Researcher wins award for pet therapy board game aimed at care home staff

Dr Noreen Orr won the People’s Award at the Social Research Association Annual Conference 2019 for her board game “Pet Purrsuit”. Developed by Dr Orr with Dr Jo Thompson Coon and Dr Rebecca Abbott, the board game shares findings from their recent research.

Dr Orr of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: “ We hope the game will make it easier for care home staff to explore the benefits and challenges of pet therapy, including robopets, in an engaging and interactive way.”

The team was  inspired to develop the game after attending a workshop from science communicator Dr Alke Groppel-Wegener. With funding from the ESRC IAA Social Policy Network Award, they enlisted artist Matt Buckett of Ink Pot Graphics to help bring their ideas to life.

The Social Research Association Annual Conference had a Research Gallery this year, encouraging researchers to show how they reach beyond traditional research audiences.

Dr Orr added, “I’m absolutely delighted to have won the People’s Award for Pet Purrsuit. The event was a fantastic day with lots of engaging and innovative research, I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to present our research in the Research Gallery”

The board game is based on research from two recent systematic reviews completed by the NIHR PenARC Evidence Synthesis Team who are challenging themselves to promote their research in interesting ways.