Co-Design and Consumer Involvement
About the node
The Co-design and Consumer Involvement node offers expertise and guidance to support consumer involvement using participatory approaches across the research cycle.
What is co-design?
Co-design is an iterative and participatory process that brings people together to design and implement innovative solutions to a known problem. It is part of a family of participatory and collaborative methodologies that intend to overt and equalise the power differentials between researchers and the people impacted by the health and wellbeing issues under investigation.
People with lived experience are central to the co-design process. Their knowledge and expertise are essential for understanding the impacts of health or social care issues and innovating potential solutions. Co-design also engages with practitioners, policymakers, specialists, and other key stakeholders depending on the scope and nature of the project.
Co-design is not a consultation or one-off event – it is an iterative process of genuinely bringing people together to share ideas, generate solutions, test and refine innovations, and collectively work toward achieving positive outcomes.
What does this node offer?
We support researchers, policy makers, and funders to bring evidence and experience together with a central focus on the knowledge and expertise of those living with, and directly impacted by, specific healthcare concerns.
We provide expertise to support consumer involvement across the research cycle using a range of participatory approaches and drawing on frameworks relevant to experience-based co-design, implementation science, and participatory evaluation.
Design stage – It is important to connect with participatory researchers and consumers early in project initiation and study designs. We can collaborate with you to identify opportunities to consult with consumer groups in the design stage, support you to determine the appropriate level of consumer involvement for your project and select suitable methods for your needs and contexts. We can also help you apply health equity principles to engage with people experiencing social marginalisation and disadvantage in addition to relevant healthcare needs. If you are applying for a funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF), we can support you to align with expectations for consumer involvement outlined by those schemes.
Execution stage – Our role in the project depends on our agreed level of involvement on a spectrum ranging from fully executing a co-design or participatory study framework through to providing background mentoring support if you already have some experience using participatory approaches and wish to enhance your skills and knowledge with our guidance along the way. As we encourage consumer involvement across the research cycle, we can help you execute participatory approaches across co-design, implementation, and evaluation stages.
Completion stage – Depending on our agreed level of involvement, we can support qualitative analysis of participatory and co-design research results, writing up plain language summaries and technical reports, and co-author publications for peer-reviewed journals.
Translational stage – We can help promote study findings, particularly with the consumer groups and services directly involved with and/or impacted by your study results to enable them to use the findings in their own advocacy and healthcare improvement projects.
What can I expect from my consultation with this node?
During your initial consultation, we aim to understand the context and needs of your project before we suggest a suitable participatory approaches and methods. Importantly, participatory approaches, such as co-design, require substantial resourcing and preparation and a commitment to power-sharing and iterative activities over time. We will discuss the implications for your project to enable genuine engagement and appropriate budgetary considerations. We will also discuss our level of involvement across the research cycle ranging from direct execution through to background mentoring and support. If you decide to collaborate with us, we will complete an agreement outlining our involvement, which we will ask you to review and sign prior to commencing work.
A FAQ brochure can be downloaded HERE