Peer and Community Led Research

We lead a Peer Researcher Programme, training people with lived experience to become researchers.

Collaborating closely with communities, we co-create and test new methods of evidence generation, placing communities at the heart of the process and empowering them to lead the way.

Peer Researcher Programme

We deliver bespoke training programmes helping Universities and organisations work with Peer Researchers. Our training programme focusses on giving people with lived experience the skills to conduct their own research as well as amplifying their voice and power in the research process.\

Community - Co Production

We offer specialist training in Community Co-Production, our focus is on engaging with communities and moving beyond consultation to ensure communities are leading their own health and social care.

Peer Researcher Network

We facilitate a UK wide network of peer researcher. Leading the development of peer research as a research specialism.

It is rewarding to work on projects where you can see the results much quicker than a usual research study, and work in a team of such knowledgeable people who have a wealth of experience to learn from

Co-Action, Southampton University, 2025

An NIHR funded national collaboration between Southampton, Oxford, Manchester and Plymouth Universities which aims to understand how people from different communities live and how their health issues affect them. The project team will work with communities, health and social care professionals and volunteers to discover what supports people with long term health conditions and test out ideas in a research study. Co-Lab is supporting this work by providing six peer researchers across Hampshire and Isle of Wight with training and support to lead exploratory projects to identify what is most important to people with long term health conditions. The peer researchers will use creative and engaging research methods to hear and learn from their communities' views.

Community Peer Improvers to shape Health and Social care, 2024-2026

A project funded by The Health Foundation Q Exchange 2024. Seeking to grow community driven research and improvement that works across system boundaries, we have partnered with Health and Care in Portsmouth. Four peer researchers from Portsea and Paulsgrove are currently being provided with the skills and tools necessary to lead, deliver and evaluate their own research and improvement projects. The peer researchers aim to improve community mental health experience in Paulsgrove, and a sense of community, safety and belonging for young people in Portsea.

Sandbox Project, 2023, Client: Portsmouth City Council

An NIHR funded collaboration between Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth Universities Hospital Trust aimed to support research in and with under-served communities. Research topics were identified by communities: Cultural understanding of faith-based needs and practices at a time of mourning, Understanding suicide risk (and potential supports) for local young people, and The challenges with access to respite care for families with children with Special Educational Needs. Co-Lab supported Sandbox by providing research training and project guidance for three community peer researchers from diverse areas in Portsmouth. Through creative research methods the project aimed to enhance community participation in research.

FAIRER Oral Health and Research, 2023

Co-Lab secured funding from the NIHR Clinical Research Network Small Grant Scheme: Communities Under-served by Research.

We partnered with Communicare in Southampton to discover vulnerable older people's views on oral health and research. Together we ran a project to test approaches for accessible involvement. This helped us to understand how research, improvement initiatives, and NHS services can avoid widening disparities by only engaging those who are easier to reach.