Welcome to Communities 1st's first Changemakers Research Newsletter!  

Communities 1st is expanding its health inequalities work by advocating for community-centered research and connecting communities and researchers. We wanted to create a newsletter as a way of fostering a network of engaged community groups and researchers that can share opportunities for involvement in research and related events. We also want to deinstitutionalise research knowledge – because an educated community is an empowered one! 

What you might expect from these monthly newsletters: 

• Bitesize research learning 
• Current local research that is recruiting
• National studies that are recruiting
• Summaries of new research on inequalities/health
• Findings from and upcoming Communities 1st research events 
• Suggestions for local researchers 
• Recommended courses and resources 

We hope you’ll enjoy these newsletters, and we welcome any suggestions and feedback you have! 

Best wishes, 

Kat Wilder  
Community Engagement and Insight Officer 

We recently hosted our first Research Café where we discussed community perspectives on research, co-production, ethical issues, institutional harm and opportunities for empowerment. 

Everyone shared thoughtful, critical and engaging insights into their preconceptions, concerns and personal interests in research, helping Communities 1st to shape our future cafes and work on local research engagement. We also had a fantastic talk from Dr Nic Aaron from Birkbeck, University of London on universities as potential sites of harm, power dynamics in research, and how categorising communities can be problematic. It was a fascinating and well received morning! 

This Research Café was the first in a series of five, funded by the National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR). Each one will focus on different themes and all perspectives are invited.

One of the key themes of our first research café and a buzzword in academia is ‘co-production’. But do you know what it means?  

The National institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) defines co-production as ‘an approach in which researchers, practitioners and the public work together, sharing power and responsibility from the start to the end of the project.’  

In essence, it works on the assumption that those with lived experience of the research topic are best placed to design and deliver research and should be of equal importance to academic researchers. Co-production aims to include the public within all stages of research, which can improve the accessibility of research methods and findings, it’s usefulness to those affected and reduces power imbalances that can exist in research.  

These two studies look at how autistic people navigate in daily life and in different experimental settings through either a VR headset or questionnaires, eye tracking and a mobile navigation game which will help understand what navigation supports may be needed. Both those with and without autism diagnosis are encouraged to apply.

Contact Eva Lesovskaia by email to find out more: e.lesovskaia3@herts.ac.uk

This study collects a range of data from lots of people at different points in their lives to see how responses change over time and get a better understanding of development within additional needs. 

Contact Rory O’Sullivan by email for more information and to sign up!

r.osullivan@bham.ac.uk 

Did you know you can suggest a research question to the NIHR?

Additionally, The James Lind Alliance provides a long-established method to help charities work in collaboration with clinicians, patients and carers on an equal footing, to identify and prioritise future research needs.  

As a part of increasing communities’ knowledge of research we will be recommending free courses and resources on various research topics. These will all be trialed by Kat to make sure they are informative and useful.  

This is a 15-minute course by the NIHR that provides a brief introduction into the importance of EDI in health and social research. Great for anyone looking to learn more about inequalities and research. 

You will need to make an account with the NIHR. 

Please get in touch if you have a research study you would like to promote (either national and online or based in Hertfordshire), resources on research and community learning or any other suggestions for our newsletter, we hope you have found it helpful! 

Thank you for reading this newsletter. If you'd like to speak to us please call 01727 649930 or email communityresearch@communities1st.org.uk 

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