AB1627-HPR DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACTIONABLE AND COMPREHENSIVE STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT STRATEGY FOR COMPLEX MULTINATIONAL PROJECTS: THE SQUEEZE EXPERIENCE

Effective Stakeholder Engagement for Better Water and Energy Governance

In England, care homes are the primary providers of long-term care for older adults. The increasing recognition of the importance of social care underscores the importance of collaboration between the National Health Service and care homes. The lack of data sharing among stakeholders limits opportunities for co-ordinated care, service development and research. Identify how to support research, service development and innovation in care homes. Combine existing evidence with care home-generated resident data to create a minimum data set that is relevant and usable for stakeholders, including residents, relatives, practitioners, researchers, regulators and commissioners. The study used a mixed-methods approach, structured into five work packages, supported by patient and public involvement and engagement with residents, carers and staff: Work package 1: Conducted two evidence reviews on outcome measures and factors enhancing research productivity in care homes. Work package 2: Created a trial archive for secondary data analysis. Work package 3: Conducted a scoping review, a realist review and a national survey to define minimum data set content and assess implementation challenges in English care homes. Work package 4: Linked residents' data from National Health Service and social care data sets with data from study care homes, deriving useful minimum data set variables and assessing data quality. Work package 5: Piloted the minimum data set at two points in care homes within three integrated care systems, conducted focus groups and interviews with care home and integrated care system staff. Three national consultations explored how stakeholders use resident information, measure quality of life and minimum data set usefulness. Additionally, subprojects examined data availability in domiciliary settings, staff reasoning when assessing resident well-being and completing research during rapid policy changes. The reviews revealed significant heterogeneity in outcome measurement and questioned the appropriateness of some methods and measures used for care home research. The Virtual International Care Home Trials Archive merged data from 6 United Kingdom randomised controlled trials with 5674 residents across 308 care homes. International minimum data set studies are a valuable resource for international comparative research. The wide range of measures used are mostly clinical with under-representation of measures important to care homes (e.g. quality of life). A national survey of care homes demonstrated the range of information, including clinical measures being routinely collected. The realist review identified motivation, front-line staff monitoring and embedded recording systems as important for minimum data set implementation. The pilot study recruited 996 residents from 45 care homes, with 727 residents' data included in the minimum data set. Residents' digital care records were linked to statutory health and social care data sets, creating a viable minimum data set prototype with metadata as resource. The study provided an evidence-based critique of care home research and a resource for secondary data analysis for future research. It developed a prototype minimum data set linking National Health Service, social care and care home data, demonstrating its importance as a basis for discussions between health and care staff. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted relationships and recruitment. Governance challenges prevented linking residents' data to general practitioner records. Future research should assess whether the care home minimum data set improves resident outcomes, service delivery, staff experience, cross-sector collaboration, resource use and digital technology implementation. This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as award number NIHR127234.

Marine biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human activities, necessitating robust monitoring to assess conservation and restoration efforts. Traditional methods, such as fisheries surveys and diver observations, are invasive, incomplete, and limited in scale. Deployable multi-sensor systems present a promising alternative for large-scale, long-term monitoring of marine animals, with passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) emerging as a particularly effective approach. Commonly applied to birds, PAM records animal sounds to monitor species presence. Since sound travels farther than light underwater and many marine species communicate acoustically, PAM is well-suited for marine environments. However, its application for fish and invertebrates remains restricted due to the lack of species-specific reference sounds and labour-intensive manual data analysis. This EngD thesis aims to enhance the efficiency of PAM and support its integration into autonomous multi-sensor monitoring systems. The work is structured into four work packages (WPs): WP1 focuses on collecting underwater acoustic data for species identification and training deep learning models; WP2 involves designing adaptable sound detection models capable of performing across diverse environments with minimal training data; in WP3 an embedded, autonomous underwater recorder is developed with onboard processing capabilities; and WP4 introduces a dashboard for real-time visualisation and communication of acoustic data, supporting outreach activities such as stakeholder engagement and public participation. Data were collected through field deployments, collaborations, and open-access repositories to train automatic sound detectors. An active learning workflow, Agile Modelling, was adapted to rapidly develop fish sound detectors with minimal manual effort, proving effective across various marine environments and sound types. In a pilot study using North Sea recordings, a model trained for only one hour achieved a precision of 0.98 and a recall of 0.53 in detecting putative fish sounds. A prototype autonomous underwater sound and video recorder was also built and successfully deployed. A real-time dashboard was developed to display animal sound detections, using previously trained models. Further integration is needed in the audio-video recorder to enable onboard data processing, including support for deep learning models and connectivity to dashboards, facilitating use by biological researchers. This work advances the feasibility of PAM for fish and invertebrates by addressing critical bottlenecks in data analysis and taking a step forward towards efficient collection of reference sounds. The developed tools and methods enhance marine biodiversity monitoring across broad spatial and temporal scales, supporting improved ecosystem assessments and conservation efforts.

Background and aimPatient and public involvement (PPI) has potential to enhance health‐care research and is increasingly an expectation, particularly for many funding bodies. However, PPI can be tokenistic, which may limit this potential. Furthermore, few studies report PPI processes and impact, particularly in doctoral research studies, which are seldom reported in peer‐reviewed papers. The aim of this paper was to explore the impact of PPI on two health‐related doctoral research studies and identify how PPI could be used meaningfully at this level.MethodThe PPI processes included (a) involvement of two ‘Research Buddies’ who informed the research design and ensured implementation of a booklet intervention was feasible for family carers, (b) data analysis workshops with ‘Research Buddies’ to identify emerging themes from practitioner interviews, (c) public and stakeholder involvement who informed data collection tool design, and the design of an intervention to help people with obesity who attend weight loss groups.FindingsThe application of PPI enhanced both doctoral studies by assisting data analysis; problem solving and improving recruitment rates; improving the usability and appeal of data collection tools and interventions; and developing implementation strategies. Patient and public involvement was considered a rewarding experience for both researchers and PPI contributors.ConclusionThis paper demonstrates the value of PPI in doctoral research in relation to its impact on research processes, researchers and contributors. We also present recommendations on how PPI could be incorporated into future doctoral research, including resources required, planning PPI processes and involving PPI contributors in all stages of research.

Stakeholder satisfaction is an ongoing challenge in managing a project, especially in complex projects where poor communication, a lack of leadership support, and poor knowledge sharing have been common and result in poor outcomes. This research study seeks to investigate the direct and indirect impact of communication effectiveness, leadership support, stakeholder engagement and team coordination to stakeholder satisfaction by taking a mediator (knowledge sharing) and a moderator (project complexity). A quantitative cross-sectional survey was performed among 320 professionals in the field of project in various industries. Data were analyzed by using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling or PLS-SEM. Results show knowledge sharing has a strong positive effect on the relationship with the stakeholder satisfaction (β = 0.539 and the p value to 0.001), and mediates on the relationship of the communication effectiveness (β equal to 0.136 and the p value to 0.001), the leadership support (β = 0.135 and the p value to 0.001), the satisfaction of the stakeholder (β = 0.171 and the p value to 0.001), and the coordination of the Project complexity had a moderating impact on some relationships, significantly increasing the negative impact on knowledge sharing of communication effectiveness (β =0.0126, p<.001)) as well as the positive impact on stakeholder satisfaction of leadership support (β =0.079, p=0.003). Findings indicate that organisations should be concerned with improvements in knowledge-sharing mechanisms, leadership support and project complexity will dictate how the communication should be structured to gain higher levels of satisfaction from its stakeholders. These insights provide both a theoretical and practical contribution for proper project management in a complex environment.

BackgroundStakeholder engagement is increasingly crucial in healthcare research, particularly in diverse and complex settings such as India. Stakeholder engagement in health research is about collaborating with key parties such as patients, healthcare providers and policymakers to ensure the research is relevant and impactful by addressing real-world needs, thereby enhancing its quality and effect on healthcare practices.AimThe purpose of this study was to summarize the evidence on stakeholder engagement in healthcare research and its influence on research outcomes and healthcare policies in India.MethodsThe evaluation was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, SCOPUS, ProQuest, EMBASE, Web of Science, CINAHL Indian Citation Index and J-Gate, focussing on stakeholder involvement in healthcare settings in hospitals and communities in India. Various research methodologies were employed, with studies not centred on healthcare stakeholder engagement or unrelated sectors being excluded. Tools such as the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist for qualitative studies and the mixed methods appraisal tool were used to evaluate the quality of the studies. Data synthesis was carried out using the descriptive/narrative synthesis approach.ResultsWe included 25 articles on the basis of our eligibility criteria. These articles comprised reviews, theories of change, quantitative studies, reports, mapping, commentaries, conference proceedings, qualitative studies, experience papers and mixed methods research. The review examined different types and methods of engaging stakeholders in healthcare research projects, evaluated their influence on evidence-based practice, and investigated their relevance to reaching “hard-to-reach” populations. Overcoming financial, time, knowledge and logistical barriers and gaining support from international and governmental bodies can lead to more inclusive research with a significant impact.ConclusionsFindings suggest that stakeholder engagement contributes to more contextually relevant and ethically grounded research, though challenges related to power dynamics, resource allocation and inclusivity remain prevalent. The review concludes by providing recommendations for enhancing stakeholder engagement practices in future healthcare research in India, emphasizing the need for capacity-building and inclusive frameworks that ensure diverse voices are represented.

Anxiety is a common mental illness that can occur during and after pregnancy, which is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes for women and their infants. Despite this, there is no consensus on the best method of assessing anxiety. The methods of assessing perinatal anxiety (MAP) study aimed to identify the most acceptable, effective and feasible method for assessing anxiety in pregnancy and after birth. The MAP study had four work packages: a qualitative and cognitive interview study (work package 1); a prospective longitudinal cohort study of women during pregnancy (early, mid- and late pregnancy) and post partum, with nested diagnostic interviews (work package 2) and implementation case studies (work package 3). Secondary analysis of cohort data was commissioned as an add-on project to examine the impact of socioeconomic deprivation on perinatal anxiety (work package 4). The MAP study evaluated four assessment measures based on clinical criteria and research evidence: the General Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, 2-item, or 7-item version scale, Whooley questions, Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - 10 item version scale. Qualitative and cognitive interviews (work package 1) were conducted with 41 pregnant and postpartum women, recruited through patient and public involvement representative organisations and social media. The MAP cohort (work package 2) included 2243 women recruited through 12 National Health Service Trusts in England and 5 National Health Service Boards in Scotland. Diagnostic interviews were conducted with a consecutive subsample of 403 participants. Implementation case studies (work package 3) were conducted with two National Health Service sites in England and one in Scotland. Routine assessment of perinatal anxiety was acceptable to women and was viewed positively, although this was qualified by the extent to which the process was informed and personalised. Results from cognitive interviews found that all measures were acceptable and easy to use. Diagnostic accuracy was greatest for the Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - 10 item version. Increased anxiety on all measures was associated with greater difficulties with daily living, poorer quality of life and participants wanting treatment. Early pregnancy (i.e. the first trimester) was the optimal time for identifying participants with anxiety disorders who wanted treatment. Two measures met criteria for implementation: the Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - 10 item version. The Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale was preferred by stakeholders (41 women and 55 health professionals), so it was implemented. Acceptability to health professionals (N = 27) of routine assessment using the Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale was good. Potential barriers to conducting assessments informed the development of a guide to implementation. The prevalence of anxiety disorders was 19.9% (confidence interval 16.1 to 24.1), with highest prevalence in early pregnancy (25.5%, confidence interval 17.4 to 35.1). A complex relationship was found between regional deprivation and perinatal anxiety, with regional differences in prevalence being explained by sociodemographic composition. The MAP cohort had a greater ethnic diversity than the general population, but participants were highly educated. The study evaluated four measures, so it could not determine whether other measures are more effective. The qualitative and observational research design means causality could not be inferred. The MAP study found that routine assessment of perinatal anxiety is acceptable to women and is feasible to implement in National Health Service services. The Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale and Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - 10 item version were most effective at identifying women with perinatal anxiety disorders who wanted treatment. Further research is needed to determine whether implementing routine assessment of perinatal anxiety results in improved outcomes for women and children. This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as award number 17/105/16.

Purpose The study investigates stakeholder engagement in public procurement of works within tertiary institutions in Ghana, emphasizing its role in advancing environmental sustainability. It aims to determine the present level of stakeholder engagement, assess stakeholders' understanding of environmental sustainability and explore barriers hindering effective engagement. Design/methodology/approach Structured questionnaires were administered to procurement professionals, stakeholders and institutional representatives. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test, and mean score ranking to identify patterns, levels and barriers to stakeholder engagement. Findings The results highlight that stakeholder engagement is most prominent at the preparation and planning stage, while later procurement phases, such as tendering and contract implementation, experience reduced participation. Stakeholders demonstrated a generally high understanding of environmental sustainability. However, significant barriers were identified, including difficulty in identifying representatives, lack of clear benefits and financial constraints. These systemic and resource-related challenges limit comprehensive stakeholder involvement across procurement phases. Practical implications The findings emphasize the need for tertiary institutions to adopt comprehensive stakeholder mapping, implement structured engagement frameworks and promote transparency. Tailored training programs and adequate resource allocation are necessary to overcome identified barriers and ensure sustainable procurement practices. Originality/value This study offers new insights into stakeholder engagement in Ghana's tertiary institutions, providing a localized understanding of the interplay between procurement practices and environmental sustainability. It proposes practical strategies to enhance participation and sustainability outcomes, aligning procurement processes with global best practices.

Environmental pollution threatens public health and has become a social concern in recent years. Despite the conditions for public participation in environmental governance have improved considerably, the level of public engagement in government projects still falls short of expectations. Therefore, this article introduced two key variables, hoping to answer the following research question that how environmental concerns and governance performance affect public environmental participation. Through principal component analysis of the data from the “Survey of Chinese Urban Residents’ Attitudes toward Environmental Protection”, the findings of this article are as follows: First, public environmental concerns have no significant impact on their environmental engagement; second, the improvement of residents’ confidence in the government performance of environmental management reduces their willingness to participate in official projects. The higher the confidence in the government’s performance, the lower the level of public engagement is. Moreover, due to the consideration of self-interest or lack of environmental awareness, those who oppose waste incineration in waste terminal disposal tend to take a non-participatory role in waste sorting programs. Therefore, we suggest that the government have more diverse shareholders in environmental protection, so it should expand public participation through education, publicity, mobilization, and incentives.

The aim of this paper is to investigates whether the level of materiality, stakeholder engagement, and corporate governance disclosure enhance the quality of sustainability reporting. The quality measured the by four indexed information dimensions: relative quantity disclosure, density, accuracy, and management orientation. A quantitative content analysis was undertaken on 172 sustainability reports of non-financial Indonesian companies from 2016 to 2020. The hypothesis were tested using a panel data approach. The regression test showed that the level of materiality, stakeholder engagement, and corporate governance disclosure does not lead to the improvement of sustainability reporting quality. Further analysis on each quality dimension found that materiality disclosure has a significant positive effect on the relative quantity disclosure and has no significant effect on companies’ density, accuracy, and management orientation of companies. On the other hand, stakeholder engagement and corporate governance disclosure have no significant effect on the quality index, which is consistent with the main test. These results indicate that materiality disclosure has become one of the crucial aspect for companies that significantly increasing their disclosure intention. Furthermore, companies should pay more attention to the quality of information disclosed in materiality disclosures. Finally, government must evaluate the regulation that can encourage companies to present information relevant to sustainability, which can improve the sustainability reporting quality.

As the City of Houston's Bureau of Air Quality Control embraced new policies, technologies, and rhetorical strategies, they simultaneously moved through Lukensmeyer and Torres's “four levels of public involvement,” which include the information, consultation, engagement, and collaboration levels (Lukensmeyer & Torres, 2006). Because of the technical and scientific nature of air quality inspections, increasing public involvement, especially the involvement of those in a predominantly African American and a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, has been a challenge. This article describes the Bureau's journey through the information level, where the Bureau opens public access and participation in the investigation and reporting process; the consultation level, where Bureau staff go door-to-door in poor and minority neighborhoods collecting citizen feedback regarding perceived environmental hazards; the engagement level, where the Bureau conducts monthly environmental meetings with neighborhood residents; and the collaboration level, where citizens are taught to collect evidence of environmental violations.

Worldwide, there are increasingly high expectations when it comes to service delivery. Service delivery is expected both from the public and private sectors. Infrastructure is one of the areas on which citizens rely in their day-to-day activities. Many countries, both developed and developing, are working hard to improve their infrastructure with the objective of achieving this and providing service to their citizens. Kenya's highways have not achieved the desired milestone. Despite the increased funding, this can be associated with rampant corruption and mismanagement of financial allocations, among others. This has left citizens without the desired services from the Kenya National Highway Authority. Thus, the current study aimed at establishing the role of public participation in service delivery by public sector organizations. A case of Kenya's national highway authority. The study was guided by two objectives, which include the role of stakeholder engagement in service delivery at the Kenya National Highway Authority and the influence of public involvement in decision-making on service delivery at the Kenya National Highway Authority. The communicative action theory anchored the research. The target population was a total of 118 employees of the Kenya National Highway Authority in the Nairobi region. The sample size of 91 respondents was calculated using Yamane's 1967 formula. The study used a descriptive research design to examine how the variables were related. The research used a well-structured questionnaire to collect primary data from the respondents. The questionnaire was administered electronically, and the respondents were requested to fill it out and return it. The validity and reliability of the data collection instruments were ascertained using content validity and a pilot test for reliability. Further, a multiple linear regression was done to assess the relationship between the study variables, both independent and dependent variables. Data analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed that public participation improved Service Delivery at the Kenya National Highway Authority. Further, stakeholder engagement will improve service delivery at the Kenya National Highway Authority by 0.420 units, and public involvement in decision-making will improve service delivery at the Kenya National Highway Authority by 0.578 units. In conclusion, the study found that the two variables, stakeholder engagement and Public Involvement in decision-making, significantly explained the service delivery at Kenya's national highway authority. Thus, the study recommended that there should be active citizen involvement in decision-making as well as stakeholder engagement by providing platforms to establish further areas of expansion for improved service delivery. Further study can be done to explore road safety measures and traffic management strategies implemented by the Kenya National Highway Authority.

IntroductionNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) present a significant health challenge globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Effective Implementation Research (IR) is vital in addressing this challenge, with stakeholder engagement playing...

The NEXUS project involves innovation and entrepreneurship. The first task of the project team, which is eclectic and includes several different profiles (research assistants, researchers, managers, engineers, designers and marketing specialists) was to do a stakeholder analysis, which involved doing some field work – six unstructured interviews – as well as some secondary data analysis (scientific articles on the Scopus database; Google searches; among others). The main concerns were to: unlock value through stakeholder engagement; move from concept to collaboration – for sustainable port development; and to connect ports worldwide which will involve international stakeholder collaboration and synergies for sustainable innovation. A Stakeholder analysis is a process consisting of identifying the individuals or groups that have a specific interest in a project, which can affect them, or be affected by them, including large groups such as customers and suppliers; employees; shareholders and investors. It is necessary to sort them according to their impact and consequences regarding the project. It is essential to manage stakeholder expectations when making decisions, especially in a project with thirty-five partners and with a global reach. The initial funding is around 92 million euros (approved by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP)), to ensure the ambitious implementation of the new NEXUS platform and other related products. To minimize backlash, early as well as ongoing stakeholder involvement is a prerequisite. Strategy formulation should not occur in an “ivory tower” and involvement is key. For effective and efficient decision-making, to minimize risks, which need to be identified as well as all the connections and relationships to be created and nurtured. The research question at the outset was: How may we successfully implement a multi-partner project which involves considerable investment, and which aims to digitalize maritime ports worldwide? The theme is, currently, without precedent as the impact intended is for there to be a positive impact on all stakeholders involved – a win-win situation all around. The project will finish in 31-12-2025 and will produce 28 innovative solutions for commercialization. NEXUS is a green and digital project which is up to date as regards the latest sustainability norms and regarding overall operational efficiency in multimodal logistics. Work Package 10 is a specific exploitation, internationalization, promotion, and dissemination package.

Stakeholder involvement has been a major requirement for effective, efficient, and fair risk governance. Since risk management includes uncertain outcomes that affect different parts of the population to different degrees it is essential to integrate the knowledge, values, and interests of stakeholders into the risk policy making process. The article provides insights into how to structure and organize stakeholder participation and how to cope with the challenges of complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. For each of the three challenges there is a need for specific input from stakeholders. The article describes these requirements and explains the formats that have been tested for providing this input to the risk governance process.