{"id":7491,"date":"2025-10-10T19:17:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/?p=7491"},"modified":"2025-10-10T19:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:17:57","slug":"research-with-purpose-putting-lived-experience-at-the-heart-of-policymaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/research-with-purpose-putting-lived-experience-at-the-heart-of-policymaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Research with purpose &#8211; Putting lived experience at the heart of policymaking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can people with lived experience help shape better, fairer policy?<br>That\u2019s the question explored by <a href=\"https:\/\/people.uwe.ac.uk\/Person\/RaunaqNayak\">Dr Rounaq Nayak<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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) \u2013 such as the What Works Network \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Exploring practice and principles<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working with colleagues Dr Katie Crompton and Dr Alex Jones, and in collaboration with WCPP and three What Works Centres \u2013 the Centre for Ageing Better, Youth Futures Foundation, and Centre for Homelessness Impact \u2013 the team conducted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>interviews with What Works and evidence centres,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>a rapid review of current practice, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>an Insight Note distilling implications for those seeking to involve lived-experience experts in knowledge mobilisation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Principles for ethical and effective engagement<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report outlines a series of guiding principles for knowledge brokering organisations, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>safeguarding and fair remuneration,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>clarity on purpose and participation,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>building reciprocal and trusting relationships,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>allocating time and resources from the outset,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>planning clear pathways to impact, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion in who participates and how.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Research with purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This fellowship reflects UWE Bristol\u2019s commitment to Research with purpose &#8211; research that informs practice, shapes decision-making and centres people\u2019s lived realities.<br><br>By working across academia, government and evidence organisations, Dr Nayak\u2019s work is helping redefine what inclusive and ethical policymaking can look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udc49 Read the full report: <a href=\"https:\/\/wcpp.org.uk\/publication\/involving-experts-by-experience-in-knowledge-mobilisation\/\">Involving experts by experience in knowledge mobilisation \u2013 Wales Centre for Public Policy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can people with lived experience help shape better, fairer policy?That\u2019s 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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/research-with-purpose-putting-lived-experience-at-the-heart-of-policymaking\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Research with purpose &#8211; Putting lived experience at the heart of policymaking&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":7495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1403,1489,1,4],"tags":[11,1490,1491,62,74,75,226,76],"class_list":["post-7491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","category-rise","category-uncategorised","category-uwe-bristol-research","tag-bristol","tag-policy-change","tag-policy-making","tag-research","tag-uwe","tag-uwe-bristol","tag-uwe-bristol-research","tag-uwe-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7491"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7511,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions\/7511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}