Discover Your Role 2.0 webinar advances public involvement in Welsh research

Health and Care Research held a webinar on February 19 which marked a key milestone in Discover Your Role 2.0, our four-year plan to improve public involvement in Welsh research. 

Discover Your Role 2.0 aims to break down barriers and create more inclusive opportunities for people to contribute to health and care research in Wales. 

A total of 53 people, including researchers, public contributors and partner organisations, attended the session to hear insights from the development phase of the plan. 

It also provided an opportunity for attendees to collaborate and give feedback on the plan. 

Hosted by Welsh Government’s Head of Research Involvement, Governance and Informatics, Alex Newberry and facilitated by Health and Care Research Wales’ Peter Gee and Emma Langley.

What were the key highlights and actions from the webinar?

1. Revise Discover Your Role Document

• Simplify language to make it more accessible to a wider audience.
• Clearly outline our objectives and actions.

2. Add new secondary action to payment and administrative barriers 

• Add payment information as a secondary action based on webinar feedback.
• Develop a more specific approach to university engagement, working with finance leads through the alliance.

3. Incorporate Feedback into Activity Planning 
   We will refine our activities within each theme/focus area, including:

• Developing more inclusive engagement strategies, particularly for under-served community groups.
• Enhancing training and mentorship opportunities for both public contributors and researchers.
• Improving communication channels to raise awareness of research opportunities.
• Ensuring public involvement leads to meaningful impact on research and policy

4. Establishing Project Oversight Group 

• Group will support and measure the evaluation of discover your role, identifying outcomes 

Senior Public Involvement Manager, Peter Gee, said: “We’d like to thank everyone for attending the webinar and giving us their feedback on the collaborative Discover Your Role 2.0 plan.

“Making sure that what we’re doing is transparent and shaped by the public at every stage was incredibly important to us.

“The webinar reinforced the vital role of collaboration in shaping Discover Your Role 2.0 and we would encourage ongoing engagement to ensure public involvement remains a key pillar of research in Wales.”

The webinar highlighted the importance of using simple language in the plan and the ongoing need to tackle payment and administrative challenges which can act as barriers to involvement.

The final draft will be published in March, with the plan launching in April 2025. 

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