Tagged / impact

My experiences of the undergraduate research assistantship

Research assessment, student research

I’m an Occupational Therapy student at BU, just going into my third year.  This summer I have been working with HSS Impact Champion, Zoe Sheppard, on the endeavour to monitor and measure the impact of research.  This has involved exploring methods of dissemination, investigating the demonstration of impact, and working on two research impact case studies.  As a result I have come to understand the value of reciprocal public engagement, and learnt that some of the best impact examples don’t happen by chance, but are within reach and in our control. I have collated my findings into a toolkit which will hopefully support you to plan and pursue your own research impacts.

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to explore the difference research can make, and this has inspired me to think about my own post-graduate research options. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Zoe in particular, and everyone else who have been so supportive of me over the last few weeks.

Jo George

RCUK Telling Tales of Engagement Competition 2015

Funding opportunities

RCUKThe RCUK Digital Economy Theme (DET) is running a competition designed to help capture and promote the impact that your digital economy research is having. Three prizes of £10,000 are available to support researchers to further tell the story of research impact in an interesting and engaging way to a wider audience.

The competition, which has been co-developed with the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), is designed to produce very informative case study exemplars which can be used to help the wider research community develop understanding of the nature of a pathway to impact. It aims to encourage applicants to tell a story to describe the pathway to impact which actually occurred. This should be even more informative because understanding how impact arises is key to planning for future impact pathways.

They want the stories to portray impact as including what capability has changed outside the institutions, and what benefits that exercising this capability change has then delivered. Each ‘Tale of Engagement’ in showing how the actual impact arises and the evidence of the impact itself will thereby show clearly the link between the impact and the research. Choosing how to tell the story should reflect the nature of the story itself. They hope that giving the timeline of the whole story should stimulate thinking on more imaginative and illustrative ways to tell the tale of engagement and the resulting impact.

You will need to complete the form on this page, addressing the questions raised in the ‘Scope of Competition’ section of the full call document, and taking into account the “Guidance on completing proforma” notes. You will need to attach to the form, a single PowerPoint slide which summarises your entry in an interesting and engaging way.

Resources

Closing date: 01 December 2015 at 12:00

Please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance if you are interested in applying to this call.

Mission accomplished: fish genetics and population restoration are fused!

Our recent blogs on our fusion-funded co-creation and co-production project on fish population restoration were reporting our strong recent progress as our students began their placements – and all of a sudden, the project is now finished! So what did we discover?

Well, firstly, our students who completed their placements with the University of Insubria in Northern Italy have worked incredibly hard, with excellent reports coming back from our Italian partners (see below). They produced some excellent genetic data to help progress our work. Our placement students based at BU have also been working very hard (albeit in much cooler conditions!) and produced some excellent ecological data.

BU students in Italy

(Above) Our placement students outside the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria with Dr Serena Zaccara (3rd from left) and Caterina Antognazza (2nd left)

Secondly, through our co-creation with stakeholders, students and research collaborators, we have successfully revealed the extent of the disturbance of human activities on fish genetic patterns in the UK. We have revealed clear impacts relating to losses of genetic integrity of fish at the river basin level that we suggest affect their ability to adapt to local conditions – which could be important in the context of climate change. We will be publishing our findings in at least two peer-reviewed papers in the next few months with our students as co-authors.

Thirdly, did we discover how these fish populations could be restored sustainably? Yes, we think we did and we have already passed these on to the relevant authorities at our recent workshop, so these are being considered for implementation.

Finally, we have shown once again that co-creating and co-producing knowledge with our students, stakeholders and international collaborators brings multiple benefits, including enhanced mobility and employment prospects for our students. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience for all!

– Rob Britton, Demetra Andreou & Ben Thomas (all SciTech)

Introducing Jo George, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Fusion, REF Subjects, Research assessment, student research

Hello, I will be working within the Health and Social Sciences Faculty with Impact Champion, Zoe Sheppard, over the next six weeks on the endeavour to monitor and measure the impact of research.

My work will involve:

  • Exploring methods of dissemination
  • Conducting literature searches to investigate the demonstration of impact
  • Working on two research case studies from the Health and Social Social Sciences Faculty

I can be found in R613 and contacted at jgeorge@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any ideas or challenges you’d like to discuss. I will be sharing my findings towards the end of my six weeks here.

I look forward to meeting you,

Jo

Managing low EU grant success rates

Funding opportunities

Science BusinessAccording to Science|Business, the EU is considering mechanisms to manage the increasingly low EU grant success rates before research universities shy away from the EU calls.

“It’s more popular than ever before. But with our success rates we’re heading to a situation where we have to be very careful not to scare away top researchers,” Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation, told Science|Business.

Apparently, the Commission is considering three approaches:

  • Two-stage applications – As a rule of thumb, 80 per cent of proposals – those not considered strong enough to meet competition requirements – should be rejected in a short-form, stage one evaluation, Smits said. In stage two, where a longer application is required, at least 35 per cent of proposals should have a chance of success.
  • Greater emphasis on impact – Brendan Hawdon, Head of Horizon 2020 Policy in Smit’s directorate-general, elaborated. “It’s all about the outcome,” he said. An applicant should say clearly: “Here’s what we want to come out of the project.”
  • Non-starters – making the call documents clearer so that potential applicants can work out for themselves that they will not be funded alongside, potentially, some element of demand management

To read this article in full, please go to Science|Business, where you can also register for newsletter updates.

The Innovation Projects Open Call

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

Announcement of Opportunity

The Innovation Projects Open Call will fund projects that increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research outputs by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users, particularly businesses.

Funds will be used to support projects which focus upon generating user applicable outputs from past and/or current NERC supported research and which translates them into outcomes that achieve impact.

The Innovation Projects Open call will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015.  This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 24 months, starting in April 2016.  NERC anticipates seeing a range of requests within the £125k limit/24 month limits, reflecting the range of potential projects and activities.

 

For further information: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/innovation-projects/

Call now open ! Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF): money available to support your business engagement and knowledge exchange ideas.

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, HEIF, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

HEFCE provide funding for knowledge exchange (Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)) to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK. The current round of funding is referred to as HEIF-5 and runs until 31st July 2015.

BU has a proven track record with this funding stream and our success continues. Currently there are 13 live projects funded from HEIF-5, including VFX Hub, BUDI and the Cyber Security Unit. Interim funding has been made available to run from 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016. This is known as HEIF 5+1.

The call is now open. Colleagues are invited  to bid for funds to run new projects with funding starting 1 August 2015 and ending 31 July 2016.

Deadlines are tight with the deadline for proposals being Friday 3 July 2015.  (Timetable for the call.)

These projects will need to reflect our interim strategy sent to HEFCE:

“BU will continue to invest in innovation themes with a strong focus on network creation, with a particular focus on digital and creative industries, health and wellbeing, and regional development. The additional year of funding will enable BU to continue to develop our existing area in addition to investment to develop new innovations. This will allow BU to create innovations in areas such as e-health, whilst developing closer links with regional initiatives to enhance local development opportunities, working with the Dorset LEP and other local organisations. We will also consider the use of HEIF funds to invest in effective mechanisms for engaging with business/industry. Our core strategy of investing in sector-specific themes with a strong focus on network creation remains; what has changed in light of emerging opportunities is the nature of the themes in which we will invest and the mechanisms through which we will engage with the region.”

For more information please click here.

Make sure you read the information listed in the useful documents section including:

HEIF Institutional Strategy

HEIF FAQs

HEIF Application Form

Making an impact – Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF): money available to support your business engagement and knowledge exchange ideas

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

HEFCE provide funding for knowledge exchange (Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)) to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK. The current round of funding is referred to as HEIF-5 and runs until 31st July 2015.

 BU has a proven track record with this funding stream and our success continues. Currently there are 13 live projects funded from HEIF-5, including VFX Hub, BUDI and the Cyber Security Unit. Interim funding has been made available to run from 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016. This is known as HEIF 5+1.

 A call will shortly be circulated internally inviting colleagues to bid for funds to run new projects with funding starting 1 August 2015 and ending 31 July 2016. These projects will need to reflect our interim strategy sent to HEFCE:

 “BU will continue to invest in innovation themes with a strong focus on network creation, with a particular focus on digital and creative industries, health and wellbeing, and regional development. The additional year of funding will enable BU to continue to develop our existing area in addition to investment to develop new innovations. This will allow BU to create innovations in areas such as e-health, whilst developing closer links with regional initiatives to enhance local development opportunities, working with the Dorset LEP and other local organisations. We will also consider the use of HEIF funds to invest in effective mechanisms for engaging with business/industry. Our core strategy of investing in sector-specific themes with a strong focus on network creation remains; what has changed in light of emerging opportunities is the nature of the themes in which we will invest and the mechanisms through which we will engage with the region.”

Keep an eye out on the staff intranet, research blog and other staff communication channels for updates. For more information on HEIF and other knowledge exchange opportunities, please contact Jayne Codling Knowledge Exchange Adviser (RKEO).

 

 

BRAD Week coming soon…..watch out for details!

Info Days, Training

final wordle

Just to advise you details of our next BRAD events programme will be coming out very soon….watch out for our announcements on the Research BLOG and BU Intranet and get yourself booked in via Organisational Development.

BRAD week will be held from the 29th of June – 6th of July 2015.

Please see the comments we received from people who attended our last BRAD event week in April.

Pop these dates in your calenders and get ready!

REF update: HEFCE’s REFlections event, 25 March 2015

Research assessment

I went to HEFCE’s (rather cleverly named) REFlections event on Wednesday to hear about the review of REF 2014 and plans for the future of research assessment.

The key points were:

  • Collaboration and multi-/interdisciplinary research are likely to be important for the next REF
  • HEFCE have commissioned Elsevier to undertake a project on measuring multidisciplinary research to inform the next REF
  • The REF impact case studies database went live yesterday and is an excellent resource
  • Dual support system is likely to stay
  • Impact case studies are likely to stay, however, the impact template may change/become obsolete
  • Peer review will stay, informed by metrics in some disciplines (akin to REF 2014)
  • Metrics are not yet robust enough to have a metrics-driven REF. In particular, this is not yet possible for the assessment of outputs or impact. It is possible, however, to rely more heavily on metrics for the environment assessment and there could be changes to this part for the next REF.

 

HEFCE plan to consult with the sector on future plans for the REF this coming autumn.

 

Further information:

The Impact Awards for Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) Professionals

Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer

The Impact Awards from RCUK and PraxisUnico reward and recognise knowledge exchange, technology transfer and commercialisation professionals who have excelled in enabling and facilitating the achievement of impact from the outcomes of research.

PraxisUnico and the Research Councils are working together to facilitate the sharing of best practice, and to acknowledge and celebrate the work that Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) professionals do in enabling impact from UK research organisations.

The Impact Awards from RCUK and PraxisUnico reward and recognise knowledge exchange, technology transfer and commercialisation professionals who have excelled in enabling and facilitating the achievement of impact from the outcomes of research.

PraxisUnico and the Research Councils are working together to facilitate the sharing of best practice, and to acknowledge and celebrate the work that Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) professionals do in enabling impact from UK research organisations.

The Impact Awards for KEC Professionals:

  • Recognises the important contribution made by KEC professionals working with researchers in turning excellent research into impact
  • Enables the sharing of best practice in KEC amongst the varied community served by the Research Councils and PraxisUnico
  • Stimulates innovative approaches to KEC activities in UK research organisations and beyond

The competition replaces the PraxisUnico Impact Awards and the BBSRC Activating Impact competition.