The National Geographic are currently seeking proposals for projects to help advance the field of science communication by determining more effective ways to market nature and inspire action.
Proposals can be made for up to $50,000 of funding for projects that: advance the science of nature communication by systematically testing visual communication and education methods; visualise complex data; communicate about an environmental issue; or develop new education methods for reaching learners of all ages.
Priority will be given to projects that aim to do one or more of the following:
Propose an interdisciplinary collaboration of a scientist (including social scientists) and a visual artist, photographer, or videographer to quantify impact of visual communication via different channels (e.g., Instagram)
Engage students in identifying and implementing effective strategies for communicating about nature
Use social marketing principles to inform the approach
Study how the human brain responds to nature imagery
Measure audience engagement and test the effectiveness of different communication approaches as part of a storytelling proposal
Demonstrate increased engagement among target audiences (e.g. decision makers, students, etc.) on the chosen topic
The deadline for applications is 4th April 2018. Further information about the proposal and the application form can be found here.
If you are interested in applying for this funding and would like some support from our Public Engagement team around it, you can! Just email our Engagement Officer Natt Day (nday@Bournemouth.ac.uk) to arrange
Prof. Stephen Tee, Professor of Nurse Education & National Teaching Fellow, has been invited to give a key note speech at an International Conference on CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF QUALITY EDUCATION IN NEPAL IN FEDERALISM ERA in Kathmandu, the capital in Nepal.
This International Conference is organised by the Higher Institutions & Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal (HISSAN) in collaboration with 13 international universities including Bournemouth University. Members of the Conference Advisor Committee includes BU professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen. Prof. Tee will be speaking about ‘What can Nepal learn from latest UK technology-enhanced teaching?’ He is in great position to speak about learning technology due to his dual role at BU as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences as well as Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management, moreover with his role as Assistant Editor of Nurse Education Today.
We are ready and rearing to go for the first Café Scientifique of 2018!
We will be joined by Dr. Phillipa Gillingham, who will be discussing whether managing protected areas is a wise way of spending conservation resources.
Recent climate change has caused many species to change their distributions to try and track suitable conditions. However, borders of the areas that we are managing and protecting do not move, potentially being a waste of time and money.
What’s your opinion? Come on down to Café Boscanova on Tuesday 6th February to join the discussion. Find out more on our website.
Dr. Gillingham is currently working on the likely impacts of climate change on protected areas in the UK.
Few weeks after Café Scientific (details here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/?p=64189), I received an email from Devon Biddle and Sacha Gardener regarding the opportunity to be interviewed on the importance of public engagement activities and how my projects had benefited from them, not only during the recruiting process but also in expanding my research horizon and raising awareness on what I am doing (details here: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/?p=53295 )
Therefore, in just a couple of days, thanks to the staff of the Orthopedic Research Institute who provided the location, we started shooting, and here is part of the interview:
I would like to thank Davon, Sacha and all the BU staff for this interview, it was great, and I really hope that helps to have more people involved in public engagement activities.
Following the full script of the interview.
Could you tell us a little bit of your self
My name is Francesco Ferraro, and I am a PhD Student here at Bournemouth University. Currently, I am working on a project which aims to understand the effects of inspiratory muscles training on balance and functional mobility for healthy older adults. The goal is to develop an innovative and effective training for falls prevention.
Before arriving here at BU, I obtained a Bachelor Degree in sports science from University of Rome Foro Italico while in the meantime I was working as a football coach and after I moved to Naples for complete my Master Degree in sports science prevention and wellness. There I worked on motion analysis in young adults, while in the meantime I was a trainer of the Italian Federation of Weightlifting.
Could you tell us your favourite public engagement opportunity at BU?
It is hard to tell, I have enjoyed all the events in which I took part including Pint of Science, Café Scientific, The Festival of Learning, lecturing at University of Third Age and others.I gained something from each of them, and I gave something at each of them. But if I have to pick one, and only one I would say the Festival of Learning. Among all the events FOL is the one who gives you the opportunity to meet all kind of people.
You have the opportunity to explain your research to a very young audience, as well as people with excellent knowledge in your field, while surrounded by members of the BU Staff, BU students and colleagues that are there to help you and motived you.
Why do you find public engagement a good asset to both your research and the community?
My study aims to understand the effect of inspiratory muscle training on balance and functional mobility. My final purpose is to develop a strategy to prevent falls accidents in people over 65.
Therefore it is a research for the community as any other research, especially in health and social science, is done for the people. Hence what would be the point to work for the community and do not explain to them what you are doing? As researchers we have the opportunity to share with others much more than a picture on Twitter, or Instagram, we have the opportunity to share knowledge, ideas and instead of likes, we will have more questions, more curiosity and the chance to give to the audience our ideas.
At Café Scientifique, the public was really engaging in the fact your research was trying to better the wellbeing of the older generation. Why do you think people are so engaged in your research?
At Café Scientifique I was able to give to them my idea. Instead of explaining right away what my research does I told them the idea behind it and why is important to research on it. The reason why we had a great respond must be sought in my past years of work in the public engagement.
Any research is fascinating in is way, but is crucial to share it with others, not only peers and experts but also with the people for which the research is done.
You use your public engagement to advertise the need for participants in your current research, is this an effective way of getting the participants you need?
Yes, it is. But it is not the reason why I do public engagement. I have been introduced to public engagement by my supervisors: Alison McConnell, James Gavin and Thomas Wainwright with the aim to share what learned and discuss it with others.
If you were to advice new researchers about public engagement, what would you say to them?
Do it if you want to do it.
Public engagement is not easy especially if you do it because you “have to”. Do it if you want to share your research if you want to challenge yourself, if you want to meet the community then you will make a great event. You must have the right motivation if you do it just to “hunting” participants it won’t be neither correct or fun, and people will understand, with the result that you and your research will lose trust.
What do you gain most from public engagement?
Motivation – to work more for the community, to help people to learn and understand what we are doing here at the BU and how it helps their wellbeing.
Confidence – have the opportunity to talk to 50, 100 or even 200 people at each event, has grown my confidence inside and outside the University.
Knowledge – I do believe that everyone has a story to tell and you can learn a lot from it. I am always surprised at the questions that I receive.
People curiosity drives my curiosity as well and helps me to think and re-think at my research.
What are you going to do next?
I do have a couple of projects going on, but I will take part in the next Festival of Learning (third year in a row), and I will see what other opportunities the public engagement team will give to us.
The Physiological Society’s Public Engagement grants are open for their first round of 2018 applications.
Grants of up to £5000 are available to both members and non-members of the society to promote the discussion of physiology with public audiences. The scheme aims to:
Inspire creative public engagement with physiology
Stimulate physiologists to share their stories, passion and expertise in innovative ways with wider audiences, particularly those that are traditionally hard to reach
Increase dialogue between researchers and the public, in particular on topics such as the relevance of research to health, medicine and performance
Produce materials and resources which can be used for further public engagement and outreach work
The deadline for these applications is 14th January 2018. Further information and the application forms can be found here.
If you are interested in applying for one of these grants and would like to discuss it further with our Public Engagement team on it, you can! Just email our Engagement Officer Natt Day (nday@bournemouth.ac.uk) to arrange.
Vitae have brought to our attention these very podcasts which they have recently created with the Taylor Francis Group – please click here for full information and to view the 5 useful quick podcast sessions on:
Episode 1: Public engagement in research
Episode 2: Stepping up, moving on and alternative career paths for researchers
Episode 3: Academic mentoring
Episode 4: Overcoming impostor syndrome
Episode 5: Getting published for the first time
From driving public engagement in research to making the most of academic mentoring, there’s something for everyone in these 15-minute podcast series. Created with Vitae, the international program which champions professional development for researchers, they offer practical tips and insights for researchers looking to develop their career.
Listen to the current episodes or subscribe on iTunes.
One of the most important things you need to do to create a successful event is to make sure you have the right audience. Having a room full of archaeologists won’t help, if you want to share research which could shape nursing practice, for example.
To help you reach the audiences you want to connect with, we thought it might help to share a list of hint and tips, which you can use when planning your next event.
Define your target market –
Demographic – who are they, age, gender, profession, income,
Psychographics – what are their interests, values, attitudes, likes and dislikes,
Behavioural – What do they do, how do they consume media (online or offline).
Reach your target market – What is the best way to reach your target audience? If they are busy workers – what is the best platform or time of day to contact them? If they are retired, what are the best platforms to contact them – would it be online or physical marketing?
Identify what type of customer they are – Will you be targeting regular attendees or do you want to attract a new audience? Keep this in mind when creating your marketing materials in order to attract the right people.
Tailor that marketing – Once you understand what audience you want to attract, you can ensure all of the communications are on message to produce the largest turnout and increase engagement.
Who is your research looking at – Are there certain groups of people who could benefit from or are affected by your research? Think about who will be involved in those areas and what the best platform to contact them through is. If you are working in social care; what are the local organisations that would want to come along to your session, what is the best way to contact them?
Is there a certain location your research targets – If you are looking into a certain location for your research, why not engage the population of that area by promoting and running your event there? Not only will you be able to increase the attendance from engaged members of the public, you will be able to gain insight from the people who engage with that local area on a daily basis.
If you’re stuck and need advice on how to plan for the perfect advertising – Ask us! In the Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, we have a lot of experience in finding the right audience to invite to a public engagement event. Get in touch if you need any advice or guidance to improve your skills at increasing engagement with your event.
If you want to learn more about increasing attendance at free public events, check out our blog post to learn all the tricks to making this happen.
Would you like to get involved with the British Science Festival 2018? If so, the call for festival proposals is now open for applications!
The British Science Festival is Europe’s longest standing science festival with a diverse programme of free events for the public to get immersed in and help them connect with scientists, engineers, technologists and social scientists. This year the BSF will be in Hull & the Humber from 11-14th September.
Proposals are now open for events exploring the scientific spectrum and beyond. Creative events and applications for drop-in activities are also welcome.
To find out more and submit your application, click here. Proposal deadline if 9am 19th February.
Don’t forget, if you have a proposal and would like to work with our Public Engagement team on it, you can! Just email our Engagement Officer Natt Day (nday@Bournemouth.ac.uk) to arrange
Free events usually have a no-show rate of around 40-50% of registrations. This is due to there being a lack of investment, evident in paid events only having a rate of 10-20% no attendance.
There are many ways to combat such a high no-show rate, without adding a cost to the event! These tips are extremely useful when promoting public engagement events as the idea is to engage as many different people in the research as possible, without adding a price tag. Have a look below at the tips and tricks we have to improve the attendance at your events and get those events sold out!
Research your target market and what they would want to gain from and event. Promote to this market using the hooks you have picked up through your research, you should get plenty of people fighting over spaces!
Always check whether there is a public holiday on the day of your event. You wouldn’t put an event on Christmas Day – it is the same for many other holidays! You also want to check that there isn’t an event in competition of yours on the same day; it would lessen your chances of getting high attendance if the public have to choose.
Find an incentive to get people to register early. Once you have their email, you will be able to remind them of the event on a regular basis before the day – this will help prevent double booking!
Advertise fun activities throughout the session in the breaks – this will help add an extra attraction for those who might be worried on the length they’ll be sat being engaged for.
As mentioned in point three, reminder emails are a brilliant way of making sure your event isn’t forgotten about. By sending them a week and 48 hours before, it will be fresh in the minds of those registered so they won’t forget. You can even make an event page on Facebook to make sure they get a notification on the day!
Collaborate with local businesses and organisations for the event. By getting them on board, you will be able to attract their customer base as well as other interested members of the public.
Get yourself a ‘headline speaker’ for the event to draw in the masses. Not only will their following come along to see them speak, you will get more people finding out about the other speakers through the promotion done by the speaker.
By using these tips, you should hopefully improve your chances of a full house next time you’re running a session. If you want any more advice on how to successfully market Public Engagement activities, send us an email and we will be happy to help.
Something that is just as important as engaging the public in your research is gauging the impact of your event. Academics can use evaluation to help improve future research activities or understand if their event was successful in making impact with the general public.
Don’t be generic
When looking at generic feedback and evaluation forms, they don’t give much help in analysing the success of your event. If you want to know how many points out of 10 you get then look no further than your average Likert scale!
However, there is a wealth of other opportunities to understand and evaluate how impactful your events are – these opportunities are something the Knowledge, Exchange, and Impact Team love to collect.
Inspire us
If you have any ideas, or want to be inspired then don’t hesitate to get in touch for examples of what you can to do evaluate your public engagement event – we are always open to expand the evaluation repertoire.
ICCWS uniquely addresses cyber security, cyber warfare and information warfare. Over the years the Conference has been attended by a variety of security and military organisations including Cyber Security Policy Research Institute, more than 10 national defence colleges, NATO, SHAPE etc.
The conference is being organised by Dr Noëlle van der Waag-Cowling, military science professional with 25 years of experience in the Department of Defence, South Africa and 20 years of experience in South African Higher Education at Stellenbosch University. She is also the co-ordinator of the Cyber Project at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa. Noëlle is associated with the BU’s Centre for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society.
We are looking for researchers to come and speak at our Cafe Scientifique events in 2018…
Researching something interesting? Want to share it with the public? We have a brilliant platform for you to do just that on the first Tuesday of every month at Cafe Boscanova!
We have vacancies for:
Tuesday 6th February
Tuesday 3rd April
Tuesday 1st May
Tuesday 5th June
If you would like to learn more about Cafe Scientifique or want to get involved on one of these dates, check out the website or get in touch via email. We would love for anyone who is excited about sharing their research with the community to come along and discuss – especially when there is coffee and the occasional cake involved!
Check out our website to find out about even more Public Engagement opportunities we have at RKEO
The Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies (ILSS) was formed in September, 2015 on UNG’s Dahlonega Campus. The vision of the Institute is to make the Corps of Cadets a nationally-recognized program of choice for students pursuing careers as successful leaders in the U.S. Army, government and non-government agencies, and corporations with global interests, in support of U.S. national security. Graduates of the Corps of Cadets are highly sought after.
Sascha was invited to share the findings of his ongoing work (see BU Research News) on
Sascha reflected on his work with various organizations and security actors such as US CENTCOM, NATO and national academic partners such as the Swedish Defence University, the Austrian Ministry of Defence as well as the UK Parliament’s Defence Select Committee.
On Sunday BU and RSPB staff along with volunteers from SUBU enjoyed hearing what young people under 12 years old thought about about being outdoors.
The research team welcomed over 60 children to the KingFisher Barn to take part in this ESRC Festival of Social Sciences event. There were various outdoor activities for the young people to try including den building in the woods. Many of the fun activities also gave young visitors the opportunity to share their ideas about the importance of spending time outdoors playing with friends or family. Many of the young visitors added their ideas to the event’s ‘Big ideas Trees’. There was also the chance for them to suggest how green spaces could be improved to make them more attractive as places to play. Not all the data has been analysed yet but it would seem for the under 5’s one popular enhancement to any green space would be more muddy puddles!
On Sunday the Kingfisher Barn, Muscliffe will be the venue for an ESRC Festival event. BU staff from the Faculties of Health and Social Sciences and Media and Communications have developed the event in collaboration with the RSPB and Bournemouth Borough Council Parks. The event called Me and my green space is aimed at young people aged 12 years and under. There will a range of activities to help open a dialogue with younger visitors about what they think green spaces are, do they use them during play and if so what type of activities they like to do in the green spaces they visit. The research team is also interested in whether the young people have ideas about improving access to green spaces or any thoughts about how these areas could offer more enjoyment to younger visitors. The activities on offer will be den building, arts and crafts based on natural materials, an arboretum trail and river dipping. SUBU are helping to support the delivery of several of these activities. The event will end with a lantern trail to light up the woodland area around the Kingfisher Barn. All the research team – Holly Crossen-White, Angela Turner-Wilson (HSS), Annie East and Nathan Farrell (FMC) – invite you to come along and enjoy some outdoor fun – and the weather is going to be good too!
Friday 6th October St Mary’s Maternity Unit, part of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, held a Whose Shoes? event in Poole. Whose Shoes?® is a facilitation tool to help empower both staff and service users of services. Friday’s event was led by Gill Phillips, the person behind the original idea of Whose Shoes?®. Gill’s approach involves promoting understanding and empathy by looking at issues from a wide range of perspectives from a range of possible stakeholders.
The event Poole was initiated by NHS midwife Jillian Ireland, who is also BU Visiting Faculty in our Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). She was assisted by Dr. Jen Leamon, who helped facilitate NHS maternity staff, pregnant women and new mothers, in their discussions. Jen is Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at BU and she facilitated the discussion with the aid of the Whose Shoes? board game. In the afternoon Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (also based in CMMPH) led a discussion of reflection and reflective practice with midwives and maternity support workers (MSWs). CMMPH’s involvement in the event is part of our wider collaboration with the NHS locally in the field of midwifery education.
The Whose Shoes? board game is also by CMMPH in a very different context as PhD student Alice Ladur has translated the game to test it in Uganda. Alice first did a pilot study with African men living in London before embarking on a project to improve men’s involvement in maternity care in rural Uganda.
Dr. Pramod Regmi, Lecturer in International Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Care, wrote in today’s edition of my Republica under the title ‘Health for all’. This article in one of Nepal’s national daily newspapers my Republica, is co-authored with Mr. Bhagirath Yogy, a BBC journalist based in London.
The idea of universal health insurance is high on the international agenda as it is regarded as a potential solution to offering universal health care, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Too many people across the globe have no or poor access to health care when they need it and national or local health insurance can help some populations in improving their access to health workers and health facilities.
The public were all smiles down at the Bournemouth Air Festival over the first weekend of September. Even as the rain poured, we had hundreds of people engaging in our research which ranged from testing your taste buds to having a go on Bournemouth University’s very own Virtual Reality headset.
“I loved seeing both old and young interested in finding out about our recreation of a local historical landmark. It is brilliant to see all areas of the public wanting to learn more and hear about the future of our research!”
The researchers who joined us from both Bournemouth and Southampton had an amazing time interacting with the public. Both young and old were fascinated by the technology we were showcasing – VR headsets and 3D printers – as well as having a go at the interactive ‘Scams and Ladders’ board that Sally Lee and Lee-Ann Fenge had brought to show the public the effects of not being careful with your money.
Cancer Research UK joined us from Southampton and told us how pleased they were to see so many people engaging with their research. Even the research engagement manager commented that “it was great to be able to talk to smaller groups of people for a longer period of time and really get into what research we do as close as Southampton. It was great to see how the engagement was teaching them something new about the research we are currently undertaking to help fight cancer!”
Everyone was obsessed with these models that were being printed on the day – you were even able to have a go at designing a 3D model yourself”
We are so glad to have joined up with the British Science Association, Siemens, University of Southampton, Cancer Research UK, and Barclays to bring an engaging tent of science to the Bournemouth Air Festival. We are grateful to everyone who got involved with our events and we hope to see you at our future events over the next year, check out our website for more information!
“The British Science Association helped us attract people to the tent with some Science Busking – everyone loved learning about the Bernoulli Principle and migrated straight into the Science tent after to learn even more”
BU staff can login below:
Other services
Don’t miss a post!
Subscribe for the BU Research Digest, delivered freshly every day.
The Physiological Society’s Public Engagement grants are open for their first round of 2018 applications.
Vitae have brought to our attention these very podcasts which they have recently created with the Taylor Francis Group – please click 
e and Impact Team, we have a lot of experience in finding the right audience to invite to a public engagement event. 
Would you like to get involved with the British Science Festival 2018? If so, the call for festival proposals is now open for applications!
n Sunday BU and RSPB staff along with volunteers from SUBU enjoyed hearing what young people under 12 years old thought about about being outdoors.
BRIAN drop-in surgery – Lansdowne
Postgraduate Research Summer Social – 1 week to go!
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease