Create to Collaborate: Can we make working relationships between researchers and the public more open and engaging?

Project aims

• See how we can build stronger collaborative relationships with members of the public who are under-represented in health research
• Find out if creative activities can help people get involved in research who would not normally do so

What we did

During the project we:

• Worked with different artists to design, deliver and facilitate online public involvement workshops. Each workshop focused on a different health theme. Two workshops linked directly with ARC West research themes of Healthier Childhoods and Public Health
• Worked with community partners to support the recruitment of members of the public who are often less represented within research projects
• Evaluated the workshops to understand if creative engagement methods could facilitate stronger collaborative relationships between members of the public and researchers

What we found and what this means

Workshops began with introductory games and activities rather than the usual introductions of what people’s roles were. Activities included games, playful tasks that challenged hierarchies and power dynamics, as well as role reversals, poetry, and an illustrated booklet on the topic for people to work through.

Members of the public enjoyed the activities and this approach. They described workshops as engaging, enjoyable, interesting, great fun, exciting, uplifting, enlightening, non-judgemental, equitable, welcoming and friendly.

Feedback from researchers was more mixed. Some enjoyed engaging with people in new ways. Others found the activities less helpful and were confused about their role during the session.

Running the workshops in these new ways wasn’t straightforward. We found that trying to change researcher-participant hierarchies meant that some people were not sure what role they should take or who would be able to take an idea forward.

Where they did occur, longer-term collaborations were supported by senior leadership, staff resources and a well-established public involvement group.

We shared some recommendations to better support collaborative research in an article we published about the workshops. These include:

• Supporting co-production through increasing researcher access to training, resources, networks and funds
• Ensuring there is enough time and space set aside during a project to support collaboration, build relationships and trust, and remove barriers between researchers and members of the public
• Managing expectations of all collaborative partners is important. Collaborative projects need to work for everyone
• Building in the time, resources and senior leader support needed to follow up on ideas and support further collaborations. With this support community led ideas can become community-based research