Today, the Lived Experience Academy is hosting an event talking about co-production, lived experience and involvement in research.
Taking place in the centre of Newcastle, the event will feature a day of discussion and ideas focussing on the future of lived experience involvement in health and social research.
Dame Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne Central and West, will also be at the event.
The Lived Experience Academy is made up of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), Durham University, Gateshead Council, Northumbria University and community organisation ReCoCo.
The project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)’s Programme Development Grant and aims to redefine the role of lived experience in health research.
Lived experience is the knowledge and understanding someone gets when they have personally lived through something. The first-hand perspective provides unique insight and can enhance the quality and relevance of research.
Throughout the project, people with lived experience have been equal partners, co-designing and co-delivering all elements including today’s event. Rather than a one-way process, both people with lived experience and established researchers have been learning from each other in the most effective way to embed lived experience into research.
Today’s event is about pulling together the findings from the project, sharing experiences and building relationships.
These findings will form part of a larger funding bid to make the Lived Experience Academy a UK-wide project.