Tagged / RKEDF

Academics – we need your help!

BU research, Research Training, RKE development framework

BU has a subscription to LinkedIn Learning. This is a brilliant resource for supporting staff in developing all areas of their roles.

As part of the RKE Development Framework, we want to put together a suite of videos that are related to research activities, that can then be made available to all academics. Our first focus will be on all things related to planning research projects and bidding for funding. This will include tips on writing excellent bids, research methods, through to impact, and everything else in between.

As LinkedIn Learning is so huge, we’re asking for suggestions on videos that you have found helpful with the above. Please can you send any suggestions (with their links) to ResearchDev@bournemouth.ac.uk ?

Thank you!

Clinical Governance RKEDF sessions

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, nhs, NHS, Postgraduate Research, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research Training, Training

As part of the RKEDF Academics and Researchers can book onto the following sessions, either as a one-to-one meeting or a bespoke team session:

Please contact Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor if you are interested in any of these sessions.

BU Research Matters: What support is on offer internally and growing capacity at BU- part 3

BU research, Research Training, RKE development framework

Following on from yesterday’s blog post on the support on offer for research applications for external funding, this post will focus on what’s available from internal funding, and how all the support on offer grows research capacity at BU.

Research Funding Panels: To help us further develop our research capacity in line with BU2025, the Research Performance and Management Committee (RPMC) oversees research investment and performance. Under the auspices of the RPMC, Funding Panels have been established to have oversight of funding allocations, in order to further build the research environment, our external engagement and the quality and impact of research endeavours. There are seven funding panels and future calls will be released on the BU intranet. You can find out more information about each panel here, including previous funded projects. The panels include the extensive Research Impact Programme.

Strategic Investment Areas: As articulated within BU2025, our Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs) build on our existing academic strengths and future opportunities aligned to external priorities, including policy direction and funding. The four Strategic Investment Areas are:

  • Assistive Technology
  • Animation, Simulation & Visualisation
  • Medical Science
  • Sustainability, Low Carbon Technology & Materials Science.

Each SIA has an academic steering group and are supported by External Advisory Boards, made up of experts from industry and the not-for-profit sector, to ensure our research activities are informed by wider society. The purpose of these groups is to ensure that we align internal and external resources appropriately to secure the growth of BU’s research profile. All of our SIAs are inherently interdisciplinary and build on existing excellence within the University. You can find out more here, including the opportunities available to get involved and who to contact.

Stop Press: An open call for expressions of interest will go out on the BU intranet this week. The University are seeking to identify game changing research ideas and enable these to become a reality. Keep your eyes out for the launch of the call!

STEAMLabs: These offer the opportunity to meet new people from all disciplines and sectors, and to spend dedicated time developing novel ideas for research projects. We will select topics for STEAMLabs and advertise these for participants. For example, each year we run a STEAMLab for each of the four SIAs. These seek to come up with highly innovative and urgently required research which is ambitious in scope and will require a high level of expertise, commitment and funding. The research must address challenges in the topics advertised. As a result of each STEAMLab, we anticipate the development of innovative, ground-breaking and ambitious projects which have the capacity to attract significant, high value funding from the public and private sectors.

STEAMLabs used to be an all day event, in person, but we’ve amended them to online and for two hours duration. You can see here the details of the last event held in February on the SIA for Animation, Simulation & Visualisation. Check the blog for the next events coming up shortly. These will be for the remaining SIAs, Global Challenges and Industrial Challenges and will take place in April – July 2021.

Open Access Publication Fund: BU operates a dedicated central Open Access Publication Fund (OAPF). The BU Open Access Publication Fund policy and procedure has recently been reviewed and revised to reflect changes to this year’s budget. The newly revised policy and checklist can be found here.  BU now also benefit from various Open Access agreements through JISC deals including with publishers like Wiley, Sage and Springer. Please see the recent blog post, including the relevant links to publishers.

RDS: I mentioned in the two previous posts the support on offer from Research Facilitators for bid development. In addition, RDS have several faculty-facing staff (an overview and contacts are here) and areas of expertise that can support you in your research activities. The latter include:

  • Research Commercialisation Manager – Lesley Hutchins, whose overarching role is the exploitation of BU’s research IP for commercialisation and societal benefit
  • Engagement and Impact Facilitator – Genna Del Rosa and Engagement Officer – Adam Morris – support academics to develop research impact with external stakeholders. This includes supporting public engagement events, and working with academic colleagues to develop engagement strategies to enhance funding bids, and supporting colleagues to deliver and evidence impact.
  • Knowledge Exchange Adviser – Rachel Clarke has a focus on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and the HEIF.
  • Research Outputs Adviser – Pengpeng Hatch, who works with academic colleagues to increase output volume, quality and impact, and for championing open access publishing across the institution.
  • Research Governance Adviser – Sarah Bell and Clinical Governance Adviser – Suzy Wignall – are all things ethics and governance.

Growing research capacity at BU: Research is a key component of Fusion and plays a critical role in the achievement of our BU2025 outcomes to help us achieve our vision of inspiring learning, advancing knowledge and enriching society. In this context, BU2025 set out ambitious plans and targets for research at BU.

As Julie Northam said in her blog post on why BU research matters, research is a priority for BU. It is central to our institutional strategy and ethos and it is fundamental to Fusion. Our research capacity has grown considerably over the past few years. More staff are now engaging actively in research, as demonstrated through the proportion of staff submitted to the Research Excellence Framework (REF). This has increased from less than a third of staff (REF 2014) to over three quarters of staff (REF 2021). We have invested in the Strategic Investment Areas and new institutes (such as the Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, IMSET and the Institute for Medical Imaging and Visualisation, IMIV) to bring research to life through programmes of research and collaborative, multidisciplinary research teams. We are applying for and winning longer and larger research projects with more being sent to the prestigious funders.

This weeks posts have outlined the support on offer to BU staff to develop their research activities, regardless of career stage, showing the commitment of the university to grow capacity and build on the excellent work of our ECRs through to the excellent Leadership of our Professors, ensuring research is inclusive to all. The posts have also highlighted the extent to which support is on offer for interdisciplinary work, especially through the opportunities shown above in today’s post.

This weeks three part posts have been a snapshot of what’s available to support you in your research as a BU staff member. Do contact RDS to find out more about how we can support you in your research career. Working together, we can continue to grow research at BU.

BU Research Matters: What support is on offer for bid/publication writing and how to access it- part 2

BU research, Events, Funding opportunities, RKE development framework

Following on from yesterday’s blog post on the support on offer for research training and development at different career stages, this post will focus on writing and developing research applications for external funding and publications.

Horizon Scanning and finding funder opportunities: The Research Facilitators within RDS will horizon scan research funders’ strategic agendas and potential funding opportunities to ensure that BU are ready to respond to these opportunities, maximising BU’s chance of success. We provide information on the latest news from funders’ and government through blog posts, workshops and direct contact with you.

The Research Facilitators regularly send targeted funding opportunities to each Head of Department for dissemination. All Academics will have a Research Professional account, which enables personalised searches for new funding opportunities. You can also find the latest funding opportunities, targeted by RDS, on the left-hand side of the BU Research Blog homepage, together with a red button ‘view current funding opportunities’, which will take you to the latest opportunities from major funders (please note that whilst off campus you will need to follow the link shown to Research Professional in order to access the page).

Funder Briefing events: The Research Facilitators also run weekly funder briefing sessions which anyone can join. Please email RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk to receive the MSTeams invite for these sessions. Sessions are recorded and so for those who can’t make the interactive session, you can view them here when convenient to you. The next one is being held on 10th March at 12 noon and is a spotlight on NIHR funding.

Bid writing support: In addition to the training and development on offer, we also have one-to-one support available connected to bid writing. The Research Facilitators within RDS offer one-to-one support to ECRs and those applying for high values to major funders. In addition, we have External Application Reviewers (EARs) who can help support the development of research applications that meet the following criteria:

  • The application is to a prestigious funder (UK research councils, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, Royal Society, NIHR and EU Horizon 2020/Europe)
  • The application is to a strategically important funding call, including those in the BU2025 Strategic Investment Areas
  • NERC Standard Grants
  • One-off calls for multi-million pound bids (such as AHRC’s Creative Clusters Programme)
  • The applicant is a past member of the BU Research Council Development Scheme and is applying to a UK Research Council call
  • The applicant is an ECR and is applying to a prestigious funder

Your Research Facilitator will be able to discuss your needs and approval for an EAR will be considered and awarded by RDS.

Writing academy: The Writing Academy will enable you to develop the skills required to improve the quantity and quality of your publications and to develop a publication strategy which best represents you as an academic. The academy is a great opportunity for academics who are new to publishing or would benefit from some additional direction and coaching. You’ll have access to an external consultant who will advise you on techniques and style. You will also have the opportunity to discuss your ideas and issues with your peers. You will also have the opportunity to discuss your publishing goals and prepare a plan to accommodate writing within your day to day routines.

The next dates for the WA are 13th – 16th April 2021. You can book on here (apologies, but the page isn’t live just yet but will be shortly). In the meantime, contact OD@bournemouth.ac.uk if you are interested in attending.

Tomorrow’s post will focus on the internal funding support available to you, as well as how all the support on offer grows capacity and inclusivity at BU.

BU Research Matters: What support is on offer for your career stage and how to access it- part 1

BU research, ECR Network, RKE development framework

Following on from the excellent articles detailing why BU research matters, and the experiences of our academics (big thank you to those who posted articles last week), this week will see a series of posts  outlining the support on offer to BU academics to progress their research activities and how to access that support.

It’s been a challenging year, with many opportunities for development being postponed or delivered online, with the latter losing that ability to make a real connection and interact with peers to form relationships that can lead to collaborative and long-term research opportunities. However, there is still much on offer to support research careers, at all levels, and we’re learning (from some slightly torturous experiences) how to ensure that online delivery is just as engaging as face-to-face. One of the things we’re changing is the delivery of the RDS induction for new academics and researchers. You can sign up here to attend the next induction being held on 19th May 2021.

RKEDF: The Research Development and Support (RDS) team have a range of development and support options available to BU academics. The majority of these are badged under the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF). You can click on the link above to see the range of opportunities available. These cover all research interests and various career stage events. The range of support includes applying to major funders (pathways for Research Councils, International funders (includes EU), charities, academies, and NIHR), how to apply, how to manage your award, how to build a team, impact, publishing, REF, and various options for research career based training.

For a quick overview of what’s coming up, you can click on OD’s calendar of events for the latest development opportunities. The RKEDF events currently run until the end of June 2021 but we are planning a new programme to start from September 2021. Each event listed in the above links will have an online booking process (if a date is given for an event). There are currently events for public engagement, impact, publications, search strategies, and the monthly events run as part of the Early Career Researcher Network (ECRN). Where no dates are given, these may be past events, but we’ll be looking at options for the academic year 21/22 and advertise these from August.

Presentations and support documentation from past events can be found on Brightspace. Just click on ‘content’ and ‘pathways’ and navigate to the pathway that is of interest to you. The right-hand page will show you what’s on offer. As an example, clicking on the ‘research council’ pathway will show presentations from funders who have visited BU, such as AHRC and MRC, an overview of the research councils, how to approach your case for support, confronting your unsuccessful bid, and videos of funder briefings, such as the UKRI’s Future Leader Fellowships scheme. Do have a browse to see what might be of interest to you and help support you in your research activities. If you have trouble accessing the content then please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Career stage development: As part of the RKEDF, the Academic Career Pathway to Research Funding identifies what type of external funding you should be aiming for depending on your level of career.  This covers Student, Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow, Associate Professor, and Professor.  Each of the funding types identified link up to the training and development on offer through the RKEDF. You can view what’s been provided in the past and expectations to what will be on offer for 2021/22. When developing your research plans for the year, three years and even five years, do consider what type of grant will be suitable for you at your career stage and work with your faculty mentor to realise your plans. You can also consult an RDS Research Facilitator who can discuss plans with you and direct you to the right support including the funder briefings that are on offer weekly (see part two tomorrow for further details).

Early Career Researchers Network: As mentioned above, the ECRN, run by academics for academics, offers monthly sessions for ECRs on a range of topics. Chaired by Professor Ann Hemingway (FHSS) and Dr Sam Goodman (FMC), sessions are held for general discussions, networking, and specific topics to support early career researchers. Still to come in 20/21 is:

  • 24/03/2021 General discussion and ECR surgery (15.00 – 16.00)
  • 21/04/2021 Building your Research Profile / Networking, Partnership & Collaboration (15.00 – 16.00)
  • 26/05/2021 Writing Day / Networking Lunch (09:30 – 16:30)
  • 26/05/2021 Networking Lunch only (12:30 – 13:30)
  • 23/06/2021 General discussion and ECR surgery (15.00 – 16.00)

If you’d like to join the network, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk. You can read an article by Dr Rachel Arnold on the benefits of attending the ECRN.

I hope the above has provided a useful outline of the general support that is on offer to you as a BU academic and signposted you to how to get involved. Tomorrow’s post will focus on support for writing and developing research applications for external funding and publications.

Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – survey closes in 5 days!

BU Challenges, BU research, BU2025, Events, Knowledge Exchange, Research communication, Research news, RKE development framework

The Research & Knowledge Exchange Framework (RKEDF) is now into its fourth year.  It offers training and development opportunities to academics at all stages of their career, supporting staff to increase their skills, knowledge and capabilities.

The RKEDF offers a range of support including sessions for those who are new to research or to BU, for staff who want to further develop their research careers and for people who want to disseminate their research findings or create an impact plan.

The Research Development & Support team are currently planning activities and sessions for the 2020/21 programme of events and would like to hear your ideas and suggestions.  What’s worked well?  What would you changed?  Are there any other sessions or training materials you’d like to see included?  We’d like to hear both from people who have engaged with the RKEDF and those who haven’t.

Tell us what you think via our survey and be in with a chance of winning one of three £20 Amazon vouchers.  The deadline date is Sunday 15 March.

Introduction to Impact Workshop 5th February

BU research, ECR Network, Impact, Research Training, RKE development framework

The societal and economic impact of research is becoming increasingly important in academia, not only for REF purposes, but in funding applications. UKRI announced this week that they are removing impact pathways from their funding applications because impact should be embedded into the research process.

Together with Dr Katey Collins, Impact Champion for HSS, I am running a two hour workshop to explain what impact ‘outside of academia’ means, why it’s important, how to create pathways to impact, and how to evidence the impact your research has created.

If your research is already having an impact, the workshop will give you tools to help accelerate and capture that impact.

If you would like to attend the workshop, you can book here.

The Royal Society – book now for the visit on 5th February 2020

Funding opportunities, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

BU will be hosting the Royal Society on Wednesday, 5th February 2020, 11:00 – 13:00, at the Lansdowne Campus.

The Royal Society is the independent scientific academy of the UK, dedicated to promoting excellence in science.

The Society is an independent, charitable body and performs a number of roles including influencing policy-making, promoting public engagement with science and funding leading scientists.  Over £40 million is spent annually by the Royal Society across the grant-making schemes. The Royal Society dates from the 1660s and supports a diverse programme of activities.

This session will deliver an overview of the Royal Society’s funding schemes and provide advice on putting together a successful funding application. Academics with a successful track record will discuss their personal experiences. There will be a Q&A session followed by a networking lunch.

The intended learning outcomes of this session are:

  • To learn about the UK’s Royal Society, its remit and the type of funding offered
  • To be able to determine whether or not the Royal Society is an appropriate funder for your research project

Please find out more and book now, giving any dietary requirements. You will receive a meeting request giving the confirmed Lansdowne Campus location.

If you have any queries, please contact the RDS team at RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

RKEDF – Clinical Research Documentation and Filing

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, Guidance, nhs, NHS, research integrity, Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

On Tuesday 5th November, Research Development & Support are running a 2 hour workshop on clinical research documentation and filing.

This workshop is designed to share best practice in ensuring that records are completed, stored and shared appropriately, in accordance with the ‘ALCOAC’ general principle, and Good Clinical Practice standards.

The workshop will cover the ‘essential documents’ to be kept during the research project, as well as what to do once the study has ended. Also covered will be how to ensure compliance when storing data on paper and electronically and requirements for source data.

By the end of this workshop you will have an understanding about:

  • The ‘ALCOAC’ general principle and how it applies to your research
  • What to keep in your study file
  • How to maintain good and compliant research records, throughout the life-cycle of the study
  • Requirements for once the study has ended

If you’re interested in attending then reserve your place via Organisational Development.

ACORN Funding – Current and Previous Award Holders

Funding opportunities, RKE development framework

As BU Early Career Researchers apply for the current round of ACORN funding, it is timely to remember and celebrate the current and previous award holders.

If you are interested in applying for this internal funding call, please refer to the the launch blog post. The introductory session which took place on 25th September is being repeated, due to popular demand.

The ACORN Fund panel members are looking forward to reviewing the applications to this third round.

Additional ACORN Fund Introductory session

Funding opportunities, Research news, RKE development framework

Due to popular demand, we will be re-running the introduction to the ACORN Fund just before the next ECRN meeting on 9th October. To read more, please see the launch blog post. Please come to B204 for 12:15.

No need to book for the ACORN Fund Intro but if you are staying for the ECRN meeting, please book via the event on the ECRN community calendar to ensure sufficient catering.

 

British Academy Visit to BU – great success!

BU research, Events, Funding opportunities, RKE development framework

We were delighted to welcome visitors from the British Academy on Tuesday, 10th September 2019.

With over 40 in attendance, BU academics heard updates on all the British Academy funding opportunities and guidance on how to increase their potential for success. Our visitors also met with 10 academics for one to one discussions of their funding aspirations. All found their meetings invaluable and colleagues in  Research Development and Support (RDS) look forward to supporting them with their future applications to a variety of British Academy funding schemes.

Presentations were given by five British Academy award holders at Bournemouth University:

  • Jayne Caudwell : Safe Swim: Supporting physical activity and wellbeing for transgender young people.
  • Janice Denegri-Knott : Digital Possessions in the Family.
  • Daisy Fan : Towards a Better Quality of Life: Value Co-Creation in Leisure with the Active Elderly.
  • Xun He : Judging overall mood of a crowd: how does the brain rapidly perceive an average emotion from multiple faces?
  • John Oliver : Investigating the culture of chronically under performing firms: past, present and future.

The slides from the visit are available to BU staff within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF) area on Brightspace.

If you would like to discuss an application to the British Academy, or any other funder, please contact your faculty’s RDS team.

There are many more RKEDF events planned for the coming year – find out more!

Book your British Academy 1-1 now!

BU research, Events, pre-award, Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework

The British Academy / Leverhulme Small Grant scheme opens on Thursday, 4th September. If you are planning on submitting an application, don’t miss this opportunity!

Senior staff members from the British Academy are visiting on 10th September, 11:00 – 14:00.

They will provide an overview of the British Academy and its remit, the type of funding offered, their grant-awarding processes, and some key considerations. Then a selection of BU award-holders will give short presentations on their experience of the application and project management processes. There will be opportunities for questions and discussion. The event will be followed by a networking lunch. See the intranet page for more information and how to book.

During the lunch period, 8 one-to-one sessions will be available to be booked with the British Academy staff. If you are interested in booking one of these slots, please contact the RKEDF team with details of the particular scheme you wish to apply for or topic you wish to discuss.

 

 

Workshop available – Ethical Thinking and Decision-making in Practice

BU research, data management, PG research, Research Ethics, research integrity, Research Training, Training

Are you new or relatively new to research? Are you interested in attending a workshop that will allow you to improve your understanding and confidence in the application of ethical considerations to your research activity? Then take advantage of the following opportunity!

Dr Helen Kara will be delivering a one-day workshop on Monday 17th June, 09:30 – 16:30 on Talbot Campus, entitled Ethical Thinking and Decision-making in Practice.

The aims & objectives of this sessions are to:

  • To increase their awareness of the need for ethics compliance in research and, by the end of the workshop, be aware of their responsibilities and when to seek further assistance
  • To develop their skills in the following key areas, within the context of ethical research:
    a. Planning and design
    b. Gathering data and data analysis
    c. Reporting, including presentation and dissemination
    d. Consideration of ethical dilemmas, based on real-world examples and participants’ experience

If you want to book onto this workshop and take advantage of this great opportunity, then please see the following page for instructions.
If you are a PGR, please email Organisation Development to book your place.

Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – updated flyer!

Research news, Research Training, RKE development framework, Training

Please look out for your copy of the updated Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework flyer which will be delivered to you over the next week by your faculty’s Funding Development Officer.

On the staff intranet, the RKEDF is arranged to align with your current situation and researcher development needs:

I am an ECR / new to research 
I want to know more about External funding 
I am new to BU 
I want to fund and build my research team
I need to disseminate my research 
I need to know about the REF 
I need help with BU research systems and polices
I want to increase the impact of my research
I need help with my research career
I want to work internationally
I want to share my research more widely
I need to meet with Research Development and Support staff 

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

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

If you have any queries, please get in touch!

Royal Academy of Engineering visit Bournemouth University on 15th May 2019

BU research, Events, Funding opportunities, Research news, RKE development framework

The Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Development and Support were pleased to welcome Programme Managers, Dr Chung-Chin Kao and Keir Bonnar from the Royal Academy of Engineering on Wednesday, 15th May 2019.

The Royal Academy of Engineering provides a wealth of information regarding their support for engineering as the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, where engineering is taken in its broadest sense, underpinning our daily lives, driving economic growth, playing a critical role in addressing major societal challenges and helping ensure our readiness for the future, from providing a sustainable supply of food, water and clean energy, to advancing healthcare, and keeping us safe and secure, with alignment to the BU2025 vision. Read more about what they do.

The visit commenced with a tour of the Faculty of Science and Technology’s Innovation Centre, lead by BU’s Dr Philip Sewell, Head of Department – Design & Engineering, where staff and students were seen in action, including those preparing for the forthcoming BU Festival of Design & Engineering. Following discussions with senior faculty academics, Chung-Chin and Keir provided an overview of the funding schemes available to BU staff, stressing the importance of working with industrial partners. Schemes are available to support research at all career levels.

For those in academia, the Royal Academy of Engineering supports schemes for undergraduates, and postgraduates, exchanges between academia and industry,  researchers, international collaborative research, public engagement and entrepreneurial activity.  The events calendar is also worth watching with more events to be added to increase engagement with the Academy.

In addition, materials for HE are promoted on their dedicated HE Focus website. This includes:

If you were unable to attend today’s event, the slides are available to BU staff. To make sure that you stay up to date, sign up to receive updates or follow on social media