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NERC Pushing the Frontiers- January 2025

NERC Pushing the Frontiers Call – internal competition

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. As the standard grant scheme has been superseded, demand management measures will be applied to the Pushing the Frontiers scheme only. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures.

BU has been capped at one application per Pushing the Frontiers round. An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

BU has a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Pushing the Frontiers round. This takes the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available round is estimated to be in January 2025. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 27 September 2024.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\RDS\Public\NERC Demand Management.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RDS and will work closely with Research Facilitators and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Applicants will be expected to make use of External Application Reviewers.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Kate Percival, RDS Research Facilitator – kpercival@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

Nutrition team head to Belfast for the International Nutrition Society Congress

conferences

Between the 2nd- 4th July, staff from the Nutrition team in the Department of Rehabilitation and Sport Sciences travelled to Belfast to present their research and attend the international Nutrition Society Congress.

Staff showcased and presented a wide range of nutrition and health sciences research which was exceptionally well received by the audience members across the three days in Belfast.

  • Dr Joanne Holmes, Deputy Head of Department presented work entitled Sensory appeal and acceptance of a novel food intervention programme for older adults living with dysphagia.
  • Dr Fotini Tsofliou, Principal Academic and Programme Lead MSc Nutrition and Behaviour alongside two postgraduate researchers (PGRs) James Brooks (PhD) and Lee Chester (MRes) presented three research projects (1x randomised cross-over study and 2x systematic reviews) on healthy diet patterns towards a mediterranean style diet and effects on mood and mental wellbeing in middle aged adults.
  • Dr Reena Vijayakumaran, Senior Lecturer presented work entitled Exploring Food Insecurity & Sustainable Food in Rural India: Collaborative Learning through Student Mobility Programme
  • Dr Sarah Hillier, Senior Lecturer and Programme Lead BSc Nutrition presented work entitled Women’s dietary changes before and during pregnancy: a systematic review update. A project working in collaboration with her colleague Dr Ellinor Olander from City University.
  • Prof Jane Murphy, Deputy Dean presented work entitled A co-designed food intervention to promote healthy ageing in ethnic minorities  (TANGERINE | Bournemouth University)

The Nutrition Society Congress gave the team an opportunity to collaborate and network with individuals across higher education, industry, and policy makers in the field of nutrition sciences.

The Congress was also an opportunity for staff members to engage in some team bonding, and they took the opportunity to learn about the history of Belfast, as well as sampling some of the local cuisine and beverages!

 

Bursaries available to attend the 2024 Vitae Researcher Development Conference

conferences

A number of bursaries are available to enable researchers to attend the Vitae International Researcher Development Conference 2024.

The conference takes place online from 3rd-5th September and in-person in Birmingham on 23rd and 24th September.

It is the flagship annual event of Vitae, a non-profit programme to support the professional development of researchers, and will cover topics around policy and practice in researcher development.

29 bursaries are available in total – covering attendance at both the online and in-person events or the online-only elements.

The bursaries have been sponsored by UKRI, British Academy’s Early Career Researcher Network, and Wellcome – with different criteria for each.

They are available to researchers in the following categories:

  • who are, have been, or are looking to be involved in researcher networks and staff associations or committees (UKRI bursaries)
  • part of the BA Early Career Researcher Network (British Academy bursaries)
  • with an interest in equity, diversity and inclusion within the research environment (Wellcome bursaries)

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 20th August.

For more information and to apply, please visit the Vitae Researcher Development Conference website

Your opportunity to input into REF2029 – People, Culture and Environment indicators project

Research assessment

As part of the design of REF2029, Research England has commissioned a project to develop indicators that will be used in the assessment of the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element of the exercise.

Technopolis Group are running a survey as part of the project to gather sector insight into the potential indicators. Responses are invited from individuals from research-performing institutions as well as other key stakeholder groups and networks.

This is an opportunity for a diverse range of BU perspectives to input into the design of REF2029, so please do consider responding to the survey before the deadline on 13th September.

 

one day a week research assistant post with Wessex Cancer Alliance

Colleagues from the Wessex Cancer Alliance are keen to appoint a research assistant (approx. one day a week for 6 months) to work with their Inequality and Involvement Strategic Lead to produce an information pack for their 20 Clinical Advisory Groups (CAGs), which sets out clear and referenced summaries of key insights and intelligence to support their work. This could be a great opportunity for a BU PGR, especially for anyone with an interest in Cancer research and care. The post holder will be hosted by Help and Care, a Wessex Cancer Alliance partner.

Further info:

Brief for research role – Wessex Cancer Alliance patient and public involvement, patient experience and inequalities

What do we need?

We are keen to build a repository of insight and intelligence to support our Clinical Advisory Groups (CAGs) with high impact summaries of patient and public experience and health inequalities.  Briefing packs for CAGs could include:

  • Information from the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey relevant to that CAG’s activity
  • Other relevant patient and public involvement insight gathered from a wide range of sources, both specific to Wessex and from national and international sources
  • Information on inequalities in access, experience, and outcome relevant to that CAG
  • Relevant information would include that which is specific to that CAG’s activity but also other information that can support the activity of the Clinical Advisory Group (e.g. general insight from cancer patients about treatment and care).

Currently, we have 20 Clinical Advisory Groups.  The cancer specific information for each group will vary, with more common cancers (e.g bowel, breast, lung, prostate) expected to have considerably more intelligence and insight available.

The Role

You will work with the Inequality and Involvement Strategic Lead to produce an information pack for each CAG, which sets out clear and referenced summaries of key insights and intelligence to support their work.  The packs will include data from existing online and published literature and resources.  Resources and reports will be stored in a searchable ‘database’ with key words enabling searching by cancer type, area/hospital Trust and where the information exists, protected characteristics.

Hours are flexible and by agreement, but we anticipate approximately 7 hours per week over a 6 month period from September 2024 with possible option to extend.

About you

We are looking for someone who can work pragmatically and at a good pace – with the ability to identify and clearly communicate key insights in a helpful, summarised format.  You will need to have good attention to detail, an enquiring mind and an interest in health, cancer and inequalities.  You will be a confident IT user with an excellent standard of written English.

For more information, please get in touch with Emma Leatherbarrow, Inequality and Involvement Strategic Lead, Wessex Cancer Alliance

Emma.leatherbarrow@wca.uhs.nhs.uk

 

BU Hosted the National KTP Practitioner Conference 2024! Matt Desmier

Business Engagement, conferences, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are an extremely useful tool for any forward-thinking institution or team of academics wanting to apply their research in real world settings.

The UK Government’s longest established business support and research funding allocation, they’re a tried and tested vehicle that consistently demonstrate how Universities can have a measurable impact on the world around them.

Earlier this summer, Bournemouth University was selected as the honourable host of the 2024 KTP Practitioners Conference, the annual gathering of knowledge exchange professionals from across the country. This was a coup for BU and an excellent opportunity to cement our place in the canon of proactive institutions embracing the potential of KTPs.

Over the course of one and a half days, Fusion Building welcomed 200 delegates, representing 79 universities alongside guests from Innovate UK Business Growth and Innovate UK Business Connect, some interested businesses and a smattering of academics too.

The convened audience enjoyed three high profile keynote talks, updates from both the KTP funders and the National Forum, as well as twelve workshops designed to equip those present with the skills they need to grow and manage their KTP portfolio.

Assisted by Bournemouth’s wonderful micro climate, the whole event was a resounding success. Much was learnt, many connections were made and the bar was set extremely high for Manchester Metropolitan University, who’re hosting the event next year.

ERC grants – series of webinars

Funding opportunities

Since the UK joined the Horizon Europe programme this year, many academics have shown interest in applying to different streams of ERC grants. I am always happy to speak with you individually, however, I would also encourage those interested in applying to participate in events organised by UKRI/UKRO. UKRO as the ERC UK National Contact Point is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology.

UKRO has announced a series of webinars to cover the following topics:

Webinars are free of charge, to access more details by following the above links, you may be required to provide login details to access the UKRO portal.

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. More information about funder may be found on ERC webpage.

The ERC offers 4 core highly competitive grant schemes:

For more information regarding ERC grants feel free to get in touch with Research Facilitator International.

BU e-health paper read 4,000 times

international, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Our paper ‘Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature’ [1] reached 4,000 reads on ResearchGate today.  Obviously, there is a growing interest in the use of mobile apps as well as the more general application of mHealth and eHealth in the UK and elsewhere.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

  1. Vickery, M., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Smith, G. B., Way, S., Westwood, G. (2020). Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature. European Journal of Midwifery, 4: 1-11. https://doi.org/10.18332/ejm/126625

Game of (Delivery) Drones: New Paper

PG research

Congratulations to BUBS PhD candidate Taalia Nadeem on the publication of “Game of (delivery) drones: A serious game exploring transport futures involving logistics drones with stakeholders” in the Journal of Transport and Health. The paper discusses how the board game supported stakeholders in exploring a potential transport future where drones would be used to make deliveries. The board game enabled participants to test scenarios involving different drone routings and levels of ground risk and energy use within a familiar context with the initial game being based on the Bournemouth area. The game was subsequently developed and used in different contexts including the Solent Region, Cornwall, and Coventry as part of the EPSRC funded E-Drone project and the ESRC funded Future Flight in Place projects.

Drowning prevention meeting for NIHR-funded study

international, PG research

This week our collaborators on the Sonamoni project traveled from Bangladesh and Uganda to Dorset for a set of research planning meetings.  The visitors represented CIPRB (The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) and DWB (Design without Borders).  They were hosted by colleagues from Bournemouth University, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) and from the University of Southampton.  Since Monday we managed to have an intensive week of design workshops, reviewing and incorporating local-community prioritised interventions for child drowning prevention (aged <2years) in Bangladesh.  I say ‘we managed’, but I have been at home all week with COVID-19.  The past few days I was beginning to feel quite well again, so I was unpleasantly surprised that I was still positive when I tested yesterday, and even more so this morning.  Consequently, missing the whole week working with our visiting collaborators.

The Sonamoni project recently presented its own video recording on YouTube,which you can watch here!

Sonamoni is a public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

Open for applications for our 2024/25 M level, 20 credit, CPD unit: Public involvement in research

We are now open for applications for our 2024/25 M level, 20 credit, CPD unit: Public involvement in research, delivered in collaboration with the BU PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) Partnership. This is a co-designed and co-delivered unit aimed at researchers, public involvement and engagement leads and practitioners who are keen to develop their approach to harnessing lived experience expertise in their research, project, role or practice, particularly regarding involvement of marginalised groups and communities currently under-served by health and social care research.
For further information, course dates, and fees, including the availability of free places for BU Doctoral students, please see here
We would appreciate you sharing this with your colleagues and wider networks.
Testimonials from previous learners
This is without doubt one of the most influential courses that  I have ever had the pleasure to attend. It has transformed my research and clinical practice. I cannot recommend it enough!
Donna Austin
Advanced Critical Care Practitioner/Research Fellow, UHS
I think this is the most interesting, well-thought-out, and rewarding course I have completed. As somebody with minimal experience in public involvement, I was worried I might not be able to keep up, but I needn’t have feared! I particularly appreciated hearing from PIER members on their experiences. Thank you!
CJ Iliopoulos, Project Manager, Policy Research Unit in Policy Innovation & Evaluation (PIRU) & CYP Mental Health Green Paper Programme Evaluation, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
I undertook the  course whilst on a research internship. Although I’ve been working in PPI in the NHS for five years, I learnt new things on the course and had the opportunity to really reflect on my practice and the things I might want to change. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone and everyone involved in research, whether they’re just starting out or have been doing PPI or research for many years. There’s always something new to learn! 
Sharon Court, Patient and Public Involvement Facilitator, Research & Innovation Department, Portsmouth Hospital
 
The fact that the Public Involvement in Research was co-produced and co-led by members of the public added a valuable perspective. The Unit integrated important theories and offered a diverse array of activities, avoiding reliance on a single learning style. This variety ensured accessibility for all participants. Moreover, the Unit fostered a supportive environment, providing space for us to address and navigate the unique challenges we face as researchers committed to public involvement. 
Agata Pacho, Research Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Request for your paper: A historical perspective

international, open access, Publishing, REF Subjects

Any publishing academic will irregularly receive emails for copies of their papers, usually for papers which researchers or students can’t access through their own institution.  Different universities have different expensive deals with publishers, and especially for universities in low-income countries this can be very limiting.  Apart from requests for papers I also receive email requests for book chapter which are part of commercial textbooks, or people asking for a PDF, i.e. a free electronic copy, of the whole textbook.  Recently I have also had a couple of requests for papers which are already freely available as Open Access publications.  I assume the latter are simply requests from lazy students, who searched a bibliographic data base found several (many?) relevant papers.  Without too much thinking they send quick automated email through ResearchGate, which is less work that searching for each actual Open Access paper online.

It did not always use to be that easy to approach an academic for a copy of their scientific paper.  When I started as a PhD student, before the widespread use of the internet, if your university library did not have a subscription to the journal you were looking for, you would write a short letter to an academic author, post the letter, and if your were lucky, receive a printed copy of the requested paper in the post a few weeks later. The more established academics would have pre-printed postcards to speed up the process of requesting an academic paper.  The photo of the 1959 (for the record this was before I was born!) shows one of such cards from a doctor based in the Netherlands.  The effort involved meant you asked only for papers you were pretty sure where central to your research, you would not do the equivalent of sending out 40 emails, hoping to get PDFs of six or seven papers relevant to your essay topic.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships – Submission Deadlines

Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

After this next KTP submission deadline on 25 September 2024, there is one further deadline in 2024 – 4 December 2024.

Various aspects of the KTP submission and approval process have changed over the past few months and for a breakdown of what these changes are, please take a look here.

Future KTP submission deadlines for your planning are:

  • 5 February 2025
  • 9 April 2025

If you have any KTP ideas that you’d like support with, please contact your relevant Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Manager:

The Business School – Rachel Clarke

Faculty of Health and Social Sciences – Mary-Ann Robertson

Faculty of Media and Communication – Matt Desmier

Faculty of Science and Technology – Finn Morgan