BU Research Blog

The PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) Partnership have been so excited to be part of the development of Dorset’s new Community Research and Engagement Network (CREN), alongside our wonderful partners at Community Action Network (CAN) and The Lantern Trust. CREN is a network that brings communities, researchers, practitioners and organisations together to make research more inclusive, accessible and meaningful. With CREN, we will be able to make sure people and communities have a genuine voice in the research and decisions that affect their lives. The network aims to “flip the power” in research, moving away from research being something that is simply done to or for communities, towards research being developed with them as equal partners.

The incredible launch event in July brought together organisations and community members from across Dorset, and it was clear that there is already so much fantastic community engagement happening across the county. CREN is about connecting that work, sharing what we’ve learned and creating more opportunities to work together – we saw so many great examples of this during the launch!

We’re excited to be part of what comes next and to see what we can achieve together as Dorset’s community research network grows. The launch was just the beginning – and we can’t wait to see where CREN takes us!

Read Community Action Network’s full write-up of the CREN launch and watch a film from the day here