Embedding co-production in data research: How internships can contribute

As part of a wider project to co-produce data research with care-experienced young people, the Administrative Data Research Centre Northern Ireland (ADRC NI, part of ADR Northern Ireland) offers a summer internship for a Research Assistant post. The internship is supported by Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC) and the Widening Participation Unit at Queen’s University Belfast. As an expert by lived experience, the intern’s role was to develop resources to support co-produced research. In this blog, we hear directly from the successful applicant, Ash Salem, on how he found the internship experience.

Background

I have a passion for research and science as I love the factual nature of it. That’s why I have been part of the Data Research Advisory Group (DRAG) for the last two years. In DRAG we work as equal partners with researchers at Queen’s University Belfast. I thought the internship would be an opportunity to learn more about research in general and how data research is done. The internship sounded like a great opportunity to be even more involved in research about care experience.

What I did

The main theme of the internship was developing resources around co-production and I was able to bring my lived experience of care to several pieces of work.

Over the 8-week internship I conducted a thematic analysis of interview transcripts, planned the structure and content of future DRAG workshops, and developed a young person’s guide to co-production for researchers. To give more context on the thematic analysis, the data was gathered from interviews with everyone involved in DRAG. We (the young people) are co-authoring a paper on co-production.

I moved on to planning out the structure and content of the next phase of DRAG workshops for new recruits, as I am now a Senior Data Research Advisor. The first workshops for young people were a test run. Building on that experience, I was able to suggest ideas and changes to make the next set better.

My next piece of work was developing a young person’s guide to co-production for researchers. The intention was to translate my experience of co-producing data research into a helpful guide for researchers who haven’t been involved with lived experience experts before.

At the start, it was overwhelming, and the pressure was immense. Everything from the writing to designing the layout of the guide terrified me as I knew it was going to be read by clever people that I held in high regard. It felt like I was doing too much by myself.

To get past this, I asked for more support and in the end, a guide was produced that I made a major contribution to as part of a team. The finished guide looks amazing! You can read it here.

Takeaways from the overall experience

I had high expectations for the internship, but they were unrealistic (as I didn’t know what it would be like). I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either – the experience was valuable, and I have learned a lot. For example, a high level of patience is necessary because research is a very slow lengthy process and that can be frustrating. It requires a real mix of skills (interpersonal, writing, communication, technical, etc.) and I liked some areas more than others.

I appreciated the level of planning that was done for the internship. For example, I had a session-by-session timetable and detailed instructions for every task. At the start of every task, I always found it way too difficult to wrap my head around doing it. But I found using different techniques, like brainstorming and having the information broken down, helped immensely. Furthermore, I was constantly supported – which was great, as it gave me the confidence to trust in my own capabilities.

When things got difficult, I never backed away (even though there were times I wanted to). This was another opportunity to prove that I can persevere and overcome situational self-doubt.

The internship was not easy, but it was rewarding. Support for the intern is the key to success.

My final message to other research organisations would be that internships are a valuable way to do co-production in practice and include the voices of people with lived experience in the data research process.