BU Research Blog

12 February 2019

British Academy Small Grants Workshop – Now Open

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants will open 10^th April 2019 and close 5pm on Wednesday 5^th June 2019 and is aimed at Early Career Researcher and/or pump priming purposes.

It is strongly advised that you attend the British Academy small guidance session on 20^th March 2019, where the Funding Development team will go through:

The British Academy scheme notes for applicants
The British Academy FAQs
The British Academy Assessment Criteria
As well as a chance to ask questions from recent British Academy award winners

After the session you will have the chance to sit with a Research Facilitator and Funding Development Officer, to go through costs and your draft proposal. As well as the opportunity to have your proposal reviewed by an external application reviewer.

If you can’t attend this session, then we ask you to submit your intention to bid form to your Funding Development Officer by 17^th April 2019, after this date applications will be moved to the Autumn round.

The British Academy have provided updated guidance on the small grants – BA scheme notes for applicants and BA FAQs . They have asked that all applicants read the documentation carefully before starting their application.

Timeline

The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 5^th June 2019.

20^th March 2019	RDS British Academy Guidance session
10^th April 2019	Call Opens – start reading guidance
17th April 2019	Intention to bid forms to be submitted to your faculty Funding Development Officer.
27^th May 2019	Nominated referee supporting statement to be completed via FlexiGrant
28^th May 2019	Your final application must be submitted on FlexiGrant by this date at the latest.
28^th May -5^th June 2019	Institutional checks to take place by RDS

Any queries please contact Alexandra Pekalski

11 February 2019

Wellcome Trust funding available for Humanities and Social Sciences

Funding opportunities Theresa

Two Wellcome Trust funds have issued calls.

Investigator awards in humanities and social sciences – funding available to enable humanities and social science researchers with a compelling research vision to tackle the most significant questions in human health. Researchers at all career stages are eligible.

Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science – supporting teams to tackle major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences that require a collaborative approach. Research must have the potential to make a significant, measurable difference to health research in the humanities and social sciences.

For both of these the next preliminary application deadline is 2nd July 2019. Contact Alex or Lisa for support.

8 February 2019

Cafe Scientifique: How can Virtual Reality be used to support our students’ learning?

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Public engagement ballen

Education is changing – but what does this look like in practice? What does the future of learning hold for students? At Bournemouth University we are responding to research that considers how teachers of the future will work with their classes.

Drawing upon examples from fields as diverse as archaeology and nursing, Professor Debbie Holley, P rofessor Liz Falconer and Heidi Singleton (PhD Student) from the Centre for Excellence in Learning(CEL) showcased recent innovations to help support student learning, both inside and outside their physical classroom.

A Wicked Challenge

“It’s our wicked challenge”, Debbie told the BU Cafe Scientifique audience on Tuesday evening, as she outlined the current lay of the land in terms of Virtual Reality (VR) and Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in higher education, emphasising that it is an educators’ duty to offer digital opportunities to 21^stCentury students. Debbie explained, how although technology can be of great benefit, the “wicked challenge” is defining and addressing the significant challenges impeding TEL adoption in higher education.

Time to engage

After discussing their work, the CEL team, supported by BU Learning Technologists Stephen Pyne and David Hunt got interactive, giving the Cafe Sci audience the opportunity to engage with the Google Cardboard headsets, encouraging them to try out different virtual reality scenarios.

Virtual Avebury

It was fascinating to hear how Liz and her team had used Lidar data to simulate how Avebury might have looked and sounded circa 2,300 BCE in an immersive 3D virtual reality environment. Liz reported findings from her large scale project which was conducted with members of the public at the Avebury site Not only did people enjoy visiting the VR Avebury, but for some it brought out an emotional reaction as they felt they had experienced some of what it would have been like to have visited the ancient site when it was still complete. One of the participants said; “I felt completely immersed in the landscape. It was really interesting to see the difference between the real stones outside and the simulation. The difference between the sizes of the banks and ditches was particularly striking!” Liz concluded with her favourite finding; that women over the age of 60 were the third most likely group to enjoy gaming (mostly on their mobile phones). It reminds us all not to pre-judge what we think people will find enjoyable and useful as a learning experience.

VR Deteriorating Patient

Heidi explained and demonstrated her research around VR Deteriorating Patient, a computer simulator that trains students how to nurse a patient who is suffering from Diabetic Hypoglycaemia

Working with CEL, HSS and in particular Dr Janet James, Heidi is conducting an RCT to compare the VR training exercise with traditional teaching methods. The initial findings are very positive, with students reporting that it helps to bridge the theory practice gap, some saying; “You can practice and it doesn’t matter if you make wrong decisions. It is a safe environment.” “It will stick in my mind better. I will use it again to revise before the exam.” “It helps me to visualise the learning.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about VR, AR or 360 Video you can contact the CEL Team @cel_bu

The next Café Scientifique takes place on Tuesday 5 March where we’ll be hearing from Dr Alexios Mylonas who will be discussing whether popular browsers (such as Firefox, Chrome) for desktops and mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) protect their users from trackers that use Web Storage, Web SQL Database, and IndexedDB.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch with the Public Engagement Team – publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk, you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, why not send us a request to be added to our Public Engagement mailing list and be the first to hear about our research events and activities.

1 February 2019

Medical research: articles/blogs of interest

Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Research Ethics Suzy Wignall

A medical ethicists explores the need to temper researchers’ enthusiasm when it comes to presenting the benefits of a treatment, and how important it is to distinguish research from a treatment.

Read the full article here.

Six project management tips for a PhD – Whatever kind of large research project you are doing, these tips from the private sector might be of some use.

Read the full article here.

#DataSavesLives—Patient participation ensures data are accurate and useful – In this blog, the author argues that we must not ignore the benefits that sharing patient data can have on quality in healthcare

Read the full blog post here.

1 February 2019

New HRA guidance launched for public co-applicants in research

Guidance, NHS Suzy Wignall

‘Increasing numbers of public contributors are helping to shape and deliver health and social care research, and there has been a rise in the number of public co-applicants joining research teams.

Involving members of the public in research design and development has been shown to have a positive effect on projects by improving the quality and relevance of research. However, until now there has been no guidance, either for researchers or for people involved, about what it means to be a co-applicant.

Now new guidance co-developed by NIHR-INVOVLE, the NHS R&D Forum and the Health Research Authority, has been launched to help support members of the public who are co-applicants on research grants and ensure that their contribution is valuable and rewarding.’

See the HRA’s update here and remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your own research idea into the NHS – email Research Ethics for advice and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

30 January 2019

Forthcoming RKEDF Events

Theresa

We have some great events coming up over the next few weeks to help support you in your research activity within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF).

We have grouped the RKEDF events around your needs, so if, for example, you are an Early Career Researcher or need to know about external funding, you can click on the link to find all the RKEDF sessions that may assist you. You can also find related events by using the link on each session’s page.

Events in February

Friday 1st February	RKEDF: Impact Case Study Writing Retreat
Tuesday 5th February	RKEDF: Research Ethics @ BU
Tuesday 5th February	RKEDF: Measuring the Impact of Your Research with Advanced Citation Tools
Wednesday 6th February	RKEDF: Research Data Management
Monday 11th February	RKEDF: Building Evidence for REF Impact Case Studies
Tuesday 12th February	RKEDF: Main Panel – Developing Impact Case Studies for your REF Panel: the good, bad and ugly
Tuesday 12th February	RKEDF: EndNote Desktop for Managing References and Writing for Publication
Wednesday 13th February	RKEDF: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Guidance Session
Wednesday 13th February	RKEDF: Research Professional Spring Seminars
Wednesday 13th February	RKEDF: Getting the Best from Research Professional
Monday 25th February	RKEDF: Impact Case Study Writing Retreat

Events in March

Friday 1st March	RKEDF: Introduction to the Logframe Approach
Monday 4th March	RKEDF: Technical Bid Writing Workshop
Wednesday 6th March	RKEDF: Achieving Policy Impact in the UK Parliament
Friday 8th March	RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day
Monday 11th March	RKEDF: Writing Academy – Day 1 of 3
Wednesday 13th March	RKEDF: Introduction to NVivo: Setting up your qualitative data
Thursday 14th March	RKEDF: Advanced NVivo: Analysing your data
Wednesday 27th March	RKEDF: EndNote Desktop for Managing References and Writing for Publication
Wednesday 27th March	RKEDF: Research Data Management

This list does not include events where attendance requires faculty nominations / applications or those events which are part of the Early Career Researcher Network schedule for 18/19.

You can see all the Organisational Development and RKEDF events in one place on the handy calendar of events.

Please note that all sessions are now targeted, so look closely at the event page to ensure that the event is suitable for you. In addition, RKEDF events now require the approval of your Head of Department (or other nominated approver). Please follow the instructions given on the event page and the template email for you to initiate the booking request.

If you have any queries, please get in touch!

29 January 2019

‘Research changed my life’ – NIHR stories

NHS, Research Ethics Suzy Wignall

The National Institute for Health Research have gathered some inspiring stories from people across England, whose lives have been transformed by clinical research. The stories cover a wide range of health conditions.

You can read them here.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your own research idea into the NHS – email Research Ethics for advice and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

28 January 2019

Public Engagement Opportunity: We’re looking for speakers for Café Scientifique 2019

Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement ballen

Cafe Scientifique is a fantastic opportunity for you to share, with the public some of your research and help develop your public engagement profile.

Can you give a short talk (around 30 minutes) highlighting your area of research and engage in either debate or discussion with your audience?

Cafe Sci is a relaxed and friendly environment, the audience are welcoming and always keen to learn and ask questions.

If you’re interested, you’ll find us at Cafe Boscanova on the first Tuesday evening of the month.

We currently have availability for the following dates:

Tuesday 1 October

Tuesday 5 November

Tuesday 3 December

If you’d like to get involved with one of these dates please contact the public engagement team publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk You can also check us out on Facebook and Twitter

We look forward to hearing from you!

25 January 2019

Cafe Scientifique – I know what you did last summer: New persistent tracking mechanisms used in the wild

Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement ballen

Café Scientifique takes place on the first Tuesday of the month at Café Boscanova

Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion around that topic.

We’ll be joined by Dr Alexios Mylonas on Tuesday 5 March from 7:30pm until 9:00pm (doors open at 6:30pm) No need to register, just come along and enjoy yourself! Make sure you get there early though as seats fill up fast!

As the use of the Internet increases, so do the threats an everyday user faces. One of the most common Internet threats is web tracking, which enables an entity to gain unauthorised access to a user’s personal data while the user is browsing the web, thus violating user privacy. Over the years, many client storage technologies, such as cookies, have been used for this purpose and have been extensively studied. This talk will focus on three newer client storage mechanisms; Web Storage, Web SQL Database and IndexedDB. Presenting the results from a large-scale analysis of their usage, which examined the extent they are used for tracking purposes, we’ll discuss whether popular browsers for desktops (Firefox & Chrome) and mobile devices (smartphones & tablets) protect their users from trackers that use Web Storage, Web SQL Database and IndexedDB.

If you have any questions please do get in touch

Find out more about Café Scientifique and sign up to our mailing list to hear about our other research events: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cafe-sci

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

23 January 2019

HRA Update – Travel insurance and participation in clinical trials

NHS Suzy Wignall

Please see below for a message from the NIHR Workforce Development team –

‘We are pleased to inform you that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) have confirmed to the Health Research Authority that participation in clinical trials does not affect eligibility criteria for travel insurance and have now withdrawn their guidance document “Clinical research trials and insurance”.

ABI agree that taking part in a clinical trial should not affect insurance cover if the medical condition itself doesn’t. Please share the following message with your teams, organisations etc.

‘When individuals apply for travel insurance, insurers will typically ask questions about an individual’s health in order to make an accurate risk assessment. This risk assessment takes into consideration the health of the individual and the insurer will often ask questions about any pre-existing health conditions and medical treatments for those conditions. Travel insurers do not typically ask about clinical research trials. Where an insurer does ask an individual about their participation in clinical research trials, the insurer must ensure the question is clear and the individual should answer it accurately and honestly”.

If you are aware of instances when participation in a trial is given as a reason for not providing insurance or insurance being an obstacle to participation in clinical trials, please contact hrapublicinvolvement@nhs.net‘

23 January 2019

Good Clinical Practice Refresher – Monday 4th February

NHS, Research Ethics, Training Suzy Wignall

Are you currently undertaking research within the NHS, and your Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training is due to expire? Or has it expired recently?

GCP certification lasts for two years, so if your training is due to expire, has expired, or you want to validate your learning, then take advantage of the upcoming refresher half day session, taking place at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester on Monday 4th February, 9am – 12:30pm.

Spaces are still remaining, so if you’d like to enrol, get in touch with Research Ethics.

22 January 2019

Health Research Authority public involvement guidance

Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Research Ethics Suzy Wignall

Involving patients and/or the public in your clinical research is a great way to ensure that your study is designed and set-up in a way that will be attractive to participants.
This can also help to avoid any setbacks once the project is underway – e.g. scheduling research clinics at 08:30 in the morning at the hospital, when the majority of your participants can’t use their bus pass until 9 o’clock! You may find that recruitment is slow and you will have higher rates of non-compliance.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) released guidance last year to help applicants better identify where they have involved the public in their research applications, and the difference that made to their studies. The guidance sets out how applicants should present their information on public involvement within the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) in a way that is most useful to Research Ethics Committees (RECs).

Further to this, the HRA have released two blog posts (the 3rd to be released next month) that follow the journey of a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey. Having used this new guidance, the first blog post looks into her thoughts on the advice and how it helped her to achieve success.

The second blog post involves discussion had with two members of the public that the Research Fellow worked with, to find out what it’s like to be involved in research.

Watch this space for the third blog post, and remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

21 January 2019

Bournemouth University’s Center for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society has a new Study Project called “Global Challenges Taking An International Approach”

PG research, Public engagement sbachmann

Academic colleagues from the UK, China, South Africa, Australia and Sweden are working on developing joint answers to global challenges from a dual cultural perspective.

The aim of this research project with the title Global challenges: taking an international approach, is to find holistic approaches to security questions, ecological threats and development challenges. This includes researching diverse topics such as exploring the potential of terrorism litigation as a legal security tool for China’s One Belt Road initiative; investigating the role that river rights play in producing new modes of regulation along China’s trans-boundary rivers; and exploring the symbolic power of International Environmental Law as a force for managing dissent in the South China Sea.

Dr. Kenneth Kang, BU Centre for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society (CROLS) PGR and affiliated with Xiamen University, China International Water Law Research Group, and Yu Dong, a graduate from Peking University and CROLS researcher granted by China Scholarship Council and China’s Department of Education, are preparing under the supervision of Dr. Bachmann two security related themes for the Chinese market.

One current activity is titled ‘Eco threats as security threats and the protection of the environment during hostilities’ and ‘Terrorism litigation as deterrence under international law’ and is based on existing academic work published in the UK by members of CROLS and aims at transferring the findings into the Chinese context. Two publications in leading Chinese journals are planned for 2019.

The study group is led by Dr. Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor at BU, Reader in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University, and Research Fellow at the Faculty of Military Science at Stellenbosch University, who is the Head of the (CRoLS), Bournemouth University, and Scientific Contributor and Research Fellow (designate) at the Legal Office of NATO, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). Expressions of interest of becoming involved can be sent directly to sbachmann@bournemouth.ac.uk.

The group aims at fostering research collaborations across the globe and to foster academic dialogue in a non-partisan way among academic and professional practitioners.

21 January 2019

NIHR CRN – Principal Investigator Workshop

NHS, Research Ethics, Training Suzy Wignall

The above course is designed for those working as a Principal Investigator (PI) on clinical research projects, or those wishing to become a PI. It is particularly suited to those who have been in working in this role for less than 6 months.

The course will focus on the role and responsibilities of the PI, developing a greater understanding of the regulatory landscape in research, leadership, oversight and communication skills and the importance of building working relationships with local NHS Research & Development and Research & Innovation departments.

For further details of the course please email Kelly.Adams@nihr.ac.uk and to request the course agenda please email Research Ethics.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

21 January 2019

Medical Research Council podcasts – career inspirations series

Knowledge Exchange Suzy Wignall

MRC talks is a podcast from the Medical Research Council, bringing you stories from inspiring scientists working to improve lives through medical research.

The free podcasts from the career inspirations series will be released monthly and can be found here.

21 January 2019

Calls for Global Challenges Research Fund OPEN

Theresa

The following Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) calls are open and a Town Hall meeting has been arranged to cover the call details.

EDUCATION – Gender and Intersectionality Network Plus

RESILIENCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL SHOCKS AND CHANGE – Ensuring resilience enhances the Sustainable Development Goals

CROSS PORTFOLIO CALLS – Gender and Intersectionality and Education as a driver of sustainable development network plus

A short Expression of Interest (EOI) should be completed by those intending to submit to this call by 16:00 on 11 March 2019.

ESRC will host a town hall meeting to explain the ambitions of this call in more detail. The town hall meeting will be held in central London on 7 February 2019. This event is open to anyone with an interest in the GCRF and development research opportunities, but tickets must be booked in advance.

Alexandra Pekalski is booked to attend. Please contact her on apekalski@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any queries.

21 January 2019

UKRI GCRF regional engagement events – Now Open!

apekalski

UKRI are developing a programme of UK based GCRF engagement events which will take place January-March 2019. These events provide a timely opportunity to engage with the GCRF Challenge Leaders, for UKRI to provide an update on live and upcoming ODA calls/activities, and to discuss key topics e.g. interdisciplinary approaches, building equitable partnerships, and maximising impact.

These events are open to anyone with an interest in the GCRF and development research opportunities. Please find below details of the confirmed events, further dates, locations and application links will be added in due course.

Date	Location	Challenge Portfolios	Event registration
28 January	Keele	Security Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement Food Systems	Register for event
7 February	London	Education Resilience to Environmental Shocks and Change Education, Gender and Resilience	Register for event
14 February	Birmingham	Security Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement Education	Register for event
22 February	Sheffield	Food Systems Resilience to Environmental Shocks and Change
25 February	London	Security Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure	Register for event
7 March	Manchester	Global Health Cities and Sustainable Infrastructure
12 March	Edinburgh	Education Security Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement	Register for event
15 March	Sussex	Education Global Health
26 March	Cardiff	Food Systems Resilience to Environmental Shocks and C

If you wish to discuss, please contact myself via email or phone (01202 961204).

21 January 2019

Reflections on doing interdisciplinary research

Centre for Excellence in Learning, international, Knowledge Transfer, open access, Public engagement, Publishing, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research Integritiy, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Conducting interdisciplinary or even transdisciplinary research has become more to the fore in many academic fields. As a result of the steady rise of multidisciplinary research It has been made more explicit in REF 2021 [1]. For example, REF 2021 UoA 2 Public Health, Health Services & Primary Care “recognises the breadth and diverse range of single, multidisciplinary and/or multi-professional research across public health, health services and primary care”, whilst UoA22 Anthropology & Development Studies states that its submissions “can be multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary and may combine social science with other disciplines”.

However, doing multidisciplinary research is not without its problems (and barriers). In a paper accepted today we reflect on some of these issues [2]. The co-authors are Bournemouth University’s Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Ayral and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University) and BU graduate Dr. Pratik Adhikary (Green Tara Nepal). We all are Public Health researchers, with very different educational backgrounds and training, reflecting the diversity of and interdisciplinarity in the field. Several of us have a first degree in Education or Health Education, but one has a first degree in Sociology. Whilst four of the five authors have Master degree in Public Health and/or Health Promotion, two have a Master in Education. Most of us have a Ph.D. in Public Health, but again one of us has a Ph.D. in Sociology. Our paper ‘Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward’ has been accepted by the journal Health Prospect [2]. The advantage of this journal, which is part of the NepJOL family is that it is Open Access and hence freely available for anybody working in Public Health across the globe.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

Reference:

REF 2021 (2018) Consultation on the draft panel criteria and working methods https://www.ref.ac.uk/media/1013/consultation-on-the-draft-panel-criteria-and-working-methods-ref-2018_02.pdf
van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P.R., Adhikary, P., Aryal, N., Simkhada, P. (2019) Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward, Health Prospect (forthcoming)

Tagged / research

Wellcome Trust funding available for Humanities and Social Sciences

Cafe Scientifique: How can Virtual Reality be used to support our students’ learning?

Medical research: articles/blogs of interest

New HRA guidance launched for public co-applicants in research

Forthcoming RKEDF Events

‘Research changed my life’ – NIHR stories

Public Engagement Opportunity: We’re looking for speakers for Café Scientifique 2019

Cafe Scientifique – I know what you did last summer: New persistent tracking mechanisms used in the wild

HRA Update – Travel insurance and participation in clinical trials

Good Clinical Practice Refresher – Monday 4th February

Health Research Authority public involvement guidance

Bournemouth University’s Center for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society has a new Study Project called “Global Challenges Taking An International Approach”

NIHR CRN – Principal Investigator Workshop

Medical Research Council podcasts – career inspirations series

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