Tagged / resilience

BU Research Conference 2023: Embracing failure (and eating cake…)

Training

The 2023 Research Conference took place on one of the hottest days of the year so far.

Dr Jan Peters MBE gives the keynote speech at the BU Research Conference 2023

Dr Jan Peters MBE gives the keynote speech at the BU Research Conference 2023

The theme of this year’s conference was also a hot topic: failure, and how to deal with obstacles and setbacks throughout the research journey.

Opening the conference, Professor Einar Thorsen, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Media and Communication, set the tone for the event – speaking openly and honestly about times when his research hasn’t gone to plan.

Keynote speaker Dr Jan Peters MBE shared stories from her time working in both academia and industry and the lessons she’d learnt – from embracing your strengths to avoiding comparing yourself to others.

Professor Ann Hemingway and Professor Sam Goodman share their insights for overcoming academic rejection

Professor Ann Hemingway and Professor Sam Goodman share their insights for overcoming academic rejection

In a joint keynote, Professor Ann Hemingway and Professor Sam Goodman, shared their advice and insights into experiencing and overcoming academic rejection. As well as presenting some choice comments they’d received from reviewers in the past, they also shared their tips for ‘failing better’, including the 3 Rs – resubmit, repurpose or restart.

Over lunch, attendees had the chance to decorate ‘failure cakes’ with the team from the Centre for Health, Science and Communication Research, icing cupcakes with positive messages for those who might have experienced failure.

Three people decorating cupcakes

Failure cake decorating as part of the BU Research Conference 2023

In the afternoon, workshops offered the opportunity to learn practical tips and strategies for dealing with difficulties. Topics covered included building resilience, articulating your strengths, repurposing grant applications and improving writing approaches.

The conference was closed by Robert Seaborne from Inside Academia, who spoke about the dichotomy between the core values of research (learning through failure to discover something new or unknown) and the success metrics which pervade academic culture.

A close-up image of Robert Seaborne presenting at the BU Research Conference

Robert Seaborne closing the BU Research Conference

Discussing his own experience of burnout during his PhD and the scale of mental health issues seen within academia, Robert also shared the advice he’d give to his younger self – which include the need to rest and recover and maintain the activities outside of academia that help you stay happy and healthy.

The Research Conference is an annual event organised by the Research Excellence Team in RDS to bring BU’s academic and research community together to learn, share, network and discuss key topics from the world of research.

A big thank you to everyone who supported or attended this year’s conference. If you have any feedback or suggestions of topics for future years, please get in touch at research@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU Research Conference: Embracing Failure, Building Success – practical workshops

Training

The BU Research Conference returns on Wednesday 14 June, where we’ll be exploring the F word – failure: what we can learn from it, and how we can overcome it.

As well as inspiring speakers – including BU Honorary Doctorate recipient Dr Jan Peters MBE, Robert Seaborne from Inside Academia, and Professors Ann Hemingway and Sam Goodman – we also have a range of practical workshops planned to help with developing strategies and techniques to deal with setbacks and overcome obstacles.

Each workshop will last one hour and attendees will have the opportunity to attend two of the below workshops on the day:

Bounce back to your future   

Some knockbacks hurt more than others, leaving our confidence dented and our energy drained. This interactive session provides space to explore who you are and create a personal vocabulary to return to in moments of doubt. You will leave with a personalised paragraph to confidently introduce yourself to collaborators and co-workers.

This workshop will be delivered by Helen Shipton of Katalytik, a confidence coach who is passionate about helping people be their best through their authentic voice. 

Building Resilience

This workshop will help you explore and identify strategies to build your personal resilience capabilities. You’ll explore what is meant by resilience and why it’s so important and discuss strategies and approaches to build resilience and develop a positive mindset. 

This workshop will be delivered by Rachel Curry from Organisational Development.

Improving writing practices

Professor Matthew Bennett has published more than a dozen books and 170 papers over almost 30 years in academia. In this workshop, he will share some of his personal journey with academic writing and the hard-learnt lessons along the way – covering the trials of striving for elite journals, dealing with rejection, and practical tips for better writing.

This workshop will be delivered by Professor Matthew Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geological Sciences.

Repurposing your unsuccessful grant applications

This workshop will cover best practice for repurposing unsuccessful applications for external funding. You’ll discuss what makes a successful application, the value of feedback from funders and peers, and how to develop a revised bid.

This workshop will be delivered by Eva Papadopoulou, Research Facilitator in RDS.

The BU Research Conference takes place on Wednesday 14 June in the Fusion Building. To find out more and book your place, visit: https://researchconference23.eventbrite.co.uk

 

Book now – BU Research Conference 2023: Embracing Failure, Building Success

We all shy away from using the ‘F’ word – failure. But whether it’s a funding bid not being successful, a journal article being rejected, or findings not being as hoped, problems and setbacks are a normal part of the research journey. Understanding how to overcome and learn from these moments of ‘failure’ is key to a successful academic career.

The BU Research Conference is back for 2023 and this year’s event will explore the concept of failure in academia and building the resilience to learn from setbacks and overcome obstacles that may be in your path.

The conference will take place in the Fusion Building (Talbot Campus) on Wednesday 14 June, with a mix of inspirational speakers and practical workshops.

The day will run from 10am – 4.30pm, with lunch and refreshments included. It will be followed by a drinks reception to network with colleagues and chat to your peers about your own experiences.

We’re finalising the schedule but already have an exciting mix of internal and external speakers confirmed.

Our first keynote speaker for the conference will be Dr Jan Peters MBE. Jan is an engineer, consultant and campaigner for diversity and inclusion in STEM. A former president of the Women’s Engineering Society, her background is in materials research and hi-tech manufacturing, before helping academics build relationships with industry partners. In 2017 she was awarded an MBE for services to women and engineering and an honorary doctorate from Bournemouth University.

Jan’s talk, Embracing failure my way, will explore the impact of failure and how we each respond differently. And how, by knowing what drives us, we can harness our energy to bounce forwards.

BU’s very own Professor Ann Hemingway and Professor Sam Goodman will give the second conference keynote, Reckoning with Reviewer 2: Experiencing (and overcoming) Academic Rejection.

Closing the day will be Robert Seaborne, who founded Inside Academia – an online platform dedicated to positively changing the culture of mental health, wellbeing and mindset within academia.

Robert is currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of Copenhagen whose own experiences struggling with pressures and stressors during his PhD and early post-doc years had a big impact on his wellbeing.

Robert’s talk will delve into his personal reflections, the mental health landscape in academia and what tools and strategies could help equip us to navigate this journey more positively.

We’ll also have a range of practical workshops, covering topics including building resilience, repurposing failed funding applications, and improving writing practices.

We’ll be sharing more details over the coming weeks and months but you can book your place for the conference now via Eventbrite to be kept up-to-date with all the latest information.

Book your place

NIHR Learn – Resources to support you through the Covid-19 pandemic

Guidance

The NIHR Learn platform now contains a number of resources to offer guidance and support to help researchers during the pandemic.

There are resources in the following areas:

  • Understanding the science of Covid-19
  • Leading in uncertain times
  • Conveying Difficult Information to patients and relatives
  • Personal resilience
  • Wellbeing
  • Remote working
  • Online Webinars and Events

To access these you will need to create an account on the system* – if you run into any issues with creating an account  phone the helpdesk on 0207 333 5894 or email them.

Once you are on the system, click on ‘Bite-sized Learning’ from the options and then select ‘Resources to support you through the Covid-19 pandemic’.

*If you have used the system to access Good Clinical Practice training or dates you will already have an account.

HE Policy Update for the w/e 19th October 2018

Student Engagement

Policy impact – some steps you can take and why it’s a good idea (despite appearances)

We wrote a blog on this topic  – you can read it here.

Choosing a university

The Ofs have published a survey that shows the role of parents and friends in applicant decision making.  There’s a big research paper by CFE Research.  

(more…)

Building resilience to natural disasters using financial instruments – Networking Event &Funding Call

Funding opportunities

Call closes: 16:00 on 26 September 2017

ESRC and UK Aid (DFID) logoNERC, the Department for International Development, and the Economic & Social Research Council invite proposals to address the topic building resilience to natural disasters using financial instruments. Funding is available to apply existing environmental and social science research to inform the design, development, refinement and validation of financing instruments to help developing countries respond and recover from extreme weather and natural disasters.

The overarching goal of these projects is to have impact on the developing world. To achieve this, projects must work with practitioner project partners who have a role in the design, development and application of innovative financing mechanisms for developing countries (eg non-governmental organisations, policymakers, disaster risk management actors, insurance companies).

NERC funding for this call will form part of the UK’s official development assistance (ODA) commitment, and proposals should demonstrate their primary purpose is to promote the economic development and welfare of countries on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development’s Development Assistance Committee list of ODA recipients.

The programme will support both:

  • feasibility studies of up to £100,000 (at 100% full economic cost) and up to six months in duration
  • longer projects of up to £350,000 (at 100% full economic cost) and up to 24 months in duration.

Successful projects are expected to start no later than 1 January 2018.

If you are interested in applying to this call then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

Networking and brokerage event

In order to bring together academics and potential project partners, a one-day networking event will be held at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London on 28 July 2017. For further information and details of how to register your interest in attending this event, please see the networking event page.

Please note that attendance at this networking event is not a pre-requisite for the submission of proposals to this call.

Further information

Further information on this call and details of how to submit a proposal will be available to download shortly.

Contact

Lisa Bettington
Programme Manager – Innovation
01793 411630

Workshop: Building resilience in Research and Knowledge Exchange – June 15th 2017

Training

Professor Heather Hartwell will be delivering a workshop on June 15th, 2017,  that will help participants gain insight into how it is possible to build resilience in the area of Research and Knowledge Exchange. This session will explore how it may be possible to build resilience in the area of research and knowledge exchange, where rejection for funding and from publishers is common. The speaker will offer their views of how resilience can be built and how to overcome obstacles.

There will be the opportunity for discussion around the topic. For those interested in booking onto the course, please follow the link here. If you would like further information about the workshop, please contact Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk)