REN events

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Learning Event - 30 May 2024

On 30 May 2024, our North East and North Cumbria Research Engagement Network (REN) held a well-attended shared learning event, at One Strawberry Lane, in Newcastle. Representatives from across the Voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector joined academics, researchers and health leaders, as well as children and young people from across the North East and North Cumbria, to help establish a new network with a focus on mental health in young people.

The purpose of the new network is to build better linkages between children and young people, the VCSE and universities and research organisations across the North East and North Cumbria, to ensure that the best research into young people's mental health influences decisions about service provision in the future.

The event heard from VCSE partners, and health leaders including Claire Riley, the ICB's Chief Corporate Services Officer; Lisa Taylor, Health & Wellbeing Programme Director for Voluntary Organisations' Network North East (VONNE); and Dr Shona Haining Partnerships Lead and Deputy Implementation Lead for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) in the NENC area.

Attendees were also able to hear video messages from some of our delivery partners, as well as potted case studies of the excellent work being undertaken by North East Wellbeing; the Young Women’s Outreach Project; People First; and NE Youth.

The event closed with coproduction and networking sessions, which allowed attendees to discuss their expectations for the new network, as well as help shape the key aims and research priorities of the network going forward, as well as how we draw on learning from other networks across the sector.

Over the coming months, it is envisaged that the new network will undertake a series of further shared learning events, to allow for closer collaboration between partners. The overall goal is to cumulatively build a robust research culture in the North East and North Cumbria, that will drive improvements in health and wellbeing through collaborative and impactful research, which will deliver real benefits for children and young people's mental health service provision.

Learning Event - 3 March 2025

The second REN shared learning event took place on Monday 3rd March, at One Strawberry Lane. The aims of the event were to hear from research and community partners; support organisations to learn more about each other; highlight some key barriers to involvement in research and work together to identify practical and realistic solutions; and learn how our Community Engagement Toolkit can support better partnership working going forwards.

We hope that the learning from this event will help us take the network forward and allow us to further develop our matching tool to enable researchers and VCSE organisations to better engage children and young people in mental health research.

Recap of the ComBAT Live Webinar – 19 March 2026

Lessons learned from delivering a Randomised Control Trial (RCT)

Currently, many young people experience mild to moderate depression symptoms yet find it difficult to access timely and evidence based psychological interventions. ComBAT (Community-based Behavioural Activation Training for adolescents with depression) is a five-year programme of research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It aimed to deliver a behavioural activation intervention for children and adolescents (aged 12 to 18 years old) across community, non-NHS and NHS settings. The existing evidence demonstrated that behavioural activation had a positive outcome amongst the adult population with mild to moderate depression symptoms. On 19 March 2026, the ComBAT study team from the Mental Health and Addiction Research Group (MHARG) at University of York in collaboration with our research and development team hosted a live webinar as part of the Research Engagement Network (REN:) project to share lessons learned from the delivery of the trial. During this webinar, the study team spoke about the variety of challenges they encountered, despite achieving all their milestones (e.g recruitment to target and excellent retention rates). Including their experience of recruiting young people across different settings. Through this webinar, we hope to offer insight and suggestions on how to overcome barriers in future similar studies. Find out more about the study - ComBAT (Community-based Behavioural Activation Training for adolescents with depression) - https://combatdepression.org/home/about-the-project/

Bringing Partnerships Together & Strengthening Young People’s Involvement

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On 29 April 2026, Research Engagement Network held an event in Newcastle, co-designed with young people from the Northern Youth Research Partnership (NYRP). It brought together young people, researchers and community groups to explore how we can improve research by working together. The REN programme increases diversity in research participation by engaging with people in underserved communities around research and increasing access and opportunities to take part in research.

Key highlights included:

A powerful panel led by young people from the NYRP, showing why trust, listening and real involvement matter
Updates on the REN Matching Tool, which helps connect researchers with community groups to build strong, trusted relationships
A short video created with VONNE to explain research and share young people’s voices:

People talked about how important it is to involve young people early, value their lived experience, and build long term trust. There was a strong focus on making research easier to understand and giving young people real opportunities to lead and be involved.

"The Young People's Panel was brilliant."

The event ended with group discussions where people shared ideas about the future of REN and what actions they can take. Many people committed to raising awareness, supporting young people to get involved, and recognising the importance of the young person’s voice. There was also a focus on making sure young people are fairly recognised, including being paid for their time.

“I will take away the power of the young person's voice.”

In the workshops, people talked about putting young people at the centre of research — not just taking part, but helping lead and shape it. This means involving young people early, building trust over time, and making sure more communities are reached.

There was a strong focus on creating clear opportunities for young people to get involved and have a real say, with consistent support across organisations. People also highlighted the need for long term funding so this work can continue and grow.

It was seen as really important to share results clearly with communities, so young people can see the difference their involvement makes and why it matters.

Next steps:

What we learned will help shape future work, making research more inclusive and relevant. The focus will be on stronger partnerships, supporting young people as equal partners, and creating more opportunities to get involved in research in ways that work for them.

If you have any questions about this event please contact the REN team: [email protected]

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