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Research Staff Association (RSA) – NEW regular coffee morning

The first Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning will be taking place on Wednesday the 28th October, 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)

MRC refreshed Guidance to Applicants

Guidance

MRC have launch a refreshed Guidance for Applicants, published in a new and improved format on their website: logo_mrcwww.mrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants.

To improve communication with their community (applicants and research offices) they have been investigating ways of making the guidance more interactive and intuitive.

The main improvements to the guidance are:

* Hyperlinks from content pages

* Relevant forms made easier to find and download

* The option to print a PDF copy of the document

* More tables to make information easier to read

* Special considerations split into:

* Ethics and approvals

* Proposals involving animal use

New and revised sections:

* Research council facilities updated to include Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey (section 2.9)

* New guidance added on common reasons for returning applications to research offices (section 2.10)

* Updated guidance on application costing: please be aware that some historical data may have been removed (section 3)

* Updated guidance on costing of applications involving MRC units and institutes (NOT university units) (section 3.2)

* New guidance for eligible individuals from MRC University Units and the Francis Crick Institute who wish to apply for MRC grants as either a lead or co-applicant (section 3.3)

* New section: Research involving cohort resources (section 3.5)

In addition, a new ‘Updates’ section on the main page will inform you of any major changes made to the guidance and allow MRC to keep the guidance fully up-to-date. These updates will be linked to the relevant section in the guidance to help you navigate to the relevant page. Copies of historical changes will also be available from this section.

Please have a look through the pages to familiarise yourself with the refreshed format and the new and revised sections: www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants.

MRC would welcome your feedback on the new guidance. Please send any comments to the Research Funding Policy and Delivery team:  RFPD@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk.

The value of university-business collaborations to the UK economy

Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

 

Technology in the hands

 

As organisations make submissions to the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review 2015, Director for Employment & Skills at CBI, Neil Carberry, outlines the case for investment in universities.

Productivity levels and skills are considered  two of the greatest challenges. This is where universities and their graduates – and their relationship with UK business – come in.

The latest CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey, Inspiring Growth, illustrates the magnitude of the skills emergency. Two out of three businesses surveyed expect their need for staff with higher level skills to grow in the years ahead, but more than half of them fear that they will not be able to access enough workers with the required skills. Even more disturbingly, it is the high-growth, high-value, high-potential sectors which are under most pressure – including construction, manufacturing, science, engineering and technology.

UK productivity has for a long time lagged behind most other developed countries. There are a number of causes, including low skills levels in many sectors, but a fundamental driver of productivity growth is innovation, where the UK is held back by low levels of public and private investment and an unbalanced ecosystem in which the infrastructure for supporting commercial innovation does not match the world-class research base.

Click here to read the full blog post.

http://blog.universitiesuk.ac.uk/2015/09/22/the-value-of-university-business-collaborations-to-uk-economy/

 

New careers guidance resources for research staff

career-developmentThis week our new careers guidance resources for research staff have gone live on the Research Blog. They include detailed guidance on how to progress from a research career to an academic career, drawing on a wide range of resources. There is also information on other career pathways, including administration/management within HE and research careers outside of HE.

We will be adding to the resources to ensure they are as useful as possible and will be adding some case studies for different career pathways over the following months.

You can access them here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/researcher-toolbox/researcher-development/careers-guidance-for-research-staff/.

Writing Space – Talbot and Lansdowne

Publishing, writing

Writing-Group

Image from www.blog.taaonline.net

Writing can be difficult and lonely at times. Getting out and away from your usual distractions can help boost your productivity. Sometimes, it’s nice to write amongst a group of other like-minded colleagues, working quietly together and gently encouraging each other to soldier on.

The following quiet writing spaces have specifically been arranged for this purpose, in both the Talbot and Lansdowne campuses on Wednesday afternoons, 1pm to 5pm. Please see below for details:

Screen Shot 2015-10-05 at 22.43.59Please click on this link to download the schedule in a printable .pdf file.

Talbot and Lansdowne – Writing Space

The idea is to work quietly on research/ professional practice related activities. Distractions must be kept to a minimum, so turn off your email system; no mobile phones or talking. If you really have to talk then be considerate for others and do it away from the group.

There is no need to book so whenever you feel like writing, just turn up!

Undergraduate Research Assistantship programme 2015/16

Funding opportunities, student research

Following from a successful pilot, the Undergraduate Research Assistantships (URA) scheme will continue in 2015/16.

The scheme will be made up of two programmes; a semester-based programme and a summer programme. Each programme will have a two stage application process; 1) academic applications for a URA and 2) student recruitment for approved URA positions. Staff can only have one active URA application in operation at any one time.

Semester-based programme

This placement is flexible where the student will work for a maximum of either 75 hours or 100 hours (to be requested on the academic application form) during the spring semester between 18th January 2016 and 21st March 2016.  This programme will have the capacity to accept at least 25 individual placements (where placements are 100 hours) and two groups of three students (per group), where each student will work for a maximum of 75 hours (i.e. one project would have three students working a combined total of 225 hours).

Summer programme

This placement is for successful students to work full-time (37 hours per week) for six weeks between 13th June 2016 and 31st August 2016. This programme will have the capacity for approximately 25 placements.

Once applications are open, staff will apply for the funding via an application form. A panel of representatives from the University Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee will review all staff applications and decide which applications to continue to the student recruitment stage of the scheme.

Approved academic applications will be advertised as URA positions to students with student applications being received, processed and managed centrally within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) and distributed to the relevant academics after the closing date. The academics will be responsible for shortlisting, interviewing and providing interview feedback to their own candidates.

BU academic staff will be invited to apply for a URA to assist with their research projects in October 2015.

If you have any queries about this scheme, please contact Rachel Clarke – clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961347.

SMART awards – Support for innovative SMEs

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

InnovateUK_LogoA_Interim_RGBx320govuk[1]
SMART  is a grant scheme which offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and services could emerge.
The scheme supports SMEs carrying out R&D which offers potentially significant rewards and that could stimulate UK economic growth.
Three types of grant are available:
  • Proof of market
  • Proof of concept
  • Development of prototype.
Any UK SME undertaking research and development may apply; applications are accepted on a rolling basis for assessment by independent experts.
 This call closes on 26 November 2015 at 12.00.

European IPR Helpdesk – slides from 30/09/15

Training

Academic and RKEO staff enjoyed the recent webinar regarding IP Management in EU-funded Projects /Horizon 2020, presented by Jörg Scherer, Managing Director of the European Research and Project Office (Eurice)
The webinar covered:

  • The importance of considering Intellectual Property from day oneeurope
  • How to embed IP within the project submission and agreement documents
  • Definitions, ownership and access rights
  • Obligations to disseminate, protect and exploit
  • The IP landscape and implementation

The slides are available to BU staff along with other publications from the European IPR Helpdesk.

Although the slides are instructional, it is not the same experience as attending the webinar. Why not come along to the next events:

02/11/15  IP Management in H2020 – with a special focus on MSCA

02/12/15   Impact and Innovation in H2020 – a Guide for Proposers

16/12/15   Maximising the impact of H2020 projects

They will all take place in the Casterbridge Room, starting promptly at 9:30. Please contact Dianne Goodman to reserve your place.

 

Software Verification & Validation for Complex Systems competition

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Software verification

Software Verification & Validation for Complex Systems competition has just launched with £580,000 funding available.

Innovate UK and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are to invest up to £580,000 in technical feasibility studies to stimulate innovation throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC) while focusing on the verification and validation* (V&V) of two classes of complex systems: cyber physical systems (CPS) and systems with emergent behaviours.

This competition encourages businesses to develop appropriate ‘links’ between the behaviour of a system in the physical world and the software implementing its planned interactions. It also seeks to stimulate development of new engineering methods for systems in which a machine – rather than a human user or operator – drives the decision- making process. Such systems can be trained to recognise complex patterns and to make intelligent decisions based on existing data. They are starting to be used in sectors such as automated and autonomous vehicles, and robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). Our aim is to ensure that small and micro businesses in the UK further develop their early capabilities in this area.

Projects are open to companies of any size, but must be led by a small or micro company, working in collaboration with one or more business or research partners.

View all details.

Code of Practice for the Employment and Development of Research Staff – NEW VERSION

I am delighted to share with you the new and improved version of BU’s Code of Practice for the Employment and Development of Research Staff. Research staff in this context are defined as staff with a primary responsibility to undertake research, including pre-and post-doctoral staff on fixed-term and open-ended contracts funded through limited period grants, named fellowships and sometimes institutional funds.

The code provides guidance on the University’s expectations for the recruitment, support, management and development of research staff in line with the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2008) and the European Charter for Researchers (2005). It is relevant to research staff and their managers as well as to BU staff in general. It has been written by the University’s Research Concordat Steering Group and is one of the objectives from our action plan to further align BU’s policy and practice to the seven principles of the Concordat and to further improve the working environment for research staff at BU.

When launched last autumn this was the first time that BU had had a code of practice specifically for research staff and the document acknowledges the valued contribution made by research staff to the research undertaken at BU. The further recognition of the value of research staff and the development of career opportunities for them are key matters on which we will continue to work.

Access information about BU’s work to embed the principles of the Concordat here: http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/research-concordat/ 

New FMC cross-departmental seminar series: ‘Communicating Research’ 2015-16. Wed. 3-5pm, room PG10

‘Communicating Research’

 FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16

Venue: Room PG10, Talbot Campus, 

The Faculty of Media and Communication at BU

Time: Wednesdays, 3-5 pm

Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB 

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Speakers :
Dr Sukhpreet Singh, University of Glasgow and Dr John Oliver, Bournemouth University

‘Innovating and trading TV formats through brand management practices’

Television formats form a major cultural export and yet, there is no protection under copyright law. Format copycats or imitators freely develop game, reality and talent shows based on successful format ideas. Despite this, the format industry has developed an ingenious and complex suite of market based practices that are allowing a thriving format industry to appear. This chapter discusses how TV format makers use brand management practices, in the absence of any legal solutions, to innovate and trade in their products. These include a number of practices such as: developing and managing the format brand identity, developing localized brand extensions and leveraging the producers brand reputation.

About the Series

This new seminar series showcases current research across different disciplines and approaches within the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU. The research seminars include invited speakers in the fields of journalism, politics, narrative studies, media, communication and marketing studies.  The aim is to celebrate the diversity of research across departments in the faculty and also generate dialogue and discussion between those areas of research

Contributions include speakers on behalf of 

The Centre for Politics and Media

The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community

Advances in Media Management Research Group

Emerging Consumer Cultures Research Group

Public Relations Research Group

New Publication by Bournemouth Professor Candida Yates: ‘The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity’

BRIAN

Yates Politics book imag

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to let you know about the publication of my new book, The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity.

Candida Yates, Professor of Culture and Communication, Bournemouth University

cyates@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity offers a new ‘psycho-cultural’ perspective on the psycho-dynamics of UK political culture and draws on psychoanalysis, cultural and media studies and political sociology to explore the cultural and emotional processes that shape our relationship to politics in the late modern, media age. Against a backdrop of promotional, celebrity culture and personality politics, the book uses the notion of ‘play’ as a metaphor to explore the flirtatious dynamics that are often present in the mediatised, interactive sphere of political culture and the discussion is elaborated upon by discussing different aspects of cultural and political identity, including, gender, class and nation. These themes are explored through selected case studies and examples, including the flirtation of Tony Blair, Joanna Lumley’s Gurkha campaign, Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, David Cameron’s identity as a father and the populist appeal of UKIP politician, Nigel Farage.

Table of contents

1. Introducing Emotion, Identity and the Play of Political Culture
2. Spinning the Unconscious and the Play of Flirtation in Political Culture
3. The Dilemmas of Post-Feminism and the Fantasies of Political Culture
4. Political Culture and the Desire for Emotional Wellbeing
5. The Absent Parent in Political Culture
6. Moving Forward to The Past: Fantasies of Nation Within UK Political Culture
7. Reflections on the Psycho-Cultural Dynamics of Political Culture

Further details can be found at Palgrave Macmillan: 

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/the-play-of-political-culture–emotion-and-identity-candida-yates/?sf1=barcode&st1=9780230302525

Some reviews

‘Whether she is discussing the political manifestations of a contemporary crisis in masculinity and fatherhood, postmodern feminism, nostalgia, narcissism, play, or therapy culture, Yates’s psychoanalytic lens illuminates, in a nuanced fashion all too rare today, both regressive social trends toward mastery and progressive, creative potentials for change. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex interplay of fantasy, emotion, identity, media, and politics in the era of neoliberalism.’ – Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School, USA

‘Exploring the entanglement of media, politics and emotions, this is a bold and original book that should be read by students and scholars in Sociology and Media Studies,and anyone with an interest in contemporary political life. It articulates a psycho-cultural perspective, moving with verve and insight from election politics to celebrity culture and from Russell Brand to poverty porn, offering a psychoanalytically informed reading of British political life and its structures of feeling. A satisfying and thought-provoking read.’ – Professor Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, City University London, UK

‘Through a psychoanalytic critique of the anxieties, fantasies and obsessions that characterise today’s intensely emotional political culture, Candida Yates’ new book makes a powerful case for the argument that Psychosocial Studies is the new Cultural Studies.’ – Sasha Roseneil, Professor of Sociology and Social Theory, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

HE Policy Update

Monday

Postgraduates

HEFCE have advised that a Ucas-style national application system for taught postgraduate courses at UK universities should be adopted. Ucas-style system needed for postgraduate study, universities told (THE).

Tuesday

Labour Conference

At a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference, Paul Blomfield, the MP for Sheffield Central revealed that Labour will continue to look at a graduate tax. Labour’s new shadow higher education minister, Gordon Marsden, warned that the government’s planned Teaching Excellence Framework could create an apartheid between universities that teach and universities that research. Labour party conference 2015: debate focuses on abolition of tuition fees (THE).

Deloitte

Professional services firm Deloitte has changed its selection process so recruiters do not know where candidates went to school or university. This move hopes to prevent “unconscious bias” and tap a more diverse “talent pool”. Firm ‘hides’ university when recruits apply (BBC News).

Wednesday

Employability

A survey conducted by the Research Academy has revealed that nearly three-quarters of prospective and current students would be willing to pay higher fees if it guaranteed them a graduate-level job upon degree completion. Three-quarters of students would pay higher tuition fees for guaranteed job (THE).

Overseas Students

Louise Richardson, the upcoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford has claimed that the UK will be impoverished if students from other countries find it too costly, too difficult or too unwelcoming to travel to the UK to attend our universities. Louise Richardson: Reputation of UK universities at risk over policies on overseas students (THE).

Thursday

Employment

HEFCE analysis reveals that four-fifths of UK students who graduated in the 2008 recession are now professionally employed or undertaking further study. Many graduates in professional jobs, figures show. (BBC News).

BIS

A leaked consultation on the future of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills suggests that November’s spending review will be accompanied by a radical overhaul of the research funding system. Sajid Javid’s blueprint for BIS heightens fears for research funding. (The Guardian).

Friday

Labour/Tuition fees

Jeremy Corbyn has shelved a proposal to scrap university tuition fees while he consults the rest of the Labour Party. Scrapping tuition fees was his first major policy statement and helped build support among young left-wingers. It would have been funded by either a 2.5% rise in corporation tax or a 7 per cent increase in National Insurance for those earning more than £50,000 a year. However, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn has since said: “All policy is up for discussion and there is a review of how we will set policy in the future.”  Could Jeremy Corbyn ‘do a Nick Clegg’ on tuition fees? (The Daily Telegraph).

Research Professional visit 3rd Nov and set up your personal account and searches!

Funding opportunities, Info Days

Research-Professional-logoEvery BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. Jordan Graham from Research Professional is visiting BU on the 3rd of November 2015 to demonstrate to academics and staff how to make the most of their Research Professional account.

This will include:

  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Location and the session timings are:

Talbot campus P424

10.15 – 11.15 – Research Professional presentation

11.15 – 11.45 – RKEO interactive session setting up searches

Lansdowne campus S103

13.30 – 14.30 – Research Professional presentation

14.30 – 15.00 – RKEO interactive session setting up searches

After the presentation, the RKEO Funding Development Team will be on hand for an interactive session where they will help you set up your Research Professional account, searches and offer advice from a BU perspective.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about funding opportunities and to meet the Funding Development Team, particularly if you are new to BU.

Please reserve your place now at a BU Campus to suit through Organisational Development