The University of Reading, in collaboration with the British Science Association (BSA) and community partners, is helping underrepresented communities in Reading and Slough to benefit from a new approach to community-led science research.

The Community-Led Research pilot will be co-created with communities who are new to or are traditionally under-represented in research and would like to use science to better understand local questions and priorities.

Local community members are being trained as Community Researchers with support from Reading Voluntary Action (RVA) and Slough Council for Voluntary Service (Slough CVS). They are working closely with early career researchers from the University to discuss and decide on a research question relevant to their local area. These questions will be developed in five full research projects to run over the next 12 months, in collaboration with RVA and Slough CVS.

This project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and builds on learning from the University’s participatory community research approach, the BSA’s previous community engagement work and The Ideas Fund programmes.

In anticipation of DSA2023, the Global Development Division hosted a workshop on Crisis in the Anthropocene.