Over the next year, the PREMSTEM team is inviting people from outside the project consortium to have a say in the research we’re doing thanks to co-creation, a type of methodology which brings different people together and invites them to work on an idea or concept, bringing their own individual ideas and experiences.
Throughout the programme of co-creation activities, which will include workshops and one-on-one interviews, participants will contribute to finding a solution to one key challenge: How can we lay the groundwork for societal and professional acceptance to perform clinical trials with stem cells in medically fragile preterm infants?
The goal of the first workshop, held on 7 June 2022, was to start thinking about the types of people that the project team will need to communicate with as we head along the path of taking the research from the lab to future clinical trial. Representatives from the top three groups, as identified by our co-creation participants, will then be interviewed by our facilitators at Punk Design later in the year.
At the beginning of the session, the facilitators introduced the concept of human=centred design, the principal tool to be used throughout the co-creation sessions, which focuses on:
- Empathy – understanding another person’s point of view, feelings and emotions
- Learning by doing/creating things together
- Not having fear to fail – trialling solutions with typical users and modifying ideas as required
- Curiosity to know more about why and what is happening – having an open mind
- Iteration
- Creative confidence – everyone is creative!
Our first co-creation session was an eye-opening experience at times and brought about interesting discussions, with the participants sharing personal stories and thoughts related to preterm birth and perinatal brain injury in particular, as seen from their different perspectives.
Are you interested in taking part in future co-creation sessions? If so, please get in touch via our contact form!
