PRN activities
The Participatory Research Network (PRN) is a university-wide initiative that seeks to promote and embed participatory research in the practices of researcher across the University of Sheffield
A number of activities of the PRN have taken place during the time of WAARC that have helped build a participatory university ethos. These include:
PRN Project / activity | Website and / or title | Key link to WAARC |
Committee Away Day (16th July 2025) | N/A | The committee met to discuss the vision of PRN for the 2025/2026 academic year. This included exploring how Waarc and the PRN could align through joint events. |
PRN members winning University Knowledge Exchange and Impact Awards (July 2025) | These awards demonstrate how valuable impact with community partners is, which is a key value of Waarc's Priority Area 3. | |
Talk to Cincinnati Disability Lab about Priority Area 3: Collaboration (12th June 2025) | N/A | Talk in partnership with Enion et al. on our collaborative projects to an international audience. This included bringing in PGRs, demonstrating the commitment to the researcher concordat. This talk was particularly pertinent in considering the debates around equality research in the USA. |
Monthly Fika sessions | Encouraging engagement with the participatory research community. | |
Joy in Social Science Research (14th April 2025) | Some of the Waarc team were involved in the organisation of this event. The access values attended to align with that of Waarc. In addition, the collaborative research presented at the event aligns with the aims of Waarc. | |
Creative Methods Event (5th March 2025) | N/A | This workshop presented inclusive methods including sandboxing and Lego, that can be used to increase access in research. This particularly linked into the inclusive research methods elements of WAARC within Priority Area 2. |
Moving Maps Workshop (26th November 2024) | N/A | This workshop explored how to using mapping, and the process of moving around to map as a research method. This particularly linked into the inclusive research methods elements of WAARC within Priority Area 2. |
PRN PGR Mentoring (4th November 2024 - July 2025) | N/A | Offering mentoring to PGR students enabled mentors (who were staff) to explore ways of access across the university. This fitted into WAARC Priority Area 1. |
Participatory Research Showcase (18th September 2024) | https://sheffield.ac.uk/ihuman/our-work/marginalised-humans/prn/output-hub | This event showcased research that was funded by Research England funding from the previous academic year. Most of these projects were collaborative, linking in with WAARC’s Priority Area 3: Collaboration strand. |
Badge Making Creative Workshop (17th June 2024) | N/A | This workshop allowed PGRs and ECRs to explore how badges could be used to disseminate research. This particularly linked into the inclusive research methods elements of WAARC within Priority Area 2. |
Intellectual Property Rights Workshop (25th June 2024) | https://sheffield.ac.uk/ihuman/news/negotiating-right-be-named-reporting-prns-intellectual-property-rights-and-participatory-research | This workshop explored an issue pertinent to participatory research. Intellectual property is key to discuss when collaborating with external organisations. This linked to Priority Area 3, as in this priority area negotiating collaboration with Disabled People’s Organisations was key to the success of the area. |
iHuman
How we understand being ‘human’ differs between disciplines and has changed radically over time. We are living in an age marked by rapid growth in knowledge about the human body and brain, and new technologies with the potential to change them.