BU Research Blog

April 5, 2015

Invited talk Easter Monday

BU research, Featured academics, Global engagement, Publishing, Research news Edwin van Teijlingen

On 6th April, Easter Monday, professor Edwin van Teijlingen will present the process and selected findings of research capacity building work conducted in Nepal. The invited lecture at Social Science Baha in Kathmandu was originally planned for early January, but unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last moment due to a national strike in Nepal.

PARI (Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal) refers to a project to support and enhance health research in Nepal; a partnership between Tribhuvan University, three UK universities (including Bournemouth University), and the Development Resource Centre (Nepal). The British Council and DFID (UK) funded PARI to help build research capacity over a three-year period.

Nepal has limited capacity in health research, which restricts ability to implement evidence-based health care. PARI aimed to move university lecturers away from textbook teaching and make them more critical of the academic literature available on the Internet.

PARI workshops delivered to Nepal universities introduce the foundations of evidence-based practice and outline key electronic databases of health care and health service literature available to Nepalese academics. These workshops were informed by: (1) a curriculum review of all health-related courses at the major universities in Nepal; and (2) a needs assessment with lecturers, librarians and students of the major universities.

Key message included that We need to move away from textbook teaching in health care and teach health-care discipline students how to find the most appropriate evidence-based treatment for each patient.

The PARI team:

Ram Sharan Pathak,Tribhuvan University,Nepal

Padam Simkhada, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.

Bhimsen Devkota, Development ResourceCentre,Nepal

Edwin van Teijlingen,Bournemouth University,UK

Julie Bruce,University of Warwick, UK

Pramod Regmi, Development Resource Centre, Nepal

Amudha Poobalan, University of Aberdeen, UK

Trilochan Pokharel, Nepal Administrative Staff College, Kathmandu Nepal

The work has resulted in two academic publications:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S., Sathian, B. (2014) Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(4): 405-14. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/11375
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Pokharel, T., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S. (2013) Research Methods Coverage in Medical & Health Science Curricula in Nepal, Nepal Journal Epidemiology 3(3): 253-258. www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/9185

April 4, 2015

New paper on obesity research

BU research, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Colleagues associated with the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health (all based at the University of Aberdeen), the Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Professional Research Unit (University of Stirling), the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy (SCPHRP) based at the University of Edinburgh and the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH) at Bournemouth University published their latest paper on obesity research. The paper ‘A systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of non-surgical obesity interventions in men’ is published in the journal: Obesity Research & Clinical Practice. This systematic review summarises the literature reporting the cost-effectiveness of non-surgical weight-management interventions for men. Studies were quality assessed against a checklist for appraising decision modelling studies. This research is part of the larger ROMEO study.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Reference:

Boyers, D., Avenell, A., Stewart, F., Robertson, C., Archibald, D., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., A systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of non-surgical obesity interventions in men, Obesity Research & Clinical Practice (online first)

March 19, 2015

Policy brief on Obesity

Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Today my colleagues at the University of Aberdeen’s Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) published their latest HERU Policy Brief on ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’. The policy brief is now available on line. These policy briefs are concise summaries of the findings of research projects, presented with a focus on policy implications. Linking research findings to possible policy improvements increase the chance that our research has an impact on the wider society. Furthermore, that our research has an impact in REF terms.

This latest policy brief ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’ is part of a larger project called PROGRESS (Prevent Obesity GRowing Economic Synthesis Study), funded by the National Preventative Research Initiative (NPRI) and the Universities of Aberdeen and Melbourne. The project started when I was still at the University of Aberdeen, before I came down to Bournemouth more than five years ago now. Our research highlights that despite evidence that dietary interventions are the most effective way to lose weight, respondents preferred lifestyle interventions involving physical activity. Also that behaviour-change support improves effectiveness of interventions, but its value to participants was limited. A general preference to maintain current lifestyles, together with the sensitivity of take-up to financial costs, suggests financial incentives could be used to help maximise up-take of healthy lifestyle interventions. Finally, men required more compensation to take up healthier lifestyles.

Full details on methods and results are available in the health economics paper due to be published later this year, currently ‘published ahead of print’ (Ryan et al. 2014).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Reference:

Ryan, M., Yi, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Aucott, L., van Teijlingen, E. & Vale, L. (2014) Gaining pounds by losing pounds: preferences for lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity, Health Economics, Policy & Law, [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1017/s1744133114000413.

March 18, 2015

MIDWIFERY: Top five most down-loaded articles for 2014

BU research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Today academic publisher Elsevier sent round an email with the top five most downloaded articles from the international journal Midwifery.

We were pleased to see that the fifth paper on that list is a BU paper jointly written with Dr. Helen Bryers, Consultant Midwife in Scotland.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

March 2, 2015

Student-midwife-run postnatal clinic: FUSION example

BU research, Fusion, PG research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

FHSS staff and students published their latest article ‘Would a student midwife run postnatal clinic make a valuable addition to midwifery education in the UK? — A systematic review’ now out on line in Nurse Education Today 35 : 480-486. The paper is written by Wendy Marsh, Dana M. Colbourne, Susan Way & Vanora Hundley.

We are pleased to inform you that the final version of your article with full bibliographic details is now available online. The publishers are providing the following personal article link, which will provide free access to this article, and is valid for 50 days, until April 17, 2015: http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1QcG5xHa50bEa

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

February 23, 2015

GeoNet climate change event and next seminars

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Fusion, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, REF Subjects pgillingham

GeoNet, the fusion-funded interdisciplinary seminar project, held our first lunchtime session ‘A conversation about climate change’ recently. We were really pleased to see the Coyne so packed out (come early next time to be sure of getting a cookie!) with a wide range of students, PGRs and staff from across the university. Short talks to introduce the panel members (covering both the impacts of climate change and how these are communicated) were followed by a very interesting discussion. We considered how terms are often used out of context or incorrectly (for example the ‘Anthropocene’ in the geological sense of the word would be classified after the fact). It was also interesting for me personally to discover why there is often false balance in the media when climate change is discussed – the reporters have to use a political template (because climate change is a politicised subject) and this template calls for equal representation of the views of all sides. Of course this results in a poor representation of the state of scientific knowledge.

We also discussed the right of non-scientists to enter the debate – this is based on a democratic right to have an opinion but not necessarily on knowledge. The cult of celebrity was an interesting topic, not something that I expected to be discussing in the context of climate change, but perhaps we need more celebrities to support David Attenborough in representing environmental change. Leading on from this, we discussed whether scientists should have more media coverage. Whilst this might seem an obvious way of increasing public knowledge, it could backfire because scientists have a general lack of media training, lack of experience in delivering ‘soundbites’ and have to acknowledge uncertainty, which can negatively affect the public perception of them as experts. We decided that social media might be the answer, as it is not bound by the politicised template and can provide a platform for scientists to talk about their findings, as well as allowing discussions to enable understanding of what uncertainty actually means.

Our next two events are The Hero’s Journey of Alfred Russel Wallace in Southeast Asia from 18.00-19.30 on the 10^th March in Barnes Lecture Theatre and Low carbon cities: why and how from 12.00-13.00 on the 17^th March in TAG02. Tea, coffee and cookies will be provided at both and active participation is encouraged!

Booking is necessary for the 10^th March via http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-heros-journey-of-alfred-russel-wallace-in-southeast-asia-tickets-13409922439 (free to BU staff and students)

February 10, 2015

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities, Global engagement emilner

Arts & Humanities Research Council

Connected Communities Festival 2015. The Connected Communities Festival in 2015 will provide an opportunity to explore creative ways to widen and deepen community engagement with the exciting and innovative research being undertaken by the Connected Communities Programme. There will be £5000 available for participants. Closing Date 11/3/15 at 16:00

British Academy
Newton Advanced Fellowships. Newton Advanced Fellowships provide early to mid-career international researchers who already have a track record with an opportunity to develop their research strengths and capabilities, and those of their group or network, through training, collaboration and visits with a partner in the UK. Each award provides up to £37,000 per year for applicants from Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey. Closing Date: 18/3/15

Newton Mobility Grants. These grants provide support for international researchers based in a country covered by the Newton Fund to establish and develop collaboration with UK researchers around a specific jointly defined research project. Grants are offered up to a maximum of £10,000 for a period of one year. Closing Date: 18/3/15

British Council
Researcher Links workshop in London on health & development. We have grants for early career researchers to attend a workshop in Mexico entitled ‘Towards comprehensive evaluation for health and development: promoting the integration of evaluation methods.’ The grants will cover all travel, accommodation and meals. Costs for the visa will be covered; however participants will be responsible for making all the necessary arrangements. Closing Date: 20/2/15
Economic and Social Research Council

Big Data for Resilience: realising the benefits for developing countries – Scoping exercise call. This call aims to explore the potential of big data to support disaster and climate resilience in developing countries. We expect applications covering a wide range of issues – from risk reduction, hazard prediction, prevention and preparedness, to response, recovery and reconstruction. Applications can be made for up to £2,500 for case studies, reviews, policy analyses or small prototype projects under £10,000. Projects must be completed within two months of the start of the grant. Closing Date: 2/3/15 at 16:00

Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £200,000 to £2 million can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams who have have an excellent idea for a research project. There is considerable flexibility when it comes to subject area, too. As long as you always make sure that your suggested topic falls within ESRC’s remit, you are free to concentrate on any research area. Closing Date: Open

Understanding, countering and mitigating security threats Research and Evidence Hub. The aim of the Hub is to maximise the impact of existing research in order to inform approaches to countering contemporary security threats to individuals, communities, and institutions. Up to £1.8 million per annum, for up to a three year period will be available. Closing Date: 24/3/15 at 16:00

ESRC and Satellite Applications Catapult Knowledge Exchange Fellowships. ESRC will jointly support up to four Knowledge Exchange Fellows to provide a bridge between excellent UK social and economic research and the leading edge satellite applications capability in the UK and inform the funding partners’ understanding of some of the opportunities for the development, uptake and application of social sciences. Closing Date: 2/3/15 at 16:00

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
3DP-RDM Feasibility Studies – Call for Proposals. The objective of “Defining the research agenda for 3D printing-enabled re-distributed manufacturing” (3DP-RDM) is to convene a multi-disciplinary research and multi-industry user network which will fund fund 4-6 feasibility studies across the two years of the network. Budgets for feasibility studies should be £35k-65k. Closing Date: 2/3/15

Autonomous Manufacturing. The aim of the call is to support research that addresses the research challenges that underpin autonomous manufacturing. There are funds totalling £10M for this call to support multidisciplinary research programmes of up to five years. Closing Date: 16/4/15

Platform Grants. Platform Grant funding provides a baseline of flexible support (a platform) that can be used for the retention of key staff, feasibility studies, longer-term research and International Networking for periods of up to five years. Closing Date: 27/3/15
Innovate UK

Innovation Vouchers – Round 11. Up to £5k funding for for start-up, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to work with an external expert to gain the knowledge to innovate and grow from experts such as universities and further education colleges. Closing Date: 22/4/15

Leverhulme Trust

Major Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences. These awards enable well-established and distinguished researchers in the humanities and social sciences to devote themselves to a single research project of outstanding originality and significance, capable of completion within two or three years. Candidates should state explicitly what the proposed outcomes of the award will be. The Fellowships fund the salary costs (normally starting at the most junior point of the lecturer scale at the institution concerned) of an individual to undertake the normal duties of the applicant for the duration of the Fellowship. Closing Date: 7/5/15

Medical Research Council

New Investigator Research Grant (NIRG). This fund provides support for clinical and non-clinical researchers while they are establishing themselves as independent principal investigators. NIRGs provide funding for three or more years. MRC will only pay up to 64% of the actual new investigator’s salary . Closing Date: 3/6/15

Partner Grant- Neurosciences & Mental Health Board. Partnership Grants provide core funds for one to five years to support partnerships between diverse groupings of researchers to work collaboratively. Closing Date: 3/6/15

Programme Grant- Neurosciences & Mental Health Board. Programme grants provide larger, longer term (five years) and renewable programme funding. They aim to help the medical science community to ‘think bigger’. Closing Date: 3/6/15

Tackling AMR Theme 1: Understanding resistant bacteria. This call will focus on research related to human or animal bacterial pathogens. Up to £250k (80% fec) will be made available over 12-24 months. Closing Date: 17/3/15

Research Grant-Neurosciences & Mental Health Board. A research grant can be awarded for any period of up to five years, but those of two years or less are for proof of principle or pilot work only. research grants are suitable for focused research projects that may be short- or long-term in nature The budget for research grant awards will not typically exceed £1 million. Closing Date: 3/6/15

Natural Environment Research Council

Highlight Topics February 2015. NERC has allocated £12m to this call and a maximum of £3m (cost to NERC) is available per highlight topic. Notification of intent to submit a proposal must be received at least one month before the closing date. Notification Date: 9/3/15 Closing Date: 9/4/15

The Royal Society

The SABMiller Royal Society Exchange Programme. The programme will focus on supporting collaborative research projects between researchers in the UK and researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. The award will cover travel and subsistence up to £5,000 per year for training purposes and funds up to £2,000 per year for research costs over three years. Closing Date: 30/4/15

Wolfson Research Merit Award. The scheme provides universities with additional support to enable them to recruit or retain respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential to the UK. There will be up to 5 years’ funding of a salary enhancement, usually in the range of £10,000 to £30,000 per annum. Closing Date: 12/3/15

Wellcome Trust

Arts Awards. Arts Awards support the creation of new artistic work that critically engages artists and audiences with biomedical science. There are two strands to the funding, Small Arts Awards (small- to medium-sized projects – up to and including £40 000) and Large Arts Awards (£40,000-£150,000). Closing Date: 1/5/15

February 4, 2015

WHRI ACADEMY fellowship programme: Third call for proposals

EU, Funding opportunities, Global engagement Emily Cieciura

WHRI ACADEMY fellowship programme: THIRD CALL FOR PROPOSALS at WHRI QMUL

DEADLINE for submission of proposals: 24 April 2015, 17h00 UK time

The Third Call for Proposals of the William Harvey International Translational Research Academy programme (WHRI-ACADEMY) was launched in January 2015.

All the documentation related to the Third Call for Proposals is available in the “Application pack” section of the project’s website: www.whri-academy.eu

To be eligible, the candidates:

1) Must be in possession of a PhD degree or have at least 4 years of full-time research experience

2) Must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity in the chosen host country for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior of the deadline for submission of applications

3) Must choose a host lab among the institutions already enrolled in our programme – http://www.whri-academy.eu/host-organisations

4) The chosen Supervisor must match the COFUND contribution. Please note that the COFUND contribution is a flat-rate, fixed amount per fellow-year (€29,800.00 multiplied by the Marie Curie country corrector coefficient)

For further details and or clarifications:

x.sandin@qmul.ac.uk

Queen Mary University of London

January 30, 2015

New paper published on spirituality and midwifery

BU research, Global engagement, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

BU’s Dr. Jenny Hall and her New Zealand colleague Susan Crowther published an interesting discussion paper on ‘Spirituality and spiritual care in and around childbirth’ in the journal Women and Birth. This discussion paper brings to the surface what is meant by spiritual care and spiritual experiences, to increase awareness about spirituality in childbirth and midwifery and move beyond the constraints of structured defined protocols.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

January 26, 2015

New BU publication in British Food Journal

BU research, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to three BU researchers Ann Bevan, Heather Hartwell and Ann Hemingway for their 2015 paper ‘An exploration of the fruit and vegetable “foodscape” in a university setting for staff: A preliminary study’ in the British Food Journal [1]. Interesting, this timely paper is published in FOOD & NUTRITION WEEK, see more details at: http://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/news/thismonth/foodandnutritionweek.php

Reference:

Bevan A.L., Hartwell H, Hemingway, A, Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proença (2015) An exploration of the fruit and vegetable “foodscape” in a university setting for staff: A preliminary study British Food Journal, 117(1): 37-49.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

January 22, 2015

BU research on Parkinson’s disease presented at the 2nd World Congress on Digital Olfaction in Japan

BU research, PG research i7744708

Ali Khattab (a self-funded PhD student at the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, Bournemouth University) recently presented a research paper at the 2nd World Congress on Digital Olfaction in Japan, exploring the link between olfactory dysfunction and subjective visual vertical in Parkinson’s disease”. A summary of Ali’s experience is presented in the following report.

Nowadays, visual and auditory information can be digitally captured, stored and reproduced. Therefore, there is a need to create devices which can capture odours, turn them into digital data so that to transmit them everywhere in the world and to use them in medical and other industrial applications.

The aims of the 2nd Digital Olfaction World Congress (held in Tokyo-Japan, December, 2014) were to explore:

• The advances of digital olfaction research & development

• The practical applications of digital olfaction, particularly in the areas of health care and industry.

• The impact of these applications on our life and lifestyle.

Ali presented a research paper at the Congress entitled: “Olfactory dysfunction and its link with subjective visual vertical (SVV) perception in Parkinson’s disease”. The aim is to determine the profiles of subjective visual vertical (SVV) perception and sense of smell perception and their possible link with micrographia (small handwriting) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and compare them to age and gender matched healthy controls. The outcomes of the research paper were: (i) PD patients have significant impairment of their olfactory function, however, their ability to estimate visual vertical did not differ significantly from an age and gender matched healthy controls; (ii) 25% of PD patients showed evidence of micrographia (small handwriting); (iii) subgroup analysis suggested that PD patients with micrographia have more evidence of olfactory impairment, reported more SVV errors, and have more motor problems than patients with normographia (normal handwriting). However, these differences were not statistically significant. As this is an interim analysis of half of the data collected so far, these results need to be interpreted with caution.

When Ali submitted his abstract, the original plan was to present the work as a poster at the conference. However, the organising committee recognised the potential application of Digital Olfaction in health and social care, and decided to give Ali a platform oral presentation on the first day of the conference. The presentation was well-received, with plenty of questions raised after the talk and during the coffee breaks.

This congress was very relevant to the Parkinson’s disease research currently being carried out at Bournemouth University (in collaboration with the Royal Bournemouth Hospital) as BU has now two PhD students who are doing their research on the link between sense of smell and Parkinson’s disease. The work involves testing for sense of smell in an open cross-sectional observational study, involving a large number of participants with Parkinson’s disease and a matching number of volunteers without Parkinson’s disease (as a control group). In these studies, the perception for sense of smell was tested using University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT)). This particular test consists of a set of scratch cards with different odours. Participants are asked to identify the odour by choosing from a menu of possible four choices. These cards have to be purchased from the USA on regular basis. Therefore, there is a need to consider introducing digital olfaction technology in assessing patients with PD or –indeed- with other neurological conditions.

Attending the Congress allowed us to:

Present BU research on the link between visual perception & sense of smell in Parkinson’s disease at an international Congress in front of international audience; this gave BU an exposure at a global level.
Explore the possible use of Digital Olfaction in assessing the sense of smell in our research.
Networking with IT industry, academics and researchers who are leading authorities in their fields of research and explore with them the possibility of introducing such a new technology into the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in the future.

The conference was an opportunity for international researchers and academics, and people from other disciplines to meet in order to present their work and to discuss issues related to:

• Devices that capture odours

• How odours can be turned into digital data

• Restitution of odours by the transmission of these data

• Artificial olfaction and biologically-inspired models

• High Smell Technologies as electronic noses, neural circuits in olfactory systems, artificial intelligence olfaction systems

• Biosensor systems, software program, chemical engineering

• Telecommunication

• Environmental control

• (Bio)medical applications in olfactory treatments and diagnosis

People who are interested in digital olfaction were invited to join this congress to gather the information of recent progress, share it with others and spread the information all over the world. Moreover, participants were encouraged to show demonstrations in order to share the experience of Digital Olfaction together.

Finally one of the goals achieved during this congress was establishing the international link related to Digital Olfaction among a variety of fields and disciplines (such as biology, medicine, nursing computer science, electronics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, social sciences, psychology, art, etc.). This was achieved as attending the Congress enabled us to explore the interdisciplinary sciences related to Olfaction in general and to Digital Olfaction in particular. The Congress also focused on the way in which we can transfer the concrete breakthroughs of Research and Development concerning Digital Olfaction into medical and industrial applications.

January 14, 2015

Evaluation mixed-methods research grant awarded to FHSS team

BU research, PG research, Research news Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Janet Scammell in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS) is leading on a new research project evaluating the impact of a new integrated respiratory service in Dorset. The £20,000 mixed-methods research project is funded by the Wessex Academic Health Science Network on behalf of the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group. Janet Scammell is leading a research team in BU’s new Faculty of Health and Social Sciences comprising Desi Tait, Ashley Spriggs, Martin Hind, Caroline Belchamber and Edwin van Teijlingen.

The Dorset Adult Integrated Respiratory Service (DAIRS) is a new service that has been set up early 2014 to provide support and care for people with respiratory conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis and pulmonary fibrosis. The service aims to reduce the number of people who need admission to hospital and help individuals to feel more in control of their condition. BU has been asked to evaluate early uptake and impact of the DAIRS running in Poole, Bournemouth and Dorchester.

Further information about this exciting project is available from: Dr. Janet Scammell, Associate Professor and Professional Lead for Adult and Children & Young People’s Nursing

Telephone: 01202 962751

Email: jscammell@bournemouth.ac.uk

December 15, 2014

Tired of Writing? Make a Map!

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured academics afeigenbaum

This spring semester, thanks to a Fusion CCCP grant, we’ll be turning our BU research into interactive media, designed for making an impact.

If you are like me, dishwashing, hanging laundry, answering emails and even updating your BRIAN profile are more fun than writing academic papers. Beyond the jargon, peer review terror and endless citations, there is something sad about paper writing. Like a farewell party for long-time friend, the paper is a bittersweet goodbye. It is when we send our research off, delivering its findings into the abyss of academic journals, hoping to eventually be discovered and read.

But increasingly, academic writing isn’t the only tool at our disposal for making our research heard. As the impact agenda expands, alongside it, interest in public engagement and social media grow. Unlike most academic journals, with strict limits on figures and black and white print, online platforms are hungry for colour and creativity. Online, image is king and curiosity brings clicks. If a picture was once worth 1,000 words, today a media interactive is worth 10,000.

With many online platforms freely available to visualise our data, making information beautiful has never been easier. So, why not make our own? That’s the question I asked myself last year. Rather than pulling out the drying rack or deleting the ‘pending’ neurological mice studies from BRIAN’s list, I decided to give google maps a go.

Mapping the Media

Bored of traditional content analysis in my field of Media Studies, and taken by the toys of Geographers, I began my very first research map. All it took was a google account, a google alert, and about five hours a month for data input. A year later, an interactive dataset was born.

With over 25,000 views and copied onto news articles and blogs around the world, this map tells a different story about my research and the world we live in, one that I could never capture in linear prose. It opens up new audiences to the data, and in an instant reveals insights into conflicts and communities–and the ways they are mediated. Click deeper and you’ve got a global sample of news coverage from around the world to explore as you wish, offering features no academic article alone could provide.

But, alas, it wasn’t very pretty. So I went in search of real map-makers. With the support of An AAG Enrichment Grant for interdisciplinary scholars, I presented my ragtag version at the American Association of Geographers in 2014, arriving with a plea for help. And as luck would have it, help sat in my audience. Matt Ellis, a geography student from Texas Christian University, came on board, teaching me about ‘coordinates’ and CVS files. Matt created a series of maps, designed and hosted for free at CartoDB. Making these media maps opened my eyes to the possibility of the ‘disciplinary mash-up.’ Digital technologies allow us take apart and reassemble our methodologies, sharing interdisciplinary work online to wide audiences.

From Google Maps to Fusion Grants

With a little imagination and a bit of collaboration, our research can be expressed in new and creative forms. What began as a temporary escape from the doldrums of peer review publishing, has turned into a new, cross-school research initiative here at BU. Supported by a Fusion CCCP Grant, between January and July 2015, myself, Nathan Farrell, Dan Jackson, Robert Munday, Shelley Thompson and Einar Thorsen from the Media School will be working with Hamid Bouchachia of the Data Science Institute, geographers Duncan Golicher and Phillipa Gillingham of the GIS lab, and Impact Manager Rebecca Edwards from RKEO to co-create a model for visualising research here at BU.

This project combines traditional approaches for understanding datasets in the social sciences and humanities with geospatial and artistic design practices. Working in co-production with our students, our project embraces digital techniques for orienting output toward public engagement. Bringing in international experts from the Tactical Technology Collective, the New Media Lab and Visualising Impact for a Masterclass in Visualising Data for Societal Impact, our Fusion project will connect up BU research with the growing fields of information design and data communications, putting BU’s innovations in digital humanities and digital social sciences on the academic map.

So next time you’re tired of writing, consider making a map. Or an infographic. A collage or a GIF. A comic strip or a meme. Don’t feel guilty for not writing that paper, take a break from typing and have a play.

December 13, 2014

Masterclass Systematic Reviewing

BU research, Global engagement, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

We a happy to announce a two-day Masterclass on Systematic Reviewing at Bournemouth University led by Professors Hundley and van Teijlingen. One way of collating and assessing the best possible evidence is through a method called ‘systematic reviewing’. Systematic reviewing is a specific research method whereby a structured, rigorous, and objective approach is used to provide a critical synthesis of the available evidence on a particular topic. This masterclass will examine the rationale for systematic reviews and take participants through the various elements of a systematic review: selecting (electronic) databases; literature searching; data extraction; data synthesis; interpretation and reporting.

The Masterclass will be held in the Executive Business Centre, Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth on 9-10 February 2015.

Booking price and information:

The price of £200 includes lunch and refreshments and all class materials. Accommodation and travel costs are not included. Book your place online by 1 February 2015.

Find out more and book your place here >>

For more information call 01202 962184 or email us.

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

November 13, 2014

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Research from staff in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) was well represented at this week’s Royal College of Midwives Conference (RCM). The RCM Conference 2014 held in the International Centre Telford explore the theme Better Births: United in Excellence. At this midwifery conference HSC Dr. Sue Way chaired a session on ‘Perineal Care and the Management of the Second Stage’

Dana Colbourne, Postgradute student at Bournemouth University and midwife at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust presented a poster with the title ‘PhD student Leading the way – A case study of a student midwife led postnatal clinic’.

Dr Stella Rawson, senior lecturer in midwifery presented her poster ‘Listening to Women: Exploring women’s experiences of being part of a student midwife’s caseload’.

Jan Stoziek, senior lecturer in midwifery and also Prof Doc student at the University of Portsmouth presented her poster ‘Mother’s Experience of Breastfeeding after Breast Cancer’.

Lesley Milne also presented a poster on the work around ‘Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study’ with Prof. Padam Simkhada, HSC Visiting Faculty Ms. Jillian Ireland, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen,

November 13, 2014

Helping men to lose weight

BU research, Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Research assessment, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

High quality research from a collaboration of three UK universities has been turned into practical advice. The ROMEO project (Review Of Men and Obesity) by the University of Aberdeen, the University of Stirling and Bournemouth University found that men are more likely than women to benefit if physical activity is part of a weight-loss programme. Also although fewer men joined weight-loss programmes, once recruited they were less likely to drop out than women. The perception of having a health problem, the impact of weight loss on health problems, and the desire to improve personal appearance without looking too thin were motivators for weight loss amongst men. However, the type of reducing diet did not appear to affect long-term weight loss.

The charity Men’s Health Forum linked up with Public Health England and published a ‘How to’ guide based on the evidence of our ROMEO study. This ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide offers advice for local authorities, commissioners and weight management providers, who are trying to attract men to weight-loss programmes. The guide highlights, for example that:

Programmes that include exercise and behaviour change components as well as dieting are more successful in helping men to lose weight.
Men respond well to programmes that have a higher degree of personalisation, such as setting individual goals, as it increases their sense of control.
Weight-loss programmes based in the workplace or associated with professional sports clubs have been particularly successful.
Using humour and encouraging camaraderie makes programmes more attractive to men as does knowing that there will be other men there.

Furthermore, this ‘How to’ guide includes, amongst other advice, a list of Ten Top Tips.

This is an excellent example how research conducted between three different universities has been turned into easy to understand advice for man who are overweight. The past decade or so has seen an increasing interest in making academic research ‘useful’ to society. Creating and measuring the impact of research conducted at universities has been introduced as key element on the REF, the Research Excellence Framework. The REF assesses the quality of research in, and affects the amount of government money each university in the UK receives.

For a traditional academic publishing the HTA report would be a success in itself. Which, of course, it is to culmination of a large-scale and extensive review, well conducted, published through Open Access, which also attracted considerable media attention from across the globe when it came out. However, ROMEO did not stop there. Due to the involvement of the Men’s Health Fora right from the start of ROMEO, the Men’s Health Forum in England linked up with Public Health England to create and publish ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide is published today.

The ROMEO project, led by Prof. Alison Avenell (University of Aberdeen), examined the evidence for managing obesity in men and investigated how to engage men with obesity services. The evidence came from trials, interviews with men, reports of studies from the UK, and economic studies. ROMEO was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Programme (NIHR HTA Project 09/127/01). Our full report is Open Access and can be freely downloaded here.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

School of Health & Social Care

Bournemouth University

November 6, 2014

Third time lucky in Bangkok

Post-award, Research news, Uncategorized Tom Watson

Group photo of the delegates at the opening of the Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok on November 2

Working with partners at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, a team from BU led and participated in a British Council Researcher Links Workshop in Bangkok from November 2 to 4.

For Professor Tom Watson of the Media School and Associate Professor Jirayudh Sinthuphan of Chula’s Faculty of Communication Arts, it was ‘mission accomplished’, as the Workshop had been postponed twice in February and May because of Thailand’s febrile politics.

“This time, there were no problems as Bangkok was about as quiet as it will ever be,” said Professor Watson. “As a result, the Workshop was attended by representatives of four UK and seven Thai universities who worked very well together”.

From the three days of collaborative working, four projects related the Workshop theme of ‘the impact of social media upon corporate and marketing communication in Thailand and UK’ emerged. They will be developed over the coming months into research actions, bids for funding and publications.

With Professor Watson were Associate Professor John Oliver (Senior Researcher), Dr Ana Adi (Deputy Workshop Coordinator), Dr Tauheed Ramjaun and Mona Esfahani, all from the Corporate & Marketing Communications academic group. Among the Thai participants was Dr Waraporn Chatratichart of the University of the Thailand Chamber of Commerce, who is a PhD alumna from the Media School.

“The Workshop also reinforced the existing relationship between BU and Chulalongkorn University as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts, Dr Duangkamol Chartprasert, and Professor Parichart Sthapitanonda both took part as Senior Researchers,” said Professor Watson. “The BU-Chula relationship has great potential for research collaboration and staff exchanges. I hope that other BU staff will follow the opportunity that the Workshop has opened up.”

October 31, 2014

Paper added to CEL collection

BU research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

The latest paper of BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The lead author Padam Simkhada (BU Visiting Faculty) together with BU’s Edwin van Teijlingen and three academic colleagues in Nepal published their paper: ‘Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal’ [1].

This latest paper reports on the knowledge of and practice in accessing electronic research-based evidence among university teachers in the health and medical field in Nepal. This paper originates from a recently finished DelPHE (Round 4), British Council: award. The study called Partnership on Improving Access to Research Literature for HE Institutions in Nepal (PARI Initiative) was a collaboration between Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, the University of Sheffield and BU’s School of Health & Social Care. This is the second paper to appear from the PARI study, the first paper reported on research methods teaching [2].

The paper argues that accessing electronic research literature provides an opportunity to gathering up-to-date research-based information that should be core to all health curricula in Nepal. The authors call upon curriculum developers and university authorities in Nepal to revise health curricula and help build electronic searching skills among staff and students.

The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is a full Open Access journal which means anybody across the globe can access it for free.

References:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S., Sathian, B. (2014) Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(4): 405-14. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/11375
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Pokharel, T., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S. (2013) Research Methods Coverage in Medical & Health Science Curricula in Nepal, Nepal Journal Epidemiology 3(3): 253-258. www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/9185

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Bournemouth University

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