Latest news

A regional public engagement project that encouraged people to share their views on health and social care priorities, has been given an Engagement and Place Award from Newcastle University.

The innovative project, known as the ‘MultiVerse Lab’ (meaning ‘lab of many voices’) was launched in Autumn 2020. Its aim was to gather views on health and social care, from people and groups across the North East and North Cumbria region, especially from those who are typically under-represented in public engagement.

Those views would then go on to be used to help to shape the future of health and social care research.

The project was funded and supported by a number of bodies from across the region, including the NIHR Applied Reseach Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC).

Since its launch in October 2020, more than 3,000 people have been asked to share their reflections on the health or social care breakthroughs they would hope to see in their lifetime – through a specially designed website, which later evolved into a touring pop-up event. The responses were collected using physical and digital methods, and the work has captured over 500 voices.

An initial report from the project in January revealed the top ten most talked-about health concerns in our region. They included mental health, equality, social care, prevention and healthy ageing. Poverty and long-term conditions were also mentioned frequently when people spoke about their specific health and care concerns.

Partners from across the region, including the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration NENC, have now pledged to use the evidence gathered through MultiVerse Lab to shape how they plan and conduct future research.

Dr Felicity Shenton, Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) Manager for the ARC NENC was actively involved in the planning and delivery of the MultiVerse Lab.

She said: “I am so pleased to have been part of this innovative, creative, inclusive and now award-winning project. The ARC NENC has been a lead partner in supporting and co-funding MultiVerse Lab over the past two years, along with our partners and colleagues across the North East and North Cumbria. Unfolding Theatre have been brilliant to work with and brought creative and artistic knowledge, skills and energy to this project.

“We have since used the MultiVerse findings and evidence to review our ARC NENC research strategy retrospectively and consider whether our research priorities are aligned to the views and needs of local communities. The findings will also help the ARC NENC to be forward-thinking and we’ll use the data to inform the next phase of the ARC and in our opportunity to bid for additional funding in 2023/4.”

The MultiVerse Lab website and other engagement tools were delivered by a creative team led by Unfolding Theatre.

The MultiVerse project was commissioned by a collaboration of partners including:

• VOICE
• The National Innovation Centre for Ageing
• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) – involving:
• NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre
• NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria
• NIHR Newcastle In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative
• NIHR Newcastle Clinical Research Facility
• NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre Cluster (Newcastle)
• Newcastle University
• The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust