Role of the broker Part 1: Local connections, community experience and wider conditions

‘Brokers’ - people who matchmake, support and mediate in community-researcher partnerships – play a key role in how The Ideas Fund works. Together with our Learning Partner, Collaborate CIC, we have looked closely at the impact of the role when it's most effective, and shared our insights in our recent report.

In October, we spoke together with our friends from North West Community Network and the University of Bath about our varied experiences of the ‘broker’ role, exploring some of the themes which emerged in our report.

The importance of local connection and community expertise

One of the things that came through most strongly from our discussions with the projects we’ve funded was how absolutely essential it was that the Development Coordinator was based locally, and had a really strong knowledge of local systems, cultures and networks. We also heard loudly that understanding the reality of the charity and community sector was fundamental to providing the right kind of support to community groups in their partnerships. Community groups talked a lot about the impact of those characteristics, from having the confidence to apply to The Fund, to feeling supported, understood, accountable, and able to discuss challenges openly.

Roisin McLaughlin is manager of the North West Community Network, a charity sector infrastructure organisation in Northern Ireland. Alongside this role, she acts as a Development Coordinator for The Ideas Fund, supporting funded partnerships in the region through the application and delivery of their project, and oversees a more systems-focused project which aims to create a healthier context for community-researcher collaboration in the area.

She reflects on her deep local connections and how this has affected her role as Development Coordinator:

“If I think about my local knowledge and coming from the Community sector this has helped me to understand where groups are at and how the sector works locally. Being embedded in community - strong understanding and extremely aware of the impact of challenges for community organisations.

I know what it’s like to start a new project and to work in partnership. Partnership working can have its challenges and this was also a new way of working with researchers.

So our role was often about being a sounding board – just about listening – like a mentor. Being locally based I also tried to support groups in their other work where possible, and I think this helped to strengthen relationships. And all of the projects remain members of our overall Network.”

Laura Steen is a Community Connector at the University of Bath. Laura unfortunately wasn’t able to make the event on the day but generously allowed us to talk through her notes on her insight and experience. She reflected on the value of her community experience coming into and shaping a new role there.

“The role began as something very broad, with the aim of improving connections between researchers and community organisations – laying the foundations for genuine, equitable collaboration. In practice, that means forming and maintaining relationships with communities outside the University, listening to what’s important to them, and feeding those insights back into our work.

These conversations have shaped so much of what we do at the Public Engagement Unit – such as our ‘Connect’ events where researchers and community organisations meet without the pressure of fixed outcomes, often sparking unexpected collaborations.

It’s been a huge learning curve for me, coming from the community and charity sector rather than academia, but I actually think that’s been an advantage. I feel comfortable going out, building relationships, and meeting people where they are – without ‘parachuting in’ and just have that genuine interest in people really, and there’s so much amazing work being done in Bath and North East Somerset. Thanks to my previous work, I already knew a lot of community organisations and had trusting relationships in place, which meant I could build on those rather than starting from scratch And trust really is everything in this work – it takes time, but it’s the foundation of everything my role is about."

The importance of surrounding conditions

Through our insights report, we reflected that it’s not just about having the right people in the role - people who understand the community sector, can think systemically, are authentic and have good local networks. It’s also about having the right surrounding conditions that enable them to work in this flexible way. It’s been that combination that has resulted in the impact we’ve seen for the community-researcher partnerships we’ve funded.

Helen Featherstone is Head of Public Engagement at the University of Bath and has been supporting better community-researcher connections for more than a decade. She reflects on some of the conditions at Bath that enable their connectors to be successful:

“We had a longstanding history of great public engagement with research and the work of my team meant that we had a deep and rich understanding of what would work. We’d built a learning culture - everything we do is an opportunity to learn so we knew that we could have a role that was quite broad that Laura could shape as needed.

We had a good understanding of the need to be reflective and listen to the needs of others. There was a history of our team challenging convention within a University setting, and my team is respected within the University meaning that when I made the suggestion for the role, no-one questioned it. We also had good governance - I wasn’t making these suggestions in an isolated position and others had oversight and scrutiny.

Of course money helps - we also had funding from Research England (the Participatory Research fund) which allowed us to fund the role, but it is tricky because it is fixed term and we all know that relationship- building work can’t stop and start depending on a funding cycle.

Also, not quite our conditions, but Laura’s previous experience of doing this type of work was essential - we weren’t experienced in this within our team so we really needed Laura’s experience.”

Laura also gives her thoughts on the impact flexibility within the role and her team had on her work:

“Trust within the team has been key – having the autonomy to adapt to different contexts, and the reassurance that my professional judgement would be backed, meant I could focus on listening and responding rather than chasing fixed targets.

That freedom has led to more impact across our work than I think anyone expected. It’s also meant the relationships I’ve built don’t feel transactional.

It’s also opened space for expertise from outside the University to shape what we do – like moving to mixed panels of researchers and community speakers at our public lectures, with themes directly influenced by conversations I’ve had out and about. As a result, our audiences have become far more diverse and connected.”

Reflections from colleagues at Bath chime really strongly with what we’ve heard from our Development Coordinators and the projects we support through The Ideas Fund - that it’s about having the right person, and the right wider programme structure.

We’re always interested in hearing from others about their reflections on supporting more equitable or community-led collaborations with research – you can contact The Ideas Fund team at hello@theideasfund.org