Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
BU Professor Emeritus Jonathan Parker recently discussed his recently published latest edition of the book Newly-Qualified Social Workers: A Practice Guide to the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment to Prof. Denison Jayasooria from Malaysia. Prof. Parker has a longstanding collaboration with social work researchers in Malaysia, for example in the field of social work education or the inclusion of indigenous people’s voices in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Today we heard from the Editor in Chief of the Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences that our paper ‘Ethical Entrepreneurship in Pharmacy: An Interdisciplinary Solution to a Global Public Health Problem‘ has been accepted for publication [1]. This paper has three Bournemouth academics as co-author: Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Sukanya Ayatakshi-Endow and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. The paper is truly interdisciplinary, the six authors have disciplinary backgrounds in: pharmacy, health education, public health, business studies, economics, health services research and sociology. 
This viewpoint offers a different way of looking at the worldwide problem of the increased use of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance. In low-income countries, such as Nepal, pharmacies have a key role in dispensing medicine, and local pharmacies often provide health care advice in rural communities. However, the way many pharmacies operate can easily lead to unethical practices that are harmful to the health of their recipients, but also to the wider population. Such dangerous business practices involve inappropriate prescription and dispensing of medicine (i.e. antibiotics). Public health professionals have promoted better regulation and education to reduce the use of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance. These approaches have an important place to play, but in this paper, we propose one particular intervention, namely the training of community pharmacy shop owners in sustainable and ethical entrepreneurship. To offer greater insights into the issue we have produced a theoretical framework. We suggest interventions should be co-created with all relevant stakeholders to change perceptions of entrepreneurship, offer management training, thus promoting an ethical and sustainable business culture, and in the long run, improve pharmacy education in these areas.
The Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences is an Open Access journal, hence freely available to read when it gets published.
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Christinia Bempomaah is cancer nurse at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) her supervisor will be Dr. Lindsay Welch, Associate Professor of Nursing Practice, in a joint BU-UHD appointment, with a second supervisor to be appointed.
Whilst Rebecca Lovedale is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust (DHCUFT) her focuses for the NIHR internship with be on urgent care and her supervisors will be Dr. Lindsay Welch as well as BU’s Senior Lecturer In Paramedic Science, Dr. Pete Phillips.Prof. Dr. Edwin van Teijlingen
UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor
Congratulations to Dr. Ursula Rolfe in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Science on the publication of her latest paper ‘Paramedics’ management of people experiencing mental health issues: An investigation of knowledge gaps and support needs in England‘ [1]. The paper is co-authored with colleagues from the University of Southampton and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, Wessex. The paper highlights that demand for mental health care from U.K. ambulance services is increasing, yet paramedics report feeling underprepared to manage these presentations. This study aimed to identify knowledge gaps, educational needs, and systemic factors shaping frontline paramedics’ ability to provide mental health care in England, examining: (1) mental health education and training at pre- and post-registration levels; and (2) paramedics’ experiences of managing mental health presentations. A two-phase mixed-methods design was employed across the country.
Three days ago Prof. Vanora Hundley, co-director of Bournemouth University’s Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) published a hot-topic ‘Supporting women in early labour is important for safe maternity care‘ in The Conversation. In this conversation piece, co-authored with Prof. Helen Cheyne, at the University of Stirling, focuses on one key aspect of maternity care, namely early labour.
The Conversation piece addresses a common problem at the very start of labour: women and families struggled to access timely assessment and felt dismissed during telephone triage. The authors also highlight the common problem is that many maternity units are not designed or staffed to provide sustained early labour care. The freely-available online paper adds insight to the current debate around the pressure on the NHS to be able to provide the kind of maternity care women require and deserve.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
This month the international journal Global Health Action published our latest paper ‘Strengthening natural hazard preparedness in Nepal: Insights from stakeholder and community engagement‘ [1]. Global Health Action is published by Taylor and Francis. This interdisciplinary paper, with two BU co-authors from two different faculties, John Powell and Edwin van Teijlingen, grew out of a NIHR grant application. The application was successful in the first round of the application process, but unfortunately, the whole grant scheme was withdraw by the NIHR due to lack of UK Government funding. The lead author is Dr. Santosh Bhatta from the University of the West of England (UWE).
This paper addresses the important and timely topic of natural hazard preparedness in Nepal through stakeholder and community engagement activities. It provides insights into the implementation gaps between national disaster risk management frameworks and local-level practice, which is highly relevant given Nepal’s federal governance structure and high vulnerability to natural hazards. We engaged with diverse stakeholders including national agencies, local government officials, and community members to gain insights into preparedness challenges from multiple perspectives.
Thus this paper addresses a critical public health challenge in a disaster-prone, resource-limited setting where evidence-based preparedness strategies are urgently needed. Secondly, it offers a multi-level engagement approach—spanning national institutions, municipal governments, and community members—provides a comprehensive view of the disaster preparedness landscape. Thirdly, it highlights practical, actionable gaps such as the need for improved coordination, legal literacy, and early warning systems, which have direct policy implications. Finally, our paper positions this work as formative research to inform future intervention development, which is a valuable contribution to the field.
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Tara Obaidy (@GobboGoose) 2024
Whales play a vital role in keeping our oceans healthy. When whales release nutrient-rich excrement plumes into the water, they provide essential elements like iron and nitrogen that fertilise phytoplankton. These microscopic plant-like organisms form the foundation of marine food webs and even help regulate the Earth’s climate by capturing CO2. In this way, whales support biodiversity and enhance productivity across the oceans.
This fascinating story inspired The Whale Poo Quadrille, an imaginative animation presented by BU at the European Cetacean Society 2026 Conference Film Night. The film uses humour and creativity to bring an important ecological message to younger audiences. Opening with the playful line, “Will you poo a little faster,” said the phytoplankton to the whale, it introduces the idea of ocean nutrient cycles in a memorable way. The animation has been created by BU graduate Tara Obaidy (BA Computer Animation Art and Design, 2023) and was inspired by Shaftesbury writer Richard Foreman’s take on Lewis Carroll’s Lobster Quadrille. Tara is currently working towards her MA in Visual Communication at Birmingham City University. The project is being managed by BU Visiting Fellow Dr. Jocelyn Elson-Riggins, with marine food web expertise provided by Prof. Genoveva Esteban (School of Life and Environmental Sciences). It has been developed in collaboration with Stichting Rugvin’s Whale Poo Ambassador Programme and the environmental network Planet Shaftesbury.
Left to Right: Stichting Rugvin’s Maxime Weber and Frank Zanderink with Jocelyn Elson-Riggins and Tara Obaidy at Film Night, European Cetacean Society 2026 Conference in Dundee, Scotland.
Tara and Jocelyn presented the film at the conference in Dundee, Scotland, sharing the project with an international audience of marine researchers and conservationists. The team is now preparing to bring The Whale Poo Quadrille to an even wider audience by launching it on YouTube, where it will be freely available for all to enjoy.
Last week saw INTERPOL’s 35th Disaster Victim Identification conference designed to strengthen global cooperation, improve forensic practices and enhance the identification of victims in mass fatality incidents. It featured a raft of highly topical presentations covering responses to disasters form the Crans-Montana Bar Fire on 1 January 2026, to Hong Kong’s Tai Po incident and the Bondi Beach Mass-Fatality Shooting along-side long-term, ongoing contexts and challenges, most notably identification efforts in Ukraine.
Part of Interpol’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) mission is to develop international standards that strengthen global cooperation and, crucially, support victims’ families in ensuring dignified identification, information and repatriation allowing for appropriate funerary practices. It is in this spirit that Professor Melanie Klinkner was invited to present on the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation in front of 227 participants from 59 countries. Her presentation highlighted the rights-informed and victim-aware provisions governing mass graves that also apply to DVI.
Fundamental principles regarding the inherent dignity of the human person, non-discrimination, and recognition before the law extend beyond death. Under international law, the dead are protected either directly or indirectly; the latter, through the rights afforded to their living relatives. In the context of mass fatalities and humanitarian intervention, it is widely accepted that the right to dignity and physical integrity apply. Melanie highlighted core legal provisions stressing the importance of dignified, respectful and indiscriminate treatment for identification, return of human remains and funerary customs.
Her talk was extremely timely in two respects: Firstly, in light of current proposals to turn the 2016 draft articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disaster into a fully-fledged international treaty. The definitions of disasters presently proffered
‘a calamitous event or series of events resulting in widespread loss of life, great human suffering and distress, mass displacement, or large-scale material or environmental damage, thereby seriously disrupting the functioning of society’ (Article 3)
clearly encompassing mass graves as possible sites of (or resulting from) disaster. Moreover, the treaty aims ‘to facilitate the adequate and effective response to disasters […] so as to meet the essential needs of the persons concerned, with full respect for their rights’ (Article 1). This concerns victims – dead and alive.
And secondly, due to the contemporary challenges that mass graves present globally: From July 2024 until February 2026 alone, a total of 584 entries from alerts on mass graves and related activities on missing persons from across the world have been recorded in the MaGPIE database suggesting the discovery and reporting of 135 new mass graves. This underscores the pressing need that the full range of victims’ rights must be given consideration if the framework is to be progressed that offers indiscriminate protection and respect.
On Friday 5th June the Phi Mu Chapter of Sigma held its 2026 Annual Conference at Brunel University of London. An excellent scientific programme included keynote presentations from Howard Catton (CEO, International Council of Nurses) and Joanne Bosanquet MBE (CEO, Foundation of Nursing Studies).
Two Bournemouth University INSIGHT MRes students also presented posters. Dan Bradshaw, supervised by Dr Stephen Richer and Dr Leslie Gelling, presented ‘How have educational programmes for young people addressed stigma toward people with schizophrenia?’ Laura Potter, supervised by Dr Vikram Mohan and Professor Carol Clark, presented ‘The barriers to pain management in adults with a learning disability during a critical care admission’. Well done to both Dan and Laura, but special congratulations to Laura who received a prize for her poster presentation.
The Phi Mu Chapter of Sigma is the English Chapter of this International Honor Society for nurses and is hosted by nurses at Bournemouth University. If you are a nurse and interested in joining Sigma, please contact Sigma@Bournemouth.ac.uk.
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.”
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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.
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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
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Dr. Paul Whittington attends Technology and the SEND Reforms Roundtable in the House of Commons
Dr. Paul Whittington joins Bett 2026 DfE Assistive Technology Roundtable
BU Prof Jonathan Parker promoting social work in Malaysia
New interdisciplinary paper accepted for publication
Three NIHR Internships awarded at BU
Research highlighted at the UN in New York
Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Civil Security for Society) 2026 Calls Now Open
MSCA Doctoral Networks 2026 Call Information Webinar
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026: Application Deadline Extended to Thursday 25 June 2026 Apply now to take part in the 2026 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Reminder: Register for the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2026 Information Session
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply now 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