Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
We’re waiting for your applications for ESRC Festival of Social Science until 5 pm on Friday 5th May.
To apply, please complete the application form which can be downloaded from the staff intranet and send it to FestivalofSocialScience@bournemouth.ac.uk
Please contact Joanna Pawlik (jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss your event idea or for further information.
We look forward to hearing from you
On the last day of April we presented our key findings from the THET-funded project on Mental Health Training for Rural Community-based Maternity Care Workers in Nepal. The session in Hotel Yak & Yeti in central Kathmandu was jointly organised by Tribhuvan University with Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Mental health is high on the global agenda and increasingly so in Nepal. Mental health in pregnant women and new mothers is increasing recognised across the world. However, for many people in Nepal mental health problems are still difficult topics to discuss.
The team presented slides on mental health in maternity care issue, the curriculum review, the intervention and the volunteers and various aspects of the evaluation. The slide (below) highlighting a few mishaps with UK volunteers definitely got the most laughs. 
The three universities have been working together training Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi on key aspects of mental health and mental health promotion. The project led by Bournemouth University was funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which is managed by a London-based organisation called THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust).
Prof. Vanora Hundley from FHSS was one of the key speakers commenting on the intervention, the research and its findings. The audience also heard from two of the ANMs who had been in the training and the chief nurse in the district about there views on the UK volunteers and their training sessions. To date the work has resulted in three academic publications, all are Open Access journals. [1-3]
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
To be part of a week-long celebration of social sciences across the UK, make sure to complete the application form and send it to FestivalofSocialScience@bournemouth.ac.uk by 5 pm on Friday 5th May.
Benefits: Fantastic for your academic profile
Activities can range from engaging people with social science concepts through staging debates to involving key stakeholders in shaping research priorities and directions. Done well, public engagement can build trust and understanding between the social science research community and a wide range of groups, from policymakers through to school children.
Public engagement can help you strengthen your research questions or improve the response rate to data collection methods. It can also build on and support the wider activities of your strategy. One of the most profound joys of public engagement is its unpredictability: fresh perspectives, challenging questions, lateral insights – all can help to sharpen thinking, release precious energy and creativity and unlock new collaborations and resources.
Please contact Joanna Pawlik (jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss your event idea or for further information.
The ESRC Festival of Social Science will be back again this November (4th-11th), and we need researchers of Social Sciences to come and get involved in running lectures, workshops, exhibitions or other engagement platforms to share your research with the wider public.
Through engaging with the wider public, they develop a range of transferable skills, for instance in leadership, communication, listening, partnership working and project management.
The call is officially open for proposals, so if you’d like to be involved, we’d love to hear from you. Funding is available to support these activities.
To apply, you will need to complete an application form, available on the staff intranet, stating details of the type of event you’d like to run. Please contact event organiser Joanna Pawlik (jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Engagement and Impact facilitator Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) to make an application or for further information.
Why get involved in the ESRC Festival of Social Science this year?
Benefits: Fantastic for your academic profile
Activities can range from engaging people with social science concepts through staging debates to involving key stakeholders in shaping research priorities and directions. Done well, public engagement can build trust and understanding between the social science research community and a wide range of groups, from policymakers through to school children.
Public engagement can help you strengthen your research questions or improve the response rate to data collection methods. It can also build on and support the wider activities of your strategy. One of the most profound joys of public engagement is its unpredictability: fresh perspectives, challenging questions, lateral insights – all can help to sharpen thinking, release precious energy and creativity and unlock new collaborations and resources.
To apply, you will need to complete an application form, available on the staff intranet, stating details of the type of event you’d like to run. The application can be accessed via staff intranet
Please contact Joanna Pawlik (jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss your event idea or for further information.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Impact Champion for the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. When I began my research journey several years ago I knew I wanted my research to make a difference. It is this on-going desire to make a difference which led me to pursue this role of Impact Champion.
Part of my role is to take the lead in supporting academics to develop, maintain and ensure that research impact aligns with our core principle of ‘helping to make people’s lives better’. I will also be involved in developing impact case studies, and proactively accelerating impact in relation to REF.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if there is anything I can do to support you in your research impact.
Clare Killingback: ckillingback@bournemouth.ac.uk
Yesterday, the RCUK launched reports detailing the impacts of a collective investment of £3.4Bn in 2015/16. These impact reports showcase specific examples of the impact of investment through their various awards, programmes and collaborations. The wide-ranging nature of the impact extends from furthering technological advances to combatting disease to breakthroughs in the creative economy. Click here for an overview.
Links to Impact Reports are available below:
Impact – in numbers
Global impacts
The call for participants for the 2017 ESRC Festival of Social Sciences will be opening on 29th March. The festival this year is taking place from the 4th to the 11th of November with events taking place across the BU Campus and in the local area. We will be looking for applications from social sciences researchers to run workshops/exhibitions/lectures/activities (we’re open to ideas) open for attendance for the wider public.
The ESRC FSS encourages to support and create the opportunity for social science researchers to engage with non-academic audiences and to promote and increase awareness of the social sciences and the contribution they make to the wellbeing and the economy of society.
Please keep an eye out for further information when the call for applicants opens on the 29th March or contact Genna West (gwest@bournemouth.ac.uk) to find out more.
Catch up on best practice, hints and tips for impact in the new Fasttrack Impact Magazine. You can read online or sign up to the mailing list.
If you need to talk about impact when developing your project, contact Genna West in KEIT or your Research Facilitator in the Funding Development Team.
RKEO have hosted two funder visits in the past three weeks (Interreg and Medical Research Council). Both funders highlighted the ‘So what?’ principle in terms of research ideas, i.e. what is the consequence of your work; who can benefit from your work in the long-term and what can be done to increase the chances of the work reaching those beneficiaries. Even if your proposal doesn’t directly address economic or societal impact you should be able to explain the pathway that links your work to – using the example of MRC – improving human health.
In order to describe the impact of your work, keep asking yourself ‘so what?’ or even better, describe your research idea to a colleague (or to take a step further, a member of the public) and get them to ask ‘so what’ at each point when you think you’ve finished explaining. RKEO had another funder visit today, the British Academy, and they used the phrase ‘Try not to be Gollum’, i.e. don’t be precious about your research and invite comments from others, share it and make it interesting.
Being able to fully explain the impact of your research will obviously increase your chances of being successful when applying for external research funds.
There are a vast number of resources available on strengthening your research proposals and developing impact. Most funders will have guidance on impact, for example, section 2.2.5 of the MRC funder guide provides tips on articulating potential impact. They may also have impact reports; links to all of the research councils impact reports can be found in the BU research blog’s Research Funder Guide. BU has an online toolkit to help support the development of your research impact. The toolkit explores what impact is, how you can go about creating an impact strategy, and looks at some commonly used pathways to impact, as well as examples of outstanding impact case studies.
For more information about impact, please contact the RKEO Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team or if you’re putting an application together and want advice on the impact sections, please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team.
It’s that time of year where The Festival of Learning is heading back on-tour and taking BU’s research out to some exciting locations. One of our stops this year includes the Poole Maritime Festival on Saturday 20th May.
Whatever stage you’re at in your research career, academic or PhD, we’re looking for participants to display and promote their research at the festival. This could be through table-top activities, posters, interactive displays – we’re open to ideas! It would be fantastic if your activities fitted into the theme of maritime heritage and environment but if your research isn’t directly related, we’d still love for you to get involved.
We’re expecting lots of interested members of the public with Poole Harbour Boat Show and the Seven Seas Festival forming part of Poole Maritime Festival’s exciting programme. The Boat Show alone attracted over 15,000 people in 2015! The Festival is linked with European Maritime Day, originally created in 2008 to give Europe’s community of maritime professionals a forum to meet, exchange knowledge and forge partnerships. It is a unique opportunity to promote Poole, local businesses and Bournemouth University’s research to an international audience!
If you’d like to get involved, need some idea inspiration or for any more information, drop me an email jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk. If you can’t get involved this year, still make sure that you head down to the Maritime Festival this year, taking place from the 15th-21st May.
Take part in the Being Human Festival 2017!
This year, the festival will return between 17-25 November with a new theme, ‘Lost and Found’. Applicants are invited to respond creatively and in ways that probe the rich intellectual possibilities of the theme. The festival is a celebration of the
Humanities, highlighting research in this area in fun, hands-on, immersive ways to
Demonstrate its relevance to our everyday lives.
There are a number of grants to support public engagement activities being offered.
These opportunities to run an event are for researchers at any career stage, background, disciplinary expertise or experience of delivering public engagement events.
For more information on the call and to apply for a “Small Award” or a “Hub Award”, please click here.
You can also find a number of case studies here that could prove useful if you’d like to apply!
Are you interested in getting to know the local community, and sharing your research and expertise with others? Do you have exciting research to talk about or would you like to gain some valuable experience in public engagement?
Join us in a lead up to Festival of Learning and be part of RNLI College Food and Drink Festival on 30th April! The festival is focused on great quality food, sourced and produced here in Dorset, and supports Mayday campaign, which is a nationwide community fundraising campaign.
There is a community theme to the Festival so we’re looking for activities that may be of interest to the local community or are around community based research. We’d also be keen to take along any food and drink related activities about. However, if your activity is not directly related then we’d still love to hear from you. Please drop me an email on jpawlik@bournemouth.ac.uk to express your interest in joining us and I will be able to provide you with more details.
We’re also looking for activities for Poole Maritime Festival and are looking forward to hearing from you! To find out more please click here.
HEIF projects continue to be featured in the media including the latest edition of the Bournemouth Research Chronicle (P22/23).
We are currently working with previous RKEO work placement Oliver Cooke (Ollie) as part of his final year project. Ollie is an undergraduate media production student who is developing a number of digital channels including social media, web and video content to showcase the HEIF projects and the HEIF journey at BU. This will form part of his final year assessment. He was part of the Research & Knowledge Exchange Team last year as he was successful in securing a 12 month placement with the department.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Student Research Assistantship scheme is now live for academic applications. There is a post about the scheme and if you have any questions, make sure to get in touch with Rachel Clarke.
Student engagement
Submissions closed for the Research Photography Competition at the end of January. We’ve seen some fantastic entries this year and voting is now open with the winner being announced at an exhibition on 9 March, in the Atrium Art Gallery.
First of this month 14:Live saw BU students and staff learning more about osteoarthritis and what is ORI currently working on to make a real difference for people suffering from this common form of joint disease. As well as having a chance to hear about the life changing research and work from ORI, attendees were able to test out the Laser Speckle Contrast Imager (LSCI) which is used to visualise blood flow and measure micro circulation just below the skin’s surface. The presentation also included videos of ORI’s specialist equipment and lab which is going to be open for the public during Festival of Learning 2017.
Next 14:Live with FoodSMART is on 28 February.
Public Engagement
This month’s Cafe Scientifique with Dr Sharon Docherty was very popular and seen many new faces. Next month we are back with Dr Darren G. Lilleker and talk about facts and beliefs: ‘It’s just the way it is: ‘ why humans doubt facts if they contrast belief’ – 7th March, Cafe Bosconova at 7:30pm.
We are currently looking for activities for Festival of Learning on-tour event taking place as part of Poole Maritime Festival. There is a blog about this opportunity and if you’re interested please get in touch with Joanna Pawlik.
Naomi Kay who has joined us as a Public Engagement Officer in 2014 has recently left BU so if you have any queries please get in touch with Genna West or Joanna Pawlik instead.
Jayne Codling– Knowledge Exchange Adviser
Joanna Pawlik– Public Engagement Events Organiser
Rachel Bowen– Research Communications Manager
Rachel Clarke– Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP)
Today we offered preliminary feedback to key stakeholders in Kathmandu as part of our research into CPD (Continuous Professional Development) for nurses in Nepal. Today’s presentation is party funded by LJMU (Liverpool John Moores University) and partly funded by BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL). Late 2016 CEL funded the qualitative part of our research project. In this CPD project we work with representatives of the Ministry of Health , the Ministry of Education, the Nepal Nursing Association and the Nursing Council, and providers of Nursing Education (both Government-run universities and private colleges).
Today key presenter was BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada (based at LJMU). The event was opened by Associate Professor Chandra Kala Sharma, who is also the president of the Nepal Nursing Association (lighting the traditional lamp in photo right).
Our BU contributors, Dr. Catherine Angell and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, are both based in the Centre for Midwifery and Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). We are grateful to our collaborators in Nepal, especially Dr. Sujan Marahatta at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, for organising this event in our absence. The CPD research project is truly a FUSION project in the field of nursing & midwifery since it links Research in the field of Education to help improve Practice in Nepal. Further information can be found on a previous blog post, click here!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Bournemouth University has been working on a small research project with Pourakhi, a voluntary organisation which helps female migrant workers returning to Nepal, for over a year. Pourakhi advocates for the rights of women migrant workers. Last week they invited me to present a workshop session on Academic 
Writing & Publishing, this morning I run such workshop. The content of the workshop is based on years of experience of running similar workshops at Bournemouth University, many Higher Education colleges across Nepal and a COST-funded workshop in Malta a few years ago. The eight people (staff and volunteers) who attended the workshop were generally inquisitive and keen to get their work into print. Most of the paper we have written about aspects of academic writing and the publishing process have been published in Open Access journals. [1-8] 
Therefore, we can easily give workshop attendees copies and/or give them the links to the online version on the web.
Prof Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
The Digital Agenda Impact Awards, celebrating innovations that make a positive impact on the way the UK lives, learns and does business, are open for entries. The awards, sponsored by Nominet Trust, take place at London’s Barbican Centre on Thursday March 2, 2017.
The Impact Awards are open to any business, government or non-profit using digital products or services to make the world a better place. The awards are free to enter and open until January 20 2017.
There are 12 award categories under three broad headings – people, places and business.
People
Places
Business
Click here for more information and to apply.
We had the honour to speak to Parliamentarians (MPs) in Kathmandu today (December 29th) as part of workshop to promote evidence-based policy-making. The workshop was organised by a consortium of three UK universities: Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Bournemouth University and the University of Sheffield. Fund the Fund supported this Advocacy Workshop with Parliamentarians and Policy Experts on HV and AIDS (Discussion series IV) in the Himalayan Hotel in Lalitpur in Kathmandu Valley. The workshop was attended by some 30 MPs from all major parties and three or four former ministers. The drive to increase evidence-based policy-making in Nepal is led by Dr. Gangalal Tuladhar MP.
Prof. Padam Simkhada from LJMU and BU Visiting Professor addressed ‘key challenges on evidence-based health care delivery in Nepal’ and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences compared selected different health-care systems in high-income countries.
BU staff can login below:
Conversation article: Why so many people drown at the water’s edge
Workshop on longitudinal studies in three countries
New Bournemouth University public health paper
New ACORN-funded paper published. When time is short but passion for food is strong, food day-tripping may be the answer!
Last reminder – MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 internal deadline next week MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 – internal deadline approaching
Horizon Europe – EuroHPC and MSCA PF webinars MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024
Research Information Network
Royal Society of Chemistry Outreach Fund: Open for Applications