People who either use an upper limb prosthesis and/or have used services provided by a prosthetic rehabilitation centre, hereafter called users, are yet to benefit from the fast-paced growth in academic knowledge within the field of upper limb prosthetics. Crucially over the past decade, research has acknowledged the limitations of conducting laboratory-based studies for clinical translation. This has led to an increase, albeit rather small, in trials that gather real-world user data. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical within such trials, especially between researchers, users, and clinicians, as well as policy makers, charity representatives, and industry specialists. This paper presents a co-creation model that enables researchers to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including users, throughout the duration of a study. This approach can lead to a transition in defining the roles of stakeholders, such as users, from participants to co-researchers. This presents a scenario whereby the boundaries between research and participation become blurred and ethical considerations may become complex. However, the time and resources that are required to conduct co-creation within academia can lead to greater impact and benefit the people that the research aims to serve.

A scalable, solar-energy-driven microbial spinning disk gas absorber–converter technology has been developed by a novel combination of advanced photoreactive biocomposite materials with a continuous thin film flow spinning disc bioreactor (SDBR). Chlorella vulgaris microalgae were incorporated into a porous paper biocomposite for the first time with the addition of chitosan for cell integration within the paper matrix. A 10-cm-diameter SDBR with an immobilized C. vulgaris biocomposite paper enabled high photoactivity and CO2 biofixation at a spin speed of 300 rpm over 15 h of operation in the presence of bicarbonate in the liquid medium and 5% CO2 in the gas environment. Practically all C. vulgaris cells in the biocomposite successfully remained attached to the disk under conditions equivalent to 5g at the disc edge. Overall, the increased CO2 biofixation with a greatly reduced biocomposite surface area and the high cell retention in this proof-of-concept technology highlight the bioprocess intensification potential of the biocomposite integrated-SDBR.

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