Provocations Seminar Series 1 Archive
NHS R&D North West in partnership with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of Liverpool has put together a series of 3 hour long online seminars based on themed “provocations”. The series will seek to bring HSS research to bear on the non-clinical elements of medical practice for Early Career Researchers within NHS NW R&D and inspire new forms of cross-disciplinary collaboration thinking broadly within the discipline of medical humanities and social sciences. The range of topics covered will be challenging and linked to possible interventions in the thinking and application of NHS practice and research.
The idea for this initiative emerged from conversations with individuals across the Faculty who already had some interest in health research, either directly or tangentially. It was becoming very clear from these conversations that the opportunity for developing a space to enable collaboration, knowledge exchange and impact as well as possible future collaboratives would be really powerful. Building on previous experience and the philosophical approach that underpins the work of NHS R&D NW, Dr Lucienne Loh and Dr Stuart Eglin discussed a practice-based approach for seminars, inspired by Open Space Technology, that is both democratic and highly participative.
For 10 years NHS R&D NW have been running a Catalyst Programme drawing on Open Space Technology. During COVID, the team developed online methods to deliver this approach and it is these methods that are adapted for this Provocations Seminar Series. The seminar is around two 45 minute “conversations” to allow all participants to work in smaller groups to consider the provocation and develop responses. These responses are then brought to the complete group in a final 30-minute session to summarise what has emerged and pull out any themes, calls to action and wider feedback. The online open space format is facilitated by an experienced NHS facilitator.
