BU Research Blog

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July 3, 2015

‘Meet the Editors’ at BU Midwifery Education Conference

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Jenny Hall and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are holding a lunchtime at today’s (Friday 3rd July 2015) BU Midwifery Education Conference (#MidEd15) in Business School. The one-hour session is advertised under the title ‘Believe you can write!’ Both BU academics are editors and on editorial boards of several prestigious health journals across the globe.

Over the past few years CMMPH staff have written and published several articles on academic writing and publishing. Some of these papers have been co-authored by BU Visiting Faculty, Dr. Bri jesh Sathian (Nepal), Dr. Emma Pitchforth (RAND, Cambridge), Ms. Jillian Ireland (NHS Poole) and/or Prof. Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Jenny Hall

CMMPH

Twitter accounts: @HallMum5 / @EvanTeijlingen

June 23, 2015

Collaborative ethnography and undergraduate learning

Fusion, Public engagement, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, student research, Uncategorized Rosie Read

The value of providing undergraduate students with experience of conducting first hand, empirical research is widely recognised. As a social anthropologist, I’ve long been interested enabling students to discover and engage in ethnographic research. I’m presently developing a new taught unit in which for our BA Sociology and BA Sociology and Anthropology students will carry out ethnographic projects developed in collaboration with local community organisations. This endeavour necessarily poses challenges. One of them is time. Undergrad students’ learning is divided into units delivered over semesters, but a semester is very short time frame in which to design, carry out and write up an ethnographic project. The other is the nature of the collaboration with the non-academic partner, whether that be an NGO, community group, local government partner etc. How can this collaboration be shaped in a way which is beneficial to both parties?

IUPUI students visiting a housing redevelopment scheme in a lower income neighbourhood, Indianapolis, February 2015.

This term I have visited IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis), USA. IUPUI is a public university in which dialogue and engagement between faculty and students, on the one hand, and citizens, organisations and businesses, on the other, is a priority for both teaching and research. My visits have provided me with an opportunity to see a diverse range of ways in which this dialogue is promoted and sustained. Here I will summarise some of the strategies I have seen in action at IUPUI which are most pertinent to the kinds of collaborative, community-engaged student ethnographic projects I hope to develop at BU.

1. Investing time
The importance of investing time in developing relationships with local organisations which will have a stake in the research cannot be overstated. Whoever the partner is and whatever the nature of the collaboration, the project is enormously enhanced when both parties make time to talk to each other, arrive at a suitable, realisable aim of the project, and figure out how they are going to achieve it within the fixed timescale. This is of course easy to state and much harder to realise, as it involves all parties investing a very scarce resource, time, into the process. I followed an ethnographic research methods course closely during my visits, a project exploring urban regeneration within a low-income neighbourhood. This made clear the benefits of that early investment of time. Both the academic course leader and management, staff and volunteers at the community development organisation in the local area set aside considerable time in identifying the possibilities and foci of student research projects, long before the teaching proper started. This communication and collaboration also continued throughout the course itself, adjusting to changing and contingent circumstances as the student research projects progressed.

2. Framing the question
Central to the process above is negotiating the research question; what is it that the students will research and why? The question needs to address the interests and priorities of both partners. It must contain the potential for students to formulate their empirical focus and interpret their data in the light of theories and critical questions within their disciplines, and to produce findings which are of some benefit or use to non-academic partners, organisations and citizens. At IUPUI, I found out about series of student projects on urban development issues such as poverty, homelessness, housing, city regeneration strategies, gentrification and food production and consumption, to name some of them. These kinds of topics resulted in findings and interpretations which had both critical value as pieces of academic work and practical value to local people and organisations.

3. Moving teaching to community settings
I closely followed two courses which were taught off-campus in community settings – one in a church / community centre, the other in a women’s correctional facility. The success of any ethnographic project hinges on proximity and familiarity and so establishing this sense of closeness is obviously of enormous value to students. Teaching in a setting within which students will find an immediate mutuality of interest in their engagement with the people and organisations they are going to study helps students think of themselves as ethnographers. It provides the basis for developing relationships, trust, access and cooperation within the community, and for fostering local understanding of what the project is about. This is also a valuable experience that students take with them into their future careers.

4. Finding (new) ways of disseminating the research findings
Academics at IUPUI employed many different means of disseminating their students’ research projects and findings, enabling it to reach audiences within but also well beyond the city itself. Students were strongly encouraged and sometimes financially supported to attend national and international conferences. Funding was raised for publishing pamphlets, books and eBooks about their empirical studies and findings. Time was invested in developing impressive academic blogs and websites about their research. I provide a few links to just some of this fantastic work below.
I have gained many insights, ideas and sense of possibilities from my visits to IUPUI, and I’d like to extend my warm thanks to all colleagues and students whom I had the pleasure of meeting. Special thanks to Professor Susan B. Hyatt, whose scholarship inspired my visits and who made the whole thing possible in a practical sense.

Links to some online examples of IUPUI collaborative student research and scholarship:

– The ‘Neighborhood of Saturdays’. Student research project about urban multi-ethnic neighborhood in Indianapolis.

– ‘Eastside Story: Portrait of a Neighborhood on the Suburban Frontier’: Student project exploring historical change and community identities in a suburban area of Indianapolis.

– ‘Urban Heritage? Archaeology and Homelessness in Indianapolis’. A student project using archaeological methods to explore experiences of homelessness.

– ‘Ransom Place’ project: Collaborative project on culture, consumption and race in an African American neighbourhood in Indianapolis: http://www.iupui.edu/~anthpm/ransom.html

– ‘Archaeology and Material Culture’: blog of Professor Paul Mullins.
https://paulmullins.wordpress.com/author/paulmullins/

June 18, 2015

European Fusion: An Early-career Academic’s Experience at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

BU research, EU, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Global engagement, Knowledge Exchange tbreitbarth

From Dr James Gavin — I began writing this Blog in Oslo Gardemoen Airport last Sunday when my evening flight was delayed, and have just got round to finishing it now after a week catching up with colleagues (and work!). Having begun lecturing at Bournemouth University in September 2014, I was excited by our international partnership with the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS); particularly due to the institution’s reputation as a small, campus-based university capable of producing both innovative teaching, and high-impact research. Supported by Dr Tim Breitbarth, I was later awarded Fusion funding on the Erasmus staff mobility strand to visit the School for a week this June. Departing London Gatwick at 9.20 am on Sunday the allure of Scandinavia, and being seated next to a passenger with extreme airsickness, meant my arrival in Oslo Airport two hours later couldn’t come too soon.

The School is a located 30 minutes outside Oslo in Sognsvann, an idyllic forest used for cross-country skiing during the Winter. Established as the State Gymnastics School early last century, the government-funded university was surprisingly understated, yet as I soon found out, it’s timber-panelled façade housed laboratories dedicated to: Biomechanics, Strength testing, Exercise Physiology, Histochemistry, Immunology, Performance Analysis, as well as an aged environmental chamber and swimming flume. Staying at the campus-based Olympiatoppen Hotel (used by elite athletes and visiting academics), my week started with a chance, breakfast chat on blood doping with a Professor David Collins, who turned out to be the Institute of Coaching and Performance Director at UCLAN. Out of interest I attended the ‘public’ PhD viva he was examining that morning discussing: How can environmental resources contain or enhance athlete development? Supporting the values of BU Fusion, the PhD defence supported: 1) Research, through the dissemination of emerging findings, 2) Education, engaging students and promoting discussion, and 3) Professional Practice, by involving those external to the university. After this I was given a campus and departmental tour by the Prof Bojsen-Moller, which included an introduction to course frameworks and teaching facilities. BSc courses include: Physical Activity and Health, Sports Biology, Coaching and Sport Psychology and Sport Management/Physical Education. Unique to any UK institution, the NSSS holds the national responsibility for higher education and scientific research in these fields in Norway. Although well-funded, is it nationally-accountable and now receives competition from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University of Stavanger.

Throughout the week I had opportunity to meet a range of academics and students (sitting in on a pre-lunch muscle biopsy!), gaining insight into their educational practices (three common 1^st year units, then five specialised units in 2^nd and 3^rd years/greater ‘transferability’ to courses in other departments after 1^st year) and course development. This allowed me to discuss potential future partnerships with BU for 1) Education, as their students are attracted to UK-based Exercise Science and Coaching courses, and 2) Research, as they are not limited by facilities, but time and skilled-personnel. Socio-cultural demands meant their BSc Sports Biology degree focussed on: Orienteering, Skiing, Hand-ball, Outdoors studies and Exercise Physiology. This was also evident through Research and Professional Practice, as it was a daily occurrence to have cross-country skiers and runners performance testing in the laboratories (a 4 m wide treadmill belt was embedded in the floor of one lab!). I was also fortunate to co-supervise undergraduates when laboratory testing junior cross-country skiiers. Having taught in similar fashion with Kelly Goodwin at BU, it was clear student learning processes were transferable, and I could adopt similar assessment processe.

The weekend’s down-time was spent in Oslo, taking in the National Gallery (Edvard Munch’s The Scream), the Royal Palace, Vigeland Park (Frogner Park) and…a chance, breakfast chat with David Elleray, the since-retired, English referee. My visit was a fantastic experience and I look forward to returning again in the near future to build upon the international partnership between BU and NSSS.

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

Sognsvann Lake

June 16, 2015

The Politics of Societal Impact: Community Development and Critical Scholarship

BU research, Fusion, Public engagement, student research, Uncategorized Rosie Read

How can we do research that engages with communities in a genuinely collaborative way? What kind of research produces findings which address critical questions about the structural issues and problems faced by communities, but which are also of practical and transformative benefit to them? If these two objectives pull researchers in different directions, what kind of balance can be struck between them?

These are questions I have been pondering during two visits this semester to IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis), in Indianapolis, USA. This is a university which places strong emphasis on the importance of community collaboration and engagement in scholarship and education. During two visits, I have particularly followed the community engaged work of Professor Susan Brin Hyatt.

I have known Professor Hyatt since June 2013, when she came to Bournemouth University to give a research seminar presentation about urban ethnographic research projects she and her students had undertaken in Indianapolis and Philadelphia (e.g., Hyatt et al 2012, Hyatt et al 2009. See also Hyatt 2001). During her visit we talked a lot about our common scholarly interests and discovered that we had a shared interest in the British Community Development Projects (CDPs) of the 1970s. The CDPs provide a very interesting example of the politics of using academic knowledge to bring about social change – or what we now call (societal) impact.

Meadow Well playground, 1976. Photography courtesy of Ken Grint. Available at IUPUI Digital Archive: http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/CDP/id/3685/rec/120

Initiated in 1969, the CDPs were a major social policy initiative, by the standards of then and now. There were twelve CDPs across the UK – mostly based in urban, industrial areas affected by economic decline, job loss and poverty. CDPs were set up with the aim of using community action to tackle various social problems associated with poverty and develop more integrated forms of service provision which responded to the local population’s needs. Each of the twelve CDPs incorporated a research team based in a university, and an action team based in the community, accountable to a local steering group. The idea was that social science knowledge and methods should both inform and support the development of local projects. The CDPs had an estimated budget of £5 million – a lot of money in those days. Most of the funding came from central government, but local CDPs operated with a high level of autonomy.

It is interesting to reflect on the CDPs from today’s vantage point. This was the creation of an ambitious infrastructure, across 12 regions, linking universities and academic researchers directly with community workers and activists in poor areas, with the explicit aim of enabling social science to inform social transformation. It is hard to imagine such a wide-ranging initiative emerging now, backed up by an equivalent budget from central government departments, in spite of widespread current concerns about growing use of food banks, zero hours contracts, high levels of in-work and child poverty and obscene income and housing inequalities; the kinds of problems which, some argue, are far more endemic now in the UK than they were in the 1970s.

Yet the CDP story is one in which two conflicting explanations of the causes of poverty unfolded (Loney 1983). The politicians and civil servants who set up the CDPs assumed a social pathology definition. They understood poverty to result essentially from the actions and beliefs of the poor themselves. From this viewpoint, what was needed was better, more joined up local services to help the poor to improve their skills and lifestyles, and become better adapted to the new economic realities of deindustrialisation. By contrast, those who worked for the CDPs quickly abandoned this definition of poverty in favour of a more structural perspective, attending to how social and economic policies reflected within corporate and government decision-making directly and indirectly gave rise to poverty and related social problems. In effect the CDP researchers, workers and activists refused to ‘localize’ the cause of the issues they tried to tackle. Their structural perspective informed how community action and research was used to engage, inform and mobilise local populations, and transform people’s lives for the better. This brought about many positive changes in areas in which CDPs were active and left some important legacies. However, this kind of impact was not what the government had in mind. CDPs were eventually wound down in the late 1970s, by which time politicians and senior government officials had mostly switched off from considering the implications of their findings for social policy at a wider level.

Although this was forty years ago, the CDPs have a strong contemporary resonance. Many of the problems tackled by the CDPs (poverty, insecure low paid work, unemployment) continue today, as do debates over how to deal with them. The activism and scholarship produced by the CDPs illustrates vividly how attempts to bring about positive change (to make an impact) in poor communities necessarily depends upon definitions of poverty which are always, inescapably political, whether or not they are recognised as such. As part of her research on British CDPs, Prof Hyatt and her colleagues at IUPUI have created a unique and extensive digital archive of many CDP reports, publications and photographs. This is an excellent resource for both teaching and research and I would like to recommend it to all colleagues interested in the issues discussed here.

References

Hyatt, SB., Linder, BJ., and Baurley, M. eds. 2012. The Neighborhood of Saturdays. Memories of a Multi-Ethnic Community on Indianapolis’ South Side. Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing.

Hyatt, SB., Branstrator, DW., Baurley, M., Dagon M., and Yarian, S. eds. 2009. Eastside Story. Portrait of a Neighborhood on the Suburban Frontier. Indianapolis: Department of Anthropology IUPUI, Neighborhood Alliance Press.

Hyatt, Susan B., 2001. From Citizen to Volunteer. Neoliberal Governance and the Erasure of Poverty. In Judith Goode and Jeff Maskovsky, eds. The New Poverty Studies. The Ethnography of Power, Politics and Impoverished People in the United States. New York: New York University Press.

Loney, Martin 1983. Community Against Government. The British Community Development Project 1968-78. London: Heinemann

June 15, 2015

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

BU research, Funding opportunities, Uncategorized kerri Jones

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council invites applications for funding for the delivery of Exploring Innovation seminars. These enable universities and institutes to deliver events to facilitate discussion and improve awareness of knowledge exchange and commercialisation of BBSRC-supported research. The event may include a half day with networking and panel discussion for academic staff and academic-related colleagues involved in developing the programme and encouraging attendance. Audience or speakers could include academic staff, university business development staff, knowledge exchange professionals, technology transfer specialists, patent attorneys, KTP advisors and representatives of life sciences businesses. Potential discussion topics include the following: case studies of practical approaches for working with business and other user organisations; research organisation strategy and policy surrounding intellectual asset management; practical and flexible approaches to achieve greater impact in areas related to intellectual property rights in biological sciences, formation of spin-out companies, research and development, licensing, consultancy, collaborative R&D, open innovation or social enterprise; BBSRC support and funding mechanisms for knowledge exchange; networking and sharing of best practice. Applicants should be research organisations that are in receipt of funding from BBSRC. Applications that are coordinated across departments or between different organisations are encouraged. Funding may be used to contribute towards the costs of external speakers, room fees, time spent in organising the event and any other reasonable costs, excluding lunch and refreshments.

Maximum award: £2k. Closing date: not specified.

Economic and Social Research Council invites expressions of interest for a collaborative Knowledge Exchange Fellowship. The fellowship will enable a mid-career academic to develop skills and experience of knowledge exchange and impact activities by working on behalf of the council’s Urban Transformations portfolio, where they will promote opportunities for policy and wider societal impact, with particular emphasis on the Foresight Future of Cities project and its wider network of cities’ stakeholders. The programme may offer opportunities for reflection and the advancement of academic career priorities as well as directly contributing to the work of the two programmes.

Maximum award: £80k at 80% fEC for 12 months. Closing date: 01/07/15.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invites proposals for access to ARCHER through its resource allocation panel. This scheme provides access to the council’s national state-of-the-art high performance computing facility for proposals that are within the council’s remit and that would benefit from ARCHER. Proposals may include short computational projects that do not warrant a full grant application, projects that link consecutive standard grant applications or that aid the preparation of a grant or fellowship, extended feasibility studies, and trialling application developments at scale. Computing resources on ARCHER are awarded in kilo-allocation units with one kAU representing a measure of relative performance of ARCHER based on a range of benchmarks compared to previous national services. One core hour equates to 0.015kAU. Users can request significant amounts of computing resource (>1,000kAU) over a maximum one-year period. Although there is no limit to the number of kAUs that can be applied for, there is a limit to the total amount of kAUs available against this call: around 300,000 kAU, or 20 million core hours.

Maximum award: N/A. Closing date: 4pm, 07/09/15.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, as part of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, invites registrations of intent for its call on reducing energy demand in the transport sector. Funding supports interdisciplinary collaborative research to reduce energy demand in the energy sector. Proposals with innovation in engineering, physical sciences or information and communication technologies, together with an application, business and economic modelling, and considering behavioural aspects of transport systems, are particularly encouraged. Furthermore, proposals should address the following research challenges: decarbonising freight using multidisciplinary research, including behaviour, economics, governance and technology; energy demand implications of technological, institutional and infrastructural change; vehicle design to meet challenging mobility needs in an integrated transport system.

Maximum award: £2 million. Closing date: Registrations of intent 4pm, 31/07/15.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council invite technical assessments and applications for their ARCHER leadership projects. Awards provide direct access to the UK’s national supercomputing facility ARCHER for computationally intensive individual projects. Eligible projects may include the following: leadership calculations that push the boundaries of scientific high performance computing; calculations that require a large number of processing cores; high-risk, high-reward projects that rely heavily on high performance compute resource and have significant potential for large future impact; substantial computational projects by experienced teams that need large compute resources, but do not rely on additional support by EPSRC or NERC; pre-competitive computational production runs by non-academic research groups within sectors related to the remits of the ARCHER partner research councils. A total of maximum 2 million kAU is available, split between EPSRC and NERC remits at the ratio of 77 per cent EPSRC and 23 per cent NERC. Each applicant should apply for at least 100,000 kAU for a maximum period of two years.

Maximum award: N/A. Closing date: 4pm, 01/09/15.

Leverhulme Trust invites applications for its Visiting Professorships. These enable UK institutions to host eminent researchers from overseas, primarily to enhance the skills of academic staff or students at the host institution. Visiting professors may also wish to use the opportunity to further their own academic interests. Any field of research is eligible. Applications must be made by a member of academic staff, based in a UK university or other higher education institution, who will be responsible for coordinating the visit. Priority is given to new or recent collaborative ventures. Funding covers maintenance, travel expenses and research costs and supports visits that last between three and 12 months. Travel within the UK, laboratory consumables and essential technical assistance may also be covered.

Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 08/10/15.

Medical Research Council invites applications for its Discovery Awards. These support discovery research in areas with potential for development, which are strategically sound within the institution’s strategy and are important nationally. All discoveries relevant to the MRC’s remit are accepted, and applicants are encouraged to explore how awards could be used to develop interdisciplinary interactions, for example by linking with physical sciences, mathematics and social sciences. Awards support recruitment or initial development of new PIs at junior or senior levels, or linked pilot work or technology and methods development. Institutions are expected to initiate and build critical mass and capacity in otherwise underexplored, high-potential areas of research, which may not yet compare to more established fields but have a clear vision for development.

Maximum award: £1 million. Closing date: 10/08/15.

Medical Research Council together with the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology, and with support from the Newton Fund, invites proposals for its UK-Vietnam infectious disease research call. This supports collaborative UK-Vietnamese biomedical research in health areas of importance to the Vietnamese population, leading to health benefits in Vietnam, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Areas of particular interest include antimicrobial resistance, vaccine development for humans and malaria. Each proposal must involve a UK partner and one based in Vietnam. Interdisciplinary collaborations are particularly welcome.The budget for this call is £2.6 million, with up to £2m available from MRC for UK collaborators and up to £600,000 from MOST for Vietnamese collaborators. Funding is expected to support a maximum of five projects, worth up to £520,000 per project over two to three years.

Maximum award: £520k. Closing date: 15/07/15.

Medical Research Council, the Department for International Development and the Wellcome Trust invite proposals for their joint Global Health Trials scheme. This funds trials to generate new knowledge about interventions that will contribute to the improvement of health in low- and middle-income countries. Priority is given to proposals that are likely to produce implementable results and that address the major causes of mortality or morbidity in low- and middle-income countries. The focus is primarily on late-stage clinical and health intervention trials evaluating efficacy and effectiveness. The scheme is aimed at funding randomised controlled trials, but innovative trial methodologies and adaptive designs are also welcome. Phase IIb trials of major relevance may also be considered. Proposals for research into chronic non-communicable diseases and reproductive, maternal and newborn health are particularly welcomed. The scope encompasses interventions of all kinds, including behavioural and complex interventions, disease management, drugs, vaccines, hygiene and diagnostic strategies. The scheme is open to principal investigators based in low- or middle-income economies at higher education institutions and non-profit research institutions, and principal investigators based in UK HEIs, research council institutes and eligible independent research organisations.

Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 10/09/15.

Natural Environment Research Council invites applications for its Collaborative Gearing scheme. This offers opportunities for fieldwork-based scientific collaboration with NERC’s British Antarctic Survey, in cases where no funding for salaries, grants or other direct science costs is required, but where access to BAS Antarctic facilities and research stations would enable fieldwork to be conducted for the proposed project. Proposed projects must be allied to the BAS science programme.

Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 31/03/16.

The World Health Organization, together with the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership and the UK Medical Research Council, invites proposals for research and capacity development in support of the Ebola virus disease response. The previous deadline of 18 June 2015 has now been extended to 6 August 2015. This call aims to build and strengthen regional, national, institutional and individual capacities to conduct high quality health research during infectious disease outbreaks resulting in health emergencies. Proposals should address at least one of the following areas: establish training or other capacity building activities for healthcare and laboratory personnel to detect and respond to infectious disease epidemics, conduct clinical trials and analyse samples in an emergency context to ensure clinical trial site preparedness; generate evidence for and implement ethically sound approaches to the introduction and clinical testing of new prevention tools or treatments during outbreaks of Ebola virus disease or other emerging infectious diseases of particular relevance to Africa; identify and implement best practices for building both community and national health authority support and engagement in clinical trials being conducted in emergency situations, including activities related to the development of appropriate mechanisms for surveillance, identification, tracking and referral of cases, as well as reintegration of survivors into the community. Consortia of researchers composed of at least one legal entity may apply. Projects involving transnational collaboration and regional networking are encouraged. Applicants are encouraged to establish links with relevant WHO and EDCTP-funded activities.

Maximum award: €250k. Closing date: 06/08/15.

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer

You can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

June 12, 2015

New BU authored paper in latest issue of Journal of Asian Midwives

BU research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

The latest issue of the Journal of Asian Midwives includes an article Twinning in Nepal: the Royal College of Midwives UK and the Midwifery Society of Nepal working in partnership by BU Visiting Faculty and NHS Poole midwife Jillian Ireland, co-authored by Joy Kemp (RCM Global Professional Advisor) and BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) in the UK has twinned with the Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON) to help strengthen the latter, through its Global Midwifery Twinning Project (GMTP). The GMTP aims to strengthen midwifery and develop leadership, advocacy, and campaigning skills both at the level of the association and at the individual midwife level. Reciprocity is an important aspect of twinning as the RCM also hopes to strengthen midwifery in the UK through greater engagement of its members and a raised profile of global maternal and new-born health. This paper describes the importance of collaboration between established national midwifery organisations and newly established ones. It includes a case study outlining the experience of a UK midwifery volunteer in Nepal. The paper ends with some thoughts on the effects of the GMTP project on midwifery in Nepal.

This paper is part of a larger body of research work conducted by the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health in Nepal.

Reference:

Ireland, J, van Teijlingen, E, & Kemp, J. (2015) Twinning in Nepal: the Royal College of Midwives UK and the Midwifery Society of Nepal working in partnership. Journal of Asian Midwives. 2(1):26–33.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

June 10, 2015

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

BU research, Info Days, Training Dianne Goodman

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!

June 1, 2015

Birth paper cited one hundred times in Scopus

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

We have just been alerted that our paper has been cited for the hundredth time in Scopus. The paper ‘Maternity satisfaction studies and their limitations: “What is, must still be best’ was published in Birth. The paper originated from the Scottish Birth Study which we were both part of in our previous academic posts at the University of Aberdeen.

This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of satisfaction studies in the field of maternity care, including the issues that service users tend to value the status quo (i.e. What is must be best) . The implications are that innovations, of which users have no experience, may be rejected simply because they are unknown. The paper warns that problems may arise if satisfaction surveys are used to shape service provision. We advised that satisfaction surveys should be used with caution, and part of an array of tools. While involving service users is important in designing and organizing health services, there is still the risk that using satisfaction alone could end up promoting the status quo.

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Rennie, A-M, Graham. W., Fitzmaurice, A. (2003) Maternity satisfaction studies and their limitations: “What is, must still be best”, Birth 30: 75-82.

May 22, 2015

Hybrid War as 21st Century Conflict

BU research, PG research, REF Subjects, Research news sbachmann

The emergence of Hybrid Threats and Hybrid War as new security challenges of the 21st Century – from its early examples in Israels war against Hezbollah in 2006 to Russia’s War in Eastern Ukraine. Dr. Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in Law, Co-Director of BU’s Conflict, Rule of Law and Society( https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/centre/conflict-rule-of-law-and-society/) presented at the 24th Annual SLS-BIICL Conference on Theory and International Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. He argues that Hybrid War is more than Compound Warfare by utilising new technologies of cyber and Hybrid Threats. His work on teh subject was recently published as HYBRID WARS: THE 21st-CENTURY’S NEW THREATS TO GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY in the South African Journal of Military Studies, http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1110/1107.

May 11, 2015

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities kerri Jones

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, GB

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, together with the Medical Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, invites outline proposals for its Diet and Health Research Industry Club. Funding enables UK universities and institutes to carry out research that will enhance understanding and facilitate the development of products with health and nutrition benefits, and help address diet-related health issues in the longer term. Research proposals must address at least one of the challenges: Understanding the relationship between food processing and nutrition; designing foods to maintain and improve health; understanding food choice and eating behaviour to improve health through diet. Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 01/07/15 for outline proposals. Full proposals are by invitation.

Economic and Social Research Council, GB

The Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the National Council of State Funding Agencies (CONFAP) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) invite applications for their Healthy Urban Living call and the Social Science of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus, under the Newton Fund. For the Healthy Urban Living stream, all proposals must address the theme of health inequalities and justice and one or more of the following areas: urban design, planning housing and infrastructure; communities, culture and heritage; leadership, governance and institutions. The total fund from the Research Councils is £2.5m, with matched equivalent for Brazilian partners. For the Social Science of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus stream, proposals should clearly identify one or more of these themes as the focus of the research project and demonstrate how it will be applied to the development of the Social Science of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus: Measuring, modelling and understanding the Nexus; innovation for sustainable transformations; the political economy and governance of the Nexus; human welfare, development and the Nexus. The total fund from the Research Councils is £1.25m, with matched equivalent for Brazilian partners. Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 02/07/15.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, GB

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Innovate UK invite expressions of interest to attend their state of the art in simulation and design workshop. This aims to identify the state of the art in fundamental simulation and modelling techniques that can help improve the design process within engineering design, and to enable users to progress in their use of these tools and determine key areas of need not currently being addressed by research programmes. The workshop will be held on 16 July 2015. The workshop will focus on the areas of optimisation, multiphysics, materials modelling and multiscale, with challenges identified in the sectors of automotive, aerospace, energy, built environment, healthcare technologies, electronics, and the process industries of chemicals and food.Awards cover reasonable travel and subsistence costs, including accommodation, refreshments and meal costs. Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 10/06/15.

Innovate UK, GB

Innovate UK, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invite expressions of interest for the fourth round of their Early-stage Translation studies, under the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst. This supports research and development for the processing and production of materials, chemicals and bioenergy through the sustainable exploitation of biological resources, including tissues, enzymes, and genes from organisms that include algae, marine life, fungi, microorganisms and plants, and accelerate commercialisation. Projects must be pre-competitive and academic-led. Funding is only available to academics in line with the standard BBSRC and EPSRC eligibility rules. Total project costs should be between £2m and £5m and projects should last between three and five years. Maximum award: £5m. Closing date: 12pm, 05/08/15 for expressions of interest.

Medical Research Council, GB

The Medical Research Council, together with the Economic and Social Research Council, the Brazilian Council of State Funding Agencies and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, invite proposals for the UK-Brazil Neglected Infectious Diseases Partnership. The initiative will provide funding for collaborative research projects, focussed on neglected infectious diseases in Brazil. Proposals may focus on Dengue Fever and other vector-borne diseases, Leishmaniasis, Chagas Disease, Leprosy, Schistosomiasis, Omtestinal Helminth Infectious, Rotaviruses and emerging viruses. Projects should last between two and three years. Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 01/06/15.

Natural Environment Research Council, GB

The Natural Environment Research Council invites applications for its Industrial CASE Studentships. This scheme promotes collaboration between the research community and the end users of research. Applicants must demonstrate excellent science research along with the potential for societal or economic impact through strong collaboration with the non-academic partners and the provision of high quality training in research skills. The CASE partner must be an end user organisation that can use the outputs of research in developing business, technology, regulation, policy or social and environmental enterprise, within the public, private or third sector. The CASE partner must have a base in the UK. Maximum award: Not specified. Closing date: 4pm, 08/07/15.

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer

You can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

May 10, 2015

Paper by BU academics used as example in Dutch university newsletter

BU research, Featured academics, Publishing, Research communication, Research Integritiy, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

The March 2015 newsletter of the Dutch University of Groningen’s School for Behavioural & Cognitive Neurosciences dedicated two pages to the question: ‘How to pick the right journal?’ The author of the English-language newsletter contribution, Liwen Zhang, offer its readers a brief introduction on journal selection for a scientific manuscript. The newsletter piece is based on two papers which both share their submission stories and suggestions of journal selection. We were pleased to see that one of these two papers is by two Bournemouth University professors: Hundley and van Teijlingen. Their paper which gives advice on one specific aspect of academic publishing is called ‘Getting your paper to the right journal: a case study of an academic paper’ [1]. It was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing in 2002.

Reference:

vanTeijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2002) Getting your paper to the right journal: a case study of an academic paper, Journal of Advanced Nursing 37(6): 506-511.

May 5, 2015

Datalabs 3: Digital Storytelling with Data

BU research, Featured academics, Knowledge Exchange, R & KE Operations afeigenbaum

Digital transformations in communications have led to the increasing popularity of data visualisations and the use of maps and other multimedia interactives for representing complex data. Often, these visual data stories can better communicate the significance of research findings to policy-makers and the public. Beyond engendering greater comprehension, this turn to the visual can also tap into our emotions and cultural values.

Next week the Fusion CCCP funded Datalabs project brings you Datalabs 3: Digital Storytelling with Data. Bringing together academic colleagues, learning support and IT staff, UG and PG students, as well as external stakeholders and community participants, the Datalabs project is co-creating digital skills and data literacy through hands-on workshops. Our first two events have been oversubscribed, so please register early to secure your participation!

Datalabs 3 hosts two events.

Thursday

14 May 2015 register here

MASTERCLASS: Turning Numbers into Narratives: An introduction to digital storytelling with data
Time: 11:00-14:00 (Please note there will be lunch served at 12:30)
Location: KG01, Kimmeridge House, Talbot Campus
In this Masterclass, we will introduce the audience to the emerging interdisciplinary field of data storytelling research. Drawing on a range of contemporary examples, we will present a variety of techniques and technologies for creating data stories.

Friday 15 May 2015 register here

WORKSHOP: Digital Storytelling with Data
Time: 10:00-16:00 (Please note there will be lunch served at 12:30)
Location: W403, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus
In this hands-on workshop we will engage with data visualisation tools, gaining insight into the process that data storytellers use to get information online and out into the public. We will take participants from spreadsheet to headline, looking at how narrative practices shape the ways we design visualisations to tell stories with data. We will also reflect on the ethical questions that come with turning numbers in narratives.

April 29, 2015

New paper by Dr. Mastoureh Fathi

BU research, Publishing, Research communication Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Mastoureh Fathi for her latest paper: “I Make Here My Soil. I Make Here My Country” in Political Psychology.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

April 27, 2015

Representations of PR – online resource

REF Subjects, Research communication, Uncategorized Tom Watson

Representation of professions and employment takes many forms and is often shaped by books and visual and aural media.

In the public relations field, characters such as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous and the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It are well known, as are terms like “PR success” and “PR disaster”, even though the events may have little to do with public relations practices or activities.

Apart from one US researcher, Professor Joe Saltzman of the University of Southern California, there has been little investigation of representations of public relations in books and entertainment media.

Working with colleagues in Australia, Sweden and the US, Professor Tom Watson of the Faculty of Media & Communication developed the PRDepiction blog: https://prdepiction.wordpress.com/ in 2012.

“We wanted to create a resource that would offer a catalogue of books, films, TV and radio, as well as articles, and encourage interdisciplinary research,” said Professor Watson.

As the blog has a relatively simple structure, additions and amendments can be made quickly. It has just been overhauled with a new look and revisions and more entries.

“PRDepiction has grown over the years and become more international. The latest additions include TV series in Australia and the UK, and a three-book series on a fashion PR guru from Australia,” said Professor Watson.

Additions can be sent to PR Depiction as blog Comments or to twatson@bournemouth.ac.uk. The blog also has a Twitter address, @PRDepiction.

PRDepiction's Twitter logo

April 20, 2015

BNAC conference reported in Nepal

BU research, Global engagement, PG research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week FHSS PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato and I attended the 13th Annual Conference of BNAC (Britian-Nepal Academic Council) in London. The conference venue was held at SOAS in central London. In total 28 papers on nine wide-ranging themes concerning Nepal and its global connections were presented and debated by a large number of participants ranging from post-graduate students to established professors and researchers from the UK, Nepal and some other EU countries. The conference was reported upon in Nepal on an online news website called eKantipur.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

April 15, 2015

BU presence at BNAC conference

BU research, Global engagement, PG research, Public engagement, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

BU Visiting Fellow Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University) and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen will be presenting the paper ‘Health and Welfare of Nepali Female Returnees from Gulf Countries: A Mixed-Methods Study’ in collaboration with two Nepal-based co-authors at the latest BNAC conference. The paper is based on over 0ne thousand records of Nepali women who have returned from work in countries on the Arabian sub-continent. The records have been collected by a charity based in Kathmandu called Pourakhi that supports female migrant workers. The 13th Annual Nepal Study Days will be held at SOAS (University of London) on Thursday 16th April and Friday 17th April, and the programme can be found here.

Whilst new BU PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato has been assigned Dr. Ben Campbell as ‘Study day tutor’ at this BNAC conference to help her focus her thesis research question and methods and any issues and queries she may have. We think this opportunity will be very helpful to her.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

April 10, 2015

Integrating Mental Health into Maternal Health Programs

BU research, Global engagement, Research news Vanora Hundley

On Thursday I took the opportunity to attend a seminar at the Wilson Centre run by the Maternal Health initiative (MHI). The MHI seminar series promotes dialogue and understanding among practitioners, scholars, community leaders, and policymakers with the aim of facilitating creative interventions that can be integrated into policies and programs worldwide. This month’s topic focused on the neglected issue of Perinatal Common Mental Health Disorders (PCMDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Mental health concerns have remained largely absent in large-scale global maternal health programs, and the first speaker Prof Jane Fisher (Jean Hailes Professor of Women’s Health and Director Jean Hailes Research Unit School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University) provided the background to the problem. Jane highlighted the damage done by work in the 1980s that suggested that women in LMICs were protected from perinatal mental disorders because of the traditional care practices after birth. The result of this misinformation has been a dearth of research in LMICs and a failure to recognise the impact that PCMDs may have on both maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Jane presented data on the prevalence and determinants of mental health disorders in LMICs that indicated that they are a very real issue for women in LMICs. She called for universal programmes for all pregnant women and for maternal mental health to be included as an indicator within the proposed Sustainable Development Goals.

Prof Ricardo Araya (Professor Global Mental Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) presented data to support the global burden posed by mental health disorders. He highlighted that a lack of specialist human resources and a lack of funding were the biggest barriers to addressing the issue. Presenting his extensive work in this area, he highlighted how task shifting has been shown to be an effective mechanism of providing support for women. However, he warned of the burden that this was placing on already over-worked frontline health workers and called for the maternal health community to provide greater attention and resources to address this neglected area of maternal health.

The discussion focused on the importance of raising the profile of mental health within the global maternal health community and on how health care providers can be supported to deliver interventions in LMICs. In the Centre for Midwifery Maternal & Perinatal Health we recognise the need for work in both these areas – researchers at CMMPH are currently working on mental health training for maternal care providers in Nepal. For further information contact Edwin van Teijlingen.

You can download the MHI presentations and watch the video here: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/integrating-mental-health-maternal-health-programs

April 9, 2015

Social Science Baha lecture series Nepal

BU research, Public engagement, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Earlier this week Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented at Social Science Baha on the topic of research capacity building in Nepal. Together with many colleagues in Nepal and the UK Edwin has been working on a DFID and British Council funded project under the title PARI (which stands for ‘Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal’). The invited presentation has been recorded by Social Science Baha and is now available online here.

The slides used on Monday are available too.

Presentation April 2015 Soc Sci Baha

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

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Datalabs 3 hosts two events.

Thursday

14 May 2015 register here

Friday 15 May 2015 register here

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