91Ö±²¥

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91Ö±²¥ us

The Participatory Research Network at the University of 91Ö±²¥ (PRN@TUoS) is an established cross-faculty network that supports participatory research and researchers.

It's a space for all people, from any discipline or practice, to come together to:

• enjoy and celebrate participatory research
• learn from each other, and discuss the challenges and barriers to doing participatory research in academia
• change and re-shape some of the University structures in which participatory research is embedded

PRN is currently co-led by a vibrant committee of 16 academics, early and mid-career researchers, postgraduate colleagues, and professional services staff from 12 different departments.

Our broader PRN membership has grown to 160 members across all 5 faculties - find out how to get involved.

Watch our short video explaining who we are.

Our key principles

We aim to shape and support University research cultures by:

1. Ensuring academics, students, researchers and professional services colleagues at all levels across the University benefit from cross-faculty spaces and connections created through PRN.
2. Ensuring everything we do remains committed to the - we have a strong postgraduate (PGR) and early career (ECR) presence in PRN, both in the Committee and in the wider PRN community, and want to nurture and support research careers.
3. Supporting developments towards more inclusive research principles which centre equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in how we think about and carry out research with others, both inside and outside of the University. 

Learn more about how PRN was established

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Our committee members

Sarah Howson Faculty Impact Manager Faculty of Health

Ankita Mishra PhD researcher, Department of Psychology Research Associate, SMI and PRN-iHuman

Josephine Reynolds Academic Clinical Fellow of General Practice Division of Population Health

Christina E Stimson PhD Researcher Department of Computer Science

Louis Stokes Research Associate School of Medicine and Population Health, The Neuroscience Institute

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Our research projects and outputs

We support Research England institutional Participatory Research calls. 

PGR experiences of participatory research 

We've led two funded research projects which have creatively explored PGR experiences of participatory research in University research cultures. 

The politics and practicalities of payment in participatory research

 In July 2023 we hosted an event on the politics of renumeration in participatory research. 

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Events and activities

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Useful resources and blogs

PRN reading list

Our committee members have created a collaborative, inter-disciplinary reading list outlining key texts related to participatory research. This is a living resource that we'll continue to update. 

Fika blog post

Dr Esbjörn Wettermark, one of our committee members, has written a blog explaining the background to our monthly 'fika' get-togethers, open to anyone interested in participatory research.

Blog: Fika anyone?

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Get involved

Join the mailing list

Join our mailing list to learn more about PRN, associated events, training and resources - contact us at PRN@sheffield.ac.uk. 

Join the network

We're very keen to welcome new members, either as part of the PRN committee or the wider research network.

The committee is non-hierarchical, inclusive and co-led. Catch up meetings are held monthly online, but committee members can contribute as and when they can. The non-hierarchical and relaxed approach to meetings is central to our belief that the network is beneficial, rather than additional labour, to its members. 

Members of the wider network are encouraged to submit ideas of events or issues they'd like to discuss.

Overall, PRN is a space that brings together researchers from all disciplines with similar interests in ensuring research is participatory, ethical and meaningfully engaged with different kinds of communities.

If you'd like to get involved, please email Kirsty Liddiard, PRN Lead: k.liddiard@sheffield.ac.uk.

Contact us 

Please also get in touch at PRN@sheffield.ac.uk if you have:

• a participatory research project that you'd like to be showcased or promoted through PRN
• any ideas for participatory research-related events that we could support
• any other questions

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