Engaging with Participants and Stakeholders

This training session is organised by the Advanced Qualitative Methods (AQualM) Pathway, and is open to all ESRC and non-ESRC funded PhD and MA Social Science Research students within the WRDTP’s seven partner universities. PGRs from all seven interdisciplinary Pathways are welcome to attend.

This training will introduce students to the challenges, rewards and considerations needed when working with participants and stakeholders across the research journey. To create data and have impact the relationships we as researchers create and maintain with the people we work with, participants, gatekeepers and stakeholders, are vital and often the key to a project’s success. This session will cover:

• Stakeholder engagement and relationship building and maintaining
• Participants recruitment and relationships
• Participatory methods
• Negotiating organizational access
• Delivering difficult messages
• Impact work

The format of this session is a lecture and a workshop, with lunch provided.

By the end of this session students will be able to:

• Identify the key relationships they need to build and maintain for a research project and the timeline associated with this
• Understand the possible challenges of working with people and how to plan for these
• Establish an understanding of participatory methods
• Evaluate and plan effective recruitment strategies
• Have knowledge of engagement and relationship building techniques – including gaining access to organizations
• Understand strategies for working with stakeholders to develop impact and build relationships for future research
• Learn techniques for delivering difficult messages to stakeholders and organizations we work with