Public involvement initiatives
My Coffee Morning, Barton Hill
Community coffee mornings are run by two members of the local community Samira Musse and Zahra Kosar and provide a space for people from local organisations, healthcare providers and researchers to connect with communities to socialise, exchange knowledge and ideas and they promote community-led initiatives.
We currently run community coffee mornings at the University of Bristol Barton Hill Micro-campus. This area is classed as a Lower Layer super Output Area (LSOA) of Bristol in the most deprived 20% in England for Multiple Deprivation. Residents at Barton Hill continue to face challenges in access to housing, employment, education, and poor health.
Coffee mornings run every Friday 9:30-11:30am and are open to anyone to attend.
If you would like to connect with the community that attends, please contact the team (MS Forms) and we will be in touch.
Research Conversations
Research conversations are informal sessions and designed to give researchers and public contributors a chance to interact. They are not paid opportunities, but they offer public contributors the chance to ask questions, learn about and get involved in projects in their area.
Sessions usually take place once month on Tuesdays 5-6pm or Fridays 11am-12pm.
Watch previous research conversations (Youtube)
If you are interested and would like to take part, check for upcoming sessions, or email carmel.mcgrath@uwe.ac.uk.
Research conversations were inspired by a similar initiative hosted by the Wessex Public Involvement Network and could not have been developed without their support.
Health Ambassadors
Health ambassadors recruit people with connections in underserved communities to act as a two-way bridge between a particular community and the world of researchers.
The ambassadors are employed and managed by a community organisation, Caafi Health, making it a community led initiative.
There are currently five Health Ambassadors who provide links with lots of different communities across the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area .
If you are a researcher who would like to connect with underserved communities, please get in touch (MS Forms).
Young Persons Advisory Group
Members aged between 10 and 18 meet with researchers to give their feedback on research focused on young people. They also get involved in research projects.
Our YPAG members are important because they offer their unique young person’s point of view. They are, after all, the experts on being a young person.
The group can contribute to projects at every stage of the research cycle from developing ideas to sharing the results. They meet regularly, usually run between 5.30-6.30pm on weekday evenings and are usually held online via Zoom.
For more information about getting involved with the YPAG or wanting to work with the YPAG visit: Young People’s Advisory Group – ARC West.
Community involvement projects
We have funded a number of small projects which connect researchers with underserved communities. Projects have spanned the entire research cycle and provided researchers with the opportunity to build relationships with communities affected by the research.
These projects include working with:
- mothers from black and minority ethnicities
- older adults
- farmers
- young people
- black adults
- people who inject drugs
- migrant communities
- young men
Outputs
- How Do We Get the Public Into Public Health Research? Learnings and Key Recommendations From Initiating a Community Involvement Project Scheme (PMC)
- Reflections from the ‘Hold the door open’ project: Inviting older adults across the UK to shape dissemination of health research findings – Silvonen – 2024 – Health Expectations (Wiley Online Library)
- Getting involved in Zoonotic TB Research | NIHR HPRU in Behavioural Science and Evaluation Blog
- UKHSA 2025 poster (PDF, 448kB)
These projects are funded via HPRU funds and are advertised to HPRU researchers when funds are available.
