What is peer research?
Peer research is empowering. It is directed and conducted by people with lived experience of the issues being studied. This means people can affect positive change that matters to them.
Peer researchers have a deep and personal understanding of the social or geographical community being studied. They may assist with research design, help develop research tools, collect and analyse data, and help write up and disseminate findings.
Peer research can also be referred to as community research – or as user involvement or service user research when it is conducted together with the users of a specific service to evaluate that service.
Find out moreOur thinking and reports
Amplify Youth: putting young people at the heart of social change
Publication 22 January 2021Amplify Youth was a programme funded by Credit Suisse and delivered by The Young Foundation. We worked with young people aged 16-25 in challenging areas of East London, Dublin and Belfast. Our aim was to tackle the structural inequality experienced
Positioning peer research in a policy context
Publication 23 November 2020Using urban and youth policy case studies, this report focuses on peer research and co-production through citizen engagement.
Kickstart reports – sprint three
Publication 18 February 2022This report explores young people’s experiences of racism on social media, developed and devised by a group of young Kickstart peer research recruits.
Peer research in the UK
Publication 23 October 2020This report provides a comprehensive introduction to peer research methodology and advocates for its value as a legitimate and insightful approach.