Café Connect: public engagement throughout the lifecycle of health-related research (360G-Wellcome-202668_Z_16_Z)

Our vision is to develop and evaluate an innovative model of public engagement inhealth-related research called Café Connect. Uniquely the café will engage the public in ALL stages of the research life cycle, not just dissemination. The public will be invited to contemplate, discuss and react to issues in health-related research in Nottingham Contemporary café (a relaxed, non-intimidating environment) in the heart of the community. We will run one large flagship café event aimed at the general public. Three smaller events will follow-on (quarterly) with activities focusing on specific topics - self-harm, older adult drinking and emotions in food choice behaviour. During the flagship event, focus groups will identify key issues relevant to these topics shaping project design. Focus group participants will become ‘participant-engagers’ and gather data in the next two café events supported by a project manager and ‘engagement interns’. The final event will discuss project outcomes and disseminate findings. A spoken-word event will reflect on findings from the self-harm project. Engagement experiences will be captured in responses elicited via a video booth, surveys and via observation, all synthesised by an external evaluator. The applicants are experienced in public engagement and successfully piloted the Café Connect idea in 2015.