Last month, #CovConnects attended a networking event, where colleagues from wider Coventry City Council service areas, Coventry University, University of Warwick and Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) met to discuss opportunities for research collaboration to improve the building blocks of health.
With 80 registered attendees, the event held at Coventry University facilitated many discussions around building blocks of health such as digital inclusion, housing, transport, economic development, sustainability, food systems and more.
“…the event was full of energy, it was great to see the three organisations coming together for the health of the city” University Attendee.
#CovConnects, and the Council Economic Development Service gave presentations that enabled attendees to gain a greater understanding of current council priorities and how research collaboration could improve services, policy and outcomes for residents.
For example, we are keen to explore how digital inclusion can provide better access to housing, education and job opportunities, as excluding this access can also impact an individual's health and widen inequalities. As an early programme, it's important we monitor and evaluate the impact of #CovConnects activity and utilise expertise from our university partners to help strengthen this activity.
Narinder Parmar, a Digital Inclusion Coordinator in the #CovConnects Team said: “The HDRC team gave us some valuable feedback on the Adaptive Fund applications submitted by partners. They further supplemented this support by providing us with an evaluation framework which we will be using to measure the effectiveness of digital technologies our partners are using to combat loneliness and isolation in older adults as part of the WMCA Adaptive Fund.”
John Wilcox, Head of the Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration said: “The mixer event was a great way to get the conversations going between academic and council colleagues and I look forward to continuing to work together to help develop research impact through the HDRC.”
David Hope, Business Development Manager in the Economic Development Service said: “A number of research ideas came out of the discussion I was in that will be of interest to services across the Council – some ideas will help us build on the work my Service has started doing around communities and tackling inequalities through enterprise, but the workshop also identified additional themes around tackling inequalities and promoting sustainable and inclusive growth that the Service will be keen to explore further.”
If you are interested in measuring the impact of digital inclusion, get in touch with the #CovConnects Team at covconnectsdigital@coventry.gov.uk
If you’re interested in finding out more about the HDRC, contact the team at CoventryHDRC@coventry.gov.uk