Breakout 1 - AI: Learning Lessons from using AI in Social Research 

 Learning from Failure: Testing AI Supported Cognitive Interviewing during Public Health Incidents

This session shares lessons from testing whether an AI tool designed for basic qualitative prompting within an online survey platform could support rapid cognitive interviewing during fast‑moving public health emergencies. The approach delivered speed but not the quality required for cognitive interviewing. The project “failed usefully,” offering valuable insights and design principles for safer, human‑centred future LLM‑assisted pre‑testing.

Virginia Bertelli & Lee Chan (UK Health Security Agency)

Surviving to Thriving: Co‑Produced and AI‑Assisted Methods in the Bright Spots Programme

In this presentation we share methodological insights from our recent research report From Surviving to Thriving, which examines the drivers of wellbeing for children in care and care leavers. We reflect on working with care experienced consultants as co researchers and using AI assisted analysis to interpret large scale survey data. We discuss what these innovations enabled, the challenges, and lessons for future research.

Emily Blackshaw & Linda Briheim-Crookall (Coram)

Breakout 2 - Inclusive Research Practice 1

Beyond adjustments: embedding accessibility in mixed-methods research design

This presentation shares practical lessons from designing and delivering a large, mixed methods study with disabled students receiving Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) Non Medical Help (NMH). We outline our inclusive research approach, from expert led scoping and survey design to qualitative recruitment and flexible interviewing, highlighting what worked, what didn’t, and how to meaningfully involve diverse disabled participants in research.

Jenny Hull (IFF Research), Gabriela Dimitrova (Department for Education) & Aisling O'Connell (IFF Research) 

Whose Research Is It Anyway? Power, Governance and Anti-Racism in Commissioned Research

This presentation examines a commissioned anti-racist research project in children’s social care that disrupted established practice, data norms and governance. Drawing on real delivery experience, it explores how power, ownership and risk aversion shape what equity-focused research can achieve in practice, and offers practical lessons for researchers and commissioners working to shift racial inequalities within resistant systems.

Laurelle Brown (Laurelle Brown Training and Consultancy) & Jane Evans PhD

Breakout 3 - Learning from evaluating complex systems / programmes 1

Evaluating the LNRS strategy requires navigating a complex, adaptive system

Evaluating the LNRS strategy requires navigating a complex, adaptive system. We developed a theory‑based evaluation using participatory system mapping and Realist‑informed theory‑of‑change narratives, enabling impact, process, and value‑for‑money assessment. The approach translated real complexity into usable evaluation narratives. We reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and why measuring a strategy, rather than a programme, remains uniquely challenging.

Carla Turner (ICF)

Partnerships, evaluation approaches and ethics: lessons from RCTs with people experiencing homelessness

The Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI) is leading a pioneering Test & Learn programme using randomised control trials to reduce homelessness. IFF Research leads data collection for three trials testing financial support, community volunteering, and employment support. This presentation explores data collection challenges, ethical considerations, and transferable learning for evaluating complex interventions with vulnerable groups.

Clare Palmer, Tom Sealy & Emily-Rae Foreman (IFF Research and Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI))

Breakout 4: Mixed Creative Methods

Introduction To Creative Data Analysis In Practice

Editing the Handbook of Creative Data Analysis taught us five key lessons. The presentation will share these lessons, drawing on the work of Naomi Clarke, Kate Carruthers Thomas, Nicole Brown, Louise Couceiro and Claire Coleman to illustrate each lesson.

Helen Kara (We Research It Ltd)

Research in Action: Legislative Theatre, Power and Participation

Legislative Theatre is a participatory method that uses theatre-based exercises to explore power, decision-making, and change. This presentation introduces the approach, includes one or two short, facilitated exercises, and reflects on lessons from its use in an applied research project. It offers a realistic, practice-led introduction to how arts-based methods can support research on complex issues.

Cristina Salamea & Louis Mylne (Thinks Insight & Strategy)

Masterclass: Introduction to Deliberative Methods

A brief introduction to deliberative methods for social researchers who might like to use or commission them.

Citizens' assemblies, public dialogues, deliberative workshops — what makes them distinctive and what are they useful for? In this masterclass, Sophie Reid draws on hands-on experience designing, delivering and evaluating large-scale deliberative processes to give participants a quick tour of the deliberative methods landscape: what they are, how they differ from other qualitative approaches, and why interest in them is growing. We'll look at the range of processes, important considerations and what good practice looks like — with plenty of opportunity to ask questions along the way. Ideal for participants who want an overview of deliberative methods, before deciding whether to pursue deeper training.

Sophie Reid

Breakouts PM - choose 1 from the below when you register

Breakout 5: Innovative Research Design for Research with Children and Young People

Enabling Children's Participation in Web Surveys: Cogability Testing for the EOPS Primary Study

This paper presents learning from the development of year three of the Five to Twelve study (funder: DfE). It demonstrates how cognitive and user survey testing methods can be adapted for young children to generate meaningful insights into online survey design. It shares learning on constraints and considerations for child-friendly questionnaire design and reflections on the role of parental support.

Samantha Spencer, Aditi Das & Honor Mitcheson (National Centre for Social Research)

Meaningful Inclusion at Scale: Methodological Innovations in National Youth Policy Research

This session examines methodological challenges and solutions in conducting large-scale inclusive government research. Drawing on the Youth Matters: National Youth Strategy project (14,000+ young people), we explore how to balance robust research frameworks with trauma-informed, co-produced approaches. Practical insights for applied researchers navigating competing stakeholder demands whilst ensuring marginalised voices meaningfully shape policy outcomes.

Tom Shelley (Savanta)

Breakout 6: Inclusive Research Practice 2

Meeting People Where They Are: Rethinking Interviewer Approaches for Marginalised Communities

This presentation examines the realities, challenges, and benefits of flexible, interviewer led research with seldom-heard groups. Drawing on studies with people experiencing rough sleeping and destitution, it shows how skilled interviewers, strong frontline partnerships, inclusive materials, and robust planning, training, and operational support enable high quality research in complex and unpredictable environments.

Charlotte Saunders & Lawrence Platts (Verian)

Co-production in Government Social Research (GSR) - Learning from a Welsh Government and Disability Rights Taskforce Collaborative Research Project

Co-production in Government Social Research (GSR) - learning from a Welsh Government and Disability Rights Taskforce collaborative research project. Welsh Government researchers and members of the Disability Rights Taskforce will co-present on the added value of co-production as an empowering methodology and practical considerations for carrying out co-production in government contexts.

Sharon Cross, Helen Shankster & Emma Sullivan (Welsh Government)

Breakout 7: Learning from Evaluating Complex Systems / Programmes 2

Learnings from Developing Employment Support Interventions and Evaluation Design in Tandem

We will present key successes, challenges and lessons learned from INCLUDE, a project that uniquely embeds evaluation considerations from the outset of intervention development. The presentation will provide honest reflections from the funder (YFF) and the project consortium (RAND Europe, Dartington Service Design Lab, TONIC) on the benefits and pitfalls to embedding evaluation at such an early stage.

Merrilyn Groom (RAND Europe), Katie Potter (Dartington Service Design Lab) & Amy Small (Youth Futures Foundation)

Evaluating Whole-System Policy: Learning from the Young Person’s Guarantee

This paper highlights learning from evaluating the Young Person’s Guarantee, a model of ambitious inter-departmental working which aimed to shape a complex system to support young people in the wake of the pandemic. Using a theory-based, behavioural and systems approach, it explores how evaluators can link system change to young people’s behaviour, and shares practical lessons on evaluating complex systems.

Duncan Holtom (People and Work)

Breakout 8: Bridging Disciplinary and Geographical Boundaries

Bridging Lived Experience and Economic Modelling: A Cross‑Sector Partnership to Provide Evidence, Shift Narratives and Shape Policy on Hunger and Hardship

This presentation reflects on a cross‑sector partnership that combined participatory lived‑experience research with economic modelling to understand and address severe hardship in the UK. We share practical learning on integrating contrasting evidence traditions, navigating ethics, and generating engagement. The session highlights how this approach strengthened advocacy and helped influence major policy change, including the lifting of the two‑child benefit limit.

Alex Bennett-Clemmow (Humankind Research), Tom Weekes (Trussell) & Rob Fontana-Reval (WPI Economics)

From Evidence to Action: Evaluation and Learning in a Play-Based Pedagogy Intervention

This presentation explores how an evaluation partnership between Right To Play and Oxford MeasurEd is balancing rigorous impact evaluation with real-time learning to inform ongoing programme improvement. It highlights lessons learnt on embedding “evidence into action” from the perspective of evaluator and implementing organisation and provides examples of what this looks like in practice.

Lydia Marshall (Oxford MeasurEd), Jessica Best & Colin Haiki (Right to Play)

Using AI tools for qualitative data analysis 

LLMs are getting increasingly better at analysing large amounts of text, such as open responses of a consultation, very quickly. However, careful decision-making and human oversight at evert step continue to be essential when applying AI tools to social research data. This masterclass is going to be a practical session on whether and how you can use AI tools responsibly for analysing qualitative data. It will cover the decision-making process whether to use an AI tool, (un-)suitable data, developing an analytical framework for AI tools, feeding in the data, and then quality-assuring the output.