Co-Production: Past, Present, and Futures
Watch the film and learn more about the Co-Pro Futures project, the research and experiences that led up to it, and how it aims to help us 'get our own house in order' as Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) so we can better support co-produced and participatory research.
Those we spoke to highlighted many of the same system-wide barriers to participatory research in Higher Education. We supported an inquiry co-led by a team of experienced researchers from the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield that aims to bring together decades of learning about how to navigate these issues and collectively drive change.
Co-Production
A film about the Co-Pro Futures Inquiry, its origins and what the co-leads hope it will achieve
Useful links and resources
Click on the boxes below to expand them and find out more about the research and people featured in the film
Featured projects
The Co-Production Futures Inquiry was a collective intelligence gathering exercise undertaken between 2024-2026 to improve the conditions for participatory research in the UK. The Inquiry aimed to help ‘get our own house in order’ by identifying concrete actions that sector organisations and universities can take to reform structures, processes and cultures. It is jointly funded by the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, via their UKRI-Research England Participatory Research funds.
Jam and Justice: Co-Producing Urban Governance for Social Innovation brought together academics, practitioners, citizens and political leaders through an Action Research Collective (ARC) in Greater Manchester. Together, they exchanged knowledge and developed creative responses to emerging urban governance challenges, including co-initiated action research projects to generate data to test and learn from different approaches to citizen engagement and forging city-regional coalitions for change. Jam and Justice principles are now at the heart of the Greater Manchester Participation Playbook, guiding practice across the city region.
Contributing researchers
Project team:
- Professor Liz Richardson, Professor of Public Administration, The University of Manchester
- Professor Catherine Durose, Professor of Public Policy, The University of Liverpool
- Professor Beth Perry, Professor of Urban Knowledge, The University of Sheffield
- Dr Bryony-Vince-Myers, Co-Pro Futures Inquiry Coordinator and Founder and Co-Director of Wild Fig Research.
Publications and resources
- Recording of Co-Pro Futures Inquiry launch event, introducing the inquiry
- Report 1: Getting our house in order: Improving conditions for co-produced research in UK Higher Education
- Report 2: Response to the Call for Evidence and Ideas
- Final Report: Doubling Down, Not Ducking Out: Why Co-Production in Research Matters Now
- Ideas and Evidence database
- Universities and Urban Co-Production: A conversation with Catherine Durose and Beth Chiteke-Biti (Urban Radar podcast)
- Co-Pro Futures Inquiry group (LinkedIn)
- How can we govern cities differently? The promise and practices of co-production (Jam and Justice final report).
- How to mobilise the agile science needed in a crisis, Nature editorial,
- Liz, Beth and Catherine have published extensively on co-production (individually and together). You can access Liz's academic publications and other outputs via her Research Explorer page, Beth's via her University of Sheffield profile page and Catherine's via her University of Liverpool profile page.