Tagged / Fusion

Fusion in Action Conference – Last chance to book

Fusion

 

Where: Kimmeridge House 

When : Thursday 18 April, 12pm – 5.30pm

What:

Fusion is at the heart of BU and over the last 12 months a range of funds and activities have been undertaken to help drive Fusion through our university.

The Fusion in Action half day conference on April 18 showcases the best examples of Fusion in Action from around the university.

The schedule of the day can be seen below but is subject to changes:

 

Time Presenter/s Detail
12:00pm n/a Arrival, networking and lunch with the opportunity to look at the posters and exhibitions
12:45pm UET Introduction from Tim McIntyre-Bhatty on Fusion and the benefits of BU’s investment in Fusion during 2012-13
1:00pm BUDI Presentation from Anthea Innes about the BU Dementia Institute and activities undertaken during 2012-13 in support of Fusion
1:25pm BU academic Presentation from Genoveva Esteban on her funding from the Fusion Investment Fund
1:50pm UG student Presentation from Alexander Hall who has benefited from the Global Horizons Fund
2:15pm PGR student Presentation from a PG researcher Marketa Zezulkova who has benefited from the PGR Development Fund
2:40pm n/a Afternoon break with the opportunity to look at the posters and exhibitions
3:10pm Student, supervisor and external sponsor Presentation from Sheetal Sharma on her match funded studentships (presenters to include the student, supervisor and external sponsor)
3:40pm BU academic Presentation from Zulfiqar Khan who has led one of the international projects funded by the FIF
4:05pm UET Panel Q&A session with representatives from all presentations to be chaired by Matthew BennettThis should open with a brief discussion of the key points raised from each of the previous presentations with an emphasis on linking to future funding ideas, followed by Q&A from the audience
4:40pm UET Closing presentation by Tim McIntyre-Bhatty to sum up key messages and promote forthcoming Fusion opportunities
5:00pm n/a Wine and nibbles with a final opportunity to look at the posters and exhibitions
5:30pm n/a Event close

 

There will also be posters showcasing various Fusion projects for you to view during the conference and Fusion Investment Surgery drop in sessions where you can discuss a potential application with a member of the Panel.

This is a great opportunity to find out how Fusion is in action throughout BU and also learn more as to how you can get involved and secure funding.

Bookings are essential and can be done via the Staff Development Webpage.

 

 

FIF SMN strand now closed

Funding opportunities

The Fusion Investment Fund Staff Mobility & Networking (SMN) Strand which was open for applications assessed on a rolling basis has now closed. We have funded a good number of applications received and news of these have and will continue to be publicised here on the blog. The FIF scheme reopens in late April/early May with an application deadline of 1 July. Please check the blog for details soon.

The Fusion in Action conference is taking place on Thursday 18 April in Kimmeridge House from 12pm. Book now to attend the conference (via the Staff Development Webpage) and come along to see a showcase of the best of Fusion at BU. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about how you can get involved.

CMC Conference – Co-creating and Co-producing Research Outputs with Final Year Undergraduate Students

Funding opportunities, Fusion

The conference:  Organised for and by Level H students from three undergraduate degrees and to be held in the Executive Business Centre (7th floor) Wednesday 15th of May 2012.

We will invite 2 keynote speakers, 6 academic and industry contacts and will host an end of conference dinner for all involved. The event will be widely diffused through FB, twitter and a dedicated youtube channel. 

Journal of Promotional Communications: CMC’s first in-house journal will be launched at the conference and will bring together the top 7 conference papers.

Our aim: To attract 40 students to sign up to this years conference! Get the local business community excited about the work our students are doing and a platform to engage with our students.

How it benefits us:  It gives us an opportunity to co-produce research outputs with our dissertation students.

How it benefits students: It is a great way of celebrating top student work and help students disseminate more widely.

How it benefits the university: Provides a highly visible manifestation and online product of the quality of work being produced by students at the end of their undergraduate university career. It clearly contributes to the university Fusion agenda by providing the mechanisms necessary for co-creation and co-production of research outputs to take place.

Wider community:Academics from other institutions, relevant industry contacts, local press, potentially family of students and local business leaders will be invited to this prestigious event and all will have access to the online journal.

Who should I contact: Janice Denegri-Knott the project leader on JDKnott@bournemouth.ac.uk

Networking with microbes: BOSS – Biogeography of Organisms of Small Size

Funding opportunities, Fusion

Genoveva Esteban, Associate Professor at the School of Applied Sciences, has been awarded a Santander Staff Mobility and Networking Scholarship (strand of the Fusion Investment Fund) to develop a network with Prof Angel Baltanás at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). The network is called BOSS (Biogeography of Organisms of Small Size) – a research-educational network on freshwater aquatic ecology. The aim of BOSS is to investigate the geographical distribution of small-sized organisms and rare freshwater invertebrates involving students (supervised by the PI and CoI) at each university to exchange data collected from rare aquatic habitats in central Spain and in Dorset via the internet. The network will aim at developing a bilingual on-line learning and communications tool to facilitate exchange of students, masters, ecological information, and research between both institutions.  The project will also help promote BU’s PG research and MSc opportunities.

Fusion Investment Surgery Sessions – Gain some valuable advice and be inspired!

Awarded & submitted bids, Funding opportunities, Fusion

 As part of the Fusion in Action conference on Thursday 18 April, the Fusion Investment Surgery drop-in sessions will provide an excellent opportunity to talk about your potential applications to the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF). The FIF scheme reopens in April/May with an application deadline of 3 June, so why not take the opportunity to discuss your ideas and get advice about eligibility and assessment criteria now, as well as gaining inspiration from the showcase of the best of Fusion in Action at BU over the last 12 months!

The conference features a range of engaging presenters and two of these will be discussing their successful FIF bids so it’s a fantastic opportunity to find out more from those with the knowledge.

The following committee members will be on-hand with advice about the different funding schemes and how to ensure your applications have the best possible chance of being successful:

Study Leave – Debbie Sadd

Staff Mobility & Networking – Feng Tian

Co-Creation and Co-Production – Hong Bui and Richard Scullion

Book now to attend the conference (via the Staff Development Webpage) and come along for this great opportunity to learn more about how you can get involved and secure funding for activities that matter to you!

Fusion in Action Conference:

On Thursday 18 April, Kimmeridge House

Begins at 12pm with a networking lunch

Ends at 5pm with wine and nibbles

Presentations, posters, drop-in sessions and a Q&A Panel

Hosted by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty and Chief Operating Officer Jim Andrews

Bookings are essential

Fusion Investment Fund – BU Research in China

Fusion

Huiping Xian, Davide Secchi (both from Business School) and Yue Meng (Media School) have been awarded Fusion Investment Fund to consolidate an existing relationship with a Chinese university in order to establish a strategic partnership in the long term. The team will travel to Zhe Jiang Gong Shang University (ZJGS), Hangzhou, China, on 28th March, 2013 to engage in a series of intellectual and networking activities. During our 5-day visit, we plan to give 2 guest lectures and hold a research seminar with researchers in ZJGS to showcase research in BS and MS. Moreover, we will also disseminate findings of a recent research project – Business Ethics in Chinese Organisations – in a public workshop. Invitations will be sent to ZJGS’s current MBA students, alumni, local Chinese managers, entrepreneurs, academics and government officials via ZJGS’s network.
The project contributes to both research and education of the Fusion concept. The short-term output of this project includes 2 journal papers from the study (business ethics in China), 2 guest lectures, a research seminar and a public workshop in China. In a longer term, this project will potentially lead to future research collaboration, staff and student exchange, joint PhD supervision, and student recruitment with ZJGS and gradually develop a strategic partner for BU’s internationalisation. Zhejiang Province (where ZJGS is based) is one of the most developed districts and known for having a large number of students studying abroad every year. Located in Hangzhou, China, ZJGS is the 2nd highest ranked university in the province and mainly offers business, management, and economic programmes to UG and PG students.

For more information, please contact Dr Huiping Xian (hxian@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Fusion Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

A new Fusion project will shortly be starting in the School of Applied Sciences run by Dan Franklin and Genoveva Esteban. Concentrating on cyanobacteria (‘blue-green algae’) the team will attempt to isolate out new strains of cyanobacteria into culture at BU. Cyanobacteria are single-celled organisms that can turn freshwater ecosystems a vivid green colour. Cyanobacteria growth in reservoirs and lakes already causes substantial economic losses and amenity problems and the ultimate aim of the project is to investigate the properties of cells such that new management measures can be pioneered. The team will make multiple isolations of cyanobacteria from local lakes in order to establish new laboratory strains of cyanobacteria, including toxic species such as Microcystis. These will then be used to facilitate experiments on ways to inhibit cyanobacteria growth.                                                   

For more information please contact dfranklin@bournemouth.ac.uk

Images BU culture of Microcystis:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture credit: Ian Chapman, BU

Microcystis growth in nature:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See glerl.noaa.gov

Training course on agent-based modelling techniques

Have you ever heard of agent based models, and wondered what they are? Have you perhaps been dazzled by computer simulations of flocking birds or shoals of fish, and wondered how they are produced? Or perhaps you enjoy computer games involving interacting individuals, such as the magnificent Fifa13. If so, you might be interested in a training course that we are hosting later this year, supported by the Fusion Fund.

Agent-based models (ABM) can be described as a type  of computational model that are used for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous “agents”. These can be either individuals, such as people or animals, or collective entities such as businesses or other types of organization. The models enable the behaviour of such agents to be explored in relation to the behaviour of the system as a whole. The approach is relevant to areas such as game theory, complex systems, computational sociology, multi-agent systems, and evolutionary programming. They are relevant to a wide range of research domains including ecological and social sciences, and enable the study of how simple behavioural rules can generate complex behaviour. They provide a very useful method for supporting interdisciplinary collaboration.

The course will be led by leading practitioners of this rapidly developing technique, and will focus on the use of Netlogo (http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/). This is an open source software environment, which is both powerful and user friendly, enabling attractive graphical output to be generated readily. The course is open to both staff and postgraduate students  who are interested in learning the technique. While the course will be introductory, it is principally aimed at researchers who already have some experience in modelling, or who can see a direct potential application of this method to their own research. Please contact me for further information – Adrian Newton anewton@bournemouth.ac.uk

Euro PR history network backed by Fusion

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

IHPRC at EBC - Scene for first EPRHN meeting

A proposal to develop an innovative Europe-wide network of researchers in the history of public relations field has been supported by the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF).

The European Public Relations History Network (EPRHN) was formed in mid-2012 by Prof Tom Watson and backed by EUPRERA (European Public Relations Education & Research Association) as a priority project for the next three years. It was set up to identify archives and resources, undertake collaborative research, and prepare bids to European research bodies and PR industry organisations.

The field of public relations history has been developed at BU over the past four years, mainly through the establishment of the International History of Public Relations Conference (IHPRC).

Prof Watson said: “there has been increasing interest in the conference and PR historical research in Europe over the past 3-4 years but it has largely focused on national histories, personalities or phenomena. Collaborative research, across national boundaries, has yet to emerge. There is little shared knowledge of archival resources, where they exist or can be created.”

So far, 35 academics and practitioners from 12 countries have shown their interest in EPRHN. Its first publication, a catalogue of archives and resources in seven countries has just been published.  A EPRHN planning meeting will be held at BU after IHPRC in June.

Within The Media School, the network will also help develop European aspects of the Centre for Media History (CMH). CMH is already developing relationships with universities in Sweden and northern Germany. CMH and EPRHN will, it is hoped, foster the recruitment of PGR students interested in media and communication historical research.

The Fusion funding will allow EPRHN to hold a planning event at BU after IHPRC in late June and for Prof Watson and Dr Tasos Theofilou, who is working with him on both PR history projects, to attend EUPRERA’s annual conference in Barcelona in October. At EUPRERA, they will hold the network’s first formal meeting and workshop. [Photos by Minna-Liisa Nurmilaasko, PROCOM Finland].

IHPRC 2012

Working with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Themis Foundation in Andorra. School of Tourism’s Adele Ladkin on her FIF Staff Mobility Funding

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion

In September of last year, Professor Adele Ladkin received funding from the FIF staff mobility strand to undertake two visits to the UNWTO.Themis Foundation Headquarters in Andorra. 

As part of its Capacity Building Programme, UNWTO.Themis provides educational courses for tourism industry experts.  Due to the demand for different topics, subject experts from the tourism industry and public sector are recruited as facilitators to deliver the courses.

Adele has just returned from her first visit to Andorra where she and Ms Sònia Figueras, the UNWTO.Capacity Programme manager at the UNWTO.Themis Foundation have been writing a teaching guide, and developing an intensive training course for the facilitators.

As a provider of educational courses, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is committed to sharing best practice in tourism teaching and learning. The purpose of the course is to assist and train facilitators to provide UNWTO Themis courses.  Along with practical guidance, the course aims to ensure that facilitators understand and articulate the philosophy and strategic issues of the UNWTO, UNWTO.Themis and their programmes.

The visit provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge exchange, with Adele gaining an insight into the latest educational activities being undertaken by UNWTO.Themis, and for her to share her expertise in developing tourism educational materials.  As Adele states:  “This has been a very intensive visit with us working collectively on the educational materials.  It also gave me the opportunity to discuss the potential for further research collaboration, which is great news for the School of Tourism and BU.”  Adele will return to Andorra for the second visit later in the year.

Fusion supports new PR research collaboration in Asia

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research themes

Prof Tom Watson teaching at Chulalongkorn University

For several years, the Media School (TMS) has been developing a relationship with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Chula, as it is known, is rated as the No.1 university in the kingdom.

The SMN award allows the development of a collaborative project between TMS and the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chula to organise an academic conference on public relations in Asia in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The conference will provide a platform for academic research on public relations history, current theory and practice, and future trends. In particular, it will investigate Asian (i.e. non Anglo-American) perspectives of public relations and will be the first dedicated conference to do so.

Prof Tom Watson, who is a co-chair of the conference, says the SMN funding “will lead to the development of a sustainable academic and research partnership between the two universities. It will enable BU staff participation in cross-cultural research with Thai colleagues. The conference will also place BU in a leadership role on research into cross-cultural communications and international public relations.”

Dr Ana Adi is working with Prof Watson on the project. She taught at Chula in mid-2012 on a staff exchange. She and at least one other TMS academic will be attending the conference and presenting papers.

The conference collaboration started with attendance by Chula’s Dr Napawan Tantivejakul at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2011 at BU, which began a dialogue about a joint conference with an Asian focus. This was cemented when Prof Watson visited Chula in November last year as a visiting professor and negotiated the arrangements. It is hoped that there will be 16 speakers, plus two keynotes, and 50 delegates at the November event.

FIF – Staff Networking and Mobility Project- Visiting Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in South Korea

Fusion

The University’s Fusion Investment Fund (Staff Networking and Mobility) has provided an excellent opportunity for building up international cooperation in research, education and professional practice. Over the years we have developed many international links with China, US, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey etc. These international links have played a significant role in our research activities through joint publications, developing research projects, submitting research proposal for external funding.

GIST is a world-class technical university which has recently started to focus on bridging art and technology, and is setting up a national research institute for art-technology fusion supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea. This matches extremely well with the ethos and practices of the NCCA that has been undertaking cutting edge research marrying art with technology.

Dr. Xiaosong Yang met Prof. Lee at SIGGRAPH2012 and had a long discussion exploring collaborative ideas. Prof. Lee has been working on physical simulation for many years, and has produced many quality publications on top journals, including SIGGRAPH (ACM Transactions on Computer Graphics). As we (Dr Yang and Prof Zhang) have been working on character animation for many years, both Prof Lee and us at the NCCA are strong players in our respective specialist subject fields and have complementary strengths. In order to consolidate our relationship and develop winning research projects, this proposed collaboration will start with joint research on physically based character animation.

Dr. Yang will give one week visit to Prof. Lee’s research lab at GIST around May/June 2013. The network activities, including guest lectures/talks, visits and meetings, will aim at promoting joint world-class research, exploring collaborations for joint-publications and future funding bids.

Researchers: Dr. Xiaosong Yang, Prof. Jian J Zhang (The Media School)

Xiaosong Yang   Jian J Zhang

Fusion Investment Fund – One week to get your applications in!

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

Please be aware of the upcoming deadline for submitting your application to the Fusion Investment Fund!

The upcoming round of funding has a deadline of 1st December – committees will then meet in January to decide which proposals get funding, with decisions going out to applicants in mid-January.

I will be posting specific details about some of the proposals throughout 2013, I hope these will be useful to help illustrate what the funds can be used for and why certain applications were successful in a particular strand.

We have already planned interventions to take place in the Spring leading up the next round of funding which has a 1st June deadline. Feel free to drop me an email about these.

To apply to fund please see the intranet pages here.

 

Good luck!

Sam Furr

FusionFund@bournemouth.ac.uk

Fusion Investment Fund – Applying for BUDI secondment

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

What is being offered?

The Study Leave Committee (Fusion Investment Fund) will fund five dedicated secondment opportunities for BU staff to get involved with The BU Dementia Institute (BUDI).  Staff can be bought out of their current roles for up to 6 months to get involved directly with BUDI. 

Who are BUDI looking for?

You don’t have to be a health care specialist to participate, they need psychologists, education experts, marketing and media experts, business and leadership professionals, economists, engineers, data analysts, project managers and computer scientists.  It is truly cross-disciplinary and an ideal way for staff to gain experience of research and knowledge exchange bids.

How to apply

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact the Director of BUDI Professor Anthea Innes and can apply before the 1st December deadline via the Fusion Investment Fund application form details of which can be found on the staff portal. 

When you make your online application please mark it clearly ‘BUDI Secondment’ as it will be sent to Anthea Innes for her endorsement before being submitted to the Study Leave Committee.

Hear it direct from the horse’s mouth! – Individual one-to-one advice from FIF committee members

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

For the December round of Fusion Investment Funding the committee members from all three strands (open to staff) are available to contact to arrange advice and guidance on completing your applications, from today until the 1st December deadline.

Please note the CCCP committee members will be available by phone or email only.

To contact members from one of the panels send an email to a member, names found clicking on the following pages and scrolling down to the ‘assessment’ box:

Co-Creation and Co-Production strand CCCP

Staff Mobility and Networking strand SMN

Study Leave strand SL

 

Don’t forget to apply by the 1st December deadline!

Sam

Fusion Investment Fund Applications – Three weeks to go!

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

I would like to remind you of the deadline for applications to the Fusion Investment Fund, which is the 1st December 2012.

Fusion Investment Fund workshop takes place – Martin Pickard leads successful surgery.

I attended a workshop session on Tuesday this week with a small group of your colleagues, attendees had the opportunity to bring along draft proposals to show Martin and myself to get individual feedback and discuss in the group aspects of their applications that can be improved, in order to secure Fusion Investment Funds.  Martin will also offer further feedback to attendees having read their ammended proposals following the session.  I would urge applicants to the fund to use further intervention opportunities ahead of the December deadline. 

Fusion Investment Fund intervention opportunities:

Each of the three committees are contactable by email in order to get individual feedback on your application.  You should scroll down to the assessment section of the relevant strand webpage to find committee member names and do drop them an email!

CCCP Strand; Staff Mobility and Networking Strand; Study Leave Strand

 

Applying to the fund.

To apply to the fund please see the information here on our intranet pages. I would stongly advise reading the FIF FAQs revised before you fill out a form.

If you have any queries about the fund please email FusionFund@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Best of luck!

Sam

BUDI to benefit from successful £3,834 Fusion Investment Fund bid

Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

 

Following a successful fusion bid application I am going to Canada later this month. One of the aims of the trip is to promote the growing Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI), as well as develop new and existing relationships BUDI already has with our Canadian colleagues.

Rural dementia service provision is a growing strand of research work in BUDI (Bournemouth University Dementia Institute). GRIID is an international group exploring rural service provision led by Anthea Innes along with Debra Morgan (Canada) David Edvardsson (Sweden), Amit Dias (India) and Peter Birkett (Australia). The on-going collaboration received seed corn funding from HSC QR and is currently being written up for publication.  The trip to Canada will enable me to explore further activities to conduct under the GRIID consortia as part of the 5 year work plan of this international group.

It will also enable BUDI to continue to build on the existing links with Professor Morgan at the University of Saskatchewan, established by Professor Anthea Innes 5 years ago. During the trip I will have the opportunity to attend and present a key note lecture at the Annual Summit of the Knowledge Network in Rural and Remote Dementia Care. This annual Summit brings together around 50 province based policy makers, decision makers, practitioners and researchers who are eager to work collaboratively with the university to identify research opportunities and will provide a model to explore for the ongoing collaborative ways of working BUDI is establishing.  

Professor Morgan developed and leads a unique and highly esteemed memory clinic (Morgan et al 2011. Evaluation of Telehealth for Preclinic Assessment and Follow-Up in an Interprofessional Rural and Remote Memory Clinic. Journal of Applied Gerontology 30: 304-33) at the University of Saskatchewan and I will be visiting this clinic whilst I am there. The visit will not only develop my own practice, but will provide the opportunity to disseminate and share knowledge with the Dorset memory service teams on my return.

In Toronto I plan to visit Dr Pia Kontos at Toronto University. Her research on person centred care reinforces the focus in the programmes we deliver to undergraduate and post graduate students. Sharing her experiences of a more creative dissemination of research, compliments my PhD thesis which has used a visual methodology. A visit to another existing collaborator of Anthea, the director of the Canadian Alzheimer’s Association Education team, in Toronto, will allow us to explore potential educational work between BUDI and our Canadian Alzheimer Association colleagues.

So the week in Canada promises to be busy and I am sure fulfilling!