Mapping good practice and equipping PGRs to create equity in non-academic partnerships

Despite growing interest in participatory, collaborative or co-created research, too often research that claims to be co-created remains extractive, including (paradoxically) in human rights research (Knuckey et al. 2020). Shifts in thinking about impact in the new REF cycle - more team-oriented, building on long-term collaborations rather than single projects, valuing engagement as well as impact - suggest that there is space for reimagining partnerships beyond the research project cycle.

The team involved in this bid has extensive experience of working with non-academic partners and affected communities, across and beyond the research project cycle. We carried out a collaborative mapping of key challenges and good practice in creating equity in non-academic research partnerships at York. This will be written up as a checklist/set of recommendations, as well as an academic article on creating equity in collaborative research that can be disseminated internally and externally and inform new ways of working.

Investing in training PGRs - as future academics and partners - will equip them to work more effectively with non-academic partners in future: to move between academic and non-academic roles, to better understand needs and priorities of non-academic partners, and to develop outputs and activities that have value for different partners and audiences. We have identified a training gap related to skills for working with non-academic partners — and also many PGRs in the network with relevant skills and experience they can share with their cohort. We held a series of trainings where skilled PGRs trained their colleagues in key skills.