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Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning 25 Nov in EBC Cafe area

The second Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning will be taking place on Wednesday the 25th November, in the café area of the EBC (Lansdowne Campus) from 10 to 11am. This is an informal opportunity to meet other research staff over coffee and cake, discuss your work and share ideas for future collaborations. It will also provide an opportunity to make suggestions toward a planned RSA seminar series that will act as a conduit for researchers of the University to showcase their work.

For catering purposes please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk to confirm your attendance.

We look forward to seeing you there!
Kind regards, Michelle Heward and Marcellus Mbah (RSA Staff Representatives)

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

Cross-platform production in digital mediastruct funds

Innovate UK is investing  £4 million in collaborative R&D projects that stimulate innovation in the UK’s creative industries.

This call is aimed at projects that address convergence in digital media technologies. It covers film, television, online video, animation and video games, and includes pre- production, production and post- production processes, particularly for visual effects technologies.

Projects must be collaborative and led by a business. Small businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium- sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.

Projects are expected to range in size from total costs of £300,000 to £750,000, although projects outside this range might be considered.

This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 9 November 2015. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 6 January 2016.

Call closes @ 23 Dec 2015, 12:00

 

Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship

Royal Society and Leverhulme are inviting applications for Senior Fellows.

The award lasts between one term and one academic year. The applicant’s employing institution will be reimbursed for the full salary cost of a teaching replacement (up to the equivalent of the minimum point on the lectureship scale as paid by the host university). Research expenses up to a maximum of £2,500 are available to cover the costs of consumables, equipment, travel and communicating science.

Applications should be submitted through the Royal Society’s electronic grant application system (e-GAP).

 Call closes @ 11 January 2016

Wellcome Trust PhD programmes for Clinicians

The Trust announced that it would be refreshing its personal support schemes for clinical academics via delivering their PhD training to clinicians exclusively through PhD programmes managed by institutions.

The competition represents a unique opportunity for institutions to be innovative, create and collaborative, and to consider how best to foster the cultural change that will support the next generation of clinical academics, from undergraduate through to senior levels.

important dates for this call:

Preliminary application deadline @25 January 2016,

Assessment of preliminary applications @ 8 March 2016

Full application deadline @ 29 April 2016

Assessment of full applications @ 20 July 2016

 

Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards

The Trust has combined its New Investigator and Senior Investigator Award schemes to create a single type of Investigator Award, providing all who hold established posts in eligible organisations with the same opportunity to obtain funding. Awards are worth a maximum of £3 million for up to seven years.

Next full application closing date@ 26 February 2016

Shortlisting of candidates by Expert Review Group @ April 2016

Shortlisted candidate interviews by Interview Panel @ 5-7 July 2016

 

Innovate UK, China–UK research and innovation bridges competition

Innovate UK, the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) for the People’s Republic of China are to invest up to £16 million in collaborative research and development projects that propose new commercial solutions to critical challenges impacting the socio-economic growth and development of China in relation to energy, healthcare, urbanisation and agri-food.

Closing Date@  23 Mar 2016, 12:00

 

 

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.

Ecosystem Services Partnership 2015 Conference, South Africa

conferences

 

Over 350 delegates from around the world attended the Ecosystem Services Partnership conference this year (9-13th Nov 2015) in Stellenbosch – near Cape Town, South Africa. Being fortunate enough to attend this year myself, I presented my research on assessing cultural ecosystem service; a multifaceted approach using various techniques including participatory GIS, spatial mapping, GPS tracking of visitors and use of existing data sets explored in relation to the New Forest.

ESP

Themed around nature, people and prosperity, the conference aimed to centre on the dialogue between public and private sector utilisation of the ecosystem services concept.

The largest conference of its kind, the keynote speakers were diverse. Highlights included Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition’s Mark Gough (the coalition aims to build clear guidance on how business can effectively and measure natural capital just like financial capital is measured). The conference was closed with an inspiring and convincing talk from ‘Gross Domestic Problem’ author Lorenzo Fioamonti (Professor of Political Science at the University of Pretoria) about the downfalls of using the GDP statistic as the only measure of an economy.

Arjan Gosal is currently working as a Research Assistant on the HEIF project: Modelling Natural Capital in Dorset.

Nurse review of the research councils – key messages:

sir paul nurseSir Paul Nurse published his review of the UK research councils on 19 November. The full report is available here: Ensuring a Successful Research Endeavour: Review of the UK Research Councils by Paul Nurse. This follows close on the heels of the HE Green Paper (see this blog post for an overview), which stated that it would take the finding of the Nurse review into account alongside feedback received to the consultation.

The key messages of the Nurse review are:

Nurse strongly argues against the merger of the seven research councils.

Instead he recommends the establishment of a new body to oversee research – Research UK, “evolving out of” RCUK. Governance should include representation from government, HEFCE, Innovate UK as well as the research councils.

It’s functions world include:

  1. – engaging with government on behalf of the research councils
  2. – formulation of the overall research strategy for the UK
  3. – cross-council strategy, including best practice in research funding
  4. – managing cross-cutting funds for multi- and inter-disciplinary research
  5. – development and maintenance of research data management systems
  6. – taking on some shared admin / business support on behalf of the councils

The individual research councils should concentrate on providing “high quality strategic leadership to their research communities” in the shape of international quality peer review; speeding up grant assessments; improving reporting systems; ensuring diversity and strengthening links with their research communities.

The dual support system of research funding should be maintained and government should set up a ministerial committee to coordinate strategic research priorities across government.

He argues strongly for the retention of ring fencing for the science budget.

CEMP in Boston, MA to run international summit

conferences

MES15 logo    The Centre for Excellence in Media Practice convene their annual international Media Education Summit on 20th and 21st in November at Emerson College, Boston, MA.

MES is hosted by Emerson College, home of the Engagement Lab and the event will incorporate the 2015 Media Literacy Research Symposium.

The collaboration between CEMP and Emerson is aligned to an ongoing partnership between the Media Education Research Journal (MERJ) and the Journal of Media Literacy Education (JMLE).

MES brings together a global network of media educators, scholars and researchers to share research, pedagogy and innovation on all aspects of media education and media in education. All continents are represented in the research to be shared over the two days. The aligned Youth Media Education Summit strand gives young people the opportunity to authentically participate and collaborate with media education scholars and practitioners attending the main conference.

 

Research from the Department of Psychology in the New Scientist

HEIF, Knowledge Exchange, open access, student research

Research resulting from a BU-funded PhD studentship is featured in this week’s edition of the New Scientist, and was also recently covered by the Independent. Under the supervision of Dr Sarah Bate from the Department of Psychology (Faculty of Science and Technology), Anna Bobak has spent the last three years investigating so-called “super recognisers”, or people with extraordinary face recognition skills. It appears that only a small proportion of the general population have these skills, yet they may be incredibly useful in forensic and security tasks, such as the identification of perpetrators from CCTV footage or in passport control. While super-recognisers have previously been identified via laboratory tests of face recognition, Anna’s work demonstrates that only some of these individuals also excel at more applied face recognition tasks. In a recent paper published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, she demonstrates that more real-world tasks are required to identify the super recognisers who can truly be of value to the Police Force and in national security settings.

Anna has recently moved into a PDRA position where she continues to work with Sarah in the field of super recognition. Her post is part of a HEIF5+1 initiative that aims to generate knowledge exchange with the Police. The team are currently working directly with Dorset Police to create screening tools that can identify officers who may be particularly suited to certain face recognition tasks, and to make a series of recommendations for best practice that are extracted from excellent performance. They are also creating resources that educate officers about the limitations and biases that act upon the human face recognition system, and how these may influence core policing activities.

Fusion Investment Fund- Santander and Erasmus funding still available

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

We are excited to let you know that we still have Santander and Erasmus grants up for grabs open to all staff including Professional Services. The next committee review date is 23rd November 2015.

Santander Funding

The purpose of Santander funding is to support individual staff mobility and networking with other Santander Universities in the development of research, education and/or professional practice projects. There are limited funds available. Please find a link to the list of the institutions that are part of the Santander University network and also the applicable criteria below:

  • Priority will be given to overseas travel rather than travel to another UK institution
  • Ideally awards of £5k will be made but at least priority should be given to applications close to (but not more than) that amount
  • Priority will be given to staff who intend to study or carry out research.
  • Funds should be used before the end of the academic year
  • Travel for student recruitment purposes would not normally be funded

Erasmus staff mobility

Erasmus funding supports staff who would like to train or teach in another European higher education institution. These mobility grants are provided to contribute towards subsistence and travel and the maximum grant available is €1000.

Applications

To meet our next committee review date please submit your applications for Santander or Erasmus by 23rd November at 5pm. For all the policy documents, Fund FAQs and information about applying, please visit the FIF website

Please direct all initial enquiries to the Fusion Investment Fund Co-ordinators Sue Townrow and Sarah Olliffe at Fusion Fund.

 

3 minute presentation (3MP) – tickets available

PG research

The 3 Minute Presentation (3MP) is a brand new platform just for postgraduate researchers to learn about different types of research across BU in a fresh exciting format.

We have several excting presentations falling into the following categories:

  • Dementia
  • Sport Psychology
  • Biomechanics & Prosthetics
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Governance & Risk Management
  • Narratology & Transmedia
  • Sustainability & Consumption
  • Nursing and Midwifery

When? Wednesday 2nd December 2015 18:00 – 19:30 (Talbot Campus)

Along with these exicting presentations there will be an opportunity to ask questions and network after the event in a secret location!

If you are curious about the event or want to meet some like-minded individuals please don’t hesitate to book your 3MP ticket here.

If you have any questions about the event please email: pgevents@bournemouth.ac.uk

We look forward to seeing you there!

Grad School Header 1

Royal Academy of Engineering – Visit to the Funder

Funding opportunities

RAEng logo

On 2 November 2015, I attended a ‘Study Tour’ at the Royal Academy of Engineering, organised by ARMA (Association of Research Managers & Administrators).

During the Study Tour, I was welcomed into the funder’s stronghold, met the Programme Managers and spoke with the Head of Research & University Programmes. All mysteries regarding their Programmes/grants, call rules and peer review processes were slowly revealed.

The Programmes that were detailed on the day were:

  1. Ingenious – Public Engagement Awards Scheme;
  2. Research & University Programmes:
  • Research Chairs / Senior Research Fellowships – the funder’s flagship programme;
  • Newton Research Collaboration Programme – travel/network grant;
  • Research Fellowships
  • Distinguishing Visiting Fellowships – funding for overseas Fellow to visit UK institution;
  • Industrial Secondments;
  • Visiting Professors;
  • Engineering Leadership Advanced Awards;
  1. The Enterprise Hub – connecting HEIs, investors, Hub members and the corporate sector:
  • Launchpad Competition;
  • RAEng-ERA Foundation Award;
  • Enterprise Fellowships;
  • Pathways to Growth;
  • Growth Phase Silver Medal & MacRobert Award.

The day’s presentations are attached here.

Besides for the highlights on the above Programmes, there are also key points about peer review/evaluation processes for different Programmes, common mistakes by applicants and the funder’s online grants application system.

An important message was that because the funder is a ‘small’ organisation compared with the Research Councils and other major charities, awareness of its funding activities is relatively low. The funder noted that across the range of its Programmes, it received comparatively low numbers of applications and hence, success rates for applicants could be quite high. For those Programmes where it received a larger proportion of applications, the funder observed that they received applications from the same HEIs every year and it was keen to receive applications from a broader cross-section of the HE sector.

In short, that encouragement together with the fact that the funder holds a broad and loose definition of ‘engineering’ means that all relevant academics in BU should seriously consider applying!

Their website is found at: http://www.raeng.org.uk/.

If you are interested in submitting to any of the calls by this funder, you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you have any problems accessing the funder’s presentation slides, please email me at browna@bournemouth.ac.uk.

EPSRC report on REF case studies

Research assessment

EPSRC logoThe EPSRC have issued a report ‘Investing in excellence, delivering impact for the UK‘, which analysed 1,226 case studies submitted to the REF, which covered a timespan of two decades.  This enabled the EPSRC to explore and understand how their investments have delivered benefits across many areas of the UK economy and society.

They found that over 85% of the impact case studies in engineering and physical sciences involved research and/or researchers who were funded by EPSRC, demonstrating the critical role of the council in supporting excellent research that delivers impact. The impact case studies cite over £1 billion of EPSRC funding coupled with a similar level of funding from other sources including government, EU and industry and provide strong evidence of the high levels of additional investment that EPSRC support can attract.

Please click on the link above to read the full report.

 

 

Talk by Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers cancelled

conferences, Fusion, PG research, Research Ethics, Women's Academic Network

Unfortunately we are cancelling the talk: Ethnographies of Memory – the cultural reproduction of militancy in Kosovo by Dr Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers. We apologise for the late notice. This is because the Women Academic Network talk has been rescheduled this morning for the same time slot (see below). Dr Schwandner-Sievers will give her talk at a later date to avoid some people having to make a choice.

Polly Trenow (Fawcett Society)
‘Feminism in practice – does activism really work?’
Wednesday 18th November
TAG22
2-4pm (with networking 3-4pm)

For any questions, please get in touch with Dr Masi Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Team BU shortlisted for Sports Technology Awards

innovation

photoWell done to Team BU who has been shortlisted for Sport England Sports Technology Hackathon Awards 2016.

The team developed a location based game app called ‘Nudge’ and incorporated social gamification strategies to encourage sustained physical activity adherence. We also sought strategies to help those who are already active in this age group encourage their inactive peers to participate.
The winning team will be announced at the Sports Technology Awards in April 2016 and awarded a bursary of £10,000 to help them build the app.
Well done Team BU and good luck for next April!