Tagged / BU research themes

New Year’s Research Resolution #5 – contribute to the new research website

Guidance

Happy New Year to you all and welcome back to work!

Each day this week we’ll be posting a New Year’s Research Resolution to help you get back into the swing of things. Today’s resolution is to contribute to the new research website.

BU’s new research website was launched in beta (i.e. test version) in December and has a radically updated design, presenting our research around our eight society-focused Research Themes. In each section content is displayed by research news, research impact, public engagement and postgraduate research. It is also possible to view content by each REF Unit of Assessment and see details of our Research Centres.  You can access the new website here:  http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk.

One of the key reasons for the new research website is to ensure that our researchers are able to easily and frequently share their research online.  Everyone will be able to craft their own content and upload articles themselves.  The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (R&KEO) will perform a light-touch check to ensure the correct tags are added and new content will go live on the site within 1-2 working days.  The webpages are yours to add content to!

Contributing to the new website is easy!  Content is added via WordPress (the same as adding posts to the BU Research Blog) and can be done by clicking on this link (your logon will be your BU network logon): http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/login.  We want you to add content about your research projects, the research collaborations you are involved with, the research your PhD students are undertaking, your public engagement and outreach activities, news about you, your research and your research centre, etc.

All BU staff automatically have access to add content using their network logon. Once you have logged in for the first time we can give you additional access to edit and contribute to relevant research centres as well. Email research@bournemouth.ac.uk to request additional admin rights.

If you would like training in how to add content to the new website then sessions are available.  There are some workshops taking place next week (you can book online here). Further sessions are currently being scheduled. Please contact Sally Gates for more information..

Adding content is quick and easy, and shows the external world how vibrant and exciting research is at BU!  And that’s why your New Year’s Research Resolution #5 is to add content to the new website!

Find out about the Creative, Digital and Cognitive Science research theme

Research themes

As we start the new academic year, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the activities within this theme over the past 12 months and consider how the theme will develop in the future.

We held several meetings with mixed results. On the upside, we introduced ‘elevator pitches’ from staff who had ideas for funding applications/research papers and wanted to work collaboratively with other members of staff. This format worked extremely well with staff being able to cross-pollinate ideas, knowledge and skills in order to get some forward momentum in their projects.

We also held a number of these sessions with the Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth research theme. This proved to be a real winner and ensured that research themes were not seen as silos.  On the downside, this theme stills lacks a certain amount of staff engagement to develop real critical mass.

In terms of developing this theme in the future, two opportunities stand out. Earlier this year BU signed a ‘Manifesto for our Creative and Digital Economy’ with local businesses and councils. The aim of this initiative is to enhance the creative and digital economy of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Dorset. We hope that staff working within this research theme will play a major role in helping to create a thriving international hub driving economic growth. Secondly, this theme has now incorporated the research centres of the School of Design, Engineering & Computing and hopes to integrate  research into Design Simulation, Sustainable Design, and Smart technology to name but a few.

We will be running a number of research meetings during the coming academic year, so please come along and make your contribution to a thriving and societally import research theme.

Dr John Oliver

The Media School

 

Sign up to the Creative, Digital and Cognitive Science research themes here:

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    Find out about the Leisure, Recreation and Tourism research theme

    Research themes

    The past year has seen an increasing level of activity in this research theme, with lots of collaborative research and bidding taking place.  Following numerous events in BU’s Festival of Learning,  July saw BU hosting the ‘Making Waves’ conference, the annual conference of the Association for Events Marketing Educators.  Over 130 delegates from around the world attended the conference, and feedback shows that they found it a useful and thought-provoking conference, with interactive sessions that made it a true “event experience”. 

    This summer has also seen the award of the 2015 Leisure Studies Association conference to Bournemouth University.  This conference will be titled “Creating Leisure” and as the LSA conference is the largest annual conference in leisure research in the UK it provides BU with a great opportunity to showcase the best of our leisure research.  This will be part of a succession of major international conferences held at BU in the Leisure, Recreation and Tourism theme, from the Advances in Tourism Marketing Conference (2009), the 3rd Conference of the International Association for Tourism Economics (2011), the International Conference on Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainability (2012) and the AEME ‘Making Wages’ conference (2013).

    Last academic year also saw greater activity in seminars, ideas cafés and a festivity ‘mash-up’, and we are looking forward to a stimulating programme of Leisure, Recreation and Tourism events this year.

    Prof Adam Blake

    School of Tourism

     

    Sign up to the Leisure, Recreation and Tourism research themes here:

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      Don’t get left behind with the new BU Research Themes

      Guidance, Research themes

      BRIAN

      As posted by Matthew Bennett yesterday, the Research Themes have changed.  Information about the changes to each Research Theme can be found here.

      Research Themes are captured on BRIAN and so it is important to ensure you are still linked to the correct theme(s) in BRIAN when the new version is released later this month. 

      Over the next week, we will be emailing users affected by the revision to the themes to confirm which of the new themes are most relevant to them.  We will map those affeced across to the new themes.  If the new theme is no longer relevant then we will inform them how to change this.

      If you don’t already identify any research themes in your BRIAN profile, this is a good chance to add that information.  The new Staff Profile Pages, which will go live in October, will be based around Research Themes and so it is important that you have identified at least one.

      Find out about the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing research theme

      Research themes

      Behaviour and lifestyle factors are major contributors to morbidity and mortality; some are well recognised such as unhealthy diet and lack of exercise while effects of others such as social isolation and social relationships are less clear. We are a vibrant group and experienced in working with communities, voluntary organisations, businesses, local authorities and health and social care providers. We lead on a range of local, national and global projects and publish in top international journals.

      Work within this theme has a broad focus across several disciplines within the fields of health and nursing, midwifery, nutrition, social work and social policy, and psychology. The main research activities include:

      •             Promoting public health and effective nutrition

      •             Addressing social exclusion and improving social relationships

      •             Older people and marginalised groups and interagency working;

      •             Psychological interventions in chronic conditions;

      •             Socioeconomic investigation;

      •             Midwifery, maternal and perinatal health;

      •             Qualifying and post-qualifying social work practice and education;

      •             Visual cognition;

      •             Tourism and wellbeing;

      •             Mental and physical wellbeing across the lifespan;

      •             Early year’s development

      We have a membership of approximately 90 academics across the University and have a very active PhD group led by Ashley Mitchell (HSC).

      Highlights this year have included our success at securing an EU IAPP award (VeggiEAT), worth 1.6 million Euros and active participation in the Festival of Learning where the theme hosted over 29 events.

      Each term we have a meeting with the next one being on September 18th in EBC 202 where we are fortunate to have Rachael Craig Senior Research Director, Health Survey for England who will share with us the data sets and blood samples that are available for us to use for research purposes.

      If this interests you please sign up and come along to the next meeting, we would love to see you.

      Assoc Prof Heather Hartwell

      School of Health and Social Care

      School of Tourism

       

      Sign up to the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing research themes here:

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        Find out about the Biodiversity, Environmental Change and Green Economy research theme

        Research themes

        Staff and students have been extremely but successfully busy undertaking policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research science aimed at: increasing understanding of environmental change and its impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems services, the physical environment and human livelihoods, evaluating environmental management options and policy responses, developing sustainable solutions to enhance environmental conditions and human wellbeing.

        Research into the green economy has included carbon storage and management, renewable energy, green tourism, sustainable design, leadership of sustainable development, and the linkages between the environment and the economy. 

        Our research continues to be internationally recognized, as demonstrated in publications in leading journals like Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ISME Journal (Nature’s Group), Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B, PLoS, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Quaternary Science Reviews, and Journal of Human Evolution, amongst many others. We recently launched a globally unique Masters degree in the Green Economy, which is delivered by distance learning.  Fish Ecology was defined as a world leader by SCOPUS citation rankings in 2012.

        PhD student numbers have increased by 200% since 2007 due to our success at attracting external funding for BU’s novel match-funded PhD programme, and increased success at winning externally funded PhD studentships.

        Our contribution to the Festival of Learning was substantial – we organised 16 events and activities, all of them well attended and enjoyed by attendees. This included a series of events to commemorate the centenary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace. As the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution with Charles Darwin, as well as founding the discipline of biogeography, Wallace has left a substantial scientific legacy. A wildlife walk was held culminating in a visit to the monument marking Wallace’s final resting place. One suspects that Wallace himself would have enjoyed the wildlife walk most of all, complete with encounters with snakes, beautiful butterflies and remarkable slaver ants – all elements of Dorset’s wonderful biodiversity.  Wallace 100 Celebration does not end here! A forthcoming event will take place on 12th of October in partnership with Thomas Hardye School (Dorchester).

        The Poole & Purbeck Portal successfully launched in March this year, funded by Fusion. The portal is an on-line community to promote better understanding of our region’s unique natural and heritage assets.  Exciting opportunities, knowledge and expertise are shared on the Portal, creating a gateway for new collaborations across the region.  We invite you to join us by registering your interest on http://www.pooleandpurbeckportal.co.uk/

        Dr Genoveva Esteban

        School of Applied Sciences

         

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          Find out about the Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth research theme

          Research themes

          The Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth Theme has been very active in the last 12 months, the group has met 6 times in total with two meetings being held jointly with the Creative, Digital and Cognitive Science research theme.  The focus has been on support for interactive activity between Schools and the meetings have included attendees from the Business School, DEC, Media and Tourism.  A highlight of these sessions has been the opportunity for researchers to present their research ideas with a view to encouraging others to join them to establish a research group, while this activity is in its infancy there are two groups that have formed around high growth start-ups and the marketing and branding in the retail sector that are very promising.  The theme also supported more than 6 events at the Festival of Learning and ‘Equipping the business leaders of the future’ was a particular success with over 50 delegates from academia, industry and the public sector discussing the future development of this key activity and how research can support and inform the direction.  The next year will see attempts to expand the network to individuals outside the University, to share experiences around building networks, writing bids and disseminating research.

          Prof Dean Patton

          Business School

           

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            Find out more about the Communities, Cultures and Conflicts research theme

            Research themes

            Throughout the world societies, their citizens, and those excluded from them are facing many challenges concerning identity and citizenship, social and cultural adaptation, and responding to growing social and global inequalities. In a time of protracted economic, political and social uncertainties the BU research theme Communities, Cultures and Conflicts offers a forum for taking individual and integrated, inter-disciplinary approaches these issues. to exploring, which explicitly involves learning from past communities and peoples, we are looking to expand future research collaboration around such issues as:

            • Sustainable growth & cultural transformation
            • Cultural adaptation & globalisation
            • Communication, culture and society
            • Equality, diversity & governance
            • Conflict, violence & warfare
            • Welfare & social protection
            • Media as an agent of socio-cultural & political transformation
            • Crisis management & disaster planning

            Perceptions of conflict, vulnerability and the development of social welfare in the context of political violence and extremism forms part of our research theme’s work, as has consideration of difference and diversity across cultures and communities whilst considering the implications of this for contemporary fluid communities. Research has been completed in respect of Central European, Southeast Asian as well as UK communities

            Our internationally renowned Disaster Management Centre offers education and training to organisations in risk assessment and risk reduction, major incident management & business continuity, and disaster recovery. We also offer one-day major incident management workshops for school bursars, headmasters and deputy headmasters (www.bournemouth.ac.uk/disaster-management).

            We have clusters of researchers exploring ways of deepening democracy through developments in political communication and in the production and consumption of news. There are also research groups investigating trends in consumer culture (especially in digital consumption), studying the histories of the media industries and the communication professions as a way of understanding their present state and possible futures, and researching cultural narratives.

            The multiple facets of identity, social inequality, conflict, and resource availability are narratives with a long time depth. Archaeology and anthropology have the theoretical frameworks and analytical tools to detect and contextualise these for societies of the past and, by doing so, enrich the debate about some of the fundamental and universal themes of humanity. An understanding of such aspects in the past has repercussions for our perceptions of similar issues today and vice versa.

            Contributions from ‘Past Peoples and Societies’ may develop around questions such as: What are the determinants of societal continuity and change and their effect at the level of individuals and communities? How does adaptation reflect the dual, biocultural nature of humans? How do population development, migration and transitions shape communities and cultures? What is the impact of human-environment interaction and technological response?

            The National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work is at the forefront of post-qualifying social work educational provision in England, working in partnership with 80 local authorities. We are one of the few CPD providers endorsed by The College of Social Work (TCSW) to provide post-qualifying social work education. We offer a range of CPD programmes in specialist areas such as Child Care, Vulnerable Adults, Approved Mental Health Practice, Practice Education, and Leadership and Management, and are committed to developing excellence in post-qualifying education, practice development and research. We undertake research and evaluation studies for a range of local, regional and national bodies (www.ncpqsw.com).

            Prof Jonathan Parker

            School of Health and Social Care

             

            Sign up to the Communities, Culture and Conflicts research themes here:

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              Find out more about the Ageing, Society and Dementia research theme

              Research themes

              The 2013/14 academic year sees the launch of a new BU research theme, Ageing, Society and Dementia.  This new theme brings together the ageing component of the previous Health, Well-Being and Ageing theme with the body of work that has been emerging from the Bournemouth University Dementia Institute. This new theme is not just a result of internal activity and interest in the subject but reflects the external policy drive, nationally and internationally, to respond appropriately to the ever increasing numbers of people who will be affected by dementia worldwide. Thus, this new theme is a direct response to one of society’s big challenges – an ageing demographic and a shrinking pool of family members and paid workers who will be available to support this population.

              To give a very brief overview of the considerable activity in the 2012/13 academic year in the area of dementia is challenging, mainly as the cross-school and inter-disciplinary Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) team  have secured 25 externally funded projects since its launch in May 2012, as well as several internal awards for projects via BUs Fusion Investment Fund and 6 dementia PhD studentships. All BUDI’s work  falls under five sub-themes of Service Improvement; Dementia Friendly Environments; Dementia Friendly Leisure; Education and Leadership; and Public Awareness and Knowledge Translation. One of the key areas of public awareness raising activity was featured at the Festival of Learning via an art exhibition collating 600 stories from people with dementia and the general public about their experiences and perspectives on dementia.  We were lucky enough to secure the support for this event from one of the Alzheimer Societies ambassadors, Angela Rippon.

              Improving public awareness about dementia is a challenge, and at BU our unique team, many of whom have approached the study of dementia for the first time in the last few months and who bring alternative ideas and approaches to the table, is key to our future success. We are working in partnership with EU colleagues via ERASMUS MUNDUS funding to develop a new Masters programme ‘Innovations in Dementia’; we have multiple ongoing projects to see through to a successful completion, and many planned events and several new doctoral students and researchers joining the team in the next few months. However our key challenge for the next academic year is to secure high quality research grants and other income streams to ensure we continue our fused approach of education, research and knowledge exchange/practice development to enable this theme to flourish from its successful but very small beginnings.

              Prof Anthea Innes

              School of Health and Social Care

               

              Sign up to the Ageing, Society and Dementia BU Research Theme here:

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                Find out more about the Technology and Design research theme

                Research themes

                Renewable Technology cross-School events were held during last academic year (January 2013 and Feb 2013), these were well attended. Presentations were led by academics and Local Government Representatives including from Poole Borough Council. Additional meetings took place in the area of medical engineering in collaboration with local Health Trusts with excellent attendance cross school and the medical professions. Internal cross school meetings were also organised in the area of creative design and design business. During BU’s Festival of Learning a number of public engagement events were held in June 2013. These events provided a networking opportunity for public engagement, local/regional businesses, government, community and local council representatives, academics and researchers. This included a “question time” activity, one day course in sustainable design and “let’s take pride in design and engineering”  In addition the theme exhibited with cross-school academics at the GovToday Carbon Reduction 2012 event in November 2012 at London and delivered a master class. Attendees included representatives from relevant government departments, agencies and other public sector organisations.

                Future plans include international networking and extending our public engagement activities at the next BU Festival in 2014. In addition we will develop initiatives around the computing/engineering interface. This will include autonomous systems, robotics and intelligent manufacturing. 

                 

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                  New Term, New Research Themes!

                  News from the PVC, Research themes

                  I posted earlier in the summer to let you know of the changes to the research themes (Looking to the Horizons).  We are about to launch them on the world so I thought it would be worth saying a few more words about them.  The themes were used to categorise events that ran as part of the Festival of Learning in June and the themes icons also formed part of the design and branding of the Festival.  You may also have noticed that the themes have been used in the new Postgraduate Prospectus and they will be used to structure the revised research pages on the web; yes, finally we are getting some revised pages after several false starts!  The revised pages are due to be launched in the autumn to tidy things up in time for our REF submission which is submitted in November.  We are also deep in planning for next year’s Festival of Learning and hope that each theme will showcase their work through a series of engaging events.

                  On Tuesday to Friday this week there will be an update each day from two of the Research Themes detailing activities that have taken place within the themes over the past twelve months and what the theme aims to do in future.

                  The Research Themes part of the Blog has now been redesigned with the new themes (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/research-themes/) and I encourage you to take a look.  If you’re not already a member of one or more of the themes then you can sign up using the form at the bottom of this post.

                  It would be a great help if you could let me know of a few choice examples of projects under each theme; things that you would like me to use while promoting the themes in the coming weeks.  Just drop me a line with the project and a short paragraph, it would be a great help!

                   

                  Sign up to the BU Research Themes here!

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                    Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth Research Theme meeting on 29 November!

                    The Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth Research Theme is holding its second meeting of the term on Thursday 29 November. The seminar will be held in the Executive Business Centre at 12:00 – 13:30.  Lunch will be provided. The meeting will be informal and will be used as an opportunity to discuss current research and ideas for cross-collaboration.

                    We look forward to seeing you there – please confirm your attendance to Nikki Gloyns: ngloyns@bournemouth.ac.uk so that we can book lunch for you!

                    Health, Wellbeing and Ageing – First Community Meeting

                    Dear all,      

                    Our first community meeting will be held on March 7th 10am – 1pm at the EBC, third floor. This is everyone’s opportunity to shape and frame the direction of the theme and therefore I would like to actively encourage everyone to attend.

                    I would also like to extend this invitation to all the post-grad students who have signed up; your input will be most valuable.

                    We have a lovely lunch booked

                    There are some key questions that we need to answer:

                     

                    •  Why it is important to society?

                     

                    • What BU has done to make improvements in this area?

                     

                    • What expertise and knowledge BU can provide for future collaborators, commercial partners, etc?

                     

                    Your feedback would be really helpful and if you could email me your comments that would be brilliant:  hhartwell@bournemouth.ac.uk

                    With many thanks and see you in March,

                     Heather, Edwin, Holgar and Carol