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A view from afar…

I have recently become part of a fascinating network, the Royal Anthropological Institute, who kindly made me a Fellow. Fascinating, because they have realised, after a longer period of Sleeping-Beautyesque focus on social and cultural anthropology alone, how important it is to embrace the natural science part of anthropology, its biological, forensic and medical strands. An excellent move that will bring Anthropology and its representation in the UK back to its comprehensive and encompassing roots and remit. Good also for BU, because the RAI is recognising our contribution towards educating the next generation of anthropologists, whose combined education in humanities and science produces the rounded and aware graduates society will need in future.

Naturally, the RAI fosters broad-ranging discussions among its members, and their ‘house journal’, Anthropology Today, invites guest editorials on a regular basis. Not long ago, a former Cambridge graduate, who moved on to a highly successful career in the US, reflected on the latest changes to the UK Higher Education system, its commercialisation and consumer orientation (anthropology today). American universities have been operating this for a long time, and they are beginning to pick up the fallout now. Hugh Gusterson’s thoughtful comparison of political agendas here and campus reality there makes interesting reading – if only to avoid falling into the same traps.

Dr Sarah Bate’s research will feature on BBC One tonight!

A couple of months ago we ran a blog post about the amazing research into prosopagnosia (face blindness) being undertaken at Bournemouth University by Dr Sarah Bate (‘Find out about Dr Sarah Bate’s research into prosopagnosia‘).

Sarah will feature on tonight’s Inside Out – South show, at 7:30pm, discussing the condition with presenter Jon Cuthill and people diagnosed with prosopagnosia.

You can see a quick peek at Sarah’s research on tonight’s show here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15290378

You can test yourself for prosopagnosia at Sarah’s website: www.prosopagnosiaresearch.org.

EU Parliament propose double money for Horizon 2020

The European Parliament has published a report in response to the various draft documents for Horizon 2020. The report suggests that the budget for the research and innovation programmes should be doubled (so get networking now to apply for this in 2014!) and large scale projects (such as GALILEO) be paid for outside of this budget. Collaborative transnational excellent research should be kept at the heart of Horizon 2020 and a move towards a more ‘science-based’ approach and a more trust-based and risk-tolerant attitude towards participants at all stages of the funding system should be taken. Research Priorities should be set in a more transparent way and rules should be easy to interpret and apply to all EU research and innovation programmes and instruments. It also calls for greater participation for Member States who are currently under-supported, more support for underperforming regions and states that there should be new measures to support Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

We have received information about the following funding opportunities which may be of interest:

British Academy/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowships

This scheme enables established scholars to have one year’s research leave with funding being provided to cover the costs of replacement teaching.  The closing date for applications is 16 November 2011.  The Academy takes no account of an applicant’s age or current status (eg Professor, Lecturer) in determining eligibility for these awards. Rather, in all cases, award-holders are expected to be able to disseminate the results of their research not only through publications, but also through feeding into their future academic career after the end of the awards. Any field of study in the humanities and social sciences is suitable for support.  More info available on the website.

Lister Institute Research Prizes

The Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine, which is a registered charity established to support biomedical and related research, is now inviting applications from outstanding young researchers in biomedical or related biological sciences for its 2012 Research Prizes.

More information can be found on the charity’s website.

All the latest on the FP7 Security theme

The Security theme has been a hive of activity over the last few weeks!

Firstly the EU has signed a European Framework Co-operation with the European Defence Agency which will allow them to formally cooperate in promoting dual-use application in research, formally consult with each other and share their R&D goals, align their agendas and coordinate calls for research topics as well as influencing the development of a possible Security theme in Horizon 2020. These activities are expected to support the emergence of dual-use technologies and capabilities for civil and military users across the 27 EU Member States. Protection against Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats is the first research topic that will be addressed under the newly established EFC. Other topics where the Commission and the EDA plan to co-ordinate their work involve unmanned aerial systems and situational awareness, which includes many technological sub-sectors involving sensors, information management and cyber-security.

Secondly, the presentations of the 2011 Infoday are now available online for anyone who couldn’t attend. These slides also include the list of participants, and Project Officers’ contact details; this is the first time that a list of Project Officers responsible for the various topics to be funded under a Security call has been published.

Thirdly, the annual Security conference was held in Poland at the end of September. The focus of the conference was to explore effective ways in which industry, research institutes and local public (end-user) authorities can be brought together and it was ackwledged during the conference that one of the main challenges is to move the programme from its research focus to a market perspective due to the sector’s fragmentation. Several achievements of the FP7 Security theme that were highlighted during the Conference as well as some of the main new policy goals for Security research in Horizon 2020. You can  read more about the conference  on the SRC 2011 website.

Prof Martin Kretschmer on Hargreaves’ parody and private use exception to copyright

BU’s Prof Martin Kretschmer will speak at a Houses of Parliament discussion into the practicalities of Professor Hargreaves’ recommended copyright exceptions.

The event, entitled ‘Hargreaves’ exceptions: format-shifting, parody, research and archiving’, takes place on Tuesday 18 October and will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the practical implications of Professor Hargreaves’ recommendation.

The Hargreaves Review cites the research in developing a recommendation to introduce a limited private copying exception without compensation.

Professor Kretschmer will talk about the European requirement of “fair compensation” in relation to certain copyright exceptions. His research reports the results of three product level studies – printer / scanners, portable music / video / game devices and tablet computers – and analyses the relationship between VAT, levy tariffs and retail prices in 20 levy and non-levy countries. His report on copyright levies, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), has been cited by the Hargreaves Review and in the Government’s response to Hargreaves.

The panel discussion will be chaired by Jim Dowd MP. Other panel members include Martin Brennan, founder and CEO of 3GA Ltd, Richard Brousson, legal counsel at the British Film Institute (BFI) and James Sadri, digital producer at Greenpeace UK.

For further information, please see the following links: 

More on Private Copying and Fair Compensation

Professor Martin Kretschmer’s academic profile

More publications by Professor Martin Kretschmer

BU research features in the THE!

PG research

Congratulations to BU PhD student Adil Saeed from DEC’s Sustainable Design Research Centre! Adil’s research featured in the Times Higher Education today – pg 15 of the printed publication as part of the Campus Round-up section.

Adil is pictured at the Tank Museum at Bovington with some additional information on the relationship between BU and the Museum and an outline of Adil’s research.

You can access the online story here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417729&c=1

We previously ran a story on the blog about Adil’s research and the close links between BU and the Tank Museum which you can read here: Sustainable Methodology of Conserving Large Historic Vehicles in a Museum Environment.

Donella Meadows and systems thinking

One of the great joys of developing new teaching material is discovering the work of others, whom you knew nothing about. I’m currently reading ‘Thinking in systems’ by Donella Meadows, one of those names I’d been dimly aware of, without actually having read her work. Now I’m doing so, it’s a revelation; I have never read anyone write so clearly and entertainingly about systems thinking. She is probably best known as lead author of the seminal book ‘Limits to growth’, and was also a member of the ‘Club of Rome’. The article I have been recommending to my students is one of her best-known, and focuses on leverage points in systems – in other words, how to bring about change. Strongly recommended; I’ve put the link below. As a taster, here are a couple of quotes from her ‘Thinking in systems’ primer:

‘Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes… Managers do not solve problems, they manage mess’ [R Ackoff]

and:

‘You think that because you understand ‘one’ that you must therefore understand ‘two’ because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand ‘and’ [Sufi teaching story]

http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/pubs/Leverage_Points.pdf

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donella_Meadows

Welcome to the Green Economy and Sustainability blog

‘Green economy and sustainability’ is one of Bournemouth University’s (BU) newly defined research themes, and this blog has been created to support its development. The main aim of initiating this blog is to share information and to foster inter-disciplinary collaboration across the University. So, please get involved! Any member of BU staff who wants to add their own posts directly to this blog can now do so; please just make a request for access to the Research Development Unit, who will then set you up with an account.

Some brief items of news to kick us off. We are delighted that BU’s new MSc Green Economy has formally launched this October, with an initial cohort of 11 students. This is a novel departure for the University, being entirely distance-based in delivery, enabling students to study from anywhere in the world. As part of the course, students will have the option of undertaking either a research project or a work-based placement during their studies. So, if you have any ideas of projects that you would like to see them do, please get in touch.

There is also a Sustainable Business Exhibition happening right here in Bournemouth on 10th November, at the AFC Bournemouth stadium. This is free to attend: http://www.greenmessage.co.uk/exhibition/

Also, on the 20th October, the Carbon Management Centre of Excellence established by Mouchel in partnership with Bournemouth Borough Council is holding an event in BU’s Business Centre. The event will be showcasing successful carbon reduction projects in the property, transportation and waste sectors. It also will include a number of innovative new technologies that could deliver carbon reduction in the future. To register please email mark.baillie@mouchel.com.

Adrian

EU ‘Erasmus’ funding available for BU staff!

BU takes part in the  Erasmus Mobility Programme (part of the EU funded Lifelong Learning Programme) which means academic and professional services staff can now bid for funding in support of teaching or training visits to partner universities or enterprises in Europe. Taking part in the Erasmus scheme will enhance your CV and give you a great international experience, as Richard Shipway from the School of Tourism found:

“My Erasmus visit was an opportunity to profile BU’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses, enhance my own experience of teaching overseas, explore the possibility of future students and staff exchanges, and to establish research links with the partner university’s staff in the area of tourism and events.” (Erasmus visit to Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey in May 2011).

Check out the Centre for Global Perspectives webpage to submit an application; the deadline is Friday 28th October.

Funding Opps for Postgrad Students

PG research

Interested in spending a year conducting research at an overseas university?  The following funding schemes may be of interest:

Ritsumeikan University

This Japanese University has a range of scholarships available.  One of the schemes is to spend 12 months as an International Research Student working closely with the University’s research staff.  Applications are open until 5th December 2011.  Visit the website for details.

One Year Visiting Fellowship at Harvard or MIT

There are scholarships available for students who are mid-PhD and would like to spend an additional year as a fellow at Harvard or MIT.  You must have at least one year left to complete on your return to the UK.  Applications can be made online at www.kennedytrust.org.uk and the attached documents contain more information – Kennedy Scholarship and Frank Knox Fellowship.  The deadline is 30th Oct 2011.

Why Gantt is good

Guidance

We owe the the Gantt chart to mechanical engineer, management consultant and industry advisor Henry Gantt (1861 – 1919).   He developed his chart as a visual tool to show scheduled and actual progress of projects.  

Like Henry, we too favour Gantt charts and like to see them in funding proposals.  This is because a Gantt chart is an effective method of presenting to the funder a clear idea of:

  • time-frame
  • inputs
  • key activities
  • mapping of resources

How do you create a Gantt chart?  The best advice we have seen is at the useful Research Whisperer blog, where they list 5 steps to creating your very own Gantt Chart in the post ‘How to make a simple Gantt chart’. 

For more information about Gantt charts or to find out how RPRS can support your proposal development please contact Caroline O’Kane.

Mental Health Week: The Rainforest Asylum

As part of Mental Health Week here at BU Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree from HSC has highlighted the research that underpins her forthcoming book on psychiatric care in Malaysia.

The annual commemoration that is Mental Health Day this year promotes the theme: ‘The great push: investing in mental health’. As a theme it serves to underline both the enormous, global burden of mental illnesses that nations grapple with and the commensurate need for effective psychiatric services to keep pace with these needs. Another very important aspect of Mental Health Day is to highlight the hidden and stigmatised voices of the sufferers of mental illness. This was the inspiration behind my research into service user perspectives in Malaysia. The culmination of many years of research into this highly neglected issue has seen the completion of my book:  A Rainforest Asylum: The influences of colonial psychiatry in Malaysia, which will be published later this autumn under Whiting & Birch publishers.

This study first started out as the basis of my doctoral research, but has since been revised to incorporate data that extends the scope of the topic both internationally and historically.  To this end, the study used an intensive and extensive ethnographic methodology in the penetration and analysis of institutional care in the region, where the majority of psychiatric patients were long-stay residents. Within the walls of one particular psychiatric institution, where fieldwork was carried out close relationships with the residents, as well as the staff, enabled me to gather invaluable and hitherto untold narratives. These provided rich seams of information of sequestered lives and diachronic, as well as often anachronistic, institutional practices, which overturned many of my previously held assumptions. These stories, combined with triangulation data-gathering strategies, yielded unique insights into, not only contemporary institutional care in Malaysia, but even into its more distant colonial roots.  The aim and relevance of The Rainforest Asylum, therefore, is that it captures the fascinating and otherwise lost voices of Malaysian service users, in a cultural context where a scientific, positivistic discourse prevails. However, its aims are more far reaching in that while providing an account that straddles the fault lines of both medical sociology and medical anthropology, it also critically engages with intriguing historiographic accounts of imperial psychiatry in the British Empire, as well as that of colonial France and the Netherlands. These serve to illuminate the ideologies and practices underpinning the colonial psychiatric mission across the nineteenth century in Asia and Africa, and which today hold identifiable influences, both for good and ill, in contemporary psychiatric services in post-colonial nations.

For details of Sara’s previous publications, see her profile on BURO.

British Academy small grants – deadline 9 November 2011

Funding opportunities

The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Funding is available under their Small Research Grants scheme for grants to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences.

Applications will not be considered for less than £500. The maximum grant is £10,000 over two years. Applications for collaborative or individual projects are equally welcome under this scheme. Applications from international groups of scholars are welcome, provided there is a UK-based scholar as lead applicant.

Funds are available to facilitate initial project planning and development; to support the direct costs of research; and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or conferences, or visits by or to partner scholars. Applicants may seek support for any combination of eligible activity and cost up to the overall limit of £10,000. The Academy will assess applications equally on their merits, with no preference as to mode of enquiry.

All applications should demonstrate that Academy funds are sought for a clearly defined, discrete piece of research, which will have an identifiable outcome on completion of the Academy-funded component of the research.

This scheme is very useful for humanities and social science researchers to carry out a pilot project which may then lead to larger grant funding in future. The deadline for applications, which must be prepared and submitted online using eGap2, is 9th November 2011.

Please contact the CRE Operations team as soon as possible if you would like to submit to this call.

The Collaborative Researcher – Free Places at a Vitae training workshop

Vitae, the organisation which focuses on researcher development is offering up to 40 free places on this 2 day training workshop to help you develop your collaboration skills.  All you need to cover are your travel expenses to Nottingham.  Places will fill up fast so if you’re interested don’t delay!  The dates are 30th Jan – 1st Feb 2012.

This 2 day residential course looks at the building blocks of the collaborative style of research: ­ inclusive communication, cultural awareness, robust planning, negotiation and the ability to work effectively with others.  Whether your collaboration is with another academic in your department, or partners from different subjects, sectors and countries, it helps you to develop winning strategies for connecting and working with others.

What does it involve?

The course is attended by up to 40 researchers from across the country, from different disciplines and career stages.  It is led by a team of experienced facilitators who work with participants throughout the 2 days to support their learning.  They will be from a variety of backgrounds with experience in collaboration, academia and other sectors.

This course takes a ‘learning by doing’ approach. There will be presentations on collaboration theory, but for the most part, you will be actively participating in the sessions and activities. 

This is an intensive 2 day residential course which runs from dinner on the evening of Monday 30th January to 5pm on 1st February 2011

What’s in it for you?

This course offers you the opportunity to: 

  • explore collaboration both in theory and in practice
  • work with a team of experienced facilitators from a range of career backgrounds, who will ensure you get the most out of the 2 days
  • meet researchers from a variety of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages
  • develop your understanding of collaboration theory and how to apply it in practice
  • take a few days out from your research both physically and mentally, and have some space in which to consider yourself and your next steps

Eligibility/Entry

This event is open to all UK researchers – subject to availability. Book your place now.

Places on the event are free but participants will need to cover their own travel expenses.  Accommodation and meals are provided.

Mental Health Research and Community Programmes

As part of Mental Health Week here at BU Dr Andrew Mayers from DEC has highlighted some of the work he is undertaking with local groups.

FirstPoint (Winton)

Run by Bournemouth Borough Council, FirstPoint work with community residents who have a range of mental health problems. Many of these individuals are not cared for by health services, often by choice. Using the ‘recovery model’ for mental health, the trained staff work to re-engage individuals and help them rebuild their lives. In the recovery model, individuals are shown how to regain enough self-confidence to find the coping skills and resources to return to better mental health. I am working with FirstPoint on a number of projects. We are evaluating outcomes in one-year longitudinal study, with BU students collecting and analysing the data. We aim to publish the outcomes in 2012/13. We also are working on arranging a series of work-experience placements for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Over the last months, FirstPoint have been working on a DVD that illustrates the benefits of the recovery model for mental health. The DVD will be used to inform mental health workers; I have made a contribution to that DVD. We will be launching the DVD for FirstPoint at BU in November.

Bournemouth and District Samaritans

The work undertaken by the Samaritans across the UK and Ireland is well known. The central focus of their work is to be a ‘listening ear’ to anyone experiencing despair, loneliness, or feeling suicidal. They are available 24-hours a day, every day of the year, via telephone, text, e-mail, letter, or face-to-face. I work very closely with the Bournemouth and District branch, acting as their Patron and I organise their publicity. We are working on a number of local projects, not least looking to establish closer ties between BU and the Samaritans. A number of our students volunteer to work at the Branch. The Samaritans have a presence at several BU events. We are currently working with several people at BU to establish a crisis nightline, and training (any) staff who have contact with students who may need emergency help (we have already had some crises with the current BU student intake). We are also looking to work closely with other agencies and charities locally. Some of this may lead to research opportunities, exploring ways in which mental illness, stress and despair can be reduced in our community. I am planning a number of projects focusing on suicide and mental health (including the particular problems faced in rural communities).

Barnardo’s (and Bournemouth Borough Council)

I am working with Barnardo’s Family Centres, in conjunction with Bournemouth Borough’s education services, to investigate the impact of maternal mental illness on young children. We are particularly interested in exploring attachment and mother-child interactions. We will be evaluating current programmes and working together on new ones. We have established a working party, with a view to design several research studies, and to explore sources of grant funding.

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust

I am supervising a PhD project (Research student – Lauren Kita), working with the perinatal team within Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. We are exploring the extent that poor sleep may pose a risk factor for postnatal depression. We will be examining sleep objectively, using state-of-the-art EEG equipment, and subjectively, using sleep diaries. Women with a history of depression will compared to women without such a history, during pregnancy and at weeks 4 and 12 after the baby is born. The mother’s mood and other mental indicators will also be measured.

International Cultic Studies Association /New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling

I am working with a Chartered Counselling Psychologist to explore mental health of individuals who were born into exclusive cults (i.e. they did not decide to join that cult). Through this contact, and the International Cultic Studies Association (ISCA) we have access to several hundred former members. We will be using a series of questionnaires that measure key factors such as current mental illness, trauma, self-efficacy, coping skills, and general life function. We will present the findings at the Annual ISCA Conference in Montreal next summer. Several papers will be published soon afterwards.

If you would like to find out more about this work please contact Andrew Mayers.

Tourism, Climate Change & Sustainability top of BU’s agenda

BU’s International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) is delighted to be hosting the second global conference to explore real-world issues.

The international conference: ‘Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability’ will take place from 13-14 September 2012. The emphasis of the event is to discuss and disseminate conceptual ideas and contested relationships between climate change, sustainability and tourism and examine worldwide responses and exchange cutting-edge research.

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy and Dr Keith Wilkes are the organisers of this conference, who are also editing a book jointly on this title for Earthscan London. The book launch will also take place during the conference next year.

This conference will feature keynote presentations from high-level policy makers from international agencies UNWTO and UNESCO MAB, the European Commission, leading research institutions and the private sector. Among these distinguished speakers are:

  • Mr Luigi Cabrini, Director UNWTO Sustainable Tourism, Madrid.
  • Dr Ishwaran Natarajan, Director UNESCO Division for Earth & Ecological Sciences, Paris.
  • Dr Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
  • Dr Stephan Harrison, University of Exeter & Oxford University Centre for the Environment.

Breakout sessions are planned to enable speakers to interact on a more personal level with delegates as well as for attendees to present their research on these important topics. In addition, leading publishers will be present throughout the duration of the conference to meet with delegates and discuss future publishing opportunities.

Dr Maharaj Vijay Reddy commented “we are pleased to announce this event on a globally crucial title. It will facilitate cutting-edge debates, timely knowledge exchange and networking”.

Dr Keith Wilkes says hosting the second ‘Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability’ conference is “very exciting and, coupled with the high-calibre keynote speakers, is further evidence of the position of BU as a driving force at the forefront of global tourism research, teaching and professional practice”.

The first call for abstracts was released recently.

EPRSC announces new open access policy

Guidance

open access logo, Public Library of ScienceThe EPSRC has introduced a new policy on access to outputs arising from funded research:

EPSRC Council has agreed to mandate open access publication, with the proviso that academics should be able to choose the approach best suited to their field of research. This mandate is now being implemented: EPSRC requires authors to comply with this mandate and ensure that all published research articles arising from EPSRC-sponsored research, and which are submitted for publication on or after 1st September 2011, must become available on an Open Access basis through any appropriate route. As now, publication costs may be recovered either as ‘directly incurred costs’ (if incurred before the end date of the relevant research project) or as indirect costs (and hence factored into the fEC indirect cost rate for the relevant research organisation).

This change in policy means that the EPSRC will now accept that researchers have met their open access requirements if they make their research outputs available via either the Gold OA or Green OA route.

Gold Open Access (pay-to-publish) – peer-reviewed papers published in fully Open Access journals which do not charge subscription fees, or in ‘hybrid’ subscription journals which enable free access to ‘pre-paid’ articles. Subject to certain criteria the publishing fees may be met from direct or indirect costs on EPSRC Research Grants.

Green Open Access – research is published in traditional subscription journals and authors self-archive their papers (as accepted for publication) in a digital online repository, such as BU’s institutional repository BURO. The publisher’s policy is a crucial issue as far as Green OA is concerned. Some publishers have repository-friendly policies, but others embargo deposit of full texts until a year or more after initial publication. SHERPA-RoMEO has a comprehensive list of publishers and their policies to check before deciding where to publish.

The EPSRC’s policy states that the costs of Gold OA can be met from the grant as a direct cost only where that cost is incurred during the period of the grant. If work is published after the grant is complete, then the institution must stump up the cash to publish or use a portion of the indirect costs to fund this. Earlier this year BU launched the BU Open Access Publication Fund to support researchers in making their research freely available.

Find out more about Open Access publishing at BU’s FREE Open Access publishing event on Wednesday 26 October between 10am-12:30pm in the EBC. To book your place please email Anita Somner.