Welcome to the Cumberland HDRC January update!
Stepping into 2026, we have plenty of energy and ideas for the year ahead. With our Community Co-Researchers starting their training, the new research groups coming together and putting the finishing touches to our new training programme starting later in the year, we're off to a strong start and excited to see what's next.
Community Co-Researcher training is officially underway! Created and delivered by Dr Suzanne Wilson from the University of Lancashire, it’s been a welcoming and energising time for our Community Co-Researchers to begin getting to know one another and exploring what this programme can do.
Our CCRs are now diving into training on research methods and project development and moving towards shaping their research interests around the priorities set out in the Cumberland Council Research Plan.
Once training is complete, it's time to connect. They’ll be linking up with others across all of Cumberland, including research theme groups, academic partners at the University of Cumbria and University of Lancashire, Healthwatch, community organisations, and Cumberland Council project teams to help shape and refine their projects. You’ll be able to follow their progress on our socials and they’ll be keen to meet as many of you as possible!
Later in the year, ideas turn into action, with CCRs leading deep-dive research within local communities. These projects put co-production at the heart of what we do, ensuring community voices shape both the questions and the outcomes.
We’re excited to see the research ideas that emerge and to watch them develop over the coming months.
The HDRC Cumberland team came together for a focused research retreat, dedicated to compiling key secondary evidence across our key research priority areas. The day was spent bringing together a wide range of academic papers, articles, policy reports and more, to inform and strengthen our work. This activity marks an important step in supporting our newly formed research groups, established in partnership with colleagues at the University of Cumbria. By grounding our plans in existing evidence, we’re making sure future research is well-informed, purposeful and built to make a real difference. The insights gained will shape clear, robust research questions that reflect the realities of Cumberland’s local context.
Mark Wear (National Lottery), Dr Suzanne Wilson & Dr Katherine Jewell (University of Lancashire)
Wednesday 11 February 2026, 1-2.30pm, Microsoft TEAMS
Join Mark Wear (National Lottery), Dr Suzanne Wilson and Dr Katherine Jewell (University of Lancashire) as they introduce a new 5-year Lottery-funded project taking place in locations across Cumberland, which will use the Connected Communities approach as a vehicle for identifying funding priorities in local areas. The project has grown out of the Lottery’s commitment to become ‘more than a funder’, with the aspiration that the Connected Communities findings will form the foundation of future Lottery funding applications for projects that are identified in local communities. The webinar will outline the research and projects leading up to this initiative, provide an overview of the work to be undertaken over the course of the project, and discuss potential future applications of the approach within Lottery funding processes. This seminar is part of the series presented by the University of Lancashire’s Centre in Community Connectedness & Co-operation (4C), supported by the Institute for Planetary Resilience & Community Transformation (PACT).
The Lived Experience Academy is a new initiative to support people with lived experience (PWLE) to lead their own research projects rather than being consultants on research led by traditional academics. It aims to invert the established hierarchies around research leadership and confront key tensions in how experiential knowledge is valued.
At its heart, the Lived Experience Academy model involves a mentoring partnership between an established (usually university-based) researcher and a PWLE with a research idea.
The initiative involves providing lived-experience researchers with key research skills through a university educational programme with no academic entry requirements.
If you are interested in joining a database of established researchers willing to mentor a lived-experience researcher, please complete this questionnaire.
If you have any questions about the scheme, please get in touch with Charles Fernyhough at: c.p.fernyhough@durham.ac.uk
The Lived Experience Academy is a partnership between Durham University, Northumbria University, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), Gateshead Council and community organisation ReCoCo. It is funded by a Programme Development Grant from NIHR.
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In addition to our newsletter, we also share news on our LinkedIn page and are in the process of updating our website. You can also find us on Cumbria Observatory.
You can always find us at the end of an email so don’t hesitate to contact us at hdrc@cumberland.gov.uk with any questions, comments or if you’d like to invite us round for a cup of tea and a catch up. We love being invited to any events that might be a good fit or let us know if we can use your space and always eager to chat with the people who use your services!
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