Tagged / Early Career Researcher

BU’s ECR Network – Come to the pre-launch event on 25th April

Events, Research Training, RKE development framework

teamworkBU will be launching a new network for Early Career Researchers later in 2018

If you are an ECR* or interested in the development of ECRs at BU, please sign up to attend this pre-launch meeting to discuss your ideas and expectation of this new network. Priority will be given to ECRs in the first instance, but whatever your role at BU, please sign up as your input will be most welcome.

This session will take place at Talbot Campus on Wednesday, 25th April, from 13:00 – 15:00, with refreshments, but not lunch. provided.

BU Staff – Reserve your place now!

*an ECR, in this case, is defined as someone who started their research career on or after 1 August 2013. This is the point at which they held a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater, which included a primary employment function of undertaking ‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’, with any HE or other organisation, whether in the UK or overseas.

 

 

 

Acorn Fund Launch – Internal funds for ECRs

BU Challenges, BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion Investment Fund, RKE development framework

The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office is pleased to announce the launch of the Acorn Fund (Acceleration Of Research & Networking) for Early Career Researchers.

This new scheme will provide c. five awards, of up to £5,000 each, to support BU’s ECRs, with the most promising talent, to gain experience of managing and leading their own pilot research projects. These award support BU’s commitment to the Concordat to Support to Career Development of Researchers and is made possible by the BU Fusion Investment Fund

There will be a strong link to the new ECR Network and the ECR Showcase event, also being launched in 2018. In this way, those who do not benefit directly from the Acorn funds scheme by receiving funding, will benefit indirectly though interaction with those ECRs who receive support via the scheme.

An ECR, for the purpose of this scheme is the REF definition modified to: an ECR in this case is defined as someone who started their research career on or after 1 August 2013. This is the point at which they held a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater, which included a primary employment function of undertaking ‘research’ or ‘teaching and research’, with any HE or other organisation, whether in the UK or overseas

Find out more and apply. The closing date for applications is 18th April 2018. As these require faculty support, start your application and obtain faculty approval as soon as possible.

To assist with the budget section, please refer to the RKE Sample Costs, within the Research > Pre-award area on the staff intranet.

Please address any queries to RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Opportunity for a BU academic to lead an internal networking group

Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

As part of the RKEDF, RKEO are setting up a new networking group for BU’s Early Career Researchers. As part of this initiative, there is an opportunity for two experienced and research-active BU academics to provide the academic leadership for this new group, as lead and deputy. The network will be fully supported by RKEO.

The network has a number of indicative delivery aims:

  • Cross-disciplinary and cross-Faculty networking opportunities
  • Peer support
  • Dissemination of pertinent information (e.g. relevant funding opportunities)
  • A new annual ECR research showcase event allowing ECRs to present their research and develop further collaborative opportunities, to be hosted by the lead and deputy

This initiative will further support academic citizenship, as part of BU’s commitment to the Vitae Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.

If you believe that you have the attributes and experience as well as the desire to help encourage and develop the next generation of research-active academics at BU, please email your brief expression of interest to RKEO by Thursday, 25th January. The final selection will be made, collectively, by the DDRPPs.

Further information about this new BU network will also be forthcoming for those who wish to participate as members.

 

BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants – Open today (12/4/17)

BU research, Funding opportunities

The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants funding scheme has opened today (12/4/17). The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 24th of May. There are updated BA scheme notes for applicants and BA FAQs which are also available on e-GAP. Applicants must read the documentation carefully before starting their application. BA receives a high number of applications and will reject, rather than correct those with errors.

If you are interested in applying to this call then please send your intention to bid form and draft proposal to your Funding Development Officer by 3rd May 2017. We usually have a high demand for this call and so we will need to ensure that we have scheduled you in for costings and approvals, particularly as the British Academy requires Bournemouth University to check your application and to electronically submit it on your behalf. The British Academy recommend final drafts be submitted five working days before the deadline so that institutional checks can be performed. Therefore, the Bournemouth University internal deadline for the submission of final drafts and internal permissions is the 17th of May 2017.

If you require help developing or discussing your proposal please contact the relevant Research Facilitator for your faculty.

 

 

Most read article (Early Career Researcher)

BRIAN, BU research, Research news

The first article published by FOM academic Samreen Ashraf has become the ‘Most Read’ article on Research Gate compared to those published by other authors in her department.

The paper focuses on consumer trust in Islamic banks. The authors differentiate between the definitions of trust and confidence in the paper. Specifically, it addressed the questions: to what extent are trust and confidence active influencers in the decision-making process, are they differentiated or are they one of the same? Also how does the Pakistani collective cultural context further complicate the application of these concepts? These questions were addressed by using qualitative methods.
This study provided further insight into consumer behaviour within financial services and specifically Islamic banking and has contributed to the theoretical understanding of the concepts of trust and confidence.

For those interested in reading the paper the full reference is: Ashraf, S., Robson, J. and Sekhon, Y., 2015. Consumer trust and confidence in the compliance of Islamic banks. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 20(2), pp.133-144.

Alternatively, the paper can be accessed via Research Gate!

my-picture-amjulie-picture

EURAXESS – November Newsletter

conferences, EU, Funding opportunities, international, Research news, Research Training

As notified in the November EURAXESS Newsletter, there are a number of research workshops open for registration under Researcher Links and the Newton Fund. The workshops give researchers the opportunity to form new international connections and Early Career Researchers may apply for grants in order to participate.
Some of the opportunities are:

Further opportunities are listed on the British Council website.

Why not sign up for the EURAXESS Newsletter so that these and further opportunities are delivered direct to your own inbox?Euraxess

Euraxess UK is a British Council hub, which aids researchers in their career development, supporting mobility and acting as a support mechanism for researchers moving abroad or moving to the UK. Their services include:

 

Are you an early career, social science researcher? Contribute to this ESRC survey to inform future support decisions

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AHRC

ESRC are looking for feedback from early career social scientists (no prescriptive definition given but excluding current Doctoral students) on the experiences and issues they face. Themes covered by the survey include motivations for doctoral study, current employment and future aspirations, availability of support, career advice and guidance – and what support was taken up, and educational background. Selected respondents will be invited to take part in follow-up interviews. The findings will be used to inform ESRC’s support for early career researchers in future years.

Further information is available on the ESRC website http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/news/news-items/enhancing-support-for-early-career-social-science-researchers/ and the survey can be found at https://ioe.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/esrc-survey .

Newton Fund seeks Peer Review Panel Members

BU research, Training

newton fundThe Newton Fund is actively inviting expressions of interest from senior and early career researchers to expand their pool of panel members for the Newton Fund initiative and, potentially, other British Council programmes.

Looking at the specialisms below, BU has significant expertise in many of these areas.

They are looking for early career researchers who would like to broaden their experience of peer review as a career development opportunity, and for senior researchers who are willing to share and use their experience to support the review panels. Please note that we can only consider researchers based at UK institutions.

By getting involved in funding panels, you will gain invaluable insights into how a funder functions, how they assess applications, build your network, raise your profile in your field and, potentially, give you the opportunity to influence future funding decisions.

For this particular invitation:

Eligibility  Senior and early-career researchers. Early-career researcher is defined as being aCollaborative Decision Making PhD holder + up to 10 years. For fields where a PhD is not a usual career requirement, sufficient research experience will be accepted.

Researchers with the following specialisms are eligible to apply:

  • Biological and Medical Sciences
  • Environment and Agriculture
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Social Sciences
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences

In particular, the Newton Fund would like to hear from researchers who have the following subject specialisms:

  • Human rights
  • Forensic anthropology
  • Marine biology/Oceanography
  • Aquaculture
  • Public health/Nutrition
  • Food science
  • Microbiology
  • Earth Sciences

Find out more and apply!

Time Management for Researchers – 15th April 2015

Training

‘I just don’t have time’ This is a phrase I hear most often at work – we all have increasing pressures and often struggle to be as effective as possible in a shorter period of time to ensure we have a healthy work-life balance.

Everybody has just 24 hours in every day. Why do some people seem to achieve much more than others with their allotted time?

During this half day workshop we will identify the major drains on your time or energies and explore different tools to structure your use of time and resources.

Particularly in a research environment it is likely that there will never be enough time to do everything. This workshop will give you the tools to help you to choose the most important things when all things seem important.

We will consider different ways to assess priorities, to deal with timewasters and with deadlines. The course will also allow participants to develop their own work-life balance and to reflect on how they choose to spend their time.

As a result of this workshop participants will have tools to

  • Prioritise what they choose to do
  • Streamline their use of time
  • Define their own work-life balance
  • Understand the difference between important and urgent

We have hired the services of an external facilitator to offer support in this for academic staff as part of the BRAD programme. Dr Margaret Collins has a 20+ year academic career background and uses her experience and subsequent training in theories such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming to deliver advice on how to increase personal effectiveness in these areas.

You sometimes have to invest a little time to free up more later on – the session on Weds 15th April 2015 13:00 – 16:30 on Talbot campus is a worthwhile investment. There are limited spaces so please do ensure you get one by booking on the Organisational and Staff Development webpages.

 

Researcher Development Evaluation Toolkit

BU research, Training

Are you aware of the new unveiling of the Researcher Development Evaluation Toolkit? This could be a fantastic opportunity for you. The aim of the toolkit, which is developed by the Vitae Impact and Evaluation Group, is to provide researcher developers, policy and decision makers with access to a range of useful evaluation resources including evaluation template shared by our member institutions, case studies, papers, presentation and links.

This toolkit is a great addition to resources on impact and brings together the significant body of work Vitae and the Vitae Impact and Evaluation Group have developed since the original researcher development sector impact framework document first published in 2008. This resource should prove a great support to those evaluating impact whether new to the area or experienced in evaluation.

These resources can help with focusing on what is important when planning and implementing researcher development evaluation projects.

Impact levels for researcher development evaluation – The Impact Framework establishes a clear and robust focus for evaluation of researcher development initiatives and activity. It takes you through five levels of evaluation

Planning your evaluation – A step by step approach to help plan a successful evaluation study.

Evaluation templates – These are useful templates to help in the design of researcher development evaluation surveys.

Evaluation case studies – These researcher development impact case studies are written by higher education institutions in the UK.

Papers and Presentation – These give you access to recent papers and presentations with useful references to help develop successful evaluation studies.

Useful Links – There is additional information available to members on specific topics linked to researcher development evaluation.

There is huge encouragement for the members to contribute more examples of evaluation templates – join the Vitae Member Community for future updates.

British Academy Funding Opportunity: BARSEAs 2015

Funding opportunities

 

 

 

The British Academy has launched an exciting new funding opportunity for early career researchers working in Humanities and Social Sciences. 

The British Academy Rising Star Engagement Awards (BARSEAs) provide a means for early career researchers to develop their skills and further career progression through organising events, training and mentoring activities for other early career researchers. Please note though that this is not a funding opportunity to undertake research. 

Applications are invited from early career scholars within 10 years of the award of their doctorate, and ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. In order to be eligible for this programme, candidates must also be able to demonstrate their academic credentials to be leaders in research through suitable marks of esteem awarded prior to the submission of the application.

 Level of award: up to £15,000.

 BU Internal deadline for submission to RKEO: 14 January 2015

 Deadline for submission of applications: 21 January 2015 at 5pm 

 Deadline for Institutional Approval of applications: 22 January 2015 at 5pm .  Results are expected late February 2015

Awards available for starting date: not earlier than 1 March 2015 and not later than 31 March 2015

For more information on what activities are intended to be supported through this scheme, detailed guidance on what can and cannot be applied for and clarification on eligibility, please see the scheme notes which can be found via e-GAP.

Enquiries related to this scheme can be made to posts@britac.ac.uk but please note that interested parties should register interest through the RKEO Funding Development Team who can provide further details in the first instance.

Early Career Researchers – interested in working with policymakers?

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AHRC-funded Early Career Researchers (ECRs) now have the opportunity to apply to join a training programme on Engaging with Government. The three day course will take place in February 2014 and is intended to offer insights into the process of policy making, help ECRs make links with policymakers, and aid in the development of skills needed to engage with policy. Specifically, the course will:

* Help you to see where your research could impact on and contribute to public policy
* Challenge you to consider the policy making process in detail, and how research fits into it
* Improve your influencing and communication skills that are needed to contribute to policymaking.

Eligible researchers are invited to submit applications; further information is available at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Engaging-with-Government.aspx. Be quick though, the deadline for applications is 21 October 2013.