Co-creation Research Strategy for the School of Health and Social Care Professions Buckinghamshire New University (BNU)
Introduction:
This co-creation strategy is designed to align with BNU’s overarching research aim, which is to foster an inclusive research and knowledge exchange (KE) environment. This strategy can be a guide for those who are considering the use of co-creation as part of their research. Our goal is to actively promote diversity, ensure equitable access to research opportunities, and cultivate an atmosphere where all voices are heard, valued, and celebrated. Through this strategy, we seek to develop a high-impact research community that authentically represents and addresses the complexities of the world we aim to understand and improve. In this strategy, co-creation refers to research or projects that involve collaboration with stakeholders throughout the research or project process. These stakeholders may include students, members of the community, patients, health and social care practitioners, policymakers, and other relevant parties.
Key Areas of Activities:
1 Education Research:
Pedagogical Innovation: Explore and implement innovative teaching methods, enriching learning experiences collaboratively with co-creators.
Curriculum Development: Develop dynamic curricula responsive to industry trends, societal needs, and diverse perspectives through stakeholder collaboration.
Student Well-being: Investigate and enhance student well-being and engagement, involving co-creators, particularly students, in shaping a supportive learning environment.
2. Health and Social Care:
Patient-Centred: Conduct patient-centred research by actively involving cocreators to shape research outcomes based on lived experiences and diverse perspectives.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Foster interdisciplinary collaboration to address complex health and social care challenges comprehensively, breaking down silos.
Community Empowerment: Empower communities to manage their health and social care needs through co-created initiatives, policies, and practices.
Knowledge Exchange: Engage in KE through continuous professional development (CPD) initiatives and consultancy services, promoting the application of research findings in professional healthcare and social care practices.
3 Policy Development:
Evidence-Informed Policies: Inform policymaking through evidence-informed decision-making, bridging the gap between research findings and policy implementation with co-creation.
Equity and Access: Address issues of equity and access in policy development by engaging diverse stakeholders, dismantling barriers, and promoting inclusivity.
Sustainability and Resilience: Leverage co-creation to contribute to sustainable and resilient policies that anticipate and address current and future challenges in healthcare and social care systems.
Knowledge Exchange: Offer consultancy services and CPD opportunities to health and social care policymakers, facilitating the exchange of knowledge between research insights and effective policy implementation.
Facilitators:
To facilitate effective co-creation, we will implement the following measures:
• Proformas: Develop standardised templates for co-creator job descriptions, advertisements, financial documentation, KE contract format, and other regularly used documents. The forms will be adaptable as different funders have different requirements, and different funding calls from the same funder can also have different requirements.
• Training: The research lead, in collaboration with the head of the school, will organise training sessions and provide ongoing support for research groups to enhance their ability to work with and support co-creators.
• Funding: Assign a funding lead, ideally a Senior Lecturer, to oversee the funding database. This role will be linked to
professional development via the BNU academic pathway, ensuring colleagues have access to current funding information.
Delivery:
• Development: All research-active staff will integrate co-creation into their research activities where relevant and evidence this commitment through performance development reviews.
• Inclusive Research Fellows: Designate Inclusive Research Fellows from relevant health and social care sectors within research groups to contribute to their strategic vision.
• Partnership: Strive for primary research projects to be collaborative efforts involving students from BNU or other HEIs, BNU staff, healthcare/social care workers, or academics from other HEIs.
• Linkage: Connect Graduate Teaching Assistants and PhD students to research groups to foster collaboration.
• Co-create CPD initiatives and consultancy services with relevant partners.
Methodology:
There are several methods commonly used for co-creation. Some examples are described below.
Stakeholder Advisory Panels: Establishing advisory panels comprising representatives from diverse stakeholder groups ensures ongoing input and guidance throughout the research project (Knapp et al., 2022).
Participatory Action Research: Involves collaborative research conducted with and by community members or other stakeholders to address issues of mutual concern. Stakeholders are actively involved in all stages of the research process (Hutchinson & Lovell, 2013; McIntyre, 2008)
Co-design Workshops: Co-design workshops bring together researchers and stakeholders to collaboratively develop research tools, interventions, or resources. Participants work together to generate ideas, prototype solutions, and refine designs based on feedback and iterative testing (Ulrika et al., 2023).
This strategy uses a co-design workshop approach, which has been proven to be beneficial for participants (Corcoran et al., 2018). The co-creation methodology described below is based on the work of Dairo et al. (2022). It adopts co-design workshops based on the design thinking approach by Brown (2008) and emphasises the following points:
• Collaboration: Engage diverse stakeholders to address complex challenges and create solutions resonating with end-users.
• Recruitment: Target relevant stakeholders and end-users during the recruitment process.
• Involvement: Ensure co-creators are involved throughout the stages of research or resource development.
• Governance: Establish chaired and agenda-driven co-creators’ meetings.
• Commitment: Co-creators will commit 4-7 hours for meetings and an equal amount of preparation time for specified projects.
Dissemination:
In alignment with the university’s research strategy, our co-creation initiatives will be evaluated based on the following metrics:
i. Conference Participation: Contribute to the BNU annual research and KE conference to showcase co-created research or resources with relevant partners.
ii. Publication: Reflect co-creation in staff and student publications.
iii. Partnership Building: Establish and nurture co-creation health and social care partnerships.
iv. Annual Event: Host a yearly co-creation event to strengthen existing relationships and establish new partnerships.
v. Database Management: Maintain an up-to-date database of co-creators overseen by one of the research groups. Researchers will obtain consent from co-creators and ensure that their personal information is handled securely and confidentially. The database will be stored on a shared drive that is password-protected.
By adhering to this comprehensive strategy, the School of Health and Social Care Professions aims to create a collaborative and inclusive research environment that contributes meaningfully to our understanding and improvement of the world.
Thank you.
Dr Yetunde Dairo Associate Professor of Physiotherapy and Interim Deputy Head of SchoolDate produced: April 2024.
Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Professor Damien Page, Deputy Vice Chancellor BNU and Professor Jermaine Ravalier, Head of School of Health and Social Care Professions BNU, for their critical review and feedback, which informed the final version.
Bibliography
Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84–92
Corcoran, R., Marshall, G., & Walsh, E. (2018). The psychological benefits of cooperative place-making: a mixed methods analyses of co-design workshops. CoDesign, 14(4), 314-328.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1340484
Dairo Y.M., Hammond J.A., Ishani, D, Norris M, Williams A. (2022) Racial inclusivity in physiotherapy practice education. Available at: https://rise.articulate.com/share/HA6fex0HXbNk9jYnUfQbamh95_c7geL. [Accessed 1/04/24]
Guachalla, A., & Gledhill, M. (2019). Co-creating learning experiences to support student employability in travel and tourism.
Huang, C. Y., Tsai, L. Y., Chung, C. H., Shih, F. F., & Wang, Y. M. (2023). The effect of design thinking approach in interprofessional education programme of human sexuality course: A quasi-experimental design. Nurs Open, 10(2), 967-976. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1363
Hutchinson, A., & Lovell, A. (2013). Participatory action research: moving beyond the mental health 'service user' identity. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs, 20(7), 641-649. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12001
Knapp, A. A., Carroll, A. J., Mohanty, N., Fu, E., Powell, B. J., Hamilton, A., . . . Smith, J. D. (2022). A stakeholder-driven method for selecting implementation strategies: a case example of pediatric hypertension clinical practice guideline implementation. Implement Sci Commun, 3(1), 25-25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-022-00276-4
McIntyre, A. (2008). Participatory action research.
Ulrika, M., Pontus, H., Catharina, G., Hanna, H., Mårten, J. T., Stefan, J., & Kristin Alfredsson, Å. (2023). Promoting Healthy Behaviors Among Adolescents and
Young Adults With Intellectual Disability: Protocol for Developing a Digital Intervention With Co-Design Workshops. JMIR research protocols, 12, e47877. https://doi.org/10.2196/47877
Date of next review: April 2026