Spotlight on Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal

What is your role and what does it involve?

I lead the Co-Production and Public Engagement Team at UCL, developing UCL’s strategic support for public engagement and embedding co-production and engagement activities into research and teaching. The work of our team focuses on supporting two-way engagement, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit. I am also responsible for the work of Co-Production Collective, a network/community of people who come together to learn, connect, and champion co-production for lasting change and the new projects the community takes on.

How are you improving the health of the public?

As a team we support staff, students and partners that we work with externally to UCL, to work with the public in a variety of ways – this may be co-production or may be another form of public engagement or involvement.

Working with the public as part of our research at UCL dramatically improves research supporting the delivery of outcomes that actually matter to the people that the research is meant to impact. It leads to greater long-term efficiency, supports progress towards social justice and empowers and builds capability in all of the people involved (including researchers). Importantly, it connects us as humans as we work towards shared goals (Value of Co-production, Co-Production Collective, 2022).

What do you find most interesting or enjoyable about your work? 

The social justice element of our work as a team is very important to me. A lot of our work is about supporting culture change and moving us towards a society with a more equal distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges which can be difficult as we are challenging the status quo but is also very rewarding when progress is made. I also enjoy providing training and helping people to develop skills, in particular the students we work with who are very keen to learn about our area of work.

How have cross-disciplinary collaborations shaped your research? 

I’m not a researcher so don’t conduct research myself, but I am part of many research projects and support others to conduct research. I see cross disciplinary working making a significant impact within research by supporting innovation, and by helping people find answers to complex challenges. This approach goes way beyond a shared document and pooling of knowledge from different subject areas; it involves effective collaboration and a holistic approach that looks at the whole picture and cuts across individual disciplinary boundaries, leading to breakthroughs that are often impossible within a single field.

What advice would you offer to others interested in developing cross-disciplinary research?

Give it a go! Don’t wait for the perfect time, there won’t be one. Similar to when working in a co-produced way, you need to go into the work with an open mind, and willingness to question your own practices. You will need to be open to giving time to navigating diverse perspectives and methods and to creating an equitable space where you can work together. It's a very rewarding way of working that helps to tackle complex societal challenges as you are combining unique strengths and fostering new approaches, but it requires clear communication to align your expectations as a group/team.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

We are working on developing a strategy for the Public Engagement Team at UCL so please contact us if you would like to input. Co-production wise, we as a community are currently working on a review of both our Payment Policy and Safeguarding statement, launching soon.

If you could make one change in the world today, what would it be?

Hard to answer, but I would say for there to be more openness within society as a whole to change and to shift to more shared power and decision making.