Events

Sept - Nov 2021

Workshop: Connectors in Engagement

in partnership with Eh!woza and Interfer in South Africa

Connectors 2021 will support discussions about the key role that engagement professionals, creatives, community groups and other organisations play in bridging the gap between research and communities. These ‘Connectors’ often have unique skills and experience, existing ways of working with the public, and can be essential in a successful engagement project. We will be hosting a series of free virtual workshops in 2021 and a larger symposium in Cape Town in 2022 with the aim of identifying challenges and opportunities, generating new ideas and enabling new collaborations. Find out more and get involved

Sept - Oct 2020 

Workshop: Trusting, Collaborating and Listening - Engaging Public and Communities with Vaccine Studies

A theme area has been created following a four day Mesh workshop exploring public and community engagement with vaccine research. This area shares videos, exercises, projects, links to published literature, and many free guidelines and tools. It explores the topic through four themes:

• The role and nature of trust
• The value and challenge of collaboration
• Listening to public and communities
• Supporting strong engagement practice

Sept 2020

Webinar: Engagement at a distance - Sharing Lessions from experience

This extended Mesh learning webinar explored the possibilities for community engagement with health research when we cannot meet in person. We heard from engagement practitioners who have run successful projects that did not rely on meeting face-to-face. Participants learnt top-tips on designing and facilitating virtual events and tried some tools that can be used to enhance interactivity online, whilst meeting other participants in the process

July 2020

Webinar: Public Engagement and Involvement in Health Research: How well are we doing?

This webinar from July 2020 was organised through a collaboration between the International PPI Network, the NIHR Global Health Programme and Mesh.Speakers asked how well do we really 'do' public engagement and involvement in research in different parts of the world? The UK has a long history of these type of activities, but do they provide the benchmark for best practice? Researchers in South Africa are making significant efforts to tackle the nation’s health challenges and community engagement plays a critical role, but are they approaching it the right way? What can we learn from each other to help us improve?

Jan 2020

Webinar: Why is it important for health researchers to engage school students?

Launching the Mesh School Engagement theme area and Research In Focus lecture series, Dr Alun Davies, Schools Engagement Lead at KEMRI | Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya, outlines the goals, methods and outcomes of school engagement as a “win-win” engagement approach for both researchers and students. This lecture draws on experiences and reflections from KEMRI | Wellcome’s School Engagement Programme and from an international practitioners workshop held in 2018. 

Visit our School Engagement theme area for futher resources across a range of approaches and methods

Vietnam | Oct 2018

Taking it to the Next Level: How can we generate leadership and develop practice in engagement?

This Wellcome International Engagement workshop focused on how the field of engagement can be developed through strong leadership and evolving capacity. The workshop explored different strategies, roles and types of leadership within engagement and looked at the successes and challenges faced by the international engagement network

Kenya | Mar 2017 

Evaluating Community Engagement: Workshop

This workshop aimed to move forward the debates surrounding evaluation by drawing on practical experiences of conducting and documenting how evaluation of CE/PE across diverse settings is conducted, and reflecting on the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used

Kenya | Mar 2017

It’s Complicated: Navigating scientific complexity in public and community engagement

This workshop explored the theme of complexity in modern science and the challenges it raises when designing activities to engage the public with health research. What are the best ways of making a complicated topic accessible, but not over-simplified, and what role does language, metaphor and participation play in the process?

UK | Sept 2016

Ethics and Politics of Community Engagement in Global Health Research

This workshop explored the political and social dimensions of engagement activities in global health research by interrogating the everyday politics and practices of engagement

India | Feb 2016

The Art of Health: Exploring creative engagement with health research

This Wellcome Trust International Engagement workshop explored the use of creative and artistic methods in engaging communities with science and health research

Botswana | Feb 2015 

Global Food Matters: An appetite for engaging with research

This workshop explored public and community engagement with health research using the Wellcome Trust's fifth challenge area of ‘Connecting the environment, nutrition and health' as a starting point for discussion