Capacity Building for Research Co-Production

Research co-production has been heralded as an important and necessary part of autism research. ‘Collaborative co-production requires users to be experts in their own circumstances and capable of making decisions, while... [ view full abstract ]

Research co-production has been heralded as an important and necessary part of autism research. ‘Collaborative co-production requires users to be experts in their own circumstances and capable of making decisions, while professionals must move from being fixers to facilitators’ (The Health Foundation, 2010. 3).

Some of the benefits of co-production such as targeted research direction, relevant research questions, appropriate processes for engaging autistic participants, improved utilisation of outcomes and dissemination. However, in order for research co-production to become a reality, there is a need to capacity build both members of the autistic community (namely those on the autism spectrum) and researchers in co-production practices. We have developed a set of inclusive research practice guides and checklists for researchers and have also conducted a research co-production workshop. The workshop enabled the graduation of attendees into our Research Academy.

This presentation provides an outline of co-production and its importance. The outputs and evaluation of the week long workshop, attended by 14 adults on the spectrum over 5 days and researchers (n=14) on one day, will be offered as an example. The workshop objectives, content, preparation, teaching and learning processes will be outlined, as well as the evaluative feedback from participants. Reflections of the project team will also be included by way of suggesting recommendations for the conduct of such activities in the future.