Tagged / research

RDS Funding Development Team Support – Update

With more sunny days across Dorset last and this week, we are all very close to summer holiday season. There are more than 120 external funding applications the Funding Development Team is currently supporting and I wanted to share some good news.

I am sure, BU academic community will welcome our new members of staff – lovely ladies Kate Percival and Jo Schofield.

Kate recently started as Research Facilitator for Life Sciences, Jo started last week as Funding Development Officer supporting Faculty of Media and Communication. They both are ongoing internal training and, we believe, they will be able to fully settle in during next coming months.

From 1st June, our new Funding Development Manager Peng Peng Hatch will also start in her new role. More details regarding FDT staff you may find here.

As you know, from August 2022 Research Facilitators changed their activity from supporting faculties to funder-focus. This way of working has already shown that RDS is able to deliver better quality of support to increase quality of proposals. As a reminder, here is the list of funders supported by each Research Facilitator:

Life Sciences – Kate Percival

Humanities and Social Sciences – Eva Papadopoulou

Innovation and Infrastructure – Zarak Afzal

EU and International – Ainar Blaudums

CALLING ALL RESEARCHERS

Did you know you can send in your ITB before the 4 week minimum deadline!

The sooner you send in your ITB, the quicker we can get your enquiry registered on our system and allocate you the necessary support.  Even if you don’t have the full details we can still start the process.

Essentially we need:

  • Start/end date
  • Estimated costs using the cost sheet attached to the ITB. Not 100% sure of the costs? Don’t worry we can develop these with you.

The ITB is just the trigger to start the application process.
If you have any questions, please contact your relevant Funding Development Officer – Kerri Jones (FST), Sara Mundy (BUBS), Jacqui Timms (HSS) and Jo Schofield (FMC).

Remember the early ITB catches the funding worm !!!

Research Staff Association (RSA) is organised a Writing Day for Researchers

Do you have a piece of writing to do or an article to finish up,

but can never seem to find the time to do it? This event is for you!

 

This Writing Day aims to provide a dedicated space and time away from our usual hectic schedules, to enable us as researchers to get our heads down and… write!

We’ll begin with some introductions – a chance to meet other researchers, make friends and support each other.

Then we’ll get down to business… writing!

Tuesday 13 June, 9am to 5pm 

Green House Hotel, BH1 3AX 

There will be tea and coffee available throughout the day, plus pastries on arrival, a buffet lunch and an afternoon snack.

Plenty of food and drink to fuel your writing!

After the day finishes at 5pm, we’ll stick around and go for drinks in the hotel bar, so please join us for more networking then if you’d like to.

 

Please sign up to attend via our EventBrite page here.

We only have 15 places available, so please sign up ASAP!

 

Please note that this event is organised by BU’s Research Staff Association – an association run by BU researchers from all faculties who want to make BU a great place to work and do research. We aim to ensure that researchers are supported to realise their full potential and to develop and produce research of the highest quality.

For queries regarding the content of this session, please email Raf Nicholson rnicholson@bournemouth.ac.uk

Deadline extended: Zinc and Dunhill Medical Trust Innovation Fellowships in Healthy Ageing

Industry collaboration

Please see below for the following fellowship opportunity for researchers working in ageing that are looking to branch out into industry.

Zinc and Dunhill Medical Trust Innovation Fellowships in Healthy Ageing

The Innovation Fellowships in Healthy Ageing comprise a 6-9 month programme, starting in September 2023, which will allow UK-based researchers the opportunity to experience first-hand what it takes to build a mission-focussed start-up from scratch, and to build science-rich products and services to improve outcomes for people in later life. Researchers will also have the opportunity to engage in training, support and mentoring to help them translate their skills, explore new career opportunities, and connect with other talented researchers.

This opportunity is open to researchers at any career stage post-PhD, but we particularly welcome applications from early career researchers (you must have submitted your PhD thesis by September, 2023). The deadline for submission of applications is 12 noon 17th May. Interviews will be held in mid-May with decisions being communicated at the end of May.

For more details and to apply, see the full advert here

BU Midwives attend the International Labour and Birth Research Conference

Based in Cumbria, the International Labour and Birth Research Conference, previously known as the Normal Birth Conference, has been a highlight in the midwifery calendar for over two decades. Hosted by Research in Childbirth and Health (REACH) Group at the University of Central Lancashire, speakers and delegates travel from around the world to attend this prestigious event. The theme for this year’s interdisciplinary conference was ‘evidence knowledge and creativity; optimising safety and personalisation in maternity care’.

Several midwives from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) at Bournemouth University presented their work. Dr Laura Iannuzzi presented under the title ‘Co-designing respectful maternity care in a slum area: methodological considerations from an international multidisciplinary research in Nairobi’.

Dr Juliet Wood & Dr Jane Fry shared their work, ‘Understanding concepts of normal/physiological labour and birth – evidence from a thematic analysis of the views of student midwives across the globe’. Prof Vanora Hundley and Anna Marsh, clinical academic midwife, hosted a workshop called ‘Dissemination and impact: policy makers and the media’. The team also participated as members of the International Early Labour Research Group in a workshop and symposium.

The conference is a great opportunity for emerging researchers. Two of CMMPH postgraduate researchers had the opportunity to share their work with midwives from across the globe. Anna Marsh presented her recently completed MRes work titled ‘How do midwives portray birth on Instagram? A content analysis of posts from the USA, UK, New Zealand and Australia’.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented ‘The RETHINK Study: A study to determine if pregnant women who pain catastrophise are more likely to attend hospital during the latent phase of labour’. We are very proud to say that Vanessa’s poster won the conference competition for ‘Best Scientific Poster’!

International Early Labour Research Group

This has been a busy few months for the International Early Labour Research Group (IELRG), which comprises members from across the globe. We had the opportunity to get together at the International Labour and Birth Research Conference in Grange over Sands this month, where early labour was a strong theme.

The IELRG held a workshop looking at how latent phase labour is defined. This was followed by a symposium on early labour with presentations from the USA and Europe.

The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health at Bournemouth University was well represented. In addition to participating in the workshops, the team had a couple of posters.

Vanessa Bartholomew, clinical academic doctoral midwife, presented her doctoral work on pain catastrophisation. Congratulations to Vanessa for winning both the daily and overall prize for Best Scientific Poster!

Vanora Hundley, Professor of Midwifery, presented a study looking at how perceptions of pain established prior to pregnancy can influence decisions about labour and birth.

The International Early Labour Research Group with be launching a special issue of Women and Birth later this year.

Related BU papers:

Bartholomew V, Clark C, Hundley V, Parris B (2023) Changing the Way We Think About Pain. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): 30-38

Clark C, Bartholomew V, Mylod D, Hundley V  (2023) The importance of pain histories for latent phase labour. MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 33(1): in press

Bespoke Engaging with Parliament training in May/June

Training

Carys Davis from The Other Place will be delivering two sessions of online training for academics interested in engaging with Parliament.

The Engaging with Parliament for Impact session is on 23rd June 10:00-4:30pm. It is an introductory session for academics whose research is likely to have policy impact, or for those who would like to influence policy. It will cover multiple ‘Common Routes to Influence’, including Government consultations, Select Committees, All Party Parliamentary Groups, think tanks etc. and the best ways to approach them. You will have an opportunity for stakeholder mapping and to plan your approach. There are only 12 places available, so please don’t book unless you can attend the whole day. You can book your place here.

The Creating a Policy Plan session is split into two parts: 10th May 10:00-4:30 and 30th May 1:00-4:30 and is an opportunity to create a bespoke plan for engaging Parliament with your research. By the end of the two sessions you will have written a Policy Brief, or other document, together with a detailed plan for getting your research into Parliament. To book onto this session please email impact@bournemouth.ac.uk. There are only 6 spaces available, so please do not book unless you can attend BOTH sessions on 10th May and 30th May. 

Carys Davis trained as a journalist, holds an MA (Distinction) in Human Rights and is a Member and Accredited Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
She has worked for a UK political party as a Researcher and Policy Adviser, in the Republic of Maldives as political consultant to the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party, for two charities running their public affairs functions and as the Manager of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Public Affairs Team. Her training is highly detailed, relevant and engaging and is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in having policy impact.

Free workshop – Data management basics: Ethical and legal issues in data sharing

Guidance, Research Ethics

Data management is essential to make sure that well-organised, well-documented, high quality and shareable research data can be produced from our research projects.

The free introductory workshops on data management basics are intended for researchers and anyone who wants to learn about research data management.

The first session, scheduled for 4th May 10am – 11.30am: Introduction to data management and sharing, provides an overview of how to manage, document and store research data. This second session focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of data management.

In this free 90-minute online workshop, participants will learn about the relevant legislation, such as data protection legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Participants will also learn about strategies that enable them to share research data. This includes carrying out an assessment of disclosure risk, obtaining informed consent, anonymising data and regulating access to enable data to be shared.

There will be time at the end for questions and discussion.

This event is part of our UK Data Service introductory training series: Spring 2023.

Register for this workshop here.

Recruiting : University Rep to co-lead Research Staff Association

PG research, staff profile pages

Two vacancies have arisen for the posts of University Representative, the leaders of the Research Staff Association. This is not a faculty-specific post, any eligible person from any faculty can apply.

The BU Research Staff Association(RSA) is a forum to promote research culture at BU. Research staff from across BU are encouraged to attend to network with others researchers, disseminate their work, discuss career opportunities, hear updates on how BU is implementing the Research Concordat, and give feedback or raise concerns that will help to develop and support the research community at BU.

In addition to the two leaders, there are two reps from each faculty.

Eligible research staff are those on fixed-term or open-ended employment contracts (not PTHP/casual contracts) who have at least one year remaining on their contract at the time of recruitment.

If you are interested in this role, please supply a few words to demonstrate your suitability, interest, availability in relation to the position to Researchdev@bournemouth.ac.uk by the 02/05/2023.

Please contact your faculty RSA rep to chat about it if you have any queries.