Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
If you would like to apply to any strands of the FIF please make sure you submit your application by the deadline which is 2pm on Monday 1 July. No exceptions will be made to this deadline.
For all the updated strand policy documents, Fund FAQ’s and information about applying, please visit the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
My Fusion journey started well before the Fusion fund came into being. 
I’ve attended several Medicine 2.0 conferences, increasing my network of people researching in a similar area to myself along the way. Last year this led to an invitation to visit Prof John Sullivan at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The University of Otago, founded in 1869, is New Zealand’s oldest university.
My research interests are around the role of the Internet and Social Media in supporting people living with long term conditions, and the related implications for healthcare professionals’ practice and education. Prof Sullivan researches in the area of sport concussion, including projects examining the role of the world wide web (www) in facilitating concussion awareness.
I applied to the Staff Networking and Mobility strand for support to take up this invitation, and was awarded funds for a 2 week visit to explore potential collaboration in research and education initiatives.
While I was there I was invited to give a guest lecture, where I shared some recent research I have undertaken into the ethics of using online discussion boards as research data. I was lucky enough to meet other Otago academics with an interest in this, including Dr Lynley Anderson in the Bioethics Centre, and Dr Lisa Whitehead, the Director of the Centre for Postgraduate Nursing.
I had an inspiring fortnight, mainly at the Dunedin campus. The School of Physiotherapy were kind enough to give me office space and computer access during my stay. The University of Otago has grown over the years and has a historic core, surrounded by a collection of buildings of various ages and styles. Prof Sullivan took me on a walk around the campus and told me something of its history.
I also visited several local coffee shops, where a lot of networking meetings seem to happen. Prof David Baxter, the Dean, gave me an overview of the work of the School, and I discussed research into low back pain with Dr Ramakrishnan Mani, and use of the Internet in education with Dr Daniel Ribeiro.
I also visited the University of Otago’s Christchurch campus where Dr Whitehead is based. 
The Centre for Postgraduate Nursing is located in the City Centre, and while there I took some time out to walk around the areas of the downtown area that have been opened to the public after the devastating earthquakes suffered by the city two years ago.
I’ve come back with ideas for two possible research projects that now need to be developed, and funding found.
If anyone would like to know more about my research, or to discuss the Staff Mobility and Networking fund, please email me (cbond)
Okay so it’s not exactly free….you will have to do something for it but what if I told you that you will be hailed within BU, and who knows, maybe the world, as a researcher/support staff member extraordinaire! Your peers will bow down in the corridors in your honour, you will be met with applause when you enter the atrium.*
I know what you’re thinking….’This sounds brilliant! Where can I find out more?’ Just point your mouse here, my friend, and all will be revealed.
*This may not actually happen.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
We have had quite a few enquiries asking for help to provide costs for fusion fund applications. It is expected that applicants will calculate costs themselves. Please note that costings are not handled by RKE Ops as only external funding applications are processed by this team. In the main, fusion applications involve travel and subsistence costs which can be calculated by staff drawing on standard guidance. In the case that an applicant is being bought out of their current post or hiring a new member of staff for a project your Director of Operations within your school should be able to provide guidance on identifying costs. We encourage applicants to be as realistic as possible with regards to costings because any changes to approved projects, including costs during the lifecycle of the project, would need to be approve by Matthew Bennett.
In the event of any queries please contact Natalie Baines, Fusion Investment Fund administrator.
There’s also more information about the different strands of the Fund on the Staff Intranet pages.
Not only does the Fusion Investment Fund provide opportunities for academic staff at BU, there are also options for professional services staff:
Staff can apply to Erasmus which is most appropriate for enabling academic and professional staff based at higher education institutions (HEIs) to spend a period of training or teaching between 5 working days and 6 weeks in a European HEI or enterprise. Under training mobility, the purpose is to allow the staff members to acquire knowledge or skills relevant for their current job and their professional development and to help create cooperation between organisations. There are also opportunities to invite staff from enterprises to Bournemouth University to give presentations and provide teaching. Professional staff can undertake training at a European educational institution.
Another option is to apply to the standard element of the Staff Mobility and Networking (SMN) strand. Non-academic staff must be able to demonstrate through their application how their travel will benefit the academic process within BU and particular focus should be placed on the creation of sustainable collaborative networks of academics or professionals linked to specific outputs or partnership developments.
For more information please read the relevant policy documents and information available on the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
Couldn’t get to the drop-in session on Talbot yesterday? Don’t panic! We’re holding another one today at Lansdowne.
Do you have questions about a potential bid for Fusion funding? Don’t know which strand to apply to? Not sure if your idea is eligible? Need more information about Erasmus? Come along to our drop-in session TODAY to get your questions answeredand to find out more about the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF):
TODAY 1-2pm, EB702, EBC, Lansdowne Campus
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines and we’ll be there along with Moritz Ehlen, BU’s International Mobility Officer, who can provide specific guidance with regards to Erasmus.
There are some fantastic opportunities available under the 3 strands of the FIF and we’re looking forward to receiving lots of really good quality applications in time for the deadline of 1 July. We look forward to seeing you later!
More information about the different strands of the Fund on the Staff Intranet pages.
Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
I thought that might get your attention! The latest call of the FIF (or the ‘Fusion Investment Fund’ for those of you who haven’t yet added this acronym to your vocabulary) is open for 2 more weeks so if you haven’t applied yet or haven’t seen my previous blog posts, let me give you the highlights:
So basically you could be given a pile of cash to enable you to do what you love! Pursue that dream of undertaking world-leading research or travel across the pond to work collaboratively with experts in your field. Become a hero and take your rightful place on that pedestal that your peers and students will put you on.*
Sound good? Find out more.
*BU cannot guarantee this.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
Do you have questions about a potential bid for Fusion funding? Don’t know which strand to apply to? Not sure if your idea is eligible? Come along to our drop-in session TODAY to get your questions answered and to find out more about the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) on:
TODAY 12-1pm in P411, Poole House, Talbot Campus
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines and we’ll be there along with members of the strand committees and Moritz Ehlen, BU’s International Mobility Officer, who can provide guidance with regards to Erasmus.
There are some fantastic opportunities available under the 3 strands of the FIF and we’re looking forward to receiving lots of really good quality applications in time for the deadline of 1 July. We look forward to seeing you later!
More information about the different strands of the Fund on the Staff Intranet pages.
Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
Did you know that under the FIF you can invite an academic or professional to BU in respect to the development of projects or to provide training which is linked to any aspect of Fusion?
2 elements of the Fusion Investment Fund provide support for inward mobility:
The Standard element of the Staff Mobility and Networking (SMN) strand supports UK or overseas travel and subsistence in pursuit of any aspect of Fusion – research, education, and/or professional practice – with no minimum or maximum duration. Awards made will be between £1k and £10k. Particular focus should be placed on the creation of sustainable collaborative networks of academics or professionals linked to specific outputs or partnership developments.
The Erasmus element of the Staff Mobility and Networking (SMN) strand provides opportunities to invite staff from enterprises to Bournemouth University to give presentations and provide teaching.
For more information please read the relevant policy documents and information available on the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
1st Year swedish students with Sara Stride(centre) and myself, Sue Mant (right)
Thanks to an Erasmus mobility award myself and a colleague were able to engage in a teaching exchange with the Karolinska Institute (KI) in Sweden. For the midwifery team, this is an annual reciprocal arrangement which fosters education/practice links and ensures the continuation of a programme of support for exchanges between Bournemouth University (BU) midwifery students and KI midwifery students. A very comprehensive itinerary allowed us to visit midwife led units, clinics, birthing units, and hospitals. We were enabled to spend time with student midwives in the classroom and with clinical teachers in practice.
This was my first visit, and a personal objective was to explore practice education. Student midwives in Sweden study midwifery for 18 months prior to qualification and this contrasts with the three year course mainly offered at home. Notably, the direct entry route to midwifery is not yet available in Sweden and even though this is an approach that KI is considering for the future, current applicants to the course have to be qualified nurses. KI student midwives move around various placements and student support mechanisms there were very similar to BU. Where things begin to differ is that there is no formally recognised mentor system. At the Sodra BB birth unit I learned from the Chef Barnmorska (Lead Midwife), that clinical teachers have often been qualified for a minimum of 5 years and though very experienced, they receive no formal preparation for their clinical teaching role. This perhaps reflects the lack of any formal ongoing post-registration development programme. At Danderyds birth centre we met a midwife who has recently taken on a role similar to that of Practice Educator. She has adopted a progressive programme of regular meetings between clinical teaching midwives and the Institute link allowing them an opportunity to discuss individual student’s needs and achievements. Attending one meeting, we were invited to contribute to the discussion and as a cohesive group we were able to discuss strategies and share ideas. Issues arising with learners seem to bear common threads internationally
Helena Lindgren (our host representative) with Sara Stride
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Finally, if you are wondering what ‘Come to the Cabaret’ has to do with this blog…. Our visit happily coincided with end of course celebrations, a chance for the cohort to dress as characters from that very musical. I learned….. Swedish midwives know how to party!
If you haven’t already sent in your application, don’t panic! There’s still time. With three funding strands available for staff there are a wealth of opportunities for both academic and professional support staff to take advantage of:
We are holding two drop-in sessions for anyone who has questions or requires more information about the Fund on:
Monday 17 June, 12-1pm in P411, Poole House, Talbot Campus
Tuesday 18 June 1-2pm in EB705, EBC, Lansdowne Campus
Joining Samantha and myself will be members of the strand committees and Moritz Ehlen, BU’s International Mobility Officer, who can provide guidance with regards to Erasmus .
For all the updated strand policy documents, Fund FAQ’s and information about applying, please visit the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
The Staff Mobility and Networking strand (SMN) may seem like your normal, everyday standard strand but look carefully and you’ll see it’s a strand with a difference. It has 3 elements meaning even more opportunities for you! Not only is there a Standard element but there are also Erasmus Staff Mobility and Santander elements too!
The standard scheme is most appropriate for supporting staff UK or overseas travel and subsistence in pursuit of any aspect of Fusion – research, education, and/or professional practice – with no minimum or maximum duration and also includes inward mobility. Awards made will be between £1k and £10k.
The Erasmus Staff Mobility part of the strand is most appropriate for enabling academic and professional staff based at higher education institutions (HEIs) to spend a period of training or teaching between 5 working days and 6 weeks in a European HEI or enterprise. There are also opportunities to invite staff from enterprises to Bournemouth University to give presentations and provide teaching.
Please be aware that this scheme differs quite significantly from the other FIF strands. More information is on the Erasmus intranet page.
Santander, through Santander Universities, works to encourage the international exchange of students and lecturers with respect to the development of projects linked to research, education or professional practice. Support will be available in the form of subsistence and travel costs for staff. Five awards of £5k will be made.
Has this whetted your appetite? Are you hungry for more? Then go, go, go to the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
I know, it’s unbelievable! BU is actually paying staff to take a period of study leave. Amazing!
The Study Leave strand (SL) now has three sub-strands: Academic Study Leave, Internal Secondments and Industrial Staff Placements.
Read more about some of the projects we’ve previously funded under this strand:
Need to know more? Your wish is my command! Go now to the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
We humans love nothing more than to co-create and co-produce so it seems rather appropriate, don’t you think, that we have a strand of the Fusion Investment Fund dedicated to just that!
The Co-Creation and Co-Production strand (CCCP) is most appropriate for activities with specific emphasis on research and / or professional practice of between 6 and 12 months duration. Awards made will be between £2k and £75k. Previously funded projects include the re-launch of The Rock community newspaper and the creation of the Poole and Purbeck community consortium to establish a fusion platform based on regional natural and heritage assets to service students across BU.
Read about some of the projects we’ve funded under this strand:
Rick Fisher – CCCP funded project: An educational game for nursing student engagement in caring for people with dementia
Jan Wiener, Mariela Gaete-Reyes – CCCP funded project: Decreasing spatial disorientation: towards dementia-friendly environments
Want to know more? Of course you do! Follow this link to the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investment Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all initial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
Last week, 35 advertising, marketing and public relations undergraduates presented their dissertation research at the Promotional Communications Annual Conference at the Executive Business Centre.
The event, held 15 May, was part of a Fusion bid by The Media School’s Dr Dan Jackson, Dr Richard Scullion, Dr Carrie Hodges, and Dr Janice Denegri-Knott to expand the conference and open a journal. This is the third year for the conference run by the Corporate and Marketing Communications (CMC) group within The Media School, and with the Fusion funding the organisers were able to expand the conference to include additional students and guests.
“The CMC Student Conference was a terrific success; the presentations were extremely professional, student engagement was very high and the commitment shown by the staff was exceptional,” said Colin Merrett, associate dean for the academic group. He called it “one of the highlights of the year” for CMC.
Industry guests who attended the event echoed the sentiment, calling the work of students ‘thought provoking’ and ‘challenging’. In total some 80 students, academic staff, alumni, and industry professionals attended the conference, which offers students an opportunity to share their dissertation research and for the academic group to showcase research-led teaching.
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. The 35 students who presented at the conference make up 17 per cent of the dissertation students on the three degree programmes. That’s the highest proportion of student take-up of this option for the dissertation.
“The quality of what I have seen in these dissertations is some of the best I have seen,” said Dr Heather Savigny, who joined BU at the start of the academic year.
The research that students presented ranged from asking questions about how second-generation African immigrant women negotiate culture and identity through hair care rituals to the impacts to pub and restaurant brands as a result of negative word-of-mouth online to whether advertising today represents a return of a sexist visual culture.
“I thought the best papers could have claimed space in some international conferences,” said Prof Barry Richards of CMC.
Now, the team turns its attention to the inaugural issue of The Journal of Promotional Communication. Once the dissertations are marked, the team will shortlist the top research papers and begin the (by all accounts based on the presentations from last week) arduous task of choosing seven papers to appear in the journal.
After the first edition is published, the journal will begin accepting submissions from undergraduates and postgraduates from BU and beyond. The journal represents a variety of disciplines, such as marketing, advertising, PR theory, consumer culture and behaviour, political communications, media studies, sociology, cultural studies, and management.
The Pro Vice-Chancellor is delighted to invite you to apply for this round of the Fusion Investment Fund. It provides fantastic opportunities for you to grow as a researcher, an educator and practitioner and there are a range of options for you to choose from, depending on your needs. Three funding strands are available for staff at BU:
Co-Creation and Co-production strand (CCCP)
Study Leave strand (SL) – There are three elements of this: Academic Study Leave, Internal Secondments and Industrial Staff Placements.
Staff Mobility and Networking strand (SMN) – There are also three elements to this strand: Standard, Erasmus, Santander
Successful bids will need to have benefits to the student experience at the core and be able to demonstrate how this will occur, so hitting the Education point in the BU Fusion triangle is important. For all the updated strand and policy documents, Fund FAQs and information about applying, please visit the FIF intranet pages.
The Fusion Investement Fund is managed by Samantha Leahy-Harland and is administered by Natalie Baines. Please direct all intial enquiries to Natalie Baines.
Application deadlines for the Fusion Investment Fund have been confirmed as 1 July and 1 December. The next call for applications will soon be launched. It provides fantastic opportunities for you to grow as a researcher, an educator and practitioner and there are many options for you to choose from, depending on your needs. Please keep checking the blog for details.
Early in January I received the good news that my application to the Fusion Investment Fund SMN strand was successful. What a great way to start the New Year!
The main aim of my FIF SMN project is to consolidate newly developed partnerships with European and non-European researchers and stakeholders. Planned activities include visits to colleagues who were involved in the development of the research proposal “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast” (LEEC), submitted to the EU FP7 call on Environment (Challenge 6.4 Protecting citizens from environmental hazards). LEEC successfully passed stage 1 and we are now waiting for the outcome of stage 2, so keep your fingers crossed.
As my FIF SMN proposal builds from LEEC, I decided to call it “Living with Extreme Events at the Coast Grant Development” (LEEC GraDe). Not very creative, but it reflects well the main objective, which is to explore opportunities for collaborative research in topics related to LEEC. LEEC aims to better understand how extreme storms and climate change in coastal areas will affect flood risk and impact on society, infrastructure, economic activities and the natural environment throughout the 21th century.
Besides, the development of collaborative research proposals, I will also be exploring opportunities for enhancing students’ experience, e.g. through work placements. By the time I submitted the FIF SMN proposal, I had just taken the role of ApSci’s Academic Lead for Placements. In this role, one of my objectives is to increase the offer of research-based placements to our students. So I thought my networking visits would be a great opportunity to discuss with colleagues from organisations in Europe and abroad whether they are interested in offering to our students a research-based working experience. Many researchers systematically plan their fieldwork campaigns or dedicate larger proportion of their time to research in the summer, so a work placement can be mutually beneficial.
I so much believe in the benefits of this arrangement that I am offering two placements this summer to undergrad ApSci students. If you are interested in doing the same, please contact me.
LEEC partners are from 13 organisations spread across eight countries (Estonia, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, UK, Mexico and Vietnam). The FIF SMN award will allow me to visit some of these organisations and engage in other networking opportunities. I will be very busy networking throughout 2013! Hopefully the effort will result in the submission of more collaborative research proposals and a number of arrangements made to enrich students’ experiences through placements or exchanges.
The first of my planned activities was to attend the 12th International Coastal Symposium (ICS) in Plymouth (http://ics2013.org/) earlier this month. This is the largest international conference focused on coastal research with over 500 participants, so a great venue to disseminate research results, to keep updated with research progress worldwide and to network! I was invited to be the convener of the Coastal Evolution and Geomorphology session, so worked very hard evaluating abstracts and full papers before the conference! I also presented a paper on the Coastal Management session, entitled “Is managed realignment a sustainable long-term coastal management approach?” You can find a copy of the paper on BRIAN.
ICS offered the opportunity to meet many ‘old’ friends and make new contacts worldwide, including from countries I had none before, such as Trinidad & Tobago and South Africa. I have already exchanged email with a few of the new (and old) contacts and there are very exciting prospects for future collaboration. I have discussed the preparation of a joint paper with a colleague from the University of Rostock (Germany), explored ways to collaborate with practitioners from a government agency in Trinidad & Tobago and I am already working on a proposal with colleagues from South Africa. The most immediate result from networking during ICS was the invitation to visit five different organisations in Mexico, which is planned to happen in June.
Networking is also about maximising the opportunities and I will be doing exactly that next month in Brazil. I was invited to give a keynote talk in the National Symposium of Coastal Vulnerability. As the hosts are taking me to Brazil, I will extend my stay and visit two universities using SMN funds. The plan is to start building a joint research proposal to submit to the Science without borders programme (funding source from Brazil) with the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and discuss exchange of postgraduate students and other opportunities with the Universidade do Vale do Itai.
Please watch this space for upcoming news!
Luciana Slomp Esteves (Lecturer in Physical Geography, ApSci)
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