BABEL is a complex and interdisciplinary project that involves lots of different kinds of research methods.  It is important to the success of the project that all of these different ways of doing research work together and that the findings from different workstreams can be pulled together to help answer our research questions.

It is also important that we develop ways of engaging with the public and communities of people who are affected by best interest decisions, to help ensure that our research is relevant, and our findings are communicated in the best way possible.

Workstream 3 has been designed as a cross-cutting strand, that will provide methodological support across BABEL workstreams (which may involve developing innovative approaches to data collection and empirically informed ethical analysis) and develop communication and engagement activities.

Aims and Objectives

This strand aims to support all BABEL activities by providing methodological support, developing impact and public engagement, and generating methodological innovation by:

Methods

Work in this strand involves:

• supporting the development of research materials and data collection tools;
• running Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) sessions, to advise on design and processes, including recruitment and consent;
• supporting recruitment;
• organising public events to generate awareness with key interest groups;
• developing an engagement group with interested members of the public, allowing us to match our research to public interests and identify the most impactful ways to undertake our research, and disseminate our results; and
• generating and working with methodological theory to support the synthesis of findings from different workstreams.