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News from the PVC

Deciding the order of authors on a team based paper can be challenging: who should be included and in what order?  What constitutes a contribution worthy of authorship rather than a simple acknowledgement?  Feelings can run high and sadly I have fallen out with people over such matters, which in hindsight and the passage of time was just plain stupid.  But at the end of the day does authorship order really matter?  Does a reader actually care who did what?

It is a subject covered by Sebastian Frische writing in Nature this week.  This whole question resonates with me at the moment.  In the last year I have started to publish with a new set of collaborators who introduced me to an authorship code I had never heard of before – call me a naïve geologist if you like!  My approach to authorship over the years has, with a few notable exceptions, always been based on a simple principle of inclusion if you were in the field, contributed to the debate you where an author irrespective of whether you actually pulled your weight in the analysis or write-up.  He or she who does the most work and drives a paper forward goes first and the order there after reflects the level of contribution.  A simple model based on simple principles.  Last year I was introduced to the concept of the last author however.  My new colleagues hold this position to be one of real prestige – the senior seat – and a view I now find to be widely held in some disciplines.  It is something which I have to admit has past me by despite over twenty years of research.  I always worked on the principle that to be lost in the ‘et al.’ was never a good thing!  I have adopted this new approach in recent papers, but it leaves me intrigued to know what other conventions around authorship I am not aware off?  In fact I would love to hear from my colleagues on this subject.

But to be honest to what extent does it really matter, after all an author is an author?  In the context of REF it doesn’t with the Panel Criteria and Working Methods making no mention of authorship order or contribution.  Sebastian Frische argues that it does to new academics trying to build a reputation and he draws the interesting analogy to the film industry where the credit list is vital to ones CV and the ability to get work in the future.  In fact, he goes as far as to suggest that one vehicle is for academic networks, such as ResearchGate (which is currently sweeping through my own collaborator network), or academia.edu should allow authors to express their contribution to a given paper providing the equivalent of a credit list.  I have to admit that to me this sounds like a potential for discord between authors.  But in truth does it not go against the very principle that research – with the exception of the sole scholar – is by its very nature collaborative.  In a football team all players receive a cup winner’s medal whether they scored a goal or saved a vital penalty.  All contribute to the victory and all should be recognized equally?  So in truth I am far from convinced.  What do you think?

 

 

 

REF open forum – today 11:30am – all welcome!

Research assessment

The first of our two open REF sessions takes place this morning at 11:30am in the Wallace Lecture Theatre, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus. The session is open to all staff to come along and ask any questions relating the the REF submission and BU’s REF preparations, including questions about the BU REF code of practice, equality and diversity, staff selection, mock exercises, individual staff circumstances, etc.

The sessions are chaired by the Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Matthew Bennett and Julie Northam, Peng Peng Ooi, James Palfreman-Kay, Judith Wilson and a number of the UOA Leaders will also be present.

This is an excellent opportunity to ask any questions you have regarding the REF!

Two open forums are planned, details are: 

Talbot Campus

Date: 27 September 2012

Time : 11.30am to 1.00pm

Venue: The Wallace Lecture Theatre, Weymouth House

 

Lansdowne Campus

Date: 11 October 2012

Time: 3.00pm to 4.30pm

Venue: EB306, Executive Business Centre

 

There is no need to book – simply turn up!

Cake, Lunch and EU Funding… What better way to spend a work day?

We all know the importance of getting involved in EU funding as national funds dwindle, greater importance is placed on international collaborations and of BUs strategic focus on internationalisation. The EU Showcase Event will celebrate our successful EU award holders who will share their tips for engaging in EU funding.

We have presentations on schemes to help you start your EU career (Christos Gatzidis on the Leonardo scheme of the Lifelong Learning Programme and Bogdan Gabrys and Rob Britton on Marie Curie schemes) and schemes for those already engaged (Anthea Innes on applying for an FP7 grant and Adrian Newton on being a Partner in an FP7 consortium). We also have top tips on how to network effectively to become involved in EU funding (from the very experienced Dimitrios Buhalis and Cornelius Ncube). Finally I will be launching 3 very exciting internal EU focused funding competitions at this event to help you engage in EU funding and we have presentations from those who won funding through 2 of these schemes last year.

The informal and informative event will be opened by Matthew Bennett in Kimmeridge House  on 14th November. Plenty of coffee, tea, lunch and cake provided and due to the restriction of room size, registration is essential. This takes only 10 seconds on the Staff Development website.

The event will be finished in plenty of time for you to drive/ catch the uni bus to the Executive Business Centre (EBC) to hear the Inaugural Lecture Dementia: personal journey to policy priority by HSC’s Prof. Anthea Innes.

Health and Wellbeing Conference

The HSC Health & Wellbeing Community held a very successful conference on Wednesday 19th September. More than 50 members (two thirds of the community) attended and there was a mix of speakers, posters, and interactive stands.

Carol Bond opened the day by challenging the community to use social media for networking. The audience had fun playing with QR codes.  This was followed by a short presentation from Edwin van Teijlingen on the REF. He encouraged staff to update their details on BRIAN if they had not already done so.

Picture shows Kip Jones

Picture shows Kip Jones

Attendees then heard summaries from the four presenters of the stands – Carol Bond, Kip Jones, Les Todres and BUCRU. This was followed by the opportunity to visit each stand and engage in discussion.

The morning finished with an introduction to Public Engagement by Rebecca Edwards, who also demonstrated how to remain unflustered despite interruptions from both the technology and the fire alarm!

 

Picture shows Andrew Harding, Kirsty Stanley, and Heather Hartwell

Picture shows Andrew Harding, Kirsty Stanley, and Heather Hartwell

 

Poster presentations were viewed over lunch. A variety of fascinating topics were offered by Sue Barker, Liz Norton, Andy Harding, Jilly Ireland, Eleanor Jack, Denyse King, Sheetal Sharma, Caroline Ellis-Hill, Edwin van Teijlingen, Audrey Dixon, Osman Ahmed, Heather Hartwell, and Clare Taylor.

 

 

 

Picture shows Bethan Collins and Oscar

Picture shows Bethan Collins and Oscar

 

The afternoon was given to presentations from Bethan Collins, Sid Carter, Vanora Hundley, Sarah Hean, and Angela Turner-Wilson, Marilyn Cash.

This was a very full day but so valuable in facilitating networking and highlighting the range of interesting work being done by members within the community.

 

EC asks ICT firms why they don’t participate in funding programmes

Regular readers of the EU section of this blog will know that I harp on all the time about the importance of company engagement as partners in Horizon 2020. Well, this is becoming more and more apparent as time draws near to the first set of drafts for the new Horizon 2020 programme.

It was announced this month that the EC is funding a survey as part of a drive to increase the participation of companies from the information and communications technologies in future research programmes.

The survey aims to identify and characterise highly innovative ICT companies that do not participate in Framework projects, and assess why. The knowledge gained will be used to improve firms’ participation in Horizon 2020.

Now is the time to start making links with industry as much as you can!

Planes, trains and automobiles: Some reflections for PhD students and early career researchers

I have recently come to the end of a spate of travelling. I imagine this is true for most colleagues as the conference season tends to occur over the holidays, though I’ve made use of a suitcase much more this summer than in previous years. I share some notes below in case they are of use to PhD students and fellow early career researchers, first in relation to conferences and second in relation to research visits.

Conferences

This summer I have presented on three occasions:

1)      Chaired and presented a paper within a symposium at the British Society of Gerontology, held in Keele.

2)      Chaired and presented a paper within an invited symposium at the World Congress on Active Ageing, held in Glasgow.

3)      Delivered an invited plenary address at the International Conference on Falls and Postural Stability, held in Leeds.

The benefits of attending and presenting at academic conferences are no doubt widely shared. Though, I’ve been presenting at conferences every year since 2006 and note some reflections:

  • Symposia: For the last couple of years I have organised and chaired symposiums rather than presented individual papers. There are several benefits for doing this over individual papers: it encourages you to network and explore overlapping research interests with colleagues long before the conference; can provide an excuse to get some colleagues together over lunch before / after the symposium to discuss potential collaborations; and at the conference a symposium can draw attention to your particular field of research more conspicuously and so can more easily bring others interested in your area into one room at one time.
  • International conferences: I would encourage colleagues to attend international conferences where possible (and I appreciate it’s easier when they’re held in the UK / Europe). It is only at these events that you find that the particular theory or method you’ve been using in your research is peculiar to the UK, and that other countries use their peculiar theory / method, etc. Meeting colleagues from other countries leads you to discover other theories and methods that may help with your work, or that the approach you’ve been taking may help with others’ work.
  • Unexpected benefits: There will always be some conferences that are more useful than others, but I am always pleasantly reminded of the fact that conferences bring unanticipated benefits. It is the chance encounters – when you sit next to someone waiting for the next session, sit next to someone at lunch, etc., – whereby you discover you are sat next to an international expert you’ve yet to meet or someone with very similar research interests who is a potential collaborator. When I flew home from Glasgow I happened to sit next to an academic who researches safety at work from a human factors approach, and we discovered a great deal of overlap between his research and mine on the prevention of falls in older people.

So, I would encourage attending and presenting at conferences, especially among early career researchers. Where possible, I would also encourage chairing symposia, attending international conferences, and being sociable and meeting and talking with all kinds of people as much as possible as you never know who you’ll meet and how they can help with your work.

Research visits

This summer I have made three visits to research departments:

1)      Delivered an invited presentation to the Health Psychology Research Group of Newcastle University.

2)      Visited colleagues at the OPENspace Research Centre, University of Edinburgh.

3)      Delivered an invited presentation to the Applied Psychology: Life-Management Research Group of the University of Zurich.

The benefits of presenting at research departments are similar to presenting at conferences. Though, as this is a newer experience for me I note some reflections:

  • Face-to-face meetings: While it is true that travelling does take you away from your desk and those tasks that you need to get done by certain deadlines, it is worth the effort. Meeting someone in person creates an opportunity to discuss a whole range of topics and find out information on things that just would not be discussed by email or when you’re on the phone and cannot read the others’ non-verbal communication. It also gives you the opportunity to really assess whether or not you can work with someone: it is not only a colleague’s CV that determines whether you can work together well or not, but whether they like to work in a similar style to you. It is sometimes the latter that takes greater importance when choosing between potential collaborators on grant proposals.
  • A different presentation: Rather than delivering a paper at a conference, at a research department you can give a different kind of presentation. You can discuss some work you are about / intend to do, or throw out problems to discuss with the audience, etc. These kinds of presentations may be more useful in establishing projects for collaboration than simply discussing work you have already completed / published.
  • Dedicated time to discuss an idea: My visit to Edinburgh was useful from this point of view as although I did not give a presentation, I spent about five hours with two professors discussing an idea for a future research project. The time was very useful in moving our discussion on a wider general research problem down to a narrow research question for a project. Likewise, via BUDI (www.bournemouth.ac.uk/dementia-institute), Prof Anthea Innes and I hosted colleagues from around Europe recently to spend an intensive couple of days to work up a grant proposal. These face-to-face meetings are very useful for rapidly moving ideas into concrete plans.

So, I would encourage visiting other university departments and to accept invitations to present to research groups. Such opportunities can provide valuable time and space to develop research ideas and progress collaborations. They can also be quite fun: for my last evening in Zurich I managed to invite myself to a Turkish restaurant with a Turkish group to watch the Turkish football team play Manchester United at old Trafford. It proved to be a different venue for discussing research (which we managed to do) than an office and it was an entertaining football match too!

Samuel Nyman

Psychology Research Centre

Design, Engineering & Computing

EC trial ‘scientist friendly’ selection process

The European Commission is trailing a scientist-friendly selection process for its Future and Emerging Technologies Open scheme until January 2013. The pilot study involves a two-stage evaluation of proposals that are at most 10 pages long; this two-stage process means less time is spent by researchers completing a full application that may not be funded by the EC. If successful, the process will be implemented in the FET-Open calls under Horizon 2020.

Fusion Investment Fund to award £11,736 to Business School / ApSci project

Funding opportunities, Fusion

Mapping the socioeconomic drivers of human disease emergence: Implications for AIDS and tuberculosis.

The tropical air was charged with hope and despair as the world’s leaders descended on Rio de Janeiro in 1992[1]. Twenty years later, the situation has not changed significantly and key targets for the reduction of biodiversity loss have not been met[1]. With the world’s population expected to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion by 2050, how will all these extra mouths be fed at an acceptable cost to the planet? The world’s population more than doubled from 3 billion between 1961 and 2007, yet agricultural output kept pace — and current projections suggest it will continue to do so. However, Colin Chartres, director of the International Water Management Institute, has stated that “agriculture is the biggest user of fresh water, making up 70–90% of the annual water demand for many countries”[2]. The worldwide pattern of river threats offers the most comprehensive explanation so far of why freshwater biodiversity is considered to be in a state of crisis. Estimates suggest that at least 10,000–20,000 freshwater species are extinct or at risk, with loss rates rivalling those of previous transitions between geological epochs like the Pleistocene-to-Holocene.  

Along with the change of freshwater biodiversity expected as a result of environmental change and increased demand on ecosystem services, change in disease risk is also expected. It is forecasted that complex interactions between host type diversity and community of pathogens will be modified along with change of community structures. However, our current understanding of how change in biodiversity affects transmission and emergence of disease has been overlooked.

A group of researchers from different BU departments aim to characterise the socio-economic drivers underpinning change in freshwater host biodiversity that lead to the emergence of immuno-suppressant related human disease.  Specifically they are going to

1-to establish the worldwide distribution of microsporidian parasites and their fish hosts

2-to establish levels of host extinction risk

3-to model the links between freshwater biodiversity threats and a range of socio-economic parameters

4-to develop a set of risk maps of freshwater immuno-suppressant human disease emergence.

5-to relate our risk maps to current global distribution of AIDS and tuberculosis cases.

6- To establish a dynamical stochastic forecasting system based on a learning technique as a predictive epidemiology technique. The technique represents the state-of-the-art in epidemiology, linking socio-economic drivers and emerging infectious diseases.

The project would be conducting mostly based at the Business school but with regular meeting between the three supervisor, including skype meeting for the day to day supervision.

The outcomes of the on-going research will be of great interest to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Development Programme  and public health NGOs (e.g. Project Hope, Oxfam).

 The FIF has been used to recruit a research assistant for a period of six months to help us with the meta-data collection, modelling and data analysis. This was key in initiating the first phase of the cross school collaboration.

Researchers: Dr Hossein Hassani (Business School), Dr Demetra Andreou (Applied Sciences) and Prof. Rudy Gozlan (Applied Science).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Editorial. Return toRio: Second chance for the planet Nature 486, 19 (07 June 2012) doi:10.1038/486019a

[2] http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101004/full/news.2010.490.html

Good luck & Congratulations!

Awarded & submitted bids

It’s been a great fortnight for the School of Applied Sciences! Congratulations to Richard Stillman (ApSci) for his matched funding from Natural England and his funding from The British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Paul Cheetham (ApSci) for his funding from Inforce, Adrian Newton (ApSci) for his funding from Forestry Commission, Bronwen Russell and Jonathan Monteith (ApSci) for their funding from Dorset County Council and CgMs Consulting and Genoveva Esteban (ApSci) for her funding from SembCorp.

Good luck to Anthea Innes, Patricia McParland, Samuel Nyman and Stephen Page (BUDI, HSC) for their application to ESRC – Dementia Initiative, David Secchi and Fabian Homberg (BS) for their application for a Leverhulme Research Grant, Vanora Hundley (HSC), Edwin Van Teijlingen (HSC) and Ann Luce (Media School) for their cross-School application for a Leverhulme Research Grant, Sarah Hean and Will Haydock (HSC) with their application to Offender Health South West, Anthea Innes (HSC) for her application to NHS Bournemouth and Poole, Lesley Milne, Vanora Hundley and Edwin Van Teijlingen (HSC) for their application to the Wellbeing of Women – Midwives International Fellowship Award, Anthea Innes, Patricia McParland and Clare Cutler for their applications to South West Dementia Partnership – Dementia Challenge Fund, Amanda Korstjens (ApSci) for their application to Primate Conservation Incorporated and to Dave Parham (ApSci) for his applications to English Heritage,

Best wishes

Matthew

Exciting new ‘BU in Brussels’ fund launching soon!

 

For the last year, many of the events I have attended have emphasised the value of face to face meetings with those in Europe to getting ahead in EU funding. And many BU staff I have met with, have said how they would love to find out more from policy makers and key industry leaders in their field in Brussels.

Over the summer I designed a funding scheme which would help achieve just that and I am delighted to announce that the BU in Brussels fund will be officially launched on October 1st.

More details will be available on the blog on the 1st but to whet your appetite, this fund offers a group of BU academics an invaluable experience. The prearranged trip to Brussels will include meeting relevant MEPs at the European Parliament and key groups such as the UK Representation to the EU will help you get an insight into relevant EU policy to your research area.

You will also have a personal meeting the relevant Programme officers at the European Commission which will help give you the insight in to what funding you can bid for.  

Finally, you can select 2 key industry/ organisations you want to work with who have offices in Brussels and you will have a private, facilitated meeting with them to discuss potential collaborative areas.

RKE Development and Operations is launched!

We’ve had a team name change over the summer by merging the RKE Operations team with the Research Development Unit. The new team is called RKE Development and Operations, with each sub-team called RKE Operations and RKE Development respectively. The new team will be managed by me as Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, with Julia Taylor heading up RKE Operations and Corrina Dickson heading up RKE Development.

There are many benefits to be gained from a much closer working relationship, some of which have already been realised through the co-location of the teams in Melbury House. We already have posts which straddle both teams and there are efficiency gains to be made from linking our work up more effectively as well as improving communication about initiatives, bids, projects, etc and providing a more joined up level of service to academic colleagues.

There have also been some significant changes to the RKE Operations team. Five new colleagues have joined us this month – Brian McNulty, Eva Papadopoulou, Teresa Coffin and Sarah Katon have joined us as RKE Officers, and Gary Cowen has joined us as Assistant Management Accountant. A temporary structure has been put in place to cover the period from now until next summer. Rather than having three Senior RKE Officers we will have in place two – Paul Lynch will head up the pod responsible for all EU and KTP bids and awards, ApSci and BS; Jenny Roddis will head up the pod responsible for ST, MS, DEC and HSC. Thank you for all your patience over the summer whilst the team has been short staffed; we are now offering a full service again going forward.

You can access information on all the team members here: RKE Development and Operations

And can access a structure chart here: R&KEO structure chart

 

LEPs given core Government funding

Local Enterprise Partnerships are to be given core funding by the Government following complaints that the new regional growth bodies are being run “on a shoestring”.  The Business Department and the Department for Communities and Local Government will provide combined funds of up to £24m to allow LEPs “to drive forward their growth priorities”, the Government said.  The announcement follows an inquiry by an all-party group which found that the independence of LEPs, which replaced Regional Development Agencies, was being compromised by a lack of funds.  The organisations are supposed to be voluntary, self-funded partnerships between businesses and local authorities but participants have warned that they have been over-reliant on a small number of core donors, putting their impartiality at risk.

An interim £5m will be made available immediately for all LEPs to use for the remainder of this financial year, the Government said.  This will be followed by up to £250,000 per LEP per year for the next two years – provided they can source matched funding of equal value.  Business minister Michael Fallon said: “This funding will help LEPs plan for the long term and ensure they can remain locally-led instead of dependent on central government support. We need to ensure LEPs remain voluntary business and civic partnerships so they are in the best possible position to deliver sustainable growth and job creation in their areas.”  John Walker, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the move. “Funding for the LEP is vital if it is to give the local support that small firms need. We have been pushing for basic dedicated funding at this level from the outset.”

BRIAN Changes

Guidance

BRIAN and the external staff profile pages have been amended so that they now only show your first name and surname.  If you have a ‘known as’ name within the HR database then this will be displayed instead of your first name.  If you would prefer a ‘known as’ name to be displayed then you will need to contact HR through HREnquiries@bournemouth.ac.uk to request a change to your ‘known as’ name.

Within the external staff profile pages the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) link on individual publications is now active as a hyperlink and will open the publication.  Also, when searching for a staff member the URL displayed at the top of the staff profile pages has been shortened to ‘http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/username’  and this address will also appear in the ‘link’ icon displayed under that persons photo.

The Professional Activity ‘Job Title’ has been removed from BRIAN as this information is pulled through from the ‘staff details changer’.  All job titles that were added into BRIAN have been updated in the staff details changer to ensure that your correct job title is displayed.

Discourses of Inclusion and Exclusion Conference – new sustainability symposium theme

I am co-ordinating a symposium on Issues of Inclusivity in the Sustainable University at the DPR annual conference to be held at the University of Greenwich, 9-11 April, 2013. The link is here.

If DPR (Discourse, Power Resistance) is new to you, it is worth saying that DPR is an annual conference, now in its thirteenth year, with an established and increasing international reputation: in 2012 41 nations were represented at the conference. Perhaps the simplest way to tell you about the conference is to give you some links. The conference website is here. You can find a list of DPR publications here together with a link to the conference journal: Power and Education.

Please consider submitting an abstract.

Chris Shiel

Public Health: Knowledge into Action

1 day conference  – 26th June 2012

Jointly hosted by BU and the NHS

Public health is at a crossroads … moving back into local authorities where it began with the appointment of the first medical officers for health.  This move presents opportunities to improve health and wellbeing by taking a more integrated approach. The purpose of this one day conference was to discuss these opportunities and identify action that can be taken to improve health and wellbeing using the best available evidence.  The event was very successful and well attended and included local public health practitioners, local councillors and BU staff.

For further information please contact: Ann Hemingway, Public Health Academic at Bournemouth University – ahemingway@bournemouth.ac.uk or Lindley Owen Consultant in Public Health NHS Bournemouth and Poole – Lindley.Owen@bp-pct.nhs.uk

Presentations

Study China Winter Programme 2012!

Funding opportunities, PG research

The Study China Programme, managed by The University of Manchester, is currently recruiting 200 students for the Winter 2012/2013 programme!  Study China is financed by the UK government to provide a three week student experience of Chinese language, culture and business. This  unique opportunity allows you to  experience life as a student in this fascinating, diverse country.  There are a number of bursaries available to contribute towards your own costs which are airfare and spending money, all other costs are funded by the UK government. The three partnership universities participating in this programme are :

 1) Beijing Normal University

2) Fudan University ( Shanghai )

Dates:

Arrive   – Sunday 16th December 2012

Depart – Saturday 5th January 2013

 

3) Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Dates:

Arrive –  Thursday 20th December 2012

Depart – Tuesday 8th January 2012

Eligibility: Open to Undergraduate, Masters (including PhD), Nursing Diploma, Foundation degree and HND students. You must be minimum of 18 years old at commencement of programme and holder of a valid EU/EEA passport.

Deadline: Applications will be processed on a rolling basis, it is anticipated that recruitment for this round will be completed by the end of October 2012 at the latest, so apply ASAP.

Further information & Apply:  Visit the Study China website

Read about previous BU students’ experiences on Study China here

 

EC proposes to clamp down on funding to Brazil, China and India in Horizon 2020

The EC has proposed to restrict the number of non-EU countries which will be automatically eligible for funding under Horizon 2020. They published a strategy document yesterday, which said that like FP7, Horizon 2020 will have similar general conditions with regards to eligibility however the list of countries eligible for automatic funding will be restricted by introducing a new threshold on total GDP. This has been proposed in order to exclude large, emerging economies including, perhaps, China, India and Brazil. Funding for participants from these countries will still be possible in some cases. such as those where a reciprocal agreement is in place.