We’re flying the KEIT high!

The Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team (KEIT) have had a very busy and productive month where team highlights include:

• The last 14:Live of this academic year took place on 7^th May. The guest speaker was Dr Lauren Kita who talked about; Exploring the science behind the mind-body connection to empower you with ways of managing everyday stress. The talk was well attended by staff and students alike, and during the talk, Dr Lauren Kita also gave some examples to some simple techniques (such as mindfulness and breathing exercises) that can help you to better manage your stress.
• Matt Northam (M&C) and our very own Research Communications Manager, Rachel Bowen, have been delivering research website training to postgrads and academics, which has had a good response and is resulting in more posts on the research website.  If anyone wants 1-2-1 training on how best to use it or wants another training session set up, then drop Rachel a line.
• The recent undergraduate open day had the research photo competition on display to prospective students and their parents. It’s a great and engaging way of illustrating our research and a real credit to our Student Engagement Coordinator, Sam Squelch, for coming up with something that is research based, interesting and usable by other departments.
• Adrian Pinder’s research about the extinction of an iconic Indian fish has gone global with news articles in the Echo and dozens of Indian newspapers including this and this
• Also just discovered that John Stewart’s research is in the Daily Mail, among others
• Sarah Thomas and Peter Thomas’ MS research was in the Nursing Times and MS News Today.
• HEFCE provide funding for knowledge exchange (Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)) to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK. The current round of funding is referred to as HEIF-5 and runs until 31^st July 2015. BU has a proven track record with this funding stream and our success continues. Currently there are 13 live projects funded from HEIF-5, including VFX Hub, BUDI and the Cyber Security Unit. Interim funding has been made available to run from 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016. This is known as HEIF 5+1. A call has been circulated internally inviting colleagues to bid for funds to run new projects with funding starting 1 August 2015 and ending 31 July 2016. These projects will need to reflect our interim strategy sent to HEFCE.
• Keep an eye out on the staff intranet, research blog and other staff communication channels for updates. For more information on HEIF and other knowledge exchange opportunities, please contact Jayne Codling Knowledge Exchange Adviser (RKEO).
• KTP is on the increase at BU! We are currently in recruitment for four KTP and have a potential KTP pipeline too, which is encouraging.
• We have lots of business engagement events on the horizon, the first of many was a Faculty of Management Brunch & Chat event last week at the EBC – we had an excellent business and academic turnout so thank you to all involved.
• We’ve had a successful public events calendar recently with Festival of Learning On Tour events which included; soap making for kids, digging for fossils, a smoothie bike, testing hand-grip strength and a bat tack reaction board and Maritime archaeology activities. Prof. Puzzles made an appearance and weather was good for both days with high numbers of the public engaged with.
• The most recent Café Scientifique was held on 2nd June, this was a successful evening with good attendance. The next event will take place on 7^th July as we welcome a talk about Cyber Security.
• And if all that wasn’t enough, the organisation of our annual Festival of Learning is well underway. One week, over 150 events, what could you learn? Have a look at the Festival website for the low-down of all the events running during the week (11^th July – 17^th July). I hear we’re even having a Farmer’s Market this year!

If you’re feeling inspired by our blog post and would like to get involved with some of our projects then feel free to get in touch:

Rebecca Edwards – Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager

Rachel Bowen – Research Communications Manager

Rachel Clarke – Knowledge Exchange Adviser (KTP)

Jayne Codling – Knowledge Exchange Adviser

Naomi Kay – Public Engagement Officer

Harry Gibson – Public Engagement Event’s Organiser

Sam Squelch – Student Engagement Coordinator

To find out more about us and what we do, take a look at our team page.