Blog and News

Engaged Futures podcast: ‘Moving Towards an Inclusive and Engaged Higher Education System’

January 2026

In the opening episode for this podcast, Engaged Futures Co-Directors Sophie Duncan and Paul Manners were joined by Lewis Hou, director of Science Ceilidh, to explore what a reimagined inclusive, engaged higher education system could look like and how communities can get involved in this systems change work. Together, they unpack why Engaged Futures exists, the hopes and visions shaping it, and what it will take to reimagine the role of universities in society.

As Community Knowledge Matters network we've also fed into the process as a catalyst. You can read more about what our members submitted here regarding what is not fit for purpose in the current higher education system and how community-led research — both in collaboration but also independent from institutions — needs to be centred further.

Who joined the 2025 Gathering?

December 2025

Our second in-person meeting bringing together people passionate about community-led research took place last 11 November in Inverness. This national event brought together peers from rural and island communities, practitioners, researchers and policy-makers across Scotland. Together, we explored how communities can lead research to make better change locally and build better evidence for national policy around health, climate and democratic processes.

On the day, we asked people which "hats" they were coming in with and which communities they felt part of. Explore a breakdown of who attended and what these insights indicate about the composition of the CKM network so far.

Thank you for joining us for the 2025 Community Knowledge Matters Gathering!

November 2025

A huge thank you to everyone who came to the Community Knowledge Matters Network Gathering on 11th November in Inverness.

What an incredible day we had, connecting, learning, and celebrating the power of community-led research across rural and island Scotland. From inspiring spotlight talks and creative workshops to heartfelt conversations and new collaborations, the day was a powerful reminder of why community knowledge really does matter.

Our sincere thanks go out to everyone who joined us in Inverness and online, to all our speakers and facilitators, our volunteers, and the team who made the event possible.

Relive the best moments and explore our gallery of photos below.

Exploring the futures of higher education and reimagining research

october 2025

In our June Community of Practice we explored the futures for the university sector and the research ecosystem to collectively contribute to the Engaged Futures national conversation from our specific perspectives of how communities can drive and lead research further, and the value of lived experiences and creative methodologies.

Read in this blog some key insights from the session, which were submitted to the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) as part of the consultation. Thanks to all those who came along and contributed to the discussions and reflections for that CoP.

A new, fully-funded online research training programme for health and care practitioners in Scotland

september 2025

Science Ceilidh and Community Knowledge Matters, on behalf of the National Centre for Remote & Rural Health & Care are excited to launch a new training programme happening between October 2025 to March 2026 open to any health and care practitioner in Scotland with an interest in doing research in remote, rural or island areas.

The programme will explore the whole research process, from foundations like ethics to more innovative approaches, and has been designed based on direct feedback from rural health and care practitioners, and features a mix of online approaches to be flexible around your work. Thanks to support from the National Centre, this is a fully funded programme and free to access. 

If you have any questions and want to hear more, join an online information session about the programme on Wednesday 24 September 2025 1 - 2pm - register here.

General registration for the Community Knowledge Matters 2025 Gathering is now open!

september 2025

Join our in-person meeting bringing together communities, researchers and practitioners passionate about equitable community-led research. The main Gathering will be held in Inverness between 10am and 5.30pm of Tuesday 11 November followed by a Sharing Cèilidh in the evening from 7pm until 11pm with food, informal networking and creative sharing along with a chance to dance the day out with the Science Ceilidh band. Find out more and see the programme here.

To help support a wide range of voices joining us for the day, we are offering some bursaries with funding from the Ideas Fund to cover the costs of travel, accommodation and accessibility expenses to those who may not otherwise be able to attend. Expressions of interest for a bursary are now open, and close on 25 September 2025. Apply here.

Co-Priority Survey: New data platform

September 2025

We've finished the analysis of the Co-Priority Survey which got 150 in-depth responses from wider rural communities about what their priorities are for mental health research and how they want to be involved. This was developed with a working group including community members with different lived experiences who developed the process, questions, accessibility considerations, and then slowly analysed it this year.

We’ve been committed through the ethics process for the data to be open source and hosted by CKM for community members to explore and use. With this in mind, we supervised two St Andrews masters students over the summer to work with the group and hold conversations with the wider network to co-develop a data platform which can help us visualise the data. They successfully developed a platform prototype, and we'll continue to work with them in the following months to add more features, data, and work further on access. 

We're very excited about this as a proof of concept. It shows how communities can genuinely co-develop all stages of the research process, including sharing their own data. The platform can also be an infrastructure for future studies and other data sets. The findings from this Co-Priority Survey will be launched at our upcoming Gathering.

Moray’s first Sharing Ceilidh brought the community to its feet – with more to come!

July 2025

The Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray Community Research Network was launched last March. This is a collaborative initiative hosted by the Moray Wellbeing Hub to be delivered over the next five years. This network brings together a diverse group of partners, including Science Ceilidh, to co-create solutions and drive community-led action aimed at enhancing mental wellbeing across the region.

This Summer, they are hosting a series of community events for connecting and wellbeing, including a series of Sharing Ceilidhs open to everyone in Moray. Moray’s first Sharing Ceilidh in Lhanbryde was a joyful success, setting the stage for a summer of dancing, dialogue, and discovery.

Join the next FREE Sharing Ceilidhs open to everyone in Moray!

Community bursary scheme to join the Gathering 2025

june 2025

Our second Community Knowledge Matters In-person Gathering will be held in Inverness on Tuesday 11 November 2025. To help support a wide range of voices joining us for the day, we are offering some bursaries with funding from the Ideas Fund to cover the costs of travel, accommodation and accessibility expenses to those who may not otherwise be able to attend.

Expressions of interest for a bursary are now open and will close on Monday 30 June 6pm. *Note that the General Registration for the event (i.e. those who are not applying for the bursary) is different and will be open soon.

Save the date: Community Knowledge Matters in-person Gathering 2025

may 2025

Save the date for our next in-person meeting bringing together communities, researchers, and practitioners passionate about equitable community-led research in the Highland and Island and beyond. Join us on Tuesday 11 November 2025 for a celebration of community-led research. The event will be held in Inverness at WASPS Creative Academy. The agenda overview and general registration process will follow soon.

Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray: A Community Research Network

April 2025

A NEW Community Research Network for Mental Wealth in Moray was launched last Tuesday 25th March. This is a collaborative initiative hosted by the Moray Wellbeing Hub to be delivered over the next five years.

This network brings together a diverse group of partners, including Science Ceilidh, to co-create solutions and drive community-led action aimed at enhancing mental wellbeing across the region. Community members and organisations are welcome to get involved and find out more about peer-research, community research networks and to see how you can be part of this 5 year project and influence change for Moray.

Practitioner Research Training Programme: Information sessions

March 2025

The Community Knowledge Matters network and the National Centre for Remote & Rural Health & Care are co-developing a training programme designed to support health practitioners to get involved in research, with a view to supporting equitable practitioner-community research collaborations. We will be hosting two information & feedback sessions in March for health practitioners across rural Scotland to find out more about how they can get involved in research, and let us know what specific support or training needs they might have to make this more possible.

If you’re a rural health practitioner, join us at one of the following sessions to find out more and help shape a possible research training programme: Wednesday 19th March: 2 - 3.30pm OR Wednesday 26th March: 3 - 4.30pm.

‘Finding Out for Ourselves’: Panel discussion at SCVO’s The Gathering

February 2025

Earlier this month, Network Coordinators Lewis Hou and Lauren Pyott attended SCVO’s The Gathering, where Lewis and partners ran an engaging session on Community Led Research: Finding Out for Ourselves. The session explored the value of community-led research and the benefits it can bring to communities, researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in achieving social impact and systemic change. With reflections from a number of different programmes supporting community-researcher partnerships over the past decade the panel gave insight into previous learning, including barriers and opportunities, as well examples of how people can be better supported and get involved.

Phase 1 unwrapped!

January 2025

We like to start our communities of practices asking people what ‘hats’ they are coming in with and what communities they feel part of. As we come to the end of Phase 1, and look ahead to the second phase of the programme starting in this year, we have amalgamated all of these community ‘check-ins’ throughout the past 18 months and the results are in!

In general, people are recognising that they can bring in their different perspectives into the network activities, that there continues to be a centering of communities in our work and that there isn’t a fixed binary between community-members and researchers, or other identities.

Building systems-based approaches to equitable community-led research in rural Scotland

January 2025

Last year, we shared with the collective Diversci our learning with the Network around equitable Community-Led Research in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Lewis Hou, Science Ceilidh director and one of our Community Knowledge Matters network coordinators, was featured in Diversci November’s community of practice. He shared learning from the CKM network and the Ideas Fund programme supporting more participatory funding which goes directly to communities to lead research in Scotland.