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Remembering Rio and the Paralympics

 

We’re keen to hear about your memories and experiences of watching the Paralympic Games last summer. If you would like your voice to be heard as part of a 2-year project researching the impact and legacy of the Paralympics, then get in touch and join one of our small friendly focus group discussions taking place during the weeks of June 12th and June 19th 2017.

We kindly ask you to ‘sign up’ to join one of the following groups:

  • GROUP 1: Non-disabled with no direct experience of disability
  • GROUP 2: Including both non-disabled and those with direct personal experience of disability
  • GROUP 3: Those with direct personal experience of disability

The dates and timings of each focus group are provided below.

  • GROUP 1 Monday June 12th & 19th – 5.30pm (refreshments) 6pm start. Ends no later than 7.30pm
  • GROUP 2 Wednesday June 14th & 21st – 2pm (refreshments) 2.30pm start. Ends no later than 4pm.
  • GROUP 3 Thursday June 15th & 22nd – 5.30pm (refreshments) 6pm start. Ends no later than 7.30pm.

Car parking and refreshments will be provided.

To thank you for your time and effort each participant will receive an M&S voucher to the value of £15.00

 

For more information and to register your interest please call us now on 01202 965046 or email cmartins@bournemouth.ac.uk

REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE.

When registering, please let us know of any accessibility requirements.

We look forward to some lively discussion!

Take part in an International Workshop

Funding opportunities, international, Knowledge Exchange

The British Council is supporting attendance at a number of international research workshops. To find out more about the workshops and how to access funding to attend, please see the British Council website. Opportunities include:

Plese check each workshop for speicifc eligbility requirements and closing dates.

If you are considering applying, please contact Ehren Milner (FM and FMC) or Lisa Gale-Andrews (HSS and SciTech) for further support.

New projects in the Student Project Bank!

There are new projects in the Student Project Bank!

SPB062: Marketing plan to drive adoption of mobile app for local news

Bundle is an iPhone app for local news readers. It works by aggregating local news articles from a variety of reputable sources and delivering the most relevant to users based on their current location. The app has the potential to revitalise the entire local news ecosystem. Bundle is currently available in the UK App Store but very little marketing has been done. Create a robust plan for the marketing of the app, with a focus on outdoor advertising and experiential marketing activities.

SPB063: Shelley’s Heart: Digital Research Animator

Shelley’s Heart will be a downloadable app is set in St. Peter’s churchyard in Bournemouth town centre and features modern alter egos of Mary Shelley and the Romantic poets. As a Digital Research Animator you will be responsible for researching, designing, and developing 16 animated gifs (2-5 seconds in duration) to enhance the audio narrative. These are based on Photoshop illustrations that have been mocked up for the design document/script. Given the desired interactive element, you will be encouraged to research novel animation technologies including snapchat animations, augmented reality, and geo-location tracking. A design document will be provided however, you will have a role in refining the animation design.

Apply now

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

 

NIHR Fellowships Session – Resources Available Now

Photo courtesy of Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, RKEO held a session on NIHR Fellowships on Thursday 25th May. We heard from fantastic speakers including Dawn Biram from the NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre about the fellowship opportunities available from the NIHR. We also welcomed Professor Jane Sandall CBE, NIHR Senior Investigator and National NIHR lead for Clinical Academic Careers for midwives, who provided an overview of her own career history before describing what interview panel members look for in a candidate. BU’s very own NIHR Career Development Fellow, Dr. Samuel Nyman then rounded the day off with his own experiences of applying for an NIHR Fellowship, and what it’s like to be an NIHR Fellow.

The resources from the session are now available on MyBU. To access them, please logon to the ‘Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework’ community, and under ‘Pathways’ select ‘National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)’.

For further information, please contact Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO Research Facilitator.

 

 

Photo of the Week: Employability After BU- Am I going to be prepared to begin a career where someday my name will be added to the FMC Wall of Fame?

Employability after BU- Am I going to be prepared to begin a career where someday my name will be added to the FMC Wall of Fame?

Employability after BU- Am I going to be prepared to begin a career where someday my name will be added to the FMC Wall of Fame?

Our next instalment of the ‘Photo of the Week’ series features Vianna Renaud’s image of a first year Faculty of Media and Communication (FMC) student contemplating his employability after BU. The series is a weekly instalment which features an image taken by our fantastic BU staff and students. The photos give a glimpse into some of the fascinating work our researchers have been doing across BU and the wider community.

“A first year student takes a break in the Weymouth House lobby. Contemplating the photos and bios of BU alumni who have achieved great success in their careers, he wonders if he is going to be ready at the end of his course to join their ranks.  While he knows that he must undergo a sandwich placement year as part of his course, he wonders how BU is going to help him achieve his goal of securing his dream placement,”

“My research is on peer to peer coaching amongst students where there is a compulsory sandwich placement component in their academic programme. By pairing final year students who have just returned from their industry placement to first year students, I will investigate the impact this mentoring intervention may have on the sandwich placement search of the first year student when they begin their second year,” explains Vianna.

If you’d like find out more about the research or the photo itself then please contact Vianna.

This photo was originally an entry to the 2017 Research Photography Competition. If you have any other questions about the Photo of the Week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

Psychology PGR Sarah Hodge presents at two prestigious USA conferences and wins prize

PG research, Research Ethics, student research

Representing the research team from Bournemouth University, Sarah Hodge presented cross-disciplinary PhD research at two conferences in Las Vegas (April) and Denver (May).

The first conference Broadcast Education Association (BEA) included a symposium organised and attended by key academics in the area of psychology and gaming and within this Sarah won top paper in the symposium track and 2nd place student paper. The research presented was funded by the University Student Research Assistant (SRA) scheme, which involved collaboration between departments and faculties. The research involved creating a game to measure in-game moral decisions. The research team included Jacqui Taylor and John McAlaney from the Department of Psychology, Davide Melacca and Christos Gatzidis from the Department of Creative Technology, and Eike Anderson from the National Centre for Computer Animation.

 

At the second conference Computers in Human Interaction (CHI), Sarah had a workshop paper accepted on Ethical Encounters in Human Computer Interaction and this naturally stimulated many interesting questions about ethics in research. Sarah was a student volunteer at the conference. Sarah was a Chair student Volunteer at British HCI 2016 that was held at Bournemouth University last summer and this experience supported being accepted as a Student Volunteer at CHI. From this experience Sarah was assigned the role of Day Captain, which involved supporting and overseeing the other student volunteers with their duties. Sarah found it to be a great experience and highly recommends other students to consider being a student volunteer as a great chance to network and it also helps with funding conferences as the registration fee was waived.

 

Hodge, S. Taylor, J & McAlaney, J (2017). Restricted Content: Ethical Issues with Researching Minors’ Video Game Habits Human in Computer Interaction (CHI) May, Denver USA

If you would like more information about the research please contact: shodge@bournemouth.ac.uk

Research Staff Association coffee morning 31.05.17 – theme networking and collaboration

The next BU Research Staff Association coffee morning is focused on networking and collaboration.

We are delighted to welcome guest speaker Professor Edwin van Teijlingen to share his knowledge and experience in this area.

  • Date: 31 May 2017
  • Time: 10-11am
  • Venue: Well-being Centre, Bournemouth House, Lansdowne Campus.

We look forward to seeing you there.

BU Research Staff Association

Researchers – we need you…!

If that got your attention then keep reading – it gets better!

We need some more researchers from across Bournemouth University (BU) to join us in The Curiosity Playground (part of this year’s Festival of Learning). The Curiosity Playground celebrates the creative, fun and wacky research happening at BU. The purpose of this event is to increase public awareness of the spectrum of research that BU conducts, and the key message is that research is fun, interesting and amenable to all.

There is even some funding available to help develop props to showcase your research (and you get to keep them afterwards so you can use them for other events too).

So what are you waiting for GET INVOLVED!!!!

For more information please contact Michelle Heward mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU Research Staff Association

 

Media short course framework fosters ‘fused’ research

Last Friday and Saturday three courses ran as part of the Media CPD Short Course Framework: Managing Creativity and Innovation, Media Coverage of Extremism, and the Master’s Project. After the two-day intensive residential all students returned to their respective workplaces to begin professionally oriented (fused) research projects which, in the past, have seen students on this programme drive change in their organisations. Seen here, enjoying ‘networking drinks’ after day one are some of the students and tutors (L to R): Tobi Adesuyi (Channel 4); Peter Bloore (Managing Creativity tutor); Newton Velji (Edinburgh International Television Festival Committee); Mark Readman (Master’s Project tutor); and Mukundi Lambani (Brainbow Productions, Johannesburg).

For more information, or if you’re interested in developing a course, contact Mark Readman.

Randomised Scone Trials at Dorset County Hospital

Last week, to mark International Clinical Trials Day, BU’s Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) collaborated with BU alumna Zoe Sheppard and her research team at Dorset County Hospital to take part in their research awareness-raising ‘Randomised Scone Trial’!

The format was simple; participants, after signing a consent form, were randomised to either the ‘jam and cream’, or ‘cream and jam’ arm of the trial, and then provided subjective ratings on important scientific parameters such as taste and texture having eaten their scone. Data are yet to be analysed, but findings are expected to deliver both a high academic and societal impact. Dissemination routes are still being explored.

The event successfully garnered attention for clinical research from both hospital staff and patients alike, and was enjoyed by all. However, it was noted that the scone-containing end of the event table received slightly more attention that the leaflet/information-containing end!!

Policy and political scene this week: 25 May 2017

Welcome to this week’s political scene within research. Here is a summary of the week’s generic policy reports and releases, alongside new niche consultations and inquiries.

The role of EU funding in UK research and innovation

This week the role of EU funding in UK research and innovation has hit the headlines. Its an analysis of the academic disciplines most reliant on EU research and innovation funding at a granular level.

Jointly commissioned by Technopolis and the UK’s four national academies (Medical Sciences, British Academy, Engineering and Royal Society) it highlights that of the 15 disciplines most dependent on EU funding 13 are within the arts, humanities and social science sphere.

Most reliant on the EU funding as a proportion of their total research funding are Archaeology (38% of funding), Classics (33%) and IT (30%).

The full report dissects the information further considering the funding across disciplines, institutions, industrial sectors, company sizes and UK regions. It differentiates between the absolute value of the research grant income from EU government bodies, and the relative value of research grant income from EU government bodies with respect to research grant income from all sources, including how the EU funding interacts with other funding sources.

There are also 11 focal case studies, including archaeology and ICT. Here’s an excerpt from the archaeology case study considering the risks associated with Brexit and the UK’s industrial strategy:

“As archaeologists are heavily dependent on EU funding, a break away from EU funding sources puts the discipline in a vulnerable position. This is exacerbated by the fact that the UK is short of archaeologists and/or skilled workers active in the field of Archaeology because of the surge in large scale infrastructure projects (e.g. HS2, Crossrail, and the A14), which drives away many archaeologists from research positions.” Source

See the full report page 25 for particular detail on ICT and digital sector, and page 39 for archaeology. For press coverage see the Financial Times article.

Bathing Water Quality

The European Environment Agency published European Bathing Water Quality in 2016. It sees the UK as second to bottom in the league table for quality of bathing water. While 96.4% of British beaches were found safe to swim in last year 20 sites failed the annual assessment. Only Ireland had a higher percentage of poor quality bathing waters at 4%.

Report link: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/european-bathing-water-quality-in-2016

How and when to submit evidence to policy makers

This week Research Professional ran a succinct article encouraging researchers to think more about when and how they submit evidence to policy makers. Timing is key, policy makers often want information instantaneously and the article urges researchers to be responsive but pragmatic, including a pro-active approach of gently keeping key policy makers informed of new developments.

Researchers wanting to have a political impact may consider attending a UK Parliament Outreach and Engagement Service events.

 

Consultations and Inquiries

Responding to a select committee call for evidence is a great way for academics to influence UK policy. If you respond to a consultation or inquiry as a BU member of staff please let us know of your interest by emailing policy@bournemouth.ac.uk at least one week before you submit your response.

This week there are three new inquiries and consultations that may be of interest to BU academics.

Sports

A Scottish Parliament inquiry is seeking individual’s views on community-based approaches to removing barriers to participation in grassroots sport and physical activity, including how to promote volunteering. The committee is asking for views and examples on a range of questions, including:

  • Examples where a community based approach has been successful in removing barriers to participation in sport and physical activity?
  • Approaches that were particularly successful in increasing participation among certain social groups, like women, ethnic minorities, certain age-groups?
  • The barriers facing volunteers and how can they be overcome? The aim is to inform how Scotland might increase participation rates across all groups and sectors of society, respondents can select to answer only the most relevant questions.

The call for evidence closes on 30 June.

Body Image

The British Youth Council has opened an inquiry into body image and how the growth of social media and communications platforms has encouraged attitudes that entrench poor body image. Included among the inquiry questions are:

  • Has the growing use of social media and communications platforms amongst young people encouraged practices and attitudes that entrench poor body image? What is the link between “sexting” and body dissatisfaction?
  • Do internet companies, social media platforms or other platforms have a responsibility to tackle trends which entrench poor body image? What are they already doing in this area? What more should they be doing?
  • Are particular groups of young people particularly prone to poor body image, or less likely to seek help? What causes these trends?
  • In relation to young men and boys, minority ethnic groups, and those who self-identify as transgender: what are the specific challenges facing young people in these groups? How effective is existing support?
  • To what extent is dissatisfaction with body image contributing to the increase in mental health problems amongst children and young people?

The call for evidence closes on 16 June.

Drainage & Flooding

The Welsh government has opened a consultation on the implementation of sustainable drainage systems on new developments (schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010).

The consultation closes on 11 August.

 

HE Policy Update

You can also sign up to receive BU’s separate weekly HE policy update delivered direct to your inbox each Friday by emailing policy@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Sarah Carter

Policy & Public Affairs Officer

Workshop: Building resilience in Research and Knowledge Exchange – June 15th 2017

Training

Professor Heather Hartwell will be delivering a workshop on June 15th, 2017,  that will help participants gain insight into how it is possible to build resilience in the area of Research and Knowledge Exchange. This session will explore how it may be possible to build resilience in the area of research and knowledge exchange, where rejection for funding and from publishers is common. The speaker will offer their views of how resilience can be built and how to overcome obstacles.

There will be the opportunity for discussion around the topic. For those interested in booking onto the course, please follow the link here. If you would like further information about the workshop, please contact Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Three Sandpits and a Funder

You’ve probably seen on the BU Research Blog, that in RKEO we hold lots of ‘sandpit’ events. If you have ever wondered what a sandpit is, they offer the opportunity to meet new people, and to spend dedicated time developing novel ideas for research projects. They also involve lots of post-it notes, and occasionally some colouring!

We have been very busy this week, with three sandpits taking place across BU.

On Monday, we facilitated a mini-sandpit event for the Department of Creative Technology in the Faculty of Science and Technology. Lively interactions occurred, and interesting ideas were discussed. We look forward to working with the department to develop these ideas.

On Tuesday, we welcomed fantastic speakers from Public Health England, Project Nurture and the Better Care Fund (NHS England), who set the scene for our health & wellbeing sandpit event titled ‘Health & Wellbeing in the 21st Century: Is it your responsibility?’. We had a full house for the day, including attendees from Southampton Solent, the University of Surrey and Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust. By the afternoon, the room was buzzing with wonderful ideas including lots of nature themed ideas inspired by Project Nurture’s talk earlier in the day.  We hope to develop these ideas into applications for funding over the coming months.

On Wednesday, the Royal Society came to visit and provided an overview of their strategic priorities and the application process. After their presentation, attendees then engaged in our third and final sandpit of the week on AI and robotics. Vicky Isley and Paul Smith from ‘boredomresearch’ talked about artificial life, artificial intelligence and artificial emotion. They discussed how they plan to introduce emotion in robotics, which set off some interesting discussions on the topic. Some fantastic ideas for research projects were generated, leading to three teams winning grant development funding to support the development of their ideas.

We’ve had a great week meeting lots of different people across BU and beyond, and look forward to seeing even more of you at our sandpit events next academic year! Check back to the BU Research Blog for upcoming opportunities as part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework.

 

How electric car racing could one day challenge the spectacle of Formula One

File 20170523 5782 4mcvzh

Motor racing’s most glamorous event, the Formula One Grand Prix in the glittering tax haven of Monaco is just around the corner. It is 67 years since drivers first took on the famous, twisty roads through the principality on the south coast of France, but is age starting to creep up on the F1 scene? The Conversation

Since the earliest Olympic Games, racing has been used to advance wheeled transport. It was in the Tethrippon, Keles and Apene events in Ancient Greece, that chariots were developed and the numbers of horses, foals and mules adjusted to provide optimum power and handling. Centuries later, in 1899, the French Renault brothers understood that city-to-city racing could help harness the very different horsepower of their new combustion-engined cars.

Today we use many F1 technologies on the road. Ferrari’s semi-automatic gearbox and the “flappy paddle” transmissions are now standard in many road cars. Shell and Total produced friction-reducing fuel additives, and tyres made by Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone and Pirelli have all benefited from F1 research. Williams Advanced Engineering created the technology behind the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to be found in Volvo’s C30 Electric road car and the BMW i3 electric city car is the first to be constructed from carbon fibre-reinforced plastic, a technique pioneered in F1 by McLaren.

But while F1 has driven innovation that has made it to the car showroom, there is a risk it may fall behind by failing to embrace the key evolving trend in road car technologies. Could Formula E (FE), the fully electric vehicle street racing competition, end up being more relevant to the world’s major motor manufacturers?

Volvo: plugged in.
One Tonne Life/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Urban planning

This year, FE had its own race in Monaco, a fortnight before F1 arrived. According to Jean Todt, President of the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA), FE is the perfect showcase for new electric vehicle technologies; a device to promote the use of clean engine technology, especially in cities and towns.

It is in those urban settings that pollution is a major problem. Oslo banned diesel road cars for two days to combat rising air pollution while the Norwegian government intends to ban the sale of fossil fuel-based cars by 2025.

Others have similar intentions. India is considering a draft report recommending that all vehicles should be electric by 2032. China, where pollution in major cities can be devastating, is the largest electric vehicle market in the world. BYD Auto sold 507,000 cars last year and GAC Motor, another of China’s large motor manufacturers, intends to build 200,000 vehicles per year. Unsurprisingly, Alejandro Agag, founder and CEO of FE wants to expand the championship into China.

Agag recognised that the automobile industry’s focus on electric vehicles offered a different direction to most motor sports. He would appear to be right. FE already has an impressive line-up of contributing manufacturers, many of which have been familiar names in F1.

Brand awareness

FE cars currently use batteries supplied by Williams Advanced Engineering, a subsidiary of the Williams F1 Team. The Renault e.dams team has allowed Renault to demonstrate its FE pedigree with the all-electric TreZor concept car, which was one of the stars of the 2016 Paris Motor Show. McLaren Applied Technologies will supply all the championship’s new batteries from 2018. Jaguar, which was formerly in F1, has backed FE’s Panasonic Jaguar Racing team to showcase its future range of electric cars.

Other manufacturers, including current world F1 championship winning team Mercedes-Benz, are joining FE soon and even Ferrari, a cornerstone of F1 since the World championship started, is said to be interested.

BMW, which used to have a prominent position in F1 attained “Official Vehicle Partner” status by supplying electric utility vehicles for FE, including Safety Cars, Medical and Support Cars and the official Rescue Car. BMW will get further involved on track in the actual racing when it joins the FE grid in 2018 with the Andretti Team.

In 2017, Audi, which could have gone to F1, completely realigned its motor sport strategy after being dominant in sportscar racing. It became involved in FE with a factory-backed commitment to The Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport team. This fits Audi’s business strategy to produce new electric vehicles, particularly aimed at the Chinese market.

Musk makes baby steps into racing.
EPA/PETER FOLEY, CC BY

You might wonder why headline-grabbing US car maker Tesla hasn’t dipped its toe into FE. Well, Elon Musk’s firm has seen its Model S version P85+ chosen as the base car for the world’s first Electric GT Championship, which starts in a few months time.

So is F1 missing out? Certainly not financially. At the moment, the budgets involved in F1 remain much larger, but that should not be taken for granted if motor manufacturers continue to jump ship. The point has certainly been made that FE is attracting major companies for whom electric technology is becoming increasingly relevant, to the detriment of both F1 and Indycar.

It does seem unlikely that Formula e, as it stands, can truly compete with the decades of history and glamour associated with the combustion-engine machismo of F1. But in 2020, the FIA’s F1 engine rules are due to change and history shows that to justify the substantial investment, this will probably have to be for at least five seasons. The current 1.6-litre V6 600 horsepower hybrid turbo petrol engines, that gain an added 160 horsepower from their electrical recovery systems will be consigned to the scrap heap.

Will the FIA choose another hybrid engine configuration for F1 or could it too go more electric? Perhaps a path might even be laid for a fully electric F1 in later years? In any case, the FIA’s choice will be vital for the future of both F1 and FE. It will also be a strong signal of the pace of change which will dictate the types of cars we will all end up driving to the shops, in China, Norway and beyond.

Bruce Grant-Braham, Lecturer in Sport Marketing specialising in motorsport, Bournemouth University

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

Funding Opportunity – Roadmaps to human biology-based disease research

Funding opportunities, international, Publishing

Call Outline:

To support strategic scientific dialogue around the concept of extending the vision of “21st century toxicology” to the wider biosciences, Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States are offering grants of up to $10,000 (USD) in funding to support the development and open-access publication of in-depth, independent review articles in discrete areas of human disease/biomedicine by health scientists with relevant expertise.

Who can apply

• Health researchers holding a PhD (or equivalent) degree and be able to demonstrate relevant experience in the disease area they propose to review.
• Eligible individuals may currently be employed in a health research position in the academic, private or public sectors, or may have retired from such a position.
• Applications will be accepted from single authors or groups.
• The current call is restricted to applicants in the United States, Canada, European Union and South Korea.

The closing date for this call is 30 June 2017

If you are interested in applying to this or other non-UK funded calls, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International.