Tagged / BU research

More pilots please!

PG research, Publishing, REF Subjects, Research Integritiy, student research, writing

“More pilots please!” is not a call from British Airways, Ryanair or the Royal Air Force.  No, it a reminder to students to do more piloting in their postgraduate research projects.  Between us we have read many (draft) theses and examined over 60 PhD theses external to Bournemouth University, and it is clear to us that many students do not do enough pre-testing or piloting of their research instruments.  Perhaps they did some piloting or feasibility work for their projects but don’t write enough about it.  Or they present some feasibility or piloting in their thesis but haven’t added references to methodological texts.

The term ‘pilot studies’ refers to mini versions of a full-scale study (also called ‘feasibility’ studies), as well as the specific pre-testing of a particular research instruments such as data collection tools (i.e. questionnaire or semi-structured interview schedule). Pilot studies are key to good study design [1-6].  Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies have several of important functions in research design and can provide valuable insights to the researcher on both tools and research processes.  We think it is telling that our most cited paper on Google Scholar is not one of our papers reporting research findings but a methods paper highlighting the importance of pilot studies [2].

 

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.
  2. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2001) The importance of pilot studies, Social Research Update Issue 35, (Editor N. Gilbert), Guildford: University of Surrey. Web:  http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU35.html
  3. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V.(2002) ‘The importance of pilot studies’ Nursing Standard 16(40): 33-36. Web: www.nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf
  4. Hundley, V., van Teijlingen E, (2002) The role of pilot studies in midwifery research RCM Midwives Journal 5(11): 372-74.
  5. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2003) Pilot study, In: Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A. & Liao, T. (eds.) Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods, Vol. 2, Orego, Sage: 823-24.
  6. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(3): 219-21.

 

 

Congratulations to BU sociologist

international, Publishing, Research Integritiy, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Shovita Dhakal Adhikari on the publication of her paper ‘Understanding ‘trafficking vulnerabilities’ among children: the responses linking to child protection issues in Nepal’ [1].  This academic paper was published earlier this month in the journal Children’s Geographies.   Shovita and her co-author Dr. Jackie Turton discuss child trafficking in Nepal within the broader framework of child protection.

The paper examines both individual (gender, ethnicity and caste) and structural (their experiences in relation to work, migration, education and lack of birth registration) vulnerabilities and their links with child trafficking as a child protection concern. The authors suggest there is a need for a more nuanced understanding of trafficking vulnerabilities as part of a continuum, rather than a distinct event, to improve outcomes for children. They use the evidence presented here to call for a holistic approach. Policies and programmes in Nepal and across the globe must be integrated within the broader concerns of child protection, thus strengthening the system from local to national level, while recognising the importance of children’s rights to participate in any decision-making.

Well done.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

  1. Adhikari, S.D. & Turton, J. (2019) Understanding ‘trafficking vulnerabilities’ among children: the responses linking to child protection issues in Nepal, Children’s Geographies (online first) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14733285.2019.1676398

 

Leverhulme Trust – Visiting BU

The prestigious Leverhulme Trust are visiting on

Wednesday 20th November 11:00 – 14:00 in Bournemouth House (Lansdowne)

The Trust provide a range of research grants and fellowships for Humanities and Social Sciences. During this visit their representatives will provide an overview of the Trust, it’s remit, the types of funding offered, their decision-making processes and timeframes, and discuss the planning of a Leverhulme Trust application.

The presentation will be followed by Q& A and a networking lunch.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

  • To learn about the Leverhulme Trust, its remit and the type of funding offered
  • To be able to determine whether or not the Leverhulme Trust is an appropriate funder for your research project

To register your interest in this workshop please e-mail Organisational Development

Research Leadership Training Programme – Open for nominations

Training

Following on from last year’s successful Research Leadership Programme, (consistently rated 4+ out of 5), we are running a similar programme in 2019-20. This programme supports the development of all academics including Early Career Researchers, Mid-Career Academics, Senior Research Leaders and Associate Professors.

Participants will :

  • Be helped to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to lead teams to successfully deliver funded research projects, in line with stakeholder and funder requirements.
  • Gain an understanding of effective team leadership and team working within a research context in order to be able to devise strategies to get the best out of teams in the challenging environment of research.
  • Be equipped with an understanding of their strengths and limitations in order to be confident in developing their leadership skills in line with their career stage and future aspirations and be more confident to expand their funded research activities.

Quotes from last year :

“Totally relevant to tasks we have to undertake and very enjoyable learning experience”, (Early Career);

“Excellent workshop, learned a lot of useful information I didn’t know”, (Mid-Career); and

“Fantastic tools were given for future leaders both in research and academic leadership”, (Senior Research Leader).

Full details including the timetable are available  – Research Leadership Programme Overview

Nominations will be required from Heads of Department in line with the training needs of the individual. No form is needed – an email will be fine, sent to  RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Nominations need to be received by 30th November 2019. If you have any queries, please contact RKEDF@Bournemouth.ac.uk

(Please be aware that is NOT a course on bid writing.)

 

Photo of the week ‘Safe swim: Supporting physical activity and well being for transgender young people’

Telling a story of research through photography

The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.

These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community. 

This week’s photo of the week was taken by Jayne Caudwell & Carly Stewart and is titled;

‘Safe swim: Supporting physical activity and well being for transgender young people’

This qualitative research project involves a local Bournemouth-based transgender group. It focuses on their swim-related activities to explore the benefits of water-based physical activity. Statistics demonstrate that LGBT+ have higher levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal feelings as a consequence of feeling isolated, and experiences of rejection and bullying. Transphobia and public scrutiny of transgender bodies negatively impacts the daily lives of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. There is evidence that swimming as a form of physical activity can enhance subjective well being. However, the places of sport and physical activity, specifically swimming pools are not always welcoming to transgender and gender non-conforming participants. Currently, the group privately hires a local pool and by invitation the researchers (Caudwell and Stewart) have attended on four occasions. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews have identified that group members look forward to and enjoy attending the sessions. The photograph celebrates members of the group being physically active and playful in the in-door place of a swimming pool. Aside: The group have given their consent for the photograph to be submitted to the Research Photography Competition.

(The researchers have obtained BU ethical clearance for the research project. The researchers completed the swimming pool’s required procedure to take photographs)

If you have any questions about the Photo of the Week series or the Research Photography Competition please email: research@bournemouth.ac.uk

ACORN Funding Workshop for Early Career Researchers

The current round of ACORN funding is open, and the closing date for applications is 30th October. For those considering applying, this workshop is for you!

Monday 21st October   15:00 – 17:00 at the Talbot Campus in the CREATE Lecture Theatre (Fusion)

The ACORN fund is internal to BU and is aimed at giving Early Career Researchers an opportunity to hone both application and project management skills and an opportunity to receive constructive feedback from the funding panel members. Details of the scheme are available in the Acorn Fund Policy and there is a separate ACORN Fund application form.

If you would like to attend the ACORN workshop, please email acorn@bournemouth.ac.uk.

RKEDF – Good Clinical Practice ‘Lite’

NHS, Research Ethics, Training

On Tuesday 15th October, RDS are running a 2 hour workshop on the standards of Good Clinical Practice. If you’re running your own clinical research, or are planning to in the future then this workshop is for you.

This workshop is designed to ensure that Researchers are equipped to conduct clinical research in accordance with the international standard.

The workshop will cover other standards and regulations, roles in clinical research, participant eligibility and data collection, safety reporting and closing down your study.

By the end of this workshop you will have an understanding about:

  • The importance of protecting the rights, safety and wellbeing of research participants
  • The importance of ensuring that research data are reliable
  • The roles and responsibilities of those involved in clinical research
  • The different stages of the clinical research pathway

If you’re interested in attending then reserve your place via Organisational Development.

NERC standard grants – internal competition extended

Funding opportunities

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures available here.

As at January 2019, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available standard grant round is 14th January 2020. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted has been extended until 11th October 2019.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\RDS\Public\NERC Demand Management 2020.

NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RDS submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RDS will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RDS, and will work closely with Research Facilitators and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Access to external bid writers will also be available.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Lisa Andrews, RDS Research Facilitator – andrewsl@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RDS Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

 

Photo of the week: ‘Environmental impact of the Rohingya refugee crisis in a photo’

Telling a story of research through photography

The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.

These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community. 

This week’s photo of the week was taken by Mehidi Chowdhury and is titled;

‘Environmental impact of the Rohingya refugee crisis in a photo’

‘The photo has been taken during my visit to the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Kutupalong camp is the largest refugee camp in the world hosting more than half a million refugees. The visit funded by BU’s Global Challenges Research Fund took place in August 2018; one year after the latest mass exodus of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The environmental impact of the crisis is visibly devastating. Forest areas have been cleared to make shelters for refugees. No large trees, birds and animals can be seen. I saw some Rohingya and local Bangladeshi settlements side by side. The demarcation is clear: Bangladeshi settlements are covered with trees and Rohingya settlements are not. The photo captures just that’

If you have any questions about the Photo of the Week series or the Research Photography Competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

GCRF Best Practice Workshop

Training

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Panel invites academics involved, or wishing to be involved, in Official Development Assistance (ODA) related research projects to a one–day workshop on Thursday 24th October 2019 from 09:30 – 14:00 on the Talbot Campus

The workshop will review best practice, identify future synergies and will highlight common issues and challenges confronting GCRF projects at the University.

At present, BU staff are leading and/or contributing to a wide range of GCRF eligible projects at various stages of development. Since there are many notable issues and challenges associated with acquiring and delivering the distinctive nature of GCRF related projects, the proposed workshop will bring together existing GCRF participants at the University to share conceptual designs, best practice, common implementation issues and solutions as well as notable work arounds. The workshops will thus enable participants:

  • To discuss the challenges in designing effective GCRF related projects that must maintain Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and GCRF eligibility;
  • To explore possibilities for existing and future synergies between GCRF projects at the University;
  • To identify common implementation challenges presented in transforming a GCRF project into reality;
  • To share best practice in dealing with local and/or international partners and/or partnerships;
  • To discuss issues relating to maximising deliverables and impact;
  • To inform existing and future monitoring and reporting processes of the projects and the University in relation to the GCRF;
  • To provide insights into effective ways that the University can further enhance effective support for GCRF related projects;
  • To identify potential future ‘quick wins’ and ‘take away’ that can inform and improve ongoing GCRF projects;
  • To provide a foundation for future activities of the GCRF panel including a future workshop looking at future bidding for projects beyond the GCRF.

Please book via this link.