Science Together 2024–2025
Eight community-led initiatives with university public engagement facilitators and researchers took place in 2024-25. Projects focused on themes such as mental health support, inclusivity, well-being and skill development. Projects included interviews with refugees and asylum seekers to inform the development of client services, a holiday club for young people with Down’s Syndrome, nature challenges as part of a primary school radio show, music concerts for people with dementia and their carers and workshops exploring the use of local regenerative materials for affordable housing.
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Andrew Bailey
Launched in 2021, Science Together is a community-first engagement programme, coordinated by staff at the University of Oxford with support from Oxford Brookes University. It aims to nurture mutually beneficial collaborations between researchers and community partners to improve the lives of people in Oxfordshire and accelerate impact from university research.
The 2024-25 programme kicked off in October 2024 with a project development workshop led by Wyn Griffiths from SMASHfestUK. Participants engaged in collaborative brainstorming to explore ideas. Eight project groups were formed and more focused plans began to take shape. In January and February 2025 three training sessions were delivered to support teams with qualitative impact evaluations and to share tools for assessment of project success. You can read more about the 2024-25 community partners and projects below.
THE community partners 2024-25
What they do: Mental health provision for young people including one-on-one support, crisis intervention, and activities in safe spaces for positive distraction.
Project: Service Evaluation of Nai's House Programmes
The team developed evaluation tools for the future assessment of ASIST suicide prevention training provided by Nai's House. They worked with the Old Fire Station to use the Storytelling evaluation method to provide rich qualitative feedback from Nai's House staff, volunteers and service users. An original plan to work with Thames Valley Police to assess the impact of suicide prevention training for first responders was not possible in the project timescale but relationships were built and Nai's House continues to explore this option.
What they do: Provide information, support, events and activities for people with Down’s Syndrome and their families living in Oxfordshire.
Project: Holiday Clubs to Assist Transition
The team organised and delivered a pilot holiday club for children and young people (aged 8-14) with Downs Syndrome. The club took place during the 2025 May school half term, trialling a holiday club format that mirrors a school day. Student volunteers were recruited and trained to support the delivery of activities and provide health and wellbeing support for the attendees. The holiday club piloted a new provision for Downs Syndrome Oxford and the team assessed the impact of this model, how it assisted with transitions between school holidays and term-time and evaluated opportunities for future rollout across the county.
What they do: Provide a supportive learning environment for adults and young people who feel marginalised or excluded in other education settings. Students include asylum seekers, refugees, individuals in the care system and those failed by mainstream education.
Project: Building a Sustainable Life
The team created a series of six sessions for adult learners that help them develop their speaking and listening skills, to envision what a sustainable life in Oxford means to them and to develop a plan of action to help them achieve their goals. The course included a visit to Waste2Taste in Oxford.
What they do: Use dance classes, workshops and outreach programmes to develop skills, build confidence and improve the well-being of young people. Create performances to empower excluded voices and explore social issues.
Project: Dance for Meaningful Change
The team developed some standardised evaluation processes to help to assess the impact of regular dance participation on the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of young people. They piloted surveys and approaches with young people of all ages who are part of Body Politic dance programmes and created an impact report to support future funding applications.
What they do: Facilitate the integration of refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants in Oxfordshire by providing psychological, social and practical support to Increase confidence, enable independence and reduce isolation.
Project: Empowering Voices, Building Communities
The team worked with the Refugee Advisory Group (RAG) to strengthen client voices in the way that Refugee Resource design, implement and improve their services in areas such as training, counselling, mentoring, signposting and social interaction opportunities. They focused on supporting and training RAG members to gather and analyse feedback from underrepresented voices in the community, including interviews with asylum seekers living in local hotels and Women's Group members. All RAG members received certificates to recognise their successful completion of training and application in interview skills and data analysis.
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
What they do: Provision of state primary school education complemented with physical, creative and social activities including the school’s own Lighthouse radio station run with pupils.
Project: School Radio for Wellbeing and Connection with Nature
The team introduced regular ‘try at home’ nature challenges into a weekly school radio show “Wellbeing Wednesdays”, which is co-presented by Year 5 and 6 pupils. They assessed the level of engagement with these activities and qualitatively evaluated the impact of participation on children’s well-being.
What they do: Act as long-term steward of land and assets on it, ensuring they are used to benefit local people. Have a focus on tackling the housing crisis in Oxfordshire through the development of affordable, sustainable, community-led housing projects.
Project: Regenerative Community Building
The team worked together to explore how to build more socially- and ecologically- regenerative affordable housing using local, bio-based materials. They worked with Material Cultures and others to deliver three 2-day workshops in June 2025, bringing together a broad cross-section of community members for site visits and practical sessions to learn regenerative building skills using straw, clay and timber. Researchers evaluated the process, documenting the social and ecological benefits of building in this way, and identifying how to refine this approach in the future.
What they do: Promote and provide inclusive music experiences for health and wellbeing, including singing for adults with lung conditions and concerts for people with dementia and their carers. They provide training and consultancy on the benefits of singing.
Project: Moving Music
The team assessed the value and impact of Sound Resource's Moving Music concerts for people with dementia and their carers. This included an assessment of the cost effectiveness and social value of the concerts with Orchestras Live, mapping data looking at aspects such as where people come from and the location of complementary provision and using Storytelling evaluation to provide qualitative insights. They held a writing session to plan and produce a final report that brought together the outcomes of all the evaluation strands, with clear and accessible creative communication of their findings.