We are thrilled to announce the official successful completion of the Health Cascade project, a European Union funded Doctoral Network, that has set new benchmarks in the realm of public health and co-creation methodologies. Watch the recording of our final meeting, Co-creating our Future.

Today, we stand proud as we share with you the resounding success and the exceptional feedback received in the final report from the European Union.

A Journey of Innovation and Impact

The Health Cascade project embarked on a mission to make co-creation trustworthy to enable us to tackle public health challenges. Over the course of its implementation, the project has not only met but exceeded its objectives, delivering results that have immediate and far-reaching impacts.

One of the standout commendations from the European Union’s final report highlights that:

“The project has delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact.”

Strengthening Methodologies and Bridging Domains

At the heart of Health Cascade’s success is its commitment to strengthening evidence-based co-creation methodologies. By integrating these innovative approaches into academic research, public health practices, and policy-making, the project has paved the way for more effective and collaborative solutions to health challenges.

The European Union’s report further acknowledges that:

“These results collectively strengthen evidence-based co-creation methodology and its integration into academic, public health, and policy domains.”

This recognition is a testament to the project’s holistic approach and its ability to bridge gaps between different sectors, fostering a more unified and comprehensive strategy to tackle public health issues.

Our Legacy

As we reflect on the journey of Health Cascade, it is clear that the project’s legacy is built on the pillars of high-quality scientific and technological advancements. The innovations in co-creation methodology that have emerged from this project are not just theoretical but are practical, impactful, and ready to be implemented in real-world scenarios. We have achieved this through the hard work and dedication of our 15 Fellows, their supervisors and our esteemed Associated Partners.

The final report succinctly captures this achievement:

“To summarize, the project Health CASCADE has made significant progress toward its objectives, produced high-quality scientific and technological results, and delivered impactful innovations in co-creation methodology. The project Health CASCADE also contributed meaningfully to researcher development and dissemination.”

Looking Ahead

As we celebrate this monumental achievement, we also look ahead to the future. The completion of the Health Cascade project is not an end but a beginning. It sets the stage for continued innovation, collaboration, and advancement in public health and co-creation methodologies. We have launched a new Community of Practice on LinkedIn: Co-creation International. Please join us!

We are also establishing ourselves as a Social Enterprise, and will be available to offer consultancy and support to those planning and undertaking co-creation. Watch this space!

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in the Health Cascade project—our dedicated team, partners, stakeholders, and the European Union for their support and recognition. Together, we have made a significant impact, and together, we will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in public health and beyond.

Here’s to the success of Health Cascade and to the future innovations that await!

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In an exciting new partnership, two European research projects are combining their efforts to develop Reporting guidelines and standards for Co-creation: CO-creation REporting Standards (CORES). The project is being led by the Co-Creating Wellbeing Team, who have written a protocol, available online here. Both Co-Creating Wellbeing and Health CASCADE have recognised that it makes more sense to align their work rather than to duplicate it!

The goal of the project is to co-create reporting guidelines that are useful and trustworthy. Health CASCADE will contribute to Co-Creating Wellbeing’s e-Delphi Study and subsequent follow-up workshops to refine and improve CORES.

This is an excellent example of teamwork and collaboration in action!

Health Cascade is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Innovative Training Networks project funded by the European Union (H2020 MSCA ITN) (Project number 956501)

Co-Creating Wellbeing is funded by Erasmus+ and KA220-VET – Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training

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Mira has been conducting several co-creation processes, each involving a series of workshops, that focus on reducing sedentary behaviour in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Glasgow, Scotland. At each workplace she facilitates a workgroup of employees who collaborate and develop actions tailored to their company. In this blog, she shares her biggest lessons so far on facilitating co-creation workshops in the workplace. 

Find out more about Mira’s research project website: https://workplacehealthstudy.co.uk/

 Lessons learned with facilitation 

In the last year, I have been facilitating co-creation workshops at SMEs in Glasgow, Scotland. I want to share my experience so that future facilitators may benefit from it. Lessons ranged from using fun and engaging tools to dealing with timing and goal setting.  

Using tools and methods that are engaging is key to facilitation. When I first started working with employees, I hesitated to use fun – and sometimes goofy – methods. Ultimately, I found that they greatly enjoyed taking part in the games, quizzes and other fun tools. You can and should try to step outside the box to make an exercise as fun and engaging as possible. As my work focuses on reducing sitting, I experienced that also in the work setting, you should not shy away from getting them to stand up and move a lot more. Strategies such as having standing meetings, may not only break the usual way that meetings are conducted, and create a new angle of engagement, but it may also enhance other employees to do so. 

When facilitating, it is also important to manage time. This was a huge learning curve for me, which I am still trying to get to grips with. Three tips helped me here: (1) I ran a pilot of our first workshop with colleagues; (2) I practice the duration of exercises and write down my estimated time for the session to use as a cheat sheet during it; (3) I consider before the start of a workshop which parts of the workshop I could shorten or drop, and which useful exercises I could add at the end. By considering this in advance, you will be better able to adapt to the pace of the meeting. 

I also quickly learned I needed to clearly emphasise the purpose of the workshop and the exercises we were doing. It had to be clear how they fitted into the overall purpose. I found that discussing this explicitly, and often multiple times (e.g., mentioning the purpose of the workshop at the beginning and end of the workshop; and having an aim statement for every exercise), created more clarity about the process and contributed to their engagement. 

The unique challenges with co-creation 

Co-creation brings some unique challenges for facilitations. It is very important to create a safe space where everyone is of equal importance, but this can be difficult to do. I approached this by taking the time to talk to them about co-creation and how it affects our role and view of the process. I feel this contributed to successful co-creation workshops and helped them understand the flexibility involved. It also aided in explaining that we were there not as researchers, but as facilitators. We were there to support them to work together effectively and ensure that everyone was involved in a meaningful way. 

Co-creation is supposed to be flexible and should be tailored to the needs of the group, but the work that goes into this can be intense and resource heavy at times. I recommend carefully considering your personal boundaries as a facilitator in co-creation workshops before-hand and reevaluating them during. I usually set aside two or three days to reflect on how the previous workshop went and work on the adjustments for the next workshop. This time-frame meant I could be very flexible and take on board many of the co-creators evaluations, but also allowed me to recognise when changes to be made fell outside this time-frame and thus my personal resources. 

I suspect that I will face many more challenges as I continue my journey as a facilitator, yet I am very proud already of how much my team and I have learned, grown and succeeded. However, most importantly, I am proud of all the co-creators who successfully conducted the co-creation workshops. They produced many co-created actions that are taking off. I look forward to the co-creation workshops still to come. Cheers from Glasgow. 

Find out more about Mira’s research project website: https://workplacehealthstudy.co.uk/

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