Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Now available for December, the Digital Business Briefing is compiled by the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) in partnership with Innovate UK, Catapults, Tech City, Nesta, and Horizon2020. The briefing highlights funding, support, events and training relevant to those working in the digital industries.
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Position: 2 full-time freelance contracts available for 3 months each
Day rate: £100 plus travel expenses
Location: Dorset
Silicon South is working on behalf of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership to develop a strategy for boosting the digital creative economy in Dorset. Silicon South has committed to undertake a series of research and feasibility studies which together will inform a full-scale investment strategy setting out how this growth can be achieved.
Silicon South is looking for two freelance full-time researchers to assist in the development of the strategy by undertaking research and analysis on a range of projects related to the creative and digital sector. Working to the Director of Silicon South, you will undertake a combination of primary and secondary data analysis and research on a variety of topics relevant to Silicon South’s strategy.
Informal enquires about the post are welcomed. Please contact Anthony Story on 07702 103872.
Please send a CV and covering letter detailing your experience to: paul.webster@siliconsouth.org.uk
Closing date: Noon, 8 December 2014.
Click here for more information including application details.
The Horizon 2020 programme is the major funding opportunity for research and innovation initiatives across Europe, and in 2015 there is nearly 600 million Euros available. If this is an area that interests you, it’s worth bookmarking the European Creative Business Network website .
Save the date!
Creative industries will benefit from some of this funding in the next round of calls published on the 15 October 2014, as the topics have already been announced. Here are some of the highlights for creative businesses:
ICT 19: Technologies for creative industries, social media and convergence
This funding aims to support Research and Innovation Actions, or Support for the development of, new or emerging technologies for digital content creation and to unlock complex information and media and interacting with them.
ICT 20: Technologies for better human learning and teaching
The development of digital technologies for learning are crucial to boosting innovation in education. This call will therefore focus on innovative technologies for learning, on underpinning interoperability standards and on the integration of different components into smart learning environments.
ICT 10: Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation – Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies.
By Collective Awareness Platform, the call basically means website or ‘portal’. They are interested in calls that pioneer crowdsourcing/crowdfunding or other forms of social innovation. They want to fund technological solutions to real world problems and are looking beyond the financial impact of the project towards the difference it makes to society.
More details of all of these calls are in the Draft Work Programme.
Ever wondered what funding opportunities are available and how to find out more about the funding process?
TIGA, the network for developers and digital publishers, in partnership with Google has launched a new in-depth report that details and assesses the funding sources currently available in the UK for games companies.
The report is split into two parts, a survey of nearly 40 independent UK developers on their experiences with and use of third party sources of funding, and an in-depth source-by-source funding guide.
This guide is free to download and includes case studies and interviews on what funders look for.
On Friday 14 February 2014, the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) launched the Copyrightuser.org
Copyrightuser.org is an independent online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public.
The project was funded by BU’s Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) in 2012 and was developed in collaboration with CIPPM and the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP)
The online resource is applicable to anyone who uses copyright – whether it be in education, music, film, gaming, artistic work etc.
The objective of the portal is to inform creators on how to protect their work; how to license and exploit it; and how to legally re-use the works of others.
As such, it is a useful tool for creators and also for the general public in understanding the issues surrounding copyright law.
The 1-minute video on the landing page of copyrightuser.org further demonstrates what this online resource is about.
Following on from the success of the research carried out as a result of the support received from the
FIF, the CIPPM-led team went on to secure RCUK funding provided by CREATe, University of Glasgow in August 2013 to extend the scope of the project.
The work on Phase II of copyrightuser.org is now underway.
The copyrightuser.org team consists of:
The team is further assisted by an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow).
We invite you to visit copyrightuser.org and welcome your feedback.
The Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM), Business School, will hold a lunch-time event on Friday 14th February 2014, to launch the Copyright User portal. The event will take place from 12-1 pm in EB302. A light lunch will follow from 1 – 1.30 pm providing a further opportunity to chat to the project team.
The Copyright User portal is an independent
online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public.
The project was funded by BU’s Fusion Investment Fund in 2012 and was developed in collaboration with CIPPM and the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP)
In August 2013, the CIPPM-led team secured RCUK funding provided by CREATe, University of Glasgow to extend the scope of the project.
The online resource is applicable to anyone who uses copyright – whether it be in education, music, film, gaming, artistic work etc. The objective of the portal is to inform creators on how to protect their work; how to license and exploit it; and how to legally re-use the works of others.
It is a useful tool for creators and the UK creative industries and as such the content is relevant to the various creative stakeholders in the UK.
The session will be useful for anyone involved in the use of copyright works. The session will include presenting the online resource to the attendees and through an interactive session gather feedback on user experience.
To book your place at this event, please visit this page.
The Copyright User team consists of:
Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator & Co-Director CIPPM);
Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer and CIPPM Research Assistant);
Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (PhD Candidate (Copyright) and CIPPM Research Assistant);
Professor Martin Kretschmer (Principal Investigator & Director CREATe, University of Glasgow); and
Dr. Kris Erickson (Co-Investigator, CREATe, University of Glasgow).
The team is further assisted by an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow).
As we start the new academic year, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the activities within this theme over the past 12 months and consider how the theme will develop in the future.
We held several meetings with mixed results. On the upside, we introduced ‘elevator pitches’ from staff who had ideas for funding applications/research papers and wanted to work collaboratively with other members of staff. This format worked extremely well with staff being able to cross-pollinate ideas, knowledge and skills in order to get some forward momentum in their projects.
We also held a number of these sessions with the Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth research theme. This proved to be a real winner and ensured that research themes were not seen as silos. On the downside, this theme stills lacks a certain amount of staff engagement to develop real critical mass.
In terms of developing this theme in the future, two opportunities stand out. Earlier this year BU signed a ‘Manifesto for our Creative and Digital Economy’ with local businesses and councils. The aim of this initiative is to enhance the creative and digital economy of Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Dorset. We hope that staff working within this research theme will play a major role in helping to create a thriving international hub driving economic growth. Secondly, this theme has now incorporated the research centres of the School of Design, Engineering & Computing and hopes to integrate research into Design Simulation, Sustainable Design, and Smart technology to name but a few.
We will be running a number of research meetings during the coming academic year, so please come along and make your contribution to a thriving and societally import research theme.
Dr John Oliver
The Media School
Sign up to the Creative, Digital and Cognitive Science research themes here:
Dr Philip Long, Associate Dean, from the School of Tourism has submitted a paper to eBU.
The abstract is as follows:
| This paper suggests that there may be insufficient recognition of critical ideas, professional and cultural practices associated with the ‘creative industries’ among tourism destination management researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in England. The paper considers the relationships between academic and practitioner knowledge and practice that potentially connect tourism destination management with creativity and the arts. The paper argues that more research is needed on the contrasting backgrounds, education and occupational discourses of tourism and arts / creative practitioners and how these may be addressed in the curriculum at postgraduate and continuing professional development (CPD) levels. The article suggests that there is a need for destination managers to explore contrasting agendas, knowledge needs and interests, and occupational discourses among creative industry practitioners and likewise for creative industry practitioners concerning tourism and destination management.
This paper can be viewed, reviewed and commented on by following this link – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/11 – alternatively when on campus just type in ‘ebu’ into your web browser address bar. |
£600K Funding Available for Cross-Media Content projects
Register your place at a Creative Industries KTN event near you to find out more about the Challenge 3 stage of the £1.8M Technology Strategy Board convergence funding competition available for cross-platform content projects.
The Convergence in a Digital Landscape challenge 3 competition seeks projects that investigate the potential of Cross-Platform analytical metrics and feedback tools to help content producers better understand the consumption of their products in a converged landscape.
Why Attend?
Event Times: 10:30 – 13:30
Liverpool: Mon, 15 October 2012 – http://creativeindustriesktn.org/beacons/events/view/434720
Belfast: Tues, 16 October 2012 – http://creativeindustriesktn.org/beacons/events/view/434721
London: Tues, 23 October 2012 – http://creativeindustriesktn.org/beacons/events/view/434719
Register Now and more details to follow!
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is investing up to £1.8m in feasibility projects that address the converged nature of the digital landscape. The programme will be delivered in three parts during 2012. Projects are sought which focus on convergence in hyper-local media models, content origination tools, and analytical feedback and metrics tools.
The TSB has identified convergence as a priority in its strategy for the creative industries (seewww.innovateuk.org under Publications). This competition is a first step in the TSB’s active commitment to explore the impact that convergence is having on emerging and innovative businesses. The feasibility studies supported under this three-part programme may also develop into submissions to a follow-on competition planned for 2013.
Challenge 2 focuses on projects that will lead to true cross-platform origination of content, the collaborative generation of ideas, and new business models for content based on cross-media formats and consumption.
Challenge 2 opens on 16 July 2012 and the deadline for applications is noon 22 August 2012. Successful challenge 2 projects must begin no later than 1 November 2012.
The competition is open to small and micro companies. Projects must be led by a business working either singly or collaboratively. Academics can apply but only as a partner in a consortium. Projects can attract up to 75% public funding. The total grant for each project will not exceed £56,250 and the total project size will not
exceed £75,000. Projects should last up to 12 months.
More information, click here
To apply for this competition you must first register. You can do this by going to the web page for this competition at www.innovateuk.org under Competitions. When you register you will get access to all the supporting
information you need to read before you apply, including the Guidance for Applicants and the application form.
Competitions helpline:
0300 321 4357
Email: support@innovateuk.org
Professor Ruth Towse and Professor Martin Kretschmer have been awarded funding from the ESRC (RES-622-26-565) to organise an event as part of the Festival of Social Science 2012.
The symposium ‘What constitutes evidence for copyright policy?’ will be held on 8 November 2012 in the Executive Business Centre.
Professors Towse and Kretschmer write: “This interactive event offers the opportunity for discussion on evidence for copyright policy between social scientists, policy-makers and producers and users of copyright works. Copyright law is a topical and contentious area that affects a wide range of stakeholders with differing views on copyright policy. The need for evidence-based policy on copyright policy was emphasised in the Hargreaves Review and has led to several calls for evidence from stakeholders. The responses they provide to the Intellectual Policy Office are varied in nature and quality; the IPO has responded by issuing guidelines on what constitutes acceptable evidence (which itself is contested).
“Besides being a matter of pressing public concern, copyright also attracts the interest of a broad range of social science disciplines each with its own rules of evidence. The emphasis on economic growth as the objective of copyright policy has shifted the need for evidence in the direction of economics but economic evidence is not always easily available. Nor it is the case that only quantitative evidence is regarded as valid.”
The event will involve the following:
If you are interested to participate, please contact Dr Rebecca Edwards (Research Development Officer, Public Engagement): redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk
Watch this excellent short video from BU’s Professor Bodgan Gabrys on the Computer Intelligence EU grant (INFER project) used to develop predictive modelling that’s applicable to multiple industries.
To see other BU videos on YouTube go to the BU YouTube page!
The EPSRC have recently announced a call for applications to participate in a number of workshops to develop research challenges and networks within the Digital Economy Theme:
Digital Economy Theme – The Research Councils UK Digital Economy (DE) Theme is supporting research to rapidly realise the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of community life, cultural experiences, future society, and the economy.
EPSRC leads the DE Theme on behalf of the partner research councils AHRC, ESRC and MRC, bringing together a unique community of researchers from diverse disciplines including computer science, engineering, social science, the arts and medical research; a combination of research and skills that coupled with user-led design will deliver impact.
Digital Economy Sub-Themes – The DE Theme has formed four ‘sub-themes’ to describe the research they support (further described at the end of this document):
EPSRC now wish to further develop these sub-themes, and so are seeking applications from interested researchers and users to attend a number of one-day workshops, to explore the opportunities and associated research challenges in these sub-themes and also to create a longer term network of researchers and users around the sub-themes.
Sub-theme Workshops and Networks – At the workshops attendees will consider the sub-theme remit and associated DE Theme portfolio, and identify the opportunities within the sub-theme and the associated research challenges, prioritising where the DE Theme could add value and have maximum impact.
Following on from the workshop, EPSRC envisage the sub-theme network creating a community around the sub-theme, expanding the network to include other relevant stakeholders, whether academic, users or other stakeholders.
The network will also continue to develop the research challenges and priorities in the sub-theme and also gathering information on the sub-theme landscape (e.g. other activities, funders etc.). The DE Theme will use these network outputs to inform future investment.
The workshops have been arranged for the following dates, although locations are still to be confirmed:
New Economic Models – Monday 23 January 2012
IT as a Utility – Tuesday 24 January 2012
Communities and Culture – Thursday 26 January 2012
Sustainable Society – Friday 27 January 2012
The deadline for submission of the EoI is 12:00 on 30 November 2011. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by the 16 December 2011.
For more information on the RCUK Digital Economy theme, and how to apply to participate in the workshops please visit the EPSRC website.
This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone researching in this area, especially as it fits in with our emerging BU Research Theme – Creative and Digital Economies. Anyone interested and research-active in this field is strongly encouraged to apply!
The Media School recently launched the world’s first Professional Doctorate programme for professionals working in the Creative Industries.
The Creative Industries in the UK has shown itself to be a diverse, vibrant, and expanding sector that contributed nearly £60bn to the UK economy in 2008. With this dynamic picture in mind, this practice-led programme is multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional in nature and aims to build new knowledge in the field of practice.
The Professional Doctorate: Creative Industries (DProf) programme is aligned with the Bournemouth University’s strategic plan in so far as it offers;
• high quality education
• aims to develop high quality professional practice
• is likely to raise our public media profile
• will potentially offer opportunities for Media School staff to engage in enterprise activities with businesses within the Creative Industries.
Dr John Oliver, the Programme Director and Acting Head of Research for the Media School, says that this is an exciting addition to the Media School’s portfolio of doctoral research provision and has already attracted high calibre professionals in the form of an Executive Director at Virgin Media.
BU staff can login below:
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