Tagged / R&KEO

RKEO – Thank you

Image of Dr Heather HartwellI would like to publically thank, acknowledge and show my gratitude for the help and support from all those on the 4th floor of Melbury House.

We are extremely fortunate at Bournemouth in that we have a team who not only are extremely efficient at what they do but are always willing to help and as a bonus always with a good sense of humour.  Without this assistance and encouragement a wide range of activities from grant bidding, to public engagement, to publishing open access would be far more challenging.

So a big thank you to all, you are much appreciated.

Launch of the new RKEO structure

This week is the official launch of the new structure in RKEO. As of 1 September, RKEO has been split into three teams:

  • Funding Development Team
  • Project Delivery Team
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team

This new structure mirrors the research and knowledge exchange life cycle and should ensure that academics get dedicated and high quality support throughout all parts of the research and knowledge exchange process. A summary of the remit of each of the new teams is provided below:

  • Funding Development Team: Support and advice with all pre-award activities, such as horizon-scanning, identifying funding opportunities, developing and submitting proposals, and development schemes such as the Grants Academy.
  • Project Delivery Team: Support and advice for all post-award activities, to include project and financial management of grants and contracts, ethics and outputs.
  • Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team: Support and advice for all corporate-level knowledge exchange initiatives, including business engagement, the Festival of Learning, research communications and research impact.

You can access a new structure chart here: RKEO structure chart September 2014

Key contacts in the new structure include:

  • Julie Northam, Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange, ext: 61208
  • Jo Garrad, Funding Development Manager, ext: 61209
  • Shelly Anne Stringer, Project Delivery Manager, ext: 61205
  • Rebecca Edwards, KE and Impact Manager, ext: 61538
  • General RKEO office number, ext: 68268

There are a number of RKEO staff members who are focused on supporting specific Schools/Faculty – these individuals are shown on the structure chart.

We will be visiting School/Faculty Academic Board meetings this autumn to introduce the new structure and the key individuals who will be working with you at pre- and post-award stages.

Our next RKEO coffee morning will be held on 30th October, 9:30-10:30am in the Retreat, Poole House. All are welcome!

BU Research Related Systems

Guidance

BU has a number of internal systems that enable research activity and outputs.  To find out what the systems are, what they do and how they interact with each other, visit the ‘BU Research Related Systems’ page, which can be found under ‘Research Toolkit’.

The new page contains all you need to know about:

BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information And Networking) – BU’s publication management system and how it’s linked to the BU staff profile pages.  If you have any problems accessing the system or you have any queries please contact BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk and the BRIAN team will be happy to help.

BURO (Bournemouth University Research Online) – BU’s institutional repository. If you require help assessing whether an open access version of your work can be contributed to BURO please contact your Subject Library Team or SAS-BURO@bournemouth.ac.uk.

RED (Research and Enterprise Database) – this is a record of all the research and knowledge exchange activity which takes place at BU.  If you have any problems accessing the system or you have any queries please contact the R&KE Office .

Please note that Shelly Maskell is the new Research Outputs development officer within R&KEO and as part of this role, Shelly now manages BRIAN.

What’s the importance of RKE Ops?

Guidance, R & KE Operations

 The Research and Knowledge Exchange Operations (RKE Ops) team are here to help academics apply for external funding.  There are so many funders out there with so many different guidelines that it’s not always easy to find out how, who and what you should be applying to.

Costings of all proposals (including those that we are not the lead on) need to be undertaken by RKE Ops before proposals reach the submission stage.  Costings are undertaken by RKE Ops to ensure that a) they are complete and include full costs, b) that they include indirect and estates costs at current BU rates and c) that they include inflation at the BU rate.  Proposals need to be added to RED in order to track our bidding activity, which is in turn reported on and used for KPI’s, HEBCI and HESA returns; and RED generates the APF (Activity Proposal Form explained below).  The costs need to be added to our costings system, pFACT, for accurate costings and audit purposes. 

In addition to this, Legal Services need to check whether we are agreeing to any terms and conditions in advance of submitting the bid – and, if so, what these are.  We also need to check for any potential financial issues in advance of submission that need to be noted (for example, the risk of exchange rate fluctuations).  The APF (Activity Proposal Form from RED detailing the costs and income) and CAF (Contract Agreement Form from Legal Services detailing any legal or financial risks) need to be signed by a BU authorised signatory before the bid can be submitted; this gives approval for submission. This approval ensures that the appropriate senior staff (DDRE/DoP/Dean/UET members/Board members) are aware of the risks and commitments which arise from us undertaking the project, assuming it were to be awarded.  Some proposals will also have to go through the Quality Approval process, which is processed by RKE Operations.

The RKE Operations team will need to go through all of the above processes before the approval process can be completed.  In addition, an intention to bid form needs to be completed at the beginning to establish what processes an application may need to go through and the timescales required.  If you are intending to bid then please contact the Support Officer for your School to obtain a form (they have been tailored for each School).

The purpose of having a centralised group is that we connect all the necessary processes for academics (Finance, Legal, School signatories) and we’re there to help ensure that the application has the best possible chance of being funded.  If academics are successful then they will receive a contract and that contract has to go through certain processes in order to obtain the money and ensure it goes to the correct place.  Most importantly, if this information is never recorded on RED then it has a knock on effect on several things.  BU receives additional money from HEFCE based on the funding that we have received throughout the year.  Small pots of money add up to large sums and if these are never recorded then we lose out on additional funds from HEFCE.  Also, there are KPI’s with targets for R&KE funding to be obtained by academics in each of the Schools.  By not recording funding this will have a detrimental effect on the Schools targets for meeting the KPI’s.

If you’d like more information on RKEO as a whole then please see this helpful leaflet: R&KEO Leaflet

Are you making the most of your RKEO?

We in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) have extensive experience and qualifications that you can really utilise to help you with your own research career…and we’re an interesting lot too, so if you don’t know us already get in touch to come and say hello.

To give you a snippet of our the skills and experience we have that you can tap into, you may be interested to know that some of us have PhDs and Masters degrees and have worked as researchers or grant writers ourselves. We have qualifications in subject areas ranging from biology, to international business and management; anthropology to economics and psychology to MBAs. Some of us have clocked up experience working for other universities, research councils, research organisations, banks and libraries before coming to BU, others have worked at BU for many years in a range of Schools and Services and others have worked all over the globe.

In addition to academia, some of us have had former careers as media producers, journal editors and international marketers and indeed some of us still have dual careers as interior designers, bespoke jewellery designers and creators and NLP practitioners. So not only so we have a lot of expertise and experience to help you, we’re also a diverse and fascinating bunch. If you are interested in learning more, then take a look at our RKEO Development Team and Operation Team pages and get in touch with us.

 

Launch of the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office

Following the announcement by the Vice Chancellor in August 2011 that CRE would move from Finance & Commercial Services I am delighted today to formally launch the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (R&KEO) with the remit of supporting all research and knowledge exchange (formally enterprise) activity at BU.

Under the new arrangements our existing research and knowledge exchange units will report directly to me forming a collection of discrete, but cognate elements.  Administrative support for the new R&KEO will be based in the Research Development Unit working in support of all the different teams. An overview of the status of each team is provided below.

Research Development Unit – This will continue to be led by Julie Northam and has been expanded to also include knowledge exchange development. Two new posts will be advertised later this month: a research development officer to focus specifically on research ethics, governance and conduct, and a commercialisation and KTP officer.

RKE Operations – Previously CRE Operations, this will continue to be led by Julia Taylor.  We are currently reviewing the R&KE processes and systems, with a view to improving the already excellent service delivered by this team over the next 3-6 months.

Business Engagement Unit – This is a new unit to be established as part of the HEIF-5 strategy.  We will soon advertise for a Business Engagement Leader, followed by four Business Engagement Consultants each related to the investment themes set out in the HEIF-5 Strategy.  It is hoped this team will be established from January 2012 and will work closely with the BU Foundation in developing BU as Knowledge Broker.

Graduate School – Professor Tiantian Zhang joins BU as the Head of the Graduate School in January 2012 when we will formally re-launch the Graduate School.  Until then Fiona Knight, and the School PGR administrators are keeping everything running smoothly.

DM Centre for Entrepreneurship – The CfE is led by Professor Dean Patton and has recently moved into the Business Engagement Centreof the 6th floor of the EBC and currently in the process of seeking potential tenants initially around the two specific themes as set out in the HEIF-5 Strategy, namely: (1) digital and creative; and (2) tourism & leisure.

You can access a structure diagram of the new R&KEO here: R&KEO structure diagram

I will ensure future developments with the R&KEO are announced regularly via the BU Research Blog.

Matthew Bennett