The Peer Research Academy: Exploring What Happens When Research Is Led by People with Lived Experience

2-minute read

We are proud to be a delivery partner on the Peer Research Academy, a new initiative commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of Nottingham's Institute of Mental Health. Alongside our partners at Intentional Peer Support, we are working together to support the development of peer research in mental health as an inclusive, accessible practice that people can thrive in.

The Academy opened in September 2025 and will run until the end of 2027. It is led by peer researchers Caroline Fox-Yeo and Stefan Rennick-Egglestone and co-ordinated by peer researcher Joy Llewellyn-Beardsley at the University of Nottingham. From Habitus, Lisa Androulidakis and Callum Ross are leading the discovery and evaluation work, and Lisa Archibald from Intentional Peer Support is bringing IPS practice into the Academy's design. Every person leading this project brings their own lived experience. We are intentional about that. It is rare for a project of this scale to be entirely led by people with lived experience, and we think that kind of leadership matters for what this work is trying to do.

What we are doing together

The question at the heart of this work is simple but important: what happens when research is led by those with lived experience and peer practice expertise? And what needs to be in place for that to happen well?

Together the partnership is working across several areas:

• Learning from what already works. Spotlighting peer research practice from across the UK and internationally, and hearing from the people and organisations already doing this well.

• Building connection among peer researchers. Many peer researchers work in isolation, without the networks or infrastructure that academic researchers take for granted. The Peer Research Academy is creating space for that to change.

• Sharing knowledge in new ways. Exploring how peer research findings can reach the people and places that need them, beyond traditional academic publishing.

• Co-developing the Peer Research Academy itself. Designing an experimental learning experience with two cohorts of peer researchers, shaped by what they tell us they need.

From 2026, at least fifty peer researchers from across the UK will be able to apply for individually tailored support packages. In 2027, at least thirty can apply for a free place on a new training course that brings together peer research practice with the relational foundations of Intentional Peer Support. And in September 2027, the partnership will host a peer research conference in Nottingham, with attendance costs covered for at least sixty researchers. We are already exploring ways to go further than this.

Where Habitus fits

Habitus is leading the discovery phase of the project, conducting interviews and focus groups with peer researchers, research leaders, and organisations across multiple countries to understand the opportunities and barriers for peer researcher participation and leadership. This work draws on everything we know about participatory research, co-production, and lived experience practice, and it connects directly to our wider work through the International Peer Leadership Network and our recent Shared Power, Shared Recovery paper on lived experience and peer leadership.

What we are hearing through the discovery phase is rich, challenging, and honest. Peer researchers are doing extraordinary work, often in difficult conditions: short-term contracts, limited emotional support, institutions that value their presence but not their expertise, and a research culture that still treats lived experience as something to be managed rather than led with. The Academy is designed to respond to all of this.

Why this matters

Peer research is growing. More funders are asking for lived experience involvement, more projects are recruiting peer researchers, and more people with lived experience are stepping into research roles. But the infrastructure has not kept pace. Too often, peer researchers are brought in at the margins of studies that were designed without them, given titles without authority, or left without the networks, training, and support that would help them thrive.

The Peer Research Academy exists to change that: to build the conditions in which peer research can flourish, and to do it in a way that is led by the people who know what those conditions need to look like.

This is the kind of work we got into this for. If you are a peer researcher, an organisation that works with peer researchers, or someone interested in what this work might mean for your own practice, we would love to hear from you.

You can read the full announcement from the University of Nottingham's Institute of Mental Health here.

Habitus Collective is a lived experience-led consultancy specialising in peer support, co-production, participatory research and community engagement. To find out more about our work on the Peer Research Academy or to get involved, get in touch.

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