Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
The Conversation is a premier news and opinion platform featuring content written exclusively by academics, researchers, and PhD candidates
Backed by professional journalists, it offers a high-impact way to share research with the public, build a media profile, and develop confidence in external communication.
BU’s impact on the platform is already significant: over the last year, BU academics have published 32 articles, reaching nearly 1 million page views. To help more staff get involved, two dedicated training sessions led by editors from The Conversation are being offered. These sessions are a perfect opportunity to learn the ropes and discuss specific article ideas. 
Writing for The Conversation: Interactive Workshop
In this session, attendees will learn how to translate complex research for a general audience and how to structure articles for maximum engagement. Participants will also have the chance to pitch story ideas directly to a Conversation editor.
Wednesday 22 April, 2-4pm
Online
Please note: Spaces are limited to 20 attendees
Find out more and register here
One-to-One Meetings with the Editor
For those with specific projects in mind, the team is offering eight individual appointments (15–20 minutes each). This is a rare chance to get personalised feedback and expert advice on how to take your article ideas forward. 8 individual appointments available.
Wednesday 20 May, 2-4pm
Online
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is back. Originally established by the University of Queensland, this globally recognised challenge invites doctoral researchers to condense their entire thesis into a high-impact, three-minute presentation designed for a general audience
The first BU round of the competition will take place via pre-recorded presentations.
To participate, you must:
Deadline: Both your online application form and video presentation must be submitted by 9am on Monday 20 April.
Please note: Applications submitted without a presentation will not be considered for Faculty selection.
A Faculty Panel will select a winner for each school. Finalists will be invited to the in-person BU Final on campus on Wednesday 17 June.
Prepare Your Submission
To ensure your presentation meets the official criteria and recording standards, please consult these resources
Eligibility Criteria
You are eligible to apply if:
Exclusions: MRes/MPhil students, graduates, and students currently on interruption are not eligible.
Remote & Part-Time Researchers: If you cannot attend the campus final due to your status, a pre-recorded video submission is permitted in accordance with official rules.
Why Join the Challenge?
Learn More
For more on the history and global impact, visit the official Vitae and 3MT® websites.
Further information is available on Brightspace
Watch the 2025 BU winners here
Registration to attend the final will open in May.
If you have any questions, please contact the team at: pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk
Last week, to coincide with International Women’s Day, the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee of published its report on improving menstrual health [1]. This report ‘Menstrual health of girls and young women‘ includes a submission by BU M.Res. student Susara Blunden [2]. Susara is currently conducting her M.Res. research on endometriosis, a condition which affects more women than many people realise. 
Susara Blunden balances her job as a women’s health research midwife at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust with a place on the National Institute for Heath and Care Research (NIHR)’s INSIGHT programme. 
Endometriosis is not a problem unique to the UK, as last week a national newspaper in the Netherlands also under the heading ‘So much pain that you can’t to anything anymore’ [3]. This same newspaper article added that on average women suffer seven years of pain before they are diagnosed with endometriosis. A similar delay can be found in the UK and the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee and Labour MP Sarah Owen noted more generally that: “The Committee is not convinced that the menstrual and gynaecological needs of young women and girls has been sufficiently prioritised in wider reforms to the healthcare system.”
References:
Worldwide there is a growing interest in interdisciplinary research, especially to help deal with large questions in life, the so-called wicked problems. These wicked problems (or questions) include climate disasters and global warming, globalisation, the drop in biodiversity, inequalities and international conflicts. Interdisciplinary research increasingly popular and widely promoted by grant-giving bodies, the UK REF (Research Excellence Framework), research councils and universities, to name but a few stakeholders.
However, it is often ignored, that interdisciplinary research presents significant challenges for discipline-specific experts. Doing interdisciplinary research requires specialised skills, team-player personality traits, and the ability to transcend one’s own academic boundaries. We have highlighted in the past that common barriers include managing conflicting research philosophies, navigating, and overcoming, methodological, and communication differences [1]. Those who have been involved in interdisciplinary research will agree that is not an easy option for the individual discipline expert. It requires individual skills, ability to see beyond one’s discipline and perhaps personality characteristics such as a great team player. Interdisciplinary research may involve a mixed-methods approach underpinned by conflicting, and according to some incommensurable, research philosophies.
It is also the case that some disciplines are perhaps more familiar with interdisciplinary working, disciplines such as Public Health [2] are traditionally less theory focused and more solution driven. But even in Public Health as a broad-ranging discipline covering sub-disciplines such as epidemiology, health education, law, management, health psychology, medical statistics, sociology of health & illness and a wide-range of research methods, conducting interdisciplinary research is not necessarily easy [3].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Pramod Regmi both are in the School of Health & Care, and Dr. Shanti Farrington, who is based in the School of Psychology.
References:
Venue: Student Hall, Talbot Campus
Event Schedule is as follows:
Monday (9th March)
12:30 Registration
12:50 Opening address
13:00 – 14:30 BSL session – BSL teachers: Lynn Preston & Richard Neale
14:30 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 16:30 BSL session – BSL teachers: Lynn Preston & Richard Neale
16:30 Closing
Tuesday (10th March)
9:30 Registration
9:50 Opening address
10:00 – 11:00 AI Translation between Sign and Spoken Language
Presenter: Richard Bowden is Professor of Computer Vision and Machine Learning within the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey. He is also co-founder of Signapse. His research centres on the use of computer vision to locate, track, and understand humans with a specific interest and focus on sign languages. Having worked on many areas of computer vision, including robotics, autonomous vehicles and the tracking and analysis of humans. He has been developing computational approaches to sign language recognition and translation for over 30 years. Over the last few years Richard has refocused his entire research group on Sign Language Translation, with recent funding including a large grant from Google to reduce the cost of translation through AI and SignGPT, which aims to develop the next generation of AI tools for sign languages.
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:00 A History of the Development and Access to British Sign Language
Presenter: George Raggett has been deaf from the age of eight through a yet undiagnosed hereditary condition. George acquired good speaking and reading skills prior to his hearing loss and prefer to communicate using these methods, supplemented by hearing aids and naturally developed lip-reading skills. George has developed Sign Language skills since 1987 and has been teaching Sign Language and Deaf Awareness & Communication courses to all ages since qualifying as a teacher in 2002. In 2007, George became a trustee of The Wiltshire and Dorset Deaf Association, a charity set up to promote and support the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities of both counties, in 2004
12:00 – 13:30 Break
13:30 – 14:15 Relevant Annotation for Multimodal Interaction Analysis: AI Bridging Interaction Studies of Gestures and Signs
Presenter: Mayumi Bono is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Tokyo, Japan. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Kobe University in 2005. In her Ph.D. project, she demonstrated how to build a machine-readable model of the ‘Participation Framework,’ initially provided by Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. After receiving her Ph.D., she got a position in informatics at ATR Media Information Science Laboratories, Kyoto University, and the National Institute of Informatics based on fruitful collaborations with engineering and informatics researchers. Currently, she is conducting several research projects of building sharable spoken and sign language multimodal corpora in an open science framework for all academic researchers interested in human communication using artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning.
14:15 – 14:45 J-Shuwa: A Large-Scale Web-Collected Japanese Sign Language-Japanese Parallel Corpus
Presenter: Junwen Mo is a PhD candidate in the Nakayama Lab at the University of Tokyo. His research focuses on sign language understanding, with an emphasis on Japanese Sign Language translation. Recently, he has also developed an interest in alternative computational paradigms for artificial intelligence.
14:45 – Break
15:00 – 15:30 Between Representation and Embodiment: Perspectives on Sign Language Avatars
Presenter: Yi Wen is a first-year PhD researcher at Bournemouth University, where she previously completed her Master’s in Artificial Intelligence. She has a background in the game industry, working on large-scale production pipelines and collaborative projects. Her current research interests include sign language avatars, particularly exploring how different representational approaches may influence how signing is generated and experienced.
15:30 – 16:00 Continuous Sign language Recognition (CSLR): Feature Extraction from an Image Procesing Perspective
Presenter: Xinyu Zhang is an artificial intelligence researcher working at the intersection of medical imaging, representation learning, and algorithmic alignment. Her research advances contemporary medical AI by promoting approaches that reduce dependence on clinical expert teams and high computational resources, thereby enhancing scalability, reproducibility, and accessibility.
16:30 Closing
After several little hiccups in our Sonamoni research project we can now show some of the work. Sonamoni is a four-year research study led by the University of Bournemouth and the Centre for Injury Prevention Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) with the University of Southampton, the University of the West of England (UWE), the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Design Without Borders (DWB) to develop a number of interventions to prevent drowning in children under the age of 2 years in rural Bangladesh. After several stages of well-planned research we worked with local communities and stakeholders to propose six interventions with the prospect of been taken further to a full community-based feasibility study.
These six interventions are being piloted in Bangladesh as I am writing this. This pilot phase is made more difficult at the moment as the country is in the ban of the forthcoming national elections. These elections are particularly challenging for the people in Bangladesh and CIPRB as the local research partner. The previous national election resulted in violent changes, and the lead up to this election has been, and still is, a difficult period.
We would like to highlight one of the six interventions in a little more detail, as the Human-Centred Design approach, resulted in a neat, simple and low-cost playpen. The colourful pictures shows the first batch of flatpack playpens in the CIPRB office and some being delivered to rural villages. However, getting the first sixty developed in Bangladesh turned out more difficult than expected. 
Our collagues in Bangladesh approached several small to medium-sized companies in the country with the production capabilities to produce a large number of playpens. In the end only one way interested to try and this company took much longer than agreed to produce enough for our pilot stage. The good news is that the first stage of the pilot is underway, although now we have the difficulty of forthcoming national election slowing down our research.
This interdisciplinary study is funded through the NIHR Research on Interventions for Global Health Transformation programme (Ref: NIHR203216). The Bournemouth University team comprises staff from across the university covering all three faculties: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and Ph.D. student Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain. For more information about our ongoing research in Bangladesh, please visit the NIHR website.
The Nepal Nursing Council has made Continuing Professional Development (CPD) compulsory for all nurses and midwives wanting to re-enrol from tomorrow. Starting on 15th January 2025 all nurses and midwives who want to re-register will have to show evidence of having conducted recent training to maintain and enhance their knowledge, skills, and professional competence. According to the new provision, licences will not be renewed unless applicants have completed a minimum of 60 hours of training within the preceding six years. This change in regulation is largely driven by research driven by two UK universities, and BU is one of them.
As early as 2016 the research team called for a move to a system of post-registration with compulsory further learning and regular updating of skills, adding that “the introduction of CPD will be beneficial to all nurses in Nepal” [1]. The key argument was that If Nepal does not establish CPD requirements, only some staff will engage with training activities, it will be ad hoc driven by personal interests rather than service needs. An even greater concern was that staff will seek only the free training made available by either the government and/or INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organisations) rather than CPD most relevant to their current practices.
To generate the evidence that CPD is vital in Nepal, the team led by Dr. Bibha Simkhada conducted interviews with nurse leader in the country to understand perspectives on existing on-the-job training and Continuous Professional Development more generally [2]. Bibha, currently Reader in Nursing at the University of Huddersfield, worked at Bournemouth University for several years during this research. Next, the researchers conducted focus group discussions with other relevant stakeholders [3]. These research findings were disseminated to stakeholders in Kathmandu, including the NNC (Nepal Nursing Council), MIDSON (Midwifery Society of Nepal), NAN (Nursing Association of Nepal), and the Ministry of Health & Population as well as to a wider audience through a call under the heading ‘Nepal needs Continuing Professional Development for Re-registration in Nursing and Midwifery’ [4].
These papers all argue that promoting CPD benefits the quality of health care. Indirectly, it builds confidence in the general population as it is guarantee to the individual patient in Nepal that the nurses and midwives, who are treating them, have up-to-date skills and knowledge. In addition, it strengthens the NNC as it supports to professionalise nursing and midwifery in Nepal and bring the standard of nursing and midwifery practices to a higher and internationally comparable level.
The research work at BU was supported by small amounts of QR funding through BU Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) in 2016, the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health in 2018 and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences in 2019. This shows that well-designed research conducted by researchers who have insight into the political landscape of health services in Nepal can have a great impact with minimal resources.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (BU REF lead UoA3)
&
Dr. Vikram Mohan (UoA3 REF Impact Champion)
References
Earlier this year Sara Stride, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Science (HEMS), applied to a joint venture between Bournemouth University and BEAF Arts Co, a multi-art form festival and year-round arts programme. She was awarded funding for the fees and materials of a local artist, to help her share the findings from her excellent PhD research project. Sara’s research explores midwives’ experience when women that they have cared for sustain birth injuries. Midwives report experiencing physical and emotional problems or feelings of guilt and shame.
A novel research method Appreciative Inquiry was used as an approach that is particularly appropriate for sensitive topics, to help participants reflect on their experiences together [1-3]. Participants used creative methods of storytelling, clay, drawing and mosaics to share reflections, what works for them and how this helped them professionally and personally.
Sara commented: “As a researcher I could see how therapeutic it was for midwives to participate in the discussions whilst using the creative resources. This inspired me to apply to work with the artist to capture the research findings in an image. As a visual learner myself I felt that this would help me to share my research findings in a way that using words alone may not be able to convey.”
The local artist, Corrianna Clarke, had chosen Sara’s project, and Cora created a digital image to portray the research findings. They had several meetings to discuss the initial images and colour palette, research participants research were asked for feedback on the image. Their comments were very positive and they did not feel there was anything missing. They hoped that others would understand the “feeling of being cared for” and the importance of “protection, care and working together”.
Sara felt that her collaboration with Cora really captured the value of how midwives work together. Sara added: “It was an amazing opportunity to work with an expert in another field, as we learnt from each other as we worked together. The completed image will be available to share after I have completed my PhD. Cora and I would like to thank the organisers for funding this project and giving us this opportunity and as this was a pilot project we hope that the same opportunity will be extended to others in the future.”
Sara Stride, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery & Corrianna Clarke, Community Artist.
For more information about the research or the use of Appreciative Inquiry, contact: Sara Stride: sstride@bournemouth.ac.uk
Reference:
Yesterday we received the postcards to advertise our Festival of Social Sciences (FoSS) ‘Sonamoni’ event which will be held in the beautiful RNLI building on West Quay Road in Poole on Saturday 8th November. This public event focusing on drowning prevention in Bangladesh is free and can be booked online, click here! The FoSS is a UK-wide festival every autumn. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to promote social science research with the general public. The FoSS comprises events ranging from exhibitions, lectures and panel debates through to performances, guided walks and workshops. We would like to thank the ESRC for its support for its support, which includes producing the postcards, and the coffee and teas to be served at the RNLI on Saturday November 8th.
The Sonamoni Project is dedicated to reducing drowning deaths among newly mobile children (under 2 years) by working closely with rural communities in Bangladesh. Using human-centred design (HCD) techniques, the project is identifying solutions, developing prototypes, and assessing their effectiveness. This exciting project is funded by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) using UK aid from the UK government to support the improvement of global health through high-quality research.
Sonamoni is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with our partners: the University of the West of England (Bristol), the University of Southampton, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Design Without Border (DWB) in Uganda and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB).
This week, members of Bournemouth University’s MaGPIE (Mass Grave Protection, Investigation and Engagement) research team were invited to the Palace of Westminster to take part in a session on “From Mass Graves to Courtroom – Preserving and Using Evidence from Mass Graves” organised by the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Law, Justice and Accountability.
The session, chaired by MP Brendan O’Hara and organised by Dr Ewelina U. Ochab from the International Bar Association, brought together leading experts on international law, international cooperation and international organisations to discuss how evidence from mass graves can be preserved, protected, and potentially used in legal proceedings addressing atrocity crimes.
Among the speakers were Professor Melanie Klinkner, Principal Investigator of MaGPIE and co-author of The Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation, Rt Hon Alistair Burt in his role as Commissioner for the International Commission on Missing Persons, Rupert Skilbeck, Director of REDRESS, and Dr Chantal Joubert from the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security with her intricate experience on progressing the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention.
Melanie presented MaGPIE’s research on open-source mass grave mapping and outlined how the Bournemouth Protocol provides a legally robust framework for the protection and investigation of mass graves. Her contribution emphasised the need for rigorous, rights-based approaches to evidence preservation, particularly in fragile post-conflict contexts. 
Reflecting on the day, Melanie said:
“It was a privilege to represent Bournemouth University and MaGPIE in Parliament, sharing our research alongside colleagues dedicated to justice and accountability. Our work is about ensuring that mass graves are treated not just as sites of loss and suffering, but as crime scenes that require protection and investigation for truth and justice processes.”
Prior to the Parliamentary session, MaGPIE continued its engagement efforts with policymakers. Team member Emily met with aides to MP Uma Kumaran, as part of an ongoing dialogue regarding safe mass grave excavation practices in Sri Lanka. In a recent letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, MP Kumaran requested that the Bournemouth Protocol be translated into Tamil and Sinhalese, a move that would make its guidance more accessible to local practitioners and communities involved in post-conflict recovery and accountability efforts.
MaGPIE extends thanks to Dr Ochab, and all who attended the event, for hosting such an insightful and impactful discussion. The team looks forward to continuing its engagement with parliamentarians and policymakers to ensure these critical issues remain on the agenda.
Congratulations are due to BU’s Midwifery Lecturer Laura Stedman whose abstract ‘The impact of neonatal intensive care admission at term following gestational diabetes mellitus: A neglected area’ has been accepted for presentation at the 2026 ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) in Lisbon, Portugal. Also congratulations to BU’s Lead Midwife for Education, Dr. Juliet Wood. She been accepted to present a workshop at the ICM Congress under the heading ‘Supporting student midwife confidence to facilitate physiologic birth: A workshop for clinical and academic faculty‘. The latter workshop is a proper international collaboration as the team also includes colleagues from Northern Ireland, the USA, Poland and Australia.
The ICM works with midwives and midwives’ associations globally to ensure that women and gender diverse people have access to a midwife’s care before, during and after childbirth. We advocate for midwives to practise the full scope of our profession, providing education, sexual and reproductive health services and newborn care.
Congratulations to both!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
The annual ESRC Festival of Social Science is a free celebration of the contribution of the social sciences to the wider society. The 2025 festival consists of over a hundred events, each delivered by one of the ESRC’s ‘festival partners’, which are mainly UK universities including Bournemouth University (BU). 
This year BU is proud to be involved in six contributions this year. With BU events ranging from ‘Work in a Changing World‘ to gambling in the ‘Fast Cash, Hidden Costs: The Matched Betting Dilemma‘, with two events closely collaborating with the University of Southampton: ‘Neurodiverse Youth: Bridging Minds and Workplaces‘ and ‘Through a Child’s Eyes: Understanding Childhood Drowning in Bangladesh’. Two further events are specifically designed for professionals such as ‘Deepfake Deep Dive: Perspectives from law, policy, technology and practice’ and ‘Digital Futures for All’.
On World Refugee Day 2025, Friday 20 June, the new Maternal and Infant Health Equity Research Centre (MIHERC) website was launched. MIHERC is a hub for research, collaboration and action on maternal and infant health equity. MIHERC) is a collaborative effort between Sheffield Hallam University, Bournemouth University and City of Doncaster Council working to reduce health inequalities for mothers and babies. This year’s World Refugee Day’s theme, hashtagSolidarity, reflects MIHERC’s mission to stand with all mothers and babies – especially those facing health and social inequalities or barriers to care.
Yesterday (25 June) the online journal PLoS One published ‘Life-time experience of violence among women and girls living with disability in Nepal‘ our latest study on disability in Nepal [1]. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 28 municipalities representing all seven provinces as well as all three ecological regions of Nepal. A total of 1,294 women and girls with disability aged 15–59 years participated in 2021. We trained local enumerators using the KoBo application on smartphones or tablets. Both written and oral informed consent was sought from all participants. Cross-tabulations were performed in STATA 18 to determine the distribution of the prevalence of violence. Also, bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to establish association between the participants’ characteristics and odds of experiencing violence.
Overall, 457 (35.32%) women living with disabilities had ever experienced violence at a point in their lifetime. Psychological/emotional violence was the most prevalent violence (74.40%) followed by physical violence (31.07%) and denial of services (28.67%). Age was positively associated with the likelihood of experiencing violence. Women belonging to the Brahman/Chhetri ethnic group had reduced odds of violence [AOR = 0.56; 95%CI: 0.37–0.85] compared to Hill Dalits. Divorced or separated women showed a markedly higher likelihood of experiencing violence [AOR = 6.69; 95%CI: 2.31–19.40] compared to currently married women. Participants who had not witnessed violence against other women exhibited significantly higher odds of experiencing violence [AOR = 1.86; 95%CI: 1.20–2.89]. Women living in the Koshi province [AOR = 4.04; 95%CI: 2.54–6.42], Madhesh province [AOR = 2.16; 95%CI: 1.15–4.08] and Bagmati province [AOR = 2.21; 95%CI: 1.41–3.46] reported significantly higher odds of experiencing violence compared to those in Karnali.
The paper concludes oncludes that age, ethnicity, marital status, and provincial residence are significant predictors of violence among women and girls living with disability in Nepal. Interventions aimed at addressing violence against women living with disability in Nepal must prioritize older women and those who were previously married. Also, policy-makers may want to consider giving priority must be given to those provinces where the prevalence and risk of experiencing violence is highest.
The study was funded The United Nations Women Trust Fund, and the paper is freely available in the Open Access journal. We previously published on research into disability in Nepal in 2023 [2].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Visiting Faculty, Centre for Disability Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India.
References:
Dr Jill Nash writes for The Conversation about the need to educate young people about the risks of drowning, and shares her advice for helping to keep them safe…
Jill Nash, Bournemouth University
As temperatures soar around the UK and Ireland due to climate change, warnings about the dangers of drowning are being issued and one Labour MP is calling for water safety lessons to be made compulsory in schools.
Teaching children to swim is essential, but it’s not enough to save them from drowning. Water safety is about judgement, impulse control, peer influence and understanding your limits. Peer pressure, social situations and a false sense of confidence can all put young people in danger.
My research highlights how we’re not talking enough to young people, especially teenage boys, about the emotional and cognitive risks of making decisions around water. The National Water Safety Forum reports that young males aged between 10-19 are one of the highest groups at risk from drowning, as they assert their independence and test personal boundaries.
Drowning happens quickly, often without adults watching, when kids are hanging out by rivers and lakes, tombstoning off bridges, or misjudging their abilities when trying to impress friends.
Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.
Leading water safety organisations like the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and HM Coastguard run education campaigns about the dangers of the ocean. The Canal & River Trust, the UK’s largest canal charity, recently developed a school education pack for teenagers highlighting water safety.
Parents can also shape how teens interact with water. In Nottingham, the charity called Open Water Education Network was founded in memory of Owen Jenkins, a 12-year-old boy who drowned while trying to save two girls in difficulty. As well as teaching young people about the dangers of open water and the importance of self rescue, this charity empowers parents to talk to teens even if they seem to ignore parental advice.
Talking to teenagers about safety isn’t easy. Here’s how to do it in a way that’s honest, effective and grounded in care.
Rules work best when they’re short, consistent and repeated. Before a trip to the beach or river, take five minutes to remind your teen of your family’s water safety rules. Repetition builds habits. Remind them not to swim after dark or alone and explain what to do if someone’s in trouble (call for help, don’t jump in).
Stories help bring home the reality of water risk, especially for teens who can feel invincible in an all-male group without any supervision. While on a lads holiday on the Northumberland coast, 16-year-old called Evan saved himself from drowning in a rip tide by laying on his back to stay afloat. Eventually, a surfer managed to paddle out and reach him, and an rescue lifeboat also came to the scene. Evan recovered after treatment in hospital for hypothermia.
Another heartbreaking story of Liam Hall, a teenager who drowned while out in a dinghy with friends in Sunderland, demonstrates how quickly things can escalate in the sea.
Not all stories end in tragedy. A group of teenagers from East Sussex made the life-saving decision to stay out of the water, using a life ring to help two swimmers in trouble, proving that staying on shore can save lives.
Female teens can play a powerful role in promoting water safety, especially in mixed-gender peer groups where social dynamics can significantly influence behaviour. Research shows that all-boy groups are more likely to engage in risk-taking activities. When girls are present, especially those who feel confident speaking up, risky behaviour often decreases.
Parents can empower girls to speak up if someone suggests swimming in dangerous conditions or places and promote safety strategies like the RNLI’s “call, tell and throw” approach. By reinforcing these behaviours, teen girls can become leaders in lifesaving culture, not only keeping themselves safe but influencing their peers to make smarter choices too.
Stick to the facts and be honest about the dangers. Drowning can happen within seconds, even when someone is a strong swimmer. Most drownings occur in open water, not swimming pools. Teenagers need to understand how the effects of cold water shock, fast currents and submerged objects can quickly turn a fun day into a fatal one.
Teens don’t drown because they’re bad swimmers. They drown because they made a poor decision in a high-risk moment. Teaching safety early (before they start taking unsupervised risks) helps shape smarter thinking later.
Parents can model care, calmness and emotional awareness. Show them that bravery isn’t about bravado. It’s about looking out for your mates and making good choices. Fathers can play a powerful role in framing what strength looks like. Research shows that fathers who show empathy and emotional intelligence teach children how to be resilient during high-pressure moments. Emphasise that calm decision-making when in danger or choosing not to jump into the water under peer pressure doesn’t make a boy weak. It makes him wise. Talk to your sons about how real masculinity means thinking clearly, not reacting emotionally.
Teenagers can feel invincible. Be honest. Tell them you love them and that you trust them to make good decisions. Talking about safety is one of the most powerful things a family can do. Water safety begins at home with all of us.
Swimming, sailing, even just building a sandcastle – the ocean benefits our physical and mental wellbeing. Curious about how a strong coastal connection helps drive marine conservation, scientists are diving in to investigate the power of blue health.
This article is part of a series, Vitamin Sea, exploring how the ocean can be enhanced by our interaction with it.
Jill Nash, Senior Lecturer in Advertising and Marketing Communications, Bournemouth University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit to Dr Kate Jupp, PIER officer, Stevie Corbin-Clarke and Misha Naran (research assistants) for their amazing work on the Hidden Hunger project with BCP Access to Food Partnership. Links to the research report and associated film can be found in BCP Access to Food Partnership’s press release below.
Isolation and loneliness are big issues facing older adults in our communities. This project hears from people in the BCP area and their struggles and difficulties around food, connection and the stigma attached to asking for support. BCP’s Access to Food Partnership wanted to better understand local observations that ‘older adults are less likely to use foodbanks and have a higher level of attendance at lunch club settings’.
In collaboration with Christchurch Community Partnership and Bournemouth University’s PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) team, the project worked closely with Highcliffe Lunch Club to better understand the barriers as well as the solutions that will enable better access to relevant support for older people experiencing food insecurity.
The BU PIER Community Researcher Model enables participants with lived experience of the topic being explored to feel comfortable in sharing their insight as well as building confidence in becoming peer mentors and community researchers.
The conversations by community researchers identified the following themes:
“A significant learning for us from his project was that access to food for some older people was not only about poverty. It was often about mobility, frailty and tied up with not wanting to ask for help or be seen as a burden. Having someone they could just ask, was the key to making a difference”. BU Research team
The research has prompted partners to take action and develop their practice using the lessons learnt, including:
The Access to Food Partnership is a group of over 70 community food organisations and many others from the public and voluntary sector. They will continue to connect and deliver better outcomes for those experiencing food insecurity. Alistair Doxat-Purser (Chair of Access to Food and CEO of Faithworks) said:
“The findings from this research project are very timely as demand at foodbanks from those over 65 starts to grow. Relational support as well as practical help is becoming more and more what the Access to Food Partnership stands for – and magnificently demonstrates day in, day out.”
The partners have recently produced a film to go alongside the report to share the findings of the project, which can be viewed in the ‘Research section’ here:
Resources for Access to Food Partnership members | BCP and Hidden Hunger Film
Thanks
Michael
Michael French
Community Food Co-ordinator
Public Health and Communities Directorate
This is Dr Roya Haratian participating in data collection to help develop AI which can read emotions from motion!
This is our Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) project HORSENSE VR. We are developing a game which enables participants to play with horses in a virtual environment to develop calmness and reduce anxiety.
We are working with external partners – our team is Dr Roya Haratian, Prof Fred Charles, Prof Ann Hemingway, Dr Xun He, Harriet Laurie MBE (The HorseCourse) Liucheng Guo (Tg0), Paul Brown.
BU staff can login below:
BU academics publish in Nepal national newspaper
New BU Physiology paper
Gender and street names
Help Shape the Future of Research at BU: Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2026 Now Open
3C Event: Research Culture, Community & Cherry Blossom – Tuesday 14 April
REMINDER: 3MT® Competition – Deadline 9am Monday 20 April
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply now
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Application Deadline Friday 12 December ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply Now
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network
Explore our work, meet our partners, and find out how you can collaborate with us by clicking here! MIHERC is led by Sheffield Hallam University, with Bournemouth University as a key partner and the important funding coming from NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Maternity Challenge Initiative. The BU key academics are: Huseyin Dogan, Vanora Hundley, Edwin van Teijlingen, and Deniz Çetinkaya. Please share with all who may be interested.