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Developing research impact: influencing public policy

Working with policy-makers is a really useful way of getting research recognised and used by professionals in the relevant field, resulting in an impact on society.

Not only can attempting to influence policy raise the profile of the research and have profound implications for society, it can also considerably raise the profile of the academic behind the research, creating room for possible new partnerships and future collaboration.

What is policy-influencing?

Policy-makers bring together evidence and politics to come up with 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 and civil servants who work in government departments, meaning there are a variety of ways in which research can lead to influencing policy.

Research can be particularly influential in policy influencing 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.

How can you find out more?

BU’s Policy team, Jane Forster and Emma Bambury-Whitton are running two sessions as part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events which will explain how to use research to influence public policy on Wednesday and Thursday.

For further information about influencing policy, take a look at RKEO’s new impact toolkit.

Communicating your research for impact

Research communication is the process of communicating your research in an accessible way to audiences who can benefit from or put it into practice.  How you communicate very much depends on who your audience is and how they prefer to receive information.  It may be that you need to use a number of different methods of communication in order to reach the right people.

In age when digital technology surrounds us, there are many possible channels to choose from: a newspaper or magazine article, a TV or radio interview, a blog, social media, a website, a film, or more traditional means of communication through a briefing paper based on your research findings or a toolkit to be used by professionals in the relevant sector or press and public relations.  Any combination of these could be appropriate, but your choice will depend on the message you want to convey and who you want to connect with.

BU has a number of ways to help you communicate your research including:

If you’d like to find out more about how to use the media to generate research impact, do sign up for one of two engaging the media events run by the PR team this week on Tuesday and Thursday.

For more information about any of our communication channels, including the research blog, research website, briefings or Bournemouth Research Chronicle, please contact Rachel Bowen in RKEO.

For further information about communicating your research, take a look at RKEO’s new impact toolkit.

How can working with businesses help to develop research impact?

At the heart of impact is the process of knowledge exchange, which is very much a two-way process between you as the creator of a new piece of knowledge and your audience, who could use or benefit from what you know.

How you communicate that knowledge and to whom, will vary according to what your research is and the outcome you hope to achieve.  One route you could consider is working with businesses to develop you research impact.

What is business engagement?

Working with businesses and industry can be a very effective way of developing research impact.  By working in partnership, researchers can help to generate innovation, develop ideas for commercialisation and achieve economic and societal impact.  But, remember that knowledge exchange and sharing your ideas with businesses alone isn’t impact – it’s what happens as a consequence of those interactions that matters.

HEFCE defines this type of knowledge exchange as “the transferring or exchanging of knowledge with the aim of delivering external impact, such as improving products, services and profitability. This is linked with research and teaching, and includes consultancy and advisory work, the creation of intellectual property, the development of academic and student entrepreneurship, and a variety of other activities.”

How can you find out more about business engagement?

As part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events, RKEO are running two sessions around engaging with businesses, which you might like to sign up to.

On Monday afternoon, RKEO’s Knowledge Exchange Advisors, Rachel Clarke and Jayne Codling will be facilitating a session between BU’s researchers and local businesses on the topic of virtual and augmented reality.

On Tuesday, RKEO’s Research Facilitators will be hosting a ‘Smart Cities Sandpit’, where attendees will be working on the issue of how we link technology and services in key urban sectors in a smart way which will improve quality of life and the sustainability of our cities.

Developing research impact: new mini guide and toolkit available

Impact guide image

Developing research impact is becoming an increasingly important part of academic life, largely underpinned by changes in the external environment.

Demonstrating the potential impact often forms part of grants applications, while impact case studies are a significant part of a university’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission.  Aside from the external drivers, the process of developing impact and seeing your research make a difference to society can be extremely rewarding.

BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office have created a mini guide and online toolkit designed to help support the development of your research impact.  The guides explore what impact is, how you can go about creating an impact strategy and looks at some commonly used pathways to impact.

The online toolkit, which is more in-depth, also signposts readers to examples of outstanding impact case studies and provides examples of academics at BU who are using different pathways to develop their research impact.

The guides are being launched as part of BU’s week-long series of research impact events.  Throughout the week, academics will have the opportunity to drop into sessions designed to help support the development of their research impact.  If you’ve ever wanted to find out how to work with the media, influence public policy or work with businesses, this is your chance!

Impact mini guides will be given out at all sessions during BU’s week-long series of research impact events and are also available on request from RKEO.  Please do share these with colleagues and hand them out at any relevant internal events.

The full toolkit can be read on BU’s staff intranet.

Are you interested in taking your research to Countryfile Live?

An opportunity has come up for BU staff and students to take their research to Countryfile Live, taking place at Blenheim Palave 4-7 August 2016.  Travel and expenses will be covered by BU and you can either do all four days or just go for two.

For further information about the event take a look at their website, and if you’d be interested in taking your research, email nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk .  We will be attending alongside other universities so this is an excellent networking opportunity, as well as an opportunity to talk to the public about your research.

The themes of the event are around conservation, wildlife and agriculture so research around these areas would be especially relevant.

 

 

Bournemouth University student wins ‘Best Undergraduate Research Paper Award’

conferences, student research

Katherine at the conference

Bournemouth University Events Management graduate, Katherine Devenish, has won the ‘Best Research Paper Award’ for undergraduate research at the Asia Pacific Forum for Graduate Students Research in Tourism.  Katherine’s research into event greening – the process of incorporating socially and environmentally responsible decision making into the planning and implementation of an event – was carried out as part of her undergraduate dissertation.

Her research explored the factors that ease or impede the process of event greening in the corporate world, based on interviews with staff from a UK corporate event organisation.  As well as identifying the barriers and facilitating factors, Katherine’s paper also makes useful recommendations for practice.  These include developing a formal environmental policy to support cultural change within the organisation, encouraging long-term thinking to improve the use of resources and providing formal training to improve staff knowledge of greening measures.

Katherine was encouraged to submit her research paper to the conference by her supervisor – Dr Miguel Moital, a Principal Academic in Events Management.

“Katherine did extremely well in her dissertation, which was essentially written at journal article level,” explains Dr Moital, “We have developed it into a full academic paper which we’ve submitted to a journal.  We’re waiting for reviews at the moment.”

“After we’d written the paper up, I found out about the ‘Best Undergraduate Research Paper Award’ at the Asia Pacific Forum and encouraged Katherine to submit the final paper.  I was delighted to hear that she had won first prize.”

The conference was hosted by Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel & Tourism Management – one of BU’s partner institutions.  Conference organisers incorporated an undergraduate award with the aim of highlighting and fostering high quality research from undergraduates across the world.

To find out more about Katherine’s experiences, please see her video blog.

Warwick media workshop – applications now open

Sense About Science will be holding a Standing up for Science media workshop at the University of Warwick on Friday 24th June 2016. This full day event is free and for early career researchers and scientists in all sciences, engineering and medicine (PhD students, post-docs or equivalent in first job).

During the workshop we combine discussion about science-related controversies in media reporting with practical guidance and tips for how to deal with the media. Please find further information at http://www.senseaboutscience.org/data/files/VoYS/2016/Warwick/VOYS_workshop_Warwick_flyer_2016.pdf.

These workshops are very popular and places are limited. To apply, please fill out the online application form: http://bit.ly/1WEbcRJ. If you are a member of or are funded by any of our partner organisations (listed on the flyer), please state on the application – our partners hold five priority places for this workshop. For further information, please email Joanne jthomas@senseaboutscience.org.

Closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 13th June

Emerging and Novel Shellfisheries: Research and Management

Over 20 delegates from fisheries and conservation agencies and universities contributed to a seminar at Bournemouth University on the management of emerging and novel fisheries. With rising temperatures and increasing global trade and communications, species that are not native to the North east Atlantic are becoming established around our coast. Most of these are not currently of any concern; however a small proportion can become invasive and cause negative ecological impacts. Yet some non-native species have become beneficial and now support important fisheries, such as the Manila clam in Poole Harbour. There is therefore a tension between developing the economic potential of these new fisheries and risk to biodiversity and species and habitats within protected areas.

shellfish

Manila clams from Poole Harbour

Photo: John Humphreys jhc Research.

The seminar considered three main questions:

  • What can we learn from the history of ‘invading’, yet economically valuable shellfish? Is the pattern of spread any different from other invasions?
  • What are the ecological and economic threats, benefits and opportunities from non-native yet valuable species?
  • How can we mitigate potential ecological damage through sustainable management and harvesting?

We especially valued contributions from Dr Rosa Freitas and Dr Stefania Chiesa from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, who carry out research on the impacts of some of these species in southern Europe.

 lecture

Dr Stefania Chiesa from University of Aveiro

Dr. Roger Herbert

Dept. Life and Environmental Sciences

rherbert@bournemouth.ac.uk

Find out more about the Brownsea Marine and Coastal Observatory

HE Policy Update

This week there were lots of announcements and important changes for the higher education sector. BIS has published the White Paper which sets out the government’s proposals for higher education following on from the Green Paper in 2015. The Higher Education and Research Bill was also published this week. You can view a summary of all the key points from both the White Paper and the bill here.

Below are some updates on the key areas that came out of both the paper and the bill.

TEF

  • Universities will be awarded a Meets Expectations, Excellent or Outstanding ​rating.
  • Year one (2016/17)- all providers with any form of successful QA award will receive a rating of ‘Meets Expectations’
  • Year Two (2017/18)- trial year. The core metrics will be student satisfaction scores (National Student Survey), graduate outcome data (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education), and continuation rates.
  • Year Three (2018/19) will include the incorporation of other metrics as a result of the TEF technical consultation and will include pilot assessments at disciplinary level.
  • Year Four (2019/20) will be the first year in which disciplinary level assessments take place and will be the earliest the government intends to also include taught postgraduate courses.
  • The TEF will allow for inflationary increases to tuition fees for participating institutions that meet basic standards in 2017-18 and 2018-19, ahead of the introduction of differentiated caps in 2019-20 (fee caps are yet to be set).

 Agencies

  • HEFCE is closing and is to be replaced by an Office for Students (OfS) which will commence on 1st April 2018.
  • The Office for Fair Access will be subsumed into OfS
  • HEFCE and OFFA staff will transfer across to OfS which will also have a new board.

Research

  • A new body – UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will replace Research Councils UK and will merge the research councils and Innovate UK into this “single, strategic research funding body”.
  • A brand new body called Research England will be created under UKRI and will take responsibility for managing the REF and delivering QR, although it will maintain its own governance structure to ensure that the dual support system is maintained.
  • The Secretary of State may by regulation add/omit/change the name of a council.

Quality

  • The OfS will have oversight of not just the regime for quality, as Hefce did, but also of standards.
  • The government will be abolishing the previous process of cyclic quality review where every provider, regardless of risk, was reviewed after the same number of years. Rather, quality reviews will only occur when triggered by a provider seeking to gain approved status, approved (fee cap) status or Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) as a result of a previous provisionally satisfied assessment, or if annual monitoring activity gives cause for concern.

Additional points

  • The OfS will take over responsibility for granting DAPs and University Title for English institutions from the Privy Council.
  • Providers that receive public funding will continue to come under the scope of FOI, while those that do not receive public funding will not.
  • All universities will be required to publish detailed information about application, offer and progression rates, broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
  • The OfS will be able to validate degrees

Additional consultations

Alongside the White Paper, the government has released two consultations, both of which BU will be responding to.

Labour

Labour has launched a campaign to stop David Cameron lifting the cap on university fees in response to the White Paper and bill. Mr Corbyn has said he would abolish tuition fees by raising £10bn of taxes from businesses or higher-earners. Jeremy Corbyn launches campaign against student tuition fees and labels proposed hike ‘a tax on education’ (The Independent).

Teaching quality research

BIS has released data that looks into views on teaching quality in higher education from applicants and graduates. 93% of applicants said that access to transparent and reliable information about universities is important, and 84% of graduates asked said that they believed students should be able to access independent assessment of a university or course’s teaching quality. You can view the data here.

For more information on the reforms to higher education, you can have a look at our intranet pages and a post on the research blog. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have.

FHSS PhD student awarded prestigious Churchill Medallion in London

Funding opportunities, student research

new medallion Anita

129 Fellows awarded a prestigious new Churchill Medallion at a London award ceremony

 

Anita Immanuel, PhD student in FHSS was presented with a newly designed Churchill medallion at a prestigious biennial award ceremony in London this week (Wednesday, 18th May), after successfully completing  her Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.

Anite was presented with the stunning blue cloisonné enamelled silver Churchill medallion by its designer and Guest of Honour, Professor Brian Clarke, who is a world renowned architectural artist. Professor Clarke presented 129 Fellows with their medallions at a ceremony in Church House, in Central London. Church House has significant Churchillian associations as during the Blitz, Winston Churchill requisitioned Church House as a makeshift Houses of Parliament after the originals had been damaged by bombing.

As part of  her Fellowship and linked to her PhD research, Anita travelled to Australia and Canada.  Her PhD reserach examines the quality of lives of adults who have survived cancer of the blood or lymphatic system. Patients with haematological cancers have frequently reported lack of care-coordination as an unmet need following their intensive treatment.   Anita’s Fellowship has been outlined in a previosu BR Research Blog (click here!).

Speaking about the Fellowship, Prof. Stephen Tee (Executive Dean FHSS) said: “These Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships provide opportunities for UK citizens to go abroad on a worthwhile project, enriching their lives through their global experiences.  We are proud of Anita’s PhD research focusing on the quality of life in people who have survived cancer.  This Fellowship has also benefited Anita and her colleagues at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trustwhere she works as specialist nurse in this field”.

Anita’s PhD is supervised by: Dr. Jane Hunt and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (both FHSS) and Dr. Helen McCarthy, Anita’s clinical Ph.D. supervisor.

In 2017 The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust will be awarding 150 Travelling Fellowships. This will directly support British citizens who want to travel overseas to gain knowledge, experience and best practice to benefit others in their UK professions and communities, and society as a whole. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death in 1965, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 5,250 Travelling Fellowships.  The application process for travel in 2017 is now open!  Visit www.wcmt.org.uk for more details, or to apply before 5pm on 20th September 2016, for travel in 2017.

 

Research and Knowledge Exchange development framework – introduction to the pathways

Knowledge Exchange, Training

Last week we announced the imminent launch of the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) development framework (see here if you missed the post). Here we provide a bit more information about how the framework will be organised.launching soon pic

The framework will be divided into pathways. These are a series of sessions, combining some face-to-face delivery with online materials, which are linked by a topic. Some of the sessions will be targeted towards those with less experience in engaging with research and knowledge exchange, whilst others will be useful for academics with a wide range of experience. You may wish to sign up for the sessions on an entire pathway, come along to the first event to explore whether that pathway is right for you, or simply join in with a small number of sessions such as the bid writing retreats.

An overview of the pathways confirmed to date is provided below: we’ll be adding more pathways and confirming events over the next few weeks.

Research Council funding

Indicative Content: introduction to the UK Research Councils, working with stakeholders, pathways to impact statements, approaching the Case for Support and writing the Justification for Resources.

Funding from the Academies

Indicative Content: Introduction to the British Academy and the Royal Society, working with stakeholders and Bid Writing Retreats.

Funding from Major Charities

Indicative Content: Introduction to Wellcome and Leverhulme Trusts, working with stakeholders, hints and tips for applications to charities and Bid Writing Retreats.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

Indicative Content: Introduction to funding schemes, applying to NIHR calls and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

Pre-Award at BU

Indicative Content: Getting started, financial and legal considerations, BU processes, using Research Professional to locate funding.

Building a Team

Indicative Content: Working with stakeholders, networking, team building, Sandpits and Interdisciplinary Research.

Working with Business

Indicative Content: Introductions to knowledge exchange and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and IP and commercialisation

Returning to Academia after a break

Indicative Content: Specific funding opportunities for those retuning to academia and building resilience in research and knowledge exchange

Planning for and communicating research

Indicative content: Engaging with policymakers, public engagement, social media for impact and digital communication

EU Funding

Indicative Content: Introduction to Horizon 2020 and other EU funding schemes, some key principles to consider, IPR for EU projects, and call-specific Bid Writing Retreats.

International Funding

Indicative Content: Introduction to selected international funding schemes

 

A new webpage has been created for the framework through Organisational Development and up-to-date information can be found at staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/RKEDevelopmentFramework/. We will also be continuing to provide information through the University blogs.

**** Speaker Spotlight **** Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21/6/16

IR21616

 

BU is hosting a Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21st June 2016, dedicated to exploring the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research.

The Key Note address will be given by Dr. Louise Mansfield.

Dr. Louise Mansfield is Deputy Director of the Brunel Centre for Sport, Health and Wellbeing (BC.SHaW) in the College of Health and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on gendered inequalities in sport, physical activity and fitness across the lifespan. The health and well-being aspect of her research dovetails with projects she has managed exploring the physical activity and health legacies of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Dr. Mansfield is also a member of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing research team.

Other presentations include:

The Funders’ Perspective – Charlotte Lester (HEFCE), Dan Licari (Innovate UK / KTN Creative, Digital & Design) and Ben Sharman (EU NCP – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies)

Supporting Interdisciplinary Working – Prof. Alan Lester and Debbie Foy-Everett (Sussex), Jordan Graham and Ehsan Masood (Research Professional) and Christopher Ferguson (Piirus)

The Academics’ Perspective – Prof. Adele Ladkin (BU), Dr. David Hutchinson (Portsmouth) and Dr. Justine McConnell (TORCH, University of Oxford)

Facilitated networking session – How can I contribute?

Please see the Speakers’ Biographies for further information on our contributors.

The event will take place in BU’s Executive Business Centre. It will be opened BU’s Prof. Michael Wilmore (Executive Dean – Faculty of Media and Communication and  the closing remarks will be made by BU’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Vinney. To find out more about BU’s Research, why not register to receive updates from our award winning Research Blog.

Please see the Provisional Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day Schedule for more information. Key to the programme, as well as inspirational speakers, there will be plenty of time to network with colleagues and participate in exploring your own relationship with interdisciplinary research.

This event, is free and open to academics and research support staff throughout the UK.

Places are limited, so book now via Eventbrite.

There’s no ‘I’ in Team: My experience as a URA

Centre for Excellence in Learning, conferences, Fusion

Blog post by Pippa Empson, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Innovative Pedagogy)

Following my application and interview earlier this year I was accepted for the Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) position on an ‘Innovative Pedagogy’ research project. Being part of the URA programme gave me an insight into the world of primary research which involved transcribing conversations from focus groups, collating data into spreadsheets and statistically analysing data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), and getting the opportunity to present our findings in the Bournemouth University conference SURE (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence). It was a pleasure to work alongside academic staff Dr Jacqueline Priego and Dr Jonathan Branney who welcomed me and Jade Offer, the other URA, to the team and supported me in my position.

I learnt many new skills including analysing quantitative and qualitative data which the academic staff was happy to guide me in. I was initially daunted by the work I would be expected to do and whether I would be able to fit it around my undergraduate studies as a second year adult nursing student. However as I was able to fulfill some of the URA work at home on my own computer it meant I was able to be flexible with when I worked, so I could keep my other commitments. Being a URA was a great opportunity which I would recommend it to anyone interested in research or furthering their skills, be it computer skills or communication skills.

Pippa Empson, BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing, year two