The European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH) is arranging a co-creation week for advanced students, early career researchers, staff members and non-university

stakeholders to co-design a project, product, or concept related to Global Health.

CO-CREATING COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH -

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND PRACTICE PROMOTING WELLBEING AND GROWTH

APRIL 07 – 11, 2025 AT UIT THE ARCTIC UNIVERSITY OF NORWAY

This activity focuses on the exchange and co-creation between an international, young academic generation and partners in society and industry. By jointly working on a challenge provided by our non-university partners to develop a prototype, the co-creation week aims to expand the European University Alliance beyond its academic nucleus.

The different academic and non-academic perspectives on a given challenge will contribute

(i) to the expansion of the pool of knowledge within academia,
(ii) to the enhancement of cooperation between university and industry/society,
(iii) to opening (career) pathways beyond academia,
(iv) to establish a trajectory towards a EUGLOH think tank
(v) to making universities more transparent and approachable,
(vi) to the best-practice exchange on how to foster collaboration betweenacademia and society/industry
(vii) to highlighting Global Health as an interdisciplinary field.

 

Structure and program

UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) invites students and staff to a challenge-based co-creation week on collaborative research. The Arctic Research Center for Children and Youth at Risk (Arctic Youth) at UiT will host and lead the workshop. Through collaborative research, Arctic Youth aims to investigate the empowerment and strengthening of participation for vulnerable children and young people (in the arctic).  In the workshop, participants, members from Arctic Youth and non-university stakeholders will work together in co-creative teams to tackle challenges related to the center’s research activities.

The workshop is open to master students, PhD candidates, early career researchers and postdoctoral fellows, faculty staff and other staff working on issues in co-creation and knowledge exchange.

In the workshop, lectures will highlight central methodological and theoretical aspects of collaborative research: Designing projects, critical perspectives, and reflections and ethics. The lectures are combined with challenge-based sessions in multidisciplinary workgroups, consisting of EUGLOH participants, members of Arctic Youth, user organizations, external stakeholders, and Nordic partners.

The co-creation week will be held onsite at the Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway from April 7. – 11. 2025. The workshop is open to 36 participants, 16 students and 16 staff-members, from the nine partner universities. The applicants must state two of the challenges below in their motivational letter and may be selected to one of those challenges based on 1) professional motivation and expected benefit, 2) compatibility of expertise and competence with the selected challenge, and 3) balance of gender, seniority, scientific and professional background and home institutions in each work group.

The co-creation week will include coffee breaks and two free lunches, one joint dinner, and social events. The participants may use the remaining lunch slots as they want, and we encourage using them for networking with local staff from their field of expertise. The organizing committee may help establish contact in this regard.

Collaborative research and practice promoting wellbeing and growth

The workshop “Collaborative research and practice promoting wellbeing and growth” belongs under the umbrella of an action research approach called Participatory and Appreciative Action Research (PAAR) and is illuminated across all challenges.

The three defining characteristics of PAAR are that it is participatory, appreciative, and reflective in its approach to generating practical knowledge. It is an improvement-oriented, collaborative methodology. Collaborative research is a style of democratic research concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes. PAAR brings together action and reflection, with the participation of a range of stakeholders to identify and amplify current achievements and to produce practical solutions in misalignments between values and actions. PAAR actively draws upon participation and its associated process of deliberative democracy. Together these demonstrate a commitment to positively engage and provide equal opportunities for all those involved.

Collaborative research symbolizes a move away from deficit-based thinking and actions to more strengths-based ones. It is heavily influenced by the principles and processes of applied positive psychology. Over the last ten years in the Arctic, the collaborative methodology has been a part of many major, funded projects and local initiatives at municipality level. Collaborative research is the cornerstone of which the workshop will build upon.

The themes ofthe challenges are:

  1. Supporting youth in their local communities through inter-agency and interdisciplinary approaches in welfare services – How can it be facilitated?
  2. Empowering School Collaboration. Safe and brave spaces to promote mattering.
  3. Professional practices and research promoting youth wellbeing in Sápmi.
  4. Using creative methods in a group setting
  5. How can we enhance youth participation and inclusion in social development?
  6. Innovative Digital Learning.  What can digital innovation look like in interdisciplinary projects?

Click the titles for a description of each challenge.