Members: Europe
the Donor Research Network
Mikko Arvas
Researcher, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation
Mikko has a long background of carrying out research with various genomic analysis at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (2001 – 2015). Since 2016, he has been carrying out research on health of blood donors at the Finnish Red Cross Blood.
Professor Michel Clement
Professor for Marketing and Media, Institute for Marketing, University of Hamburg, Germany
Key areas of interest:
Media management, new technologies, customer relationship management, blood donation management
Michel Clement is Professor for Marketing and Media at the Institute for Marketing, Hamburg Business School, University of Hamburg, Germany. Professor Clement is Co-Editor of the Journal of Media Economics.
Professor Clement holds a doctoral degree in marketing from the Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel and worked three years in various management positions for Bertelsmann in the media industry. His research focus is on media management, new technologies, customer relationship management, and blood donation management. Currently, he works on automated communication via Alexa & Co, the impact of new technologies on consumer behaviour, and the optimization of marketing mix instruments in the blood donation context.
Professor Clement has worked more than 10 years with the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service North/East.
Professor Clement holds a doctoral degree in marketing from the Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel and worked three years in various management positions for Bertelsmann in the media industry. His research focus is on media management, new technologies, customer relationship management, and blood donation management. Currently, he works on automated communication via Alexa & Co, the impact of new technologies on consumer behaviour, and the optimization of marketing mix instruments in the blood donation context.
Professor Clement has worked more than 10 years with the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service North/East.
Rebecca Craig
Senior Lecturer, University of Brighton
Key areas of interest:
Organ donation, inequality of organ donation faced by Black and Asian Ethnic communities
Rebecca is a Registered Nurse who has worked in several acute care settings in her clinical career before moving to The University of Brighton to become a Senior Lecturer in Nursing. She became interested in the issues surrounding Organ donation working in Accident and Emergency and Operating Theatre departments. Organ donation is a topic she believe she lacked knowledge and confidence in discussing as a junior nurse, so she sought to educate herself and get involved in training events when offered.
In recent years, she has become increasingly aware of the health inequality of organ donation faced by Black and Asian Ethnic communities through previous research projects, and in her current project she is working with students and peers to co-design ways to provide information, a safe space to ask questions, and engage with others in meaningful conversations about organ donation.
In recent years, she has become increasingly aware of the health inequality of organ donation faced by Black and Asian Ethnic communities through previous research projects, and in her current project she is working with students and peers to co-design ways to provide information, a safe space to ask questions, and engage with others in meaningful conversations about organ donation.
Professor Eamonn Ferguson
Professor of Health Psychology, Nottingham University
Key areas of interest:
Blood and organ donation, donor motivations, preferences and behaviour,
Eamonn Ferguson is Professor of Health Psychology at Nottingham University. He is a chartered health and occupational psychologist, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and co-founding president of the British Society for the Psychology of Individual Differences.
His theoretical work focuses on cooperation, personality and pain and involves the integration of theory and models from biology, behavioural economics and psychology, to address questions concerning (i) the overlap between personality and prosocial preferences, (ii) prosocial preference, cooperation and health and (iii) pain phenotypes and pain prediction. His applied works translates his theoretical work to the (i) understanding of motivations, preferences and behaviour blood and organ donors, (ii) development and evaluation of early stage intervention to enhance blood and organ donor recruitment, (iii) effect of pro-sociality on farmer’s decision making concerning biosecurity.
He has published 209 peer reviewed journal articles to date (including in BMJ, Lancet Psychiatry, Psychological Bulletin, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Health Psychology, BMC Medicine; Psychosomatic Medicine, Journal of Personality, Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin) with his work funded by the HSE, ESRC, and DEFRA, Versus Arthritis amongst others.
Caroline Graf
PhD candidate, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation, prosocial behaviour
Caroline is a PhD candidate in the DONORS project led by Eva-Maria Merz. Within this project, she examines the role of cross-cultural differences in shaping people’s motivations to do good, currently with a focus on blood donation behavior.
She has a background in Cognitive Science and is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding behavior.
Klara Greffin
Research Assistant, Chair of Health and Prevention, Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany
Key areas of interest:
Health psychology, blood donation, motivations and barriers to donation
Klara is a psychologist with a background in health psychology. She is currently completing her PhD about quality of life assessment in the context of telemedical applications under the supervision of Professor Silke Schmidt.
Besides that, her research focuses on experiences of deferred first-time whole-blood donors. She uses mixed-method approaches to identify motivators and barriers for blood donation behaviour in this particular donor group. Her passion for this topic stems from practical work experience at the blood donation centre at University Medicine Greifswald.
After finishing her PhD, Klara wants to focus on blood donor research and seeks collaboration.
Besides that, her research focuses on experiences of deferred first-time whole-blood donors. She uses mixed-method approaches to identify motivators and barriers for blood donation behaviour in this particular donor group. Her passion for this topic stems from practical work experience at the blood donation centre at University Medicine Greifswald.
After finishing her PhD, Klara wants to focus on blood donor research and seeks collaboration.
Dr Elisabeth Huis in ‘t Veld, MBA
Assistant professor, Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University; PI of Donor Cognition, Department of Donor Medicine Research, Sanquin Research
Key areas of interest:
Influence of affective and cognitive processes on donor experience, behavior, and vasovagal reactions
Dr. Elisabeth Huis in ‘t Veld, MBA is assistant professor and PI of Donor Cognition, situated at Tilburg University’s School of Humanities and Digital Sciences as well as Sanquin’s Donor Medicine Research department.
Elisabeth has a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience (2015), broadly focusing on emotional experience and expression in the brain and body using behavioral, experimental, psychophysiological and imaging techniques such as EMG, EEG, ECG, fMRI. Her current research focusses on how affective and cognitive processes influence donor experience, behavior, and vasovagal reactions. Furthermore, her group uses machine learning and big data science methods and hopefully soon also Virtual and Augmented Reality to develop innovative solutions.
Jan Karregat
PhD student, Donor Studies, Sanquin Research
Key areas of interest:
Whole blood donors, iron supplementation
Jan Karregat is a PhD student within the research group Donor Studies at Sanquin and has a background in biomedical science and nutrition.
Jan is working on the FORTE research project which focuses on determining the most optimal iron supplementation protocol for whole blood donors with low ferritin levels.
Jan is working on the FORTE research project which focuses on determining the most optimal iron supplementation protocol for whole blood donors with low ferritin levels.
Dr Elisabeth Klinkenberg
Researcher in Study Success at Inholland University of Applied Sciences
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation, donor diversity and behaviour, mental wellbeing, the social impact of digitalisation
Elisabeth is a Dutch sociologist and behavioral scientist. On the 6th of October 2020, she succesfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Engaging African Ethnic Minorities as Blood Donors’. During her PhD project, she studied blood donor motivation and barriers of sub-Saharan African migrants in the Netherlands and developed evidence-based recruitment campaigns.
Besides (donor) diversity and behaviour, she’s interested in mental wellbeing, the social impact of digitalisation and quantitative and qualitative research methods. She currently works at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences as a teacher and researcher.
Besides (donor) diversity and behaviour, she’s interested in mental wellbeing, the social impact of digitalisation and quantitative and qualitative research methods. She currently works at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences as a teacher and researcher.
Dr Laura Machin
Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, UK
Key areas of interest:
Social and ethical aspects of health and medicine
Dr Laura Machin’s research interests rest within the social and ethical aspects of health and medicine. Previously, she has focused upon the social and ethical aspects surrounding reproductive medicine, in particular sex selection technology, and gamete and embryo donation. Dr Machin has also explored the moral and political aspects of umbilical cord blood donation, banking, and transplantation, as well as considered the use of donated deceased bodies to teach anatomy to medical students.
Dr Machin’s recent research lies within donation studies, which incorporates the social and ethical aspects of the donation of body parts, blood and tissue for a variety of purposes including art, education, transplantation, and research and development. Along with colleagues, she has proposed a sociology of donation, and considered what it may constitute. Dr Machin tends to draw on qualitative data, focusing on the policy, process, people and practice elements of donation such as conscientious objections within the field of organ donation.
Dr Machin founded and convenes a research network on donation studies which is funded by the British Sociological Association and Institute of Medical Ethics: deconstructing-donation-special-interest-group
Professor Eva-Maria Merz, PhD
Chair in Donor Behaviour, Sanquin Blood Supply, Department of Donor Studies; Professor of Donor Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit, Department of Sociology
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation, donor behaviour, prosocial behaviour
Eva-Maria Merz is a sociologist with a background in family studies and demography. She is Chair of the research line Donor Behaviour at Sanquin and Professor in Donor Behaviour at the Sociology department of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She combines her theoretical and quantitative methodological expertise within the topic of (blood) donor behaviour in order to study donor life-courses and the influence of personal and social network characteristics across different contexts. Her passion for this subject stems from her scientific involvement with different types of prosocial behaviour, for example family care, and fascination with public health issues. After having finished her pre-clinical exams in Medicine, Merz obtained a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and a PhD in Developmental Psychology.
In 2018, she received a European Research Council (ERC) grant in order to study motivators and barriers of donor behavior over time and across different cultural and societal contexts. Merz´ research benefits from her theoretical expertise in social science theories on prosocial behaviour and her fruitful collaborations within the Dutch Blood Bank, the Biomedical Excellence of Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative, and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT).
In 2018, she received a European Research Council (ERC) grant in order to study motivators and barriers of donor behavior over time and across different cultural and societal contexts. Merz´ research benefits from her theoretical expertise in social science theories on prosocial behaviour and her fruitful collaborations within the Dutch Blood Bank, the Biomedical Excellence of Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative, and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT).
Dr Jordan Miller
Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Key areas of interest:
Organ donation, donor relevant decisions under opt-out legislation
Jordan is a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She completed her PhD at the University of Stirling, Scotland in 2021. Her PhD research applied a mixed-methods approach to examine the role that affective attitudes play in donor-relevant decisions, for example, disgust at the thought of organ donation, or concerns of medical mistrust. Her research included both an examination of individual determinants of donor behaviour and of the factors that influence family decision-making for posthumous organ donation.
Jordan’s PhD research had a particular focus on the impact of modern policy changes in organ donation legislation (opt-out versus opt-in consent) and identifying potentially novel factors that might influence donor relevant decisions under opt-out legislation, such as psychological reactance and government trust.
Jordan’s PhD research had a particular focus on the impact of modern policy changes in organ donation legislation (opt-out versus opt-in consent) and identifying potentially novel factors that might influence donor relevant decisions under opt-out legislation, such as psychological reactance and government trust.
Annu Nurmela
Laboratorian, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation
Professor Ronan O'Carroll
Professor of Psychology, University of Stirling
Key areas of interest:
Organ transplantation and donation
Professor Ronan O’Carroll is a Clinical and Health Psychologist who is interested in the general area of behaviour, health, disease and medicine.
He is past President of the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine. He has published over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and in February 2021 his Google Scholar h-index was 67. He is Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (2012), Distinguished International Affiliate of the Division of Health Psychology (Division 38) of the American Psychological Association (2013), Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (2014), British Psychological Society outstanding Contribution to Research in Health Psychology Prize (2016) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2017). He has a long-standing research interest in organ transplantation and donation and served on the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) organ transplantation clinical guideline development group (2010, 2013, 2016).
He is past President of the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine. He has published over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and in February 2021 his Google Scholar h-index was 67. He is Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (2012), Distinguished International Affiliate of the Division of Health Psychology (Division 38) of the American Psychological Association (2013), Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (2014), British Psychological Society outstanding Contribution to Research in Health Psychology Prize (2016) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2017). He has a long-standing research interest in organ transplantation and donation and served on the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) organ transplantation clinical guideline development group (2010, 2013, 2016).
Dr. Satu Pastila
Director, Blood donation, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation
Franke Quee
Jr. Researcher, Donor Studies, Sanquin Research
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation, infectious diseases
Franke is working as a junior researcher. Her main tasks include consulting Sanquin Blood Bank and Sanquin’s other research divisions in doing research with (blood) donors and assisting in studies performed by the Donor Studies Department. Additionally, she provides data and information for international collaborations.
Franke has a background in Biomedical Sciences and Epidemiology with a focus on infectious diseases.
Vera Raivola
PhD Candidate, University of Eastern Finland
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation, biobanking
Vera is completing a PhD at the University of Eastern Finland. Vera’s research looks at how voluntary blood donors approach the possibility to add biobank donation to their blood donation practices at the the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service context.
Dr. Steven Ramondt
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sanquin Research
Key areas of interest:
Donor recruitment and retention, impact of digital media on health and behaviour
Steven is a social computational scientist with an interest in using nlp to gain insights that improve the recruitment and retention of donors. He completed his PhD in Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Merced in 2018.
His current projects focus on analyzing and improving social media as a tool to recruit and retain donors. This work examines reasons why people cease their donor career, sheds light on the opinion and priorities of the general public about blood donation, and investigates how we can improve communication with donors.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/steven-ramondt
His current projects focus on analyzing and improving social media as a tool to recruit and retain donors. This work examines reasons why people cease their donor career, sheds light on the opinion and priorities of the general public about blood donation, and investigates how we can improve communication with donors.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/steven-ramondt
Joris M. Schröder
PhD Candidate, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Key areas of interest:
Donor behaviour, donations of time and money, prosocial behaviour
Joris is currently completing his PhD within the DONORS project led by Eva-Maria Merz, which is aimed at understanding, explaining and predicting donor behaviour with an interdisciplinary approach. Within the project, he is working on individual and social network related determinants of donor behaviour.
Besides health related donations, Joris is also interested in donations of time and money and in analysing (dis-)similarities in determinants of different forms of prosocial behaviour.
Besides health related donations, Joris is also interested in donations of time and money and in analysing (dis-)similarities in determinants of different forms of prosocial behaviour.
Dr Marloes Spekman
Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Donor Medicine Research, Sanquin Research, and at the dept. of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Key areas of interest:
Communication and media psychology, whole blood and plasma donors, SoHO
Marloes Spekman is a trained communication scientist specialized in persuasive communication (particularly in the areas of health and prosocial behavior) and media psychology.
She combines quantitative and qualitative methods in her current research at Sanquin, which focusses on the behavior and experiences of whole blood and plasma donors. She is also interested in the behavior and experiences of, and communication around other SOHO donations.
She combines quantitative and qualitative methods in her current research at Sanquin, which focusses on the behavior and experiences of whole blood and plasma donors. She is also interested in the behavior and experiences of, and communication around other SOHO donations.
Dr. Lotte van Dammen
Biobank Coordinator and Data Manager, Sanquin
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation
Dr. Lotte van Dammen is a Biobank Coordinator and Data Manager at the Dutch Blood Bank, Sanquin. She received her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences in 2018 from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Lotte worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Iowa State University.
Dr Peter van den Burg
PhD, MD, Tranfusion and donor medicine, Sanquin blood supply
Key areas of interest:
SoHO
Peter has an interest in transfusion medicine with special attention to education and involved in various (inter)national projects. Advocating donor medicine with respect to all SoHO.
Dr Katja van den Hurk
Head of Donor Studies and Principal Investigator on Donor Health at Sanquin Research
Key areas of interest:
Donor health, epidemiological and bio-statistical research methods
Dr. Katja van den Hurk is Head of the Donor Studies research group and Principal Investigator on the Donor Health research line. She is an Epidemiologist and Health Scientist with a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine of the VU University in Amsterdam. She is an Associate Scientific member of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative Donor Studies team and member of the European Blood Alliance (EBA)’s Donor Studies SIG (Special Interest Group).
Katja’s research focuses on health effects of donation, policies to monitor and maintain donor health, and more generally donors’ health status and eligibility to donate, by using epidemiological and bio-statistical research methods.
Katja’s research focuses on health effects of donation, policies to monitor and maintain donor health, and more generally donors’ health status and eligibility to donate, by using epidemiological and bio-statistical research methods.
Dr Tanya Cassidy
International Convenor, Lecturer, Dublin City University
Key areas of interest:
Human breast milk donation, human milk exchange, human breast milk donors
Tanya is a medical social scientist who has been working on human milk exchange, including donation since 2005. Tanya is the lead author of the book Banking on Milk (Routledge, 2019). She is on several boards (the UK Association of Milk Banking, the European Association of Milk Banking, and GAMBA (a WhatsApp group of a Global Association of Milk Banks and Associations).
Britzer Paul Vincent Paul Raj
PhD Scholar, University of Bedfordshire
Key areas of interest:
Organ donation in health promotion, strengthening health systems, health behaviour, communication & education
Britzer Paul V, is pursuing a Ph.D. in the area of organ donation, Socio-Ecological Perspective on Deceased Organ Donation from Two Diverse Regions in India, supervised by Dr Gurch Randhawa and Dr Erica Cook.
Britzer Paul V is a Physician Assistant (PA) and also graduated with a Master’s in Public Health from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India. Following graduation as a PA, Britzer Paul V worked for a liver transplantation team for almost two years and developed a strong interest in the area of organ donation during that time. Following that, Britzer Paul V pursued a Master’s in Public Health and undertook a thesis on organ donation, as well as undertaking a four-month internship in an organ donation organization.
Britzer Paul V’s research areas of interest include organ donation, health promotion, qualitative research, strengthening health systems, health behaviour, communication and education.
Britzer Paul V is a Physician Assistant (PA) and also graduated with a Master’s in Public Health from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India. Following graduation as a PA, Britzer Paul V worked for a liver transplantation team for almost two years and developed a strong interest in the area of organ donation during that time. Following that, Britzer Paul V pursued a Master’s in Public Health and undertook a thesis on organ donation, as well as undertaking a four-month internship in an organ donation organization.
Britzer Paul V’s research areas of interest include organ donation, health promotion, qualitative research, strengthening health systems, health behaviour, communication and education.
Simonne Weeks
Senior Biomedical Scientist and Senior Lecturer, University of Brighton
Key areas of interest:
Organ donation and transplantation pathway, ethnically-matched donated organs
Simonne holds both Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration as a Senior Biomedical Scientist and a Fellow for the Higher Education Academy. Drawing on 20 years of multidisciplinary pathology experience she has worked in both the NHS and private sector. Over four years she has divided her time between biomedical science practice and lecturing for University of Brighton (UoB). Now as a full-time academic, Simonne is module lead for Clinical Placement in NHS pathology laboratories and has redesigned the biomedical science training programme that has been praised by Institute Biomedical Science (IBMS) professional body for its ability to withstand COVID-19 pandemic pressures and support trainees through turblent and uncertain working environments.
In 2021, together with her research partner, was awarded a NHSBT research grant to form an interdisciplinary team who are passionate about promoting a better understanding of the complexities that surround organ donation and transplantation pathway. Drawing on successful education pilot studies the research team are offering student researchers to co-design and co-deliver education events to tackle the health inequalities experienced by the Black and South Asian communities who rely on the low supply of ethnically-matched donated organs for successful transplantations.
In 2021, together with her research partner, was awarded a NHSBT research grant to form an interdisciplinary team who are passionate about promoting a better understanding of the complexities that surround organ donation and transplantation pathway. Drawing on successful education pilot studies the research team are offering student researchers to co-design and co-deliver education events to tackle the health inequalities experienced by the Black and South Asian communities who rely on the low supply of ethnically-matched donated organs for successful transplantations.
Catherine Burlton
Donor Follow Up Manager, Anthony Nolan
Key areas of interest:
Stem cell donation, bone marrow donation
Catherine leads the team supporting Anthony Nolan’s stem cell donors after their donation. The team provides emotional and physical health support to ensure donors have recovered from their donation. The team will also provide information and support to donors on the outcome of their donation and enable patients and donors to write to each other.
Catherine also leads a number of research projects to provide service improvement to stem cell donors including projects to determine the mental health support needs of donors undergoing stem cell donation, and how to manage genetic findings identified in the recipient of the stem cell donation and the relevance to the donor.
Besarta Veseli
PhD candidate, Institute for Marketing, University of Hamburg
Key areas of interest:
Blood donation
Besarta is a PhD candidate at the Chair of Marketing & Media (Prof. Dr. Michel Clement) at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on how to drive prosocial behavior with marketing. She investigates strategies aimed at fostering donor relationships and increasing donations, and is interested in understanding donor motivations and giving behavior. Besarta holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration with a focus in marketing, statistics and business management. She has a strong quantitative background and is experienced in designing, conducting and analyzing field and lab/online experiments. She is a member of the Healthcare Research Group at the University of Hamburg, in cooperation with the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service North/East. She also studies the impact of information diffusion and voice-assistants on consumer behavior.