In September, people from across the health and care system gathered in Kendal for the quarterly ARCFEST. Part of the day was devoted to a session planned and delivered by the Community Research and Engagement Network (CoREN). The CoREN is a hub which brings together key partners from across health and social care in an innovative, collaborative network.

In the highly interactive and participatory session, led by facilitator Kev Wyke, the group shared their own knowledge and insight into being research active, found new collaborations, and explored how the ARC NWC ‘offer’ can benefit everyone to move from problems to research that can be implemented with our communities to find real solutions.

Here are some thoughts from those who attended on the day:-
Michelle Howarth of the Centre for Social Responsibility at Edge Hill University said “The event was well organised, providing a great opportunity to network with other organisations and identify common areas of interest. I aimed to meet other people and organisations, grow my networks and generate an understanding of the topical issues that has helped focus my research ideas. I have now joined CoREN. I have also connected with a couple of delegates. We are looking to develop the partnerships to enable joint bidding around meaningful research in the North West.”

Ged Pickersgill of The Well Communities said “The event was a cauldron of innovation and creativity. Participants generated values based and culturally aligned ideas to drive forward meaningful research topics that has the ability to influence system change and policy decisions.”

Jan Campbell of Sefton CVS said “The last ARCFEST was wonderful. I met a wider range of people and really began to appreciate the breadth of work covered by ARC. The CoREN workshop was excellent, the Open Space created a buzz in the room and brought people together in ways that a more structured session couldn’t. For me the networking lunch was the opportunity to follow up with people on points raised either in the introductory session or the workshop. I’ve made lots of new contacts and I’ve followed up with things with several people. Not just an enjoyable day in a beautiful location, really useful connections were made. I’m excited about the future potential of working with the people I met on the day.”

The CoREN is all about developing an ongoing conversation with communities to ensure that we have sustainable, equal partnerships that will help develop and conduct health and social care research that has a real impact where it is needed most. So, the question now is ‘what next’?
Some key themes emerged from the day and the many conversations which developed. These included:-
• More capacity building is needed both for the VCFSE sector in the research landscape and for researchers in community engagement, and more understanding needs to be built across sectors and systems.
• More resource needs to be given to relationship building – trust takes time and relationships need to be sustainable.
• ‘Joining the dots’ is key – people need to know how to navigate the system and have support in how best to do that.
• Meaningful communication is critical and should be authentic, flexible and responsive.
• We need to ensure there are results from our work and these are shared with those who invested their time in the work.

So what can the CoREN do going forward and how can you be part of it?
Firstly, join the CoREN! You can do so here. You will then hear of any ongoing work and projects which you can be involved in.
Secondly, get in touch! Contribute your ideas about the themes that emerged and any ideas which you have to progress them. We would love to hear from you. We already have some ideas developing for how to keep the momentum going, including collaborative mentoring programmes, holding sessions around navigating the system and finding better ways to connect up those in different sectors around applied health and care research.

For more information on the CoREN – https://arc-nwc.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/coren/
To get in touch, contact Claire Selby, Stakeholder and Engagement Manger, c.selby@lancaster.ac.uk