How can people with lived experience help shape better, fairer policy?
That’s the question explored by Dr Rounaq Nayak, whose 18-month Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Policy Innovation Fellowship examined how experts-by-experience can be meaningfully involved in knowledge mobilisation for policy and practice.
From November 2023 to April 2024, Dr Nayak was seconded to the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) to investigate how knowledge brokering organisations (KBOs) – such as the What Works Network – can embed lived experience into their work. While co-production is well established in health policy, practice elsewhere remains emergent. This fellowship set out to understand how involvement can be done ethically, effectively and with impact.
Exploring practice and principles
Working with colleagues Dr Katie Crompton and Dr Alex Jones, and in collaboration with WCPP and three What Works Centres – the Centre for Ageing Better, Youth Futures Foundation, and Centre for Homelessness Impact – the team conducted:
- interviews with What Works and evidence centres,
- a rapid review of current practice, and
- an Insight Note distilling implications for those seeking to involve lived-experience experts in knowledge mobilisation.
Their findings show growing recognition of the value that lived-experience perspectives bring, enriching evidence with real-world insight and helping create policies with greater reach and relevance. Yet they also highlight the risks of tokenism, over-burdening individuals, and ethical concerns if involvement is not well supported.
Principles for ethical and effective engagement
The report outlines a series of guiding principles for knowledge brokering organisations, including:
- safeguarding and fair remuneration,
- clarity on purpose and participation,
- building reciprocal and trusting relationships,
- allocating time and resources from the outset,
- planning clear pathways to impact, and
- ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion in who participates and how.
Research with purpose
This fellowship reflects UWE Bristol’s commitment to Research with purpose – research that informs practice, shapes decision-making and centres people’s lived realities.
By working across academia, government and evidence organisations, Dr Nayak’s work is helping redefine what inclusive and ethical policymaking can look like.
👉 Read the full report: Involving experts by experience in knowledge mobilisation – Wales Centre for Public Policy