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Call for papers on productivity

Technology in the hands

To assist current discussions with policy makers, the Chartered Association of Business Schools are accepting papers on how business schools can help solve the UK productivity crisis.

The Government has made the drive for increased productivity a key policy focus. To help the Chartered ABS in its discussions with policy makers and influencers (about the important contributions business schools make to its students, the economy and society) there is a call  for thought piece papers on the subject of productivity.

Where will UK productivity come from? We know that the UK punches above its weight in terms of scientific innovation and ground-breaking discoveries. But this world-leading performance fails to translate into commercial products and world-leading businesses. The crucial bridge between laboratory and market is, if not missing, then distinctly wobbly in the UK. And this is despite prolonged effort by successive governments to build this bridge, through the Technology Strategy Board, then Innovate UK, catapults, and numerous other policy initiatives. Why is this a hard problem? Chartered ABS thinks that part of the problem stems from the UK’s STEM/business divide. We train excellent scientists, but we give them none of the business skills that would unlock the commercial potential of their ideas. The UK’s business schools want to see a move from a narrow focus on STEM, to STEMM: where Management is seen as a core part of Science and Engineering training, education and research. Management education The evidence shows a wide gap between the skills of UK managers and their US and European peers. Research by the Chartered Management Institute in 2004 found that British employers spent on average just €1,625 (£1,430) a year on developing each manager, against €4,438 in Germany, €3,387 in Denmark and €2,674 in France. Only a fifth of UK business leaders have any management qualification, the CMI says.

Work by Nick Bloom, John van Reenen, and others has highlighted the significant effect that management skills have on firm productivity and performance. As they conclude: “improved management practice is one of the most effective ways for a firm to outperform its peers.” They further note “The overall performance of most countries is determined not by the performance of its leading companies, but by the size of its ‘tail’ of poor performers.” http://web.stanford.edu/~nbloom/ManagementReport.pdf

By working with SMEs, through initiatives like the Small Business Charter, UK business schools can act as catalysts for management change, raising the skills of UK managers to the levels of their European peers, and in turn driving up UK productivity.

Papers

Thought pieces addressing the topic “What can business schools do to drive up the UK’s productivity?” should be between 500 and 2000 words and submitted to Anne Kiem and Anne.Kiem@charteredabs.org by 11 September 2015. Selected papers may be published on the Chartered ABS website and may be used in discussions and roundtable events with MPs and policy makers. Papers may also be used as part of the lobbying activities of the Chartered ABS at the upcoming Conservative and Labour party conferences.

Understanding how people with depression think about how the past could have turned out differently

Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund

The period of funding from the BU Fusion Investment Fund (Co-Creation and Co-Production Strand) has just finished for my joint psychology and psychiatry research project into the role of counterfactual thinking in depression. Counterfactual thinking is thinking about how the past could have been different. It is closely tied-up with the emotion of regret but can help people prepare to deal more effectively with similar situations in the future. For example, a person who thinks that an intimate relationship that failed would have survived if they had taken more account of how their partner was feeling (counterfactual thinking) can adapt their behaviour accordingly in their next intimate relationship in order to try to prevent the breakdown of the relationship and ensure its longevity.

My collaborator on the Fusion-funded project is Dr Paul Walters who’s a Consultant Psychiatrist for Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust (DHUFT) based at Weymouth. A student from the Psychology Department’s Foundations in Clinical Psychology Master’s degree course (Stephen Richer) worked on the project by interviewing DHUFT patients who are diagnosed with depression. The project ran from December 2013 to July 2015, in which time a total of 29 patients were assessed. Although the project funding has ended, participant recruitment will continue until the required number of 65 participants is reached, which should be by October 2015.

Preliminary analysis of the data from the project suggests that the patients assessed tend to focus on aspects of the self (e.g., personality characteristics) when thinking counterfactually about a negative social event from their past. This finding contrasts with the counterfactual thoughts of people that have not received a formal clinical diagnosis of depression who, our previous research has found, tend to focus more on factors that are external to the self (e.g., other people’s behaviour) when mentally ‘undoing’ a previous negative social event. Once the data are collected from all 65 participants with depression, more meaningful comparisons between the counterfactual thoughts of depressed and non-depressed people will be drawn. Ultimately, Paul Walters and I hope that the findings of the project will aid in the refinement of the cognitive behavioural therapies that psychiatrists and clinical psychologists administer for the treatment of depression. Once the results of the data from all 65 participants have been analysed and written-up for publication, Paul and I plan to submit a funding bid to the National Institute of Health Research for a follow-on intervention project into tailoring cognitive behavioural therapies for depression based on the factors that influence the counterfactual thoughts of the patients with depression.

Overall, the BU Fusion funding has been immensely beneficial for engaging students and a key external stakeholder in the local community (DHUFT) in a valuable piece of applied research that has important psychotherapeutic implications for mental health patients and professional best practice implications for mental healthcare professionals.

Thank you, Fusion Investment Fund, I couldn’t have done the research without you.

Dr Kevin Thomas, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology.

Innovate 2015 – 9-10 November London

Business Engagement, innovation, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Innovate 2011v4

 

The countdown has begun for Innovate 2015. From international investors, entrepreneurs, to government and academia, everyone who is anyone in innovation will be attending. Discover the full range of support available to help your business grow faster, get funding, make connections and go global. Innovate 2015 is a two day event designed to stimulate opportunities for innovation, export and investment for the UK’s most innovative companies, at all growth stages. Secure your two-day tickets now for £199 (plus VAT). One-day tickets to the event are also available for £165 (plus VAT).

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Global Futures and Epistemologies of the South: New Challenges for Sociology – call for papers (Sociology Special Issue)

Publishing

Global Futures and Epistemologies of the South: New Challenges for Sociology

Call for Papers – Sociology Special Issue

Guest Editors:

Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick and Visiting Fellow in Sociology (2014-15), Princeton University

Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra, and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Deadline for submission of full papers: 16 October 2015

This special issue takes stock of the progress that has been made within sociology over recent decades to become a more globally oriented discipline and discusses the new challenges for the future that emerge as a consequence. It rests on two interlinked premises. First, that understandings of the world are much broader than the Western understanding of the world and so for sociology to adequately address its global futures it needs to take into account ways of knowing that exceed Western thinking, including critical Western thinking. Second, that the current configurations of the world are a consequence of global historical processes that have not always been adequately addressed within western-based sociology. For sociology to better conceptualise its global futures, it also needs to address its global pasts. We invite contributions that address the issues raised, both theoretically and through empirical research, across (but not limited to) the following themes:

 

  • Epistemologies of the South and Global Challenges to /for Sociology
  • Imagining Global Sociologies: Past, Present, and Future
  • The Global South in the North
  • Recovering Silenced / Forgotten Sociologies
  • Transnational Solidarities, Anti-colonial Struggles and the ‘Rise’ of the South(s)
  • Emancipatory Social Movements and Alternative Narratives
  • Sociological Futures: Rethinking Social Justice in a Global World
  • Neocolonialism, Postcolonialism, Decoloniality, and Decolonization

 

Submission Details:

Deadline for submissions: 16 October 2015 (full papers)

Word limit:  8000 words

Queries to be addressed to: bsantos@ces.uc.pt and g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk

Submit online: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/soc

 

Full submission instructions are available on this site on the ‘Instructions and Forms’ page.  Please read these in full well before submitting your manuscript. All manuscripts will be subject to the normal referee process, but potential authors are welcome to discuss their ideas in advance with the editors.

Updating your Staff Profile Pages? Here’s a handy tip!

BRIAN, Guidance, staff profile pages, Training

StaffProfilePages

 

 

For starters, to change information on your Staff Profile Pages, you will need to log onto your BRIAN account to do so.

Any information added or amended on your BRIAN account usually requires an overnight automated refresh for it to appear on your Staff Profile Pages the next day.

Here’s the tip – if you want to see the changes made straight away, there is a button on your Staff Profile Page which you can click to prompt the refresh to take place instantaneously.

Scroll to the bottom of your Staff Profile Page and you will see this in the left hand corner –

refreshIt’s very discreet but it’s there.

Click on the ‘Refresh now’ button and it will refresh your page and you can see the changes made instantly.

 

 

*Please note that any information entered in the ‘Overview’ section under the Profile tab will not appear on your Staff Profile Pages. If you wish to update your background information, there are fields under ‘My Professional Activities’ which will allow you to do so.

Please see below a series of ‘How to update your Staff Profile Pages with BRIAN’ training sessions available during the following dates:

2pm to 3.30pm, 20 August – C203 Christchurch House, Talbot

2pm to 3.30pm, 15 September – S102 Studland House, Lansdowne

1.30pm to 3pm, 28 October – C124, Christchurch House, Talbot

2pm to 3.30pm, 9 November – TBC

2pm to 3.30pm, 15 December – C203, Christchurch House, Talbot

Please get in touch with OD@bournemouth.ac.uk to book a place.

 

OpenAIRE2020 National Open Access Desk

Post-award, Publishing

jisclogoBack in July, Mafalda Picarra from JISC wrote a blog post on the Jisc Scholarly Communications about OpenAIRE2020 National Open Access Desk. If you are involved in or are interested in an EC Horizon 2020 project, this blog post will be of interest to you.

Since the start of the OpenAIRE2020 project in January, Jisc became the UK National Open Access Desk (NOAD). This means that Jisc is now providing support and information to help UK HEIs and researchers to comply with the EC’s Horizon 2020 programme OA policy, the Open Research Data Pilot and the FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot.

Jisc has been working closely with UK national associations – SCONUL, ARMA, RLUK and UKCoRR – to ensure that information about the EC’s Horizon 2020 OA policy and the Pilots is disseminated through the most appropriate channels to multiple stakeholders. Back in June, the national associations sent a first communication to their members. Today, we will disseminate more detailed information to HEIs research librarians, research managers, open access contact points and EU research, policy and funding teams on the EC’s OA policy and the two pilots.

In a nutshell, the Horizon 2020 OA policy requires that all peer reviewed publications resultant from Horizon 2020 and European Research Council funded projects be made open access. In addition, a Pilot on Open Research Data is being run in some core areas of Horizon 2020 which aims to improve and maximise access to and re-use of research data generated by projects. Finally, OpenAIRE is running a Pilot on FP7 Post-Grant Open Access where eligible FP7 projects can apply for funding to publish their research outputs on open access.

OpenAIRE has developed relevant resources (factsheets, guides and webinars) that can be accessed online (https://www.openaire.eu/) and provides helpdesk support to those that require more information on compliance with the EC’s OA policy or on how to participate in the pilots.logo_openaire

For more information contact the National Open Access Desk (NOAD), Mafalda Picarra, on info.openaire@jisc.ac.uk

 

BU Business Engagement Network – LinkedIn

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange

linkedin-logo

 

Are you keen to develop relationships with businesses? Why not join the new BU Business Engagement Network on LinkedIn. It’s growing quickly. Not only is it a great way to find out about what is happening within the area of business engagement and knowledge exchange, its a useful method to use to develop your own  networks – locally, regionally and internationally (often just using your own smartphone or tablet whilst on the move).

Click here to join : BU Business Engagement Network

(You will need to be user of LinkedIn)

Institute for Small Business and Entrpreneurship Research and Knowledge Exchange (RAKE) Fund

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

 

ISBE Research and Knowledge Exchange (RAKE) Fund – Anchor Institutions

The Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) Research and Knowledge Exchange (RAKE) fund is an initiative kindly supported by; the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); Lloyds Banking Group, the Federation of Small Business (FSB), British Academy of Management (BAM) administered through ISBE.  This initiative aims to encourage and support research activities from academics, third sector organisations, consultants and practitioners with the ambition of drawing together and generating an entrepreneurial community of practice to facilitate knowledge exchange and transfer. 

Proposals are invited that explore ways in which anchor institutions and wider fee-based professional service providers can support small firms to develop their entrepreneurial capabilities. 

For more information click here

Call closes 14 August.

Global Food Security – new programme of research to be announced

Funding opportunities

 Chicken and globe

The Global Food Security (GFS) Programme will soon be announcing a new five-year interdisciplinary programme of research.

The programme has been co-designed by BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, Defra and FSA, in partnership with wider stakeholders, and will address a major food security challenge: Resilience of the UK Food System in a Global Context

For more information click here

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

British Council, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills under the Newton Fund and China’s Ministry of Education invite applications for their UK-China PhD placements and supervisor mobility grants. These grants enable PhD students and their supervisors from the UK or China to undertake a short period of study related to tackling global challenges, either at a higher education institution in China or in the UK. Placements are available in the following fields: health and life sciences, such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, child mortality and maternal health; environmental technologies, such as climate change, green technology, sustainable development, ecosystem services and resource scarcity; food and water security; energy; urbanisation; education and creative economy for economic development and social welfare. Studies must have direct relevance to both the UK’s and China’s social welfare and economic development. All applications must include both a PhD student and their supervisor.  Students may undertake visits lasting between three and 12 months, and their supervisor may visit for up to three months. Funding covers visa fees, international airfares, tuition fees, accommodation and stipend. Placements must start between January and December 2016.

Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 11.59pm, 10/10/15.

European Molecular Biology Laboratory invites applications, under its EMBL interdisciplinary postdocs (EIPOD) initiative, for the EI3POD postdoctoral programme. This enables postdoctoral fellows to undertake training on intellectual property, entrepreneurship and research, and take part in international, inter-institutional collaborations or an intersectorial experience, while carrying out interdisciplinary research projects. Applicants may choose one of the following career modules when applying or do so within the first 18 months of the start of their fellowship: interdisciplinary EIPOD – this is aimed at an academic career path and comprises an interdisciplinary research project, which includes one coordinating group leader and one partner laboratory both from EMBL faculty; international or inter-institutional EIPOD – this includes an interdisciplinary research project that should involve EMBL supervisors, and one external academic partner from a group from the EMBL network of institutionalised partnerships or collaborations; Intersectorial EIPOD – this involves an interdisciplinary research project that is designed to foster exposure to the applied or commercial side of science, and involves EMBL supervisors and either one industry partner from a group from the EMBL network of institutionalised partnerships or collaborations, or an active involvement of an EIPOD in intellectual property generation, out-licensing and, if applicable, in the first steps towards a spin-off activity. Applicants should have a PhD or four years of full-time equivalent research experience. Scientists who are currently doing postdoctoral research at other institutions may apply. Positions are funded for a three-year period and will be primarily based at EMBL; however, recipients may spend up to nine months at an EMBL Australia laboratory.

Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 10/09/15.

Natural Environment Research Council invites applications for its international opportunities fund, which provides resources to NERC-supported researchers to forge long-term partnerships with overseas scientists that add value to current NERC-funded science. The following two grants are available in this round: pump priming grants – each worth up to £40,000 at 80 per cent full economic cost for up to two years, to help researchers establish and develop novel, collaborative links with international partners; pump priming plus grants – each worth up to £320,000 at 80 per cent full economic cost for up to three years, to support establishment of novel international collaborative links which allow the development of partnerships that require more resources. PIs must be eligible for NERC discovery science funding and currently in receipt of NERC research funding as a PI through a NERC discovery science grant, a NERC strategic research programme grant, the research scientist at a NERC centre mechanism, or an independent research fellowship grant.

Maximum award: £320000. Closing date: 4pm, 24/09/15.

Please note that some funders 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.

Driverless vehicles: apply now for business innovation funding

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

Bruce photo

 

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is to invest in new vehicle developments in the areas of connectivity, autonomy and customer interaction, and to support new business models. 
Businesses can apply for a share of £20 million to develop new products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles.

  • the competition is now open and the registration deadline  is at noon on 23 September 2015
  • a briefing to highlight the main features of the competition will be held in London on 4 August 2015

 

For more information click here

 

 

European Funding for Sustainable and Climate Resilient Business – UK Launch of Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 and Challenge 5

Info Days

KTN in collaboration with Innovate UK is running a series of events to launch the 2016 Horizon 2020 work programme for Societal Challenges 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy) and 5 (Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials).

  • European Brokerage Event: Circular Horizons 2016/17 – European Business Brokerage event for Horizon 2020 funding for resource efficient business models and the circular economy, 10th September, London;
  • H2020 Nature Based Solutions – Re-greening Cities Information Day, 30th September, London;
  • Feeding a changing world – Horizon 2020 Funding for Resource Efficient bio-based value chains – farm to fork, non-food crops, BioBased products and waste treatment, 13th October, Manchester;
  • Solutions for a climate resilient world: Horizon 2020 funding in 2016, 2nd November, Exeter;
  • Horizon 2020 funding for Water innovation, 1st October, Manchester.

An opportunity to network with potential industry partners.  Details and registration here.

Please let Emily or myself know if you intend to attend so we can co-ordinate if more than one person is interested in the area(s).

 

 

 

 

Tags:

August 2015 Business Briefing is now live! – Creative, Digital & Design Briefing

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Transfer

andrew archery

 

This is a monthly publication that provides a digest of useful information about funding, financing, support and events to assist creative, digital and design businesses with their innovation and growth strategies. A great source of information to keep up to speed with what is happening in this sector.

 Creative, Digital & Design Business Briefing – August 2015

Including Virtual & Augmented Reality  – £210K IC tomorrow contest

Internet of Things Cites Demonstrator  – up to £10m funding

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles  – up to £20m funding

Research Professional – all you need to know

Guidance

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise.  The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional.  To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional.  They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional.  The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat.  Each session will cover:

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

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fuorth Tuesday of each month.  You can register here for your preferred date:

25th August 2015

22nd September 2015

27th October 2015

24th November 2015

26th January 2016

23rd February 2016

22nd March 2016

26th April 2016

24th May 2016

28th June 2016

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Mission accomplished: fish genetics and population restoration are fused!

Our recent blogs on our fusion-funded co-creation and co-production project on fish population restoration were reporting our strong recent progress as our students began their placements – and all of a sudden, the project is now finished! So what did we discover?

Well, firstly, our students who completed their placements with the University of Insubria in Northern Italy have worked incredibly hard, with excellent reports coming back from our Italian partners (see below). They produced some excellent genetic data to help progress our work. Our placement students based at BU have also been working very hard (albeit in much cooler conditions!) and produced some excellent ecological data.

BU students in Italy

(Above) Our placement students outside the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria with Dr Serena Zaccara (3rd from left) and Caterina Antognazza (2nd left)

Secondly, through our co-creation with stakeholders, students and research collaborators, we have successfully revealed the extent of the disturbance of human activities on fish genetic patterns in the UK. We have revealed clear impacts relating to losses of genetic integrity of fish at the river basin level that we suggest affect their ability to adapt to local conditions – which could be important in the context of climate change. We will be publishing our findings in at least two peer-reviewed papers in the next few months with our students as co-authors.

Thirdly, did we discover how these fish populations could be restored sustainably? Yes, we think we did and we have already passed these on to the relevant authorities at our recent workshop, so these are being considered for implementation.

Finally, we have shown once again that co-creating and co-producing knowledge with our students, stakeholders and international collaborators brings multiple benefits, including enhanced mobility and employment prospects for our students. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience for all!

– Rob Britton, Demetra Andreou & Ben Thomas (all SciTech)