This evidence review brings together academic and practice‑based literature to understand what makes place‑based research partnerships work effectively. It identifies the outcomes these partnerships can deliver, the infrastructure and systems that support success, the skills and expertise required, and the behaviours and values that underpin strong collaboration. The review also highlights major gaps in existing evidence, particularly around early‑stage setup, evaluation, and translating principles into practice.
“Place‑based research partnerships hold huge promise for creating locally relevant solutions. But success depends on more than goodwill, it requires infrastructure, skills, participatory approaches, and sustained attention to values.”
Elizabeth Goodyear and Dr Vicky Ward
We invite practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers to use this review to strengthen the design, delivery, and evaluation of place‑based research partnerships. By investing in governance, coordination roles, participatory approaches, and the time needed to build trust, we can create more impactful, equitable, and resilient partnerships across the UK.
Meet the Authors
Elizabeth Goodyear
Liz has worked at the University of Birmingham for 16 years, joining City-REDI as Programme Manager in May 2021.
Liz joined the team from the University of Birmingham ESRC IAA account, where she was a project manager. In her current role within City-REDI, Liz works across 30+ projects within the research centre, providing milestone tracking, stakeholder management, risk management and the review and audit of projects to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of key performance indicators. Alongside her role of managing current projects, Liz also supports all funding bids across the team.
Liz has also held several other roles at the University, including being a central member of the team responsible for the Research Excellence Framework Assessment in both 2014 and 2021 submissions and as Executive Assistant to various members of the Strategic Planning Office Senior Management Team. Liz is a PRINCE 2 Practitioner, a PMI Project Management Professional and holds a Master’s Degree in Project Management and Organisational Communications.
Dr Vicky Ward
Vicky Ward is Reader in Management at the University of St Andrews, Director of the Research Unit for Research Utilisation (RURU) and Chair of the UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum.
She has spent the last 15 years researching aspects of knowledge mobilisation and knowledge sharing across the health and social care and other sectors, with a particular focus on how diverse groups of people (practitioners, academics, communities) create and share knowledge. She has a particular interest in knowledge mobilisation frameworks, knowledge brokering, knowledge co-production and embedded research and has published a range of peer-reviewed papers focusing on her original research in these areas.
For the past 2 years, she has held a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship with the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology to study how parliaments across the world access and harness academic research.