Blog: Cooking Up Sustainable Community Engagement in Research

 

Last month, research engagement partners from across the North West came together for a day of sharing, collaboration and collective thinking, all wrapped up in a brilliant culinary theme.

 

The event was funded by NHS England and hosted by VSNW, along with the three North West Research Engagement Networks (RENs).

 

It brought together representatives from Lancashire & South Cumbria, Cheshire & Merseyside and Greater Manchester to explore how we build sustainable, meaningful community engagement in research, and what the secret ingredients might look like.

 

The day was expertly facilitated by comedian Ali Kahn (@alikahncomedy), with live illustrations captured throughout by visual minute taker Karla Rimaitis.

 

Participants explored everything from reaching new and underserved communities to connecting primary care with research delivery, building networks of community champions, and sustaining long term VCFSE and academic partnerships. Ingredients, methods, measurements, and ideas for keeping things fresh were all captured throughout the day on recipe cards and the ever-growing “pantry wall”.

The energy in the room reflected just how much appetite there is across the North West for this kind of joined-up, community-centred approach to research engagement.