Royal Surrey kicks off Research in the Community programme | Research News

Royal Surrey has launched a series of events to make sure voices from minority groups across Surrey have a say in its research activities.

The Royal Surrey Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) team met with members of Surrey’s Syrian, Kurdish, Pakistani and Nigerian communities in Woking on 7 October, as part of its Research in the Community initiative.

The meeting involved wide-ranging discussions around health issues and the perception of NHS services in the community. The group discussed health and care research, identifying the key areas they felt should be focussed on, and the potential barriers to increased engagement with health and care research.

The Research in the Community programme is a partnership between Royal Surrey RD&I and the Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (SMEF). It is funded by the NIHR Clinical Research Network’s Patient, & Public Involvement & Engagement Space to Lead initiative. It is part of a nation-wide drive to increase research visibility among communities with low levels of engagement in research.

Professor Aftab Ala, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, and Professional Director for Research, Development and Innovation at Royal Surrey, ran a session on liver health. He highlighted the main causes and symptoms before leading a conversation with attendees about how lifestyle changes can lower the risks of liver problems.

The meeting was the first in a series of events planned by the RD&I team to engage different minority groups and seldom-heard voices across Surrey.

“The meeting gave us a fantastic opportunity to learn from these important, and all-too-often marginalised groups in our society,” said Professor Ala. “We learned so much by talking to the group. They were insightful, engaged and had many excellent ideas that will certainly influence the way we approach our research in the future.”

Patients and members of the public are being invited to join the team as Public Research Champions – who will help to steer and shape the work of researchers working at Royal Surrey. If you are interested in becoming a Public Research Champion, or would like us to come and talk to a community group that you are involved in, please email rsc-tr.ResearchAndDevelopment@nhs.net, including the words “Research Champion” in the subject line.