[Title TBC]
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What we are learning about community-led collaborations with researchers and the impact on health systems
What is The Ideas Fund?
About this Document
Contexts
10
Who we've heard from
10
What is The Ideas Fund?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
What is The Ideas Fund?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
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About this Document
Why a Map?
About this Document
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
BACK TO MAP
Who We've Heard From
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems?
Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning.
One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others.
What approach have you taken to this learning output?
We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from.
For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
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What did we hear about the current health systems people experience or are working in?
The main focus of the learning collated for this piece of work focused on the impact of the community-led collaborations with research that those contributing had experienced. As part of the learning conversations we briefly touched on the current systems relating to health that people have experienced or work within.
The headlines:
Click the speech bubbles to read quotes
Challenges for researchers and practitioners connecting with community
Challenges connecting community‑led work and research into health systems
Under recognition and undervaluing of community relationships
Time, resource and demand
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Researcher Alongside - Why?
The Ideas Fund model centers investing in community-led collaborations with academic researchers. This means starting with the community’s ideas on issues that matter to them. The community also holds the funding. The Ideas Fund supports the connection, brokering and ongoing collaboration with researchers - with an open and flexible view to how this might unfold and the impact it may lead to.
Over the past 5 years we have seen very different and often emergent approaches to these collaborations. What have we learned about the value gained by communities in working with researchers?
Although many community organisations have been doing deep and impactful work for years, working alonsgide a researcher has helped bring a completely new perspective to support reflection, capturing knowledge, and building of evidence for change.
Working with researchers supports the evidence to back up our voices - Women shouldn’t have to fight for menopause support.
Hear from Josie on why this is important
Hear Sarah talk about her experience
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Researcher Alongside - Bridges leading to influence
Where researchers were embedded in community organisations, or where researchers connected and bridged to practitioner collaborations, communities were better positioned to access systems they often find closed or fragmented. These relationships helped spotlight community knowledge that then influenced policy, commissioning, and clinical practice.
Community and researcher collaborations can strengthen connections to new public sector partners, influencing policy and practice
Collaborating and building the relationship also opens doors and connections to each other’s networks. Sarah-Anne tells us about the impact of bridging and connecting her NHS practitioner colleagues into the collaborations with GST in order to influence change.
The ARC Fitness model - when an academic researcher is embedded and employed by a community organisation, the community can be responsive and readied with the evidence to influence change Through The Ideas Fund, Iain has moved from collaboration as a University academic to now working for ARC Fitness as an embedded researcher. This is unusual for an community organisation of ARC’s size. Iain tells us about the value and potential of being an ‘in-house’ academic researcher, particularly in terms of the opportunities this presents in terms of health impact
How to get into health systems if you don’t have an ‘in’? Alex discusses how her clinical connections opened doors, and the challenge if you don’t have that
Hear from Sarah-Anne about this
Hear from Iain about this
Hear from Alex about this
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The importance of an individual’s unique experience
We heard from people about the importance of listening to and valuing unique and individual experiences. For some community partners, working flexibly and openly, and trusting their researcher helped them to share their story. This was often a critical part of the process for the collaborations and informed much of the diverse evidence and impacts. People also spoke about how this impacted people involved who perhaps had never felt their experiences were valued or listened to before, and in turn helps care and support.
Catherine talked about the approach of The Clarendon Way, that improves the wellbeing, joy and health of an individual while they are perhaps ‘stuck in the system’ waiting for medical intervention. Critical to this is the space for individuals and their own story and needs.
Click the speech bubbles to read quotes
Listen to Catherine talk about this.
The importance of listening to and making space for an individual’s unique experience and story has been critical to building authentic understanding.
The experience for people of sharing their stories and experiences and that being a valuable part of influencing changes and support for people like themselves, is itself deeply meaningful.
Listen to Alex talk about this
Hear Amaka talk about this
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Outputs and Evidence
‘Producing things that are more useful’ Sarah-Anne talks about how the evidence created with peer researchers can be used by many partners, from being useful as outputs to inform policy, discussed at multi-disciplinary groups and used as evidence by the veterans to advocate for change.
The Ideas Fund is flexible and didn't require predetermined outputs, or formal research to be produced by the funded projects. However, where the community wanted this, many of the collaborations ended up exploring the creation of various outputs together. People also told us that the process of collaborating and relationship building was just as important as the output itself and in some cases these outputs have become more impactful and relevant than previous work for both partners because of the collaboration.
Listen to Sarah-Anne discuss this
Click the speech bubble to read a quote
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Impact on health systems
Alex talked about the impact of demonstrating the problem as well as presenting the solution to clinical teams supporting brain injury in their local hospital. This resulted in the charity’s staff now being present on the ward to support families at the point of discharge.
Community‑led collaborations with researchers demonstrated how community knowledge and evidence can influence clinical practice, reshape service delivery, and shift how health systems recognise communities as partners in change rather than passive recipients of care.
Listen to Alex talk about this
Alex also spoke about shifting in the health system in their collabortive work: ‘There has been a significant change in practice and by presenting it national and internally - recognition of the value of it.’
Sarah-Anne worked with veterans as peer researchers with the GST project. Their research found that there was a real disconnect between the reality of how veterans and primary care services viewed statutory obligations, such as the Veterans Covenant. By the veterans themselves leading on and sharing this knowledge it’s demonstrating the value of ‘flipping’ the approach within the NHS outreach and awareness - thinking about the community as the drivers of change rather than just the receivers of information.
Hear Alex talk about this
It can’t be an optional extra’ - Alex tells us why community as equal partners mean creating more relevant and compassionate solutions within the system.
Hear Sarah-Anne talk about this
Listen to Alex talk about this
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Confidence and Validation
Communities described how collaborating with researchers helped them capture knowledge, reflect on experience, and build evidence that health systems could engage with. This strengthened confidence — both for communities to speak authoritatively, and for professionals to listen differently.
Click the speech bubble to read a quote
There has been a shift from people questioning whether they can do research to thinking about how it can be taken seriously.
Sarah-Anne spoke about building a foundational in-depth relationship working together, and considering together ‘what would good evidence be?’.
'maybe this is something I could do, rather than something that lives on an academic’s shelf somewhere’
Iain shares examples from ARC and how the relationships built through collaborating on research has built confidence for staff members to lead on research and projects themselves.
Listen to Iain talk about this
Listen to Sarah-Anne talk about this
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Wider Ripples of Impact: Learning - Education and Training
People told us that the learning generated through their collaborations has influenced education, training, and professional cultures — from university teaching to clinical learning spaces — showing that community‑led research reshapes knowledge as well as services.
Community invited to share learning and experiences with various medical practioner learning spaces, such as webinars, conferences and lectures
Catherine told us about their co-produced output that is being used to support their local University’s community social work practice teaching.
Listen to Amaka and Comfort talk about this
Listen to Catherine talk about this
Sarah told us about the play they have been creating with their researcher. The performance will share stories of the women through fictionalised characters and highlight the need for improved support and awareness about the menopause for everyone.
Alex told us about nursing and physiotherapy student interns learning about the value of lived experience research with the project, and the impact this has had on them.
Listen to Sarah talk about this
Listen to Alex talk about this
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Harder to Dismiss
We heard that when community credibility and institutional forms of evidence come together, outputs carry a “dual weight”. Co‑produced research, creative outputs, and peer‑led evidence were more likely to be taken seriously within professional and policy settings.
Catherine talked about the co-production between research and community producing something larger than the sum of it’s parts. And the outputs they created being not just rich in information but relevant locally. She describes this as a 'dual weight' that allows it to be received well - giving what they produce depth and respect in different spaces.
How have their outputs been received by medical professionals? What type of evidence did they need to include to support their case?
Public sector partners in some cases now have greater recognition that collaboration with community groups and charities can be legitimate and valuable in their wider work.
Listen to Catherine talk about this
Listen to Alex talk about this
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Shifting the Status Quo
‘because it was being led by the community, the flexibility allowed us to be really responsive to what was happening within the research and change what we were doing to’
Much of the impact described through the interviews and discussions came from having the flexibility, support and security to build a funded long-term and truly collaborative relationship. The Ideas Fund demonstrates that a broader movement towards relational, participatory and community-rooted ways of producing knowledge and equitable systems is needed. To learn more about The Ideas Fund and hear about the impact and stories from funded collaboratiosn please read Reimagining Research (click on the image below to open in a new tab)
Hear Alex talk about how this approach shifted how she will work in the future
Click the speech bubble to read a quote
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10
What is Needed?
Click the speech bubble to read Sarindi's thoughts on what's needed to enable this work
Much of the impact described through the interviews and discussions came from having the flexibility, support and security to build a funded long-term and truly collaborative relationship. The Ideas Fund demonstrates that a broader movement towards relational, participatory and community-rooted ways of producing knowledge and equitable systems is needed. To learn more about The Ideas Fund and hear about the impact and stories from funded collaboratiosn please read Reimagining Research (click on the image below to open in a new tab)
Fair compensation and remuneration. Sarah-Anne about talks the ‘shift’ that is needed in the public sector for this type of work to be enabled, including new processes and remuneration.
Listen to Sarah-Anne talk about this
Alex speaks about the need for meaningful impact coming from a system that recognizes that communities and charities are not just nice to have, they are actually essential partners within research for clinical services and embedded from the start.
Sarah from Neighbourhood Networks enjoyed working with researchers and would like to continue to, but is unclear how to continue working with researchers beyond The Ideas Fund, as well as linking with other community-led research across the UK
Listen to Sarah talk about this
Listen to Alex talk about this
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10
What is Needed?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
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‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
We have presented this learning as an interactive map to show the ways in which the stories of learning, activity and insight are clustered and related to each other. These did not emerge in a straight line, and what felt important was a way to explore connections, rather than reduce things to a single story of impact. We wanted to show an ecosystem of stories emerging from community-led research: The yellow area of the map is a focal point that highlights insights around working alongside researchers; the peripheral islands show the activities and insights that emerged from that process, and further in the distance we represent health and education institutions that may be impacted by, or connected into, that learning. Across the stories that were shared, we heard that community-led research can influence health systems not only through formal evidence or outputs, but through relationships, confidence, legitimacy, practical tools and changed conversations.
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
“I want people to recognise that co-production and creative methods aren’t soft approaches that give little, they're actually really powerful tools for revealing truths that we don't often hear through traditional research methods.”
Dr Alex Wray
End of Life Matron and Research Fellow
NHS Humber Health Partnership
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“You have to invest in trust, be clear about power and relationships, and be open to hearing things that might sound like a challenge, and using that knowledge to instigate change.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“I want people to recognise that co-production and creative methods aren’t soft approaches that give little, they're actually really powerful tools for revealing truths that we don't often hear through traditional research methods.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“Our story is good for everyone to understand - when you know someone’s story you get to know them better; it helps you to diagnose them better. Some people just need rest!”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Bridging Communities and Health Systems - The Ideas Fund
Ideas Fund
Created on March 8, 2026
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Transcript
[Title TBC]
Click on the numbers to learn more and hear stories from our projects
What we are learning about community-led collaborations with researchers and the impact on health systems
What is The Ideas Fund?
About this Document
Contexts
10
Who we've heard from
10
What is The Ideas Fund?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
What is The Ideas Fund?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
BACK TO MAP
About this Document
Why a Map?
About this Document
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
BACK TO MAP
Who We've Heard From
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
Why is this learning topic about impact on health systems? Ideas relating to mental wellbeing was the starting point for the collaborations funded by The Ideas Fund. The impacts that have since emerged have been expansive and in many cases unexpected. This may be down to the flexibility in the funding approach, since we didn’t fund ideas based on fixed outputs and so projects and partnerships adapted based on what they were learning. One of the unexpected areas of impact has related to health systems and services. We wanted to make space to hear more from some of those involved and share their insights, with the view to contributing to a wider conversation and learn from others. What approach have you taken to this learning output? We are not experts on health systems. But we do have wonderful relationships with the people and projects we fund and know there’s lots of amazing learning and insight we can collate and share. We also know there are many long standing initiatives, organisations and programmes and people that have been dedicated to advocating and actioning a change that centers communities and experts by experience to have greater power within health research, service commissioning and design that we would love to learn more from. For this piece we informally interviewed 8 people with varied perspectives and connections to an Ideas Fund project. We recorded these conversations and have worked to pull out learning and consider creative ways to present that. Additionally we considered other perspectives that we invited in written format or from existing interviews. There’s many more perspectives and insights we would love to collate and bring into this as an ongoing conversation, and hope this piece can act as a starter to that.
BACK TO MAP
What did we hear about the current health systems people experience or are working in?
The main focus of the learning collated for this piece of work focused on the impact of the community-led collaborations with research that those contributing had experienced. As part of the learning conversations we briefly touched on the current systems relating to health that people have experienced or work within.
The headlines:
Click the speech bubbles to read quotes
Challenges for researchers and practitioners connecting with community
Challenges connecting community‑led work and research into health systems
Under recognition and undervaluing of community relationships
Time, resource and demand
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Researcher Alongside - Why?
The Ideas Fund model centers investing in community-led collaborations with academic researchers. This means starting with the community’s ideas on issues that matter to them. The community also holds the funding. The Ideas Fund supports the connection, brokering and ongoing collaboration with researchers - with an open and flexible view to how this might unfold and the impact it may lead to. Over the past 5 years we have seen very different and often emergent approaches to these collaborations. What have we learned about the value gained by communities in working with researchers?
Although many community organisations have been doing deep and impactful work for years, working alonsgide a researcher has helped bring a completely new perspective to support reflection, capturing knowledge, and building of evidence for change.
Working with researchers supports the evidence to back up our voices - Women shouldn’t have to fight for menopause support.
Hear from Josie on why this is important
Hear Sarah talk about her experience
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Researcher Alongside - Bridges leading to influence
Where researchers were embedded in community organisations, or where researchers connected and bridged to practitioner collaborations, communities were better positioned to access systems they often find closed or fragmented. These relationships helped spotlight community knowledge that then influenced policy, commissioning, and clinical practice.
Community and researcher collaborations can strengthen connections to new public sector partners, influencing policy and practice Collaborating and building the relationship also opens doors and connections to each other’s networks. Sarah-Anne tells us about the impact of bridging and connecting her NHS practitioner colleagues into the collaborations with GST in order to influence change.
The ARC Fitness model - when an academic researcher is embedded and employed by a community organisation, the community can be responsive and readied with the evidence to influence change Through The Ideas Fund, Iain has moved from collaboration as a University academic to now working for ARC Fitness as an embedded researcher. This is unusual for an community organisation of ARC’s size. Iain tells us about the value and potential of being an ‘in-house’ academic researcher, particularly in terms of the opportunities this presents in terms of health impact
How to get into health systems if you don’t have an ‘in’? Alex discusses how her clinical connections opened doors, and the challenge if you don’t have that
Hear from Sarah-Anne about this
Hear from Iain about this
Hear from Alex about this
BACK TO MAP
The importance of an individual’s unique experience
We heard from people about the importance of listening to and valuing unique and individual experiences. For some community partners, working flexibly and openly, and trusting their researcher helped them to share their story. This was often a critical part of the process for the collaborations and informed much of the diverse evidence and impacts. People also spoke about how this impacted people involved who perhaps had never felt their experiences were valued or listened to before, and in turn helps care and support.
Catherine talked about the approach of The Clarendon Way, that improves the wellbeing, joy and health of an individual while they are perhaps ‘stuck in the system’ waiting for medical intervention. Critical to this is the space for individuals and their own story and needs.
Click the speech bubbles to read quotes
Listen to Catherine talk about this.
The importance of listening to and making space for an individual’s unique experience and story has been critical to building authentic understanding.
The experience for people of sharing their stories and experiences and that being a valuable part of influencing changes and support for people like themselves, is itself deeply meaningful.
Listen to Alex talk about this
Hear Amaka talk about this
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Outputs and Evidence
‘Producing things that are more useful’ Sarah-Anne talks about how the evidence created with peer researchers can be used by many partners, from being useful as outputs to inform policy, discussed at multi-disciplinary groups and used as evidence by the veterans to advocate for change.
The Ideas Fund is flexible and didn't require predetermined outputs, or formal research to be produced by the funded projects. However, where the community wanted this, many of the collaborations ended up exploring the creation of various outputs together. People also told us that the process of collaborating and relationship building was just as important as the output itself and in some cases these outputs have become more impactful and relevant than previous work for both partners because of the collaboration.
Listen to Sarah-Anne discuss this
Click the speech bubble to read a quote
BACK TO MAP
Impact on health systems
Alex talked about the impact of demonstrating the problem as well as presenting the solution to clinical teams supporting brain injury in their local hospital. This resulted in the charity’s staff now being present on the ward to support families at the point of discharge.
Community‑led collaborations with researchers demonstrated how community knowledge and evidence can influence clinical practice, reshape service delivery, and shift how health systems recognise communities as partners in change rather than passive recipients of care.
Listen to Alex talk about this
Alex also spoke about shifting in the health system in their collabortive work: ‘There has been a significant change in practice and by presenting it national and internally - recognition of the value of it.’
Sarah-Anne worked with veterans as peer researchers with the GST project. Their research found that there was a real disconnect between the reality of how veterans and primary care services viewed statutory obligations, such as the Veterans Covenant. By the veterans themselves leading on and sharing this knowledge it’s demonstrating the value of ‘flipping’ the approach within the NHS outreach and awareness - thinking about the community as the drivers of change rather than just the receivers of information.
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It can’t be an optional extra’ - Alex tells us why community as equal partners mean creating more relevant and compassionate solutions within the system.
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Confidence and Validation
Communities described how collaborating with researchers helped them capture knowledge, reflect on experience, and build evidence that health systems could engage with. This strengthened confidence — both for communities to speak authoritatively, and for professionals to listen differently.
Click the speech bubble to read a quote
There has been a shift from people questioning whether they can do research to thinking about how it can be taken seriously. Sarah-Anne spoke about building a foundational in-depth relationship working together, and considering together ‘what would good evidence be?’.
'maybe this is something I could do, rather than something that lives on an academic’s shelf somewhere’ Iain shares examples from ARC and how the relationships built through collaborating on research has built confidence for staff members to lead on research and projects themselves.
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Wider Ripples of Impact: Learning - Education and Training
People told us that the learning generated through their collaborations has influenced education, training, and professional cultures — from university teaching to clinical learning spaces — showing that community‑led research reshapes knowledge as well as services.
Community invited to share learning and experiences with various medical practioner learning spaces, such as webinars, conferences and lectures
Catherine told us about their co-produced output that is being used to support their local University’s community social work practice teaching.
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Sarah told us about the play they have been creating with their researcher. The performance will share stories of the women through fictionalised characters and highlight the need for improved support and awareness about the menopause for everyone.
Alex told us about nursing and physiotherapy student interns learning about the value of lived experience research with the project, and the impact this has had on them.
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Harder to Dismiss
We heard that when community credibility and institutional forms of evidence come together, outputs carry a “dual weight”. Co‑produced research, creative outputs, and peer‑led evidence were more likely to be taken seriously within professional and policy settings.
Catherine talked about the co-production between research and community producing something larger than the sum of it’s parts. And the outputs they created being not just rich in information but relevant locally. She describes this as a 'dual weight' that allows it to be received well - giving what they produce depth and respect in different spaces. How have their outputs been received by medical professionals? What type of evidence did they need to include to support their case?
Public sector partners in some cases now have greater recognition that collaboration with community groups and charities can be legitimate and valuable in their wider work.
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Shifting the Status Quo
‘because it was being led by the community, the flexibility allowed us to be really responsive to what was happening within the research and change what we were doing to’
Much of the impact described through the interviews and discussions came from having the flexibility, support and security to build a funded long-term and truly collaborative relationship. The Ideas Fund demonstrates that a broader movement towards relational, participatory and community-rooted ways of producing knowledge and equitable systems is needed. To learn more about The Ideas Fund and hear about the impact and stories from funded collaboratiosn please read Reimagining Research (click on the image below to open in a new tab)
Hear Alex talk about how this approach shifted how she will work in the future
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10
What is Needed?
Click the speech bubble to read Sarindi's thoughts on what's needed to enable this work
Much of the impact described through the interviews and discussions came from having the flexibility, support and security to build a funded long-term and truly collaborative relationship. The Ideas Fund demonstrates that a broader movement towards relational, participatory and community-rooted ways of producing knowledge and equitable systems is needed. To learn more about The Ideas Fund and hear about the impact and stories from funded collaboratiosn please read Reimagining Research (click on the image below to open in a new tab)
Fair compensation and remuneration. Sarah-Anne about talks the ‘shift’ that is needed in the public sector for this type of work to be enabled, including new processes and remuneration.
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Alex speaks about the need for meaningful impact coming from a system that recognizes that communities and charities are not just nice to have, they are actually essential partners within research for clinical services and embedded from the start.
Sarah from Neighbourhood Networks enjoyed working with researchers and would like to continue to, but is unclear how to continue working with researchers beyond The Ideas Fund, as well as linking with other community-led research across the UK
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10
What is Needed?
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects. We use a simple, flexible grantmaking process supported by local “brokers” and complemented by regional infrastructure work which aims to shape the local systems within which communities and researchers work together. Our work is supported by a focus on the emerging learning and insight and how this can influence the wider system. Since the start of The Ideas Fund, we have seen projects challenging traditional norms about what research is, who does it and how it is done. One characterisation of this is that communities and researchers have been working together to reimagine what research is and to reclaim it for communities. Importantly, communities are awarded the grant and lead on the idea - rather than researchers or universities, as is the case with most research projects.
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‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
We have presented this learning as an interactive map to show the ways in which the stories of learning, activity and insight are clustered and related to each other. These did not emerge in a straight line, and what felt important was a way to explore connections, rather than reduce things to a single story of impact. We wanted to show an ecosystem of stories emerging from community-led research: The yellow area of the map is a focal point that highlights insights around working alongside researchers; the peripheral islands show the activities and insights that emerged from that process, and further in the distance we represent health and education institutions that may be impacted by, or connected into, that learning. Across the stories that were shared, we heard that community-led research can influence health systems not only through formal evidence or outputs, but through relationships, confidence, legitimacy, practical tools and changed conversations.
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
“I want people to recognise that co-production and creative methods aren’t soft approaches that give little, they're actually really powerful tools for revealing truths that we don't often hear through traditional research methods.”
Dr Alex Wray End of Life Matron and Research Fellow NHS Humber Health Partnership
“People managing long-term conditions hold knowledge about their own health that clinical frameworks rarely capture. Communities navigating mental health crises know what makes services inaccessible in ways that surveys alone will not reveal.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“You have to invest in trust, be clear about power and relationships, and be open to hearing things that might sound like a challenge, and using that knowledge to instigate change.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“I want people to recognise that co-production and creative methods aren’t soft approaches that give little, they're actually really powerful tools for revealing truths that we don't often hear through traditional research methods.”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’
Link
Link
“Our story is good for everyone to understand - when you know someone’s story you get to know them better; it helps you to diagnose them better. Some people just need rest!”
‘I think the conditions required for genuine community-led research collaborations are reasonably well understood. What tends to be missing is institutional and funder willingness and structural support to treat them as requirements rather than aspirations.’ ‘Supporting community-led research means investing in the nurturing of collaborations from the outset, including resourcing the time it takes to build the kind of trust that allows communities to engage openly and on their own terms’