Join the Research Collaborative!

Learn more about the Shaping the Conversation event and get involved in future research projects.

Shaping the Conversation, funded by NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex focused on the issue that much research originates from, and is led by researchers and research organisations, rather than being based on the research priorities of communities. This project was based on previous work delivered as part of Raising Voices in Research (RViR).

The project ran from April to October 2024, and funded 12 VCSE organisations from a wide range of communities, to deliver a workshop with their community members and identify up to three top research priorities. The University of Winchester collated all 34 of these into three similar themes and hosted a sandpit event, bringing together VCSE’s, community members and researchers to develop five research ideas that are now currently under development.

The final event showcase

This was held on 24 October in Portsmouth Guildhall and was an opportunity for everyone taking part in the project to reflect on all that had been achieved and consider the potential next steps.

During the morning, we heard from Lesley Barton at Recapture Life and Linda Amungwa from the University of Southampton, reflecting on their personal experience of the project looking at the support needed by communities to implement community-based solutions.

All the VCSE organisations taking part felt that it helped them develop research priorities and made them more confident to share those with others. Most importantly, they felt listened to and heard.

The researchers gained a greater understanding of the research priorities that matter to communities and felt they now had a better understanding of how to connect with communities to collaborate on research.

Follow this link for more in depth information, contacts and links