Applications open for funding and support for evaluation and co-production

Applications are open for a new programme of support to climate change and mental health and wellbeing projects using co-production approaches.  The programme will provide £10-15K to deliver project activities and will also support projects to embed evaluation and learning into their work. 

The programme, called ‘Measuring Success in Co-Production: Learning by doing’, is an exciting collaboration between the Co-Production Collective, Evaluation Exchange, UCL Grand Challenges and the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Evaluation Exchange will offer a programme of support founded in our experience of supporting individuals and organisations to reflect and learn in their day-to-day work in a way that is useful and appropriate for them.

5-7 projects will participate in the 8-month programme from January 2024. Over the course of the programme, the projects will come together for workshops looking at co-production and evaluation, particularly ways to plan evaluation activities, different evaluation methods and ways of sharing evaluation findings. Each project will try out their chosen evaluation methods and have opportunities to learn and share from their experience.

The Evaluation Exchange feels it’s important for everyone within a project to work together to co-produce an evaluation approach that works for them, the people they work with and the context they are working in. Consequently, we don’t promote a specific evaluation method but aim to help people understand the range of different possible ways they could reflect and learn in their work. To support projects in the programme to test and adapt their own approaches, the Evaluation Exchange and Co-Production Collective will also provide ad-hoc coaching and guidance to help individual project teams.

There is a real need to strengthen evaluation in co-production, as highlighted by the Co-Production Collective’s ‘Value of Co-Production’ research in 2022. Next year, by working with the 5-7 projects in the ‘Measuring Success in Co-Production: Learning by doing’ programme, we aim to capture what works and doesn’t work well when co-producing approaches to evaluation. This will help inform guidance that we will develop with the Co-Production Collective to support future co-production projects with evaluation.

The image below shows the schedule of Evaluation Exchange support to the projects, including workshops (known as ‘deepening practice sessions’), and sharing and learning sessions to help capture project teams’ experiences of the programme and develop future guidance for evaluation in co-production.

Schedule of support and activities involving the Evaluation Exchange, developed with the Co-Production Collective:

Links

• Apply now to the ‘Measuring Success in Co-Production: Learning by doing’ programme (deadline Monday 27 November).
• To learn more about ‘Measuring Success in Co-Production: Learning by doing’ and the Evaluation Exchange’s offer of support, watch the recording from the information session on 12^th September, 2023.
• If you have questions, want to connect with others or want to know more about the programme, sign-up for the next information event on 17^th October via Eventbrite.
• The Evaluation Exchange is a collaboration between UCL and Compost London.
• Find out more about the Evaluation Exchange.
• For more information about the Co-Production Collective.
• For more information about the ‘Value of Coproduction’ research.
• For more information about the UCL Grand Challenges.
• For more information about the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Main image credit: unsplash.com