General Assembly 2025

Come join us for the EIC General Assembly 2025 on October 23rd from 2.00 - 3.30pm CET online!

We invite all EIC members to join us for our 10-year anniversary edition of the EIC General Assembly!

You can find the agenda for the EIC's General Assembly here. Highlights will include:

A report and update on EIC activities since the last General Assembly in October 2024.
A session led by the winners of the EIE2025 Spark & Shift Award, exploring the potential of music and singing as arts-based methods for co-production in implementation science. Facilitated by Anne MacFarlane, Anna Papya, Sarbik Guha, and Helen Phelan. See more info below!

Are you an EIC member and would like to join the General Assembly? Please register here.

We are proud to present the winner of the EIE2025 Spark & Shift Award 2025

Time to sing? The use of music and singing as participatory methods to facilitate co-production in implementation science

Anne MacFarlane, Anna Papya, Sarbik Guha, Helen Phelan

Implementation science is paying much-needed attention to issues of equity. This includes attention to more meaningful co-production processes with communities who experience health disparities, such as refugees and migrants. In this session, we will present radical thinking about the potential of music and singing as arts-based methods for co-production in implementation science. We will present the ‘Irish World Music Café’ method, providing participants with an opportunity to observe/participate in the participatory potential of the whole-body sensorium through the use of musical activities. We will have time for Q&A to hear participants’ reflections of the ideas and methods explored.

Professor Anne MacFarlane, B.A., M.A., PhD

Professor of Primary Healthcare Research, School of Medicine

Anne is founder and overall academic lead for the PPI Research Unit. She is the Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Migrant’s Involvement in Health Research which is hosted in the Unit. She is a social scientist with more than 25 years’ experience using qualitative research methods in health services research. She has specialist expertise in participatory health research, particularly in relation to migrant health. Anne is Principal Investigator for a number of participatory health research projects (see our Research tab). She established and led PPI as a theme in the Health Research Institute (HRI) (2016-2019) to build capacity in the UL health research community for partnered research across topics and disciplines. Anne is involved with international collaborations in Europe and North America to advance the evidence base about best practice for PPI and participatory health research. She is active in projects with WHO Europe, the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research and the North American Primary Care Research Group. Her current research interests include the sociological concept of space and how this can enhance understanding of participatory spaces in health.

Professor Helen Phelan, B.A., B.Mus., H.Dip (Ed.), M.A., PhD.

Professor of Arts Practice and Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance

Helen Phelan is Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland. As Professor of Arts Practice, she is an internationally recognised advocate for the integration of artistic methods into research cultures. She is a multi-award winning Irish Research Council recipient for her work on music and migration, including her current IRC COALESCE award (ADD: The Arts, Data Literacy and Diversity) with Professor of Biomedical Statistics, Ailish Hannigan. She is founder of the UL Singing and Social Inclusion research group, co-founder of the female vocal ensemble Cantoral, and current Chair of IMBAS, a national network for artistic research in Ireland. Recent books include Singing the Rite to Belong: Music, Ritual and the New Irish (Oxford University Press), and The Artist and Academia (Routledge) edited with Graham Welch. She was appointed Principle Investigator for the Health Research Institute PART-IM (Participatory and Arts-Based Methods involving Migrants in Health Research) research cluster from 2019-2023. Since 2023, she is the co-director, with Professor Anne MacFarlane, of the Participatory Health Research Unit, a World Health Organisation collaborating centre at the University of Limerick.

Anna Papyan

Research Assistant, PPI Ignite Networks-UL

Anna is a graduate of sociology from Yerevan State University, Armenia․ With extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, she has worked on a variety of research projects in health, education, migration, human rights, civic activism, public policy. Anna has also collaborated with several community development initiatives on awareness raising, capacity building, civic participation, activism and the promotion of human rights. She has experience in organisation and facilitation of trainings, seminars and discussions using participatory approaches and techniques. Anna moved to Ireland from Armenia in 2009. In 2011 Anna started to volunteer at Shannon Family Resource Centre and was involved in a number of initiatives within the organisation. Since March 2022 she works as Community Development Worker there and works closely with different groups in community, including migrants and ethnic minorities. Anna was involved in a few participatory research projects with UL. Within the Ethnic Minority Health research project, she organised and supported facilitation of participatory group discussion with community members of different ethnic backgrounds. As a research assistant in the Research Prioritisation for Migrant Health project, Anna was involved in the preparation and facilitation of World Café style discussions using participatory art-based methods. In April 2022 Anna joined the team of at PPI Ignite Network Project at UL as Research Assistant.

Sarbik Guha

PhD Arts Practice Scholar, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Participatory Health Research Unit, University of Limerick

Sarbik Guha, a Ph.D. Arts Practice researcher at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, is a Kolkata-born Indian singer-songwriter, iiving in Ireland since 2022. Sarbik has been professionally making and performing original songs to express feelings authentically, tell stories, and spread love, empathy and solidarity. With a MA in Political Science with International Relations (Jadavpur University, India) and a MA in Songwriting (University of Limerick, Ireland) prior to his PhD Research, Sarbik brings a wealth of experience in music, education, and social change. As part of the University of Limerick WHO Collaborating Centre for Participatory Health Research with Refugees and Migrants, and supported by the Refugee and Migrant Health Partnership led by Ireland's Department of Health, Sarbik's doctoral research explores singing/songwriting as a method to involve migrants and refugees in Irish health research.