Tagged / collaborative research

British Academy Small Grant Call – NOW OPEN

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants is open. The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018.

The British Academy have provided updated guidance on the small grants – BA scheme notes for applicants and BA FAQs . They have asked that all applicants read the documentation carefully before starting their application.

Due to the expected high demand, we ask that if you are interested in applying to this call then please send your intention to bid form to your Funding Development Officer by 2nd  May, after this date no new applications will be accepted.

Timeline

The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018.

11th April 2018 Call Opens – start reading guidance
2nd May 2018 Intention to bid forms to be submitted to your faculty funding development officer.
31st May 2018 Nominated referee supporting statement to be completed via FlexiGrant
30th May 2018 Your final application must be submitted on FlexiGrant  by this date at the latest.
31st May -6th June 2018 Institutional checks to take place by RKEO

Good representation BU research at 2018 BNAC conference

Today on the second day of the 2018 BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) conference there was a very good representation of Bournemouth University (BU) research at Durham University.  BU’s Professor Michael Wilmore presented his paper: Construction of ‘Community’ in Research on Nepalese Commons.  In the morning FHSS’s PhD student Jib Acharya had an oral presentation on Impact of Healthy Snacks on Children’s Health: An Overview of a Pilot Study.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented joint work between BU, Liverpool John Moors University (LJMU) and the University of Oxford on the topic Skills transfer, employability & entrepreneurship of returnee labour migrants in Nepal. Bournemouth University was involved in this project through Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

The final talk of the day (and of the conference) was by Prof. Padam Simkhada from LJMU.  Prof. Simkhada is also Visiting Professor at the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health at Bournemouth University.  He was presenting Debate on Educational Reform in Nepal: Outcomes of the International Conference on Quality of Higher Education in Federal Nepal on behalf of LJMU, Bournemouth University and Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal.  Earlier this year BU signed a Memorandum of Agreement with MMIHS in Kathmandu.

 

Congratulations to two FHSS PhD students

Congratulations to two Faculty of Health & Social Sciences PhD students, Preeti Mahato and Elizabeth Waikhaka, who co-authored a paper published in the WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health. Their paper is called ‘Social autopsy: a potential health-promotion tool for preventing maternal mortality in low-income countries’.[1]   Co-authors include Dr. Puspa Pant from the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West of England (Bristol) and Dr. Animesh Biswas based at the Reproductive & Child Health Department, Centre for Injury Prevention & Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka.

The authors argue that verbal autopsy is used to attribute a clinical cause to a maternal death.  The aim of social autopsy is to determine the non-clinical contributing factors. A social autopsy of a maternal death is a group interaction with the family of the deceased woman and her wider local community, where facilitators explore the social causes of the death and identify improvements needed. Although still relatively new, the process has proved useful to capture data for policy-makers on the social determinants of maternal deaths. This article highlights the potential role of social autopsy in health promotion.

Reference:

  1. Mahato, P.K, Waithaka, E., van Teijlingen, E., Pant, P.R., Biswas, A. (2018) Social autopsy: a potential health-promotion tool for preventing maternal mortality in low-income countries. WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health 7(1): 24–28.

The importance of writing a good grant application – book now!

Places still available – book now!

Everyone knows how important it is to write a good grant application – if you’re not submitting the best grant application you can, you won’t be in the running to win the money. But how do you write the best application to stand you out from the crowd?

To find out come to the Grants Workshop on 10th April and a Bid Writing Day on 8th May!

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, RKEO are hosting a Grants Workshop and follow-up Bid Writing Retreat.

This two day event will combine advice and guidance on writing grant applications, and will be delivered by external bid writing experts ThinkWrite.

Day one (Tuesday 10th April 2018) will comprise of a grants workshop which will give participants the opportunity to expand their ideas on available funding sources, and investigate what funders want to achieve when they hand over money. Participants will then develop a strategic approach to writing applications.

Day two (Tuesday 8th May 2018) will consist of a follow-up bid writing retreat, where one-to-one support will be available to develop applications for funding.

All academics and researchers are welcome to attend.  Preferably, participants must attend both days, but must have a funding application they plan to submit within 12 months. The application can be to any funder.

Places are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment. For more information and to book your space please see the RKE Development Framework page for this event.

For any other queries please contact Rachel Clarke, RKEO Research Facilitator.

CMMPH lecturer Daisy Wiggins’ paper published

Congratulations to Daisy Wiggins in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication of her paper ‘The effect of a birthplace decision support tool on women’s decision-making and information gathering behaviours during pregnancy: mybirthplace study protocol’.  The paper is published in the Open Access journal Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics and can be accessed by clicking here!  The paper is co-authored by CMMPH’s Prof. Vanora Hundley, Dr. Carol Wilkins, as well asProf. Carol Bond (University of Wolverhampton) and the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Gill Walton.

 

Congratulations to all!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

Wiggins D, Hundley VA, Wilkins C, Bond C, Walton G. The effect of a birthplace decision support tool on women’s decision-making and information gathering behaviours during pregnancy: mybirthplace study protocol. J Innov Health Inform.2018;25(1):001–006.

 

Speed Collaboration – Interdisciplinary – Think Outside the Box! Find New Research Partners! Your funding will depend on it!

We are running an exciting Speed Collaboration session on Thursday 22 March, starting at 11.30 and including a networking lunch. It is part of a stimulating Interdisciplinary Research Week program starting next week.

Comments about Speed collaboration/networking events from all over the world:

It was kind of fun, it was kind of light, it wasn’t highly pressured… It was just ‘Lets see if we can make a connection and then take it further if we need to’.”

“What appealed to me about speed networking was the opportunity to meet a lot of people within a short space of time.”

 

On 31 January 2018, I attended a Speed networking event run by Innovate UK in London to see what the fuss is all about. They have gone for the structure where there are 5 Challenge Proposers – Siemens, Deloitte, European Space Agency, Jaguar Land Rover and Reed Smith. The Proposers list their challenges and organisations (about 30 reps attended) apply to pitch their ideas to each Proposer. The Proposers are set up in 5 tables and each organisation is given 5 minutes to present. The Hostess rings a bell and they have to move on to  the next Proposer.

There was fantastic energy and buzz floating around; and I can feel that definite connections were made. Attend our RKEO Speed Collaboration event and you will find out for yourself how we will be running it and what you can take away from it.

 

 

You have to be in it, to win it! A last comment to leave you with:

It’s a research project that may never have come together, or at least come together as quickly, if it hadn’t been for the speed-networking event. The bottom line is, if you don’t meet people, you will never find someone who can find you new information and a new vision. Breakthroughs can only happen if you acknowledge you don’t know everything.”

All you have to do to book your place is to click here and see what happens next!

Wellcome Trust Visit – 9th May 2018

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, we are excited to announce that Wellcome Trust will be visiting BU on 9th May 2018.

This visit from Wellcome Trust will provide an overview of who they are, their remit, types of funding offered, their decision-making processes and timeframes and planning a Wellcome Trust application.

The session will be held over lunchtime. Book your place here.

Latest editorial on Nepal by Dr. Regmi in FHSS

Last week the Journal of Manmoham Memorial Institute of Health Sciences based in Nepal published as its editorial ‘What can we learn from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015. [1]  The Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015 is a first of its kind.  It is a much needed start to help analyse and improve the workings of the country’s health system.  This is very important and timely as one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to reduce premature mortality by one-third from non-communicable diseases.  Success in this effort will depend on the concerted efforts on health facilities (for both health promotion, prevention and management) for an early and optimal care. The editorial also raises some of the ethical and methodological issues associated with the first ever Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015.  The lead author of the editorial is Dr. Pramod Regmi and our co-authors include Prof. Padam Simkhada (Visiting Faculty in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences).  The Journal of Manmoham Memorial Institute of Health Sciences is an Open Access journal hence freely available to scholars and politicians and health managers across the globe, including those based in low-income countries such as Nepal.

 

Reference:

  1. Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P, Kurmi, O, Pant, P. (2017) What can we learn from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015? Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 1-5