Local innovations, shared lessons: Unpacking HDRC community engagement and partnership working in London
Think tank: City-REDI
Author(s): Sophie Cloutterbuck
September 16, 2026
This report from UK think tank City-REDI unpacks HDRC community engagement and partnership working in London.
A new report by Sophie Cloutterbuck for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership, based at City-REDI, University of Birmingham, examines how six London boroughs are using Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) to strengthen community engagement, build research capacity, and improve decision-making on health inequalities.
Drawing on interviews with local government, university and voluntary sector partners, the report finds that successful engagement depends on embedding community intelligence within governance structures, investing in trusted boundary-spanning roles, supporting resident-led research agendas, and ensuring lived experience is recognised and fairly rewarded as a form of expertise.
The report concludes that local authorities must move from being owners of knowledge to stewards of community intelligence, creating systems where research, policy and lived experience are genuinely connected.
