Good practice case study - Deciding the topic to research

🏔️The challenge

It can be difficult to get community involvement prior to funding applications, in part because there may not be funding to reimburse individuals for their time in inputting your research proposal. There are several options here that can be cost effective:

💡Option 1: No funding available
If there is no funding, consider if you can create a very short (5 mins) survey ask people to rank funding ideas. For example, you may have 3-5 possible focal points for a funding application and could ask for individuals within the community to order these by preference and add any free text comments about their top choice. This kind of survey could be circulated on social media and completed anonymously.

💰Option 2: Small amount of funding available

If there is a small amount of funding, you can create a slightly longer survey and offer a prize draw of vouchers. This will allow you to incorporate a larger number of questions, e.g. about possible research questions, methods, researcher training and dissemination. This can also include the option for individuals to share contact details to be part of follow up discussions (if funding permits).

👥Option 3: Sufficient funding for a Research Advisory Board

If there is more available funding to pay for around 6 hours of time for a small group (6-10) you can set up a project specific research advisory board (RAB). This should include a suitably diverse sample depending on the focus of the research (e.g., if about university education, you may want autistic students to be the majority or entirety of the board). This means you will need to collect some information about your board members to be sure that they are members of community you are targeting. With this board in place, they can complete initial surveys, review key plans and even aspects of the funding application (e.g. lay summary, ethics etc).

📌Best practice when applying for funding
When applying for funding, make sure any engagement from the autistic community for the project is reimbursed, ideally at a similar hourly rate to research assistants to ensure that their expertise by experience is fully recognised. Consider whether a specific member of staff should be costed within the funding to support this e.g. a PPI or RAB coordinator. This could be a part time position.

Professor Ellie Dommett PhD