Co-Design, Co-Production and Participatory Action Research
Co-producing a research project is an approach in which researchers, practitioners and the public work together, sharing power and responsibility from the start to the end of the project (NIHR, 2021). This course focuses on involving members of the public, to ensure more democratic, relevant research/ services that make a difference in practice. This course will be particularly useful for researchers considering using co-production, co-design or participatory action research, people co-designing services/ interventions or anyone wanting to find out more.
| Date | 2 March 2026 |
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| Fee | £250 |
| Format | Online |
| Audience | Open to all applicants (prerequisites apply) |
Course profile
This course will provide an overview of approaches where researchers and practitioners work in partnership with members of the public to co-produce/ co-design research, services or interventions. Participants will learn about the theory of these approaches and apply principles into action through case studies and their own/ others work. We draw on the expertise within the University of Bristol and beyond, with course tutors who are researchers, public involvement specialists and community members, who all have extensive experience in this field.
Please click on the sections below for more information.
This one-day course will use a range of teaching methods including live presentations, practical sessions, pre-recorded content and small group discussions on participants’ own and others’ projects.
By the end of the course participants should be able to:
- design research, services and interventions with community members;
- recognise and assess the implications of their co-production work (e.g. ethics, inequalities, power imbalances);
- apply their knowledge of co-production to their own projects to put principles into practice; and
- reflect on the participatory process and how it can be used to help tackle health and social inequalities.
The course is open to anyone who would like to understand these approaches or learn how to use them. Attendees do not need to have a previous background or knowledge of these methods. However, some experience of, or ideas for a health-related research project/ services/ interventions that would benefit from co-production approaches would make the course more relevant.
This course will cover:
- Background to co-production:
a. What’s in a name? Co-production, co-design, and participatory action research
b. Building relationships and trust
c. Why it matters: working with under-served communities and tackling health inequalities
d. What does it look like? - Co-designing health interventions:
a. Experience-based co-design and participatory design
b. Co-producing evidence-based health interventions
c. Community led work, different frameworks and toolkits - Co-producing research and participatory action research:
a. Planning and working with community researchers
b. Using creative approaches
c. Pragmatics, funding, ethics and intellectual property - Evaluating co-production and impact/ implementation.
Dr Michelle Farr, Senior Research Fellow at NIHR ARC West, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Michelle has been working within the co-production area for 17 years and has co-ordinated different co-production projects within health inequalities and multiple disadvantage.
Lucy Condon, Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement Facilitator at NIHR ARC West. Lucy is co-lead of Bristol’s Generation-R Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) and works with researchers to embed meaningful public involvement in research.
Carmel McGrath, Research Fellow in Public Involvement at NIHR ARC West and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation. Carmel has experience of co-producing projects and training with public contributors who have a range of experiences and backgrounds.
Professor Jeremy Horwood, Professor of Social Science and Applied Health Research, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Jeremy has extensive experience of working with people with lived experience to develop and deliver a range of health interventions.
Dr Beki Langford, Research Fellow at ARC West, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Beki is a public health researcher focusing on children and young people and health inequalities. She has led research into co-designing weight management services.
Louise Ting, Public Contributor at ARC West, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Louise has many years of experience on all sorts of community projects. She is particularly passionate about embedding the patient/ public voice in health research and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Dr Fiona Fox, Research Fellow at ARC West, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Fiona has extensive experience of co-producing research and evaluating co-production with underserved, minoritised communities.
To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:
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Recommendations |
We will ask course participants to familiarise themselves with the NIHR Guidance on co-producing a research project, alongside some short videos, before attending the course so that we can maximise sharing and discussion time in the course. |
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Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course to ensure you can get the most from the course.
Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.
For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.
Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard Ultra) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.
To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.
All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 5 months after the course.
University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.
100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from March 2026.
Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:
"Brilliant course, with engaging and knowledgeable presenters who bring a lot of expertise and experience. Michelle was brilliant at answering questions and really engaging with participants." - course feedback, March 2026
"Covered a lot - brilliant to cover so many aspects. Very useful." - course feedback, March 2026
"Excellent course- a real in sight [sic] into how co-design and co-production works in research. Very well organised and put together." - course feedback, March 2026
"Good length lectures with mix of topics and usable frameworks." - course feedback, March 2026
"Really engaging course. The range of different speakers and their varied examples were really interesting, and changing things a little with pre-recorded sessions worked well too. I particularly liked Louise's talk - I think opening with that perfectly set the tone for the day, and really learnt a lot from her advice about how to build trust and flexibility into the work, as well as creating a safe environment for coproduction." - course feedback, March 2026
"The case examples were inspirational. Lots of links to resources." - course feedback, March 2026
"This course was excellent and i feel like I walked away knowing so much more than before I started. I enjoyed the fact that there was a mix of speakers and they all had a unique perspective and experience. They were all very well informed and it kept the day interesting." - course feedback, March 2026