels:

  1. HEIF Funding Panel
  2. GCRF Funding Panel
  3. Research Impact Funding Panel
  4. Doctoral Studentship Funding Panel
  5. ACORN Funding Panel
  6. Research Fellowships Funding Panel
  7. Charity Support Funding Panel
  8. SIA Funding panel

Please see further announcements regarding each initiative.

These panels align with the BU2025 focus on research, including BU’s Research Principles.  Specifically, but not exclusively, regarding the Research Impact Funding Panel, please refer to:

  • Principle 5 – which sets of the context for such funding panels,
  • Principle 6 and Outcome 9 – which recognises the need for interdisciplinarity and the importance of social science and humanities (SSH).

The ACORN Fund Round 4 is Now Open for Applications!

Funding opportunities

The ACORN Fund (Acceleration Of Research & Networking) for Early Career Researchers Round 4 is now open for applications.

This round slightly differs from previous rounds. Two options for ECRs are available – Standard Grants up to £5,000 that can be delivered before the end of July 2022 and Large Grants up to £10,00 for projects to be completed within 12 months. For more details, refer to the ACORN Fund Policy Autumn 2021 document.

Each applicant is allowed to only submit one proposal for Round 4 and should use one of the supplied templates accordingly. The closing date is Friday, 10th December 2021 (5pm); to be considered eligible, all applications must be submitted to the email account acorn@bournemouth.ac.uk before the deadline.

This scheme will provide c. five awards, of up to £5,000 each and up to two awards, of up to £10,000 each, to support BU’s ECRs, with the most promising talent, to gain experience of managing and leading their own pilot research projects. These awards support BU’s commitment to the Concordat to Support to Career Development of Researchers and are made possible by BU’s QR (Quality Research) allocation for 2021/22 financial year.

For eligibility, you must be able to comply with the following:

  • Applicant must have completed their PhD;
  • Applicant must have a post at BU (established or fixed term) for the full duration of the award and the post-award commitments or longer;
  • To be considered an early career researcher (ECR), applicant should have held a 0.2 or above research contract for no more than six years in total, excluding periods where the applicant was involved in non-research employment or not at work (e.g. caring responsibilities);
  • ACORN award holders cannot hold more than one BU internal award concurrently.

Note that open access publication costs are not eligible, but these can be requested from the BU Open Access Publication Fund (OAPF). Any planned travel expenses are subject to COVID restrictions and, generally, are not recommended.

Following links, you can find ACORN Large Grant and Standard Grant application forms. In addition, to assist with the budget section, please refer to the RKE Internal Funding Sample Costs. As this does not require Full Economic Costing, you should not contact your faculty’s Funding Development Officer to complete the costing for you. Please address any queries as below.

Applications require support from faculty and mentor, so please start your application early and obtain all approvals as soon as possible. Applicants are responsible for obtaining faculty sign-off before submitting the application.

For those interested to find out more, we will be running a workshop led by the ACORN Panel Chair Prof Jan Wiener on Tuesday 23th November 2021 from 2pm to 4pm. Workshop will take place in a face-to-face setting, please come to F106 (Fusion Building) with your questions.

Please address any further queries to RDS via acorn@bournemouth.ac.uk

Putting the ACORN Fund into strategic context, under BU2025, the following funding panels operate to prioritise applications for funding and make recommendations to the Research Performance and Management Committee (RPMC):

  1. HEIF Funding Panel
  2. Research Impact Funding Panel
  3. Doctoral Studentship Funding Panel
  4. ACORN Funding Panel
  5. Research Fellowships Funding Panel
  6. Charity Support Funding Panel
  7. SIA Funding panel

These panels align with the BU2025 focus on research, including BU’s Research Principles. Specifically, but not exclusively, regarding the ACORN Fund, please refer to:

  • Principle 5, which sets of the context for such funding panels;
  • Principle 6 and Outcome 9, which recognise the need for interdisciplinarity and the importance of social science and humanities (SSH);
  • Outcomes 4 and 5, where ECRs are provided with the mechanisms for support such as mentors and, through schemes including the ACORN fund, gain budgetary responsibility experience.

Register to attend (FREE) – The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference

conferences, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Student Engagement, student research

Register to attend the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference  – all welcome!

Come along to support our postgraduate research community at the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, Wednesday 1 December 2021, 09:30 – 17:30. Oral presentations will be hosted on Zoom.

You are also invited to come along to FG06 during the day to network, and for PGRs we will be offering the opportunity to get a free professional headshot during the lunch break.

There will be a virtual poster exhibition on the BU website and across the blogs during the week of the conference with further pre-recorded presentations available to view at your leisure.

The full brochure, with all presenters and presentation types, will be circulated in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please see the conference programme for the day below.

It would be great to see many of you there. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

Natalie Stewart (Research Skills & Development Officer), Doctoral College.

Paper published outlining good practice for receiving informed consent

NHS, Publishing, Research Ethics, Training

A paper has been published by Hugh Davies (Chair, Oxford A NHS Research Ethics Committee) and the members of Oxford A Research Ethics Committee (REC) which includes a model for what the REC considers to be good practice in terms of consent for research participation. The paper proposes that there are four simple steps which consent processes should be built around:

  • Step 1: Introducing the study and the choices: helping the potential participants get an overview of the proposal and introducing the key issues.
  • Step 2: Explaining all the details of the study using the detailed Participant Information Sheet.
  • Step 3: After a gap, if necessary, reviewing and checking understanding.
  • Step 4: Reaching agreement and recording consent.

The paper outlines common issues such as information provision to participants, inadequate public involvement, and lack of proportionality.

You can access the paper here.

Remember that RDS offers training in informed consent, as does the National Institute for Health Research. If you are interested in accessing this training, please email Research Ethics.

Template documents are also available via the Health Research Authority website.

Congratulations to Recipients of the ‘Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award’!

PG research

The Doctoral College team have been delighted with the nominations that have come in for our recently launched ‘Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Awards’. We wish to extend our congratulations to all recipients who have recently received their award certificate.

Since launching in October 2021 we have presented 34 awards! 

Here are some of the heartfelt nominations we have received so far:

“She is always ready to lend a listening ear and a helping hand. I think that I am really blessed to have her as a supervisor and she needs to be recognised for her hard work.”

“She is dedicated to the PGR community, playing central role in maintaining a sense of cohort identity with the Faculty.”

“For his unwavering support for PGRs progress, community and sense of belonging. Ensuring connectedness throughout Covid times and helping students transition back to face-to-face contact.”

“He is undoubtedly an outstanding person to work with, to learn from, and to rely upon in time of need.”

“She was our PGR Rep during the pandemic and worked so hard to pass concerns of the PGR community to administrators or the DDRPP to find a solution. She arranged coffee mornings and lunchtime-seminars for the PGRs to get together in an academic and social environment.”

Why not take five minutes and nominate a PGR, academic or professional staff member for a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award and say thanks and give recognition for their hard work?

These awards recognise the outstanding contributions to postgraduate research at BU by any PGR, academic or professional staff member. They can be nominated throughout the year by any member of the postgraduate research community to anyone that they feel is exceptional, has exceeded expectations, and has had a positive impact on the postgraduate research at BU.

Eligibility

You can nominate anyone involved in postgraduate research at Bournemouth University to receive an award certificate. There are no award criteria, as long as the submission falls within the guidelines, whoever you’ve selected will receive a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award!

How to nominate

We’ve made it really easy for you to nominate someone for a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award – it’s just a short online nomination form!

BrainTrainUK’s visit to Bournemouth EEG Lab

It has been such a long time since we came under lockdown in March 2020. This term has seen teaching and research activities gradually coming back to normal!

Today, our long-time partner, BrainTrainUK, visited the Bournemouth EEG Lab to discuss progress on an EEG project (neurofeedback of inter-brain synchrony for social anxiety intervention) and future plans. This is the first time they visited us since Feburary 2020.

Our collaborator and friend, Stuart Black, wrote a short piece of news on the BrainTrainUK website. Please feel free to have a relaxing read by clicking this link. Below is the photo Stuart took today in one of our EEG labs. From our facial expressions, you know we were having fun!

From left to right in the photo: Hayley Clarke and Stuart Black from BrainTrainUK, Xun He (Head of Bournemouth EEG Lab, Psychology), Marcia Saul (CDE EngD student), Fred Charles (Creative Technology).

Reminder: The Funding Development Briefing will be on Wednesday at 12 noon – Spotlight: NIHR Fellowship

Funding opportunities

Reminder: The Funding Development Briefing will be on Wednesday at 12 noon. The spotlight will be on the NIHR Fellowships.

We will cover:

  • Overview of the process, explain acronyms, highlight resources available etc.
  • Q & A

For those unable to attend, the session will be recorded and shared on Brightspace here.

Invites for these sessions have been disseminated via your Heads of Department.

Call for EoIs: Impact Champion for UOA 17

Research assessment

An opportunity has arisen for an impact Champion for Unit of Assessment (UOA) 17 (Business & Management) to help drive preparations for the next REF. This role would initially be until summer 2022.

BU is making early preparations towards units of assessment (UOAs) for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise. Each UOA has a UOA Leader, supported by an Impact Champion and Outputs Champion.  The roles are recruited through an open and transparent process, which gives all academic staff the opportunity to put themselves forward for UOA Leadership roles.

We are therefore currently seeking expressions of interest (EoI) from academic staff interested in this role. 

Impact Champions play a key role in shaping the impact element of their UOA’s submission, working closely with their Faculty’s Impact Advisor.

Key responsibilities of the Impact Champion role include:

  • Early detection of potential impact case studies
  • Review the development of impact case studies being prepared within the UOA
  • Provide guidance on how impact case studies can be accelerated and evidenced
  • Advise colleagues on the REF impact guidelines
  • Review impact strategies related to the UOA and assess progress made against them
  • Review and implement recommendations from external research users to strengthen research impact
  • Ensure that colleagues are updating institutional systems for impact tracking
  • Promote relevant training and development opportunities
  • Review impact arising from major programmes of research and knowledge exchange to make recommendations as to how these can contribute to impact case studies
  • Advise on the use of appropriate metrics specific to the subject area
  • To help embed a culture of research impact
  • To undertake any other duties as requested by the relevant Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice (DDR&PP) and/or Unit of Assessment leader.

Application process:

To discuss this role, please contact Dr. Chris Chapleo.

If you wish to apply, please submit a short statement (suggested length c.300 words) explaining your interest in the role and what you could bring to it. This should be sent by email to Dr. Chris Chapleo by 4 December 2021. The EoIs will be reviewed by the UOA Leader and DDR&PP.

The selection criteria used at EoI are outlined below. Each criterion carries a total possible score of 5. The role will be offered to the highest scoring applicant. A member of the panel will provide feedback to all applicants.

  • Knowledge of the REF and research impact (scored out of 5): Applicants should have the appropriate level of skill and knowledge to help them support the development of impact in their UOA.  It is expected that Impact Champions will predominantly be practising researchers and will have a breadth of understanding of research across their Faculty.  They are also expected to have an understanding of the REF assessment process and of research impact. 
  • Experience of external engagement and / or impact development (scored out of 5): Impact Champions are expected to be able to provide advice and direction to colleagues who want to develop their research impact.  Experience of engaging with external organisations or developing your own research impact would be of benefit in this role. 
  • Commitment, motivation and enthusiasm (scored out of 5): Being an Impact Champion is an important commitment and the role has the scope to help shape impact development at BU.  Applicants need to be committed to the role, as well as showing the enthusiasm and motivation needed to support their UOA. 

A role description is available here: UOA Impact Champion Role Descriptor-Nov 2021.

Research process seminars are back. Starting with ‘the how’s and why’s of writing research monographs’

We are delighted to invite you to the first of this years’ research process seminars. Hosted in FMC but open to all.
We’ve got a great lineup of talks coming your way, featuring a mix of internal and external colleagues, with different disciplinary and methodological influences.
For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are 60 min research seminars focussed on the process of doing research – often research methods but also including publishing, writing, time management etc. The idea here is that the speaker takes us through the anatomy of the project focussing particularly on the process – the challenges, the successes, and the failures. For the audience, we walk away with a practical application of a method or approach we may not be familiar with or may not have applied in this way before. Our ambition is to make us all better researchers as a result.
Presentations are typically 30 mins followed by 30 mins Q&A. They are always a friendly and informal atmosphere.
This week’s session is on book publishing. We are delighted to welcome FMC colleagues Darren Lilleker and Chris Pullen, who collectively have published 10 research monographs.
Please note the start time of 3pm (our standard start time is 2pm on Tuesdays)
Tuesday 9 November at 3pm

Prof Darren Lilleker and Dr Chris Pullen

The how’s and why’s of writing research monographs

Why write monographs? What makes a good research monograph? And what is the process of writing a book? In this session, Darren Lilleker and Chris Pullen – together responsible for 10 monographs – will talk about their experiences of writing monographs. From the big ideas that drive the project, to the minor details that make the difference, Darren and Chris will share their knowledge, experiences and top tips of book publishing. This talk will be of interest to anyone with ambitions to write a monograph, or who is in the early stages of writing one.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Dr Joanne Mayoh & Dr Ian Jones publish new article In The Journal of Medical Internet Research

Dr Joanne Mayoh and Dr Ian Jones have had a new article “Young People’s Experiences of Engaging With Fitspiration on Instagram: Gendered Perspective” published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR; Impact Factor 5.43) https://www.jmir.org/2021/10/e17811/. Their study used a cross-sectional web-based survey (N=1213) to explore how young men and women engage in fitspiration content on Instagram, and found significant gendered differences in consumption behaviour. Their findings suggested that female fitspiration consumers engage with content that reinforces the feminine thin but shapely ideal, whereas male users seek out content that reinforces the masculine muscular ideal. Furthermore, male users are more likely to engage actively with content (eg, posting fitspiration content), while female users are more likely to engage passively (eg, scrolling through accounts, posts, or images). Here is an infographic to demonstrate their key findings.