One of the areas he mentions is the possibilities around 3-D printing and cultural heritage and I’ve come across this great film (with thanks to the ‘New Economic Models in the Digital Economy’ network website):

3D printing may be reaching highstreet soon as 3D ‘Photobooth’ opens in Tokyo.

What public engagement means to universities and academics in today’s higher education landscape. Join the debate with a fantastic panel of experts to discuss benefits and drawbacks, media coverage vs engagement, and innovative practice between 12-2pm on the 31st May.

Further information will be released next week on the Guardian Website  http://view.mail.guardian.co.uk

The Wellcome Trust has boosted its annual funding for humanities and the social sciences by £5 million, while opening up the opportunities to more researchers.

Applications to the Medical Humanities fundign stream will no longer be limited to those that are “historically grounded”. The stream now seeks to encourage bold and intellectually rigorous research that uses a range of methids and sources to explore the social, historical and cultural dimensions of health, medicine and disease. Wellcome Trust believe that these broad approaches will not only help to illuminate our perceptions of health and illness in the past and present, but also serve to shape the practice of medicine and experiences of health in the future.

The Society and Ethics programme supports research that examines the social and ethical aspects of biomedical research and health, with the aim of addressing reactable, real-world problems. They remain committed to research informaing ethical dilemmas arising from biomedical or health research, healthcare pactices, and health interventions. The expansion of the programme reflects recognition that nroader rseearch on the social, economic and cultural factors that influence biomedical research and health is essential to meet their strategic challenges.

Further information can be found on the Trust’s website: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2013/News/WTP052653.htm

The award for best poster presentation went to Sarah Bridges from the Department of History for ‘Introducing and Evaluating the Maurice Egerton Collection at Tatton Park, 1874-1958’.

The award for best oral presentation went to Aaron Isaac Jackson, from the Department of English, for the paper ‘Challenging historiography and disrupting history: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham (1949) and historiographic metafiction.’

A special award for the paper, which was deemed most accessible to a wider audience, went to Kathleen Menzies, from the Department of Information and Communications, for the paper ‘Academic Attitudes to New Media: A Methodological Exploration’.

Asked afterwards about the event, Mr. Jackson noted “After such a long hiatus from my research, it was nerve-wracking but great to be presenting again. When you’re locked into your work it’s very easy to get isolated and sealed off from the research community and forget that you have to test your ideas and your findings in the academy. Today offered a great opportunity to reconnect with people, plug back into the interesting things that other people are doing, and get great feedback and insights into my own work.”

Asked about his award, he noted “It’s nice that it happened, but I didn’t expect to win as there were some great presentations throughout the day! The questions afterwards were very challenging and made me really think about the trajectory of my research. Ultimately, that’s what days like these are all about – they bring the research community together to celebrate what’s going on here at MMU while helping to develop essential academic skills.”

The IHSSR Symposium will run annually, but it needs the continued support of the IHSSR’s research community to be a success. It is a great opportunity for experienced presenters and novices alike to test their research and hone their presenting and debating skills in a challenging but supportive environment. If you didn’t submit this year, get working on next year’s abstract!

- with thanks to Aaron Jackson and Deborah Bown

Full interview here

The fund is open now and will run until March 2015. Do you know of any organisations who could take advantage? Get in touch with the RKE office on ext. 2186.
There is no set deadline. However, applications should be submitted at least 4 weeks in advance of each Panel meeting in order for applications to be assessed. The dates for the Panel meetings are the following:
21st May 2013
18th June 2013
23rd July 2013
20th August 2013
24th September 2013
22nd October 2013
19th November 2013

Find out more:

http://www.corridormanchester.com/news-and-features/corridor-growth-fund-launch-event

http://www.businessfunding.co.uk/sources/grants/corridor-growth-fund/

If you require any information about the fund specifically, please contact corridorgrowthfund@manchester.gov.uk.

Brian David Johnson, Intel’s Futurist, asks these questions and more with The Tomorrow Project, a fascinating initiative to investigate not only the future of computing but the broader implications on our lives and planet.

The Tomorrow Project http://www.tomorrow-projects.com/

Moocs bring together an engaged, multi-disciplinary community of people who are excited by both course content and the prospect of connecting to a whole host of people and expertise.

Steve Everett, Music Professor (US) whose Introduction to Digital Sound Design course attracted 45,000 students (about 60% of which lived outside the US) notes;

“This was not just a beginning level of students, but a community of people in the field who wanted to be connected. When students would ask a question in the forum, they might be getting very detailed and sophisticated answers from an engineer in the Netherlands.”

Kimbi Hagan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sciences and Health Education at Rollins School of Public Health (US) and Assistant Director of Emory’s Center for AID S Research (US) comments;

“In fact, it wasn’t unusual to hear about efforts to gather an entire village, Peace Corps team or hospital staff to share and discuss her video, says Hagen, who jokes that MOOC could just as easily stand for “Maximizing Outreach to Outsider Communities”.

What an interesting thought.

Moocs demand the creation of video-rich content that can be shared both on and offline and in the traditional classroom. Perhaps they can also help shape our views on attendance – do you need to sit in a lecture theatre to study?

“You cannot be a Luddite about this, you can’t ignore the sea change — you can only embrace it, use it to your advantage” Kimbi Hagan.

Read more: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2013/05/er_coursera_update/campus.html

As part of BBSRC’s long-term strategic planning, they are seeking your views on the research areas and technological developments which will be most exciting and important in bioscience over the next 5-10 years.

Ideas put forward through this exercise will be discussed by members of BBSRC’s governing Council and wider strategic advisory network as part of a workshop to be held at the beginning of June 2013. Outcomes will help inform BBSRC’s long-term planning, including input to future Government Spending Reviews.

Anyone is welcome to respond, but they are particularly keen to gather input from PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.

Please provide your thoughts by taking part in the short survey below by 3 June 2013 – This is your chance to input your thoughts direct to the BBSRC!

To take part in the survey ‘The next ‘big things’ in bioscience’, please visit: http://www.keysurvey.co.uk/f/514513/6cf7/