Tagged / BU research

The Graduate School story part I…

Professor John Fletcher founded BU’s Graduate School in 2002. Here he reflects on what life was like before the Graduate School and where we have come to so far…

This blog is a reflection of the BU Graduate School story so far as the first incarnation of the Graduate School makes way for a new vision. When I was asked to set up the Graduate School in November 2002 as 0.2FTE of my time, it was in the wake of two RAEs where BU had been criticised for its lack of institutional support of its PGRs and a stream of complaints from our postgraduate researchers via the Student Union.  The first step was to examine the processes and systems in place across both campuses which quickly revealed that the seven Schools had seven different sets of processes and systems and, even more challenging, it transpired that we had somewhere between 80 and 147 PhD students but nobody quite knew how many.  When looking at the qualification rates at that time BU was only managing to get 11% of its PGRs through within 4 years and some researchers had been registered for more than 13 years!  Eight years on the Graduate School has implemented a Code of Practice and a set of processes that are now common across BU’s six Schools, overseen the introduction of new and innovative doctoral programmes and help improve our qualification rates. The systems that the Graduate School has put in place were deemed to be so effective that members of the panel that came to BU for the institutional audit contacted the VC to ask if they could adopt the BU model for their own institution.  BU was also one of the first handful of universities to introduce a credit bearing training programme for its supervisors, something that is now becoming commonplace across the sector. 

The support provided by the Graduate School to our PGR students has reduced the isolation and the complaints received from PGRs but there is still a long way to go to ensure that we have the correct systems in place to create a best practice research environment.  The introduction of myBUILD as an online research student log and compliance system met with considerable resistance but was innovative at that time and BU was one of the first institutes across the HEI sector to introduce an online log.  The lack of resources has meant that it was not possible to continue to develop the platform as the numbers of researchers increased but even though myBUILD has probably long gone past its “best before” date, it is vastly superior to the varied and somewhat unusual mixture of record keeping that was found in the individual Schools. There is an urgent need to redevelop the online system to make it more intuitive and better integrated with the other platforms across BU.

BU now has well over 300 PhD students and the qualification rates, particularly those of our part-time researchers, is vastly superior to that of 2002.  The Graduate School introduced the Annual PGR Conference which has been enormously successful and was an integral part of the Special Audit of PGR programmes, a working member of the EUA’s programme on improving the quality of doctoral programmes across Europe and was the hub for BU’s application to ESRC and AHRC for doctoral support bids (the former falling foul of the spending cuts but the latter achieving success). It is hoped that Graduate School will move from strength to strength as the importance of the postgraduate segment of our student body becomes more significant as we move forward in the 21st century.

Vice-Chancellor’s Award: Collaborative Research Project

Dr Richard Shipway (School of Tourism) won the Vice-Chancellor’s award for the best collaborative research project for his ESRC-funded project – The Sport Tourism Opportunities for Research Mobility and International Networking Group (STORMING) Initiative.

The grant award formed part of the ESRC’s ‘International Training and Networking Opportunities Programme’. The project supported seventeen early career researchers across eleven higher education institutions throughout the UK, through the provision of a series of international networking opportunities for emerging researchers with a commitment to supporting and further developing sport tourism research. All aspects of the delivery, organisation and external leveraging of the project were managed by Richard. The project has delivered a series of international research outputs and positioned the School of Tourism at the heart of emerging research in this area. Richard has also maximised opportunities from this project, including an invitation to serve on the ESRC Peer Review College, reviewing grant applications in the social sciences.

Richard received the award for having made a substantial impact in collaborative working within BU, and securing external funding to create an innovative research network involving internal colleagues and external institutions. The research undertaken by the network has led to high impact outputs.

Congratulations Richard! 😀

Vice-Chancellor’s Awards – research project winners!

The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards took place last night and the winner’s of the two research awards were:

Collaborative research / enterprise project of the year: Dr Richard Shipway from the School of Tourism

Research / enterprise project of the year: Design Simulation Research Centre led by Professor Siamak Noroozi from the School of Design, Engineering & Computing

Congratulations to all staff involved! 😀

We will be featuring both of the award winners in future blog posts!

Dave Parham and Paola Palma – Swash Channel wreck

Dave Parham and Paola Palma (School of Applied Sciences) have been researching the Swash Channel Wreck which lies in approximately 7m of water in the Swash Channel in the approaches to Poole Harbour. The site was discovered as a side-scan sonar anomaly as a result of a geophysical survey conducted by Wessex Archaeology on behalf of Poole Harbour Commissioners and Poole Borough Council. The site has since been designated as a Historic Wreck.

The ship is the subject of a major excavation by BU, supported by English Heritage. It has been dated to around 1630 and includes the earliest ship carvings ever found in the UK, including a mysterious wooden merman, and much of the evidence found on the wreck suggest that it would have been a relatively high status ship for its period.

The wreck has been featured on the One Show (6 April 2011) where presenter Dan Snow took part in a dive on the wreck in the mouth of Poole Bay alongside a team of BU Marine Archaeologists, led by Dave.

Dave will also feature in the fourth episode of Britain’s Secret Seas, The Bustling South, on 29 May at 8pm on BBC2.

After conservation, finds from the Wreck and all the information from the excavation will be passed on to Poole Museum Service to be displayed to the community.

PGR Poster Events

Guidance

Post Graduate Researcher Poster Events

At School level we will shortly be holding a Post Graduate Poster event on the 18th May. This was an initiative that started five years ago following a suggestion from a PGR student representative. Various poster events are organised specifically for PGR only participation, at national level such as the young engineer of the year competition at the Houses of Parliament, at university level organised by the Graduate School and at academic group level such as the new Psychology event. It is worth thinking about these activities and the value to the academic community at various levels.

Our PGR poster event is organised with the help of a small number of staff but the main decision making regarding the format of the event is driven by the PGR community itself. The posters compete for a small cash prize within year groups and are judged externally by invited high-profile industrialists and academics. Participation level has been high during the four events to date and the event ownership for the participating PGR’s has been maintained. External participation to judge the posters has been appreciated by the PGR’s as the economic and practical benefits of research are seen as valued. In addition, the enthusiasm for the research projects from the external competition panel act as a real motivation to students and supervisors. Our key values that keep the poster conference successful are retaining the PRG ownership concerning format and external engagement via the competition judgment of the posters.

Prof Mark Hadfield

Deputy Dean – Research and Enterprise

School of Design, Engineering and Computing

REF event 19 & 20 May 2011 – REGISTRATION IS OPEN!!

Research assessment

REF logoBU is hosting a two-day REF event on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 May 2011. All staff are invited to attend.

The event is of interest to BU academic staff and anyone who will be involved in the BU submission to the REF.

There will be three separate sessions:

Session 1
Thursday 19 May 9am-2pm
This session will be open to BU staff and external delegates.
There will be presentations from the REF team at HEFCE, REF impact pilot panel members, and a REF impact pilot institution (University of Plymouth).

Session 2
Thursday 19 May 2pm-5pm
This session is only open to BU staff.
This session will provide BU staff with the opportunity for internal networking, followed by a demonstration of BU’s new publications management system and a presentation on preparing a publication profile for the REF.

Session 3
Friday 20 May 9:45am-4:30pm
This session is only open to BU staff.
The focus of this session is the development of the BU impact case studies. There will be presentations of the impact case studies being developed at the moment.

All sessions will take place in Kimmeridge House and Poole House, Talbot Campus.

You must register separately for each session you will be attending.

See our previous REF Event blog post for further details. The provisional programmes are available on the registration forms (see links above).

BU Research opinion polls!

Guidance

You may have noticed our new opinion poll section on the BU Research Blog homepage.

We are interested to know what you think about RESEARCH – whether that’s research at BU, the external research environment, good practice for undertaking research, particular research projects… Basically anything to do with research!

Responding to the poll takes seconds and responses are anonymous. Once you have responded to the poll you can see how other BU staff have also responded!

Once a poll has finished we will be writing a blog post about the results. Depending on the poll question, the results could impact on how we manage and administer research at BU in future.

We will be changing the poll question every few weeks. The first poll is now up and running and asks whether journal impact factors are a good indicator of quality.

If you would like to suggest a topic/question to be added to the poll then let us know by commenting on this blog post!

To read more about journal impact factors, read Anita’s excellent post on impact factors.

REF event 19 & 20 May 2011 – SAVE THE DATE!

Research assessment

REF logoBU will be holding a two day Research Excellence Framework (REF) event on 19 and 20 May to which all staff are invited to attend.

Day 1 (open to BU staff and external delegates)
9am-2pm – this will be an external event supported by HEFCE to which all HEIs in the South of England will be invited. The focus will be on developing and assessing impact for the REF. There will be speakers from HEFCE, an academic from one of the impact pilot institutions (University of Plymouth), and some of the impact pilot panel members. The event is aimed primarily at academics likely to be submitted to the REF and UOA Leaders. It will provide a forum for networking and discussion around preparations for the impact element of the REF.

Day 1 (open to BU staff only)
2pm-5pm – There will be an opportunity for internal networking, a demonstration of the publications management system BU will soon be implementing, and a talk by Prof Matthew Bennett on building a publication profile for the REF.

Day 2 (open to BU staff only)
9am-4:30pm – the focus of Day 2 is the development of the BU impact case studies. The day will open with a presentation by Prof Matthew Bennett on what impact actually is, followed by presentations of the impact case studies being developed at the moment (3 per Unit of Assessment). These will run in 9 concurrent sessions with 4 presentations taking place in parallel during each session. The main aims of Day 2 are to get academics thinking about the impact case studies in a structured way, to identify resource requirements to maximise potential impacts, and the engage staff from M&C with the case studies being developed. In addition this is a great opportunity to showcase the excellent research that is undertaken at BU, to meet colleagues from other Schools, and to stimulate ideas for future research collaborations.

The event is free to attend but booking is essential. Booking will open next week – further details to follow!

Future BU research themes – have your say!

Following the current refresh of Vision & Values led by the Vice Chancellor Professor John Vinney the intention is to look again at the research and enterprise strategy for BU.

There are likely to be two big elements of change: one is a shift to talking about research as an all embracing term for not only the creation of knowledge but also its dissemination through enterprise and professional practice, and the other is a move towards a more outward facing approach led by the large societal themes both of the day and of the future.  This will position BU to respond more effectively to the big research questions; those associated with the funding and societal impact.  As the first step towards this we are trying to identify a series of broad themes or communities of interest around which we can focus and foster a more collegial and collaborative research mission. 

Identifying these themes or communities is something we wish to engage all staff in.  In the short term these themes and communities will be used to promote our research via the web through a shift to a more narrative based approach rather than one based on our internal structures as at present. 

To start this process off we looked first at the key funding themes for the research councils and other large funders and then ‘road-tested’ them via the BU Professoriate to come up with a long list of possible research themes or communities of interest.  I am now seeking your input via a survey; what themes speak to you? What themes would your research fit under? What are we are missing?  The survey takes less than two minutes to complete. Your participation is very much appreciated and will help directly shape not only the way in which we promote our research via the BU website but also our future research strategy.

To complete the survey click here!

 The survey is open until Monday 2 May.

 

Matthew Bennett

PVC (Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation)

Employee wellbeing consultancy package offered to health-conscious businesses

typical workplace

The Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) awarded by HEFCE to English HEIs as an annual block grant to support the development of a pervasive enterpreneurial environment through sustained engagement in enterprise activities. Prof Steve Ersser and Dr Ann Hemingway (HSC) were internally awarded HEIF-4 funding to collaborate with academics across BU to develop a consultancy package to promote wellbeing and humanisation in the workplace, building on the success of the cross-School Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life (CeWQoL). We caught up with Project Manager Dr Ann Hemingway to find out how the project is going…

The funding is to enable BU to develop a multi-dimensional consultancy package to help businesses improve the wellbeing of their employees.

“Organisations are more dependent than ever before on well-trained, highly qualified and motivated staff,” said Dr Ann Hemingway. “60% of adult waking hours are spent at work, yet 175 million working days are lost to illness, so organisations need to tackle head-on issues around absenteeism but also sickness presenteeism – employees still turning up for work despite ill health and complaints that can so often result in future sickness absence.”

Dr Hemingway continued: “Our research on workforce health and wellbeing has enabled us to achieve a new understanding of health at work which encompasses physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing and the social determinants of health.”

CeWQol has received £250,000 from the University’s HEIF) grant to support commercial and public sector firms and charity organisations in their quest to be recognised as healthy workplaces – and achieve formal accreditation through external agencies such as Investors in People and the Royal Society for Public Health.

The package focuses on wellbeing and humanisation – a term being championed by the University (building on the work of Prof Kate Galvin and Prof Les Todres) around the importance of people-centred processes that support wellbeing and the concern with helping employees feel valued.

Organisations will have the unique opportunity to draw on the University’s wide-ranging research expertise from across all the schools in the university. This includes human resources management (recruitment and retention), occupational health and safety, healthier communities (nutrition, exercise and sport), and the design of working environments and stress alleviation.

As such the project involves five academic schools – Health and Social Care; Business School; Design, Engineering and Computing; Media School; and Applied Sciences – and the BU Wellbeing Enterprise Network in collaboration with the Centre for Practice Development and the Centre for Qualitative Research.

As part of the grant BU has developed a Collaborative Research Space at the Lansdowne campus in which staff can engage in collaborative activity and deliver consultancy training for external organisations.

“What we are offering organisations is our multi-disciplinary expertise to help them organise their work, their environment, and the communication and social opportunities for their staff.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the wellbeing and humanisation in the workplace consultancy package should contact Dr Ann Hemingway at BU’s Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life on 01202 962796 or aheming@bournemouth.ac.uk.teamwork

Bournemouth University staff involved in the project are: Professor Steven Ersser; Dr Ann Hemingway; Dr Paul Stevens; Dr Fiona Cowdell; Professor Les Todres; Professor Kate Galvin; Mr Clive Andrewes; Professor Yannis Georgellis; Professor Thomas Lange; Dr Eloise Carr; Professor John Edwards; Mr Joe Flintham; Dr John Hallam; Associate Professor Heather Hartwell; Dr Sarah Hean; Dr Ian Jones; Dr Elizabeth Norton; Ms Julie Robson; and Colin Hewitt Bell. 

For further information please see project page on the CeWQoL website.

Bids: Good Luck & Congratulations Week Ending 1 April 2011

Awarded & submitted bids

Last week was a modest week for bidding but Media School was the exception with bids going to the British Academy from Carrie Hodges and Darren Lilleker.  Hugh Chignell and Vanessa Edwards have also put in sizable bids last week.   Congratulations are due for three bids from the Creative Enterprise Bureau (Mike Molesworth, Dan Jackson, Liam Sheridan) and another small success from Mike Molesworth for work with On The Wild Side.  In Applied Science Adrian Newton put in a large bid to the New Forest Higher Level Stewardship Board and Mark Dover secured another small enterprise contract for GIS work.  All good stuff!

Matthew Bennett

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation)

Join the BU Research Group on Facebook!

Funding opportunities, Guidance

facebookAs well as the recently launched BU Research Blog, BU Research has established a Facebook group to allow those of you on Facebook to have a private shared area to discuss research!

The BU Research group is a closed Facebook group which only BU members of staff can join.

The purpose of the BU Research group is to provide a collaborative working environment for BU staff to:

  • discuss research ideas safe in the knowledge that all discussions will only be visible by other group members, i.e. BU staff only
  • make contact with one another, to search for one another, to identify colleagues with particular skill sets, etc.

To get started, join the group and post a message to the wall!

We aim to use the BU Research group on Facebook to promote research opportunities for multidisciplinary calls, such as joint Research Council calls.

Enjoy making use of the site and please encourage your BU colleagues to join!

Let us know what you think about the group by leaving a comment at the end of this post.

“Blogging is using a new medium for what it is good for – connecting and interacting” (George Siemens)

“Facebook is a social networking website — a gathering spot, to connect with your friends and with your friends friends. Facebook allows you to make new connections who share a common interest, expanding your personal network” (Anon)

Research Bids 18 & 25 March 2011

Awarded & submitted bids

Since taking up my new post as PVC in January I have been sending out messages of congratulations and good luck each week to all those either awarded or submitting a Research & Enterprise bid.  I intend to continue this practice but also to make use of the blog in order to do this.   It is important in my view to celebrate the submission of new Research & Enterprise bids and wish our colleagues good luck!

I am a week behind so here with a double dose.  For the week ending the 18 March  I would like to wish Elizabeth Rosser, Janet Scammell, Ian Donaldson, Sara White and Mel Hughes of HSC good luck with their Nuffield Foundation bid and I am pleased to acknowledge the success of Karen Rees and Keith Brown in being awarded various recent bids from regional County Councils and NHS Trusts.  Ross Hill in ApSci has been successful with a bid to UK Space Agency and Holger Schutkowski, Browen Russell and Richard Stillman have also all put in recent bids.  Richard’s bid for work on the Severn Barrage is particularly significant.  Finally I would like to draw particular attention to Janet Dickinson’s success with an EPSRC grant and Clive Allen and Barry Surman are to be congratulated with respect to two KTP Schemes awarded this week.

For the week ending the 25 March I would like to acknowledge a large clutch of bids from HSC.  Good luck are due to: Catherine Angell, Sara Crabtree, Fiona Cowdell, Carol Bond and Clive Andrews.  The latter contract to the NHS South West is particularly noteworthy.   The following people in HSC had bids awarded this week: Joanne Holmes, Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor, Keith Brown, Clive Andrews, and Peter Thomas which is all great news!  Richard Gordon put in a bid for a provision of a short course in SoT and Fabian Homberg (BS) submitted a small grant to the British Academy.

Matthew

Professor Matthew Bennett

PVC (Research, Enterprise & Internationalisation)

What is a KTP?

Funding opportunities

KTPHave you ever wondered what a KTP is, how it works and how you could get involved? Then wonder no more! Dr Martyn Polkinghorne demystifies the elusive KTPs!

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) are partly Government funded and aim to help businesses absorb and benefit from the knowledge/expertise residing within UK Universities and Colleges. The rationale behind each KTP is the formation of a 3-way partnership between a ‘Business’ partner, a ‘Knowledge’ partner and a ‘Graduate’ partner that leads to genuine and sustainable benefits for all involved.

BU has undertaken Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (including the previous Teaching Company Scheme) for 22 years during which time we have run approximately 90 projects that have brought in over £9 million of enterprise income.

When funding is agreed, a Graduate is employed by the University, but based full-time at the organisation to deliver the project. Approx. 1/2 day of specialist academic effort is provided to support the project and drive it forward. Although normally with a business partner, KTPs can sometimes also be run with social enterprises and public sector bodies.

The project budget pays for the Graduate, the Academic support and related training, travel and equipment. Even with the Government’s funding KTP is not a cheap solution, but for the right project it can provide the external partner with excellent value for money.KTP diagram

The major sponsor of KTP remains the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) which funds approx 50% of all projects. Both the TSB, and the other minor sponsors (Research Councils, Regional Development Agencies, Government Departments, ERDF etc) have strict priorities for the project sectors and organisational types that they wish to support.

Potential projects must address the funding criteria of one of the sponsors and be able to demonstrate high levels of innovation, impact and challenge.

Recently completed KTPs include a fantastic project with Cholderton Rare Breeds Farm Park in which Steven Richards from the School of Tourism helped the company to develop and implement a new marketing strategy which increased visitor numbers to the tourist attraction, and helped to safeguard the future of the organisation. Further examples of KTP case studies can be accessed here.

If you want to find out more about KTPs or discuss an idea for a potential KTP then contact Martyn Polkinghorne.

Further information can be found on the BU KTP webpages or the national KTP website.

Dr Ben Thomas and Prof Mark Hadfield – RNLI slipways

Lifeboat being launched (c) RNLI Nicholas LeachDr Ben Thomas and Prof Mark Hadfield (DEC) have been undertaking some marvellous research with the RNLI. The research was shortlisted for the 2010 Times Higher Education (THE) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Innovation & Technology, and you can read all about what they’ve achieved here on the blog!

Ben Thomas, RNLI researchThe Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charitable organisation that provides marine search and rescue cover along the entire coast range of the UK and Ireland. Lifeboat slipway stations are an essential part of the RNLI’s coastal protection; they allow lifeboat stations to be located in areas where there is no natural harbour and for lifeboats to be launched in almost any weather conditions. However, as the size and mass of lifeboats have increased over the years the traditional wood or steel lined slipways have been shown to be insufficient, with problems of friction and wear affecting the reliability of slipway launches. New composite slipway panels have reduced these issues but high friction and wear problems remain, with replacement costs for the expensive composite panels placing strain on the RNLI’s scarce resources.

Traditionally friction is reduced by manually applying grease to the slipway, but this practice has safety implications for the crew and has raised environmental concerns regarding the repeated release of grease into the sea at the base of the slipway.

Analysing the contact conditions between the 15cm wide keel of a 35 tonne lifeboat and the slipway lining presented considerable technical challenges, particularly as the lifeboat approaches speeds of 45kph during launch, and this required the development of a new multi-disciplinary approach using aspects of tribology, finite element analysis, life cycle analysis and real world data collection, with experimental results combined with real slipway experience and computer simulations to develop  a deeper understanding of the nature of the friction and wear problems on the slipway.

The data collected indicated that the reliability of lifeboat slipways could be greatly increased by ensuring the slipway panels were well aligned along the length of the slipway, it also showed that a small change to the panel geometry to incorporate a chamfer significantly reduced wear development and the adverse effects of panel misalignments on launch and recovery friction.

The project showed that it was feasible to substitute the currently used marine grease lubrication with biodegradeable greases, reducing the effects of grease bioaccumulation at the base of the slipway. The research also proposed the use of a novel water lubrication system instead of grease directly applied to the slipway, with the potential to greatly reduce both the operational costs and the environmental impact of slipway launches. These water lubricated systems have subsequently begun to be adopted across the RNLI slipway network.

The research recommendations will be used by the RNLI to improve the lifeboat slipways in the UK and Ireland. This will increase the reliability of slipway launches and recoveries and reduce the risk exposure of the volunteer lifeboat crew. The improvements will also reduce the operating costs of the RNLI.

The changes recommended by the research are already underway, the new slipway lining material has been fitted to the newer slipway stations (e.g. Tenby, Padstow etc.) already and the water lubrication systems are also in place. The recommended slipway lining material and water lubrication systems are being phased in across the remaining UK slipway station network over the next few years, coinciding with the simultaneous rollout of the new Tamar lifeboat to the slipway stations.

The combined effects of Prof Hadfield and Dr Thomas’s research recommendations will allow the RNLI to save up to £200,000 per year in operational costs once these are adopted across the slipway station network. The changes will also increase the reliability of lifeboat slipway launches and recoveries, reducing the risk exposure of the volunteer lifeboat crew who crew each slipway station, and allowing the continued safe operation of the RNLI’s crucial role in preserving life along the coast of the UK and Ireland. The final benefit is showing that the previous lubrication system involving the manual application of grease to the slipway by lifeboat crewmen can be replaced by an automatic water based system, thus reducing the cost and environmental impact of lifeboat slipway launches as well as the risks lifeboat crew members are exposed to on the slipway.

Dr Ben Thomas undertook the research, supervised by Prof Hadfield, as part of a CASE award studentship funded by the EPSRC and the RNLI. In addition, the RNLI commissioned Prof Hadfield and Dr. Thomas to undertake additional research into alternative slipway materials in 2009.

Further details:

RNLI webpage: Lifeboat project ready for awards splash

BBC Cornwall news story: RNLI slipway research

AlphaGailieo webpage: RNLI lifeboat launch benefits from BU research