Co-Production and Communities

Steering Group

• Gemma Kelly-Wright (chair)
• Helen Wheatley
• Negar Riazifar
• Eric Holub
• Martin Price
• Ninna Makrinov
• Zhiqiong Chen
• Sophie Staniszewska

Purpose

In the ‘Co-Production and Communities' Learning Circle we seek to understand, innovate, mentor, co-fund, showcase, and promote various forms of collaborative, co-produced, and co-designed work. We support Warwick colleagues working with off-campus and ‘community’ partners of all kinds, whether they are small/new community groups or more established organisations or businesses, or from the arts and heritage industries, local government, or education sectors. Fellows of this Learning Circle hail from research, teaching, postgraduate, outreach and academic services backgrounds across the university as well as Regional Fellows drawn from the communities around the University; the projects they engage in are accordingly diverse in nature. Read more below to find out more about what we have achieved since our inception, and what we are aiming to do in future. If you wish to contact us for advice or support, or with suggestions and enquiries, then please email our chair Gemma Kelly-Wright.

If you'd like to be part of our meetings please sign up to be a WIE Member to be emailed when meetings are scheduled. These termly meetings are forums for discussion and best practice sharing. There may also be opportunities to join task and finish groups focussed on driving forward particular streams of work that happen outside of the meetings.

You can also view upcoming events for all Learning Circles on this page. The core focus of the LC is set by our Steering Group. WIE Fellows interested in joining the Steering Group should see the steering group code of conduct to understand the commitment involved and contact wie@warwick.ac.uk to express their interest.

Our future plans for 2025-26 and beyond

The Learning Circle will continue to include spotlights at each of our seasonal meetings and our regular 'Front Door' feature which enables attendees to share opportunities with other people in the meeting. Our first meeting in November will explore 'Community Engagement through Education' in collaboration with the Pedagogies of Public and Community Engagement Learning Circle. Our second meeting in January will look at 'Engagement and Knowledge Mobilisations for REF'. In March 2027 the Learning Circle will be hosting CO-LAB 5.0 under a working theme of Placemaking, Heritage and Public Engagement. The Collaboration and Coproduction (C&C) Fund, will continue, as the Circle reflects on the impact of previously funded projects and the launch of a new evaluation report.

Our work so far

2025-26

Learning Circle meetings in 25-26 welcomed new fellows and members, with a new feature called 'Front Door' where attendees are invited to share opportunities with other people at the meeting. Spotlight talks in the meetings included:

• Warwick Volunteers and the Cheylesmore Good Neighbours Project on a ‘Digital Café’ which empowers local older citizens through digital literacy skills and befriending (Autumn)
• Chris Strelluf (CAL) and the Modern Cockney organisation in Tower Hamlets on their collaborative research and impact project into the Cockney language (Spring)
• Katie Crompton (Education) and Solihull Town Council on their collaborative work to empower young people in the region (Summer)
• Naomi Pullin (History) and the Lord Leycester Hospital on their citizen historian project to collaboratively research the history of the Hospital (Summer)

We also supported two rounds of the Collaboration and Co-Production Fund, allocating circa £30,000 of funding to collaborative projects, and members of the Steering Group (Helen Wheatley and Sophie Staniszewska) have been working together on the Public, Patient and Community Involvement in Research at Warwick project which they reported on to the LC throughout the year.

We hosted CO-LAB 4.0: Empowerment Through Education which focused on examples of teaching and knowledge exchange, and what those examples demonstrate about the ways Warwick can empower external people and organisations, and how those collaborations create space for external knowledge and lived experience to shape teaching and learning at Warwick.

2024-25

In February 2025 the Learning Circle hosted CO-LAB 3.0 focusing on participatory research under the title "#Nothingaboutuswithoutus" as part of our ongoing CO-LAB series. The Collaboration and Coproduction (C&C) Fund continued to be administered by the Circle reflecting on the impact of previously funded projects. The Learning Circle has continued its spotlight at each of its seasonal meetings.

2023-24

Learning circle spotlights for 23-24 have included: Revolutionary Vincentians, ININI Initiative, Community Ambassadors programme at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and “Ghost Town”, understanding how different communities perceive themselves and the importance to them of not attaching pre-determined labels.

Collaboration and Coproduction (C&C) Fund, introduced a new way of working, staggering the bids to allow work to be more readily spread across the year and giving those who were unsuccessful in the first round the opportunity to refine their bids and resubmit.

In early 2024 we ran our next CO-LAB, 2.0. This was a relaxed and social occasion, but also an opportunity for Warwick colleagues from all backgrounds to explore, share, network, learn and explore various forms of collaborative, co-produced and co-designed work in a supportive environment.

2022-23

Members of the Learning Circle, attended and contributed to the support and training sessions for the Collaboration and Coproduction (C&C) Fund.

Helen has been working with Slate and Mortar Films to collate researcher-made video footage and conduct interviews, all of which will flow into a film advertising some of the best projects funded by the C&C Fund.

James Hodkinson and Gemma Wright worked together to deliver CO-LAB 1.0, which took as its theme ‘Creativity at the Heart’, examined the productive and deepening connections between STEM and Arts subjects, research and working practices. The event proved an effective way of brokering new relationships and projects – as reflected in the narrative feedback from the event.

During 2023 we also began gathering the insights gained from our online sharing space and elsewhere in order to present the cross-campus collaborative work we have found in an accessible and engaging format – all to showcase and promote the fantastic work being done at Warwick in this area.

2021-22

We have been instrumental in setting up and helping to run the WIE’s Collaboration and Co-Production Fund. This provides up to £3K for Warwick colleagues to establish new or deepen existing working relationships with off campus partners. We also contributed to the training and advice programme which colleagues can access in the run-up to submitting a bid to the fund.