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Nuffield Celebration Event at BU

Coffee Morning, Festival of Learning

The Nuffield Research Placement (NRP) provides students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
It aims to enable students to experience authentic research in a real scientific environment and is available across the UK, in universities, commercial companies, voluntary organisations and research institutions.

NRP is now celebrating its 20 years and last Wednesday at the Fusion Building, the students who took part in the placement, presented their posters.

As in the past year, also this year under the supervision Alison McConnell, James Gavin, Tom Wainwright and mine we hosted a student Holly Combes, who in a month not only collaborate in setting up research protocols but also wrote a dissertation about the Time-Up-and-Go, which was submitted to the Young Scientific Journal for publication.

Personally, I was inspired by all the fascinating research that the students have done, and I was glad to have the opportunity to give a small speech:

To my colleagues that are thinking to apply for next year placement, I will say do it. There is nothing more pleasing than help young minds, full of motivation and curiosity. You and your research will gain a lot from this experience.

Thank you for reading,

Francesco

 

 

New projects in the Student Project Bank!

There are new projects in the Student Project Bank! Projects are available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at BU and can be used for their dissertation, assignment, unit or group work. Members of staff may also choose a project to set to their students.

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.

SPB073: Mapping of signing up user journey for financial products

Harmoney is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to help people to manage their money better, particularly so that it doesn’t cause worry, stress, or mental distress. Their initial service is providing advice on welfare benefits and debt problems. This project involved mapping the signing up user journeys of existing online current account and budgeting products, particularly those built for smartphones (like Monzo) and new innovative services (like Squirrel). You will be looking for similarities between the maps and assessing what works well and what doesn’t.  These findings will be used to make recommendations for our product.

SPB074: Mapping of user journey of financial products

Harmoney is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to help people to manage their money better, particularly so that it doesn’t cause worry, stress, or mental distress. Their initial service is providing advice on welfare benefits and debt problems. This purpose of this project is to map the user journeys of existing online current account and budgeting products, to undertake tasks such as setting up regular payments, making transfers, checking balance. You will be looking for similarities between the maps and assessing what works well and what doesn’t. These findings will be used to make recommendations for our product.

SPB075: Harmoney cyber security

Harmoney is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to help people to manage their money better, particularly so that it doesn’t cause worry, stress, or mental distress. Their initial service is providing advice on welfare benefits and debt problems. Map out security methods used by existing services of online current account products.  What are the options?  What direction might these tools be going in in relation to security?  Are costs considered? What is the user preference?  These findings will be used to make recommendations for our product.

SPB081: Cherry Tree Nursery Website Revamp

Cherry Tree Nursery is part of the Sheltered Work Opportunities project, a registered charity based in Bournemouth serving the local Community. We were set up to address the great need for meaningful occupation, in a supportive and pressure free environment, for adults with severe and enduring mental illness. Cherry Tree Nursery’s website is out dated and needs a revamp to bring it in line with modern website design and to attract new visitors to the charity.

Apply now

A complete list of projects is available here. Send us an email to request a project brief and application form.

Faculty of Media and Communication PGR Conference

conferences, PG research

On 1st November, PGRs and supervisors gathered in the Share Lecture Theatre for the inaugural Faculty of Media and Communication PGR Conference. Proceedings were introduced by Professor Iain MacRury and Professor Candida Yates, who provided entertaining talks involving Dr Johnson’s reflections on academia, and the role of women academics.  Then it was over to the PGRs to present papers on research as diverse as the role of Saudi women journalists and social media, the Italian cop thriller of the 1970s, understanding copyright law, and radio history.

Before lunch the opportunity to “Draw Your PhD” was seized enthusiastically, and for half an hour the only sound was the scratching of biros whilst participants created some classic interpretations of the PhD experience in cartoon form. The results were extremely entertaining, and reminded us that most students experience similar traumas and joys during the PhD process.

After further papers in the afternoon, Dr Sue Sudbury delivered the key-note lecture, reflecting on her practice-led PhD, based on empowering women from Uttar Pradesh to make videos of their daily life. Finally, the wine reception at the end of the day provided further opportunities for networking.

This was a productive and enjoyable occasion, ably organised by third-year PGRs Katy Vaughan and Kate Terkanian. It is hoped that next year the organisational baton will be grasped by new students, so that this conference will become a yearly, student-led event.

Written by Jan Lewis (Postgraduate Research Administrator, Faculty of Media and Communication)

Professor Julie Turner-Cobb wins the British Psychological Society Book Award!

The textbook winner for the British Psychological Society Book Award 2017 is Child Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Perspective by Professor Julie Turner-Cobb. It is the first textbook to focus specifically on child health psychology, taking an interdisciplinary and life-course perspective and drawing on theories and models within.

The Society’s Book Award recognises excellent published work in psychology. Professor Julie Turner-Cobb said she was absolutely delighted to win the award and thrilled that her book has received great recognition and positive reception as a result. She was first nominated for the award by one of her PhD students based at the University of Bath: “They are a big supporter of the book and were inspired to do their PhD as a result of an issue raised in the chapter that addresses the experience of being a young carer. It was a nice surprise and a huge compliment to be nominated.”

Child Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Perspective is primarily targeted at postgraduate students on MSc Health Psychology programmes but is also relevant to students taking final year undergraduate units in health psychology and related areas. Beyond this, the textbook is also relevant across a number of health disciplines outside of psychology where a biopsychosocial perspective on child health is being considered.

“There was no textbook devoted to health psychology as applied to children. I wanted to bring it together to highlight it and provide a child health focus for health psychology as a discipline.”

The first part of the book covers topics related to events and circumstances that can influence a child’s health during childhood and adolescence including the prenatal environment; whilst the second part examines how children cope when they are ill, how they deal with pain, the experience of parental ill health and bereavement.

“It takes a strong biological stance in many respects, but also gives attention to psychosocial issues in relation to context and individual differences,” Professor Turner-Cobb said, “There is also a chapter in the first part of the book that examines methodological and ethical issues in child health psychology, that includes assessment using endocrine and immune biomarkers of stress but also discusses the utility of using a range of different paradigms and settings.”

Professor Turner-Cobb was inspired to write Child Health Psychology as she wanted to draw attention to the scope of work on psychological factors associated with child health. “There are a number of excellent textbooks on health psychology that have aspects covering child health and there are many textbooks devoted to developmental psychology, but there was no textbook devoted to health psychology as applied to children. I wanted to bring it together to highlight it and provide a child health focus for health psychology as a discipline.”

For more information about the book, please email Professor Julie Turner-Cobb (jturnercobb@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Academics! Book your place now for the ‘Engaging with policy makers’ session next Thursday

Training

Need any help with understanding how to use your research to influence public policy? Looking for support and guidance on how to effectively engage with policy makers?

Policy-makers often use research evidence to help inform policies and solutions for issues that affect everyone on a daily basis. They can incorporate a range of individuals, including those who are elected into political positions, civil servants who work in government departments or those working in professional governing bodes, meaning there are a variety of ways in which research can lead to influencing policy.

Research can be particularly influential in policy making as it could provide the basis for an evidence-based change or amendment to legislation. This can be a very powerful way of developing research impact, but it can also be a very complex process.

Join us at next week’s session with BU’s Policy Advisor, Jane Forster, who will help you develop an understanding of the process of influencing public policy and how to use your research to influence policy makers as part of the Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework.

Title Date Time Location
Engaging with policy makers Thursday 16th November 2017 10.00 – 12.00 Talbot Campus

By the end of the session, you should have a good understanding of and feel confident to use your research to engage and influence policy makers effectively in order to develop your research impact.

Book your place here!

BU Briefing – Trophic positioning of meiofauna revealed by stable isotopes & food web analyses

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. 

This paper examines seasonal food webs of the invertebrates inhabiting the streambed of the chalk River Lambourn in England. Researchers conducted analyses of gut content (a dietary “snapshot”) of macro and meiofauna, as well as stable isotope analyses (determines the feeding links of an organism as it reflects its assimilated diet) of meiofauna to examine seasonal food webs of the chalk stream.

This study stresses the importance of temporal variations in food and consumer species composition for a comprehensive understanding of food web structure, asserted by similar changes in trophic structure depicted by gut content and stable isotope analyses.

Click here to read the briefing paper.

For more information about the research, contact Professor Genoveva Esteban at gesteban@bournemouth.ac.uk 
To find out how your research output could be turned into a BU Briefing, contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 

Doctoral training partnerships funding call (DTP2) – Town hall meeting

Funding opportunities, student research

When: 30 January 2018
Where: London

On 19 October 2017, NERC announced that its second round of investment in doctoral training partnerships (DTP2) would be made through a fully open competitive call. This decision was made following the outcomes of the mid-term evaluation of NERC’s existing DTPs in 2016-17.

The DTP evaluation concluded that this mechanism of delivering PhD studentships provides valuable training and that NERC should continue to support PhD studentships in this way. A fully open competitive call will ensure that they build on the success of existing investments while enabling innovation and change within the DTP community. It will ensure that all eligible organisations are able to compete for access to NERC studentships based on excellence, determined by a robust and consistent assessment process.

The DTP2 call will be launched in early January 2018, at which point an announcement of opportunity will be published on the NERC website. To ensure clear communication regarding the scope and expectations of this call, NERC will be holding a town hall meeting for interested parties to discuss the call in more detail with NERC staff and to network with potential DTP partners. The meeting will take place once the call has been launched.

The event

The purpose of the town hall meeting is to provide an opportunity for those interested in applying to the DTP2 call to receive detailed guidance about the scope and requirements of the call, raise any questions with NERC staff and network with prospective DTP partners. The meeting will commence with a presentation from NERC staff, followed by a plenary question and answer session, and will conclude with an open session to include lunch and networking.

Those expressing an interest in attending will be invited to propose questions to be addressed at the meeting – this will enable NERC staff to tailor the content of presentations and ensure that they address as many commonly asked questions as possible. Common queries raised following the publication of the call will also be addressed at the meeting.

Following the presentations and Q&A, the meeting will be unstructured, providing an opportunity for attendees to network with one another and discuss potential partnerships, as well as to talk further with NERC staff regarding specific questions.

Attendance at this meeting is not a pre-requisite for submission of a DTP2 proposal. A summary report of the meeting will be published on the NERC website as soon as possible after the event.

How to apply

To express your interest in attending the meeting, you must complete the online registration form.

The closing date for registration is 16:00 on 1 December 2017.

There are a limited number of places available and so the submission of an application is not a guarantee of a place at the meeting. If the event is oversubscribed, NERC will limit the number of attendees per organisation to allow for even representation from across the NERC community – this will be done in discussion with the individuals and organisation, as appropriate. Those applicants offered a place will receive a formal invitation confirming attendance once all applications have been processed. NERC will aim to confirm the final list of attendees by early January 2018.

Contact

NERC Research Careers

15 Minutes to Develop your Research Career – Episode 2

PG research

Episode 2: Stepping up, moving on and alternative career paths for researchers

What do researchers go on to do after their PhD? What are the different career paths available? What are the transferable skills you develop as a researcher?

Careers consultant Kate Murray from Kings College London provides her advice, and also previous PhD students working outside of academia to get a taster of some of the different career paths researchers take.

Download the podcast here. Taylor & Francis Group created with Vitae.

Standing up for Science workshop for STEM & social science early career researchers

Sense about Science is holding a Standing up for Science workshop at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on Thursday 30 November 2017. This full day event is for STEM and social science early career researchers (PhD students, post-doctoral fellows or equivalent).

Want to find out how to make your voice heard in public debates about science?

Image result for voice of young science workshop

At this workshop, you will meet researchers who promote science in the face of hostility and are recognised for their achievements, learn from respected science journalists about how the media works, how to respond and comment, and what journalists want and expect from scientists.

These workshops are very popular and places are limited.

To apply, please complete the application form and email Rachel Bowen (rbowen@bournemouth.ac.uk) to let her know that you wish to attend.

Closing date for applications: Monday 13 November, 5pm.

 

Image result for sense about science workshop

For more details about the workshop, get in touch with Ana Skamarauskas (ana@senseaboutscience.org).

Deadline Approaching – Call for Something: Disrupting Research Practices

The Doctoral College and Centre for Research Capability and Development  at Coventry University will be holding a one day conference happening on Friday 19th January 2018. Our Call for Something is currently open and closes on 12th November. For more information on the event and the full CFS, please follow the link:

https://sway.com/SeG6cezMbHXXh8FY?ref=Lin

For further details, please contact Dr Kieran Fenby-Hulse 

The power of Bilding!


I was lucky, and honoured, in late October to visit Vechta, Lower Saxony, to give a keynote at the Gemeinsame Werte in Europa? (Common values in Europe?) conference as part of a European-wide celebration of 30 years of Erasmus funding and exchanges. Having acted as part of a European-wide panel on the future of Erasmus – especially post-Brexit – my keynote address dealt with the challenges of ‘precarity’ for many of our citizens throughout Europe and the need for radical social action to confront the increasing insecurities, uncertainties and inequities within contemporary society. It was a plea for European solidarity and action against neoliberal atomisation and its debilitating effects on the communitas, something that resonated with the European and international audience.

Last week my colleague from Universität Vechta, Magnus Frampton, continued the dialogue begun in Germany by offering an important seminar ‘What’s in a word? Bildung and pedagogy: two German understandings of education’ which explored, amongst other things, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s legacy to education. This was important in reminding us that education specifically focusing on the requirements of the economy or business is potentially damaging to the individual. It reminds us that the human and the social is central.

So, as we contribute to developing education, meaning and society, not as a linear project of the enlightenment but as a means of cultivating the self and the social and in shaping and creating anew who we are as human beings, we need to challenge and to question, to resist and make new rather than to be moulded as economic units for those with power. Long may the potential of Erasmus offer this academic freedom!

Jonathan Parker

British Library – Doctoral Open Days 2017/18

Info Days

The British Library is running a series of Open Days for Doctoral Students, taking place in December 2017 as well as January and February 2018. The Doctoral Open Days are a chance for PhD students who are new to the Library to discover the British Library’s unique research materials. All events take place in the British Library Conference Centre at St Pancras, London, except for the event on Wednesday 31 January 2018, which takes place at the Library’s site in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. For further details of the all Open Days and how to book please visit the website. Places cost £10.00 including lunch and other refreshments.