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Impact Essentials: Creating your impact development plan

Creating your impact development plan is a workshop for researchers at all career stages and at all stages of the project lifecycle – from formulating research questions and preparing grant applications to developing a potential impact case study.

This practical workshop provides the tools, advice and time to start putting together your own plan to achieve impact.

By the end of this session, you will have created a detailed impact development plan, tailored to your particular needs and stage of impact development.

Thursday 7th September     13.00-15.00      Talbot Campus

To book on to the session, please complete the Booking Form. 

For queries regarding the content of this session, please contact Amanda Lazar, Impact Adviser impact@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

British Academy Small Grants Workshop

Funding opportunities

British Academy Small Grants Workshop aimed at all staff with Research Council bids in development.

The attendees will have the chance to discuss their proposal with a Research Facilitator and a Funding Development Officer will also be on hand to answer any questions relating to budget and processes.

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Grants opens on 6th September 2023 and closes on Wednesday 8th November 2023.

This guidance session is for academics who are interested in submitting an application.

Wednesday 6th September 10.00-12.00, Talbot Campus

To book on to a session, or be added to the waiting list, please complete the Booking Form. 

For further information please contact: epapadopoulou@bournemouth.ac.uk, smundy@bournemouth.ac.uk

UK’s Carbon Emissions Progress

innovation, international

UK’s Carbon Emissions Progress

UK's Carbon Emissions Progress

UK’s Carbon Emissions Progress [stock image]

Advancing Towards a Sustainable Future: Evaluating the UK’s Carbon Emissions Progress and Energy Portfolio

Introduction:

Professor Zulfiqar Khan has been working in Energy Capture, Conversion and Storage for more than a decade which has led to significant outcomes for UK industry in terms of technological innovations to meet UK net zero targets and UNSDGs by agreed deadline.

In addition, energy efficiency in interacting systems and complex machines have been at the heart of Professor Khan’s research at BU. Machines and interacting systems use lubrication and therefore sustainability context is key to be taken forward into design considerations. Both the above themes have provided a platform for interdisciplinary research in collaboration with major UK and International Industry and HEIs partners.

Professor Khan has been collaborating with Generative AI in terms of clean energy and future goals to reduce our dependency on non-renewable energy technologies. Although, unlike his longstanding industry collaboration, his GAI partnership is in its initial stages, Professor Khan believes that there are opportunities to drive clean energy research forward to realise UK targets and UNSDGs in collaboration with GAI.

The United Kingdom has embarked on a transformative journey towards sustainable energy solutions, marked by its commitment to reducing carbon emissions and aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article presents a comprehensive overview of the UK’s current state of progress in carbon emissions reduction, its contributions to the UNSDGs, and the intricate details of its energy portfolio. The following brief article is written in collaboration with Generative AI.

Progress in Carbon Emissions Reduction:

Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets:

The UK’s resolute commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2050.

Noteworthy reduction of carbon emissions by 51% since 1990 levels by the year 2019.

Renewable Energy Sources:

A remarkable 48% of electricity generated from renewable sources in 2020. Continuous expansion of wind and solar energy capacity.

Energy Efficiency:

Implementing energy-efficient measures in both industrial sectors and households.

Contributions to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7):

The UK’s renewable energy sector has generated over 100 TWh of electricity, making a significant contribution to SDG 7.

Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG 9):

Substantial investments exceeding £2.5 billion have been directed towards innovative energy capture and storage technologies, fostering economic growth while minimizing environmental impact.

Climate Action (SDG 13):

The UK’s remarkable carbon emissions reduction of 51% surpasses the SDG 13 target to combat climate change.

Challenges and Areas for Improvement:

Transportation Sector:

Electrification and the promotion of alternative fuels remain pivotal for addressing emissions in the transportation sector.

Energy Storage:

Enhancing energy storage solutions is imperative to address the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources effectively.

Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Technologies:

The development and integration of CCUS technologies for heavy industries are crucial for reducing carbon emissions further and aligning with climate goals.

The UK’s Energy Portfolio (2020):

Energy

Type/Technology

 Energy Output

(TWh)

 Energy Consumption

(TWh)
Natural Gas 338.6 465.3
Oil 143.8 231.5
Coal 2.3 9.1
Nuclear 55.9 61.8
Renewables

(Total)

 132.3 283.1
Imports 7.4 N/A (included in total)

Market Share (2020):

Natural Gas: 38.5%

Oil: 16.4%

Coal: 0.3%

Nuclear: 7.9%Renewables (Total): 18.7%Imports: 3.6%

Interpretation:

Non-renewable sources still dominate the UK’s energy portfolio, comprising approximately 63% of energy output in 2020.

Natural gas is the largest contributor to both energy output and consumption.

The transition to renewable energy sources, particularly wind and biomass, is vital for reducing the UK’s carbon footprint.

Conclusion:

The United Kingdom’s commendable progress in carbon emissions reduction, aligned with UN SDGs, signifies a dedicated commitment to a sustainable future. While substantial headway has been made, addressing challenges in transportation, energy storage, and the integration of CCUS technologies is paramount. The UK continues to lead the path towards a low-carbon future by aligning policies with UN SDGs and promoting sustainable energy solutions.

BU’s ECR- Dr Rejoice Chipuriro awarded NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex grant to work with underserved communities in health and social care

Awarded & submitted bids, NHS

Dr Rejoice Chipuriro a Post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Social Science and Social Work has been awarded a grant from the NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex. The grant is aimed at generating new insights into asylums seekers’ lived experiences with community based mental health care support services. This study involves partnership between Bournemouth University and Vita Nova- a community arts organisation that supports people in recovery from addiction. Vita Nova works in a holistic way to support members with their ongoing recovery programs which helps to avoid relapse back into treatment centres, mental health institutions or prison.

In recent years Vita Nova has worked with other underserved communities including asylum seekers, for example the Refugee Nativity last Christmas with local asylum seekers which brought communities together and raised awareness of the current refugee crisis. Vita Nova uses creativity to process trauma as a form of art therapy. Asylum seekers will be supported by Vita Nova to co-produce drama and photography for public exhibition to connect with mental health service in community, as well as the public, to dispel stigma around mental health and marginalisation of asylum seekers. The photo exhibition will also be co-designed with asylum seekers as a way for participants to share about their lived experiences, and break taboos about mental health.

 

Talking about this new research Dr Rejoice Chipuriro shared the following, ‘Mental health is a priority area for the NHS. Asylum seekers are listed by the NIHR as an underserved group in health research which is why this research seeks to generate new knowledge about mental health which is co-produced with asylum seekers.’

Michael Armstrong the Creative Producer at Vita Nova had this to share , ‘ As we step into a new chapter, we’re reflecting on the journey that brought us here. Rooted in the centre of Boscombe, our charity has dedicated itself to empowering community members and artists alike for almost 25 years. Through a rich tapestry of events and projects, we’ve woven connections, shared stories, and nurtured creativity. The partnership with Bournemouth University advances our approach to evaluation and how we can capture the voices of some of the most vulnerable people in our wonderful community.’

Sharon Coyne, Artistic Director at Vita Nova says ‘our partnership with Bournemouth University really helps us think differently about how we communicate the experience of our wonderful members and engage new partners and (hopefully) new funders’.

Congratulations Rejoice!

NERC Pushing the Frontiers Call – internal competition launched

NERC Pushing the Frontiers Call – internal competition launched

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. As the standard grant scheme has been superseded, demand management measures will be applied to the Pushing the Frontiers scheme only. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures.

BU has been capped at one application per Pushing the Frontiers round. An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

BU has a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Pushing the Frontiers round. This takes the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available round is estimated to be in January 2024. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 29 September 2023.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\RDS\Public\NERC Demand Management\NERC Demand Management 2024.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RDS and will work closely with Research Facilitators and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Applicants will be expected to make use of External Application Reviewers.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Kate Percival, RDS Research Facilitator – kpercival@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

Postdoc Appreciation Week 2023 – celebrating our postdoctoral researchers

Postdoc Appreciation Week(PAW) takes place each year to celebrate, showcase and recognise the contribution that postdoctoral researchers make towards research and academic life.

 

Originally an initiative from the National Postdoc Association in the USA (National Postdoc Appreciation Week), it is now also celebrated in the UK, and this year will take place from Monday 18th – Friday 22nd September.

 

To mark Postdoc Appreciation Week, we are holding an appreciation event on Monday 18 September for postdoctoral researchers and their managers.

 

The event will be a chance to celebrate all the hard work that postdocs and researchers dedicate to research, teaching, outreach and so much more, as well as an opportunity to catch up with our Research Staff Association (RSA) representatives over coffee and cake.

 

We will also be profiling the amazing work and research undertaken by our post-doctoral research staff community.

 

If you would like to attend the event, or find out more about our Postdoc Appreciation Week activity, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

You can also get involved on social media during Postdoc Appreciation Week by using #LovePostdocs and #NPAW2023 on Twitter and Instagram and tagging us @BU_Research or @UK_NPAW.

RKEDF: Research training events coming up in September

Post-award

Here are some great RKEDF training events coming up in September

 

Click on the titles to see details and book a place on to upcoming events.

 

New Generation Thinkers 2024 AHRC/BBC Radio 3 Tuesday 5th September 11:00-12:30 Talbot Campus

This is an introduction to the New Generation thinkers, how it works, how to apply and with a mock panel set up.

RKEDF: British Academy Small Grants Workshop Wednesday 6th September 10:00-12:00 Talbot Campus 

BA Small Grants Workshop aimed at all staff with Research Council bids in development. The attendees will have the chance to discuss their proposal with a Research Facilitator and a Funding Development Officer will also be on hand to answer any questions relating to budget and processes.

 Impact Essentials:creating your impact development plan Thursday 7th September 13:00-15:00 Talbot Campus 

For researchers at all stages of the project lifecycle – from formulating research questions and preparing grant applications to developing a potential impact case study.

Introduction to RED – The Research & Enterprise Database Tuesday 12th September 15.30-16.00 Online session

This session is aimed at all academics to provide an overview of the Research & Enterprise Database, including how to access the system, the information available to view, budget management via RED, and how to use RED to identify your supporting pre and post award officers.

Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE Wednesday, 13th September 14:00-15:00 Talbot Campus

This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project.

This session is fully booked but please feel free to book your place on one of the next months’ sessions

Thursday, 19th October 14.00-15.00 Lansdowne Campus
Thursday, 15th November 14.00-15.00 Talbot Campus
Wednesday, 13th December 14.00-15.00 Lansdowne Campus
Wednesday, 10th January 14.00-15.00 Talbot Campus

 

For any queries regarding these workshops, please contact the RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

Transfer of Administrative Tasks from RDS to Faculty F&R Teams

Over the past three years, the Transformation Team (OVC) and RDS have worked collaboratively to improve BU’s post-award service. This has included extensive staff engagement on how service can be improved.   

This has provided insight that our academic and research staff community wish to reduce bureaucracy in the administration of their externally funded RKE projects.  In particular, for many administrative tasks, it is evidently confusing to follow separate processes depending on whether a project is internally or externally funded.

Furthermore, exploration of good practice across the sector, demonstrates that BU is an outlier in the sector as in almost every other institution nationally, external RKE project funding is administered locally (i.e. within a Faculty/department) and not centrally.  

Therefore, administrative tasks associated with RKE projects will move to Faculties as of 4th September, removing the additional need for approval by RDS. Decentralising the administrative support will bring the benefit of reducing research bureaucracy and adds clarity as to roles and responsibilities for RKE delivery at BU.  

To increase the F&R team’s capacity to undertake externally funded RKE administration, resources will be transferred to the Faculties from RDS. From the 4th September, the following administrative tasks will be transferred from RDS to the Faculty F&R teams:

  • Expense Claim & Cash Advances 
  • Travel Request 
  • Conference Request 
  • Recruitment requests (PTHP, Tier 4 and overtime timesheet submission) 
  • Purchase Order or Credit Card payment request 
  • Payment of Invoice (Against Existing Purchase Order) 
  • Vehicle Hire Request 
  • Other Payment Requests (incl. participant Voucher, Catering) 
  • Support for all non-accredited short course activity

This means that the RDS admin tool will be decommissioned at 5pm on the 1st September. From Monday 4th September, PIs will need to contact their Faculty F&R teams, who for internally funded activities (such as departmental funds) are already completing these types of processes.

The Post-Award Programme Manager Alex Morrison will be available to answer any specific questions as part of his weekly drop-in sessions for PIs every Thursday.

You can contact your Faculty F&R team via email:

BUBS: BUBSResources@bournemouth.ac.uk

HSS: HSSRKEadministrator@bournemouth.ac.uk

FMC: FMCTravel@bournemouth.ac.uk for travel and FMCFOps@bournemouth.ac.uk for all other enquiries

FST: FSTFandR@bournemouth.ac.uk

This flowchart provides an overview of the change in process.

INRC seminar by Dr Jie Sui, Friday the 8th of September at 14.00 h, Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion).

REF Subjects, Women's Academic Network

We want to draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on Friday, the 8th of September, from 14:00 h to 15:00 h at the Share Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building). There will be a networking event after the talk with coffee and biscuits.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Jie Sui (University of Aberdeen), invited by Dr. Ellen Seiss. Prof Dr Sui is renowned for her studies investigating the unique self, self-representation, and social interactions in VR. Her research combines multiple neural recording modalities, such as EEG and fMRI, with computational modelling.

The title of this exciting talk is: “Understanding the Self: Prospects for Translation”. Please find the abstract below.

We warmly invite you to attend this seminar.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Abstract:

“An understanding of the self helps explain not only human thoughts, feelings, and attitudes but also many aspects of everyday behaviours. This talk focuses on a particular perspective on self-processes. This perspective highlights the dynamics of the self that best connects with the development of the self over time and its realist orientation. We are using psychological experiments and data mining to comprehend the stability and flexibility of the self in different populations.

In this talk, I integrate experimental psychology, associative learning theory, computational neuroscience, and machine learning approaches to demonstrate why and how self-association affects cognition and how it is modulated by various social experiences and situational factors.”

Like playing board games? Want to help a research project by playing Game of (Delivery) Drones? Receive a £15 shopping voucher for taking part

The E-Drone research project has developed a board game that plans delivery drone missions. This helps people explore the implications of using drones for deliveries. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of delivery drones to play the game as it designed for a general audience.

We are looking for 2 or 3 more participants to play a new version of the game on Talbot Campus on Monday 4th September at 11.30. We will need 90 minutes of your time and will recompense this time with £15 in shopping vouchers.

If you would like to take part please contact Janet Dickinson (jdickinson@bournemouth.ac.uk) to book your slot.

Creating your Impact Development Plan Workshop – 7th September

Training

As part of the RKEDF Impact Essentials programme, booking is now open for the Impact Essentials: creating your impact development plan 2-hour in-person workshops. There are 4 dates to choose from and they will be delivered on both Talbot and Lansdowne campuses, so hopefully there will be a date and time that is convenient for everyone who would like to attend.

This workshop is for researchers at all career stages and at all stages of the project lifecycle – from formulating research questions and preparing grant applications to developing a potential impact case study. This practical workshop provides the tools, advice and time to start putting together your own plan to achieve impact. By the end of the session, you will have created a detailed impact development plan, tailored to your particular needs and stage of impact development.

The first session is on Talbot campus  on 7th September, 13:00-15:00.

You can find a suitable date and book your space here: Impact Essentials – Bournemouth University Intranet.

PTHP advert for a Research Assistant ( TANGERINE)

Do you have experience in quantitative data analysis and analysing large datasets?

 

We have an exciting opportunity for a part-time research assistant role to undertake secondary data analysis of UK Biobank and Understanding Society data using statistics software (e.g. Stata, R).

We have secured prestigious funding from UKRI (MRC) for a project starting 30th September 2023. The project is a collaboration between Bournemouth University as lead, Loughborough University and University of Chester that aims to develop a food-based intervention to improve nutrition in UK South Asian and Black African and Caribbean older adults.

There is up to 240 hours of funded work to be delivered between a 6-12 month period and can be undertaken through secure remote working.

If you would like to know more about the opportunity, please send your CV and email (no later than 25th August 2023) to Professor Rebecca Hardy, Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics r.j.hardy@lboro.ac.uk. or Professor Jane Murphy, Professor of Nutrition jmurphy@bournemouth.ac.uk. Please contact Professor Hardy if you have any queries about the skills required for the post.

 

We welcome expressions of interest from people from a Black, Asian or other Minority Ethnic background but accept applications from all groups.

 

How to talk to journalists – online workshop

PG research

Online workshop opportunity for PGRs at Bournemouth University

If you’re interested in having your work and research reported in the media, join this practical workshop – Impress the Press: How to talk to journalists.

This online workshop will run from 10am to 12.30pm on Thursday 5th October.

This will cover what makes a good news story and how to talk about your work, as well as tips and techniques for speaking with broadcast media (TV and radio) – followed by the chance to put it all into practice through some mock interviews. Engaging with the media can be a great way to raise your profile and share your research with a broad range of audiences, which can increase the reach and potential impact of your work. By the end of the session, you’ll feel confident in undertaking media interviews and talking to journalists about what you do.

This workshop will be facilitated by Stephen Bates (Senior Press Officer, Marketing & Communications) and Emma Matthews (Research Communications Adviser, Research & Development Support).

To sign up, complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/TisHrnjbMT