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Almetric for Institutions – Demonstration on 9 September 2014

Training

On the 9 September, Daryl Jones, from Altmetric for Institutions (a web-based application for tracking, monitoring and reporting on impact of research outputs) will be here at Bournemouth University to run a demonstration of the application.

Below are the target audiences that this will likely benefit –

  • Altmetric for Institutions would be particularly relevant to communications officers, marketing and research administrators, as well as faculty members and librarians would also be potential stake-holders in such a project.
  • The demonstration will involve explaining the benefits and uses cases of Altmetric for Institutions, which in broad terms are listed below under the relevant area:

i.   Research administrators
·       View and analyse the online attention paid to own institution’s research outputs at the institution, department, and author levels.
·       Find evidence for institution’s societal impact.
·       Compare results from own institution to those of other institutions.

ii.   Communications officers
·       Assess public engagement and reputation for own institution.
·       View and analyse online attention paid to institution’s research outputs.
·       Identify key influencers in the community for boosting future engagement

iii.   Faculty members
·       View and analyse online attention paid to personal or research group/departmental scholarly outputs.
·       If involved with promotion and tenure: assess online attention paid to articles for a specific faculty member.

The different types of metrics that the product takes into account (tweets, blog posts, policy documents, news stories, and much more) and how Altmetric for Institutions works with this information to provide a score (in the form of the Altmetric donut) shall be shown.

There is currently an element of Altmetric imbedded within BRIAN. Please do come along to this demonstration to find out more about how Almetric for Institution can help you in managing your research outputs.

The demonstration will take place in EB202, Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus on the 9September, starting at 10.30am (the session will probably last for an hour). If you are interested, or know anyone who will benefit from this demonstration, please do send Peng Peng Hatch an email to express your interest.

Refreshments will also be available on the day.

Open Access Salons! – Phil Ward

Publishing, Research assessment

In June Research Professional reported that Prof Adam Tickell, successor to Dame Janet Finch, will be holding a series of salons to discuss Open Access.

Open Access salons! What a great idea.

A hairdressing salon. A row of women sit under hard hat dryers along the back wall, flicking through out of date copies of Grazia magazine. At the front a stylist fusses around a client in front of a large mirror.The bell on the door tinkles as a woman enters. Everyone turns to look at her.

STYLIST: Can I help you, love?
WOMAN (nervously): Yes, I was wanting a quick trim..?
STYLIST: Open Access, is it?
WOMAN: Pardon?
STYLIST: Do you want your haircut to be Open Access?
WOMAN: I don’t really understand…
STYLIST: Do you want your hair to be freely viewed by members of the public? Or do you want to wear this over your head?

She holds up a paper bag.

You’ll only be allowed to take it off if people pay to view it, or have bought a general subscription to my salon. Could get quite complicated.
WOMAN: But that’s crazy!
STYLIST: I’m just allowing others to benefit from this salon whilst protecting my business. It’s a tough world out there. It’s not as easy to make money out of hairdressing these days, you know.
WOMAN (patting her hair, and looking at the women at the back): Well, I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I? If I want others to see my hair.
STYLIST: You’ve made the right choice, love. Right then: if you want it to be Open Access, you’ll have to pay me a Hair Processing Charge, in addition to any other money I might get from you.
WOMAN: How much is that?
STYLIST: It varies. Averages about a thousand pounds.
WOMAN: A thousand pounds! But that’s outrageous!
STYLIST: It’s actually very good value. There’s a huge amount of unseen work involved in haircutting. Of course, we do offer a discount for pre-payment. If you buy 10 haircuts up front, we’ll give you a 20% reduction.
WOMAN: But still that’s £800!
STYLIST: Take it or leave it. You could go for the green option, of course.
WOMAN: What’s that?
STYLIST: You submit your hair to your local wig shop. However, it can’t be the final version. It might include bits I’ve missed, and won’t include any final changes we might make.
WOMAN: So my option is to have an incomplete haircut and put it on display in a wig shop, or pay a grand so that other people can look at it?
STYLIST: Essentially yes. Alternatively you could opt not to go Open Access. But then you will have to wear the paper bag.
WOMAN: But…but…
STYLIST: Look, love, it’s for your benefit! We need to protect your reputation and uphold the esteem and profile of this salon. And think what Open Access hair will do for you: More people will see your hairstyle, and will mention it to others. And people from the poor parts of town will be able to freely look at your hair.
WOMAN: And…and what if the people who see my hair decide they don’t like it? What if they disagree with my choices?
STYLIST: Well, if they make a good case we might have to retract it.
WOMAN: Retract it?
STYLIST: Yes. We might say we no longer agree with the hair and the underlying decisions which informed it. We might even decide to glue back any hair we’ve removed to restore the cut to its previous state. And I’ll put an apology note in the window.
WOMAN: This is ridiculous! I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want a trim any more.

She storms out of the salon.

STYLIST: I don’t know. No pleasing some people. (She returns to the client in the chair). So what style do you want, my love? A David Sweeney, you say? Right you are.

Written by Phil Ward, Deputy Director, Research Services, University of Kent.

Fusion Investment Fund (Santander) — BU research and collaboration visits to Universitat de València

Fusion

"Universitat valència vella" by Felivet - Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

 

Dr Bernhard Angele from the Faculty of Science and Technology has been awarded funding from the Santander strand of the Fusion Investment Fund to establish working relationships and collaborations with the Universitat de València (UV), Spain, a Santander Partner University. Bernhard has accepted an invitation by Professor Manuel Perea of the Faculty of Psychology and he will travel to Valencia on the September 15th for an initial three-day visit to give a talk, meet the members of Professor Perea’s research group, and set up a number of pilot studies.

 

Professor Perea will make a return visit to BU at the start of next year in order to present a talk here and meet with BU staff and postgraduates. Bernhard will make a second visit to Valencia in July 2015 and attend a symposium on Psycholinguistics hosted by the Faculty of Psychology. The primary goal of these visits will be to set up a research partnership and to initiate a number of pilot collaborative projects, which will involve both staff and postgraduate students at BU and UV. These pilot collaborations will establish a foundation for jointly seeking grant funding from the national and European research councils. Ultimately, these projects are hoped to lead to a long-term collaboration between the two universities, opening up possibilities for staff and student exchange as well as joint PhD supervision and making Universitat de València a partner in BU’s internationalisation effort.

UV is one of Spain’s leading academic institutions and was founded more than 500 years ago. Its 55,000 students are distributed across three campuses. The Faculty of Psychology is consistently ranked as one of the top three Psychology research centres nationally and one of the top 50 research centres in Europe. UV has a strong international orientation and participates in many international exchange programmes and networks.
For more information, please contact Bernhard Angele (bangele@bournemouth.ac.uk)
Image credit: “Universitat valència vella” by Felivet – Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

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The 2014 International Conference on Adaptive and Intelligent Systems

The 2014 International Conference on Adaptive and Intelligent Systems will take place next week, 08-09 September at the Executive Business Centre, Floor 3.

The ICAIS conference is the first conference focusing entirely on issues related to system adaptation and learning. ICAIS strives to deepen understanding of various concepts from the area of machine learning, data mining and system engineering (e.g. data streaming, self-evolving systems, self-adaptive systems, etc.).

The conference is financially supported by the Fusion Investment Fund and technically sponsored by world pioneering and leading scientific societies such as the International Neural Network Society (INNS) and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, as well as the UK Computational Intelligence Chapter.

The 2014 edition will bring together international researchers from different horizons to discuss the latest advances in system learning and adaptation. The programme will feature contributed papers as well as 3 world-renowned guest speakers and an invited plenary talk in interactive breakout sessions. The proceedings have been published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Series.

We look forward to an enticing, informing and inspiring event.

Hamid Bouchachia, Conference Chair

Report on Fusion-funded internal secondment to BUDI

Fusion

I was awarded Fusion funding to spend the last six months working in the BU Dementia Institute (BUDI) on an internal secondment. This time has come to an end and a formal report has been submitted reporting on how the objectives have all been achieved. Here I’d like to share what I personally found to be most useful from the secondment.

 

I had several tasks to complete over the six months but the bulk of my time was spent on writing research grant proposals. In particular, I took the lead on an application for a project to develop and validate a novel intervention to help older people with dementia who have recently experienced a fall-related injury (currently under review with the National Institute of Health Research, Health Technology Assessment programme). The secondment was invaluable for writing this proposal in two ways. First, the sheer volume of work to be completed in writing the proposal demanded many hours of my time. Second, there were several aspects I had to get to grips with during the proposal writing including NHS sponsorship, arrangements for intellectual property, involving patients in our decision-making, etc., that the secondment provided the ideal environment to master all of this. This was great not only for completing the proposal but gave me the tools to subsequently write a different proposal for a different funder very quickly to meet the tight deadline.

 

I would therefore recommend internal secondments to colleagues who may have interests relevant to institutes / research centres outside of their school. It provides an opportunity to contribute to BU outside your immediate school and an opportunity to develop tools to not only achieve the task at hand but take back with you and use after the life of the secondment.

Those interested in an internal secondment to contribute to BUDI’s research and / or education should contact Professor Innes in the first instance.

 

Dr Samuel Nyman

BUDI and Department of Psychology

 

Launch of the new RKEO structure

This week is the official launch of the new structure in RKEO. As of 1 September, RKEO has been split into three teams:

  • Funding Development Team
  • Project Delivery Team
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

This new structure mirrors the research and knowledge exchange life cycle and should ensure that academics get dedicated and high quality support throughout all parts of the research and knowledge exchange process. A summary of the remit of each of the new teams is provided below:

  • Funding Development Team: Support and advice with all pre-award activities, such as horizon-scanning, identifying funding opportunities, developing and submitting proposals, and development schemes such as the Grants Academy.
  • Project Delivery Team: Support and advice for all post-award activities, to include project and financial management of grants and contracts, ethics and outputs.
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team: Support and advice for all corporate-level knowledge exchange initiatives, including business engagement, the Festival of Learning, research communications and research impact.

You can access a new structure chart here: RKEO structure chart September 2014

Key contacts in the new structure include:

  • Julie Northam, Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, ext: 61208
  • Jo Garrad, Funding Development Manager, ext: 61209
  • Shelly Anne Stringer, Project Delivery Manager, ext: 61205
  • Rebecca Edwards, KE and Impact Manager, ext: 61538
  • General RKEO office number, ext: 68268

There are a number of RKEO staff members who are focused on supporting specific Schools/Faculty – these individuals are shown on the structure chart.

We will be visiting School/Faculty Academic Board meetings this autumn to introduce the new structure and the key individuals who will be working with you at pre- and post-award stages.

Our next RKEO coffee morning will be held on 30th October, 9:30-10:30am in the Retreat, Poole House. All are welcome!

Make Your Voice Heard event reminder – some spaces still available

News from the PVC, REF Subjects, Research themes, Training

Logo with a megaphone and event title

It’s not enough just to do cutting edge research. We also know that we have to share it and pass on our findings or even our views about matters that are important to society.  Such profile-raising can help attract future research funding, raise our standing and that of BU and, with an eye on REF2020, help achieve impact.

Talking to journalists, using social media and updating blogs or websites does not come naturally to all of us and can be seen as just another demand placed on people who are already struggling with a busy schedule.

The communications department at the University have offered to make it easier for us to get our voice heard. They are hosting an event entitled Make Your Voice Heard to explore how to do this with impact and effect.

Taking place next week on 10 September 2014, we will discuss important topics, such as how academics can enrich the media and how to balance different stakeholder wants and needs. There will also be opportunities to acquire some practical tools, tips and techniques.

Ultimately, it would be great to see more of our staff sharing their unique and valuable perspectives on matters important to society and raising the profile of BU in the local, regional and national scene. Whether that’s through informed comment or sharing research outcomes, the communications team can help us do it more effectively.

‘Make Your Voice Heard’ runs from 9:00 – 14:00 on Talbot Campus and lunch will be provided. It is open to all researchers, from PGRs to Professors.

You can see the full schedule and book your place by following this link to the Eventbrite page. If you would like to find out more before booking, please contact Sarah Gorman (Corporate Communications Assistant).

Opportunity to become Involved in a Research Study on Institutional Life Cycles

We are seeking volunteers at BU to help with a piece of research looking at the evolution of HE institutions and the evolution of individuals in the context of institutional evolution.  Professor Matthew Bennett and Dr Colleen Harding are conducting a research project which examines the evolution of BU during the last 25 years from an organisational development perspective.  BU has been selected as a case study, as part of a broader piece of research which involves two other institutions.  Both of the Principal Investigators have been participant observers during much of the change that has taken place at BU during the last decade and are ideally placed to conduct this research.  Our study extends back to the early 1990s through to the launch of the current strategic plan in 2012.  The case study will be used to develop ideas and models of institutional change applicable to the Higher Education sector as a whole. 

We are keen to invite volunteers, both past and present members of staff, who joined (and left) BU at different stages along its development journey, to contribute their thoughts and reflections on different periods of the institution’s history.  We are seeking volunteers both through an open call and by targeting individuals with direct invitations who we feel may have lived through critical periods of the institution’s history.  It is entirely up to you to decide whether or not to take part.  There is no limit to the number of participants that we are seeking.  In the first instance the research will take place between September and November 2014 and consists of a one hour interview with one of the Principal Investigators.  This will be organised at your convenience, just email either Matthew or Colleen to set up a time and place.  You will be asked to sign a consent form and given a participant information sheet for the study.  The research has been ethically approved by BU.  All the data will be held confidentially and will be used in such a way as to ensure that all participants cannot be identified from the research.  If you are interested in being involved in the research we would very much like to hear from you, so please contact Matthew or Colleen by email: mbennett@bournemouth.ac.uk or charding@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Promote your research internally by contributing to the BU Research Blog

Blogging is an excellent way to share your research, reach new audiences and join new networks (see my previous blog post ‘The benefits of academic blogging – should you enter the blogosphere?‘). You can add your own posts to the BU Research Blog to promote your research internally and as the BU Research Blog is available externally then you get the added benefit of reaching external audiences too. Here are some top tips for contributing to the Blog:

1. Figure out what it is you want to blog about

You may be a researcher wanting to share your research findings, or you may want to raise your profile or find new collaborators. Maybe you’ve read something really exciting about HE policy or research in your discipline and want to share it? It may be that you may want to comment on one of the topical research discussions going on in the sector (such as open access). Whatever your reason for wanting to blog, think about who you want to reach with your writing – be it potential collaborators, potential employers, or people on the street.

2. Get access

If you don’t already have access to contribute to the Blog then contact Rhyannan Hurst in RKEO and she will set you up with an account.

3. Write good headlines

If you want people to read what you’ve written, you’ll have to make them want to. Don’t fall into the trap of typing up any old headline and hitting publish after spending ages polishing the blog post itself. Always ask yourself if you’d click on a link based solely on the headline (and be honest). If you wouldn’t, change it.

Descriptive headlines that tell a reader exactly what to expect often work well. You should think about getting key words in there, but don’t fret too much about search engine optimisation. It’s more important to make actual humans want to read your work.

Google Analytics shows us that the most popular posts on the BU Research Blog are those with interesting and sometimes bizarre headlines!

4. Use the internet properly

Remember to add links to sources, news articles and other people’s blog posts in your own. Use images or video when they are a better way to communicate than words.

And, thanks to the unlimited space online, you don’t have a word count. But as well as giving you the space to go in-depth when you want to, it means you can write short if the subject doesn’t need a dissertation-length exploration. Don’t write an essay just because you can.

5. Promote your blog post

After publishing your blog post then you should shout about it, ideally using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Don’t be afraid to send the post directly to certain people who you think will be interested in it.

These have been adapted from Kelly Oakes, Science Editor of BuzzfeedUK’s blog post on ‘How to Start a Science Blog‘.

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are now calling for proposals to their Dial-a-Molecule EPSRC Grand Challenge Network. The aim is to enhance/speed up existing chemistry research projects through the application of statistical methods. Proposals may cover applications such as: screening across a wide reaction space using Principal Components models; scoping, optimisation or robustness studies using statistical design of experiments (e.g. factorial, response surface, D-optimal design); and predictive modelling, PLS and data mining, applied to chemical synthesis. Funding, normally up to £2,000 per project, is available to enable activities. The deadline for applications is 12/09/2014.  

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are now also inviting for applications to the Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) Integrated Research Project (IRP) – US/UK Collaborative Funding Opportunity. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy created Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP) in 2009 to consolidate its university support under one programme. The RCUK Energy Programme (RCUKEP), led by EPSRC, would like to encourage the participation of UK researchers in this programme. In particular the RCUKEP will support the UK component of proposals including US/UK collaboration to the NEUP‘s small research projects solicitation. The deadline for applications is 12:00, 02/10/2014.

The Leverhulme Trust has announced that in January 2015 they will be inviting applications to their Early Career Fellowships. Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and that the Fellowships should lead to a more permanent academic position. The Trust will contribute 50% of each Fellow’s total salary costs up to a maximum of £24,000 per annum and the balance is to be paid by the host institution. Given the prestige of the awards each Fellow may request annual research expenses of up to £6,000 to further his or her research activities. The closing date for applications will be 4pm, 05/03/2015.

The Leverhulme Trust has also announced that they will be inviting applications to their Emeritus Fellowships as of 01/09/2014 (today).  The fellowships offer to provide research expenses of up to £22,000 over up to two years to enable senior researchers who have retired from an academic post to complete a research project and prepare the results for publication. The deadline for applications is 4pm, 05/02/2015.

The Leverhulme Trust has also announced that on the 01/09/2014 (today), they will be inviting applications to their Study Abroad Studentships. The studentship offers maintenance and research expenses to allow applicants to spend a period of 12 to 24 months on advanced study or research at a centre of learning in any overseas country (excluding the USA). The closing date for applications will be 4pm, 12/01/2015.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced that on the 02/10/2014 they will be inviting applications to their Biomedical Catalyst: Regenerative Medicine Research Committee. The translation of the burgeoning knowledge in regenerative medicine into new treatment strategies is a key objective of the strategic plan. The Regenerative Medicine Research Committee (RMRC) provides support for high quality proposals aiming to develop regenerative medicine therapies to improve human health. The MRC will meet the academic costs of the project only. The closing date for applications will be 4pm, 13/11/2014.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has also announced that they will be inviting applications to their Clinician Scientist Fellowship (CSF) scheme as of 25/02/2015. The CSF develops outstanding medically and other clinically qualified professionals who have gained a higher research degree to establish themselves as independent researchers. The CSF provides full personal salary costs, together with support for research staff, consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project. The deadline for applications will be 08/04/2015.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is calling for proposals for opportunities to work in the new Research Complex at Harwell. The scheme is for researchers wishing to occupy space within the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH). For information on deadlines please visit the webpage here.

The Welcome Trust has announced that they will be inviting applications for Capital funding for public engagement and medical history. This scheme provides capital funding (normally above £200 000) for large-scale projects that support public engagement and/or medical history. Prospective applicants should contact the Welcome Trust in the first instance to explore whether their proposal meets their criteria. This should be done well in advance of the deadline for preliminary applications. If the criteria are met, applicants will be asked to submit a preliminary application, outlining the mission, background, aims and objectives of the proposal, targeted audience and partnerships. The Welcome Trust will then assess the preliminary application. If it is approved, a full application will be requested. The deadline for the preliminary application is 29/05/2015.

The Welcome Trust is inviting expressions of interest to the International Engagement Awards. The International Engagement Awards support public engagement projects and work that builds capacity for engagement with biomedical research in Sub-Saharan Africa, South-east Asia and South Asia. Please submit your expression of interest as early as possible but at least two weeks before any full application deadline. The following deadlines are for invited full applications: 13/03/2015 (expressions of interest must be received before 27th February); 11/09/2015 (expressions of interest must be received before 28th August).

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

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

Flipping healthcare and research for service improvement! An inspiring FIF networking project

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Post-award

 

The idea for ‘flipping’ comes from education. It refers to the concept of students watching key content before they come to the classroom. Then when they do come together, they do so to grapple with and apply what they’ve been taught. This concept has been translated into healthcare by the CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Maureen Bisognano. Instead of ‘what’s the matter?’ the flipped question becomes, ‘what matters to you?’. Put another way, healthcare needs to move from a system that does things to patients to one that works with them to achieve best results. These flipped changes imply that we need to work differently to improve things.

Realising we needed to do things differently with the traditional research-based Master’s dissertation is where we were three years ago. In a previous BU research blog we have written how, over the years, we struggled with the relevance of this type of dissertation to professional practice, in particular social work services. That was why we designed the National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work’s service improvement programme, which uses an academically robust, practice-based, service improvement methodology with a focus on professional judgement. Towards the end of this Fusion Investment Fund networking project we realised that we’d flipped research for service improvement.

Uniquely, our service improvement programme fuses service improvement focused education and research with professional practice and is now used across nearly all the School of Health and Social Care’s Master’s Framework. As a result, increasing numbers of students from a health background have been accessing the programme. Recognising our need as two social work lecturers to further understand, share and engage with the culture and strategic intent of key health organisations around the topic of service improvement, we created a series of high-level networking opportunities with organisations including:

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Boston)

The Beryl Institute (Dallas)

The Health Foundation (London)

NHS Improving Quality (Leeds)

As well as meetings with Maureen Bisognano and Jason Wolf (President of the Beryl Institute), we followed up a number of local contacts in the UK and the US to see first-hand how their way of doing service improvement works out in practice. Therefore, as a result of this networking project, we have widened our national and international networks considerably. And  yes, we submitted a peer-reviewed journal article too; yes, we’ve written 5 blogs; and yes, we’ve updated our unit guides and improved the way we teach the programme; yes, we’ve fed back what we’ve learnt to others; and yes, we’ve thought of many ideas for future research projects – in one sense, these are not the main returns of enacting a project like this.  The key benefit has been the inspiration to do these things. And that has come from being willing to learn from others.

For all those on the edge of applying for a Fusion project, go for it! It’s been an inspiring few months and we’re grateful for the widening of our networks and related opportunities. We even learned how to tweet…wonders will never cease!

Dr Steven Keen

skeen@bournemouth.ac.uk

01202 962028

 

Dr Lynne Rutter

lrutter@bournemouth.ac.uk

01202 962019

Research Professional – all you need to know

Funding opportunities

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.

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 fourth Tuesday of each month.  You can register here for your preferred date:

23 September 2014

28 October 2014

25 November 2014

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.

Educational Research Workshop and ‘Drop-In’ times in CEL

Publishing, REF Subjects

To launch the new cross-BU educational research group, a workshop will be held in the new Centre for Excellence in Learning space (PG30a) on Thursday October 2nd, from 9.30 to 12.30.

The session will firstly offer an overview of educational research journals and conferences, funding opportunities and REF criteria (including the provisional BU strategy for entering the education UoA). Secondly, participants will have the opportunity to work together to share research, ideas and / or plans, with the aim of generating some collaborative approaches.

Please come along if you have educational research to share, are starting out in educational research, need advice on getting started or are just interested. There will be no obligation to join the research group.

In addition, I will be basing myself in the CEL space for people to ‘drop in’ and chat about educational research one Friday a month. The next one is Friday October 31st (10 – 3).

Once the group is established, further meetings and workshops will be arranged through CEL.

For some context / detail, have a look at this provisional overview and strategy Education UoA position paper  and / or contact me – julian@cemp.ac.uk

 

 

On Academic Writing

Writing is not easy, yet academics must write.  Communicating your research and ideas to your peers through writing is an essential part of an academic career, you may be doing brilliant research, you may be a fantastic speaker or teacher, but if you can’t express your ideas through the written word your career may flounder.  Writing lies at the heart of research.  There are no quick solutions, fixes or dodges and I don’t profess to have any, but I am interested in the process of writing and seek your help in exploring this.

The importance of writing is no great news and if you are, like me, dyslexic and find the challenge of writing exactly that, a challenge, then what can you do?  We all have different approaches to writing – our own coping strategies if you like – that allow us to get the words on the page, the thoughts and ideas clarified and expressed.  It is an intensely personal process and what works for me is unlikely to work for you.

So what does works for you?  How do you go about writing that difficult piece of prose?

Have a think while I share what works for me.

 

How I write

Ideas often flow better for me from conversation, but as an introvert I don’t have much time for conversation!  So I talk to myself, mentally rehearsing what needs to be said, framing initial ideas and nebulous arguments.  I can be seen on the walk to work deep in thought, in fact deep in silent conversation, and not always silent to the amusement of those that walk their dogs in the park I cross each day!

These silent conversations shape my initial draft, since when I sit down to write I am simply noting down the conversation.  I then refine this early draft picking out and questioning the logic, developing the argument as I craft iteratively the text before me.  For me writing is therefore a process of constant refinement, iteration and clarification as my ideas and argument take shape in the words that I write.

 

It’s different for everyone

Others work differently I know, my mother for example who is a retired academic talked to me recently of how she used to coin a statement, or phrase, something elegant and clever that she then picked at to see if it was true, forming her argument in light of it.  For others it is all about the research question that is being posed and I know that some of my colleagues believe that all your ideas should be formed and in sharp focus before you start to write.  It is a bit like having a beautiful artefact that they can see in their mind’s eye, which simply needs to be described.  I cannot write like this and my approach is more akin to that of Stephen King who, in his wonderful book On Writing, describes the process of writing as the excavation of a fossil with the story slowly emerging from the ground with work and care.  No one way of writing is any better than any other and each may have their own particular style that may also vary across discipline boundaries which leads to my basic question how do you approach the process of writing?

It is this question that intrigues me, a question that I would like to explore for its own sake but also perhaps because it might amuse me in time to write about it in a book or paper.

So what do I need, to help me explore this idea?

 

Getting involved

Well I need the help from my fellow academics, not just geoscientists like myself but social scientists, chemists, historians and engineers.  I am interested to know what helps you to write – a short email with ‘a brain dump’, a couple of paragraphs or a list of bullet points is all I need with your own reflections on how you approach the task of writing.  If you are not an academic but write a lot as part of your profession then drop me a line as well.  In return I will reflect on how I can best summarise, or collate your collective ideas, to play them back to the academic community in ways that would be useful for them.

So going back to the questions posed earlier – how do you write?  In framing your response it might help to reflect on the following questions, whilst also adding anything else that you feel it would be relevant for me to know.

How do you approach your academic writing?  Describe for me the process by which you shape your ideas and craft your prose from conception to completion of a piece, whether it is a journal article, a book or a chapter.

What is the most challenging part for you?  And how do you overcome this?

Where do you like to write?  Can you write anywhere – on the plane, train or in a stolen five minutes, or do you need a block of time and a quiet place, or a noisy coffee shop?

Do you write for a specific audience and journal or in a more generic form formatting once written for a particular journal?  Does this vary depending on the piece?  Do you always know where something is to be submitted before you start?  What in truth guides your choice – clinical analysis, convenience or simply the tradition in your discipline?

How do you write collaboratively?  Do you take the lead, or do you write truly by committee?

How much are you influenced by the norms of your discipline – and what is your discipline?

These are the types of thing I am interested in, I am trying not to be prescriptive and all I ask is that after some reflection you open up an email, insert my address – mbennett@bmth.ac.uk – and write to me something about how you write!  I will respond asking you to sign a consent form and with further details of the study and I promise to preserve your anonymity at all times, unless you specifically state that you are happy to be acknowledged.  Thank you.

EPSRC Engineering Grand Challenge workshops – how to get involved

Funding opportunities

EPSRC logoRead on if you want to take advantage of a brilliant opportunity to network and horizon scan, ensuring you are aware of the funding opportunities coming up…

Following the successful 2013 Global Grand Challenges London Summit (see here for a great overview written by participants), organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC set out to identify Engineering Grand Challenges. In order to start this process, EPSRC organised a two-day retreat, bringing together 25 academic, industry and government experts in facilitated discussions. Prior to the event, EPSRC University and Business Strategic Partners were invited to provide suggestions for the Grand Challenges.

The outputs of the retreat are included in the report below. Seven areas have thus far been identified as potential Engineering Grand Challenges:

  • Risk and Resilience in a Connected World
  • Controlling Cell Behaviour
  • Engineering from Atoms to Applications
  • Bespoke Engineering
  • Big Data for Engineering Futures
  • Suprastructures – integrating resource infrastructures under constraint
  • Engineers at the Heart of Public Decision Making.

Following the retreat, EPSRC approached 23 experts from across the engineering disciplines to ask their views about the themes identified as well as input from the EPSRC Engineering Strategic Advisory Team; their comments are included in the report. As a first stage EPSRC will convene a small high-level group to reflect further on the outcomes of the retreat, where necessary refining the number of challenges and their content.

Following this and in order to build momentum around the Engineering Grand Challenges, EPSRC intend to run three workshops in the Autumn so as to:

  1. Engage the research and user community to identify clear targets or milestones for each of the selected Grand Challenges areas
  2. Start the process of building collaborations and/or consortia as appropriate and
  3. Build advocacy for the Engineering Grand Challenges, particularly as EPSRC, working with its partners in academia, industry and government, is looking to build the case for Engineering and Physical Sciences ahead of the next spending review.

If you wish to attend one of these workshops EPSRC ask you to complete the survey (at the bottom of this page: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/engineeringgrandchallenge/) by 15 September 2014. If you have any queries please email engineeringgrandchallenges@epsrc.ac.uk

Activity Date
Expression of interest to attend 15 September 2014
Confirmation to attendees 02 October 2014
Birmingham workshop 14 November 2014
London workshop 19 November 2014
Edinburgh workshop 26 November 2014