Come and join our community research cafes, to chat about research, evaluation and monitoring with experienced researchers.
What are the Community Research cafés?
As part of our commitment to participatory research, the cafes provide an informal space for third sector and community-led organisations to access research support. This will be a space where you can ask experienced researchers questions about research, evaluation and impact monitoring, over a cup of tea. If you think you’d like some research support beyond the cafés, we can also explore options for this with you too.
This five-minute video explains a bit more about what they cafés are and why we are running them: ‘What are the community research cafes?’
We were inspired to create this support network following the Influencing Policy with Participatory workshop with third sector organisations in Glasgow in March 2025, where we discussed the benefits and challenges of engaging in participatory research for policy audiences.
When is the next Community Research Café?
The first café will be held on Wednesday the 25th February, 2-4pm, at Townhead Village Hall, 60 St Mungo Avenue, Glasgow, G4 0PL.
Please come along, bring your colleagues and join us. There is no need to book – just drop in.
The list below provides all of the dates of past and future cafes and will be updated when new dates are set:
25th February 2025: Townhead Village Hall
May 2025: to be confirmed
August 2025: to be confirmed
November 2025: to be confirmed
February 2026: to be confirmed
May 2026: to be confirmed
August 2026: to be confirmed
November 2026: to be confirmed
If you’ like to be kept up to date on the time and date of future cafés, please email Lisa to be added to our mailing list.
Please also get in touch if you’d like to host a café in your venue. We have budget to cover venue hire costs and catering.
What kinds of support will be available at the café?
At least four experienced academic researchers will be on hand to chat with you about your research, evaluation and monitoring questions. Our aim is to either support you to develop you own research and evaluation ideas yourself, or to guide you to other resources you might find useful.
This means there won’t be any presentations or talks – the focus is on discussing those burning questions or niggling issues you’ve had with your own research and evaluation. Come with your ideas, puzzles and concerns and we can work through them with you. And, most importantly, there will be tea, coffee and cake.
Who runs the café?
The cafés are being organised by Lisa Garnham, who is a lecturer in social policy at the University of Strathclyde and the Centre for Health Policy’s associate director for participatory research. If you have questions about the cafés, please contact Lisa.
She is being supported by many colleagues from across the University and the Centre for Health Policy, who are all keen to support you with your research and evaluation. These include: Kat Smith, Clemmie Hill O’Connor, Fiona McHardy and Katherine Timpson.
Who funds the café?
The cafés are being generously supported by the Social Policy Association. This funding pays for our room hire and catering to host the cafés in community locations.
Explainer videos: frequently asked questions from the community research cafes
These short videos provide answers to some of the questions we’re asked most often, as academics supporting community-led research. We hope you find these useful and that they spark more questions. Please come along to the cafés to explore these questions and answers further.
What funding is available to support community-led research?