About the Café
Research Cafés are topic-specific sessions held with community and VCSE partners, often in familiar community spaces. They give people a safe, comfortable way to share experiences and shape research questions with local researchers.
In a Research Café you can:
• discuss what matters to you and your community • identify priorities and challenges • explore ideas with researchers, health partners and peer facilitators • help shape next steps or follow-up activity
Impact (evergreen):
Research Cafés have brought together people who are often underrepresented in research, including older adults, carers and people from Black and Asian communities. Most participants say they felt respected, listened to and more confident about getting involved in research afterwards.
Testimonials from participants:
• “I felt comfortable sharing my experiences.” • “It helped me understand research in a simple way.”
• “I would like to stay involved — this opened new possibilities.”
Join the Network
If you would like to stay informed about cafés, opportunities and resources, you can join the Network.
As a member, you will receive updates about:
• new Network and Research Cafés • tools and training • collaboration opportunities • links across the SWL research community
Dementia Research Café Video:
Dementia Research Café Poster:
Kingston & Richmond NHS Trust Research Café Poster:
