Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham are inviting people from the local community to tell them about challenges they are facing – so research can be conducted to help find solutions to their issues.

This joint initiative from both universities – The Co(l)laboratory programme – brings together academia and the community to support growth and development within communities, broaden prospects, drive change, and improve wellbeing.

The Programme is about to head into its second year, and so the team is looking for ideas from communities on which local challenges the next research projects should focus on. These will then be undertaken by PhD students also from the community and not necessarily from a traditional academic background. These projects will be selected for the impact and real difference they will make to the lives of people living in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

The first cohort of PhD students are well underway, and topics they are researching include:

• Community boxing clubs as a pathway to reduce violence
• Racial barriers to maternity care
• Workplace coercion and modern slavery in the community

Nottingham residents and community groups are being invited to submit their ideas about which local challenges the next projects should take on by visiting the Notts Voice in Research website.

Academics from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham will be coming together with local community-focused organisations for a series of Co-Creation Workshops across August and September. Together they will build upon the ideas from local communities to create new research projects that which are more responsive to the needs of local communities.

The next round of research projects will open to applications from prospective PhD students from mid-October 2023. More details can be found here.

More information about the Co(l)laboratory Programme can be found here.

Co(l)laboratory is part of the Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement. A collaboration between Nottingham’s two world-class universities and eight key anchor institutions (including the local healthcare trusts, integrated care system, the city and county councils, the local enterprise partnership and Vision West Nottinghamshire College); the agreement sets out partners’ commitment to working across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, for the benefit of our people and place.

The project is funded by Research England as well as both Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.