BRIEFING Research and Enterprise at Bath Spa University June 2016
Corsham Court campus
Introduction Bath Spa University shares with the Government their belief that excellent research drives productivity and is vital for delivering a better quality of life for everyone.1 This briefing highlights some of our most recent research and enterprise activities. Our research strategy is ambitious and distinctive. It builds on our research performance trajectory, exemplified by the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 20142 results, where our world leading and internationally excellent research rose to 51% in 2014 from 19% in 2008.3 It also draws on our connections with the UK’s creative and cultural economies as well as with our global research networks.
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Press release ‘Government launches review to improve uni-
Results/ByHei/47
versity research funding’, Minister of State for Universities and
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Science (16 December 2015)
?id=47&type=hei
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REF 2014 - results and submissions http://results.ref.ac.uk/
RAE 2008 - quality profiles http://www.rae.ac.uk/results/qualityProfile.aspx-
Research Themes Research activity across the University sits within our three research themes. This allows for interdisciplinary collaboration and more innovative thinking. • Environmental Humanities (p.4) • Transnational Creativity and Education (p.5) • Cultural and Creative Industries (p.6)
‘Towards Hydrocitizenship’ AHRC funded project
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Environmental Humanities: current projects Arts and Humanities Research Council (£44,679) Prof. Kate Rigby and Sara Penrhyn-Jones ‘Troubled Waters, Stormy Futures’.4 The project explores community, heritage and government responses to current challenges of tidal flooding and coastal erosion, as well as strategies for a stormy future. Arts and Humanities Research Council (£1,183,350) Prof Owain Jones ‘Towards hydrocitizenship’.5 This project investigates the concept of hydrocitizenship and explores how it can be enhanced by arts and humanities centred interdisciplinary research conducted with community groups. Arts and Humanities Research Council (£766,260) Prof Sian Sullivan ‘Future pasts in an Apocalyptic moment’.6 Working in collaboration with the National Museum of Namibia the project investigates how different ideas of the past, in particular imagined past relationships between people and nature, are conditioning the futures being urgently created now in pursuit of ‘sustainability’ and the avoidance of ‘environmental crisis’. Arts and Humanities Research Council (£79,794) Prof Sian Sullivan and Dr Olivette Otele ‘Disrupted Histories, Recovered Pasts’.7 This project is a cross-disciplinary analysis and cross-case synthesis of experience and memory in post-conflict and postcolonial contexts. It will explore how societies remember and try to come to terms with the legacies of difficult and divisive pasts.
Newton Park campus, Castle building
Association of Commonwealth Universities, 2017 Summer School. Established in 2011 the summer school aims to provide a forum for high quality students from every corner of the Commonwealth to discuss multidisciplinary issues of global importance.8 In summer 2017 it will be hosted by Bath Spa University on the theme of Environmental Arts and Humanities, exploring the relationship between the environment and creative expression.
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http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=AH/M006263/2
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http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=AH/L008165/1
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http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=AH/K005871/2
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http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=AH/N504579/1
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https://www.acu.ac.uk/events/commonwealth-summer-school/
‘The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak’ Wellcome Trust funded project
Transnational Creativity and Education: current projects Arts Council’s ‘Creative writing in schools fund’ (£600,000) Dr Bambo Soyinka.9 The grant will be used to develop The Creative Writing Education Hub, an ambitious three year project working alongside 100 schools and a thriving community of arts organisations and creative writers across the region. Working in partnership with Bath Festivals and The National Association of Writers in Education the project will place professional creative writers in schools across the south west that have least arts and cultural engagement. European Research Council Consolidator Grant (£120,000) Prof Amanda Bayley with the University of Bristol, ‘Beyond East and West: Developing and Documenting an Evolving Transcultural Musical Practice’.10 This project examines the evolution of transcultural music practice and systematises processes essential for the creation of a new, East-West strand of contemporary music and opera. It initiates cuttingedge research workshops in Istanbul, Holland and the UK. Wellcome Trust Small Arts Awards (£30,000) Dr Laura Purcell-Gates ‘The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak’.11 The project is a unique fusion of puppetry and contemporary chamber opera detailing the story of real-life
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http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/creative-writing-schools
18th-century French medical anomaly Tarrare. The show explores the rise of the autopsy, and its influence on the medical model of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr PurcellGates has also secured a second tranche of funding from the Wellcome Trust which will enable a 6-week UK tour of the show in early 2017 alongside integrated public engagement activities. Primary Science Teaching Trust (£135,000)12 Dr Kendra McMahon ‘Training and Assessment in Primary Science’. The focus of this project is on the development of an approach to teacher assessment in science to meet the requirements of the revised national curriculum in England, and to define ‘best practice’ across the UK. Education Endowment Foundation (£47,300) Dr Sarah Earle ‘Thinking, Doing, Talking Science’ with Oxford Brookes University and The Oxford Trust (Science Oxford)13. This project will conduct a randomised control trial with 30 partnership schools over the next two years and aims to make science lessons in primary schools more practical, creative and challenging.
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https://pstt.org.uk/what-we-do/academic-collaborators/aca-
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http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/196880_en.html
demic-collaborator-bath-spa-university
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http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@msh_grants/
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documents/web_document/wtp057718.pdf
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evaluation/
projects/thinking-doing-talking-science-effectiveness-trial/
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Cultural and Creative Industries Arts and Humanities Research Council (£245,000) Prof Kate Pullinger and Prof Ian Gadd with University of the West of England ‘Ambient Literature’.14 The research looks at the history of the book to establish how the physical situation of the reader has affected the nature of the writing itself, it will then apply this historical understanding to thinking about how the reading situation is changing through pervasive and ubiquitous computing. Arts and Humanities Research Council (£199,000) Prof Anita Taylor, Dr Graham McLaren and Dr Kayla Rose with University of West of England and the University of Bristol ‘Bristol & Bath by Design.’15 The project is conducting a comprehensive analysis of the value and impact of design in the region, in addition to an assessment of the nature and quality of the regional design networks. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (£19,350) Dr Anthony Head SPHERE - a sensor platform for healthcare in a residential environment.16 Dr Head’s role is in 3D visualisation of the centre’s projects and work.
Kate Pullinger is working on the AHRC funded ‘Ambient Literature’ project
Anita Taylor is working on the AHRC funded ‘Bristol & Bath by Design’ project
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http://www.dcrc.org.uk/2016/01/14/reimagining-read-
ing-ahrc-green-light-for-800k-ambient-literature-project/ 15
http://www.bristolbathdesign.org/
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http://www.irc-sphere.ac.uk/about
Enterprise Contract research and consultancy income totalling over £221,000 was awarded in academic year 2014/15 from a variety of private and public sector organisations.17 The income reported to HEFCE saw a 46% rise in collaborative research income and a 950% rise in consultancy income, illustrating the tremendous growth in the University’s contribution to local and national economies. Highlights included: • Professor Allyson MacVean was contracted by Avon and Somerset Constabulary for the evaluation of their ‘Halcon One Team’ programme, an initiative targeted at assisting agencies to work together to address crime and antisocial behaviour on the Halcon Estate in Taunton. • Dr Elaine Wainwright was commissioned by the Royal United Hospital Bath to evaluate their ‘See it my Way’ programme targeted at using patient, carer and staff stories and inspire and motivate their staff.
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Bath Spa University data
Bath Spa University researchers working in primary schools
• Dr Anthony Head and Mr Matthew Robertson were commissioned to design the graphical user interface of prototype software for a local business. This project was funded with the help of Innovate UK. • Professor Hongji Yang was commissioned by Privis Technology China to advise on current trends in cyber security. • Dr Laura Caulfield was contracted by Birmingham City Council to undertake an evaluation of their Youth Offending Service’s music outreach programme. • Ms Pat Black was commissioned by the National College for Teaching and Leadership to undertake a review of curriculum materials for the Carter Review of initial teacher training. • Dr Janet Rose was commissioned by Somerset County Council to deliver their Children and Young People Emotional Wellbeing Programme in partnership with EHCAP (Innovative Solutions for Education, Health, Care and Prison Services).
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For further information about this briefing please contact: Prof. John Strachan Vice-Provost Research and Enterprise, Dean of the Graduate College T: 01225 876292 E: j.strachan@bathspa.ac.uk