Building trust and inclusion in public involvement
Building trust and inclusion in public involvement
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We are pleased to announce the publication of an academic paper connected to a co-produced public involvement project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) was a partnership between Keele University, Leeds University, Expert Citizens CIC, Voluntary Action Stoke on Trent (VAST), Leeds Involving People, and Healthwatch Leeds.
The original paper Building trust and inclusion with under-served groups: a public involvement project employing a knowledge mobilisation approach is published in peer reviewed journal ‘Research Involvement and Engagement’ and you can find it HERE
You can also find out more about the journey that Keele University and Expert Citizens have been on throughout this project HERE and HERE
Plain English summary
Some groups of people often face barriers to being involved in health research. Researchers need to get better at working with these under-served groups so that the groups’ voices contribute to research, and the groups benefit from research.
This project aimed to explore the use of a knowledge mobilisation approach to start building partnerships with under-served groups based on trust and mutual understanding. Knowledge mobilisation involves research teams and people beyond academia sharing what they know with each other. This helps to create new knowledge with practical benefits in the real world.
The project team involved people from four community organisations and two universities. Informal conversations with over 100 local people were held in community settings. Prompt questions and other activities were used to encourage people to share their views of health research. The conversations suggested research teams need to:
- Work with local communities to design research that is relevant to them, show their input is valued, and build trust.
- Meet people’s language and disability-related needs.
- Make all research activities as flexible as possible.
This project’s lessons learned provide practical examples of how to make research more inclusive and highlight the importance of addressing research teams’ training/support needs.
Overall, knowledge mobilisation was a helpful approach for building relationships with under-served groups and working together to create new knowledge. All the groups involved plan to carry on working together. Keeping the partnerships going long term may need wider changes, for example in how research is funded.