Participatory research is crucial to ensuring that developments in data science champion inclusive and equitable outcomes for everyone. This approach seeks to empower and involve different communities meaningfully at each step, from designing a piece of research to communicating with the public about it. By involving communities and individuals with lived experience of the topic being researched, we can gain powerful insights into what is important, what the priorities for the research should be and what success looks like. This is especially relevant when thinking about improving health equity through data science – it’s only by hearing from the communities experiencing health inequity that we can understand how to strive for health equity.

Our first aim is to provide guidance for different groups of people looking to put participatory research into practice. Clinicians, data scientists, experts by experience and academics could use these resources to understand how to incorporate participatory research into their projects and hear stories about how other groups have done it in the past. We intend to spend some time collecting information about which techniques are used, and by whom, and create a repository of resources and tips that elevate practice in participatory research across all sectors.

Our second aim is to create a friendly platform where everyone feels comfortable asking for advice, sharing their experiences and lessons, connect with like-minded individuals and find opportunities to collaborate on new projects.

Working to achieve these two aims, we’ll grow an enthusiastic community of diverse, multi-sector voices championing inclusive and rigorous research practices & driving improvements in health equity through data science.

Curious? We'd love to invite you to learn more about how you can apply participatory research in your work and find like-minded collaborators and peers. 

Find us in the #theme-participatory-research channel in our workspace & come along to our launch event on Wednesday 27th March 'From data subjects to design partners: exploring participatory principles in health AI research'.