Co-production · Lived Experience · CBPR · Action Research
Participatory Research: Done With Communities, Not On Them
Most research studies communities from a distance. Participatory research embeds them as active partners: in designing the questions, shaping the methods, interpreting the findings, and deciding what happens next. The result is evidence that communities recognise as true, and that commissioners can defend.
What is participatory research?
Participatory research is a systematic approach to generating knowledge with communities rather than about them. Rather than treating people as data sources, it positions them as partners in the research process, involved in setting the questions, selecting the methods, interpreting the data, and applying the findings.
The term covers a family of related approaches: community-based participatory research (CBPR), participatory action research (PAR), co-production, peer research, and lived experience research. What they share is a commitment to equality between researchers and the people whose lives the research concerns, and a recognition that knowledge from inside a community is as valid and important as knowledge produced from outside it. We also cover inclusive recruitment for the communities standard panels miss.
For a full introduction to the approach, see our guide: What is participatory research?
Participatory research approaches we use
Different communities, contexts, and research questions call for different methods. We match the approach to what will generate the most genuine insight.
Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
Deep partnership between researchers and community members from study design through to dissemination. Community partners are equal co-investigators, not consultees. Used widely in health inequalities, housing, and third sector contexts where trust is essential to honest data.
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
Research with a built-in change orientation. Communities identify the problem, shape the inquiry, and are active agents in implementing what the research reveals. Common in service improvement, third sector evaluation, and public health programmes where the goal is not just understanding but action.
Co-production Research
An equal partnership model between service users, communities, and organisations, embedded in NHS co-production mandates and NIHR requirements. Research is not done to participants: it is designed together from the first conversation, with power shared throughout. Increasingly a requirement for NHS and public sector commissioning.
Lived Experience Research
Research that positions people with direct, personal experience of an issue as the primary source of insight, not an afterthought. Particularly important in mental health, chronic conditions, disability, health inequalities, and any area where professional assumptions about the lives of service users have shaped services that do not work.
Peer Research
Community members trained to conduct research with their own communities. Reaches populations that conventional recruitment cannot access, generates trust that external researchers cannot replicate, and produces data coloured less by social desirability or distrust of institutions. Particularly effective with marginalised or historically under-researched groups.
Narrative and Creative Methods
Photovoice, participatory video, timeline mapping, and creative workshops. Used where written or verbal expression may limit participation, or where the research benefits from richer, more personal accounts than a structured interview can generate. Particularly effective with communities where literacy, language, or past experiences with formal research create barriers to conventional methods.
Why commissioners and organisations choose participatory research
Participatory research is not just a principled choice; it is increasingly a practical and regulatory one
NHS and statutory requirements
Integrated Care Boards have statutory duties to involve communities in commissioning decisions. NHS England's co-production framework expects genuine partnership, not consultation theatre. NIHR increasingly scrutinises PPI sections in grant applications for evidence of authentic involvement. Participatory research provides a defensible, documented approach that meets these expectations.
Evidence commissioners can stand behind
Standard qualitative findings can be challenged as reflecting researcher assumptions. Evidence generated with the community, where community members helped design the questions and interpret the findings, is significantly harder to dismiss as biased or unrepresentative.
Services that actually work
Services designed with communities rather than for them have better uptake, fewer costly redesigns after launch, and longer-term sustainability. The participatory process surfaces the barriers, assumptions, and design mismatches that conventional research cannot reach, because participants with lived experience notice things that researchers simply do not know to look for.
Access to communities that won't engage otherwise
Marginalised or historically exploited communities often refuse conventional research. A genuinely participatory approach, with real power-sharing, community control, and equitable recognition of contribution, opens doors that surveys, focus groups, and ethnographic observation cannot.
Participatory research and other approaches
Understanding the distinctions helps you commission the right method for your question
vs standard qualitative research
Interviews and focus groups treat participants as data sources. The researcher designs the study, asks the questions, and interprets the findings. Participatory research shifts that: communities help set the agenda, shape the methods, and co-interpret what the data means. The difference is not cosmetic; it changes both what you find and how credible the findings are.
vs PPIE
PPIE is about involving people in research decisions: having input into study design, sitting on advisory groups, reviewing materials. Participatory research goes further: communities are partners in generating knowledge, not consultees. The two approaches are complementary and often combined: PPIE provides the governance framework, participatory research provides the deeper methodology.
vs co-design workshops
Co-design is generative and solutions-focused: you are designing something together. Participatory research is inquiry-focused: you are understanding something together. They work well in sequence: participatory research to understand the reality, co-design to respond to it. Both involve genuine community partnership.
vs ethnographic research
Ethnography observes communities in their own contexts without intervening or collaborating. Participatory research partners with communities and actively involves them in the research process. Ethnography is about seeing; participatory research is about knowing together. Both can reveal things that interviews miss, but through fundamentally different relationships between researcher and community.
How we deliver participatory research
Careful scoping, genuine community partnership, and analysis that connects what communities know to what organisations need to do
Scoping and community partnership development
We work with you to define the research question, identify the right community partners, and establish the terms of the partnership, including how community members will be involved, recognised, and compensated.
Research design with participants
Where the project allows, community members are involved in shaping the research design: what questions to ask, which methods to use, who else to involve. This is not token consultation: it meaningfully changes the study.
Ethics and governance
Informed consent for all participants. Data governance that meets NHS and research ethics requirements. For projects requiring NHS ethics review or R&D approval, we advise on requirements at the scoping stage and build the timeline accordingly.
Fieldwork and community engagement
In-person sessions, workshops, interviews, or peer research, depending on the method mix agreed in design. We work in community settings, not institutional ones, wherever possible. We recruit for diversity and build in accessibility from the start.
Collaborative analysis
Where appropriate, community members participate in analysis, reviewing emerging themes, challenging interpretations, and contributing knowledge that shapes what the data means. This produces findings that communities own, not just data they contributed to.
Reporting and dissemination
A clear findings report with direct community voice, thematic analysis, and explicit implications for design, commissioning, or policy. We can produce accessible summaries for community partners alongside the full report for commissioners.
Who we work with
Participatory research is most valuable where communities have direct stakes in the outcome, and where conventional research has historically failed to represent them
Participatory research we have delivered
Applied studies across health, social care, and community settings in Yorkshire and beyond
Lived experience of obesity
Three-stage community research programme exploring how obesity is experienced across health, social, and workplace domains. Delivered with Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership and Leeds Beckett Institute of Obesity. Findings contributed to West Yorkshire ICB pathway discussions.
Read the case studyEmployment barriers for adults with learning difficulties
Lived experience research with adults with learning disabilities and complex mental health needs, exploring systemic barriers to employment. Delivered in partnership with a third sector organisation. Workshops and journey mapping uncovered barriers that standard employment support programmes were not designed to address.
Read the case studyPaediatric health pathways: Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust
Patient experience research with families navigating complex paediatric care across multiple services. Journey mapping surfaced the invisible coordination burden that falls on parents when the NHS system does not coordinate itself. Delivered with Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust.
Read the case studyParticipatory research pricing
Transparent pricing for research that generates evidence communities and commissioners can trust
Focused Study
Participatory Discovery
A focused participatory research study with a single community group: 2–3 sessions, one topic or question. Good for rapid insight, scoping a larger programme, or producing evidence for a funding bid or commissioning proposal.
- Community partnership scoping
- 2–3 facilitated sessions
- Participant recruitment and consent
- Thematic analysis
- Findings report with community voice
- 6–8 week delivery
Full Programme
Participatory Research Programme
A multi-session participatory research programme with community co-design throughout. Multiple community groups or a sustained partnership with one, covering a broader question with enough depth for service design, policy input, or academic contribution.
- Community partnership development
- Multi-session programme design
- Community involvement in analysis
- Ethics and governance support
- Comprehensive report with community voice
- Stakeholder presentation
- 10–14 week delivery
Extended Programme
Multi-Community Research Programme
Sustained co-production across multiple communities, geographies, or population groups. Longitudinal elements, co-investigator roles for community members, and findings built for system-level impact: policy, commissioning, or academic contribution.
- Multi-community or multi-site partnership
- Community co-investigator development
- Peer research element if required
- Full ethics and governance management
- Accessible community summary report
- Full strategic report for commissioners
- 16–24 week programmes
All programmes include: Research design, community partnership development, participant recruitment and consent, facilitation, thematic analysis, and a written findings report with clear implications for design, commissioning, or policy.
NHS and regulated settings: Environments requiring NHS ethics approval, R&D sign-off, or honorary contracts typically add 4–8 weeks to the timeline and may add to base cost. We advise on requirements at scoping stage.
Participant compensation: We always recommend fairly compensating community members for their time and expertise. Fair payment for everyone taking part is inside the prices above, at NIHR-aligned rates.
Add-ons: Peer researcher training and support (£2,500), accessible community summary report (£1,500), co-design workshop using research findings (£3,500), stakeholder dissemination event (£2,000).
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about participatory research
What is the difference between participatory research and PPIE?
PPIE is about involving people in research decisions: advisory input into study design, materials review, sitting on steering groups. Participatory research goes further: communities are partners in generating knowledge, not consultees. The two complement each other and are often combined. See our PPIE page for more on how they work together.
What is co-production research?
Co-production research is an equal partnership model where communities work alongside organisations from the first conversation, shaping the questions, the methods, and how findings are used. It is embedded in NHS England's co-production framework and increasingly expected in NIHR and public sector commissioning. See our co-production research page.
How long does a participatory research study take?
A focused study takes 6–8 weeks from scoping to report. A full programme runs 10–14 weeks. Extended multi-community programmes, or those requiring NHS ethics approval, run longer; we give a clear timeline at the scoping stage.
Do you conduct participatory research outside Yorkshire?
Yes. We are based in Huddersfield and Leeds and do a significant amount of work across Yorkshire and the North of England, but we deliver participatory research across the UK. For in-person work outside our immediate region, travel costs are scoped upfront.
How does participatory research differ from standard qualitative research?
Standard qualitative research treats participants as data sources. Participatory research positions them as partners in generating knowledge, involved in shaping the questions, collecting data, and interpreting findings. The result is evidence communities recognise as their own. See our guide: What is participatory research?
What methods does participatory research use?
Facilitated workshops, focus groups, peer research, in-depth interviews, journey mapping, photovoice, participatory video, narrative methods, and co-analysis. The method mix depends on the community, the question, and what will generate the most genuine insight. We advise on the right combination at the scoping stage.
We fully recognise the effort your team invested in recruitment, moderation, and analysis, and we genuinely appreciate the quality of the discussions and reporting.
- Usability problems in an insulin device surfaced before manufacturing locked anything in, with human factors evidence supporting the regulatory submission.
- An NHS patient portal team got a prioritised, evidenced list of adoption barriers, and the highest-leverage fix wasn't the one they expected.
- Patient involvement changed a trial's primary endpoint before the protocol was finalised, cited by the ethics committee as a model for evidencing PPIE.
Trusted PPI and PPIE delivery partner to the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care.
Ready to discuss your study?
Tell us about the community you want to work with, the question you need to answer, and who the findings are for. We will recommend the right approach and give you a clear scope and timeline.
Discuss your studyWe usually respond within one working day.
Prefer to talk it through first?
Book a free 20-minute call. No obligation, no sales pitch. We'll tell you honestly whether research is worth it for your decision, and what it would cost.