On 21 Feb 2019, The University of Sydney, co funded by the University of Edinburgh, is holding an event.

Knowledge from lived experience, ‘consumers’, ‘patients’ and ‘publics’ is becoming increasingly part of not just the results of research in health but of the creation and interpretation of health research. This is part of a general movement to the validation – often hard won through the activism of users –  of lived experience in health service systems and policy. In research there has been a rise in ‘consumer-led’ or co-created research, as well as the institutionalisation of public involvement practices as a prerequisite for some types of public grant funding and to publish in certain academic outlets. Public involvement in research, viewed as an ethical imperative and ‘public good’ and best represented by the catch-cry ‘nothing about us without us’, is going mainstream.

In order to draw together those interested in critically assessing the parameters and limitations of this turn toward lay knowledge in health research we are hosting a series of international one-day symposia, the first of which will take place at The University of Sydney on 21 Feb 2019 . The Sydney-based symposium will involve presentations by international visitors from the University of Edinburgh and locally-based academics and community members.

This event is funded by the University of Sydney and the University of Edinburgh through a Collaboration Award. The event is being hosted by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney.

Symposium organising team:

• Associate Professor Jen Smith-Merry. Director, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, The University of Sydney
• Dr Ellen Stewart. Chancellor’s Fellow, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
• Professor Gerard Goggin, Department of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney
• Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, The University of Sydney
• Dr Tanya Riches, Centre for Disability Studies, The University of Sydney
• Cherry Baylosis, PhD student, Department of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney

Registrations are now closed.

Click here to see the Final Program.