Throughout multiple phases of Raising Voices in Research, VCSEs have told us that health and social care research would be more accessible if it met communities where they are, in the spaces that are familiar to them.
These could be spaces such as community buildings and assets. We have received funding from NIHR South Central Regional Research Delivery Network to build a directory of VCSEs who would like to have health and social care research delivered in their community spaces, a project we’re calling ‘RViR: Research Friendly Spaces’. But what makes a community space ‘research-friendly’?
In the first stage of this project, we spoke to different researchers from multiple Hampshire and Isle of Wight healthcare and research organisations to understand what barriers there might be and what practical elements they might need to deliver research in community spaces. From this we found four main themes about what researchers need to undertake research in community spaces:
1 – Physical space and environmental requirements
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Space sizes and layout
- Comfort and atmosphere
- Hygiene facilities
- Sensory adaptability
2 – Accessibility, location and transport
- Public transport links
- Parking
- Physical accessibility
3 – Technology and IT
- Power and connectivity
- Internet/signal
- Landline access
4 – Community trust, co-location and host support
- Linking to existing community activities
- Hospitality essentials (such as tea/coffee)
- Community co-ordinators
- Venue signage
The next stage of the project is to share these four themes in further detail with VCSEs.
Join our RViR: Research Friendly Space Introduction Workshops on:
Tuesday 29 September 10:30 – 11:15 and Thursday 8 October 15:00 – 15:45.
By attending one of these workshops, you will also learn how to join the Research Friendly Spaces directory, for which you could receive a £200 grant. To secure your free space, follow this link: RViR: An Introduction to Research Friendly Spaces Tickets, Multiple dates | Eventbrite
It is important to note VCSEs do not have to meet all these requirements to be a research friendly space and our team can help support you to meet further requirements if necessary.
By joining directory, not only you will be helping more people to access health and social care research but you also have the opportunity to unlock a whole new market of customers – researchers wanting to hire your community space.
Research friendly spaces are necessary to ensuring we achieve our RViR aim of increasing diversity of health and social care research participation and we can’t wait to work with lots of VCSEs to do it!
