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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a One Health problem underpinned by complex drivers and behaviours. This is particularly so in low – and middle-income countries (LMICs), where social and systemic factors fuel (mis)use and drive AMR. Behavioural change around antimicrobial use could safeguard both existing and future treatments. However, changing behaviour necessitates engaging with people to understand their experiences. This publication describes a knowledge-exchange cluster of six LMIC-based projects who co-designed and answered a series of research questions around the usage of Community Engagement (CE) within AMR. Findings suggest that CE can facilitate AMR behaviour change, specifically in LMICs, because it is a contextualised approach which supports communities to develop locally meaningful solutions. However, current CE interventions focus on human aspects, and demand-side drivers, of AMR. Our cluster suggests that broader attention should be paid to AMR as a One Health issue. The popularity of mixed methods approaches within existing CE for AMR interventions suggests there is interdisciplinary interest in the uptake of CE. Unfortunately, the specificity and context-dependency of CE can make it difficult to evaluate and scale. Nevertheless, we suggest that in synthesising learnings from CE, we can develop a collective understanding of its scope to tackle AMR across contexts.

Global health crisis, such as antimicrobial resistance, threaten planetary health, as they have a direct impact on the environment, as well as to humans and animals. Personal and environmental hygiene form the best and most natural ways of reducing home infections and hence the need to take antibiotics. Despite this our understanding of cleaning in the home and interventions on home cleaning are limited. In this paper we present a project, which combined design research with environmental microbiology, to address this issue and to co-design sustainable cleaning interventions for human and planetary health. We focus on the design of a co-design workshop which led to the development of cleaning interventions tested for a month by several households. We share the challenges faced and the lessons learnt, which we envisage will help guide design researchers moving into this exciting research field of planetary and human health.

With an increase in international projects, comes increased opportunities for design researchers to contribute to research that tackles Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South. Nevertheless, the role of design within this context is disparate and detached, with very limited design literature on the subject. As such, this paper has identified the key challenges and barriers that design researchers face in conducting and applying design research in a Global South Context. Based on a workshop with design research experts doing research in Global South, the literature and lessons learnt from running a design-led project in Ghana, we are presenting and discussing 45 challenges grouped under 13 themes. We envisage that these will form the first step towards developing strategies for mitigating these challenges and help current and future design researchers to engage further in international research in the Global South.

The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to present design research work that crosses into specialist medical areas, in this instance that of antimicrobial resistance (AMR); and secondly, to contribute to the debate on the need for design driven research to explore alternative ways of delivering healthcare by focusing on preventive design responses. These points are addressed in the exploration of an international design-led research project, Dust Bunny. The project uniquely combines design research and microbiology to provide an informed assessment of societal practices in domestic cleanliness and to co-create novel solutions that reduce infections in the home. The findings and experiences from this unique transdisciplinary collaboration (design, microbiology, epidemiology and social science) reveal several insights on the challenges and opportunities on challenging the boundaries of design thinking.

The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to present design research work that crosses into specialist medical areas, in this instance that of antimicrobial resistance (AMR); and secondly, to contribute to the debate on the need for design driven research to explore alternative ways of delivering healthcare by focusing on preventive design responses. These points are addressed in the exploration of an international design-led research project, Dust Bunny. The project uniquely combines design research and microbiology to provide an informed assessment of societal practices in domestic cleanliness and to co-create novel solutions that reduce infections in the home. The findings and experiences from this unique transdisciplinary collaboration (design, microbiology, epidemiology and social science) reveal several insights on the challenges and opportunities on challenging the boundaries of design thinking.