Voices of Cornwall Shaping Research - Findings

What is the problem that REND was trying to solve? (From the perspective of those involved)

1. Health inequalities impact access to research.
   • And researchers don’t have the time to access those who need support to participate.
2. Practical problems.
   • The cost and logistics of participation are prohibitive for some.
3. A limited view of research engagement
   • Transactional approaches vs collaboration, co-design, co-production.
   • The focus on food expanded the approach to research engagement.
4. A lot of Venn diagrams.
   • Cornwall’s research network is large and complicated.
   • Located in a wide range of organisations and spread across an extensive geographical area.

Research Engagement and Participation

Barriers

Question from the funders – What (if any) systemic or institutional barriers to equitable inclusion of diverse communities have you encountered, and what actions did you take to address these, as part of your REN project? What (if any) evidence of the effectiveness of these activities do you have?

One of the biggest barriers we encountered was around trust and a concern that there was little point in engaging with research because it did not lead to meaningful change for the individual or wider system. Although this was voiced most directly from community stakeholders, it resonated with the experience of the project oversight and working groups who grappled with the challenge of how to meaningfully embed the insight gathered into day-to-day practice at system level.

Through the project showcase event, where we used creative methodologies to facilitate engagement from diverse audiences, we laid important groundwork for reducing the distance between communities and decision makers. Increased understanding and transparency about contrasting organisational agendas and internal challenges has been developed through working together over the course of CorREN and enabled open and constructive conversations about how to overcome them in future.

Therefore, although it is too early to offer definitive solutions, CorREN has created the essential space and capacity required to identify and understand the problems providing a strong foundation for the development of effective solutions moving forward.

The word research means different things to different people. The variances extend from the type of research, funder, ontology, practical application etc. University of Exeter alongside the HDRC have designed a workshop to surface some of our understandings collective and individual of research.

To find out more drop Catherine Leyshon an email at: [email protected]

Question from the funders – Please reflect on steps that are needed to achieve a sustainable system – both in terms of maintaining trusted relationships around research with underserved communities, and in how your REN partners will continue to embed consideration of diversity in research in local operations and governance as a business as usual activity.

• Obtain commitment and buy-in from system leaders/decision-makers which is backed up by action.
• Create and maintain capacity and time to invest in relationships
• Identify funding opportunities to invest locally, rather than only rely on national funding opportunities.
• Maintain a regular network meeting/working session to keep partners connected
• Capture research activity, outcomes and communicate across partners, linking into system priorities.
• Invest in engagement and research capacity from anchor institutions to ensure opportunities for community involvement, and learning from communities, become regular and sustained.
• Continue to challenge and provide alternatives (using the insight and resources developed through REN) to cultures and systemic ways of working that obstruct more inclusive ways of working.

There are lots of ideas, some of them are captured below. With many different partners there are different needs.

Next Stage of Funding

Objectives;

• To support sustainable research engagement for communities across the ICS geography who are typically underserved by research,
• To increase inclusivity and opportunities for diverse communities to take part in research, and
• to embed approaches to diverse engagement around research in the way the ICS operates

Health Determinant Research Collaborative

Cornwall is in the early stages of building an HDRC.

Recommendations to working together;

1. Use the learning from the first phase of Cornwall REN so that there is no need to start from scratch to:
   • Understand what parts of existing research approaches people and communities would like to see change.
   • Understand who and which communities are currently missing from many research activities
2. Support the ongoing development of the research systems map and collation of learning from people and communities.
3. Identify how projects, programmes, and groups (such as REN, CRG, and Building Cornwall’s Community Capacity, Cornwall ONE) can exist independently in parallel whilst contributing to a community of practice with a shared ambition for more equitable, place-based, and community-led research approaches.

If you cannot access these documents due to firewalls please email: [email protected]