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:

1. design research, services and interventions with community members;
2. recognise and assess the implications of their co-production work (e.g. ethics, inequalities, power imbalances);
3. apply their knowledge of co-production to their own  projects to put principles into practice; and
4. 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:

1. 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?  
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

We do not charge fees for pilot courses, nor do they count against your allocation of free course places. However, in return we ask that you take the time to provide full and thorough feedback so we can effectively evaluate the success of the course.

Pilot courses are extremely popular and all live sessions must be attended in full. You should only book onto this course if you are able to commit to attending in full and have time to provide detailed feedback. Attendance is monitored. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.

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 How to pay your short course fees..

For help and support with booking a course refer to our contact us, here or feel free to booking information page directly. For available payment options please see: FAQs

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 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 3 months after the course. 

Please note that this is a pilot course and therefore no Materials & Recordings (UoB only) option is available.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from April 2025.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

“The course was well organised and interactive." - course feedback, April 2025

“I think greatest strength of this course were the presenters who were all very friendly and knowledgable. I particurlarly found Michelle, Beki & Louise's talks engaging." - course feedback, April 2025

“The live lectures and interaction are the best components. Also appreciate the resources highlighted. Great to have a lived experience expert co-delivering the sessions too." - course feedback, April 2025

“Hearing from Louise Ting as a public contributor was brilliant - she is so good, relatable and gives an excellent account of how it might feel to be involved as a public contributor. Hearing about the actual real life experiences of the researchers and contributors was helpful." - course feedback, April 2025

“It was a great opportunity to hear about basic principles and examples of best practice." - course feedback, April 2025

“This is an extremely informative and well-developed course. I liked that the focus wasn't solely on the theory (which I had some understanding of prior to the course) but focussed on examples of how best to do co-production/co-design. Pointing us to potential avenues of funding that may be helpful was also very helpful. The course is well-paced - having pre-recorded material with live lectures helped work at my own pace without being overwhelmed by the information. Would highly recommend." - course feedback, April 2025

“Good interesting course and I felt as though I learned a lot." - course feedback, April 2025

“Tutors were very knowledgeable and interesting and discussed a wide range of topics." - course feedback, April 2025

“It was great to hear from a variety of people with different experiences of co-research. I especially appreciated Louise's input, as it's v refreshing to hear from someone beyond the usual cohort! The speakers were very knowledgeable and engaging. The use of case studies and reflecting on the success and challenges helped bring theory to life." - course feedback, April 2025