Across the UK, individuals and grassroots groups are harnessing the power of community-led research to influence services, policy and systems for the better. This work can be powerful, but it is not always easy to sustain.
In response, The Ideas Fund launched the Community-Led Research Collaboration (CLRC) in September 2025. Rather than funding a single research project, the CLRC focuses on strengthening the infrastructure and support systems that community-led research depends on, and will be making £80,000 available to test a co-designed idea in practice.
Why now?
Over the past five years, The Ideas Fund has collaborated with hundreds of people working in community-led research.
We’ve learned that while this work can be transformative, it often depends on significant personal commitment and persistence. Many of the people leading this work are balancing research with activism, service delivery, peer support and campaigning. Some are working without institutional backing, navigating deep-rooted structural inequities while building more just approaches to knowledge and change.
At the same time, interest in community-led research is increasing across funding and policy spaces - this moment offers a chance to pause, connect and think collectively about what would genuinely strengthen the work and those leading it.
Meet the CLRC Core Group
The CLRC brings together nine people from across the UK to reflect on the realities of community-led research and create solutions to actively strengthen the field.
With deep experience spanning health, justice, youth participation and community wellbeing, they share a commitment to embedding community knowledge more centrally within research and policy systems.
Isra Al Sharabi - Medical Doctor, Peer Researcher and Migrant Health Advocate
Working across community and research spaces to centre migrant lived experience in improving access, equity and healthcare practice, including through her work with Doctors of the World and the Migrant Health Research Group at St. Georges.
Vivienne Isebor – Founder and Director, ADHD Babes
Supporting Black women and non-binary people with ADHD through advocacy, peer support and education, while raising awareness on neurodiversity through an intersectional lens.
Fola Afolabi – Founder of the Youth Involvement and Engagement Lab and Community Engagement Researcher
Supporting meaningful participation and co-production in research with young people and Black communities, and undertaking PhD research exploring inequalities and power imbalances in public involvement in health research.
Said Abdifatah – Founder, YBM Research Collective
Supporting communities to organise and build agency by leading their own research agendas and strengthening shared ownership of knowledge and decision-making.
Neelam Heera-Shergill – Founder and CEO, Cysters - www.cysters.org
Neelam Heera-Shergill is the Founder of Cysters and a nationally recognised advocate for equitable gynaecological and reproductive health care for marginalised communities. With extensive experience in research co production, she works alongside patients, clinicians and academics to design community led studies and health interventions that centre lived experience and challenge systemic health inequalities.
Oliver Wain – Senior Health Improvement Specialist, NHS Highland
Leading community-led research on trans and non-binary people’s access to primary care in remote and rural areas of Highland and Argyll and Bute.
Muhammed Rauf – Founder, Elysium London
Bridging community-led research and public health systems to turn lived experience into actionable change, including the Strategic Frameworks for Inclusive Research White Paper (Elysium London, 2025).
Darren Mussell - OUT
Darren is a member of OUT Hull, a collective working towards prison abolition and transformative justice. He believes in building communities grounded in care, and connection to nature as a pathway to healing. Darren brings his experience of the criminal justice system alongside his strengths in advocacy and research to inform the work of the CLRC.
Noreen Grant – Independent Community and Lived-Experience Researcher
Contributing place-based and peer research insight through her work in the Highlands and the Ideas Fund-supported Centred project, including her involvement in the Peer Research Group Report 2024 - Listening, Learning, Leading: peer voices at the centre.
What’s happened so far?
The Core Group has met four times as part of a facilitated co-design process.
Early sessions have focused on building relationships and trust through shared power, establishing expectations and creating space for open reflection on the realities of community-led research. The process has been intentionally emergent, creating space to work towards equitable practices together and allowing ideas to develop from lived experience rather than being predefined.
Alongside surfacing common challenges, the group has begun identifying where there is shared energy for collective action, exploring:
The structural and practical challenges facing community-led research
What kinds of support are currently missing
The emotional labour and sustainability pressures experienced by those leading this work
What could be designed, tested or built to strengthen the field
Each Core Group member has received a £3,000 grant in recognition of their time, expertise and contribution, alongside shared resources to support wellbeing and inclusive participation.
The group is now beginning to shape potential ideas that could be developed further in the prototype phase, with a view to testing practical interventions in Phase Two.
Reflections from the Core Group on the process so far:
“It’s rare to be in a space where lived experience is brought into the room with honesty and taken seriously as a foundation for building better research systems” - Muhammed Rauf
“Being part of this group is now a highlight of my 2025 and I’m excited for what happens next with it - I so appreciate all the learning and new connections that being part of this is bringing.” - Noreen Grant
“Hearing different perspectives and using one another as a sounding board is essential to the process, our work and personal growth. It helps all of us continue learning and unlearning together.” - Said Abdifatah
Looking ahead
In Phase Two, beginning in April 2026, up to £80,000 will be available to pilot one or more of the ideas developed through the co-design process. The direction of this next stage will be shaped by the Core Group’s collective priorities, moving from reflection into practical application.
Community-led research is already reshaping how knowledge is created and used. Through the CLRC, the focus is not only on funding ideas, but on strengthening the people and conditions that allow this work to thrive.
We look forward to sharing what emerges.
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