Tagged / BU research

My Turing Scheme experience in Nepal

international, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Student Engagement

My name is Sulochana Dhakal-Rai. I am a final-year PhD student at Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). My PhD research is related to factors affecting the rising rate of CS in urban hospitals in Nepal. There are several reasons to choose BU to do PhD study. Firstly,  this university offers strong professional orientation with focus on academic excellence and employability to multinational students from multicultural background. Secondly, it provides opportunities to students for undertaking  different activities, for example – international student exchange programme. I am always keen to be involved in such types of activities for my personal and professional development.

I applied for Turing Scheme Fund to do research activities in Nepal. The application process was very easy. I had received positive support from my supervisors and team of international grants. I was delighted to participate in international mobility, because I had a chance not only  sharing my research experience to student and teachers at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS), Kathmandu, but also to do my own research activities (secondary data verification and analysis).

Although, it was hot weather, polluted and over-crowded  in Kathmandu, I enjoyed eating Nepali cuisine, meeting own people and speaking Nepali language. For me, there was not any problem in local language and culture. However, it was uncomfortable using public transport at times. I had suffered from of an episode of indigestion problem as well.

I loved meeting students and teachers of MMIHS. During my stay in MMIHS, I had the opportunity to share experience about my research study, using mixed methods in research study and my experience working as a foreign nurse in UK to relevant teachers and students. They were really good and inspiring people. I always received respect and support from them while I was there.

After this international activity, I have learnt how to work with people from different organisation and different place. I have developed my confidence in employability and career skills. I would like to express my thanks to Bournemouth University for providing me such a golden opportunity. I strongly recommend to other student at Bournemouth University to participate these kinds of international mobility programmes.

Sulochana Dhakal-Rai.

Research Facilitator focus change – 1st August 2022

Exciting changes are coming to you from August 2022 in terms of the support provided by RDS’ Research Facilitators.

As agreed at the December 2021 Research Performance and Management Committee, the focus of the Research Facilitators will change from Faculty-facing to funder specialisms, based on the major funders. The current post titles will change to ‘Research Facilitator for…’ and the contacts for each post are detailed below:

The focus of the Research Facilitator support will remain largely unchanged, which is:

  • to identify potential funding opportunities through horizon scanning and cascade these across BU via the weekly funder briefings
  • to provide support to researchers within the Research Facilitators funder specialisms, to develop their bids through building research teams (including external collaborators as well as inter/multi-disciplinary teams within BU)
  • to advise on bid content and structure to ensure a high-quality bid is submitted to external funders.

Support for all other types of bids/funders will be provided through Faculty Leadership and Research Mentors.

The change to funder specialisms will mean that we can provide support to a larger number of academics through funder focussed briefings, scramble events, STEAMLabs (to form interdisciplinary ideas linked with external collaborators), and training through the RKEDF. We have already started transitioning to funder-focussed training this academic year, and these opportunities will also be available next academic year.

In addition to Research Facilitators, there are several support options in place to support you through the pre-award process and finding funding opportunities tailored to you. BU have invested in Research Professional, which enables you to target opportunities specifically for your research area. If you are new to Research Professional, this link provides you with help guides and bi-monthly webinars to help you get started. In addition, weekly funder briefings will continue this academic year, and the programme for 2022/23 will ensure a greater focus on specific opportunities each week. We will also be trialling a user-friendly ‘funding opportunities’ newsletter shortly.

More information will be communicated in July to help you navigate the pre-award process. Further communications will outline the changes leading up to August 2022. Stay tuned!

Funding Development Briefing – Spotlight on…UKRI Future Leader Fellowships

Funding opportunities

The RDS Funding Development Briefings occur weekly, on a Wednesday at 12 noon.

Each session covers the latest major funding opportunities, followed by a brief Q&A session. Some sessions also include a spotlight on a particular funding opportunity of strategic importance to BU.

Next Wednesday 29th June, there will be a spotlight on the UKRI Future Leader Fellowships. 

We will cover:

  • Overview
  • Internal process
  • Q & A

For those unable to attend, the session will be recorded and shared on Brightspace here.

Please join the briefing by clicking the link below.

Click here to join the meeting

Trusted Research – information now live

Guidance, Research assessment, Research Ethics

Within the Research Environment pages on the BU website, there is now a section on the Trusted Research agenda.

The Trusted Research Agenda is a government initiative to secure the integrity of the system of international research collaboration and innovation.

Please visit the page to find out more, including key details and guidance.

Professor Feigenbaum and her team launch guide on social media storytelling for health literacy

Knowledge Exchange

Creating social media posts that aim to build health or information literacy is challenging. It is one thing to get likes on a video of a cute dog dancing or your latest holiday pics, it is another to develop reflective, empathetic understanding of complex phenomena in a bite-sized image or video.

To help guide people through the process of creating social media stories for information and health literacy,  Professor Feigenbaum designed the Pick N Mix strategy. This Pick N Mix method is based on research findings from her team’s UKRI/AHRC COVID-19 Rapid Response project that analysed over 15,000 webcomics to look at the role this medium played in public health messaging on Instagram during the first year of the pandemic. The guide also draws from current research in psychology, graphic medicine and media studies. It was designed by creative studio partners Minute Works.

On 10th June 2022 Professor Feigenbaum and her team of BU student RAs — Katie Penfound, Kristy Hart, Linh Trinh and Abbie Smith — launched the new guide during a training workshop for stakeholders delivered to project partners from University Hospitals Dorset, CILIP The Library and Information Association and CEMP’s EdD programme.
The guide and stakeholder training session are set to make a meaningful impact, already getting great feedback from stakeholders.
Reaching out to a wider audience, on 14 June 2022, Professor Feigenbaum and BU alumni Ozlem Demirkol Tonnesen, an AHRC project RA and PhD Candidate at the University of Southampton, published a piece for The Conversation’s Quarter Life series, translating their storytelling strategies for social media content creators in their 20s and 30s.
Professor Feigenbaum and her team’s research on social media storytelling for health literacy will feature later this year at the British Science Festival. For more resources on social media storytelling for information and health literacy, you can check out their healthy socials training pack and AHRC project website.

British Academy Writing Workshop in Nepal: Call for participants

Awarded & submitted bids, conferences, international, Publishing, Training, Women's Academic Network, writing

We are inviting expressions of interest for Nepal-based academic with an interest in gender and development issue to participate in our Writing Workshop: “Promoting Publishing in the field of Gender and Development in Nepal”.  Bournemouth University is leading two separate three-day workshops for early career researchers (ECRs) working across various universities in Nepal to encourage and support them to publish in peer reviewed journals in the field of social sciences, in Kathmandu (from  17-19 August 2022), and in Pokhara (from  21-23 August 2022).  The funding for these exciting workshop is provided by the British Academy.

There will be a mixture of presentations, group discussion and other interactive exercises, and independent writing exercises. The workshop involves practical sessions to help attendees to make their research idea clear and compelling to reviewers, and finalise their papers for publications. One-to-one sessions with our expert advisers will allow attendees to work through different aspects of their own research papers, methods and ideas.

 

How to apply: If you are an ECR based in Nepal and have some idea (or/and data) to work towards publication in gender and development, then please send us:

  1. A short CV – 3 pages maximum;
  2. An abstract or summary of the proposed paper you wish to develop through the writing workshop- (300 words maximum) by 30thJune 2022.

Female ECRs are highly encouraged to apply. Please use Subject British Academy Writing Workshop 2022 and email to sdhakaladhikari@bournemouth.ac.uk,  with a copy to both: pregmi@bournemouth.ac.uk and rashmi.rajkarnikar@cdec.tu.edu.np . The faciliators will inform you about your selection for the workshop by the middle of July 2022.  Selected participants will be asked to to submit their first rough draft by 3rd August, so that this can be discussed further during the workshop (17-19 August 2022).

The Writing Workshop facilitators are three BU scholars, Dr Shovita Dhakal Adhikari, in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Department of Midwifery & Health Science in collaboration with Dr. Rashmee Rajkarnikar, at Nepal’s oldest and largest university, namely Tribhuvan University.

 

Another CMMPH COVID-19 publication on fathers

innovation, international, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) Visiting Faculty members Prof. Minesh Khashu and Ms. Jillian Ireland on the acceptance of their paper “COVID-19 restrictions and psychological well-being of fathers with infants admitted to NICU (neonatal intensive care units)—an exploratory cross-sectional study” has been accepted by Acta Paediatrica [1]. Acta Paediatrica

These authors, both employed by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, are part of an international team of researchers studying the role of fathers in maternity care.  The first author on the paper, Dr. Esther Adama is Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Edith Cowan University in Australia. Previous papers produced by some members of this team were both published in the Journal of Neonatal Nursing [2-3].

Congratulations to my colleagues!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

References:

  1. Adama E.A., Koliouli F., Provenzi L., Feeley N., van Teijlingen E., Ireland J., Thomson-Salo F., Khashu M and FINESSE Group (2022) COVID-19 restrictions and psychological well-being of fathers with infants admitted to NICU—an exploratory cross-sectional study, Acta Paediatrica (accepted).
  2. Fisher, D., Khashu, M., Adama, E., Feeley, N., Garfield, C., Ireland, J., Koliouli F., Lindberg, B., Noergaard, B., Provenzi, L., Thomson-Salo, F., van Teijlingen, E. (2018) Fathers in neonatal units: Improving infant health by supporting the baby-father bond & mother-father co-parenting, Journal of Neonatal Nursing 24(6): 306-312 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2018.08.007
  3. Ireland, J., Khashu, M., Cescutti-Butler, L., van Teijlingen, E., Hewitt-Taylor, J. (2016) Experiences of fathers with babies admitted to neonatal care units: A review of literature, Journal of Neonatal Nursing 22(4): 171–176

RKEDF Clinical Research Governance Sessions

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

As you will be aware, RDS offers something called the RKEDF, or Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – as part of this there are a number of sessions available surrounding clinical research governance. These sessions can be booked as a 1:2:1 or in bespoke group sessions with Suzy Wignall, BU’s Clinical Governance Advisor.

As always, general chats/specific discussions can also be booked in too – please just email!

The RKEDF sessions available are as follows:

Please get in touch if you are interested in any of these sessions.

For general guidance, documents and further information surrounding processes, take a look at the Clinical Governance website.

Another research league table

international, Publishing

This week Research.com, a prominent academic platform, published its 2022 Edition of the Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities.  Professor Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), is listed as number 234 in United Kingdom ranking as well as number 1238 in the Social Sciences and Humanities world ranking.

 

Reminder – Spotlight on MRC TODAY

Funding opportunities

The RDS Funding Development Briefings occur weekly, on a Wednesday at 12 noon.

Each session covers the latest major funding opportunities, followed by a brief Q&A session. Some sessions also include a spotlight on a particular funding opportunity of strategic importance to BU.

This Wednesday 8th June, there will be a spotlight on the Medical Research Council.

We will cover:

  • Overview
  • How to apply
  • Q & A

For those unable to attend, the session will be recorded and shared on Brightspace here.