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BU final year students present at 5th Annual Promotional Communications Conference

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Some 44 advertising, marketing, public relations, and politics and media undergraduates present their dissertation research at the Fifth Annual Promotional Communications Conference on 20 May at the Executive Business Centre.

The conference is a capstone event for the Corporate and Marketing Communications Department (CMC) within the Faculty of Media and Communication and is an opportunity to showcase the work of our undergraduate dissertation students. This year we expect more than 100 delegates, including our students and staff, but also industry partners and some mums and dads.

They’ll hear papers on the latest industry issues and trends from our students. Students are presenting their research on topics including what it means to be and the implications of brands being ‘cool’, the cost of unpaid internships on the advertising industry, using social media to communicate science, attitudes toward and the stigmatization of mental illness, how lad culture also hurts men, impulse buying on line, and so much more.

And we’ll all be treated to talks from two outstanding industry representatives: Camilla Kemp, COO at M&C Saatchi  and BU Public Relations graduate Rosie Warin (’09), who is is co-Managing Director of Global Tolerance.
“We created the conference to offer students an opportunity to share the work they’ve done on a project that culminates their studies, and we enjoy showcasing that hard work,” said Dr Richard Scullion, CMC head of department.

The department, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate taught degrees in advertising, marketing communications, public relations, and politics and media, created the conference as an opportunity for students to choose to, in addition to the written dissertation, present their research to colleagues on their course, academics and guests from the promotional communications industries. And again this year we’ll welcome proud parents and friends to the event.

In addition to the conference, CMC launched the Journal of Promotional Communications in 2013. The journal is an open-access, online journal that, since the first edition, accepts submissions from undergraduates and postgraduates from BU and beyond. Research published there can come from a variety of disciplines, such as marketing, advertising, PR theory, consumer culture and behaviour, political communications, media studies, sociology, cultural studies, and management.

So far, the journal has published three issues of student work. The latest edition, Volume 3, Issue 1, was published in April and includes some articles where students and staff co-authored papers.

Again this year, the top papers from the 2015 Promotional Communications conference will be published in the journal.

The students presenting at the conference are among the more than 200 final-year students in CMC who have worked for months on their individual research projects. CMC students can choose to write a traditional dissertation of 10,000 words or write a research paper in the style of an 8,000-word journal article and deliver a 20-minute paper at the student conference.

Dr Janice Denegri-Knott, Dr Carrie Hodges, Dr Dan Jackson, Dr Richard Scullion and Dr Shelley Thompson organize the conference.

Dr Fiona Kelly attends the North Sea Meeting, Treviso, Italy

Dr Fiona Kelly attended the Dementia North Sea meeting in Treviso, Italy from 22nd to 24th April 2015. This is an informal meeting of researchers and practitioners from across Europe who meet annually to share research findings and to update on the work of their dementia research and practice centres. This year, there were delegates from the UK, France, Norway, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy. The meeting started with a welcome from our hosts from the Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani (The Institute for Services, Hospital and Elderly Care) and followed with updates from each centre, including any political developments relating to dementia. It continued with presentations from each delegate and we heard about a variety of initiatives, including the development of a technology toolbox for people with dementia and their family caregivers to try out different technologies before committing to buying them, an e-learning game for professional caregivers, a programme to develop a global definition of person centred care and to place care on an equal footing with cure, innovative day care models including a house run and managed by people with dementia and the development of an audit tool to measure the quality of dementia gardens.
Delegates visited three specialist units for people with dementia, showcased as being innovative for their design and practice. It was interesting to see how a very strong focus on meeting social, spiritual and sensory needs, providing access to outdoors and combining cognitive stimulation therapy to community dwelling people with dementia was juxtaposed by a strong medical input, particularly when caring for people with dementia nearing the end of life.

On the second evening we were treated to a water bus journey through Venice, ending up in the impressive St Mark’s Square where we strolled in the Spring evening sunshine.

Our meal of traditional Venetian food of sea food and squid ink risotto, baked fish with roasted vegetables and tiramisu was lively with talk of dementia ideas, collaborations and anecdotes. Our dash on a water taxi to catch the last train back finished off the night on a high, if relieved, note.

The final day saw presentations on creative innovations in dementia care and included a presentation by Dr Kelly on preliminary findings from an evaluation of the BUDI orchestra. A thread running through these presentations was the potential of the arts for fun, mutual learning, social inclusion, the equalising of those who take part and improvements in well-being, even if in the moment.

BUDI are delighted to host the event in April 2016 and we look forward to welcoming our European colleagues to Bournemouth.

OECD Conference Sponsorship

Funding opportunities

Applications are invited from research scientists working in agriculture, forestry or fisheries for funding towards a conference (or workshop, symposium, etc) to take place in a member country of the Co-operative Research Programme.

The aim of the OECD Conference Sponsorship scheme is to inform policy makers, industry and academia of current and future research, scientific developments and opportunities in these areas.

Applications should fit into one of the three following research themes:

  • The Natural Resources Challenge
  • Sustainability in Practice
  • The Food Chain

To apply, please consult the following documents:

and complete the:

Please inform your RKEO Funding Development Officer if you intend to apply.

Participating in 13th BNAC Study Day – 16th and 17th April

BU research, Research news

BNAC Study DayThe 13th BNAC Study Day was organised by SOAS at the University of London on 16th and 17th April 2015. The conference focused on presentations of work conducted in Nepal in many different academic fields: health, education, politics, art and so on. A variety of participants took part in the conference including academicians, students, researchers and artists not only from Nepal but also from UK and other European countries. The aim of this conference was to establish a forum to present the research conducted in Nepal which focussed to discuss about Nepalese lifestyle, tradition, culture, politics, education, art, health and other aspects of Nepal.

BU visiting fellow Prof. Padam Simkhada and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented a paper ‘Health and Welfare of Nepali Female Returnees from Gulf Countries: A Mixed-methods Study’ in collaboration with two Nepal based co-authors. I also had submitted my abstract to this conference and was accepted to discuss my proposed research project with a dedicated ‘Study day Tutor’, Dr. Ben Cambell from Durham University. It was a great opportunity for me to attend this conference and meet other PhD students, researchers, peers including one of my supervisors Prof.Edwin van Teijlingen and external supervisor Prof. Padam Simkhada. Besides it was very helpful to meet Dr. Campbell and get feedback regarding my proposal. This experience was helpful for me in many ways as I found myself benefited from the variety of presentations which gave idea on how to present before a mass of audience and also I got a chance to interact with many researchers from various fields. In addition I was able to meet a researcher at the conference whose article I quoted in my literature review.

Preeti Mahato

PhD student, CMMPH, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

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

BU research, PG research

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:

  1. 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.
  2.  Explore the possible use of Digital Olfaction in assessing the sense of smell in our research.
  3. 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.

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

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,

Third time lucky in Bangkok

Post-award, Research news, Uncategorized

 

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.”

 

Communicate 2014, will you grasp this opportunity?

Funding opportunities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This November 4th and 5th, get down to At-Bristol, located in Bristol city which will play host to this year’s eagerly anticipated Communicate 2014. Communicate is the UK’s leading conference for environmental communicators, bringing together over 150 delegates each year to debate and share the latest challenges and emerging best practice for engaging people with the natural world.

 Communicate can boast of bringing together over 80 organisations, including NGO’s, local and national government, media, academia, visitor attractions and green businesses, providing participants with an excellent opportunity to engage with practitioners. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed as these organisations represent Communicate annually and since 2003, more than 800 delegates from over 300 organisations have attended the conference. The conference is highly stimulating and thought provoking and it is a great opportunity to meet people involved across a wide variety of sectors.

 There is funding available for NERC funded PhD students and early career researchers thanks to the support from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Bursaries will be awarded through a competitive application process. Applications for the second round of bursaries must be received by 9am on Monday 20th October. Click here to start your application. Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity.

 Click here to see the latest line-up of some of Britain’s most effective speakers that will be there to make this experience one you will never forget.

When telling tales is good!

BU research, Funding opportunities

The RCUK Digital Economy Theme ‘Telling Tales of Engagement’ Competition 2014

The RCUK Digital Economy Theme is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of your research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience.

Key Dates

Activity Date 
Call for EoIs launched 05 September 2014
Deadline for EoIs 19 November 2014
Panel and Funding decision 06 December 2014
Award duration From January 2015

Summary
The RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET) is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience. The competition, which has been co-developed with the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), is designed to produce very informative case study exemplars which can be used to help the wider research community develop understanding of the nature of a pathway to impact. It aims to encourage applicants to tell a story to describe the pathway to impact which actually occurred. This should be even more informative because understanding how impact arises is key to planning for future impact pathways. They want the stories to portray impact as including what capability has changed outside the institutions, and what benefits that exercising this capability change has then delivered. Each “Tale of Engagement” should show how the actual impact arises and the evidence of the impact itself and will thereby show clearly the link between the impact and the research. Choosing how to tell the story should reflect the nature of the story itself. The story should stimulate thinking on a more imaginative and illustrative ways to tell the tale of engagement and the resulting impact.

How to Apply
Please complete the form at the main call page (http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/tellingtales2014), addressing the questions raised in “Scope of Competition” section and taking into account the “Guidance on completing proforma” notes below. Please ensure you include a single PowerPoint slide which summarises your entry in an interesting and engaging way.

DEADLINE: 12:00 (noon) on Wednesday 19 November 2014.

You can find further information here: TellingTalesOfEngagementCall

If you have any questions, then please do contact:
EPSRC
Dr John Baird 01793 444 047
Mrs Ruth Slade 01793 444 261
tellingtalesofengagement@epsrc.ac.uk

Bangkok comms conference launched

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Following the very successful first International Corporate and Marketing Communication in Asia Conference (ICMCAC), held in November 2013, Chulalongkorn University and Bournemouth University are again providing a scholarly platform for research into Asian perspectives of corporate and marketing communication in all forms and time scales.

The conference will be conducted over two days (January 29 and 30, 2015) with a keynote speaker on both days. It is organised by a partnership of two leading research and teaching universities in the field of corporate and marketing communication with the aim of creating an Asian perspective in research and scholarship.

Advertising, corporate communication, marketing communications, mass communication, media and public relations researchers as well as educators and graduate students from Asia and Australasia are invited to submit  abstracts for paper and poster presentation at the 2nd ICMCAC. Researchers from outside these regions are most welcome to submit abstracts with cross-cultural or Asian perspectives.

Professor Tom Watson is BU’s conference leader and organiser for ICMCAC. Professor Watson said the first conference had drawn papers from 10 countries ranging including many Asian universities: “It was the start for development of Asian perspectives in the fields of corporate and marketing communications, and associated area of research”.

For Call for the Papers, click on this link: 2nd ICMCAC Call for Papers)

There are three themes for the 2nd ICMCAC:

  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia
  • Creativity in corporate and marketing communications, including creative industries perspectives
  • Cultural identity and norms in mass communication in Asia

General papers are welcomed on a range of topics, as well. The deadline for submissions is: Friday, October 24, 2014 to comira@chula.ac.th.

The conference website is:http://cuprimcconference.net

The venue for the conference is the Pathumwan Princess hotel, near to Chulalongkorn University and the National Stadium rail station.

Conference organisers Jirayudh Sinthuphan (R) and Tom Watson (L) with Phanasari Kularb (C)
Conference organisers Jirayudh Sinthuphan (R) and Tom Watson (L) with Phanasari Kularb (C)