The BLF, our funder, has published three good practice guides for researchers on user involvement, working in partnership and dissemination which I think people will find useful, especially those who are relatively new to research. 

These documents are based on a series of good practice examples identified in the evaluation of the previous Big Lottery Fund’s Research Grants Programme. They include examples about what worked for the research projects they funded and are designed to help organisations in their research activities.

Last week Eddie and I spent some time at the Economic and Social Research Council’s Research Methods Festival. Before the event, I was curious to know what made it a ‘festival’ rather than a (admittedly more mundane-sounding) ’conference.’ The bunch of balloons in the registration area and some quite festive-looking sashes worn by the conference helpers were the only signs I could find. However, this was certainly an exciting celebration of ideas, with almost 70 sessions concerning theories and practices of social science research.

There were two highlights for me. The first was a session on researching lives and relationships, which generated some really interesting conversations around researching intimate aspects of people’s lives. The second was a session on participatory research methods, which explored some of the very real challenges and dilemmas, as well as the benefits and, in some cases,  necessity of participatory research.

Details on session content and presenters, as well as links to many of the presentations themselves, are available on the National Centre for Research Methods website.

The joint NCVO and Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) research conference takes place every September – this year is its 16th year and will take place on 6th-7th September 2010 at the University of Leeds, UK. It’s a great opportunity to meet other people who are interested in researching the voluntary sector and voluntary action. The conference is an open space to share new and existing research, and submissions from new researchers and community researchers are really encouraged. The Pathways team hope to be there in force – we’ve submitted a single paper and a paper as part of a wider panel – fingers crossed we’ll be accepted!

The deadline for abstracts for the conference has been extended by 2 weeks to the 7^th May so if you’re interested in sharing your research and ideas, please get in touch with the organisers – details can be found here on the VSSN website or you can contact Olivia.Hirst@ncvo-vol.gov.uk for more information.