About - The Programme
Raising Voices in Research (RViR) was created in November 2022 to increase diversity in health and social care research participation.
Action Hampshire got together with Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Engaging Communities Research Centre University of Winchester, Hampshire County Council, and Energise Me.
Together, they used the Integrated Care System Research Engagement Network Development (ICS REN) fund from NHS England to set up RViR.
Current Raising Voices in Research Projects
RViR Phase 5
(2026 - 2027)
We will be continuing previous phases of RViR work that have been successful:
- Recruiting 12 Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations to deliver two workshops with their communities to increase their understanding and awareness of health research through two workshops.
- Six of these VCSEs will go on to take part in our Research Adaption Programme – working with researchers to adapt studies to increase their accessibility
- Co-designing three Research Collaborative events
Alongside this we will work with and support research organisations across Hampshire and Isle of Wight to embed RViR. Interested in working with us? Contact us via [email protected]
RViR: Research Friendly Spaces
(2026 - 2027)
Our second project this year is funded by NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network South Central (NIHR RRDN) and will aim to support community assets to host research delivery in their settings. From previous phases of RViR, we know that community members prefer to access community settings, so we want to find out what researchers would need to be able to conduct research in these spaces and then create a directory of community assets that meet this criteria and would like to support research. This project is open to all community spaces but we would particularly like to reach rural and coastal communities.
Research Collaborative
Across all phases of RViR we have held Research Collaborative events, both online and in-person. These events provide a space where VCSE organisations, community members, and researchers can come together to discuss best practice for engaging underserved communities in research and share opportunities for research participation, involvement, and engagement. Anyone based within the South East of England is welcome to join! Click here to find out more or to join.
Previous Raising Voices in Research Projects
RViR Phase 1 (2022 - 2023)
11 VCSE (voluntary community and social enterprise) organisations were recruited to deliver two workshops with their community members. The purpose of these workshops was to explore the needs and perceptions of community members regarding health research, as well as understanding what would encourage them to take part in health research. To support VCSEs with their workshops, the partners delivered an introductory session with the aim of demystifying research and engagement. We provided tools for engaging with their community members and explained the purpose of the project.
The organisations worked quickly to deliver the workshops between January – March 2023 and generated some interesting insights. These insights were used to co-produce:
- A Local Plan for Research – a document that outlines to researchers what different under-served communities need to participate in research
- A Pledge – a document that summaries the key points of the Local Plan for Research which can be implemented by researchers
- Communications Toolkits – multiple documents that summarise how each VCSE organisation and their community members want to be communicated with about research opportunities.
All of these outputs can be downloaded from our Insights page.
Phase 2
(2023 - 2024)
After a successful Phase 1, we put in a second bid to the ICS REN fund for RViR Phase 2 which was accepted in September 2023. For this next phase, we recruited 8 new VCSE organisations who work with communities we hadn’t previously reached (refugees and asylum seekers, LGBTQ+ communities, people experiencing homelessness).
These organisations re-ran phase 1 of the project, providing important insights that were then used to create a revised edition of the Local Plan for Research, available on the Insights page.
After delivering the workshops, the new organisations, alongside 7 from the first phase, were invited to take part in the Research Adaption Programme (RAP). The VCSE organisations were matched with a researcher who had a current research opportunity. They worked together to adapt the research, so it better met the needs identified within the Local Plan for Research. The groups completed recommendations tables, which detailed actions researchers can take to increase the accessibility of their research, when they’re going to take them, and how they’re going to feedback their progress to communities. Some of the recommendations that were actioned included:
- Streamlining participant recruitment process by combining the expression of interest/screening and consent questions in a single online form – reducing time required and burden on participants
- Providing different options for participating to acknowledge people’s different communication preferences
- Asking for preferred pronouns in initial communication, and how they want to be addressed (e.g. Mr, Ms, Mx) - to avoid misgendering
- Raising accessibility/screen reader issues with the website/survey developers
Alongside the RAP, the VCSE organisations also took part in an additional opportunity. For some this was the RAP Review Panel – screening and selecting the relevant research opportunities. Others produced content about their experiences participating in RAP, which were shared as part of a ‘RViR Communications Takeover’ (follow this link to read Portsmouth Pride’s). A couple of the VCSEs were invited to co-produce a training module based on the Local Plan for Research and learnings from across both project phases. You can find out more about our ‘Developing community-led research’ training module by visiting the Training page.
Across both phases of RViR, the partnership developed a Research Collaborative that brings together VCSE organisations, researchers, and community members to discuss opportunities and best practice for involving under-served communities in research. The Collaborative aims to meet three times a year and uses an online platform called Basecamp for ongoing engagement. Head to the Research Collaborative page to find out more!
Shaping the Conversation (2024)
Often health research projects originate with researchers, and research organisations set the priorities for health research. This results in health research being done to, rather than in collaboration with under-served communities. Consequently, these communities may be less likely to participate in research because it doesn’t reflect the issues they are affected by or care about. The RViR partners developed ‘Shaping the Conversation’, to address this issue and empower VCSEs to share and develop their health research priorities.
The project ran from April – October 2024 and was funded by NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex via their Small Grants Scheme working with communities under-served by research. We recruited 12 VCSE organisations and provided them with a grant to deliver a workshop with 10 of their community members. The purpose of this workshop was to explore what health research these community members would like to see delivered. An organisation representative summarised these discussions in a Feedback Form, providing the top 3 research priorities identified by their group.
The Engaging Communities Research Centre at the University of Winchester reviewed the 34 research questions shared by the VCSEs and grouped them into three themes:
- Person-centered mental health interventions
- Culture, stigma, and health
- Health inequalities
Researchers and research organisation representatives with expertise/interest in these three areas were then invited to attend a sandpit event with the participating VCSE organisations, who brought with them one member of their community. Overall, there were 52 attendees. The purpose of the sandpit event was to build a shared understanding of what research questions matter, as well as to build momentum for collaborative research projects which could make a meaningful difference to local communities.
The sandpit event was a great success with 100% of VCSE survey participants agreeing that it helped them to develop research ideas with and for their communities, that they were more confident to share the research priorities with others, and that they felt listened to and heard.
“It was interesting to talk through ideas and hear everyone’s perspective” – VCSE Participant
Moreover, 100% of researcher survey participants agreed that they have a greater understanding of the research that matters to communities and a better understanding of how to connect with communities to collaborate on research.
“The opportunity to be part of a lively and invigorating conversation, meeting representatives from a diversity of organisations and sharing ideas.” – Researcher Participant
Five research priorities were developed into ideas and taken forward from this event by partnerships of VCSE representatives, community members, and researchers. These research topics are:
- What support do communities need to implement community-based solutions
- Better supporting people at the intersectionality between neurodiversity and LGBTQ+
- Healthy eating and nutrition related behaviours
- AI culture and language in health settings
- Young people and peer support
These groups are currently developing their ideas further and assessing the opportunities available for project funding.
The Shaping the Conversation team developed a VCSE research priorities database containing all the research interests and ideas that VCSE organisations have identified and developed through the project. The VCSE priorities database will become a key resource in terms of designing research ideas and setting research priorities across the region as we can use it to connect interested VCSE organisations and researchers. To find out more about the database, join our Research Collaborative.
Phase 3
(2024 - 2025)
Funded by ICS REN, Raising Voices in Research Phase 3 took place in 2024/25 and allowed for further development of our RViR training for researchers. We worked with three VCSEs via co-production workshops to adapt this training for public contributors and VCSE organisations. Both training modules are now available, please visit the Training section of our website for more information.
RViR Mentoring (2025 - 2026)
From April 2025 – March 2026, we ran RViR Mentoring, funded by National Institute Health Research Applied Research Collaborative Wessex (NHIR ARC Wessex). The project aimed to increase VCSE and communities’ knowledge of research and to understand what mental health related research communities want to see.
Six VCSEs were recruited to deliver two workshops with their community members to discuss these topics. Based on their insights we matched four of them with a researcher with expertise in at least one of the areas community members are interested in. These partnerships worked together through a series of monthly meetings to exchange knowledge and ideas to either:
- develop a new research proposal based on the community’s mental health research priorities and the researcher’s area of expertise
OR
- adapt an existing research proposal/opportunity based on the community’s needs and priorities.
From the project four research proposals were created and strong working relationships between VCSEs, communities, and researchers were developed. Ongoing work will support these pairings to find ways forward for their research ideas.
Phase 4 (2025 - 2026)
From April 2025 – March 2026 we were also funded by NHS England to continue RViR as part of the REN work. This phase saw us undertake activities to try and embed RViR across Hampshire and Isle of Wight:
- We mapped stakeholders and networks related to primary care across Hampshire and Isle of Wight and used this information to host stakeholder workshops to increase understanding of, and engagement with, RViR.
- We aimed to increase understanding of VCSE capacity to engage with research by mapping VCSEs needs, to support the dissemination of our RViR Training.
- We facilitated a focus group with VCSEs to get their feedback on the Research Collaborative, with the aim of making improvements to increase engagement.
Alongside this we held two Research Collaborative Roadshow Events where researchers delivered short presentations about their projects to VCSEs and their community members to encourage their participation. You can read about the success of these events in our latest project evaluation report.
Improving Black Health Outcomes (IBHO) Through RViR (2025 - 2026)
Our final project for 2025-26 was funded by NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network South Central (NIHR RRDN). RViR partnered with NIHR BioResource to increase the rate of participation in research from Black communities across the South-Central region, supporting NIHR BioResource’s Improving Black Health Outcomes work. Three VCSEs engaged almost 100 community members in workshops where they were supported by the Southampton Centre for Research Engagement and Impact to demystify research and share information about the IBHO project.