Tagged / research

Dr. Anna Feigenbaum Wins AAG Enrichment Grant

Awarded & submitted bids

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) has awarded an annual meeting grant to Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, lecturer in Media and Politics at the Media School. AAG Enrichment Funds “support participation of distinguished non-geographers in the annual meeting,” helping to promote cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange between geography and other fields of study. Dr. Feigenbaum will travel to Tampa, Florida in April 2014 to deliver a presentation on her Tear Gas project in preparation for her monograph on the subject due out with Verso in 2015. She will also participate in the ‘subconference’–a set of meetings within the meeting focused on collaboration and skill-sharing. As part of the ‘Professional and intellectual triage for emerging and early career scholars’ panel, Dr. Feigenbaum will offer guidance on moving through the first years of academia in these times of precarity and change in the HE sector.

BU present at European Midwives Association Education Conference

At the end of November Stella Rawnson and Catherine Angell (both Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at BU) attended the European Midwives Association Education Conference in Maastricht, the Netherlands. This two-day event brought together 300 midwife educators from universities across Europe, from Norway to Greece and Ireland to Hungary.

Stella presented ‘The best people for the job’ which focused on our experience of introducing new methods for assessing the suitability of applicants to BU’s BSc Midwifery programme. This generated a considerable amount of interest and discussion. It was clear that student selection was an issue for educators from a wide range of countries, both in terms of identifying competence in numeracy and literacy but also assessing applicants’ communication and ‘people skills’.

Catherine’s presentation was entitled ‘Loosing the luggage; strategies that enable effective learning around infant feeding for student midwives’. This identified how we have used education theories to develop a programme that enables students to ‘unlearn’ negative or unrealistic ideas about infant feeding before embarking on new learning around this subject. This fitted well with a key theme that emerged from the conference relating to the role of emotion in enabling and blocking learning.

The conference included keynote presentations from Prof. Cees van der Vleuten, who spoke about evaluation and assessment of health sciences students, and Prof. Raymond DeVries who discussed the value of academic skills in midwifery. The conference highlighted the considerable differences in terms of length of midwifery programme, entry route and content between different countries in the EU. However, it also enabled us to learn from sharing some of the challenges that we experience in areas such as recruitment and assessment, and in terms of developing curriculums against shifting models of care and changing political priorities. Naturally it also provided an excellent opportunity for networking and identifying potential collaborations.

Winter in Maastricht

Winter in Maastricht

CoPMRE’s Visiting Faculty Meeting November 2013

Twenty members of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) Visiting Faculty met in Royal London House on 26th November 2013. Professor Paul Thompson updated the group on progress with innovation pathways discussed at the recent CoPMRE symposium (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2013/10/22/copmre-tenth-annual-symposium-2/), the newly formed Dorset Innovations Group, the NHS Innovations South West and the Wessex Academic Health Science Network. Kevin Brooks from the Wessex Health and Innovation Cluster (HEIC) discussed potential for tapping into these innovation initiatives.

Dr David Coppini, Consultant Physician from Poole Hospital, presented his work on neuropathy in patients with diabetes, and his idea to develop technology that will help patients self-diagnose neuropathy. Professor Emma King, Consultant Head and Neck Surgeon at Poole Hospital, discussed her work on the immunology of orophayngeal cancers. Jo Garrad from RKEO demonstrated the merits of using BU’s publication management system BRIAN, and how easy and useful it is for presenting work to the world.

All round a fantastic morning. For more information contact Audrey Dixon.

BU Professor at COST Action Training School (Malta)

Publishing, Research Integritiy, Training

Bournemouth University contributed to the successful Cost Action Training School 2013 earlier this month (see: www.um.edu.mt/events/costactiontraining2013/). The Training School ‘Writing for maternity services research, theory, policy and practice: Integrating new theoretical insights from the iR4B COST Action’ was held at the University of Malta.
The 24 trainees who were successful in their application came from a wide-range of European countries. At the Training School each trainee was linked to one of six experienced trainers, three from Ireland: Prof. Declan Devane, Dr. Valerie Smith, and Prof Cecily Begley, and three from the UK: Prof. Soo Downe, Dr. Lucy Firth, and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. These trainers brought to the Training School not only their extensive experience as writers, but also that of scientific editors, reviewers for academic journals, and PhD supervisors.

(photo by Mário Santos, Portugal).

The Training School included presentations on how to incorporate notions of salutogenesis and complexity into maternity care and midwifery publications, issues around writing academic English as a non-native English speaker, plagiarism, how to start writing an academic paper for a MSc or PhD thesis, and many more related topics.
In their feedback some trainees stressed that this is the kind of helpful information every postgraduate student and budding academic should know about. Others said “I wish I had known that before as no one ever addresses these issues.” The trainees discussed the outlines of their papers, and they were given ample time to draft papers under the watchful eye of their trainer. All trainees have committed to submit a paper derived from the Training School by early Spring 2014.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is one of the longest-running European frameworks supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe. For further information on OST in general see: http://www.cost.eu/ ).

Bournemouth University was represented by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen based at the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health in the School of Health & Social Care.

Fifteen top tips for getting research funding

Funding opportunities, Guidance

How can you increase your chances of being successful when applying for research funding? Here are a few ideas from an AHRC panel member (with thanks to AHRC and the panel member):

  1. Ensure the scheme and applicant are a good match. Funders won’t give millions of pounds to new researchers.
  2. Does the team include an appropriate mix of people? Someone should be able to cover all of the disciplines represented in the proposal, and individuals at a range of career stages should be included.
  3. Remember that the assessors will be both subject specialists (the reviewers) and generalists (panel members). The panel can be targeted through the lay summary.
  4. Use the subject area to define the research expertise of your reviewers. Stating that your research is in the field of philosophy when this is peripheral to the study may mean your reviewers are unfamiliar with your subject.
  5. Imagine your nightmare critic and pre-empt their criticisms; respond to these without being defensive, but without glossing over any problems.
  6. Make the link to the funder’s remit clear. If the panel need to discuss whether or not the project is within the funder’s remit, the project is unlikely to be funded.
  7. Allow time to prepare and write the application. Two months to prepare, and a full week to write the application is to be expected, and then costing, gaining internal approvals etc still need to follow. Successful applications may be useful as a model, but slavishly following them may not succeed as the funder’s objectives may have changed.
  8. The application should cohere as a whole, but not be too repetitive. Stick to the first or third person, ensure it is clear who is meant when you say ‘I’ and make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. If the funder offers guidance on headings for specific sections, use them.
  9. If the funder requires an impact statement, be modest and realistic, set specific goals and milestones and don’t over-inflate your claims.
  10. If your research involves human participants, there will be ethical considerations. If the project involves a collaboration, make it clear who will take the lead for ethical approvals and ongoing ethical considerations.
  11. It’s all in the detail: name which conferences at which you hope to present your work and the journals in which you plan to publish. Explain how the publications differ, and detail which team members will work on each.
  12. When working out the costs, don’t skimp on hours. If you have fractional research assistants, explain why. If you are planning to publish a manuscript, allow time for revision. Don’t make the project cheap just for the sake of it, but make sure it is well considered and achievable within the resources. The reach and significance of the project are more important than the overall budget.
  13. Detail monitoring arrangements for the project: who will monitor progress, within what institutional structures, will there be management or advisory boards and what is the reporting structure? For early career researchers, what monitoring, career development and mentoring will be in place?
  14. Use internal peer review services (at BU, RPRS is available for all research applications) and talk to panellists or peer reviewers for your funder. Some people at BU may have relevant expertise you can tap into – get in touch with RKEO and we may be able to offer some names.
  15. Use your right to reply where funders allow. A critical review is not the end of your funding hopes, and a PI response can be used to elaborate on thoughts you didn’t have space for in the original application. Don’t be aggressive or defensive; it may be worth asking a colleague to read through your response to remove any emotional involvement. Also don’t repeat the positive comments; the panel will see these when they consider the application, and you can better use the space responding to misunderstandings or requests for further detail.

Breastfeeding poster presentation at Royal College of Midwives conference

Publishing

Dr. Catherine Angell, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery attended the annual RCM conference on November 13-14 in Telford.  Catherine presented an academic poster to highlight some of BU’s key research in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health.  The poster (Fig. 1) reported findings of a survey of users of the Healthtalkonline webpages on breastfeeding.  These webpages are based on breastfeeding research conducted at BU can be found here.  BU research has fed into research-based training modules for midwives, lactation consultants and other professionals.  Currently the breastfeeding webpages receive around 37,000 hits each month, representing around 1,500 individuals.

The problem with clicks on webpages is that it suggests interest but it does not constitute evidence of changing knowledge or behaviour.  Dr. Angell teamed up with BU colleagues Prof. Vanora Hundley, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and Senior Lecturer Alison Taylor as well as Prof. Kath Ryan from La Trobe University Australia to study the effect of the webpages.

To ascertain the impact of the webpages the team developed and conducted an online questionnaire survey of users of the breastfeeding webpages between Nov.2012- Feb. 2013.  A questionnaire study was administered after ethical approval had been granted. The survey was completed by 159 people, mainly from the UK, but also from other parts of the world such as Australia and New Zealand (12.6%) and the USA/Canada (2.5%).

BU was also represented at the RCM conference through BU Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland.  Jillian is a community midwife working for NHS Poole, who presented a poster on the benefits to mothers and staff of the RCM Bournemouth & Poole Community choir.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

 

Research wins for CMC

Awarded & submitted bids

The Corporate & Marketing Communications academic group the Media School is celebrating two successful research bids within 24 hours. The first is that Prof Tom Watson was successful in gaining a British Council Researcher Links Workshop award for a project to be conducted with Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

The bid was chosen in competition with 400 submissions. The national coordinator in Thailand is Assoc Prof Jirayudh Sinthuphan of the Faculty of Communication Arts and the workshop will be held in Bangkok in February next year.

Both national coordinators will have early career researchers as deputy coordinators: Dr Ana Adi at BU and Dr Phansasiri Kularb at Chulalongkorn. Others involved in the project include Dr Dan Jackson, Prof Iain MacRury, Dr Georgiana Grigore and Dr Tasos Theofilou. The team may be expanded to include other colleagues and PGRs.

The second “good research news” is that Dr Grigore, Dr Theofilou and Prof Watson gained another grant for CSR research from the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University in the US. They won a similar grant in mid-year.

For 2013/14 funding, reports Marcia DiStaso, senior research fellow at the Page Center, a record number of proposals was received, but only 13 out of 43 were awarded grants. This is a very competitive process and it is unusual to win two-in-a-row. Dr Grigore wrote the bid document with contributions from her co-researchers.

BUCRU Events and Services

Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) incorporates the Dorset office of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service South West (RDS SW). This means that in addition to the support outlined in previous blogs, we can also provide access to the following:

RDS SW Grant Applications Workshop

The grant applications workshop is directed at researchers who are considering applying to peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research, and is intended to allow them to turn good applications into excellent ones.

The workshop does not provide detailed training in research methodology but rather covers the full range of issues inherent in developing a successful grant application. It will be of relevance to researchers applying to any of the major health research funders, but particularly the NIHR funding schemes.

Researchers should have a plan for a project but, ideally, a worked up proposal, even one that has been previously rejected. All proposals will receive detailed written feedback from the RDS team.

The next workshop will be held at Taunton Racecourse, Somerset on the 7th November 2013. Unfortunately, the deadline for applying has now passed. The next workshop is scheduled for the spring. For more information please see http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/gaw.htm.

RDS SW Residential Research Retreat

The Residential Research Retreat provides an opportunity for research teams to develop high quality health related research proposals suitable for submission to national peer-reviewed funding schemes. The aim of the Retreat is to provide the environment and support to promote rapid progress in developing proposals over a relatively short time period.

At the retreat participants are supported by a range of experts while developing their research proposal. They work intensively on their proposal, while learning how to maximise its chances for successfully securing a grant.

The next Retreat will be held at the Ammerdown Conference Centre, near Bath in Somerset from 1 June to 6 June 2014 inclusive. To win a place on the Retreat, applications should be submitted by 1pm on Friday 17th January 2014. For more information see http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/rrr.htm or our recent blog post http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2013/09/24/desperate-for-uninterrupted-quality-time-on-your-grant-application-come-to-the-residential-research-retreat/.

 RDS SW Project Review Committee

The RDS SW Project Review Committee provides an excellent opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before it is sent to a funding body. The Committee brings the benefit of seeing the proposal with “fresh eyes”, replicating as far as possible the way the real funding committee will consider the application. Committee members include senior research consultants who have considerable experience of obtaining research funding, resulting in comprehensive comments and advice.

Committee meetings take place approximately nine times per year. To submit a study for review at the meeting, paperwork must be provided to the Committee via BUCRU two weeks prior to the meeting date, and at least a couple of months before the intended funding deadline. For more information and a list of meeting dates see http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/project_review_committee.htm.

 Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) Annual Symposium

In addition to events aimed at supporting the development of grant applications we also host an event geared towards dissemination. The CoPMRE Tenth Annual Symposium was held on 16th October 2013 at the Executive Business Centre (please see our recent blog post http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2013/10/22/copmre-tenth-annual-symposium-2/). These successful annual conferences have been running for the past ten years and have featured themes such as ‘Professionalism and Collaboration’, ’Research Innovation’, ‘Interprofessional Learning’, and ‘Social Media’. This year’s Symposium focused on medical devices and medical education.  The conference is open to all healthcare professionals and academics.  Information about the next Symposium will be posted on our website in due course and you will be able to register online nearer the time.

Contact us: For further information about the Grant Applications Workshop, the Residential Research Retreat and the Project Review Committee you can contact us by:

Or pop and see us on the 5th floor of Royal London House!

CoPMRE Tenth Annual Symposium

The Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) held its Tenth Annual Symposium on Wednesday 16th October in the Executive Business Centre. The Symposium, ‘Innovation in Medical Education and Research, Promoting Change…’ was attended by over 70 delegates from BU, local NHS Trusts and other areas of healthcare. Despite the wind and the pouring rain, it proved to be an interesting and informative day!

The morning session focused on medical devices and kicked off with a presentation from Professor Paul Thompson (Director of CoPMRE and Consultant Rheumatologist, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) who discussed the Department of Health’s ‘Innovation, Health and Wealth’ report and its implication for practice. Professor Siamak Noroozi (Chair in Advanced Technology, DEC) followed with a fascinating presentation on the key performance enhancement potentials of running with blades and the cutting edge research currently underway in DEC. Professor Ian Swain (Director of Clinical Science & Engineering, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Professor, BU) treated us to a live demonstration of functional electrical stimulation (FES) and an overview of the fantastic results he and his team have had using FES and other Assistive Technologies in neurological rehabilitation.

Mr Robert Middleton (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Fellow, BU) talked about medical device trials in Bournemouth, particularly the quality, quantity and expertise available with regards to hip and knee replacements. Chris Pomfrett, Technical Adviser from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) described the process for the evaluation of new medical devices and the production of NICE guidance for devices. Dr Mike McMillan (CEO, NHS Innovations South West) finished the morning session with a presentation on how to be an innovator and keep the day job.

After a fantastic lunch and a chance to network, the afternoon session focused on medical education. The first speaker was John Reidy, Careers Lead from Talbot Heath School who talked us through the University application process and support available to students applying to medical school. Dr Tristan Richardson (Consultant Endocrinologist, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS foundation Trust and Visiting Fellow, BU) told us about the work experience course at Royal Bournemouth Hospital for local school children wishing to pursue a career in medicine. Dr Chris Stephens, Associate Dean from University of Southampton discussed its Medical School, what they look for in applicants, and what the future holds for the School. Dr Mike Masding (Head of Wessex Foundation School, Consultant Physician, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Fellow, BU) presented on the ‘golden age’ of medical training and the evolving Foundation Programme for Junior Doctors. Paula Robblee from the General Medical Council (GMC) talked us through how the GMC regulate medical research and training, and Dr Peter Hockey concluded the Symposium with a presentation on the education and training available from Health Education Wessex.

All round an interesting day with many exciting speakers! A full report on the day will be available and distributed in due course. For more information contact us.

Who are BUCRU? Introducing members of the team and our expertise

In last week’s post we gave you a brief introduction to BUCRU and how we can help you.  This week we introduce you to the members of the team.

Front row (L-R): Lisa Gale, Louise Ward, Helen Allen, Sarah Thomas, Zoe Sheppard. Back row: Peter Thomas, Annabel Kenny-Jones, Paul Thompson, Audrey Dixon.

Professor Paul Thompson

Paul is Consultant Rheumatologist at Poole Hospital and Visiting Professor at BU.  He was appointed Director of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) in 2007, where he has been leading developments between research and education active doctors in NHS Trusts and the academic community at the University.  He is Co-Director of BUCRU, Lead for the musculoskeletal local priority group for the Western Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) and Fellow of the NHS Improvement Faculty.  He is interested in clinical research and service development in the rheumatic diseases.  He supervises PhD students and is an External Examiner at other Universities.

Professor Peter Thomas

Peter is Co-Director and leads on research methodology.  He has a background in epidemiology and statistics, and has been with Bournemouth University since 1996.  He has a special research interest in psychosocial aspects of chronic disease and much of his recent work has focused on multiple sclerosis.

Dr Sarah Thomas

Sarah is Deputy Director (methodology). She has a background in psychology and since 2000 has worked in the NHS in Dorset.  As well as supporting other researchers in a Research Design Service capacity, she also conducts research.  Her main research interests are in the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) and she is currently Chief Investigator for a pilot study funded by the UK MS Society exploring the use of the Nintendo Wii™ in people with MS.

Helen Allen

Helen is a health psychologist with a nursing and midwifery background.  She has a qualitative background with a particular interest in the mind:body interface and chronic disease, including patient empowerment.  She is the Unit lead on Public Patient Involvement.

Professor Roger Baker

Roger is Professor of Clinical Psychology and runs the MSc course Foundations in Clinical Psychology at BU.  He is also a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust.  He has expertise in the design of assessments and questionnaires, research design and clinical evaluation of services and has worked in a dual role as researcher and clinical psychologist at Leeds, Aberdeen & Bournemouth Universities and in NHS Trusts specialising in Mental Health.

Audrey Dixon

Audrey is the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) co-ordinator and co-administrator for BUCRU.  She has worked for the NHS since 1988.  She first joined Professor Paul Thompson in 2001 to assist him with his academic work, following his secondment to the University.  Audrey was seconded to BU in 2003.  She now looks after a growing Visiting Faculty and the education arm of CoPMRE.  She is very proud to see the little acorn grow into a Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education and BUCRU.

Louise Fazakarley

Louise is a Physiotherapy lecturer with experience in neurological rehabilitation, the management of chronic disability and rehabilitation research.  She joined Bournemouth University in 2006 to establish and teach on the BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy course.  Louise is currently working on the MS Society funded pilot study to look at the Nintendo Wii™ as a method of helping people with MS increase their physical activity.

Lisa Gale

Lisa joined the team in May 2013 as Clinical Research Co-ordinator.  She has a background in psychology and previously worked in the research department of a local NHS Trust.  The main focus of Lisa’s role is to create a seamless link between academics at BU and clinicians in the NHS who are interested in interprofessional, high quality research to construct bids for funding, develop project plans, and conduct research.

Annabel Kenny-Jones

Annabel is a Clinical Research Administrator who joined Bournemouth University in October 2009.  She provides support to Professor Tamas Hickish, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Royal Bournemouth Hospital/Poole Hospital and the rest of the research team on various ongoing research projects within the Unit.

Dr Zoe Sheppard

Zoe is a demographer with particular experience investigating socio-economic status.  She joined Bournemouth University in October 2009 as a Research Fellow in Research Methods.  She provides research methods support for people doing health research and support writing grant applications in her National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS) capacity.

Louise Ward

Louise is one of the administrators for the unit and has been with the team since 2008.  She has worked in various NHS settings and has an interest in marketing.  Both her undergraduate and Master’s degrees were studied here at Bournemouth University.

Contact us:

You can contact us by:

Or pop and see us on the 5th floor of Royal London House!

Narrative Research Group Seminar Series

In the first NRG talk for this academic year, Hywel Dix, Senior Lecturer in English and Communication, will present a paper on “Marking and Re-marking: Tracing the Tattoo in Crime and Detective Narratives”. The abstract for Hywel’s paper follows. All are welcome to come along to the talk on Wednesday 30 October at 2p.m in TAG01.

 

 

Implicit in its straddling of two different sets of social relationship, one bourgeois and the other at least potentially subversive, the portrayal of the tattoo in recent fiction points to a radical instability in the perceived status of tattooing as social practice, and implies a contemporary shift in the status of that practice in society. Drawing on Howard Becker’s classic sociological analysis of different art worlds, this paper will analyse the portrayal of tattooing as cultural practice in Sarah Hall’s The Electric Michelangelo and Alan Kent’s Voodoo Pilchard. It will explore how much the social practice of tattooing was a subversive one in the early twentieth century; and to what extent that practice has recently become incorporated into the mainstream of fashion and consumer society. It will ask to what extent tattoos could be considered legitimate serious art in the early twentieth century and today; and to what extent the recognition of tattooing as legitimate art comes at the cost of compromising the politically transgressive potential of the practice.

 

Santander and BU Research mobility link continues.

PG research, Post-award

As sponsors of Formula One, Santander were lucky enough to secure some time with the Formula One racing driver Jenson Button to meet some of the Formula Santander Scholars, along with Santander Chairman, Emilio Botin. Two research students from the Media School and one from HSC were able to travel for research purposes as recipients of the Santander Award and to a reception at the British Medical Association House on Tavistock Square, London on Wednesday 26th June for an address from the Chairman and some words from Jensen. The recipients received certificates and there was an opportunity for a Question and Answer session with Jensen.

http://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite/CFWCSancomQP01/en_GB/Corporate/Press-Room/Santander-News/Emilio-Botin-y-Jenson-Button-entregan-100-Becas-Formula-Santander-a-universitarios-britanicos-Only-available-in-Spanish.html

 
Hai Chung said that “I came to know that the extensive Southeast Asia collection at Yale University is an impressive and influential resource for any researcher on South East Asia across the world. Thanks to Santander, I got a rare chance this year to visit Yale University where I was able to update myself on the latest research and discuss with professors there about my work. In relation to actual outputs, the trip gives me additional evidence and elaborates upon my analysis in my findings. I was impressed with the number of scholarships funded by the Santander this year and appreciated a chance to meet formula 1 driver Jenson Button yesterday in London. Thanks again Santander for their generosity in supporting and creating chances for researchers in UK.”
Marketa Zezulkova’s cross-cultural project explores how is children’s media literacy being formed during the first years of their compulsory education; in order to contribute to the international development and implementation of suitable media education for primary and elementary school children. Marketa was in the USA, collecting primary data and undertaking position of a Visiting Scholar at Emerson College (Boston, MA) and at Media Education Lab, the University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI) as part of Santander?
Sheetal Sharma who this summer is again a Santander visiting PhD researcher at IsGlobal, Cresib – the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) part of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, the University of Barcelona, and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS); supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya. She is supervised in health economic evaluations by Dr. Elisa Sicuri aiming to use novel techniques in the evaluations of health programmes in Nepal: http://www.cresib.cat/en/page.asp?id=216
The suggestion from this event was to organize a BU Santander Scholars session with a representative from Santander Universities (UK) in the near future to try and give back in terms of lessons that can be learnt from research mobility.

What is BUCRU and what can we do for you?

What is BUCRU?

Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) is a model for supporting and conducting health related research in Dorset. It supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across the University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. It does this by:

  • helping researchers with developing high quality applications for external research funding (including small grants)
  • ongoing involvement in funded research projects
  • a “pay-as-you-go” consultation service

How can BUCRU help?

BUCRU can provide help in the following areas:

  • Study design
  • Quantitative and qualitative research methods
  • Statistics, data management and data analysis
  • Patient and public involvement in research
  • Trial management
  • Ethics, governance and other regulatory issues
  • Linking University and NHS researchers

BUCRU supports Bournemouth University staff and researchers working locally in the NHS. There are no restrictions on topic area or professional background of the researcher. However we do have special interests in areas such as chronic disease and complex interventions.

How is it funded?  

BUCRU is partly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and incorporates the Dorset office of the NIHR Research Design Service (http://www.rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk). Further funding comes from a variety of research grants and contracts.

Contact us:

You can contact us by:

Or pop and see us on the 5th floor of Royal London House!

CEMP Fellows? A Proposal for Fostering Innovative Education Research at BU

BU Challenges, Fusion

Many media studies professionals engaged in learning innovation first get introduced to Bournemouth University through CEMP, the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice. From attending annual summits to publishing in the Media Education Research Journal, before joining BU I was already connected to this unique community characterised by creativity, sharing and mentorship. Once I started working at BU I quickly realised that educational researchers interested in media and technology were not just in CEMP. From the School of Tourism to DEC, inspiring educational research can be found across BU.

As the Fusion vision expands and EdD programme grows, the time seems ripe to further foster innovative education research at BU, to use CEMP to bring our educational researchers together. Yet, as any of us who’ve scampered around to meet a grant deadline knows all too well, network building and collaborative bidding requires workload time and institutional support. This got some of us thinking about ways we might be able to foster educational research through CEMP. Borrowing a best practice employed at many research centres around the world, we asked ourselves: What if CEMP had internal fellows?

These CEMP Fellows could be culled from BU’s existing educational research community. Provided dedicated time in their schedules to meet together, they could share their previous scholarship and develop new collaborative projects. CEMP could create annual or bi-annual themes to guide this knowledge exchange and facilitate initiatives, offering a programmed series of meetings and events. For example, CEMP might run a Fellow programme on a topic like ‘Games and Education,’ bringing together researchers exploring the use of educational gaming across all schools.  As evidence that these fellows already exist amongst us, just two weeks ago at the VS Games conference hosted at BU by Dr. Christos Gatzidis and Dr. Jian Zhang of DEC, we saw BU participants from Tourism, the Centre for Digital Entertainment, Animation, Corporate Communication and more. Together we shared innovations in educational gaming.  Could CEMP Fellows be a way forward for fostering fusion?

CoPMRE Tenth Annual Symposium

The Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE) is pleased to announce its tenth annual symposium ‘Innovation in Medical Education and Research, promoting change’. The symposium is suitable for clinicians, academics, healthcare professionals and industry people (Pharma and Medical Device) with an interest in medical research and education.  

The research session will concentrate on design, assessment and implementation of novel medical devices and how to take technological innovations into practice.  The education session will explore changes in medical training from school to revalidation, now and in the future.

Date: Wednesday 16 October 2013
Venue: Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB
Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm

Please ensure that you register for this event in advance.

Speakers include:

Siamak Noroozi
Chair in Advanced Technology, Bournemouth University
Key performance enhancement potentials of running with blades

Ian Swain
Director of Clinical Science & Engineering, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
The use of electrical stimulation in Neurological Rehabilitation

Robert Middleton
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University
Medical Device Trials – The Bournemouth Experience

Chris Pomfrett
Technical Adviser, Research Commissioning, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
NICE evaluation of devices and diagnostics

Mike McMillan
CEO of NHS Innovations South West (NISW)
How to make it happen and keep the day job

Chris Stephens
Associate Dean (Education & Student Experience) University of Southampton
Southampton Medical School, now and the future

Richard Marchant
Assistant Director, Regulations Policy, GMC
Regulating Medical Education and Training

Peter Hockey
Deputy Postgraduate Dean, Health Education Wessex
Higher Training and the LETB

For more details please visit our website or contact Audrey Dixon