Democratising health and social care research through public involvement and engagement: a qualitative process evaluation of the Community Research and Engagement Network (CoREN)

Background Interest in public involvement in UK health and social care research continues to grow, yet many initiatives are short-lived and offer public collaborators little meaningful influence. Established in 2019 within the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC NWC), the Community Research and Engagement Network (CoREN) was created to provide a sustained platform for co-production of health and social care research. This article reports a theory-informed qualitative process evaluation of the CoREN, examining its progress towards democratic, long-term co-production and the factors that enable or impede it. Methods Methodologically, a qualitative, relational approach informed by deliberative democratic theory was used. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with CoREN Leadership Group members (n=6) and affiliated researchers (n=4) and three focus groups with community members and partners (total n=17). Framework analysis was applied using a priori and inductive codes. Results Participants described the CoREN as a coordinating nexus that connects researchers and community organisations, brokers relationships and “plants seeds” that later grow into co-produced projects. Other key impacts included amplifying community voices in the research process, helping to equalise power dynamics in researcher-community relationships, and building research literacy and capacity within communities. Challenges included a lack of clarity regarding the CoREN’s role and structure, bureaucratic inertia, and difficulties in including a representative range of diverse and less privileged communities across the region. Conclusions The CoREN model demonstrates the promise of sustained, non-project-bound engagement networks as a means of strengthening democratic participation in research and building capacity for future co-production. Sustained investment, ongoing feedback and evaluation, and a commitment to overcoming structural barriers to participation are needed to ensure that progress towards equitable community-led research is maintained.