Very Excited that we got funding from Enterprise Solutions (University of Plymouth for our orbital life sciences project. Our most exciting and forward thinking project! https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/business-partners/enterprise-solutions.
Orbiting Life: Design, Launch & Recovery of Life Science Payloads for Space Research, R&D Solutions fund Call 7. 2024.
We will be organising a series of workshops to bring together experts in the field to discuss how we approach building capacity to send life science experiments to orbit!
In other news, I am giving a talk at the QUEST seminar series on Responsible Research. I be talking about my work on research priority setting and how I gradually try to build an evidence-based research group.
https://www.bihealth.org/en/translation/innovation-enabler/quest-center/events/course/quest-seminar-on-responsible-research
We had a successful co-creation workshop (metafuturism style!). This time we were on Europa, the moon of Jupiter! The challenges in the story helped the participants to explore the tension between stakeholders in co-creating or co-designing research. You can read more about it (and others news int he newsletter). Our next event is on 4 July focusing on Medical Devices between University of Plymouth and University Hospitals Plymouth.
In March, I will be giving organising a MFL workshop in Bristol and give a keynote talk in Tokyo. As part of my role as Director of Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR), we will be organising two events - one on Climate Change and Health and another one on Co-Creation and Co-design in Research in May. We will be also organising a joint research event with Derriford Hospital in July 2024.
For PIHR-related events, you can check the website of the Institute.
Tai Chi is increasingly becoming a central part of my daily practice. I started to write a few blog posts around it. This one is talking about the power of visualisation which not only is key in yoga and tai chi but even skydiving and other sports.
https://monanasser.wordpress.com/2024/06/16/visualisation-in-yoga-and-tai-chi/
World Immersive Learning Labs Symposium (WILL) 2024
25-26 March 2024
I am excited to give a keynote talk at the next World Immersive Learning Labs symposium.
I will be giving a talk entitled “Connected Realities: Bridging Cultures and Disciplines through Immersive Experiences”. I will talk about the experiences that we had with MetaFuturism Lab and how it has potential to be an environment for creative and innovative thinking. We had explored our approach in different areas and contexts including energy transitions, climate change, smart cities and metaverse.
Further information on the symposium is available here and you can learn more about MetaFuturism Lab here.
Clinical Trials in Future Mars Mission
As part of the National Student Space Conference (NSSC) 2024, I will be organising a workshop on Clinical Trials in Future Mars mission. It is one of my MetaFuturism Lab workshops in which people discuss clinical trials and what role they can play in future Mars missions. It gives people an opportunity how to re-think how clinical trials could fit in our communities if we start living on other planets.
Further information on the conference is available here.
Creative Robotics MetaFuturism Workshop
As part of the creative robotics programme of Hooman Samani at University of London, I organised with others a MetaFuturism lab workshop in Nov 2023. It asked to re-think the role of robots in a dystopian future that is affected by extreme weathers of flooding and drought.
There were some amazing ideas and prototypes that the students created in the workshop.
You can learn more about MetaFuturism Lab here.
Exploring reporting and publication practices associated with in-vitro research at the workshop
I was invited speaker on a small, interdisciplinary and focused workshop around non-animal methods in biomedical research. The workshop was on “Interdisciplinary perspectives on cultures of change around non-animal methods (NAMS) in the biomedical sciences” organised by University of Exeter.
It was a very lively conversation from different perspectives. My talk explored how the scientific practices of in-vitro researchers can affect influence what data gets recorded, reported or published.
From Dentistry to Space: the Pathway of Evidence-Informed Research
When you become a professor, you give an inaugural talk. It supposed to include your journey as a researcher, the key research projects that you have done, and what you have achieved. I gave mine in Oct 2023. I enjoyed reflecting back on my career - the success, failures, and challenges. It gave me an opportunity to reflect. You can listen to the talk here.