Tagged / conference

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

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

 

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?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

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

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)

UKRO Annual Conference 2014 – a newcomer’s view

UK Research OfficeAs my new role within RKEO will concentrate on supporting academics with EU and international applications, I was very pleased to attend the recent UKRO Annual Conference.

Having provided dedicated support to Knowledge Transfer Partnerships for nearly three years, I have grown used to the friendliness and knowledge of my professional colleagues in the UK KTP world. I need not have worried as I found the EU funding community just as welcoming and knowledgeable. With Horizon 2020 ahead, most of the conference focused on initial findings, preparing for future bids and highlighting updated practice and opportunities since FP7.

 Christina Miller (Director, UKRO) opened the conference then Tim Willis (Head, International Relations, BBSRC) led a session reviewing the start of H2020 and where the UK should be going.

David Wilson (BIS), outlined the role of the Technology Strategy Board and how H2020 links to the UK’s agenda for growth and innovation. Within H2020, innovation is ‘mainstreamed’ as are the social sciences and humanities. The difficulty SMEs have in engaging with EU funds was acknowledged but it was stressed that H2020 provides the framework for trust and tools to manage IP etc. We were left with a call to arms to help SMEs navigate this complex funding stream and to actively encourage such collaboration, with government support. Keith Sequeira (Member of Cabinet – Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn) focused on how H2020 is integrated, simplified and challenge based, with the removal of disciplinary boundaries. The scheme also provides a stronger mechanism to ensure outcomes showing impact. Shearer West (Head of Humanities Division, University of Oxford) considered the implications of the mainstreaming of arts and humanities. Their role in supporting global challenges by providing context and perspective was shown as vital to the process of embedding innovation within policy development, ethics and economic growth. The example of the humanities in the H2020 Climate action Advisory Group, one of many EU expert groups, was explored.

Following this session there followed a lively debate from the floor, where the importance of EU funding to the UK and the engagement by UK HEIs were both evident.

The next session, presented by Dirk Beernaert (Adviser to the DG Connect), considered the routes available via H2020, in preparation for the digital revolution. Dirk gave an excellent overview of the funding topology and key themes – smart objects / platforms, human-centric and cyber security. The session ended with a question – will HEIs define or just participate? We were encouraged to be pro-active in influencing the funding roadmap.

I then attended a useful breakout session on IPR given by Lea Montesse of the European IPR Help desk. This outlined the processes to be undertaken in managing IP within the life of an EU project, from inception through to eventual exploitation.  The key message here was to make more use of this service. My second breakout session was presented by Mathias Reddmann (Policy and Project Officer DG Connect) considered the focus area of Smart Cities and Communities. Unlike many other streams, the UK is not in the top three funding recipients here. The session outlined the European Innovation Partnership, which is not a funding instrument but a mechanism for collaboration. The application is a ‘light touch’ Invitation to Commitment for HEIs and SMEs.

The first day ended with a celebratory meal as this conference coincided with 30 years of UKRO. This was preceded by a reception hosted by the University of Bristol.

The second day dawned with a consideration of the annotated Model Grant Agreement, which included detailed discussion of costing, budgets, third parties vs. subcontractors, staff costs, payments, reporting and audits. Given some detailed questioning by some HEIs, David Mejuto Gayoso (Legal Officer, DG RTD), made a strong defence regarding some controversial issues in the changes from FP7 to H2020.

Alejandro Martin-Hobdey (Head of Unit, ERC) gave a fascinating and statistically-rich presentation of how the EU countries are responding to EU funding and the challenges and opportunities that this presents to the European Research Council. For BU, the Standard Grant appeared an attractive route into this funding. In terms of priories for ERA, these are gender, wider EU participation, international participation (with S. Korea and NSF mentioned), interdisciplinary proposals and clear impact evaluation. In questioning, Alejandro reported that 50% of grants are made to c. 50 institutions s with the UK dominated by the Russell Group members. During the Q and A, the potential of using companies and leverage and embedding the scheme within PDP for academics was aired.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, in terms of building successful partnerships with the non-academic sector, was explored by Kamila Partyka (Policy Officer, DG EAC). A key message from this session was that, in the EU, 45% of Post-Doc researchers work in the private sector, so EU funding needs to be used to prepare the best candidates to work in industry, not just in academia. The structure of these actions within H2020 was described, with particular reference to Innovative Training Networks (ITN). I noted that on the slide giving the top 20 participating HEIs in the UK that no post ’92 HEIs were listed… 

Alan Cross (Head of Unit, DG RTD) then gave a revelatory review of the H2020 evaluation processes. This including scoring, key points for assessment (challenge based, impact, close to market and cross disciplinary), the role of the assessors who use the principles of independence, impartiality, objectivity, accuracy and consistency, eligibility, operational capacity, panel review processes and ensuring quality in terms of the panel.

The conference ended with Professor Jackie Hunt CBE (BBSRC) and David Golding (Head of EU and International Strategy, TSB) inspiring us all to go back and make better use of IP to promote business and academic research within innovation partnerships. The Innovative Medicines Initiative was used as a key example, along with BBSRC Research Industry Clubs, ELIXIR, ERA-NETS, EPI and KIC. The value of the TSB in supporting innovation was enthusiastically presented with the Enterprise Europe Network noted. Using other agencies, such as LEPs, trade associations and professional bodies was encouraged, as was the TSB’s desire to build real relationships, not just being a funder for x months.

 By the end of the very full two days, my head was buzzing with potential opportunities for BU. Over the coming months, as Paul Lynch and I move to our new role in facilitating EU and International bidding at BU, we hope to inspire you with our enthusiasm for the over 400 schemes within the EU funding arena.

IHPRC celebrates 5th birthday

The International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC) celebrated its fifth birthday on the first day of the 2014 conference on Wednesday, July 2.

The conference chair, Prof Tom Watson, was joined in cutting the celebration cake by Prof Don Wright (BostonUniversity), Associate Professor Meg Lamme (UniversityofAlabama) and Associate Professor Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo (UniversityofNavarra), who were members of an advisory panel consulted on the establishment of the conference in 2009.

 The conference, which was opened by the Dean of The Media School, Stephen Jukes, has been attended by delegates from more than 12 countries. Some 33 papers and a Keynote Panel have been presented.

More than 150 papers have been offered by delegates from 30 countries in the past five years. The conference has established the field of PR history and spurred a big growth in journal and book publishing, with two more books launched at the 2014 conference.

 Planning is already beginning for the 2015 conference to be held on July 7-8.

(L-R) Prof Don Wright, Prof Tom Watson, Assoc Prof Meg Lamme & Assoc Prof Natalia Rodriguez Salcedo

 

‘Intelligences’ theme of PR conference

Dr David MacQueen and Prof Tom Watson of The Media School both chaired panels and presented papers at the PR Meeting #4 conference in Barcelona last week.

The conference, which features research on critical approaches to public relations and strategic communication, had a focus on ‘intelligences’ this year.

Dr McQueen chaired a session which included fellow speakers from the the US, Spain and New Zealand. His paper, jointly authored with Graeme Baxter of Robert Gordon University, considered community resistance to corporate power in Scotland and Ireland.

Prof Watson presented a critical review of repetitive research issues in PR, in a session which also included speakers from Australia and Sweden. On the final afternoon of the conference he was a panel speaker on academic writing and publishing.

“This conference is a top event as it has broad international participation and always pushes into new research territory,” said Prof Watson. “This year, it was built around Howard Gardners’s work on intelligences, which brought forward aspects such as competitive, professional, spiritual, digital, emotional, dialogic, wicked and feminist intelligences.”

(L-R) PR Meeting # organisers Prof Jordi Xifra (Pompeu Fabra) and Prof David McKie (Wakato) with Prof Tom Watson

Maternity, Midwifery & Baby Conference

A recent free Maternity, Midwifery & Baby Conference held in London offered an ideal opportunity for Bournemouth University to showcase two innovative projects. The first, co-presented by Dr. Sue Way and Sian Ridden, a 2nd year midwifery student, focused on a joint chiropractic and midwifery newborn clinic which was set up with Fusion principles in mind. There are a number of aims of the clinic, of which the main is to optimise women’s opportunities to breastfeed successfully by providing chiropractic care for babies and breastfeeding support and advice to mothers. There are two further important aims, one of which, is to enhance student (undergraduate midwifery students & chiropractic students) learning opportunities and secondly, to provide networking and collaborative opportunities for students and staff in relation to research and dissemination of findings around these particular topics. When it was Sian’s turn to present, she was confident and articulate. She discussed a case study and how her knowledge was enhanced by being part of the clinic. Sian found attending the clinics provided her with a great learning experience and it was empowering that she was able to provide breastfeeding support under the guidance of the experts in the respective fields (Alison Taylor and Dr. Joyce Miller). Preliminary breastfeeding results from the clinic are promising. More details to follow in due course. Finally the seminar concluded by discussing the re-launch of the clinic in September, and to raise awareness of the re-launch, a free local conference (funded by Fusion Funding) for the community will be taking place on the 12th July 2014. For further information on the above clinic or the conference please contact Alison Taylor on ataylor@bournemouth.ac.uk or Dr. Sue Way on sway@bournemouth.ac.uk .

 

The second seminar presentation took place after lunch and it focused on a study which is currently taking place involving five 3rd year midwifery students and the feasibility of incorporating newborn infant physical examination (NIPE) competencies into the pre-registration midwifery programme.  Traditionally these competencies are usually achieved post qualification when midwives have a number of years’ experience under their belt. However BU midwifery students felt differently and Luisa Cescutti-Butler discussed how the study was initiated by Luzie who asked the question: “why couldn’t they learn all the necessary skills in the third year of their programme”? Luzie took to the podium and presented her section like a duck to water. She didn’t shy away from the difficulties from taking this extra study on, but was quite clear that the benefits for women in her care were worth the extra work.  The presentation generated quite a lot of heated discussion with some midwives in the audience quite adamant that students should not be taking on this ‘extended’ skill. However Luzie was able to stand her ground and confidently counter ague as to why students should gain these skills during the undergraduate programme. She received a resounding clap and cheers from the audience.

It takes some courage to stand up in a room full of people and present, and Sian and Luzie were brilliant.  Both students did Bournemouth University and in particular the midwifery team proud. For further information on the above study please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler on lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

 

 

BU student Jib Acharya presents poster in Ethiopia

HSC Ph.D. student Mr. Jib Acharya presented a poster in Ethiopia on his thesis research.  His poster accepted by the scientific committee of the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference in Addis Adeba, the capital of Ethiopia.

 

Jib Acharya reported on his Ph.D. research which involves a mixed-methods study of to assess knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about nutritious food amongst rural and urban mothers in one district of Nepal.  The poster highlighted that both knowledge of and attitudes towards nutritious food of rural and urban mothers are still poor in both rural and urban populations.

Jib’s supervisors in the School of Health & Social Care are: Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

 

Reference:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2014) A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Nepal, poster presented at the Micronutrient Forum Global Conference in Addis Adeba, Ethiopia, June 2014.

 

 

Well done!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, CMMPH

Strong CMMPH presence at ICM conference in Prague!

Dr. Carol Wilkins

In the first week of June members of the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health presented BU’s midwifery research and education at the 30th ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Congress in Prague (Czech Republic).

There were four oral presentations in total, one workshop and three poster presentations.  The oral presentations comprised:

  1. Dr. Carol Wilkins (see picture) presented from her Ph.D. work ‘Emotional processing in childbirth study: exploration of the relationship between maternal emotions in pregnancy and risk of postnatal depression’.
  2. HSC Professor Vanora Hundley presented her international work on clean birth kits.
  3. Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Alison Taylor gave a paper under the titleLetting off steam! Video diaries to share breastfeeding experiences Her Ph.D. thesis research uses a novel approach of giving hand-held cameras to make home video diaries about their ‘realities’ of breastfeeding.
  4. HSC student Sheetal Sharma presented her Ph.D. research ‘Getting women to care: mixed–methods evaluation of maternity care intervention in rural Nepal’.

Dr Susan Way led a workshop on escalating concerns in relation to poor clinical practice and disrespectful care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthermore, three HSC posters were displayed as part of a special session on Midwifery in South Asia, all three related to different CMMPH maternity care studies conducted in Nepal.

  1. Sharma, S.  Sicuri, E., Belizan, JM., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Stephens J.,  Hundley, V., Angell, C.,  Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention
  2. Milne, L, Hundley, V, van Teijlingen, E, Ireland, J, Simkhada, P, Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study,
  3. Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. Simkhada, P., Angell, C. Pregnant & Dirty?

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

BU Nepal health research at international midwifery conference

Yesterday HSC Ph.D. student Sheetal Sharma presented her key research findings under the title ‘Getting women to care: mixed–methods evaluation of maternity care intervention in rural Nepal’ at the 30th congress of the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) in Prague.   Sheetal’s Ph.D. evaluates the effectiveness of a health promotion intervention aiming antenatal care attendance in rural Nepal.  Her evaluation suggests that practice should be socio-culturally appropriate and inclusive not only of women but also their families.

This afternoon three HSC posters were displayed as part of a special session on Midwifery in South Asia.  All three posters featured aspects of maternity care research conducted in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health in Nepal.

Poster 1:        Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study

Milne, L, Hundley, V, van Teijlingen, E, Ireland, J, Simkhada, P,

Poster 2:        Pregnant & Dirty?

Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. Simkhada, P., Angell, C.

Poster 3:        Getting women to care in Nepal: A Difference in Difference analysis of a health promotion intervention

Sharma, S.  Sicuri, E., Belizan, JM., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Stephens J., Hundley, V., Angell, C.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH