Search

Participatory research can be promoted by scientific intermediary units, such as Science Shops. The overarching goal of these initiatives is thereby to foster a process of co-creation of the research questions to address societal needs that are relevant to scientific research and society at large. The InSPIRES project was a Horizon Europe initiative from 2017 to 2021 with the primary objective of expanding the implementation of Science Shops across Europe and internationally. Within the framework of this project, a harmonized, self-reflection and impact assessment methodology has been developed to evaluate five dimensions of participatory research: knowledge democracy, citizen-led research, participatory dynamics, integrity, and transformative change. In this article, we report the results of 58 projects implemented in Africa, Asia and Europe. We present the results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis with a view towards encouraging the debate on the challenges involved in designing a standardized evaluation tool to capture the multiplicity of processes involved in participatory research. Results showed that the participatory research processes increase access to knowledge and promote the forging of alliances and relations of trust through respectful dialogue from multiple standpoints. The analysis also retraces some critical points with regard to the democratization of knowledge and the scope for social transformation, which would require further scrutiny. All in all, the proposed InSPIRES assessment tool proved to be a straightforward approach to systematically evaluate key dimensions of participatory research across different phases and project roles that could serve as a starting point for future similar initiatives.