Hi Susan, can you tell us a bit about your research background, and what your PhD focusses on?

I began my career as a biomedical lab-based researcher before becoming an English teacher to speakers of other languages and then transitioning to being a qualitative researcher. I’m a Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Promotion Research (CHPR) and am doing a part-time PhD.

My PhD is a qualitative study about people’s experiences of losing hearing as working age adults. In the first phase of the research, I did in-depth interviews with 15 people who shared how hearing loss had affected their lives. As you might expect, one area which was significantly impacted was work. In phase two of the study, I will speak to professionals who support, or could support, people with hearing loss with anything relating to employment. I’m aiming to bring together a range of professionals (including audiologists, occupational therapists, and staff from voluntary organisations) to discuss the findings so far, what good practice looks like, and how support can be improved.

What does meaningful research impact look like to you at this stage in your PhD?

Meaningful impact starts with involving the people affected by the research in its design to make sure it is relevant and has the potential to create positive change.

From the start of my PhD, I wanted to involve lived experience in shaping the research and deciding the research questions. In the first year, I involved many people who are part of the Deaf* community who use British Sign Language (BSL), and people who deaf or have hearing loss (and don’t use BSL). I organised Community Conversations - which are an engaging, interactive way of involving community members in planning research - to tell me what I should focus the study on.  I also spoke to staff from voluntary organisations and health professionals, as well as other researchers in this field.

The impact is also about every interaction along the way, especially with the participants. Taking part in research should be a positive experience and many of my participants commented on how much they valued having the chance to reflect on their experiences and to contribute to a study that can hopefully help other people in their situation in the future. I’ve shared interim findings with several voluntary organisations who support people who are D/deaf or have hearing loss, so the research is already feeding into wider work, and I hope to continue to connect with them as the project develops.

*For further information on terms used to talk about deafness and hearing loss, please visit the SignHealth website.

How do you think community engagement and partnerships can drive more meaningful research impact?

By involving lived experience from the planning stages of the research and through data collection and analysis, the work is meeting a research need identified by those who understand the issue best. Working with partner organisations who advocate for and support people with hearing loss has helped me to involve more people in the conversations about the research to include wider perspectives. These partnerships will also help to support the dissemination of findings and to advise on the most useful outputs from the work that will result in practical impact – ideally by improving the information and support people receive when they lose hearing in adulthood.

Can you tell us more about your experience of developing partnerships with community and voluntary organisations, and how you approach co-producing research with communities?

When I started working for Leeds Beckett, half of my role was in the CommUNIty team. CommUNIty was an initiative to connect the university to the surrounding community through research, teaching and learning, knowledge exchange volunteering and placements.

Through that role, I attended a lot of events and meetings in community organisations and got to know a wide range of voluntary and community groups working across Leeds and the region. CommUNIty still exists as a network bringing together colleagues across the university who do/are interested in partnership work with a wide range of community partners. Much of the work in CHPR is done in partnership with community and voluntary organisations, so that also keeps me well connected.

Co-production with communities starts with building trusting relationships. Researchers should spend time in organisations/neighbourhoods and become a familiar face. Collaborations should be beneficial for everyone involved and the researcher needs to think carefully about how to manage power imbalances and recognise contributions.

Are there any resources, networks or sources of support that have helped you begin sharing your research beyond academia?

The LBU CommUNIty network will be organising more events next academic year that are a great way to reach audiences beyond academia.

For my PhD research in particular, I’ve connected to NHS networks, Deaf Wellbeing networks, and the British Academy of Audiologists, as well as Facebook forums for people who are D/deaf or have hearing loss. I would say when joining social media groups, use with caution and consider the ethics.

Locally, Forum Central, Voluntary Action Leeds and the Local Care Partnerships are all great sources of information and have newsletters and events where academics can share collaboration opportunities and research findings.

What advice would you share with research students who would like to start engaging with organisations and communities to create impact through their research?

I would suggest four main things:

1. Contact local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations – there is usually a voluntary or community organisation working in the area you are researching, try to make contact! They can be a great source of information, context and building relationships with people you want to involve in the research and then in helping to disseminate your work and translate it into action on the ground.
2. Contact local VCSE infrastructure organisations – in Leeds, they are Forum Central and Voluntary Action Leeds (but you’ll find them in every city e.g. Sheffield – Voluntary Action Sheffield, Wakefield – Nova). They often organise events where you can share your research and meet people working in your research area.
3. Go to Conferences – I should have attended an audiology conference sooner. I made so many invaluable contacts from practice and voluntary organisations.
4. LinkedIn – you’ll find so many staff from voluntary and community organisations, local authorities, and the NHS, as well as academics/postgraduate research students (PGRs). I found a literature review on hearing rehabilitation that I couldn’t access through LBU, but I connected with the Occupational Therapist in the US and she shared a PDF of it the same day. You can advertise webinars/events to share research findings as well as sharing outputs such as academic papers and summaries directly.

LBU Research Voices is a blog series that celebrates the experiences, journeys, and expertise of our LBU research community. Through this series, we explore the knowledge our researchers have gained, not just from their work, but from their lived experiences, career paths, and the communities they engage with. By sharing their stories, we hope to inspire learning, reflection, and connection across our LBU research culture.

Explore the full LBU Research Voices series to read more stories from across our LBU research community.

Find out more about Deaf Awareness at the RNID website.

And you can read more about Susan and the Centre for Public Health Research’s work in the team’s 2021 book, Creating Participatory Research, which includes a chapter on community-campus partnerships to support research.