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.
Tagged / NIHR
World Drowning Prevention Day at BU
Next month on July 25th Bournemouth University will join in with the world-wide celebrations of World Drowning Prevention Day 2025. The first achievement to highlight is Dr. Jill Nash interesting piece recently published in The Conversation, in which she highlights Five ways to keep teenagers safe by the water [1]. It is also worthwhile to read last year’s contribution to World Drowning Prevention Day by Jill on the dangers of being near water and the role emotions play in making safer decisions [2].
The second major piece of research related to drowning prevention at Bournemouth University is the Sonamoni Project. The Sonamoni Project is working with communities in rural Bangladesh utilizing human-centered design (HCD) techniques. The research project is identifying solutions to reduce the number of drowning deaths in newly mobile children (6-24 months), developing prototype, and assessing the acceptability and usability of potential interventions. 
Sonamoni is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with 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 Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB). The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties and six academics: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
This international project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme, also includes a BU-based PhD student, Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossein. He recently published the first article related to drowning prevention in Nepal [3].
References:
- Nash, J. (2025) Five ways to keep teenagers safe by the water, The Conversation June 20th.
- Nash, J. (2024) Why so many people drown at the water’s edge The Conversation July 25th.
- Hossain, M. S., Pant, P. R., van Teijlingen, E., Sedain, B., & Rahman, A. (2024). Drowning Prevention should be a Public Health Issue in Nepal. International Journal of Social Sciences and Management, 11(4): 83–87.
BU seeking input from ethnic minority and migrant communities
Bournemouth University has received funding from the NIHR to support an internship for a Social Work student to seek views and perception of women from ethnic minority and migrant communities. Therefor, we are seeking volunteers to take part in a small group on-line workshop to hear from women from ethnic minority and migrant communities. They are invited to share their thoughts, insights and experiences of engaging in health research so that we can better understand what would work when conducting research with this population. This work sits within a larger NIHR-funded project that aims to reduce health inequalities for marginalised mothers and babies. BU Profs Huseyin Dogan and Professor Vanora Hundley are leading workstreams within this prestigious NIHR Maternity Disparities project over the next five years (more information about the bigger project can be found here!).
We would like to hear from women from ethnic minority and migrant communities, also referred as women from the global majority. You do not need to be pregnant or have had a baby to participate in the workshop. If you are a woman from an ethnic minority and migrant community in the UK and you would like to take part please apply here! The event will be online on Tuesday 8th July from 11.00-12.30. No specific experience of involvement in research is required.
Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Pioneering Research to Tackle Maternity Disparities: BU Academics Lead Major NIHR Initiative
We’re thrilled to announce that Bournemouth University (BU) is at the forefront of a significant national effort to address inequalities in maternity outcomes. Two distinguished professors from across our faculties, Professor Huseyin Dogan and Professor Vanora Hundley, have been appointed to lead crucial workstreams within the prestigious National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maternity Disparities project over the next five years.
This vital initiative aims to make a tangible difference in the lives of mothers and babies by tackling the complex factors that contribute to disparities in maternity care and outcomes.
Professor Huseyin Dogan will co-lead the Digital, data, monitoring, evaluation and implementation science workstream. His expertise will be instrumental in leveraging innovative digital tools and robust data analysis to better understand and address existing inequalities. This workstream will focus on developing effective strategies for monitoring progress and ensuring that evidence-based interventions are successfully implemented in practice. Prof Dogan has also played a pivotal role in curriculum innovation at BU, co-founding several innovative MSc programs, including the UK’s first MSc Digital Health.
Professor Vanora Hundley has been appointed as a Capacity Training and Development Lead. As part of the Capacity Development Group, she will be responsible for developing an ambitious programme to inspire, develop and support the next generation of maternity disparities researchers. Vanora will also oversee the capacity development programme within the MIHERC collaboration. She is an experienced mentor for career young researchers and has received international recognition for her work in mentoring clinical academics: Sigma Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame (2020) and a European Recognition award (2023).
Adding further strength to this ambitious project, Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr Deniz Cetinkaya will also be integral members of the team, providing their expertise and support over the next five years.
This significant involvement in the NIHR Maternity Disparities project is also anticipated to bring substantial research funding to BU, with projections estimating over one million pounds will be secured over the next five years through their respective roles and internal consortium project proposals. This investment will further fuel their research and impact in this critical area.
In a proactive move to lay the groundwork for the NIHR project, the BU team has collaborated with Sheffield Hallam University to establish the Maternal & Infant Health Equity Research Centre (MIHERC). This dedicated centre will serve as a hub for cutting-edge research, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in maternal and infant health equity. We encourage you to explore the centre’s website for more information: https://miherc.org/.
MIHERC is already actively engaged in shaping the discourse around these critical issues. The team has commenced the organisation and chairing of impactful events, including the upcoming Artificial Intelligence for Maternity and Women’s Health and Wellbeing session at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AIiH 2025). Further details about this exciting session can be found here: https://aiih.cc/maternity-and-women-health-wellbeing/.
Locally, the project will benefit from strong collaborations within Dorset. The team is working closely with NHS Dorset and Dorset Women CIC to address inequalities in women’s health.
This collaborative effort has already seen the launch of a valuable Women’s Health resource this month, demonstrating the immediate impact of this work.
The BU team is deeply committed to this crucial research and will continue to keep the wider community informed of their progress and key milestones over the next five years. This initiative represents a significant step forward in our collective efforts to ensure equitable and positive maternity experiences for all. Stay tuned for further updates!
The whole team at Bournemouth University 08.01.25
NIHR Global Health Research Academy 2025
The 2025 NIHR Global Health Research Academy Member event will take place on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th May. The NIHR recognizes that career progression is a common challenge for early-career researchers. This year the event’s theme is ‘Empowering Early-Career Researchers: Navigating Careers in Global Health’. This two-day online event aims to equip participants from across the globe with the skills and knowledge to navigate and build a career in global health research.
Bournemouth University staff and students participating in the NIHR Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation Call 4: Drowning Prevention for newly mobile infants under 2 years in Bangladesh programme have been invited. This NIHR-funded project is called Sonamoni and BU’s student Md. Shafkat Hossain, whose PhD assessed the work in Bangladesh, is one the participants, as is our colleague from Bangladesh Notan Dutta. In the afternoon BU’s Edwin van Teijlingen who will be chairing a session on ‘Funding & Grant Writing’.
Sonamoni is being coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research (CIPRB) in Bangladesh as well as the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). This project, with Prof. Dr. Aminur Rahman (at CIPRB) as Bangladesh lead, includes the above mentioned BU-based PhD project. The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties through: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Bournemouth University eHealth paper cited 40 times!
Yesterday, ResearchGate alerted us that the paper ‘Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature’ [1] had reached 40 citations! This paper has four Bournemouth University (BU) authors and one author, Prof. Gary Smith, who was FHSS Visiting Professor at the time of publication. This literature review, published in 2020, sought midwives’ perspectives on women self-monitoring their pregnancy using eHealth and mHealth.
The paper fund that midwives generally held ambivalent views towards the use of eHealth and mHealth technologies in antenatal care. They acknowledged the potential benefits of such technologies, such as their ability to modernise antenatal care and to help women make more informed decisions about their pregnancy. However, midwives were quick to point out the risks and limitations of these, such as the accuracy of conveyed information, and negative impacts on the patient-professional relationship.
This paper will contribute to our recently awarded NIHR funding to tackle inequalities in UK maternal healthcare as part of the NIHR Challenge Call: Maternity Disparities Consortium. Profs Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen from the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health, and Prof. Huseyin Dogan and Dr. Deniz Cetinkaya from the Department of Computing and Informatics collaborate in MIHERC (Maternal & Infant Health Equity Research Centre). MIHERC is led by Prof. Hora Soltani at Sheffield Hallam University, and it is a partnership with Bournemouth University, the City of Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub as well as several charities and voluntary organisations. Prof. Dogan has recently been appointed the co-lead for the “Digital, data, monitoring, evaluation and implementation science” work stream of the NIHR Maternity Disparities consortium.
Reference:
- Vickery, M., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Smith, G. B., Way, S., Westwood, G. (2020). Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature. European Journal of Midwifery, 4(Sept.), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.18332/ejm/126625
Promoting Human-Centred Design in Drowning Prevention
The Department of Design and Engineering at Bournemouth University has a reputation for its Human-Centred Design (HCD) work. In our interdisciplinary Sonamoni project we have HCD at its centre. The Sonamoni project is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with 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 Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB). The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties and six academics: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Last month two staff from CIPRB, Notan Chandra Dutta and Mirza Shibat Rowshan visited DBW in Uganda, as part of so-called South-South learning. Their objective was to share (1) knowledge and experience of using HCD techniques and (2) best practices of drowning prevention in both countries. Utilizing HCD techniques, Sonamoni is working to identify and prioritize potential solutions, develop prototypes, and assess the acceptability of the interventions to reduce drowning deaths among old children under two in Bangladesh.
During the visit, Notan and Shibat participated a four-day ideation workshop with the fisher community near Lake Victoria, organized by DWB. In the workshop, different HCD tools were used along with other group activities to generate and refine ideas for the solutions. The generated ideas were recorded by visualization tools. Notan and Shibat also attended a session on the principles of creative facilitation of HCD, including the need to understand the problem, role of the facilitator and other stakeholders. Various visualization tools were discussed, e.g. ‘journey maps’, ‘stakeholder map’, ‘context map’ and different types of sketches. Notan shared CIPRB’s experiences of managing the best drowning prevention practices and its challenges from Bangladesh context.
This international project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme, also includes a BU-based PhD student, Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossein. Last week Shafkat presented our Sonamoni project in lecture to BU Engineering students at Talbot campus.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Promoting South-South collaboration and learning
The Sonamoni Project is working with communities in rural Bangladesh utilizing human-centered design (HCD) techniques. These design principles have been applied for many years in designing consumer products and, more recently, in the fields of health and social systems. The research project is identifying solutions to reduce the number of drowning deaths in newly mobile children (6-24 months), developing prototype, and assessing the acceptability and usability of potential interventions. This interdisciplinary project is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), the University of the West of England, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the University of Southampton, and Design without Borders Africa (DwB) from Uganda. Our Sonamoni project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme.
As part of the Sonamoni project we arranged some serious South-South learning by facilitating a visit to DwB in Uganda in early march by two of our Bangladesh-based team, namely Notan Chandra Dutta, Research Manager and Mirza Shibat Rowshan, HCD Specialist. DwB applies HCD approaches to complex challenges faced by communities in low and middle-income countries. To gain greater insights into HCD activities the researchers from Bangladesh visited one site near Lake Victoria to observe data collection with fishermen, transporters, and local leaders. Notan and Shibat co-facilitated a four-day long Design Community Advisory Board (DCAB) workshop on the “Enhancing Fisherfolk Safety” project where fishermen, boat owners, transporters, traditional weather forecasters, health workers were the participants. To prevent drowning, HCD was applied in the workshop to generate ideas and share solutions of the lake site community from Lake Victoria of Mayuge district. Lessons learnt from the visit by two staff of CIPRB can further enrich the Sonamoni Project implementation in Bangladesh. The NIHR really values research capacity building and South-South learning in its funded projects, as well as North-South leaning, of course. 
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Thinking about interdisciplinary research
Thank you very much for all those who attended last Wednesday’s monthly online session organised by BU’s Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH). This event featured PhD student Mr. Shafkat Hossein who spoke about his thesis research ‘Using Human-Centred Design (HCD) to develop community-led interventions to prevent drowning among children under the age of 2 in rural Bangladesh’. His work is part of an interdisciplinary study called ‘Sonamoni’ in which BU collaborates with CIPRB (Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh), the University of the West of England (in Bristol), the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda. Sonamoni aims to design and develop interventions to reduce the number of young children drowning in Bangladesh.
This public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.
The second speaker at the CMWH event was Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, who spoke about trials and tribulations of conducting, running and managing interdisciplinary studies. His talk was largely based on three three published papers co-written with BU academic and Faculty of Health & Social Sciences Visiting Faculty members on interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary working [1-3]. There are, of course, differences between multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary and the even more integrated level of working called transdisciplinary. At the same time the individual member of an interdisciplinary team needs to have individual field-based expertise in their own discipline, e.g. sociology, nursing, chemistry or law to bring required knowledge and skills to that team.
References:
- Shanker, S., Wasti, S.P., Ireland, J., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) The Interdisciplinary Team Not the Interdisciplinarist: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Research, Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences 3(2): 1-5. https://doi.org/10.46405/ejms.v3i2.317
- Wasti, S. P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2020) Public Health is truly interdisciplinary. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 6(1):21-22.
- van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Adhikary, P., Aryal, N., Simkhada, P. (2019). Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward. Health Prospect, 18(1), 4-7. https://doi.org/10.3126/hprospect.v18i1.19337
Meeting at BU to address maternal inequalities
Today and yesterday (January 7-8) academics involved in MIHERC (Maternal and Infant Health Equity Research Centre), the successful interdisciplinary collaboration to address challenges in maternity care, met in Bournemouth. MIHERC is led by Sheffield Hallam University, along with Bournemouth University, South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub (SYDHH) and the Health Determinant Research Collaboration, Doncaster. In addition, a range of local and national partners are recognised. MIHERC is one of the nine groups of UK universities making up the new NIHR Challenge Maternity Disparities Consortium. This NIHR Consortium aims of tackling inequalities in maternity outcomes, focusing on inequalities before, during and after pregnancy.
Our second planning meeting highlighted our collective strengths including our expertise in community engagement and PPIE (Public & Patient Involvement & Engagement); intelligent digital solutions in maternity service delivery; research into under-served communities; and capacity building of both communities and maternity staff. The first planning meeting was held late last year at Sheffield Hallam University.
MIHERC is the only midwifery-led collaboration with a strong community engagement and digital inclusive research. MIHERC will work with various NHS Trusts as well as charities such as the Active Pregnancy Foundation, Active Dorset, and Maternal Mental Health Alliance.
Anyone can drown. No one should!
The first editorial of The Lancet Public Health [1] highlights a public health issue close to our work in Bangladesh, namely the risk of drowning, especially in young children. “Anyone can drown. No one should” are the words of the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) in its first Global status report on drowning prevention, published two weeks ago (Dec. 2024). According to The Lancet Public Health this landmark report dissects the drowning burden globally, at the country level, and the trends since 2000, presents an overview of the key strategies to prevent drowning, and provides a benchmark for tracking prevention efforts in the future. Importantly, this report sheds light on a tragic, neglected, mostly preventable public health issue.
We are grateful to The Lancet Public Health for raising this important issue in 2025, since Bournemouth University (BU) is currently engaged in research project in this field called ‘Sonamoni’. This an interdisciplinary study is a collaboration with CIPRB (the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh), the University of the West of England (in Bristol), the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda. Sonamoni aims to design and develop interventions to reduce the number of young children drowning in Bangladesh.
This public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.
The interdisciplinary team at BU includes three faculties and six member of staff: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. We recently published the first paper ‘Drowning Prevention should be a Public Health Issue in Nepal related to this project [2].
References:
- Anonymous (2025) Anyone can drown. No one should. The Lancet Public Health, 10(1): e1
- Hossain, M. S., Pant, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Sedain, B., Rahman, A. (2024). Drowning Prevention should be a Public Health Issue in Nepal. International Journal of Social Sciences and Management, 11(4): 83–87.
Sonamoni project field visit
This week I had the pleasure of visiting one of the two major research sites of our Sonamoni project. Sonamoni is jointly coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). We are working to reduce drownings among newly-mobile children, generally those under two years old. This £1.6m project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. Yesterday CIPRB staff Prof. Dr. Aminur Rahman and Mr. Notan Chandra Dutta took me to the field site in Kalapari in rural Bangladesh.
This was my first ever visit to Bangladesh despite earlier attempts to go out there two and three decades ago. This visit included an outdoor meeting with a Village Injury Prevention Committee (VIPC) with whom CIPRB has been working for years.
The Bournemouth University team comprises staff from 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.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
Congratulations to Shafkat Hossain on his first PhD paper
This week the editor of the International Journal of Social Sciences and Management emailed that the paper ‘Drowning Prevention should be a Public Health Issue in Nepal‘ [1] had been published. This is the first paper for our Ph.D. student Md. Shafkat Hossain. Shafkat co-authored this paper drowning prevention experts in Nepal, Dr. Bhagabati Sedain and Dr. Puspa Rai Pant and Prof. Aminur Rahman based at CIPRB (the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh).
Shafkat’s thesis is part of the interdisciplinary Sonamoni project on drowning prevention in toddlers under the age of two in Bangladesh. 
This newly published paper takes lessons learnt from Bangladesh and offers them as ideas to be considered in Nepal. Nepal is prone to a range of natural disasters; earthquakes being the most widely recognised one. However, many people are at risk of drowning as the serious flooding in the autumn of 2024 showed, but this is not recognised as a serious public health risk in Nepal. Drowning relates to people’s everyday activities such as crossing rivers, bathing and swimming and should be treated as a social and public health problem.
The Sonamoni project is being coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), CIPRB in Bangladesh and Design Without Borders in Uganda. It funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.
As we are reaching the end of Open Access Week is worth highlighting that this paper is fully Open Access, and hence freely available in both Nepal and Bangladesh!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Reference:
- Hossain, M. S., Pant, P. R., van Teijlingen, E., Sedain, B., & Rahman, A. (2024). Drowning Prevention should be a Public Health Issue in Nepal. International Journal of Social Sciences and Management, 11(4): 83–87.
Three grant applications rejected this month
The start of October has not been good for me in terms of grant applications. 
On the first day of October the NIHR informed us that our application to the call for a research programme for social care was unsuccessful. The reason given by the NIHR panel was that our proposal was not competitive enough, this was a BU-led proposal working with colleagues based in Dorset.
Four days later another application to the NIHR, this time to another different funding stream, was rejected by Global Health Research Programme Funding Committees. This second failed grant application was written by an international interdisciplinary team led by the Canterbury Christ Church University. It was a follow-up of our successful study ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’, which was funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative, itself a collaboration of the MRC/FCDO/Wellcome Trust/ESRC; Grant ref. MR/T023554/1.
To rub salt in the wounds, an international funding body, a joint initiative of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR; France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Germany), the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC; UK) and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC; Canada). The secretariat emailed us a few days ago than our application was not short-listed in this very competitive call, where 90% of applications were rejected.
Some of these proposals can, and will be, revamped and resubmitted to other funding bodies.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Successful human-centred design workshop at Safety 2024 in India
Last week colleagues from our Sonamoni project co-hosted a workshop with TGI Australia (The George Institute for Global Health) at the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) which was held in New Delhi (India). Focusing on the strengths of the Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach, this workshop first introduced the design principles to participants and demonstrated how they can be employed to reduce risks and prevent accidents. These design principles have been applied for many years in designing consumer products and, more recently, in the fields of health and social systems. 
In this well-attended workshop researchers presented case studies from Bangladesh (including the Sonamoni project) and Tanzania to illustrate how the process is employed with communities to co-develop interventions aimed at reducing the risk of drowning among fishing folk and vulnerable children. 
The team proposed a framework which integrates HCD methodology and traditional research methodologies, creating a more user-centred and multidimensional approach to intervention design. Outputs of the process included user risk journeys, stakeholder mapping and systems diagrams that can be used with communities and wider stakeholders to visualise the problem and bring to life the environment in which interventions are to be designed. These outputs can also be support advocacy and donor engagement.
The proposed framework provides a mechanism for closer collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and communities to work together to co-design context-specific solutions that are culturally and environmentally appropriate. Workshop participants were asked for their expert opinion on the proposed framework, to help us refine the framework and inform future practice.
Our Sonamoni project recently had its own video recording on YouTube. 
Sonamoni is a public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website. Sonamoni is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and design Without Borders (DWB) Africa.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Drowning prevention poster at Safety 2024 (in India)
This week Notan Dutta, from our collaborating research organisation CIPRB (Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh) presented a poster on ‘Identifying the strengths and challenges from the perspective of primary caregivers of drowning prevention interventions in Bangladesh’ at the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention & Safety Promotion (Safety 2024). One of the co-authors of this poster presentation is Bournemouth University’s PhD student Md. Shafkat Hossain. Shafkat also attended the conference in India. Shafkat was in Delhi funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of its Emerging Leaders in Drowning Prevention programme. 
This initiative brings together a cohort of younger leaders to join national and international efforts to raise awareness and strengthen solutions and political commitment towards drowning.
Our research into drowning prevention of under two-year old children in rural Bangladesh is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information about our ongoing collaborative research in Bangladesh, please see the NIHR website. This is an interdisciplinary project between Bournemouth University, CIPRB, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute), the University of the West of England, the University of the West of England, and Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Mavis Bengtsson
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Reference:
Human Centred Design presentation at Safety 2024
As part of the interdisciplinary Sonamoni project our collaborator Mirza Shibat Rowshan will be presenting at Safety 2024. The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) will be held between in the first week of September in New Delhi, India. The conference is hosted by The George Institute for Global Health and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Sonamoni is being coordinated by Bournemouth University and CIPRB (The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and Design Withour Borders in Uganada. This project, with Prof. Dr. Aminur Rahman as Bangladesh lead, includes a BU-based PhD project Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain. The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties through: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Shibat works at CIPRB, which is a world leading injury prevention organisation based in Bangladesh. This presentation focuses on a needs assessment of the risk of very young children drowning in rural Bangladesh.All conference abstracts will be published in a pre-conference supplement of the scientific journal BMJ- Injury Prevention.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMWH
BU PhD student invited to Safety 24 conference in India
Bournemouth University PhD student Md. Shafkat Hossain has been invited to attend the international Safety 2024 conference in India in September. The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention & Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) will be held 2-4 September at the Taj Palace in New Delhi. Safety 2024 global event will focus worldwide attention on safety and injury prevention. This conference will gather international experts in the field with a united goal of “Building a safer future for all: Equitable and sustainable strategies for injury and violence prevention”.
Shafkat will be presenting this PhD work to date under the title ‘Using Human-Centred Design (HCD) to develop community-led interventions to prevent drowning among children under the age of 2 in rural Bangladesh’. Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain who has been selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of the Emerging Leaders in Drowning Prevention programme. This programme has been designed to create a cohort of younger leaders to join national and international efforts to raise awareness and strengthen solutions and political commitment towards drowning. This programme is hosted by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and provides a unique opportunity for people like Shafkat to develop leadership skills in drowning prevention, and be a part of a global community working to reduce drowning deaths. This first group of Emerging Leaders includes people from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Uganda, United States and Vietnam.
Shafkat’s PhD study is part of the interdisciplinary Sonamoni study. Sonamoni is coordinated by BU in collaboration with Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). We are working to reduce drownings among newly-mobile children, generally under two years old. This £1.6m project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information about our ongoing research in Bangladesh, please visit the NIHR website.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Mavis Bengtsson
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
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Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar- European Migration Research and Impact – Invitation to a Roundtable Discussion
- 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
- Physical Sciences Case studies: information use and discovery
- Information handling in collaborative research: an exploration of five case studies
- Information literacy monitoring and evaluation
- Data centres: their use, value and impact
- Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications
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.