Participatory or co-produced research is a term for a variety of practices, which have emerged from different disciplines. We define participatory research as "a collaborative approach to research that involves the people whose lives are affected by the issues being researched. They are included equitably as partners throughout the research process. The aim is to improve people’s lives and bring about social change.”

Through funding from Research England, we have developed a programme of activities designed to build a community of practice in participatory research at King’s.

The activities, co-ordinated by Impact and Engagement Services and hosted by Science Gallery London, include training programmes, public exhibitions and events, seed-funding, mentoring, and an Impact and Community Engagement summer school.

Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best? 
Science Gallery London  
April – June 2024 

Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best? challenges the idea of ‘the expert’ and explores the limitations of traditional approaches to research. The exhibition advocates for the value of centring 'experts by experience’ to challenge the neutrality of research and enable those most affected by an issue to generate knowledge that can bring about positive social change.  

Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best? was developed by a group of 16 co-researchers with varied expertise and lived experiences who share a passion for research that centres, champions and celebrates people who have previously been ignored.  

The exhibition featured several exhibits designed to deepen understanding of participatory research:  
A case study of participatory research projects across King’s
A game of ‘Guess the Expert’ to challenge preconceptions around expertise
A manifesto of principles for best practice in participatory research
In the video below, Maciej, a co-researcher who contributed to the development of the exhibitions, reads out the principles of the manifesto for participatory research.  

To support researchers at King's, we offered seed funding for participatory research projects that embedded community, patient and public collaboration. To date, the seed-funded projects are:

Include Us In

Dr Meg Peterson (Faculty of Arts & Humanities) and the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit collaborated on a pilot study using participatory approaches to co-design research with cultural entrepreneurs in West Bank, Palestine. 

Tackling inequalities in maternal health outcomes: from participatory research to community action

A team of peer researchers and academics from the Department of Women and Children’s Health (Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine) developed relationships with and trained up a group of ethnically and socially diverse group of women in South London to co-produce a research grant to address health inequalities in maternal health outcomes.

MAPS: Mapping approaches to a programme of survivor-led research: co-developing our vision, values and principles

A team of researchers from the Service User Research Enterprise (IoPPN) are working with Traumascapes to bring together diverse survivor-led organisations to co-develop and map the vision and underpinning principles for a survivor-led research programme. 

Enhancing knowledge co-production between neurodivergent young people and academic researchers to enrich experimental neuroscience in RE-STAR

Members of the Youth Researcher Panel collaborated with the RE-STAR team (IoPPN) to co-develop research questions, hypotheses and methods of an experimental neuroscience study.

Exploring perceptions of cognitive load in online learning

Anne-Laure Le Cunff  (IoPPN) co-designed a series of focus groups with a Community Advisory Board of seven neurodivergent students who co-authored a case study detailing the methods, challenges and opportunities for co-design to support neurodiversity in online education.

Just another form of exclusion? What can research offer people experiencing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness?

Jess Harris (Policy Institute) and Stan Burridge (Peer Researcher) worked with a small group of individuals with lived experience of multiple exclusion homelessness to develop, shoot and edit a short film exploring their experiences of participating in research, and perceptions of inhibitors and facilitators. The film aims to support researchers to make participatory research more inclusive.  

Enhancing participatory research capacity in palliative care research

Researchers and public involvement specialists from the Cicely Saunders Institute (Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care) ran a series of capacity building activities including;  bespoke PR training delivered with Shaping our Lives (a user-led organisation experienced in research and inclusive involvement), a virtual workshop with researchers, patients and carers to co-produce new research ideas, and co-produced case-study blog posts about PR in palliative care.  

King’s is home to a number of networks and working groups who develop PR related initiatives. They include:

Inspiring Ethics

A group of researchers who want to reshape ethical relations in community based research.

Community of Practice

A community of researchers and professional service staff interested in participatory research.

Visual Embodied Methodologies Network

A space for knowledge-exchange and research excellence around visual, embodied and art-based methodologies.

If you are a researcher or community member interested in finding our more about our participatory research programme, please sign up to the KERN Newsletter or contact Bella.spencer@kcl.ac.uk.