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Successful Grant Application! Plaster & Boot Comparison for Ankle Fracture Surgery

Awarded & submitted bids

Despite ankle fractures requiring surgery being so common, patients are managed in many different ways and there is debate over whether patients require prolonged periods immobilised in plaster or whether being able to actively move/use the ankle might be advantageous.  £350k has recently been awarded to Poole Hospital and collaborators by the National Institute for Health Research’s Research for Patient Benefit scheme to find out!   

The Dorset office of the South West Research Design Service based within Bournemouth University’s Clinical Research Unit were contacted in late Spring 2010 about the potential study and have therefore been involved in all aspects from the outset.  Several members of the Clinical Research Unit are co-applicants and committed to the delivery of the trial. 

As the Research Design Service project lead, Zoe Sheppard helped facilitate the grant application bringing in statistical support, patient and public involvement advice, qualitative research expertise, health economic expertise, costing and research and development advice liaising with finance and research and development departments as well as the Peninsula Clinical Trials Unit.  In addition to inputting into specific aspects according to their expertise, all co-applicants also extensively commented on the overall design and proposal, meaning a wide-ranging input. 

Two previous drafts were submitted to the mock funding committee.  Six extensive written reviews were received from lay reviewers and methodologists as well feedback from the chair/panel members. 

So if you would like support with a grant application for health research, please get in contact as early as possible – we look forward to working with you!

The Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit Team!

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

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

 AHRC  has opened their 2014 Fellowship scheme which provides an opportunity for two AHRC funded postgraduate students to be seconded to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to assist in producing objective briefing materials for MPs and Peers. The fellowship will take place over a three month period, with a likely starting date between September 2014 and May 2015. Closing date: 28/05/14.

The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Technology Strategy Board, announced the winners of the first APC competition (APC1) in April 2014 and is now to invest an additional £75m in collaborative R&D projects in the field of low-carbon propulsion technologies. The projects are expected to start in October 2014. They will strengthen UK capability and develop and grow the UK’s propulsion systems supply chain. Projects must be collaborative and business-led. We expect total eligible project costs to be between £5m and £40m. Registration closes by noon 25/06/14 with full submission by noon on 02/07/14.

The deadline for BBSRC‘s next responsive-mode research grants is 24/09/14 at 4pm. Applications for grant funding can be made to the Research Committees under their responsive mode scheme, on any topic within their portfolio.

The BBSRC are inviting applications to their Stand-alone LINK programme. Applications involve collaborative research with at least one company and one science-based partner. Applications should be for pre-competitive research that would not be undertaken in this form without LINK support. Projects with SMEs are particularly favoured. Closing date: 24/09/14 at 4pm.

The BBSRC also invites applications to their Industrial Partnership Award. These are science-led, responsive mode grants where an industrial partner contributes in cash at least 10% of the full economic cost of the project. Case studies are available, giving examples of previous awards. Closing date: 24/09/14 at 4pm.

BBSRC-Brazil (FAPESP) joint funding of research – RCUK and FAPESP, the State of Säo Paulo Research Foundation, have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding to welcome, encourage and support applications that may cut across their national boundaries and involve international collaborative teams. Collaborative research proposals may be submitted in any area of science that is within the remit of both BBSRC and FAPESP. Closing date: 24/09/14 at 4pm.

BBSRC has a vision within their Industrial CASE Studentships to provide PhD students with a first-rate, challenging research training experience within the context of a mutually beneficial research collaboration, between academic and partner organisations. There is funding for 125 4-year studentships. The deadline is 10/07/14 but applicants should ensure proposals are submitted to BU’s institution’s submitter/approval pool a minimum of 5 working days in advance of the published deadline. This enables institution checks to be carried out before final submissions.

BBSRC‘s Modular Training Partnerships (MTPs) fund the development of industrially-relevant short training courses at Masters level. Training should be developed in close collaboration with industry, and evidence of industrial demand is a key requirement for funding. MTPs provide pump-prime funding for: the development of individual training modules and the preparation and marketing of course materials, and course launch. The application deadline is 16/07/14 but applicants should ensure applications are completed as far in advance of the published deadline as possible to enable institution checks to be carried out before final submissions.

The Biotechnology Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Biotechnology YES), now in its 19th year, is an innovative competition for postgraduate and postdoctoral scientists which raises awareness of the commercialisation of ideas from the biosciences. The competition is organised jointly by The University of Nottingham – The Haydn Green Institute and the Innovation and Skills Group, BBSRC. There is a prize fund of £5,000, including a first prize of £2,500. Closing date; 13/06/14.

EPSRC and ESRC invite applications for proposals to support networking in challenge themes related to Re-Distributed Manufacturing. There is a budget of £3 million for this activity and it is anticipated that up to six Network awards will be funded, addressing a variety of distinctly different research challenge themes. Networks should bring together a multidisciplinary group of researchers to address key challenges related to Re-Distributed Manufacturing. Although some Networks may have a primarily technology or societal focus, RCUK consider this field of research to require insights from multiple disciplines and perspectives in order to be fully addressed. There will be a Town Meeting on 02/06/14 with applications to be submitted by 13/08/14. 

 EPRSC in collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) seek collaborative research applications in severe nuclear accident studies and environmental safety. This call represents the first phase of this new collaboration and is for small projects of approximately two and a half years duration and is intended as a springboard for deeper and larger collaborations in the future. Closing date: 19/06/14.

EPSRC, as part of its contribution to the RCUK Energy Programme, invites proposals for collaborative research projects to undertake fundamental research to tackle challenges in Conventional Power Generation. An indicative budget of up to £3M is available from EPSRC for this call. Cross-institutional bids are welcome. Proposals in the areas of Step change technologies and materials for future plant design and Integration of conventional plants with future technologies are sought. An expression of interest must be emailed by 16/06/14 with the full application submitted by 16/07/14.

On April 23rd, 2014, the EU’s Joint Programme for Neurodegenerative Disease (JPND) launched a rapid action call for leading scientists in the field to establish working groups to enhance the use of existing longitudinal cohort studies for ND research. JPND has decided that these issues can be progressed most effectively through assembling motivated groups of leading experts in the ND field. Accordingly community-led Working Groups are to be supported that can push forward the conceptualization of such topics in order to provide guidelines and/or best practice frameworks of value to the wider research community. Areas to be considered are highlighted on the website, although other topics that are similar in theme may be proposed. Up to €450,000 in total will be available to fund Working Groups under this call, with each working group able to bid up to €50,000 for support of its activities, which are expected to run for a maximum of 6 months. Closing date 16/06/14.

The MRC is committed to developing and sustaining a close and productive alignment with industry in the UK. As part of that commitment the MRC will fund approximately 30-35 individual Industrial CASE PhD studentships each year. These aim to provide doctoral students with a first-rate, challenging research training experience, within the context of a mutually beneficial research collaboration between academic and partner organisations in the private, public and civil society sectors. Closing date: 10/07/14 before 4pm.

The Max Perutz Science Writing Award aims to encourage and recognise outstanding written communication among MRC PhD students. The 2014 competition opens on 12/05/14 and they welcome entries from all MRC-funded PhD students. The judges will be looking for an article of up to 800 words that best answers the question, Why does my research matter? The winner will receive a first prize of £1,500.  The deadline for entries is 23:59 on Sunday 22 June 2014

Funding has been obtained from the MRC and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to equip the MRC Biomedical NMR Centre with a 950 MHz spectrometer as a shared-use national facility. Access allocations will be made by the NMR Centre’s Advisory Committee and the closing date for such applications is 02/06/14.

The Soil Security programme is a NERC-led five-year research programme funded by NERC, the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Scottish Government that aims to secure future soil quality to sustain ecosystems and the services they deliver to people – such as sustainable agriculture, flood and disease regulation, carbon storage and clean water. The Soil Security programme is aligned with the Global Food Security (GFS) programme, and with Defra activities in this area. NERC is inviting proposals for consortia projects requesting funds between £1m and £2·5m (80% FEC), and of up to three years’ duration, which will address the objectives of the programme as stated in the Announcement of Opportunity. Closing date: 30/07/14 by 4pm.

 Proposals are invited for a new funding opportunity as part of the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) research programme funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and NERC. FCFA is a £20m international, interdisciplinary programme to advance scientific understanding and prediction of African climate variability and change to inform medium-term adaptation decisions (5-40 years) and develop the knowledge, tools and methods to better integrate this science into decision making today. The focus of this project will be on evaluating and developing the representation of processes affecting pan-African climate on timescales for adaptation (medium-term or 5 to 40 years) in general circulation models (GCM). This will include improving the understanding and representation of drivers, processes and feedbacks responsible for the greatest uncertainty in model representations of African climate. The intention is to deliver a step-change in the performance of GCMs for Africa and to make a long-term contribution to model development with an African lens. This will improve projections of future changes in rainfall and extreme weather for Africa, increasing availability of high quality, robust climate information across the continent. Up to £3m is available. An Intention to submit must be entered by 02/06/14 with the full application submitted by 16:00 local time on 05/06/14.

In addition, under the same scheme, NERC are inviting proposals for Regional Consortium Grants, where up to £4m funding is available. Outline proposals must be submitted by 16:00 local time on 15/07/14.

NERC invites applications for NERC Independent Research Fellowships in the priority area of Bioinformatics to deliver part of NERC Mathematics & Informatics for Environmental Omic Data Synthesis (Omics) research programme. The aim of these fellowships is to develop scientific leadership among the most promising early-career scientists, by giving all Fellows five years’ support, which will allow them sufficient time to develop their research programmes, and to establish international recognition. Through this call, NERC aims to support a minimum of six IRFs working in the area of environmental bioinformatics. This is the final year for this specialised opportunity with a closing date of 01/10/14.

NERC‘s CASE Studentships provide doctoral students with a first-rate, challenging research training experience, within the context of a mutually beneficial research collaboration between academic and partner organisations in the private, public and civil sectors. NERC studentships can be delivered in collaboration with partners from the private, public and civil sectors, and where studentships are delivered in collaboration they are referred to as CASE studentships. CASE studentships provide the PhD students with enhanced training opportunities by ensuring they spend between three and eighteen months with a CASE partner in a workplace outside the academic environment. Closing date: 10/07/14.

The Follow-on Fund is a ‘proof of concept’ fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from research funded by NERC. As the name suggests, the Follow-on Fund picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off. It enables research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grant research outputs to be further developed so their commercial potential can be realised. The maximum amount that can be bid for is £125k (£100k NERC contribution). NERC’s intention is that projects will run for 12 months or more. Closing date: 03/06/14 with a further call closing in mid-November 2014.

If interested in the NERC Follow-on Fund, the Pathfinder award is a compulsory precursor to a Follow-on Fund above. They are available to carry out work that will help you develop a greater understanding of the commercial aspects and possibilities of your research, and hence a more robust, better informed application for a full Follow-on Fund grant. Pathfinder grants are usually between £7k-£10k (100% full economic cost), although up to £20k is available in exceptional circumstances. This is a rolling programme and has no set closing date.

Alternatively, the aim of the Innovation Projects call is to increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research output by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users, particularly businesses. The call will support projects that are likely to generate little or no commercial return, but which will deliver impact. Activities can include products, models, tools, internships or secondments. Ineligible activities are Networks, dissemination websites, events and publications, consultancy, report production, projects focussed solely on training, activity between only different sections of the academic research base or between the research base and the general public and commercialisation activities. The maximum amount that can be bid for is £125k (£100k NERC contribution). The grants are expected to start in October 2014 and last for 6 months. Closing date: 03/06/14 with a further call closing in mid-November 2014.

The TSB is to invest up to £2.5m in projects that will explore ways of deriving value from consumers’ interaction with digital content. They are hoping to interest businesses with expertise in data analytics, security, online payments; those who create value from data and digital assets; and also those that engage with customers through internet and mobile service channels. The deadline for registration is at noon on 11/06/14 and the deadline for applications is noon on 18/06/14.

The TSB, together with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Scottish Government, are to invest up to £16.5m in business projects to tackle challenges posed by crop and livestock diseases.  Effective control of agricultural disease plays an essential role in realising the yield and market potential of crop and livestock production systems. This competition will stimulate innovative technologies and approaches that optimise yield and quality by targeting bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens.   The call will also support technologies that improve prediction, identification and detection of pathogens for better disease management and raw material quality as well as reduced losses during postharvest storage. Project proposals must be business-led and collaborative and are open to businesses of any size and research organisations. Registration closes at noon on  11/06/14 with submission by noon on 18/06/14.
 
Through the TSB, funding will be provided by the Home Office’s Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST). CAST exists to protect the public using science and technology by providing high quality, impartial advice, innovative solutions and frontline support to the Home Office and its partners, including the Police.  Misuse of alcohol and drugs is a significant issue in the UK. Reliable and accurate tests for the concentration of alcohol and drugs in the body support a number of Home Office policy initiatives including tackling drink and drug driving. Through this call for proposals, CAST aim to achieve a step-change in the detection of alcohol and drugs simultaneously in the human body through developing a non-intimate, rapid screening test.  The intention is that such a test would be mobile and rapid and is initially intended to be for screening of subjects, but evidential use would be considered should the accuracy and procedural robustness of the test be sufficiently reliable. Registration closes on 02/07/14 with full applications to be submitted by noon on 09/07/14.
 
The TSB, Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) are to invest up to £2.75m in collaborative feasibility studies to stimulate innovation across four technology areas that will enable and underpin UK growth: advanced materials; biosciences; electronics, sensors and photonics, and information and communications technology(ICT). The aim is to ensure that small and micro businesses in the UK are well equipped, and suitably integrated within supply chains, to respond to market opportunities across a range of economic sectors. Projects must be led by a small or micro company, in collaboration with one or more business or research partners. it is expected that  projects will range from total costs of £50k to £150k, and to last from six to 15 months. Registration closes at noon on 18/06/14 and the call closes at noon on 25/06/14.

 The Wellcome Trust has announced their Early Career Fellowships for Researchers in India. This scheme provides a unique opportunity for the most promising postdoctoral researchers to carry out research in India. Applicants are expected to identify an important biomedical research question and design a project that would help answer this question. The proposal would also suggest how the proposed work would help develop the applicant’s future independent research program. Submitted proposals are expected to be globally competitive. Applicants may wish to set up long term training or collaborative visits (work outside Host Institution) for up to 24 months. These visits may be to other leading laboratories, anywhere in the world. The total award for an Early Career Fellowship typically amounts to INR 1.5 Crores. Closing date for preliminary application: 12/06/14 with full invited submission in September 2014.

 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.

As announced previously, Research Professional will not be available briefly on 15th May due to system upgrades.

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.

Good news- Additional CEL funding for HEA conference available

Funding opportunities, Fusion

Thank you to colleagues who recently applied for the CEL funded pedagogic projects aligned to the CEL themes; the response was excellent and results will be shared very soon. However we are in the happy place of having enough funding left to support 6 additional colleagues to attend the upcoming HEA conference, the focus of Dawn Morley’s ‘Innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity’ brief. Should any colleague wish to make a late application, please contact Dawn directly at ‘dmorley@bournemouth.ac.uk’ to find out how to go about applying. We would be pleased to support a strong BU contingent in attending and bringing back innovative ideas that will enhance the student experience.

Professor B Gail Thomas

Dean of HSC & Director of CEL

Research Professional availability on 15th May

Funding opportunities

Research Professional have informed us that they will be making a few changes to their site on 15th May and that there will be 10-30 minutes downtime between 11am and 12 noon.

The changes are mainly related to the adminstrator’s role for the system, but they are introducing funding opportunities with unspecified deadlines.  These are for calls that have been announced but the closing date has not yet been specified.  This will give you advance warning of such calls, particularly for those where a pre-application workshop is being held before a final deadline is announced.

Professor Adrian Newton in National Geographic

BU’s Professor Adrian Newton has featured in a National Geographic article ‘Apples of Eden: Saving the Wild Ancestor of Modern Apples’.

Reporter Josie Glausiusz explores the endangered wild fruit trees of Central Asia, drawing on Professor Newton’s expertise and experiences working to protect the fruit and nut forests in Kyrgyzstan.

In the article Professor Newton explains the genetic importance of the fruit there: “All of the apples that we’re eating today and cultivating originate from this area. So if we want to add genetic variation to our crops to cope with new pests or climate change, then the genetic resource is these forests. It’s true for apples, apricots, peaches, walnuts, pears. In terms of a wild genetic resource for cultivated fruit trees, there’s nothing like it on the planet.”

Read the full article, ‘Apples of Eden: Saving the Wild Ancestor of Modern Apples’, online here.

BUDI Open Public Meeting – 14 May 2014


This is a reminder that the BUDI Open Public meeting is tomorrow (14 May) there are still a few spaces available. 

This year’s event focuses on dementia friendly environments, how design helps to support people living with dementia.  The hospital environments and the philosphy of dementia friendly environments will  be covered by external speakers.

To book your free place please go to eventbrite http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/budi-open-meeting-dementia-friendly-care-environments-tickets-9876528964

 

Congratulations and Good Luck

April saw an increase in the level of activity for bids being submitted and awards being won with congratulations due to Schools/Faculty for winning research and consultancy contracts.

A large number of applications were submitted to the British Academy’s small grants scheme.  Good luck to the applicants Ke Rong (BS) and Xiaosong Yang (MS), to Venancio Tauringana (BS), to Medhi Chowdhury, Jens Holscher and Dragana Radicic (all BS), to Hossein Hassani (BS), to Juliet Memery and Dawn Birch (both BS), to Carol Bond (HSC), to Hywel Dix (MS), to Lorraine Brown (ST), and to Sukanya Ayatakshi (ST) and Julie Robson (BS).  These cover a variety of research topics, which include, but are not exclusive to, 3D printing; user generated online health information; therapeutic potential of visiting memorials; the effects of Eastern European migration on local businesses in the UK; and women social entrepreneurs.

For the Business School, in addition to the eight BS applicants listed above who have applied to the British Academy, good luck to Maurizio Borghi for his application to the Heritage Plus Joint Call (part of the Joint Partner Initiative on Cultural Heritage).

For HSC, congratulations are due to Clive Andrewes for his short course with the Strategic Health Authority.  Good luck to Anthea Innes, Fiona Kelly (both HSC), Damien Fay, Samuel Nyman, Jan Wiener (all SciTech), Donald Nordberg (BS) and Stephen Page (ST) for their application to the Alzheimer’s Society for a Doctoral Training Centre.

For MS, congratulations to Stephanie Farmer for her two consultancies with the Borough of Poole and with Breda University of Applied Science, to Liam Toms for his consultancy with McKenna Townsend PR, to grants academy member Janice Denegri Knott for her consultancy with SoGood Health, to Dan Jackson for his consultancy with Blue Rubicon Ltd, and to Iain MacRury for his two consultancies with Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership.  Good luck to Georgiana Grigore and Rebecca Jenkins for their application to RCUK, and to Jamie Matthews for his application to the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee. A number of academics have submitted applications to the European Commission and so good luck to Julian McDougall for his application on ‘games for knowledgeable youth’, to Alexander Pasko, to Lihua You and Jian Zhang for their joint application, and to Peter Comninos for his application on creative emergent neurogaming.

For the Faculty of Science and Technology, congratulations are due to Jonathan Monteith for his two consultancies with Anesco and ESJA Properties Ltd, to Christine Keenan for her contract with the Higher Education Academy, and to Genoveva Esteban for her consultancy with Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England.  Good luck to Amanda Korstjens for her application to the European Commission, to Raian Ali, Keith Phalp, Jacqui Taylor and Sarah Williams for their application to RCUK on ‘addiction-aware computing’, to Genoveva Esteban for her short course to the Society of Biology, and to Christos Gatzidis for his application to the European Commission Erasmus+.

For ST, congratulations to Janet Dickinson for her successful AHRC project.  Good luck to Jeff Bray and Sine McDougall (SciTech) for their consultancy to Which?, to Heather Hartwell for her application to COST – European Cooperation in Science and Technology and for her application to the European Commission, and to Dimitrios Buhalis and Alessandro Inversini for their application to the European Commission on ‘contextual game-based learning for tourism.

Understanding Crowdsourcing and CCTV surveillance

 

Staff, students and members of the public are invited to join us for the next Cyber Security Seminar…

‘Understanding Crowdsourcing and CCTV surveillance’

Tuesday, 27th May

Coyne Lecture Theatre 

4pm – 5pm

 

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) has many different uses but is often considered an archetypal surveillance technology. These infrastructures generate large amounts of data; so much so that the technique of crowdsourcing has recently been applied to the problem of searching for abnormalities in live surveillance video; the premise being that many inexpert watchers are cheaper but as efficient as a small number of experienced security experts. However, the merits of crowdsourcing watchers of surveillance video are largely unknown.

In this talk Dr. Paul Dunphy will describe exemplar infrastructures of this type, and two user studies that assess the performance of the watchers of CCTV video online. The results prompt a discussion regarding the effectiveness of using crowdsourcing in such contexts, and the role such infrastructures can play in society.

Speaker Bio: Paul is a postdoctoral researcher in the Culture Lab at Newcastle University. He is interested in multi-disciplinary approaches to understand and design security and privacy technologies.

 If you would like to join us for this presentation, please book your place via Eventbrite.

Puerto Rico welcomes a new BUDI


Every year the prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease International conference welcomes practitioners, academics, people living with dementia, medical professionals and clinicians from all over the world to share their latest knowledge, experience and research about dementia careThis year I was lucky enough to attend and represent BUDI at the 29th International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International Dementia: Working Together for a Global Solution, hosted in San Juan on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.

Three abstracts were accepted to be orally presented, so this was a great opportunity to showcase some of BUDI’s innovative research projects to world leading dementia specialists. The three presented projects were the Technology Club (Dementia Care and Technology), Tales of the Sea (Empowering people with dementia) and (Dont) Mention Dementia (Voices of people with dementia and their families).

All three presentations were well received and stimulated discussion and many questions. The feedback I received after my presentations and during the conference was that BUDI’s projects were seen as innovative, creative and great examples of how to engage people with dementia in research and how people with dementia should be at the core of all research.

Above and beyond presenting, I had the opportunity to catch up with Peter, an Australian colleague (who I have been working on the international GRIID research project with for around two years and have never met!) Peter presented the GRIID project (Gateway to Rural International Initiatives in Dementia) at this conference. After his presentation we were able to meet and come up with some really innovative ideas to take the GRIID project to the next level.

To top off a very successful conference, I won a huge kangaroo courtesy of the Australian Alzheimer’s Association. He was unfortunately a bit too big to fit into my case so he to travelled home with another colleague…I wonder if I will ever get him back as he was very cute!

Since returning home I have started to get in touch with some of the many contacts I made at this conference and look forward to potential international collaborations. This conference highlights all the good work currently being undertaken but also emphasises the amount of work we still need to do. I invite you to check out the below clip of Richard Taylor PhD, who presented numerous times at the conference. Richard is extremely funny and has a great approach and attitude to life. It is very thought provoking as he shares his thoughts about living with dementia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHQfc3KJ9qE.

Clare Cutler, BUDI Project Manager

Progress with making music

Fusion

This week I went along to the half way point in the rehearsals for the BUDI orchestra and as promised from my first post about this work here is a link to short video clip

(this was rather difficult as I managed to record my clips upside down on my iphone (how is that possible??), as well as create huge file sizes from 30 second clips, but thanks to David Stone in M&C we now have something postable that hopefully gives a bit of a flavour of the sessions- despite my very amateur recording skills! but do come to their performance on 14 June at the Winton Life Centre as part of the BU FOL!)

My observations of the process this time centre around three things – first, the strong sense of a social group that has been created/formed by all involved, from the friendly welcomes, the catch ups over coffee and the general encouragement the group offered each other during the session. Second, I was also pleasantly surprised that carers sought me out to thank us for putting this group together and to share the positive impact they had observed themselves during the sessions on their relatives with dementia, but also how friends and family at home had also remarked on a positive visible difference in their relatives. 5 sessions and observed differences – is this the power of music? I was also struck by the questions asked of me about ‘would the group continue’ and as with any short ‘intervention’ type study feel the weight of not being able to promise to deliver again on something that is being hugely enjoyed by participants (and which we all hope will evaluate positively in a research sense – but only time will tell…). I guess this lack of being able to promise to continue with a service is kind of like service providers with limited budgets and short term initiatives… Hopefully we will secure funding to enable this work to continue, as even the community musician from the BSO with huge experience of outreach work feels this is a ‘very special’ project with amazing and fast results that everyone involved is observing.  From week 1 where participants were nervous about trying out the instruments to now being very comfortable with playing around with (lots of experimentation in terms of how to hold a violin in a comfy position) and actually playing the notes. I was also struck by carers telling me of their attempts to ‘practice’ at home – downloading or recording the pieces they have been introduced to during the sessions and singing, humming and dancing along at home – as unfortunately the violins cannot go home with the participants – and how enjoyable they are finding the sessions beyond coming along to the rehearsals themselves. My final observation is also the growth in confidence of the musicians, our students as well as those with dementia and their carers in how they relate to one another, how they try out new pieces and are no longer as hesitant to experiment as they were in the first session. The combination of body percussion, instrument playing and singing that the musicians have created by paying close attention to how everyone responds has led to a session format that is uplifting, fun, creative while also creating intense concentration amongst all participants as they learn and work together. I wish I could find time in my diary to attend all the sessions as they leave me feeling upbeat and positive; something that was clearly evident not only from what I observed but from what I was told by everyone in the session yesterday.

Latest HSC paper in Birth

Publishing

The international journal Birth published our latest paper:

Whitford, H., Entwistle V.A., van Teijlingen, E., Aitchison, P., Davidson, T., Humphrey, T., Tucker, J. (2014) Use of a birth plan within woman-held maternity records: A qualitative study with women and staff in northeast Scotland, Birth (Epub ahead of print).

The co-authors of BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen are affiliated with a wide-range of Scottish institutions: the University of Dundee; the University of Aberdeen, the University of Stirling, the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and NHS Grampian, Aberdeen.

 

This latest paper considers the use of a birth plan section within a national woman-held maternity record.  Unlike England, Scotland has a national women-held maternity record. In Poole, for example, a midwife needs to complete another maternity record for women who want to deliver in the Poole area than those who want to delivery in Bournemouth Hospital and another form for those might want to go to the New Forest Birth Centre, and again another one for the Dorchester area.   In Scotland a pregnant women receiving antenatal care in one health area and delivering in another can take her same record/notes along.  As midwives (and other staff) only have to be familiar with one set of records, this reduces the chance of errors and avoiding duplication.

This qualitative study comprised interviews with women and maternity service staff in Northeast Scotland. In our study staff and women were generally positive about the provision of the birth plan section within the record. Perceived benefits included the opportunity to highlight preferences, enhance communication, stimulate discussions and address anxieties. However, some women were unaware of the opportunity or could not access the support they needed from staff to discuss or be confident about their options. Some were reluctant to plan too much. Staff recognised the need to support women with birth plan completion but noted practical challenges to this.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Delivering healthcare in prisons

PG research, Research Ethics

A special event has been arranged at BU that will focus on health care within prisons. The session to be held on 28th May will be led by Jane Senior from the University of Manchester. Jane is a clinician-researcher and Research Project Manager for the Offender Health Research Network. Jane is a qualified mental health nurse with over 20 years of post qualification experience of working in prison and secure mental health settings.

Jane’s session will be of great value to anyone :

  • thinking about undertaking research within UK prisons
  • wanting to know more about health care delivery in prisons
  • thinking of working with or in a prison health care team

During the session Jane will outline findings from her recent prison research projects. These include studies into how to manage the health and wellbeing of older prisoners and her recent work in developing the Older Prisoner Health and Social Care Assessment and Plan (OHSCAP). She will also highlight some of the specific issues that can arise when undertaking research within a prison environment.

Staff and students are welcome to attend the session. If you would like to attend please email Holly Crossen-White (hcrossen@Bournemouth.ac.uk).

HSC paper cited over hundred times in Scopus

Publishing

The academic publisher Elsevier alerted us today that our paper has been cited for the 101st time in Scopus.  The paper ‘Factors affecting the utilization of antenatal care in developing countries: Systematic review of the literature’ was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.  The paper was part of the first author’s Ph.D. research into maternity care in Nepal.

This paper is one of the four outputs submitted to the UK REF for both Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen as part of the Bournemouth University submission and for Dr. Padam Simkhada as part of the University of Sheffield submission.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH, School of Health & Social Care

Don’t forget to join us at the first R&KEO coffee morning

The first Research and Knowledge Exchange Office coffee morning is on 22 May 2014, starting at 9.30am in the Retreat (Talbot campus). This is intended to be an informal opportunity for you to meet with members of the R&KEO team, and you’re welcome to come along and have a chat with us, or just to enjoy a coffee and cake. The next event (please note the change of date) will take place on 19 June in R303, Royal London House between 9am and 10am.

If you can’t make either of these dates, we have several more coffee mornings arranged for the next academic year; the first event of 2014-15 will be in the Retreat on 30 October.

We look forward to seeing you on 22 May!

Hot beverage and cupcake

HSC study focus of Independent newspaper article

Professor Colin Pritchard

Published research in the Journal for the Royal Society of Medicine Open (JRSM Open for short), conducted by Professor Colin Pritchard and Andrew Harding in HSC, is today (Friday 02/05/14) the focus of an article in the Independent newspaper.

Andrew Harding

After the Francis Report into the scandal at Mid Staffordshire lay considerable blame at the Board for failing to tackle “…an insidious culture…focused on doing the system’s business – not that of the patient…”, Professor Pritchard and Andrew Harding looked at the occupational backgrounds of non executive directors (NEDs) of 146 NHS acute trusts (n=1,001 NEDs). The NHS is modelled on corporate governance, where a board of directors are scrutinised and held to account by non executive directors.

Considering NEDs principle task is to hold the executive, and thus the NHS, to account, the study found a shocking lack of non executive directors with medical, clinical or patient representation or background. As the Independent headline indicates, only 8% of non executive board members were healthcare professionals. Instead, it was far more prevalent and common for non executive directors to be from a commercial, or financial background – with a high proportion having been employed or current employees of major financials firms such as Deloite, KPMG, Grant Thornton, Merrill Lynch, Price-WaterHouse Coopers and JP Morgan. Females NEDs and those from ethnic minorities were also found to be in short supply.

For a full breakdown of the findings the article can be found, and is openly available here.

 

Could new framework take pressure off businesses who have to deal with privacy compliance?

 

 

The next Cyber Security seminar will be on:

‘Legal – URN (User Requirements Notation) Framework for Privacy Compliance’

Tuesday, 13th May

Coyne Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus

4pm -5pm.

 

Bournemouth University is delighted to welcome Dr. Sepideh Ghanavati from CRP Henri Tudor, who will be visiting on the 13thMay to present an overview of the Legal-URN framework, which includes compliance analysis techniques and provides guidelines to manage multiple regulations at the same time.

The number of regulations an organisation needs to comply with has been increasing, and the pressure is building for them to ensure that their business processes are aligned with these regulations. However, because of the complexity and intended vagueness of regulations in general, it is not possible to treat them the same way as other types of requirements.

The cost of being non-compliant can also be fairly high; non-compliance can cause crucial harm to organisations, who may incur financial penalties or loss of reputation. Therefore, it is very important for organisations to take a systematic approach to ensuring that their compliance with related laws, regulations and standards is established and maintained. To achieve this goal, a model-based privacy compliance analysis framework called Legal-URN has been proposed.

If you would like to join us for this presentation, please book your place via Eventbrite.

We will look forward to seeing you!