Research Ready

An ongoing project (2025-2027).

The Aim of the Study:

Led by aves Mental Health, we are co-developing an accessible online training course for enhancing the authentic integration of lived expertise across the research lifecycle. 

This project aims to equip people with lived experience, researchers with lived experience and researchers to be key partners in leading and co-leading research initiatives through a deeper understanding of the complexities and nuances that often go unnoticed in traditional research methodologies.


The Background: 

Global mental health research has historically been conducted by researchers with advanced training and has not included those with lived experience (Trivedi, 2014). More recently, there has been pushback on this approach, both from communities wishing to be involved in research and researchers hoping to use more participatory approaches (Bell et al., 2023; Thomas et al., 2024; Colder Carras et al., 2023). Such participatory research approaches may include participatory action research or co-design processes (Thomas et al., 2024; Porche et al., 2022). Participatory research levels can range from engaging community members as passive observers to active involvement, even elevating them to key decision makers and study leaders.   

There are serious consequences of conducting research and designing interventions for mental health challenges without participatory methods. There are risks of harmful or stigmatizing language being used, interventions being designed without consideration of the end user, and co-option of knowledge. Greater collaboration between researchers and people with lived experience can increase both the quality of the research and the ethics of the research being done, building trust and partnership between researchers and communities (Friesen et al., 2021).  

 

The Project Plan

The course will focus on building the capacity of these individuals to effectively inform research processes, ensuring that their unique perspectives are integrated into research design, implementation, and dissemination. This initiative aligns with the growing recognition of the value of lived experience in producing more relevant, impactful, and inclusive research outcomes. This project is part of a broader effort to ensure that research is innovative in ways that will enhance lived experience expertise in informing research outcomes. The aim is to adopt a collaborative & demographically diverse approach to co-designing an accessible & inclusive online training course.

The course is intended for:

  1. Individuals with lived experience (non-academic)
  2. Peer researchers to enhance their skills in research in lived experience
  3. Researchers who do not normally interact with individuals with lived experience, to equip them with tools to learn how to effectively work with them, and peer researchers

 

Supporters and Project Duration

This ongoing study (2025-2027) is funded by Wellcome Trust and led by aves Mental Health. aves Mental Health’s approach is rooted in “expertise by experience”, centering lived experience in the design and development throughout the entirety of their projects’ and collaborations’ lifecycles.

People and researchers with lived experience will not merely be participants for the project but rather essential partners contributing to and leading the overall work and central to shaping each phase, ensuring that the course is relevant, effective, and truly reflective of the real-life needs and perspectives of those it aims to serve. 

 

Findings

The Harvard Medical School team led an umbrella review and mixed-methods formative research study to identify best practices and lessons learned for collaborations between mental health researchers and people with lived experience. Findings will be published soon.

 

Next Steps

The Research Ready Curriculum will be pilot tested across the three groups of trainees named above. In the Pilot Testing phase, data will be used to understand the feasibility, acceptability, and perceived effectiveness of the digital curriculum content. Feedback from the pilot will eventually be used to refine the course prior to greater scaling and implementation.