Developing novel research methods to establish and monitor impacts of user engagement in times of austerity: Report on a series of agenda-setting workshops

This report is drawn from a National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) Network for Methodological Innovation project, the key theme,‘Dancing with new partners’ examined methods for engaging non-academic users, especially with people who, in our experience, are often resistant to engagement - and for measuring the impact of research on policy and practice. This Report contains eight ‘think pieces’ (or position papers) which were commissioned for the Launch Conference of the Network. These ‘think pieces’ and their subsequent presentation and discussion among Network members were used to identify three key themes for further discussion. The three themes were explored in subsequent workshops and summaries of the issues explored and the conclusions drawn are outlined below, along with a summary of the closing conference of the Network and abstracts of subsequent papers.