By Carrie Noxon and Sophie Bochaberi
On Monday, November 10, 2025, NEST360 and the Invention Education Network hosted a Sharing the Science showcase in Nairobi, Kenya. The event brought together the NEST360 network of maternal and newborn health innovators, researchers, implementers, and designers for an interactive evening of learning, exchange, and collaboration, celebrating progress and promoting peer learning. Participants highlighted how evidence, innovation, and locally led solutions advance improvements in maternal and newborn healthcare.
More than 90 posters, engagement tables, and storytelling stations from across the NEST360 communities and the Africa Invention Education Network (IvE Network) were featured. These submissions were organized into 10 thematic areas, reflecting the breadth of research underway around communities working with NEST360 and the Africa IvE Network—from clinical care and diagnostics to health systems strengthening, quality improvement, data use, training, and local innovation.
An Interactive Format: Posters, Stories, and Engagement
Sharing the Science goes beyond a traditional research poster session. Throughout the event, participants engaged with:
- Storytelling stations that highlighted design journeys, challenges, and lessons learned from the field;
- Engagement tables that encouraged dialogue among innovators, clinicians, engineers, policymakers, donors, and partners; and
- Poster presentations showcasing research findings, implementation experiences, and multi-country learning.
During the event, participants discussed innovative device designs and research, participated in peer learning, and made connections across disciplines and geographies.
”During the session, I presented on neonatal mortality data quality in Tanzania and the analysis of District Health Information System data from 28 Regional and 7 Tertiary Hospitals (2015-2024). National neonatal mortality data in Tanzania’s DHIS2 is currently under-reported and inconsistent across facilities. Addressing these significant data quality gaps is crucial for effective national monitoring. This requires targeted interventions to improve data quality in underperforming facilities and the strategic dissemination of best practices from successful regional referral hospitals.”
— Josephine Shabani, Research scientist, Tanzania
Poster Walks Across Themes
Attendees of Sharing the Science participated in curated poster walks. Led by facilitators, these walks guided small groups through selected posters and storytelling stations, with poster presenters sharing concise summaries of their work and engaging in discussions.
The different walks focused on innovations and insights related to:
- Strengthening small and sick newborn care across levels of the health system
- Improving the quality of care, including respiratory support and antimicrobial stewardship
- Advancing maternal and newborn diagnostics and devices
- Building clinical, biomedical engineering, and design capacity
- Leveraging data, dashboards, and digital tools for quality improvement
- Supporting locally led design and manufacturing
“During the event, I presented our multi-country research poster on the strategies employed by NEST360-implementing facilities to achieve and maintain high coverage for priority neonatal health interventions. It was a pleasure to share the findings with the distinguished audience, including newborn health experts and program funders.”
— Anthony Ogueji, Coordinator, Research & Knowledge Management, Nigeria
Spotlight: Africa-Led Design and Innovation
One of the poster walks focused on Africa MedTech and design studios, highlighting how locally embedded teams are driving innovation from problem identification through prototyping and early implementation. Participants engaged with posters, stories, and working prototypes, and reviewed an Innovation Pamphlet featuring 15 emerging technologies developed through African design studios.
This walk underscored the growing role of Africa-based innovation ecosystems in shaping medical technologies that are responsive to user needs, health system realities, and operational constraints.
Why Sharing the Science Matters
Sharing the Science provides an interactive format in which researchers and innovators share evidence, experience, and innovation. The event reinforces the value of collaboration across research, design, and implementation, and highlights the effectiveness of supporting locally led solutions that strengthen maternal and newborn care.
Sharing the Science empowers the growing community of innovators and researchers through collaboration. These groups working together are turning ideas into impact and ensuring that innovation in maternal and newborn health is grounded in local contexts and driven by those closest to the challenges.
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