BU Research Blog

March 30, 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Implications in Nepal

international, open access, policy, Publishing, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Our editorial today in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology highlights some of the key issues related to COVID-19 related to a low-income country such as Nepal [1]. There are various Public Health challenges to preventing the spread of COVID-19 in South Asia including Nepal. Learning from the COVID-19 outbreak in China, there will be slowdown of economic activity with damaged supply chains which impact upon the public health systems in Nepal. Moreover, there is limited coordination among different stakeholders in healthcare management with few policies in place for infection prevention and control, shortage of testing kits and medical supplies (shortages of masks, gloves), and poor reporting are major challenges to be tackled in case of the COVID-19.

All South Asian countries are vulnerable to a mass outbreak with high population density in cities which is challenging to create social distancing, made worse by generally poor hygiene and often low (health) literacy. Additionally, some COVID-19 cases remain asymptomatic; so it is difficult to predict the epidemic outbreak that may introduces further difficulty in diagnosis of newer cases. Finally, healthcare workers across the globe were infected at high rates during the MERS and SARS outbreaks, so Nepal has to initiate health workers’ training including simulation exercises to provide health staff with a clearer picture of the complexities and challenges associated with COVID-19 and containing potential outbreaks.

This editorial has a very different time span between submission and publication than the one highlighted last week on the BU Research Blog (see details here!). This COVID-19 editorial took exactly one month between submission and publication, the one mentioned last week took three-and-a-half years between submission and publication.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Asim, M., Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E.R., Mekkodathil, A., Subramanya, S.H., Simkhada, P. (2020) COVID-19 Pandemic: Public Health Implications in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 10 (1): 817-820. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/28269

March 25, 2020

COVID-19: health and social care research projects for educational purposes

BU research, Clinical Governance, nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research news, student research Suzy Wignall

The HRA have therefore decided stop reviewing applications for individual undergraduate and master’s student projects from now until further notice.

Please see this new guidance which relates to health and social care research projects conducted by undergraduate and master’s students: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/research-planning/student-research/

March 24, 2020

Three-and-a-half years to get published

Featured academics, Global engagement, international, open access, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Abstract

Junior colleagues or PhD students submitting their first manuscript often ask: “How long will it take before the editor comes back to me with a decision?” My stock answer is: “It depends!” It depends on the nature of the journal, the support available to the editor, how busy the editor is, or how difficult she finds it to allocate your paper to appropriate reviewers. Moreover, once sent out for review it depends how busy the reviewers are. I often have to remind my colleagues and student that academics are hardly ever paid for being a reviewer, and hence they do their reviewing over and above a usually heavy academic teaching and research load.

This short article highlights the case of one of our research papers which took four years from the day of submission to the journal to finally appearing in print. And, I hasten to say, it was not because the initially submitted manuscript was so bad that the authors had to make major changes and re-write or re-structure the whole paper. This blog highlights some of the unexpected hiccups in the process of getting an article published.

Introduction

On October the 5^th 2016 Samridhi Pradhan, who worked for Green Tara Nepal in Kathmandu and who was Bournemouth University Visiting faculty at the time, emailed the then editor of an English-language journal based in Nepal with our manuscript. She wrote: “Respected Editor, I wish to submit a new manuscript entitled “Factors affecting the uptake of institutional delivery, antenatal and postnatal care services” in Nawalparasi district, Nepal in your esteemed Kathmandu University Medical Journal (KUMJ).” The editor wrote back the same day thanking us for our submission, and presenting us with a “manuscript ID o20161006250 for your valuable paper.…We will very soon go for initial screening and let you notify.” We expected the editor to send this manuscript out for review, then for us to get feedback a few months later, make some (minor) changes and have the paper published in 2017.

Then nothing happened for a year although we emailed and phoned the editor of KUMJ regularly. There seems to be a problem finding reviewers, and we offered to other potential reviewers. In December one of our co-authors Dr. Sharada Wasti informed our team that the KUMJ editor had suggested in a conversation with home that our paper would appear in the December volume of the journal. Dr. Waste emailed on 15 December 2017: “I will follow up and keep update with you by the end of this month.” KUMJ duly published Vol. 15 (4) labelled Oct.-Dec. 2017 but our paper was not included.

Four days later on December 19^th 2017 we received an email for the editor with a set of minor comments and questions about the manuscript for reviewers. We made the requested amendments and resubmitted our paper on January 10^th 2018. Months passed and KUMJ published two more issues in 2018 without our paper despite our team sending reminders regularly. Then on the last day of July 2018 Dr. Wasti emailed our team that he had had contact with the editor who had made it clear that: “This paper has been accepted” and it was supposed to come published in the last volume, which would have been the April-June 2018 issue Vol.16 (2). Dr. Wasti added that the editor had made it clear that although it was not covered, KUMJ “will publish in our upcoming volume.” This next issue Vol. 16 (3) again failed to publish our paper.

Then there was a long gap with KUMJ changing editors, correspondence being mislaid and manuscripts getting lost. Due to Dr. Wasti’s persistence in contacting the editors we received a request to update our paper with 2019 data in December 2019, nearly a year and a half after re-submission. A few days later that month we were informed that the journal was finally going to publish our paper. Another wo months passed before the editor email that say: “Congratulation, your paper has been finalized and selected for coming issue of KUMJ, paper has been uploaded in our website www.kumj.com.np.”

Some papers take longer to get published than others!

Our paper is now online first 3½ years after the initial submission. And to add insult to injury the journal is backdating the paper to appear with a publication date of September 2019, so it will be published in Vol.17(3) labelled July-Sept. 2019. This is, of course, an unusual story with a very long gap between first submission of a manuscript and the final appearance of the paper in print. It is unusual because the paper was only ever submitted to one journal. It is more likely that the publish process takes time because the first journal rejects the paper, the second paper also rejects your paper and then the subsequent paper asks for a set of alterations and changes. For example, van Teijlingen and Hundley (2002) outlined such process for one of their papers which took two years from initial submission to publication. However, this paper was submitted to five different journals in succession after having between rejected by the first four.

References:

Pradhan, S., van Teijlingen E., Simkhada, P.P., Dhungel, A., Silwal R.C., Fanning P., Wasti, S.P. (2019) Factors Affecting the Uptake of Institutional Delivery, Antenatal and Postnatal Care in Nawalparasi District, Nepal, Kathmandu University Medical Journal http://www.kumj.com.np/issue/X/49-54.pdf (accepted).
van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2002) Getting your paper to the right journal: a case study of an academic paper, Journal of Advanced Nursing 37(6): 506-511.

March 22, 2020

Latest CMMPH publication by Dr. Alison Taylor

BU research, Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Alison Taylor in the Centre for Midwifery,Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) whose third PhD paper has just been accepted by the International Breastfeeding Journal. Alison’s paper ‘Commercialisation and commodification of breastfeeding: video diaries by first-time mothers’ reminds us that many of aspects of our lives are increasingly commercialised in post-modern society. Although breastfeeding is perhaps a late comer to this process in recent years, it too has seen significant commercialisation facilitated by social media and our obsession with celebrity culture.

This paper explores how the commercialisation and commodification of breastfeeding impacts mothers’ experiences of breastfeeding. The paper highlights that women preparing for breastfeeding are exposed to increasing commercialisation. When things do not go to plan, women are even more exposed to commercial solutions. The impact of online marketing strategies fuelled their need for paraphernalia so that their dependence on such items became important aspects of their parenting and breastfeeding experiences. Dr. Taylor and her co-authors offer new insights into how advertising influenced mothers’ need for specialist equipment and services. Observing mothers in their video diaries, provided valuable insights into their parenting styles and how this affected their breastfeeding experience.

The International Breastfeeding Journal is an Open Access journal owned by Springer.

References:

Taylor, A.M., van Teijlingen, E., Alexander, J., Ryan, K. (2020) Commercialisation and commodification of breastfeeding: video diaries by first-time mothers, International Breastfeeding Journal (accepted).
Taylor A, van Teijlingen, E.,Ryan K, Alexander J (2019) ‘Scrutinised, judged & sabotaged’: A qualitative video diary study of first-time breastfeeding mothers, Midwifery 75: 16-23.
Taylor, A.M., van Teijlingen, E., Alexander, J., Ryan, K. (2019) The therapeutic role of video diaries: A qualitative study involving breastfeeding mothers, Women & Birth 32(3):276-83. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519218300064

March 20, 2020

Nepal reproductive health paper published yesterday

BU research, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations on the latest paper published yesterday by Dr. Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Reproductive Health (CMMPH) and colleagues. This paper ‘Factors associated with contraceptive use in rural Nepal: Gender and decision-making’ [1], is freely available for the next 49 days through our personalized link: click here!

This research paper in the journal Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare reports on a secondary analysis of pas a quantitative cross-sectional study in four villages of a hilly district in Nepal. This authors found that gender was associated with current/ever use of contraceptives but decision-making was not found associated with current/eve use of contraceptives. And, as perhaps was to be expected, socio-economic factors such as husband’s and wife’s education; and indicators showing sharing of childcare responsibilities were found to be associated with contraceptive use. the paper concludes that educational, health promotional and family planning programmes involving husbands are needed to promote use of contraceptives.

Preeti’s co-authors are based at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, at CMMPH and at Singapore Clinical Research Institute/Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.

Reference:

Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., De Souza, N., Sheppard, Z. (2020) Factors associated with contraceptive use in rural Nepal: gender and decision-making, Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare 24: 100507 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srhc.2020.100507

March 16, 2020

NIHR Grant Applications – seminar and support event – CANCELLED

BU research, BU2025, Funding opportunities, nhs, NHS, pre-award, Research news, Research Training, Training Theresa

24th March 2020

This event has been cancelled due to restrictions arising from COVID-19.

March 16, 2020

UKIERI Grant Success: Visit to India

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Global engagement, international, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Public engagement, Research news, Student Engagement, student research, Uncategorized sshanker

The Departments of Psychology (SciTech), Midwifery and Health Sciences (HSS) from Bournemouth University and SSLA part of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) were successful in getting the United Kingdon India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI) funding to support 10 UK Psychology Students and Staff to visit India. This initiative receives further support from Global Engagement Hub, Bournemouth University.

The Study in India Programme has been designed in collaboration with BU’s project partner university Symbiosis International in India, where this will be hosted. This exchange will offer a program of interactive lectures, workshops, research methods seminars, clinical experience observations, and relevant field visits.

Students will also contribute to research with Sheetal Astitva, which is a GCRF funded initiative aimed to improve mental health in rural India and Nepal. The lead researchers for this initiative are Prof. Edwin van-Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker.

March 13, 2020

Global Visiting Fellowships Scheme – Round 2

BU research, Funding opportunities, Global engagement, international, RKE development framework Theresa

Funding available for researchers from partner institutions to become Global Visiting Fellows of BU

Fellows must be nominated by a member of academic staff at BU, and approved by the relevant Executive Dean.

Visit a drop-in session to find out more. Further info is also available in the guidelines.

16/03/2020 12:30 – 13:30 Lansdowne

To book , please contact Organisational Development. No authorisation is required.

If you have any queries, please contact ResearchFellowships@Bournemouth.ac.uk.

March 13, 2020

COVID-19 guidance for clinical researchers

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, nhs, NHS, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research news Suzy Wignall

The Health Research Authority have released guidance for clinical researchers, sponsors and sites with regard to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – please read this guidance if you are currently conducting your project or are in the planning stages/set-up of the study (so you are aware of the current situation).

This guidance is subject to change and will be updated as and when required by the HRA.

You can read the guidance in the link provided above, but for convenience, these are the most likely situations BU clinical researchers may face. Please ensure that in planning amendments that these do not create additional burden to NHS staff or resources.

Amendments to existing studies impacted by wider COVID-19 response

Example – Where changes to administrative arrangements are required to reduce burden or physical contact with sites – for example, changes to monitoring arrangements.

How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. Where the study involves the NHS, they will be marked by the sponsor as a category C amendment not requiring assessment, and sent directly to the sites. The site should implement the amendment on the date specified by the sponsor.

Example – Where changes are made to how or when patients are seen to avoid exposing patients or to reduce burden on clinical services – for example, changing site visits to phone calls or postal questionnaires.

How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. The same procedure as the first example should be followed.

Example – Where a temporary halt needs to be placed on some or all of the study, or the duration of the study needs to be extended.

How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. The same procedure as above should be followed.

Example – studies that need to be closed.

How this should be handled – for studies not involving provision of treatment to participants, a notification to the REC or study-wide review (for non-REC studies) should be provided, and an end of study report should subsequently be provided.
For any studies involving provision of treatment to participants, careful consideration should be given to post-study care. If this cannot be in line with the information provided in the participant-information sheet, a substantial amendment should be submitted.

To support sites in implementing the amendments it is important that:

The changes and local implications are made clear
Any changes to documentation are provided in tracked changes
In England and Wales All correspondence to sites should be copied to R&D/I department and the PI and delivery teams
Where indicated above, the sponsor should include the category and confirm that no assessment is required.

There may be some instances in which the site may raise issues or changes that need to be made. If they do, please inform the Sponsor as soon as possible.

What to do next

If you think that you may need to implement any changes or amendments to your study due to COVID-19 please get in touch with us as soon as possible. If you have any concerns or queries then please also get in touch to discuss these.

March 6, 2020

Knowledge Frontiers – Security Symposium Call

BU research, ECR Network, Funding opportunities, Global engagement, humanities, international, Research communication, Research news Theresa

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and the British Academy are inviting applications for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of ‘security’.

This will explore varied understandings and experiences of security, and how security can be and has been conceptualised, represented, lived and addressed. The symposium aims to encourage international engagement and collaboration between early career researchers from Canada and the UK from a broad range of disciplines, encouraging the exchange of ideas across both disciplinary and national boundaries. The event will take place in Montebello, Quebec, Canada from 08/12/20 – 10/12/20 .

Deadline for applications Wednesday 6 May 2020 at 17.00.

For details on how to apply please see here.

If you have any queries, please contact RDS on RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

March 2, 2020

Good public involvement in research – the perspective of a patient advocate

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, Knowledge Exchange, nhs, NHS, Public engagement, Research communication, Research Ethics, research integrity Suzy Wignall

To mark World Cancer Day, patient advocate Richard Stephens has shared his experience about the importance of incorporating good public involvement in cancer research.

The blog post has been published on the Health Research Authority (HRA) website here and details Richard’s journey first as a clinical trial participant to his role as a patient advocate. He has worked on patient advisory groups and various committees to help improve the information given to participants so they can fully understand the implications of their involvement in clinical research.

‘My first trial involved testing a new chemotherapy drug against standard treatment. I asked to be “randomised” to the new drug. I hadn’t understood what was meant by ‘randomised’ trial. My consultant told me later that she thought I had been joking when I’d asked for the new drug. But the randomisation did put me on it anyway, which was what I thought I’d consented to….

My own misunderstanding made me wonder why patients weren’t involved in writing the information that would be given to other patients.‘

There is guidance published on ‘PPI’ (Patient and Public Involvement) here on the Clinical Governance blog which incorporates guidance available from the HRA website and the National Institute for Health Research’s site.

Conducting PPI is a good way to seek the opinions and recommendations of the public, and can help to ensure that your study is designed and set-up in a way that will be relevant to participants, and of good quality. PPI can also help to avoid any setbacks once the project is underway.

‘Every year more patients are taking part in clinical trials. Evidence shows that cancer patients who take part in clinical research are more likely to report higher levels of satisfaction with their overall care, and are more likely to have better outcomes in research-rich hospitals, even if they don’t take part in trials themselves.

Research participation is good for patients, patient involvement is good for research, and good research produces better treatments and care for all of us.’

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

February 28, 2020

Latest NIHR-CRN podcast

BU research, Clinical Governance, Knowledge Exchange, nhs, NHS, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research news Suzy Wignall

The latest podcast in the Health Research Futures series comes from Professor Julie Lovegrove. Professor Lovegrove is from the University of Reading and talks about the challenges of conducting nutritional research and overcoming them.

February 28, 2020

Informed Consent training opportunities

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, Guidance, nhs, NHS, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research Training, Training Suzy Wignall

Before agreeing to participate in your study, your participants should receive all the information they require in order to make an informed decision. Once they wish to participate, then an informed consent form should be completed and filed appropriately.
Although the process sounds complex, there are currently a great training opportunities to help familiarise yourself with the background to, and process of informed consent in clinical research.

The Wessex Clinical Research Network are hosting the following training sessions at University Hospital Southampton and at Wessex CRN’s office –

NIHR CRN Informed Consent training, Thursday 26th March, 08:45am – 1:00pm, CRN Wessex, Unit 7, Berrywood Business Village, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 2UN;
NIHR CRN Informed Consent training, Thursday 7th May, 8:30am – 12:30pm, University Hospital Southampton, Level C, West Wing, NIHR WTCRF, Southampton, SO16 6YD;
NIHR CRN Informed Consent training, Thursday 7th May, 1:00pm – 5:00pm, University Hospital Southampton, Level C, West Wing, NIHR WTCRF, Southampton, SO16 6YD;
NIHR CRN Informed Consent training, Friday 26th June, 08:45am – 1:00pm, CRN Wessex, Unit 7, Berrywood Business Village, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 2UN

If you’re interested in attending, get in touch with the Wessex CRN to book your place.

February 28, 2020

Introduction to Good Clinical Practice – Tuesday 17th March at Dorset County Hospital

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, nhs, NHS, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research Training, Training Suzy Wignall

Are you interested in running your own research project within the NHS or healthcare? Good Clinical Practice, or ‘GCP’, is a requirement for those wishing to work on clinical research projects in a healthcare setting.

GCP is the international ethical, scientific and practical standard to which all clinical research is conducted. By undertaking GCP, you’re able to demonstrate the rights, safety and wellbeing of your research participants are protected, and that the data collected are reliable.

The next GCP full day session is scheduled for Tuesday 17th March, at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester – 8:45am – 4:30pm.

The day will comprise of the following sessions:

Introduction to research and the GCP standards;
Preparing to deliver your study;
Identifying and recruiting participants – eligibility and informed consent;
Data collection and ongoing study delivery;
Safety reporting;
Study closure.

If you’re interested in booking a place, please contact Research Ethics.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

February 25, 2020

More BU migration research success

BU research, conferences, Featured academics, Global engagement, international, open access, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week migration researchers in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences were awarded two competitive grants through GCRF funding to Bournemouth University. The first project Nepal-Malaysia-UK partnership on Nepali migrants’ health research is led by Dr. Pramod Regmi (lecturer in International Health) and Dr. Nirmal Aryal (Post Doctoral Researcher) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. The second GCRF-funded project focuses on Investigating sudden cardiac death of Nepali labour migrants in Malaysia. The project is the brain child of Dr. Nirmal Aryal who is supported by Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

In the same week the International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health (IJERPH) accepted our latest migration and health paper: ‘The Impact of Spousal Migration on the Mental Health of Nepali Women: A Cross-Sectional Study‘. [1] This paper was part of the journal’s Special Issue ‘The Health & Wellbeing of Migrant Populations’ and it is Open Access and hence freely available online. The international authors are all related to Bournemouth University, Dr. Nirnal Aryal and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are both in the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and Dr. Pramod Regmi and Dr. Steve Trenoweth are based in the Department of Nursing Sciences, whilst Dr. Pratik Adhikary was awarded his PhD from Bournemouth University and Prof. Padam Simkhada based at the University of Huddersfield is Visiting Professor at in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. The editor emailed us today to say “Thank you very much for your nice paper …. We are pleased to see it has raised a lot of interest since its publication in IJERPH. The article metrics show: in the first week alone we had 474 views and 133 downloads.”

Last, but not least, today we were informed by the review committee that our submission, ‘Workplace Harassment Faced by Female Nepali Migrants Working in Abroad’ has been accepted by the CESLAM (Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility) Kathmandu Migration Conference 2020.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S., Adhikary, P., Simkhada, P. (2020) The Impact of Spousal Migration on the Mental Health of Nepali Women: A Cross-Sectional Study, International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health 17(4), 1292; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041292

February 24, 2020

See your spine move in real-time motion at the AECC

BU research, innovation, Research communication, Research news Alex Breen

The Centre for Biomechanics Research (CBR) of the AECC University College, Bournemouth are seeking volunteers for their latest research study, investigating spine biomechanics in near real time.

CBR are currently looking for volunteers to help us with our latest piece of research into understanding the back in motion. We need over 100 volunteers to come forward to take part to ensure the project is a success so we can establish a database of spine mechanics in healthy adults. This is the biggest study of its kind and those who volunteer for this research study will get the chance to see their spine move in real-time.

Currently we focusing our recruitment for a sub-study comparing a commonly used skin based marker system, for measuring the spine in motion, to the gold standard of bone tracking using low dose video x-rays. For this study 15 females volunteers are needed to take part.

To find out more about this study please visit the study web-page here.

Who are we looking for?

For this research study, we are looking for people who:

Are over 30 and under 70 years of age
Have not had low back pain that has prevented normal activity for at least 1 day in the past year
Have not had an abdominal/pelvic/lumbar spine surgery in the past 2 years
Have not had any medical radiation exposure in the past year or exposure in the past 2 years with a
dose of greater than 8mSv (defined as CT scan of Chest, Abdomen or Pelvis or Interventional procedures under radiological control i.e. angiography).
Have a body mass index (BMI) of less than 30
Are not pregnant
Willing to participate and able to freely give informed consent.

Next steps

If you are interested in being involved in this project please visit the study web-page here or you can also learn more about this project through the participant information booklet here.
If you would like to register your interest please download the pre-study form here.
For any questions, or to send us your completed pre-study form, please contact us at cbrstudies@aecc.ac.uk

This study has received a favourable ethical opinion from HRA South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee. 
REC reference: 10/H0106/65.

February 21, 2020

NERC standard grants (July 2020 deadline) – internal competition launched

BU research, Funding opportunities Lisa Andrews

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 2020, 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 July 2020. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 27^th March 2020. 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 if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

February 15, 2020

Three successful cross-faculty Health-Psychology collaborations

BU research, Featured academics, Global engagement, international, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

In the last month we had several FHSS-Psychology success stories. The first one was a recently accepted joint publication between Mr. Paul Fairbairn and Dr. Fotini Tsofliou in the Department of Rehabilitation and Sport Sciences, Dr. Andrew Johnson in BU’s Department of Psychology. The joint paper is called ‘Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study” in the British Journal of Nutrition [1].

Secondly, Dr. Sarah Collard in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and FHSS Visiting Professor Katherine Barnard-Kelly are to be congratulated on their publication: ‘Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes’ [2].

And last, but not least, Dr. Bibha Simkhada in the Department of Nursing Science together with FHSS colleagues Dr. Michele Board and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology were awarded £17,180 in the most recent internal GCRF call. Their proposed project ‘The key issues in Dementia in South Asia’ will run from 2020-2021. Both Dr. Simkhada and Dr. Shanker are Global Engagement Lead (GEL) in their respective departments.

Good to see so many great cross-BU collaborations!

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

Fairbairn, P., Tsofliou, F., Johnson, A., Dyall, S.C. (2010) Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study, British Journal of Nutrition (accepted).

Collard, S.S., Regmi, P.R., Hood, K.K., Laffel, L., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Naranjo, D., Barnard-Kelly, K. (2020) Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes, Practical Diabetes 2020; 37(1): 19–23.

Tagged / collaborative research

COVID-19: health and social care research projects for educational purposes

NIHR Grant Applications – seminar and support event – CANCELLED

Global Visiting Fellowships Scheme – Round 2

COVID-19 guidance for clinical researchers