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BU Briefing – Media literacy: The UK’s undead cultural policy

Our BU briefing papers are designed to make our research outputs accessible and easily digestible so that our research findings can quickly be applied – whether to society, culture, public policy, services, the environment or to improve quality of life. They have been created to highlight research findings and their potential impact within their field. 

The Communications Act 2003 requires the UK’s media regulator Ofcom to promote ‘media literacy’, although it left the term undefined. In response to the new legislation, the regulator espoused a deliberately generalised definition, but one that never became a meaningful measure of its own policy work.

This paper investigates how Ofcom managed this regulatory duty from 2003 onwards. It explores how the promotion of media literacy was progressively reduced in scope over time as its funding was incrementally withdrawn. Media literacy in 2016 may be characterised as one of the zombies of cultural policy: an instrument devoid of its original life but continuing in a limited state of animation governed by other policy priorities.

Click here to read the briefing paper.

For more information about the research, contact Dr Richard Wallis at rwallis@bournemouth.ac.uk.
To find out how your research output could be turned into a BU Briefing, contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk.

REF 2021 workshops – what makes a 2*, 3* or 4* output?

Research assessment

We have a series of externally-facilitated REF outputs workshops scheduled to take place in early 2018 as part of the RKE Development Framework. Each session is led by REF 2014 sub-panel member who will explain how the panel interpreted and applied the REF 2014 guidance when assessing the quality of outputs. The workshops are open to all academic staff to attend.

The expected learning outcomes from the workshops are for attendees to:

  • Gain insight into how the REF panels applied the REF criteria when considering the significance, rigour and originality of outputs;
  • Understand the differences between outputs scored 4*, 3*, 2*, 1* and Unclassified;
  • Gain insight into what is meant by ‘world leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’;
  • Understand how scores borderline cases were agreed and what the tipping points were to either break the ceiling into the higher star level or to hold an output back a star level;
  • Understand how panels used other information such as metrics, markers of journal quality or prior knowledge in output assessment;
  • Gain insight into how future outputs could be strengthened for REF2021.

 

Workshops scheduled so far are:

  • UOA 2/3 – Prof Dame Jill Macleod Clark – 15 March 2018
  • UOA 4 – Prof Marion Hetherington – 10 January 2018
  • UOA 11 – Prof Iain Stewart – 29 January 2018
  • UOA 12 – Prof Chris Chatwin – 8 January 2018
  • UOA 14 – Prof Jon Sadler – 11 January 2018
  • UOA 15 – Prof Graeme Barker – 7 February 2018
  • UOA 17 – Prof Terry Williams – 17 January 2018
  • UOA 18 – tbc
  • UOA 20/21 – Prof Imogen Taylor – 15 January 2018
  • UOA 23 – Prof Jane Seale – 26 January 2018
  • UOA 24 – tbc
  • UOA 27 – Prof Pat Waugh – 16 January 2018
  • UOA 11/32 (computer animation) – Prof Anthony Steed – 31 January 2018
  • UOA 32/34 (practice-based) – Prof Stephen Partridge – date tbc
  • UOA 36 – Prof Peter Lunt – date tbc

Bookings for these can be made via the Staff Intranet: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/fusiondevelopment/fusionprogrammesandevents/rkedevelopmentframework/researchexcellenceframework/

Business, management and marketing projects available!

Are you or your students looking for business, management and marketing projects? The following projects are available in the Student Project Bank:

SPB007: Investigate fund raising for small business development through the utilisation of crowdfunding

Investigate fund raising to support the development of a small business through crowdfunding. Examine current crowdfunding platforms and the feasibility of a low-cost DIY approach which does not involve a host platform.

SPB008: Product licensing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Research product licensing and discuss practical approaches, from initial contact to developing joint ventures. Make a list of recommendations.

SPB009: Using social media platforms as a promotional tool for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Evaluate how a small business could use social media platforms to achieve growth.

SPB036: Employee Engagement Globally: A research project based on Merlin Entertainments

Employee Engagement Globally: What engages different people globally, from different geographic regions to different personas and job types. How do they want to be recognised, and what does recognition mean to them? Research trends in engagement DRIVERs per geographic region, job role and persona, as well as recognition recommendations for different groups.

SPB039: Social media marketing plan for QuietSphere Student Mentoring

Create a social media strategy aimed at university students and parents of university aged children/ university students in order to raise the profile of QuietSphere Student Mentoring.

SPB044: Crowdfunding feasibility study and campaign design for charities

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Carry out a feasibility study into crowdfunding models for charitable organisations and use your findings to design a three week campaign with a soft launch. There will be the opportunity to implement the campaign if desired.

SPB045: Social media marketing and management plan for a local charity

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Design a social media marketing plan for a crowdfunding campaign and create a management plan for the marketing plan.

SPB046: Brand development for Help-in

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Work with Help-in to develop their brand. This will be used to influence the look and feel of their platform and across social media, the website and any printed materials.

SPB044: Crowdfunding feasibility study and campaign design for charities

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Carry out a feasibility study into crowdfunding models for charitable organisations and use your findings to design a three week campaign with a soft launch. There will be the opportunity to implement the campaign if desired.

SPB045: Social media marketing and management plan for a local charity

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Design a social media marketing plan for a crowdfunding campaign and create a management plan for the marketing plan.

SPB046: Brand development for Help-in

Help connect millions of people to the help they need when they need it and allow millions to offer their help to those less fortunate or in need. Help-in is a charity that aims to create a new social media platform designed to increase volunteering both hands on and virtually. Work with Help-in to develop their brand. This will be used to influence the look and feel of their platform and across social media, the website and any printed materials.

SPB060: Rebrand of workplace health and wellbeing company

Midlands Workplace Wellbeing Ltd works with employers to create happy and healthy employees through consultancy, training and health activities. Help Midlands Workplace Wellbeing Ltd rebrand the business as Mindful Workplace Wellbeing. They are looking to find a new identity that has impact whilst still remaining professional in order to increase their client base.

SPB068: Raising the Profile of Bradford Abbas Village

The aim of this project is to provide better information about the village for visitors and members of the community. The information is to be both historical and current; i.e. an ‘interpretation board’ that explains the history, people and places associated with the village; and the ‘village plan statement’ located on the Parish Council website. This project will involve working with Bradford Abbas Parish Council and Bradford Abbas History Society.

Apply now:

Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for dissertations, assignments, unit, or group work. Send us an email to request a project brief and application form.

 

Brightspace focus group

If your students have been using Brightspace this academic year, then BU’s Marketing & Communications Department would like to hear from them to find out what’s been good, what hasn’t, how it can be made better.

A discussion group is taking place at 12pm on Tuesday 28 November on Talbot Campus for an hour and as a thank you, students will be treated to some pizza.

All students at BU will be moving from myBU to Brightspace next September so their feedback will be really useful in making sure Brightspace meets the needs of our students. Responses will be kept anonymous.

If any of your students would like to take part, please email the project team with their course name and year of study, and they’ll be in touch with more details.

Ratko Mladić’s conviction and why the evidence of mass graves still matters

Ratko Mladić has been convicted of genocide and persecution, extermination, murder and the inhumane act of forcible transfer in the area of Srebrenica in 1995. He was also found guilty of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and inhumane act of forcible transfer in municipalities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and of murder, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians in Sarajevo.

In addition, the former Bosnian Serb army general was convicted for the hostage-taking of UN personnel. But he was acquitted of the charge of genocide in several municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.

The events that occurred in and around the Srebrenica enclave between July 10-19 1995, where an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, lost their lives, are well documented. These atrocities, culminating in the “biggest single mass murder in Europe” since World War II, not only resulted in a tremendous loss of life and emotionally scarred survivors, it also left behind a landscape filled with human remains and mass graves.

Forensic investigations into the Srebrenica massacre assisted in convicting Mladić, who stood accused for his involvement in implementing and orchestrating the forcible transfer and eventual elimination of the Bosnian Muslim population from Srebrenica. For the Srebrenica investigations, between 1996 and 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) conducted exhumations at 23 sites, while a further 20 mass graves were probed to confirm that they contained human remains.

Srebrenica.
Martijn.Munneke/ Flickr, CC BY-SA

The investigative objectives for these investigations were to:
* Corroborate victim and witness accounts of the massacres;
* Determine an accurate count of victims;
* Determine cause and time of death;
* Determine the sex of victims;
* Determine the identity of victims (a process that is ongoing with the help of DNA analysis); and
* Identify links to the perpetrators.

The task of locating and exhuming mass graves in Bosnia continues, as does the general quest of locating the missing in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. And this evidence still matters for the ICTY. Evidence on hundreds of bodies exhumed from the Tomašica mass grave near Prijedor in the north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was presented in the Mladić trial.

The summary judgment read out in the court room in The Hague made this very clear:

During several weeks in September and early October 1995, senior members of the VRS [Army of the Bosnian-Serb Republic] and the MUP [Ministry of the Interior] attempted to conceal their crimes by exhuming their victims’ remains from several mass graves, and then reburying those remains in more remote areas in Zvornik and Bratunac municipalities. Their attempt to cover up the Srebrenica massacres ultimately failed.

Such attempts at hiding crimes by digging up mass graves only to dispose of the bodies in so called “secondary mass graves” results in commingled and mutilated body parts rendering identification and repatriation of human remains all the more difficult. This causes further and prolonged distress to the survivor population and can be seen as intent to cause suffering.

Properly investigated forensic evidence from mass graves, the presentation of such physical evidence, the testing of expertise, independence and impartiality of the accounts in court, is likely to result in more reliable findings. In the case of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić forensic evidence helped confirm the crimes committed – it can be assumed that the same is the case for Mladić; at the time of writing the judgment in its entirety is not available yet.

The ConversationIt is well worth remembering that the information from forensic mass grave investigations has another purpose and does not only speak to a court of law. The work on the ground through organisations such as the International Commission on Missing Persons will continue as there are “too many people who are still searching for their children’s bones to bury”. Those forensic findings will have a value and meaning for family members and survivors that judgments such as the Mladić one cannot have. It offers them information on their lost loved ones and, hopefully, the return of their human remains.

Melanie Klinkner, Senior Lecturer In Law, Bournemouth University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

REF 2021 – final decisions published

Research assessment

HEFCE kept their word and published the final decisions on REF 2021 in the autumn. Having issued the initial decisions on the Research Excellence Framework 2021 in September, the final decisions were published this week. HEFCE released its further decisions on staff and outputs on 21 November 2017.  These decisions have been informed by responses to key questions relating to staff and outputs and a survey of staff in scope for submission. This blog post provides a summary of the key decisions.

 

Submitting staff:

Previous REF/RAE exercises asked institutions to select staff for submission. The Stern Review in 2016 recognised how divisive this practice was and instead recommended that all research-active staff be returned to the next REF. HEFCE are implementing this recommendation by expecting all staff with a ‘significant responsibility for research’ to be submitted, provided they are ‘independent researchers’. What do these terms mean in practice? The HEFCE definition is:

“those for whom explicit time and resources are made available to engage actively in independent research, and that is an expectation of their job role. Research is defined as a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared. Staff engaged exclusively in scholarship would not be considered to have a significant responsibility for research.”

Working with the REF 2021 main panels, HEFCE will provide further guidance on identifying staff with significant responsibility. This will be published in the guidance on submissions and panel criteria. This guidance will not prescribe a fixed set of criteria that all staff would be required to meet, but will set out a ‘menu’ of what HEFCE would consider may be appropriate indicators of significant responsibility.

 

Recognising that there are staff who have more significant responsibility for other activities, HEFCE will implement an approach whereby institutions, working with their staff and with guidelines, identify who is in scope for submission among staff meeting core eligibility criteria. HEFCE has defined the core eligibility criteria as:

‘Category A eligible’

  • academic staff with a contract of employment of ≥0.2 FTE
  • on the payroll of the submitting institution on the census date (31 July 2020)
  • whose primary employment function is to undertake either ‘research only’ (independent researchers only) or ‘teaching and research’
  • have a substantive connection with the submitting institution (i.e. BU)
  • for staff on ‘research only’ contracts, the eligible pool should only include those who are independent researchers, not research assistants

‘Category A submitted’ describes the staff from the ‘Category A eligible’ pool who have been identified as having significant responsibility for research on the census date.

Where the ‘Category A eligible’ staff definition accurately identifies all staff in the submitting unit with significant responsibility for research, the unit should submit 100% of staff. Where it does not accurately identify all staff in the submitting unit who have significant responsibility for research, institutions will need to implement processes to determine this and document this in a code of practice, approved by the relevant funding body with advice from the Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel (EDAP).

 

Submitting outputs:

  • The average number of outputs required per submitted FTE will be 2.5 (up from 2 outputs as previously suggested by HEFCE).
  • A minimum of one output will be required for each staff member employed on the census date (as expected).
  • A maximum of five outputs may be attributed to individual staff members (including those who have left) (down from 6 outputs as previously suggested by HEFCE).
  • Data on the distribution of outputs across staff in the unit, including staff who have left, will be provided to the sub-panels for consideration in relation to the assessment of the environment.

Output portability: A transitional approach is being adopted whereby outputs may be submitted by both the institution employing the staff member on the census date and the originating institution where the staff member was previously employed when the output was demonstrably generated. ‘Demonstrably generated’ will be determined by the date when the output was first made publicly available. This applies to the whole REF 2021 period.

Open access: The REF Open Access policy will be implemented as previous set out. This requires outputs within the scope of the policy (journal articles and some conference proceedings) to be deposited as soon after the point of acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after this date from 1 April 2018. Due to concerns around deposit on acceptance, a deposit exemption will be introduced from 1 April 2018 and remain in place for the rest of the REF 2021 publication period. This will allow outputs unable to meet this deposit timescale to remain compliant if they are deposited up to three months after the date of publication.

 

Number of impact case studies required

Submissions will include a total of one case study, plus one further case study per up to 15 FTE staff submitted, for the first 105 FTE staff returned (with a reduced requirement above this of one additional case study per 50 FTE staff). Submissions will therefore include a minimum of two case studies.

 

For the latest information, see our REF 2021 webpage.

2018 BU PhD Studentship Competition

Funding opportunities, PG research

We are delighted to announce the launch of the 2018 BU PhD Studentship Competition for PhD projects starting in September 2018.

There are up to 40 matched funded projects available across BU and, as far as possible, attempts will be made to allocate them equally between the four Faculties, with the quality and strategic priority of projects assessed by each Faculty and overall allocation overseen by a central panel. There are no fully funded studentships on offer this round of the competition. This excludes Studentships agreed separately, or linked to prestigious bids.

The PhD Studentship projects will only be offered in conjunction with guaranteed external matched funding. The external matched funder should provide a minimum of 50% of the PhD Studentship stipend plus the research costs, which is equivalent to minimum of £25.5k over 36 months.

The PhD Studentships will be awarded to supervisory teams on the basis of a competitive process led by Professor John Fletcher (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation) and Faculty DDRPPs. The process will be managed by the Doctoral College.

All relevant information about the process, including application forms, PhD Studentship Terms & Conditions, information for matched funders is available on the Doctoral College intranet . It is essential that those interested in applying read all the relevant information before submitting an application.

  • Applications, and any enquiries, should be submitted to the Doctoral College via email: phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk
  • The deadline for submission of applications will be 5pm on Monday 08 January 2018
  • Please ensure applications contain all relevant information (project proposal; letter of support from matched funder; due diligence form) as incomplete applications will not be considered.

RKEDF Event: Innovate UK – A guide to funding

innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Date: Tuesday 28th November

Time: 10.00-11.00

Venue: Bournemouth House

Innovate UK provides funding for innovative projects in the UK.  Our local Knowledge Transfer Adviser from Innovate UK will be providing us with a guide to funding from Innovate UK and also information on the Knowledge Transfer Networks around the UK.

Refreshments will be provided.

To book your space, please contact od@bournemouth.ac.uk

For further information, please contact Rachel Clarke, Knowledge Exchange Adviser.

Student Project Bank call for projects

The Student Project Bank is open for new project ideas!

Do you work with an organisation in the community that wants to expand the work they do with our students to a different subject area?  If you do, please send them a link to this blog post, or this call for projects.

We are open to projects in all subject areas relevant to BU courses, but are specifically interested in receiving project ideas in the following areas:

  • Accounting, finance and economics
  • Business management, leadership and strategy
  • Computing
  • Computer animation
  • Health
  • History
  • Psychology
  • Social sciences

The call is included below:

Do you have an idea that could benefit society, and could use help to make it a reality?

We are inviting community organisations, charities, not-for-profit organisations and corporate partners to submit projects to the Student Project Bank.

The more ideas we have, the greater our impact on society.

Why get involved with Student Project Bank?

The Student Project Bank is a mutually beneficial collaboration between you and our students. As part of their studies, they get to work on a live project with the potential for real-world impact and you get the opportunity to benefit from their knowledge, skills and creativity whilst gaining valuable insights into your specific project area.

How it works:

  1. You tell us about your idea and how we can help. We’ll work with you to develop your idea into an exciting project brief.
  2. We’ll then match your project requirements to our students’ skill sets.
  3. We’ll monitor your project progress and keep you up to date.
  4. The project results will be shared with you and we will ask for feedback on how it has had an impact on your organisation.

Contact us:

To find out more visit our website or email spb@bournemouth.ac.uk

Workshop: Sharing your research with the media

Despite the increasing popularity of online media sources, traditional media outlets still tend to be the main way most people consume news.  Working with the media can be a very powerful way of sharing your research findings with the general public or with specialist audiences.  It’s a good way of disseminating your research, which can lead to impact further down the line.

As part of our new Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, we will be running a session about working with the media as one way of sharing your research.  This session is part of the ‘planning for impact and communicating research’ pathway.

This workshop will be led by BU’s PR manager, Nathaniel Hobby, who will take you through the basics of working with the press.

Date & time: Thursday 30 November  10am – 1pm

Location: Lansdowne Campus

For further information and to book, see BU’s staff intranet.

Horizon 2020 : Exploring the Industrial Leadership Pillar – Your chance to learn more!

Funding opportunities, international

Does your research benefit from industrial collaborations?

What will collaboration with an industry partner achieve?

How much do you understand about the Horizon 2020 funding opportunities and requirements?

To find out more, sign up to the Horizon 2020: Exploring the Industrial Leadership Pillar session.

This session will explore the Industrial Leadership pillar of Horizon 2020, the European Commission’s flagship funding mechanism and assist you in aligning your research to the European Commission’s requirements.

Particiular consideration, due to the nature of this pillar, will be given to working with industrial partners.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

  • To have an awareness and understanding of the funding opportunities within the Leadership pillar of Horizon 2020
  • To be able to assess potential eligibility for this scheme
  • To be confident is assessing, independently, the best route to funding within this scheme.
  • To be able to explain funding opportunities to business contacts
Title Date Time Location
Horizon 2020- Exploring the Industrial Leadership Pillar Tuesday 5th December 2017 9.30 – 12.00 Lansdowne Campus

To book a place on this event please click here.

 

Postnatal depression: men get it too

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in media reports about postnatal depression and other maternal mental illnesses, and campaigns have led to greater understanding about the need for more specialist services. Although this is encouraging, very little is said about fathers. But men can get postnatal depression, too.

Currently, only mothers can be diagnosed with postnatal depression. The psychiatrists’ “bible”, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), includes a diagnosis of “peripartum depression”. Peripartum depression is a form of clinical depression that is present at any time during pregnancy, or within the four weeks after giving birth, although experts working in perinatal mental health tend to be more flexible, extending that period to the first year after giving birth.

In many ways, postnatal depression varies little from traditional depression. It, too, includes a period of at least two weeks where the person experiences low mood or a lack of motivation, or both. Other symptoms include poor sleep, agitation, weight changes, guilt, feelings of worthlessness, and thoughts of death and dying. But the biggest difference is that a depression at this time involves a significant additional person: the child.

Evidence suggests that the long-term consequences of postnatal depression on the child can be damaging, including developmental problems, poor social interaction, partner-relationship problems and greater use of health services (including mental health services).

Around 7-20% of new mothers experience postnatal depression. A common view is that it is caused by hormonal changes. Although this is partly true, it is far more likely that life factors are responsible, such as poverty, being younger, lack of support and birth trauma. Another potential cause is the sudden overwhelming responsibility of having a baby to care for, and the life changes that it entails.

Depressed mothers also feel intensely guilty about the way they feel about their baby, and fear shame and stigma from society. As a result, at least 50% of mothers will not report a mental health problem. Other mothers will not tell their health provider out of fear of having their child taken away by social services.

Prevalence of postnatal depression in men could be as high as 10%.
Pushish Images/Shutterstock.com

Mounting evidence

All of the above factors can equally apply to fathers. But there is no formal diagnosis of postnatal depression for fathers. Yet evidence from several countries, including Brazil, the US and the UK, suggests that around 4-5% of fathers experience significant depressive symptoms after their child is born. Some other studies claim that prevalence may be as high as 10%.

The cause of these feelings in fathers is similar to what we see with mothers, but there are extra complications. Men are much less likely to seek help for mental health problems, generally.

Societal norms in many nations suggest men should suppress emotion. This is probably even more a factor for fathers, who may perceive their role as being practical and providing for the family. Fathers – especially first-time fathers – might experience many sudden changes, including significant reduction in family income and altered relationships with their wife or partner. These are major risk factors for depression in fathers.

The importance for supporting fathers at this time is as vital as it is for mother. Evidence suggests that a father’s depression can have a damaging effect on their child’s development. Despite this, it has been shown that fathers are also less likely than mothers to seek help, and that health professionals are less likely to consider that fathers need support, compared with mothers. More evidence is needed to build a case that fathers need support as much as mothers.

Poorly equipped

The ConversationIt has been argued that, until recently, health professionals have been poorly equipped to recognise and treat mental illnesses associated with the birth of a child. Recent campaigns in the UK have led to changes in policy, funding and health guidelines. However, the recent revision of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on perinatal mental health does not address fathers’ needs. Despite a campaign to address this having support from several professionals and academics, a NICE spokesperson told the BBC that guidelines are unlikely to be changed as there is no evidence that men experience postnatal depression. However, if we discount hormonal factors in new mothers, the remaining risk factors for postnatal depression also apply to fathers. And we need support that recognises that.

Andrew Mayers, Principal Academic in Psychology, Bournemouth University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

To find out more about writing for The Conversation, contact Rachel Bowen in RKEO (rbowen@bournemouth.ac.uk) or newsdesk@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Introduction to Funding from the National Lottery – online materials launched

RKEO dev logo - banner

Online materials are now available under the ‘Funding from the Charities’ pathway of the RKE Development Framework.

An online session for ‘Introduction to Funding from the National Lottery’ is now available. The materials are available through myBU. To access the materials please login to myBU, and access the RKEO RKE Funding from major charitiescommunity ‘BU: Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework’. From here, you can navigate through the pathways (see left hand side of screen) to the Funding from Charities pathway to find the session materials.

Keep an eye out for upcoming sessions under this pathway including ‘Funding from Smaller Charities’ as well as a Bid Writing Retreat for Charities. Further information on these sessions will be posted on the Research Blog in due course.

BU’s PGR Isabell Nessel at the 4th International Congress of the European Milk Bank Association

 

The European Milk Bank Association (EMBA) (www.europeanmilkbanking.com) held its 4th International Congress in Glasgow in early October. After a civic reception from Glasgow’s Mayor, at Glasgow’s magnificent City Chambers, the conference started with a warm welcome from Scotland’s Minister for Public Health and Sport.

Debbie Barnett, Donor Milk Bank Coordinator of the Scottish Greater Glasgow and Clyde Donor Milk Bank, and Jean-Charles Picaud, President of EMBA, welcoming the conference attendants.

Although it was a European conference, attendants from 35 countries from all over the world exchanged their research results, knowledge, and experience about human milk banking, with the aim to support the health of (preterm) babies. One important topic of the conference was the research into better thermal treatment of donor human milk. (http://embacongress.it/documenti/Program20170920.pdf)

I presented the results of our national milk bank survey, which we conducted earlier this year. The study was the first national audit of human milk banking practices in the U.K. with the aim to protecting and preserving omega-3 and omega-6 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in donor human milk. The survey identified large variations in all practices of human milk banking, including, donor selection, transportation, and storage and handling of donor milk, and nutritional information provided for donors.

This conference was a perfect opportunity for me, to talk to the respondents of the audit, to present our results, and to network with potential collaborators to facilitate further research into donor human milk in the U.K.

Many thanks to EMBA for the invitation to present my research, to all the participants of the survey, and to BU for the funding to attend this conference.

If you would like to learn more about human milk banking in the U.K. please visit the UK Association for Milk Banking website http://www.ukamb.org/

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

Isabell