We are thrilled to share the fantastic news that our Health CASCADE research fellow, Dr Jorge R Zapata successfully defended his PhD thesis at Fundació Blanquerna on Wednesday, 25th February 2026.

Jorge’s thesis, titled “EngAGE4Change: Co-creating outdoor spaces with older adults living in care homes and the community to promote physical activity and reduce loneliness —a Health CASCADE project,” provides valuable insights and contributions to the field. Jorge’s work was expertly guided by his supervisors, Dr. Maria Giné-Garriga, Dr Sacra M Torne, Prof Dawn Skelton, Prof Mai Chin A Paw and Philippa Dall.

The defence consisted of a presentation delivered before evaluators Wilbert den Hoed, Leon Staines Diaz, and Josefa Ros Velasco, who had reviewed Jorge’s thesis in advance and posed a series of challenging questions.

Jorge has been awarded Sobresaliente, the highest grade that can be granted to a doctoral thesis in Spain – what an achievement!

Jorge has published findings from his research in academic journals, which can be accessed here.

We wish Jorge every success in his future career. 

Congratulations once again, Dr!

We are delighted to share the exciting news that Dr. Rabab Chrifou successfully defended her PhD thesis at Ghent University on Wednesday 19th November 2025.

Rabab’s research was part of an interdisciplinary PhD focusing on the ethical aspects of collaborative research within health promotion. Her thesis was titled, “Cultivating ethical awareness within collaborative research for health promotion”.

Rabab’s work was expertly guided and supported by her supervisory team, which included her primary supervisors Dr. Maïté Verloigne and Dr. Farah Focquaert. Others on the supervisory board included Dr. Teatske Altenburg, Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Dr. Sarah Banks and Dr. Benedicte Deforche.

The examination committee for the defence included Dr. Barbara Groot-Sluijsmans, Dr. Kristien Hens, Dr. Kenneth Chambaere, Dr. Kristof Van Assche, Dr. Heidi Mertes and Dr. Anneke Vandendriessche.

Rabab has published findings from her research in academic journals, which can be accessed here.

Once again, a huge congratulations to Dr Rabab Chrifou – we can’t wait to see what you do next!

We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Dr. Qingfan An successfully defended her PhD thesis at Umeå University on Friday 21st November 2025.

Qingfan’s thesis was titled “Empowering Healthcare Through Design: Building Trust in Co-Creation and Design Research through the Lens of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”.

Qingfan’s work was expertly guided and supported by her supervisory team, which included Prof. Karin Wadell and Prof. Marlene Sandlund.

Prof. Stefan Holmlid (Linköping University) acted as the Opponent for the defence. 

Qingfan has published findings from her research in academic journals, which can be accessed here.

Once again, a huge congrats to Dr Qingfan An – we wish you all the success for the future!

We are thrilled to share the exciting news that Dr. Lea Rahel Delfmann successfully defended her PhD thesis at Ghent University on Wednesday 18th June 2025.

Her thesis, titled “Investigating the added value of co-adaptation — A healthy sleep intervention with and for adolescents”, explored how co-creation and co-adaptation with adolescents can promote healthy sleep in school settings.

The exploration into co-adaptation has yielded several key insights. Co-adaptation was well-received by the adolescents who participated in the process. The study of adolescent sleep health reveals its complexity and suggests that a systems approach could be beneficial. One of the primary advantages of co-adaptation appears to be the enhancement of intervention acceptance among participants. However, the value of co-adaptation is likely context-dependent, indicating that decisions regarding its implementation should involve a careful consideration of the associated costs and benefits.

Lea’s work was expertly guided and supported by her supervisory team, which included Prof. Dr. Maïté Verloigne, Prof. Dr. Benedicte Deforche, Prof. Dr. Greet Cardon, Prof. Dr Simon C  Hunter, and Dr. Anneke Vandendriessche.

We are delighted to announce the wonderful news that Dr. Janneke de Boer, successfully defended her PhD thesis at Ghent University on Thursday 22nd May 2025. Her thesis, titled “Co-creation for Implementation and Adaptation: Engaging School Staff in School Health Promotion,” reflected on the strengths and challenges of co-creating with teachers.

Engaging teachers in the co-creation process proved challenging, primarily due to the time-intensive nature of co-creation. As a result, it was crucial to tailor the co-creation process to meet the specific needs of school staff to develop a relevant and feasible implementation plan. This tailored approach facilitated more positive co-creation experiences. Findings from Janneke’s PhD thesis indicate that teachers generally prefer guided co-creation processes. These structured approaches offer greater time efficiency, allowing school staff to participate more effectively, while still providing a sense of ownership and decision-making power.

Janneke’s work was expertly guided by her supervisory team, which included Prof. Dr. Greet Cardon, Prof. Dr. Maïté Verloigne, Prof. Dr. Benedicte Deforche, Dr. Teatske Altenburg, and Dr. Veerle Van Oeckel.

Congratulations to Danielle Marie Agnello on passing her PhD Viva with minor corrections on Monday 14th April at Glasgow Caledonian University! 

Danielle’s PhD thesis, titled “How to Co-Create: A Compendium of Methods for Co-Creating Solutions to Complex and Wicked Problems in Public Health,” was supervised by Professor Sebastien Chastin and Professor Artur Steiner. 

The Viva was chaired by Professor Dawn Skelton, with examiners Dr Julie Cowie, Glasgow Caledonian University and Professor Abby C. King, Stanford University. 

To celebrate this achievement, Danielle enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Health Cascade colleagues, other PhD peers and her husband.

We are delighted to share the news that our Health CASCADE research fellow, Dr. Vinayak Anand-Kumar, successfully defended his PhD thesis at Constructor University Bremen, Germany, on Thursday, 23rd January 2025.

His thesis, titled “Applying co-creation to develop behaviour change interventions: Analysing the design, build and evaluation of digital health interventions,” was highly appreciated by the five reviewers and the committee consisting of Prof. Dr. Margrit Schreier, Prof. Dr. Maria Giné Garriga, Dr. Martina Schmiedhofer and Dr. Dimitra Pappa, as well as Prof. Dr. Sonia Lippke acting as chair. 

The dissertation by Vinayak Anand-Kumar provided insight into co-creation methods from an applied perspective. He conducted several studies, starting from designing co-creation research, recruiting co-creators and other aspects related to planning such work, how to actually conduct such research, up to evaluating and aggregating diverse data including qualitative and quantitative methods. The research questions investigated were based on rationales from public health, health psychology and empirical methods. The thesis consists of a general introduction and a summarizing discussion as well as five empirical studies, starting out with a focus on the healthcare system and digital health interventions, DHI, aka dHealth. The thesis also investigated important aspects relating to health behavior change and study adherence, i.e. how to deal with missing data and predicting clinical outcomes and costs of treatment. The thesis was well grounded in different theories such as Empowerment Theory. Vinayak Anand-Kumar retrieved important findings and concluded with implications for future research.

During the defense, a large group of fellows and consortium colleagues attended the presentation and Q&A session, and provided emotional support, as they had been doing during the last three years.

Now, it is the time to wish him every success with his future and that his findings will improve the science and practice of co-creation.

Congratulations once again, Vinny! We are very happy together with you.