QUAHRC team wins grant to support lived experience in qualitative analysis

We are delighted to announce that members of the QUAHRC team and lived experience advisors from the Research Support Service have won a new NIHR grant. They will be working on a toolkit for the inclusion of lived experience collaborators in qualitative analyses.

The project has received an NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Methodology Impact Fund Award and will develop a practical implementation toolkit to support collaborative data analysis across applied health and social care research. The LENS (Lived Experience Navigation for Shared Analysis) project is co-led by Professor Vanessa Lawrence, Dr Sharli Paphitis and Dr Clair Le Boutillier at King’s College London, alongside lived experience co-applicants Alicia Stillman and Rachel Hill.

A central principle of the project is that we cannot develop guidance for collaborative analysis without being equally thoughtful about collaboration in how that guidance is produced. That means paying attention not only to whether people with lived experience are involved, but to the roles they can take, and the support and resources available to them.

Dr Sharli Paphitis, Senior Research Fellow at King’s and project co-lead.

Interpreting qualitative research

Qualitative research uses methods such as interviews and focus groups to understand people’s experiences, perspectives and needs. An important part of this research is analysis: the process through which researchers interpret what people have said, identify patterns and meanings, and develop the findings that inform future research, policy and practice. Research teams are increasingly involving people with lived experience in this process through collaborative data analysis (CDA). This can bring different forms of knowledge and interpretation into analysis and create opportunities for people with lived experience to contribute more directly to how research findings are produced.

Involving people with lived experience in qualitative analysis

However, there is currently little practical guidance about how to do this well. Research teams may be uncertain about how to prepare and support people to participate, how roles and decision-making should be shared, how different forms of knowledge are valued within analysis, or how collaborative approaches can be adapted for different methodologies, populations and research contexts. The new project will bring together methodological expertise, lived experience knowledge and learning from research teams across the UK to address these challenges.

Lived experience co-applicants Alicia Stillman and Rachel Hill will play a central role in shaping and leading this work.

You can read further quotes from team members and co-applicants here.