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‘Meet the Entrepreneur’ – Damien Lee

Business Engagement

The Business School and Centre for Entrepreneurship were delighted to welcome Damien Lee to the EBC yesterday for the fourth in our series of ‘Meet the Entrepreneur’ seminars.

Damien Lee, founder of Mr Lee’s Noodles Company Ltd, is an adventurous and focused entrepreneur with a vision to create affordable, healthy fast food options, particularly for young people.

Mark Painter, Business Development Manager for The Business School, said, ‘Damien has founded and run many successful businesses across a diverse range of sectors including oil, leisure and recruitment’, Mark added, ‘It was particularly interesting to hear Damien say that creating a business is ultimately about making money, however, at the same time, Damien believes enterprises should ensure they give something worthwhile back to those societies and communities they serve’.

A cancer survivor – once told “he only had weeks” – and a fervent believer in the role of food in health. Damien is passionate about supporting young people and through Mr Lee’s HEY Foundation aims to raise awareness of the importance of eating good food (Health), provide life coaching (Educate) and encourage young people to get active and set personal goals (Youth).

This was a great opportunity for students and staff to hear about Damien’s personal journey as an entrepreneur and learn more about his own experiences as a business owner and his approach to founding and growing an innovative business.

In recognition of Damien’s support for BU’s enterprise activities, at the end of the seminar Mark Painter invited Damien to join the Centre for Entrepreneurship’s cohort of Entrepreneurs in Residence. Mark Painter said, ‘I’m delighted that Damien is able to join our group of Entrepreneurs in Residence and we very much look forward to seeing Damien at further events in the future.’

More information about Mr Lee’s Noodles Company Ltd can be found at www.mrleesnoodles.com

Details of future events being organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship can be found at www.bucfe.com

 

 

Seminar by Prof Sue Denham in Cogntive and Computational Neuroscience. Today the 5th of May at 15h, Lawrence Lecture Theatre.

international

Sue Denham, PhD in Physics holds a Professorship in Cognitive Neuroscience at the department of Psychology in Plymouth University and is director of the Cognition Institute https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/cognition

Prof Denham has published a series of influential studies in the area of auditory cognition both from empirical and neurocomputational modelling angles. In addition, she has applied these insights in the development of computationally efficient implementations for practical technological applications, and in the creation of novel devices. Sue has been funded multiple times from BBSRC, EPSRC, Leverhulme, Welcome Trust and ERC among other funding agencies; and has been coordinator of three FP7 European projects. Currently she is the coordinator of the EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-IDP 604764; €4.1m) “CogNovo: Cognitive Innovation” (2013-2017).

The title of her exciting talk is: “What can perceptual multistability tell us about perception?”, in Lawrence Lecture Theatre today, the 5th of May, 15h, in the context of the Psychology Department Seminars organized by Dr Sebastien Miellet, Head of the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center.

Abstract: “The phenomenon of perceptual multistability, i.e. qualitative changes in perception in response to an unchanging stimulus, has been known for many years, originally in the form of binocular rivalry. More recently, perceptual switching has also been observed in other visual tasks (e.g. form from motion, visual plaids, Necker cube) and modalities, notably in the two auditory paradigms of auditory streaming and verbal transformations, both of which give rise to multistable states. Perceptual multistability poses many interesting questions for theories and models of sensory perception, and provides ways to explore the neural correlates of differences in (conscious) perceptual awareness without confounds caused by differences in stimulation or individual. In this talk I will discuss the somewhat surprising similarities between visual and auditory perceptual switching data, illustrated through Levelt’s four propositions. These suggest a common modelling strategy which in turn leads to new ideas of what constitutes an auditory object”.

We are all looking forward to her talk which is interesting for many of us at BU since Sue has worked in areas ranging from cognition to neural computation.

Robotics & Autonomous Systems – US leads robotics investment boom

innovation, Knowledge Exchange

robot_in_tomorrows_world
Rapidly increasing activity in the robotics sphere has led the Financial Times to herald an investment boom time for one of the hottest new markets in tech. And, as robots break free of factory production lines, the US and China are poised to take the lead from Japan and Germany.
After growing at a compound rate of 17 per cent a year, the robot market will be worth $135bn by 2019, according to IDC, a tech research firm. The Asian markets, Japan and China, which is in the early stages of retooling its manufacturing sector, account for 69 per cent of all robot spending. But it’s US investment, which has more than doubled to $587m in 2015, according to CB Insights, that is the major factor in global growth.
Although the amount of cash flowing into the sector is still at a relatively early stage, all the lead indicators of the innovation economy are positive, says the FT: patent filings covering robotics technology have soared, with China alone accounted for 35 per cent in 2015, and venture capital investments more than doubled last year.
“From private equity investors looking to build portfolios of robot investments, to new “incubators” such as Playground, started by former Google robotics chief Andy Rubin, the investment options have been proliferating rapidly.”
“The most interesting things are in Silicon Valley or the US,” Dmitry Grishin, a Russian internet entrepreneur and investor told the FT.
Surging investment in artificial intelligence is giving the US an early advantage in the race to dominate a new era of robotics, say investors and experts. Recent advances, particularly in deep learning, have shifted robotics from its core industrial market into areas such as self-driving cars.
However, as low-cost robots move into more consumer and business uses, such as drones, China’s hardware manufacturing expertise will also make it a more significant player, they believe.
AI, big data and the cloud
The threat from new AI and cloud technologies has also incentivised established players such as Japan’s Fanuc, the world’s largest maker of industrial robots, to up their game. The company plans to start connecting 400,000 installed machines by the end of this year, to collect data about their operations and improve performance and is banking on their proliferation as a means of competing with the likes of Google, in the data sphere at least. Similalry, Germany’s Kuka is building a deep-learning AI network for industrial robots.
While US companies such as Google and Facebook have led  investment in deep learning, Silicon Valley has also seen a wider start-up boom in AI and robotics. A collapse in the price of components, thanks to smartphone growth, has made it cheaper to launch robot companies. But the new entrepreneurs rushing into the field are different from the hardware engineers who historically dominated the field, experts say, and are just as likely not to even use the word “robotics,” with a focus, instead on autonomy and AI.
Complementing this activity, astonishing advances in academia are giving fuel to future visions of what may become possible, with scientists creating living ‘insect-computer hybrid’ robots with user-adjustable speed and gait and exciting innovation in powering the technology, such as ‘ATTO cells’ that will be instrumental in creating intelligent swarms of robots. This nascent technology is expected to enable automation at ten times the speed of the upcoming 5G technology, supporting the deployment of highly-demanding wireless services in domains such as reconfigurable robot factories, intelligent hospitals and flexible offices. Ultimately, individual robots will be able to tap into the computing power of other robots in the swarm and/or local computing power in their immediate environment.
Simplistic machines
But that’s the future and there are plenty of technological and ethical hurdles for robotics to address first. Current goals are infintely more modest: to build single-purpose robots that do one thing very well. If successful, these machines will quickly become part of the fabric of everyday life, much like today’s automated vacuum cleaners or cash machines, say experts.
Another key design feature of many of the early robots is that they will need to operate alongside people, initially at least, making humans more productive rather than replacing them altogether. The limitations of current automation technologies mean that robot companies are thus currently focused on keeping “the human in the loop,” with most experts believing that people will have an important role to play in directing and providing a vital source of learning for the machines for decades to come.
Rapid learning is, in fact, vital for robotics manufacturers’ initial products, according to Grishin. The trick, he says, will be to find a task that relatively simplistic machines are able to handle, then use knowledge gained in the field to rapidly add to their capabilities and usefulness. “First put them in consumers’ hands, then learn from their behaviour.” Thus the machine becomes a minimal vessel for more and more sophisticated software.
It’s a proposition that investors are finding increasingly difficult to resist.

BUDI at Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference in Budapest

Mary O’Malley and Dr. Michelle Heward represented Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 31st Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference in Budapest from 21-24th April 2016.

Mary presented a poster showcasing her PhD research ‘Alzheimer’s disease International (ADI) – “You can get completely disorientated and reason is because all the corridors look the same” – a qualitative study into the orientation experiences and design preferences of older people with memory difficulties living in retirement complexes’. Michelle presented a paper on ‘Fire safety in the home: local lessons – global reach’ as part of a session on dementia friendly communities.

This years conference theme was ‘Dementia: Global Perspective, Local solutions’, with a strong local, national and international presence creating unique synergies and inspiring new ideas in the pursuit of making a difference in the lives of those living with dementia.

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Whilst at the conference Mary and Michelle caught up with Hilary and Peter Paniccia, from Somerset, who have previously participated in several BUDI projects. Hilary lives with dementia, and is supported by her husband Peter (who is now chief photographer at many national and international dementia events). They have become real advocates of dementia awareness and are both actively involved in numerous groups and projects, including the European Working Group of People with Dementia. They really bring to life the phrase ‘living well with dementia’ – a true inspiration to us all. You can see Hilary and Peter speaking about how they live well with dementia in our ‘living well with dementia’ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWUZFiy2Qy8.

Mary O’Malley and Michelle Heward

Critical Review Of Vendor Lock-In And Its Impact On Adoption Of Cloud Computing

PG research

Vendor_Lock-InWe would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Title: Critical Review of Vendor Lock-In and Its Impact on Adoption of Cloud Computing

 

Speaker: Justice Opara-Martins (Bournemouth University PhD student)

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 11th May 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

Vendor lock-in is a major barrier to the adoption of cloud computing, due to the lack of standardization. Current solutions and efforts tackling the vendor lock-in problem are predominantly technology-oriented. Limited studies exist to analyse and highlight the complexity of vendor lock-in problem in the cloud environment. Consequently, most customers are unaware of proprietary standards which inhibit interoperability and portability of applications when taking services from vendors. In this seminar, I will provide a critical analysis of the vendor lock-in problem, from a business perspective. A survey based on qualitative and quantitative approaches conducted in this study has identified the main risk factors that give rise to lock-in situations. The survey analysis of 114 UK IT practitioners shows that, as computing resources migrate from on-premise to the cloud, the vendor lock-in problem is exacerbated. Furthermore, the findings exemplify the importance of interoperability, portability and standards in cloud computing. A number of strategies are proposed on how to avoid and mitigate lock-in risks when migrating to cloud computing. The strategies relate to contracts, selection of vendors that support standardised formats and protocols regarding standard data structures and APIs, developing awareness of commonalities and dependencies among cloud-based solutions. We strongly believe that the implementation of these strategies has a great potential to reduce the risks of vendor lock-in.

 

We hope to see you there.

 

Get published!

Publishing, writing

published

Are you looking for academic writing tips?

Then come to the Writing Academy lunchbyte session on 18th May 2016, 12noon to 1.30pm.

Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research at the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University, will lead this lunchtime session for budding academic writers.

With over 220 peer-reviewed publications Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen has published widely in the field of public health, social sciences and the organisation of health care systems.  He is Associate Editor of BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth as well as Book Review Editor for Sociological Research Online.  Furthermore, he is on the editorial boards of various international journals including: Birth, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, and Midwifery.  Together with academic colleagues at BU he has written several articles about different aspects of academic writing. [1-7] 

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2002) Getting your paper to the right journal: a case study of an academic paper, Journal of Advanced Nursing 37(6): 506-511.
  2. Pitchforth, E., Porter, M., van Teijlingen, E.R., Forrest Keenan, K. (2005) Writing up and presenting qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31 (2): 132-135. http://jfprhc.bmj.com/content/31/2/132.full.pdf+html
  3. Teijlingen van, E., P.P., Rizyal, A. (2012) Submitting a paper to an academic peer-reviewed journal, where to start? Health Renaissance 10 (1): 1-4. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HREN/article/view/5997/4950
  4. Teijlingen van, E., P.P., Simkhada, B., Ireland, J. (2012) The long & winding road to publication, Nepal Journal Epidemiology 2(4): 213-215 http://nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/7093/6388
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2013) Editorial, Midwifery 29(6): 557-558.
  6. Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2013) Writing an academic paper for publication, Health Renaissance 11(1): 1- 5   www.healthrenaissance.org.np/uploads/Pp_1_5_Guest_Editorial.pdf
  7. Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2013) Academic authorship: who, why and in what order? Health Renaissance 11(2): 98-101 http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/20884/1/Authorship%20order%20Health%20Renaissance%202013.pdf
  8. Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E., Hundley, V., Simkhada, B.D. (2013) Writing an Abstract for a Scientific Conference, Kathmandu University Medical Journal 11(3): 262-265. http://www.kumj.com.np/issue/43/262-265.pdf
  9. van Teijlingen, E., Ireland, J., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sathian, B. (2014) Finding the right title for your article: Advice for academic authors, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(1): 344-347. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/10138/8265
  10. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Bick, D. (2014) Who should be an author on your academic paper? Midwifery 30: 385-386.
  11. Hall, J., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E. (2015) The journal editor: friend or foe? Women & Birth 28(2): e26-e29.

In this workshop, Edwin will share his extensive writing experience with you and you will also have the opportunity to network with colleagues and have a chat with Edwin during lunch.

Please see this link for more information – https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/workingatbu/staffdevelopmentandengagement/fusiondevelopment/fusionprogrammesandevents/writingacademy/gettingpublished/

To book a place on this session (so that catering can be booked), please email Organisational Development.

Digital entertainment students in ‘Research Jam’ to aid the work of Dementia Institute

conferences

Students from the Centre for Digital Entertainment (CDE) took part in a two-day Research Jam to put their skills to the test to create apps or games with the purpose of enhancing the work of Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI).

The Centre for Digital Entertainment is a centre for doctoral training and collaboration between the universities of Bournemouth and Bath, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The intention of this year’s CDE annual event, also attended by academics and industry professionals, was to bring the focus back to the skills and knowledge the CDE Research Engineers are gaining during the four year programme, and inputting it into a creative process that could benefit society.

CDE Research Engineers During ResJamProfessor Jian Jun Zhang, Deputy Director of CDE at Bournemouth University, said, “This year we wanted to push our students a little harder and by using their expertise and teaming up with BUDI, we hope to have a societal impact through the work we are doing”.

The two day event, which took place in the beautiful Italian Villa, included a talk from the BBC’s Research and Development department and Dementia Friends training from BUDI, before students were split into groups and each asked to create an app, game or interface that would either raise awareness for, or assist people with dementia.

An integral part of the programme is the three year industrial placement.  Ian Stephenson, a Senior Lecturer in Computer Animation and part of the CDE, said, “These postgraduate students have been working in companies like the BBC and Double Negative, once a year we bring them together. This year we have partnered with BUDI to look at the topic of dementia. We want these young engineers to build something that addresses the issue of dementia in society – to put their technical skills to use for the benefit of society.”

The event started with presentations from the BBC’s Research and Development (R&D) department and Bournemouth-based company 3 Sided Cube, giving the students an insight into work processes around digital content creation before the teams got to work.  After seeing the presentations and collating information, the teams had a little under 24 hours to research, create and present their ideas.

The teams were asked to work on one of three main areas within the theme of dementia; physical stimulation to keep people with dementia active; social stimulation to increase interaction, and generational interaction, for people with dementia; or a piece of technology to challenge public view of dementia.

Becky Gregory-Clarke BBC R &DBecky Gregory-Clarke (pictured) from the BBC’s R&D team said, “The BBC R&D team has a strong link with the CDE through student placements and we’ve been ‘workshopping’ around the idea of dementia too, so it was great to come along and see these students at work. It’s really great for students to get involved in events like this because at the BBC we do things like this as a part of our work day too, so if you can get used to brainstorming and working like this now it can really hold you in good stead for your career in the future too.”

Claire Cutler, a member of Bournemouth University Dementia Institute said, “BUDI has a long history working with technology, and dementia is a massive issue in our culture at the moment, it is great to bring our understanding about dementia together with technology to develop something that could address real world problems.”The teams were given the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of experts, giving technical demonstrations to support their idea.  The pitches were assessed and awards were given in three categories, Best Pitch, Best Team Work and Best Product.  The winning team of ‘Best Product’ created a game to challenge the public perception of dementia and discussions are now taking place to see how this idea can be developed further into something for public use.

Zoe Leonard, CDE Research Events Co-ordinator said “The event has been a great success and there is much excitement around the outcomes.  It was a great cohort building exercise, whilst at the same time encouraging team building, communication, project management and presentation skills.  Not to mention the possible impact the ideas generated by the CDE Research Engineers, could have for those living with or dealing with dementia.

“We are all looking forward to seeing how these ideas can be developed and we hope to be able to run similar events in the future”.

For more information about the Centre for Digital Entertainment, visit their website, www.digital-entertainment.org or for information about Bournemouth University Dementia Institute visit http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/dementia-institute/.

Register now – Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day 21st June 2016

Registration is now open! 

Places are limited, so book now via Eventbrite.

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

Presentations include:

Key Note Address – Dr. Louise Mansfield (What Works Centre for Wellbeing / Brunel University London)

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

Supporting Interdisciplinary Working – Prof. Alan Lester and Debbie Foy-Everett (Sussex), Luke George (Research Professional) and Christopher Ferguson (Piirus)

Research Professional and 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?

 

The event will take place in BU’s Executive Business Centre.

Please see the Event webpage for the full programme and speakers’ biographies. 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.

 

 

 

Funding launched to encourage entrepreneurs in engineering or technology

Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

Royal Academy Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering invites applications for its launchpad competition. Funding aims to encourage young entrepreneurs to start a new business based on their innovation in engineering or technology, with engineering defined in its broadest sense. The competition aims to:

•improve the skills of the awardee:

•develop role models of entrepreneurship;

•bring engineering innovations to market for a wider public benefit.

Applications are open to individuals or small teams. The lead applicant must be UK-based and aged between 16 and 25. They should have a viable and commercial business proposition with a large market opportunity, and be planning to set up a business within the 18 months following the application deadline. The feasibility of the initial product or service must have been proven preferably with a basic prototype.

The winner receives the JG Gammon award, which includes a cash prize of £15,000 and a year’s membership of the enterprise hub. This provides mentoring, training and networking opportunities with UK entrepreneurs and investors. Up to two other individuals or teams may be chosen as runners up.

Click here for more information on support for entrepreneurs.

Click here for more information on the launchpad competition – now live !

Research Data Management and Sharing – MOOC

data management

Today, an increasing number of funding agencies, journals, and other stakeholders are requiring data producers to share, archive, and plan for the management of their data. In order to respond to these requirements, researchers and information professionals will need the data management and curation knowledge and skills that support the long-term preservation, access, and reuse of data. Effectively managing data can also help optimize research outputs, increase the impact of research, and support open scientific inquiry.

The Curating Research Assets and Data Using Lifecycle Education (CRADLE) Project in collaboration with EDINA at the University of Edinburgh have developed an online course which will provide learners with an introduction to research data management and sharing. After completing this course, learners will understand the diversity of data and their management needs across the research data lifecycle, be able to identify the components of good data management plans, and be familiar with best practices for working with data including the organization, documentation, and storage and security of data. Learners will also understand the impetus and importance of archiving and sharing data as well as how to assess the trustworthiness of repositories. .

After completing this course, learners will also be better equipped to manage data throughout the entire research data lifecycle from project planning to the end of the project when data ideally are shared and made available within a trustworthy repository.

The course material is free to access and if you wish to complete the course with a certificate, there is a charge of £34.

Please click on this link to find out more – https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-management/.

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

money and cogs
The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information.

British Council

The British Council have announced the opening of a number of Newton funded grants.

The Newton Institutional Links grant aims to build innovative collaborations directly relevant to social welfare and economic development between the UK and any of the following countries:  Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Thailand and Mexico.  Grants are available for amounts between £50k-£300k. Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

The Newton Researcher Links Travel Grants has made available funds for international research placements (for 1-6 months, dependent on the country) for researchers that reside in the UK with partners in Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey or those from the partner countries to visit the UK. guidance may be found here.  Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

The Newton Workshop Grants fund aims to bring early-career researchers together with a partner country (Brazil, Egypt, India, Turkey, South Africa and Vietnam.  Mexico may also be added to this fund in the future.)  to address problems of low-income and vulnerable populations.  The level of the grant funding available depends on the specific partner country. More guidance may be found here. Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

Economic and Social Research Council

The ESRC, together with DFID, welcome applications to the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme.  The topic for 2016 relates to ‘how do accountability relationships and processes within developing country education systems enable or inhibit the raising of learning outcomes?’ A total of £6.5M will be made available with projects expected to be between £200k-£700k.  Closing Date 26/7/16 at 16:00

European Commission

The  Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport have announced a tender opportunity to apply for a “Study on the implementation of Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20.12.2006 on driving licences“.  Applications are welcome for amounts up to €200k to provide analysis for the project which can last a maximum 12 months. Closing Date 7/6/16

The  Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion has opened a call for proposals which offer “Support for Social Dialogue“.  A total fund of €9.3M is available with expected grants to be between €150k-€500k.  Closing Date 30/6/16

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) welcomes applications for the provision of services in relation to research on “Italy-Parma: Wildlife: collecting and sharing data on wildlife populations, transmitting animal disease agents“. The maximum amount to be tendered for is €3m for a study lasting no more than 72 months. Closing Date 13/6/16

As part of H2020, 27 calls related to Bio-Based Industries (H2020-BBI-JTI-2016) have opened.  An overall budget of €188.6M will be available with a minimum amount of €110M to be awarded. Closing Date 8/9/16

Wellcome Trust

Applications are invited for an Early Career Fellowships who wish undertake research in a laboratory in India.  Fellowships are for up to five years and will cover personal support for the fellow, research and travel expenses. Closing Date 6/6/16 

The Seed Awards in Science scheme provides one-off grants of up to £100k for projects lasting up to two years.  Funds cannot be used to pay for personal salary costs but are intended to pay for research and travel costs. Closing Date 20/6/16

The Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science invites applications for projects proposing to conduct research into major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences.  Awards cannot exceed £2M but are expected to be in the range of £1M to £1.5M. Preliminary Application Closing Date 8/7/16

The Collaborative Awards in Science makes available an award of up to £4M over five years for interdisciplinary research collaborations of scientists and/or clinicians (medical and veterinary) and/or non-biologists (e.g. mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers and social scientists). Preliminary Application Closing Date 22/8/16

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact RKEO with adequate notice before the deadline.

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

Lessons from Southern Health – leadership to support a culture of voice across complex integrated systems

iStock_000020671825Large

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge

Over the past few years there have been a number of reports which have highlighted concerns about failures of care and patient safety within a range of NHS settings raising serious concerns about the leadership of such organisations. Most recently The Care Quality Commission has identified “serious concerns” about the safety of mental health and learning disability patients at Southern Health NHS Trust. The concerns highlight the failures of leaders to deliver, monitor, assure, and safeguard a culture of safety, quality, and compassionate care and services.

This inspection took place following the publication of an independent review (the Mazars report  that described a number of concerns about the way the Trust reported and investigated deaths, particularly of people using its mental health and learning disabilities services, and a lack of leadership, concerning the reporting and investigation of unexpected deaths of mental health and learning disability service users.

So what leadership challenges are there in turning this situation around? Undoubtedly there have already been improvements in the care offered within the Trust, and the commitment of staff to provide high quality care is beyond doubt. However, the problems result from on-going senior leadership failures within the organisation. Leadership is the most influential factor in shaping organisational culture (Faculty for Medical Leadership and Management, 2015), and is essential to ensure high quality, safe and compassionate healthcare. A key failing identified in Southern Healthcare concerns a lack of robust governance arrangements to investigate incidents, resulting in a lost opportunity to learn from these incidents.

This highlights the importance of senior leadership in establishing and maintaining a culture which is open, responsive and able to learn. Such a culture includes a climate in which communication is valued as a two process which values critical upward communication. This requires a culture of ‘voice’ in which concerns raised by patients, carers and staff are listened to and responded to appropriately. This was sadly lacking at Southern Health and action was not taken to address known risks to the safety of patients, including a lack of response to previous concerns highlighted by the CQC in January 2014, October 2014 and August 2015.

The Trust also failed to respond appropriately to staff concerns about their abilities to discharge certain roles and duties. This perhaps illustrates the failure of senior managers to create a culture of ‘psychological safety’ for staff in which to identify, respond and learn from these problems. Psychological safety has been shown to be a crucial element in organizational efforts to detect and prevent problems (Edmondson et al. 2016). A culture which provides psychological safety for staff embraces ‘challenge’ as a pivotal learning mechanism, and this is supported by the work of McSherry and Pearce (2016) who suggest that safe, quality care requires leaders who can challenge and be challenged.

It is important to learn from the failings of Southern Health. Increasingly NHS leaders need to be able to respond to growing complexity across integrated systems of care. They need the ability to support a system of communication which values the ‘voice’ of all stakeholders to create innovative solutions to 21st century challenges. This requires system leadership that works in partnership across organisations ‘to construct the services that are needed’ (HSJ, 2015:4). It also requires a commitment to create a shared vision of care which values the voice and presence of patients, carers and staff as key stakeholders.

References

McSherry, R.and Pearce, P. (2016) ‘What are the effective ways to translate clinical leadership into healthcare quality improvement?’ Journal of Healthcare Leadership; 2016 (8): 11-17

Vocational Learning Technology Fund

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

online training

The aim of this Ufi Charitable Trust investment programme is to offer early-stage funding of up to £50k to organisations that are looking to develop new services or improve access to and delivery of adult learning through the imaginative use of digital technology. This programme will provide funding and support to help ventures in developing their ideas into a more robust digital product or service. Click here for more information, including  funding criteria and deadlines.

 

 

New £10 million community business fund

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

coins money

Power to Change, a community enterprise support organisation, has launched a new £10 million Community Business Fund, which will provide grants of between £50,000 and £300,000 to community enterprises in England.

The funding is intended to increase the social impact of community enterprises and support them to increase trading income, secure assets or reduce costs.

Find out more here.

How to make the blog look colourful

Guidance

question-markQuick tip if you’re adding posts to the research blog: when adding an image within your post, remember to also click on ‘set featured image’ (bottom right-hand menu below ‘tags’) and select the image again.  This will show the image on the home page of the blog for your post summary (which may entice more people in to read it).