PREMSTEM co-creation activities - Workshops 2 and 3

About PREMSTEM

PREMSTEM is a research project in the field of regenerative medicine which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement No 874721. PREMSTEM brings together world leading clinicians, researchers, stakeholder advocacy groups and an industrial partner with well-established experience in neonatology and drug development. The project started in January 2020 and will last for five years.

The research aims to develop a new therapy to treat brain damage associated with preterm birth. In this project, we are researching the use of stem cells donated from umbilical cord tissue as a therapy to improve the quality of life for preterm infants.

Co-creation activities

PREMSTEM is inviting people both directly and indirectly involved in the care of preterm babies to take part in a series of interactive and well-structured online co-creation activities (workshops and interviews) to provide insights which will help us to:

• Improve how we communicate to people about our research
• Identify the different points we need to consider when we write our strategy for taking our stem cell therapy to future clinical trials

What are the activities?

• 10 co-creation workshops (each lasting 3 hours) between June 2022 and June 2023. These will take place approximately once per month from 8am (Central European Time).
• A small number of one-on-one interviews to reveal deeper insights.

All activities will be run in English. Participation is voluntary and unpaid. For more information, please refer to the roadmap and workshop agenda.

Who's running the sessions?

This part of the project is coordinated by PREMSTEM consortium partner RMIT Europe and facilitated by Punk Design who are experts in design thinking, creative methodologies and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®.

Who can get involved?

We're looking for people who represent the following groups:

• PREMSTEM Patient/Consumer Advisory Board or patient/consumer organisation/advocacy groups
• PREMSTEM Ethics/Institutional Review Board committee
• Parents/carers of a preterm baby or young child who might be eligible for a future stem cell treatment and/or adults who were born preterm
• Parents/carers of a child with no known health issues
• Clinicians or other health professionals
• Researchers (preferably in the health sciences)
• Policy makers
• Governance/regulatory bodies
• Other interested parties

If you identify as belonging to one of these groups, we're waiting to hear from you! You must be over the age of 18 years old to take part.

How do I sign up?

Through this Eventbrite page, we invite you to join workshop 3:

• Workshop 3: Wednesday 27 July 2022 – 8-11am Central European Time / 4-7pm Australian Eastern Time

To protect personal identities, you'll be asked to choose an alias (alternative first and last name) during the sign up process. You'll use this alias when you attend any co-creation activities.

For more information, please refer to the Participant Information Sheet.

What happens next?

All participants in PREMSTEM co-creation activities will be required to read and understand an information document and sign an informed consent form prior to taking part. The PREMSTEM team will contact you to organise this and send you the Zoom link(s) to join the workshop(s).

Ethics approval

The PREMSTEM co-creation activities have been approved by the RMIT University STEM College Human Ethics Advisory Network as they meet the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (NHMRC, 2007).