Latest news and updates
Register for our newsletter.
Register for the NIHR HDRC Cornwall newsletter
Discover our latest news on our News and Updates page.
HDRC Cornwall News and Updates
Learning Opportunities
We will share any details of learning opportunities here when they are available.
Evaluation training resources
We have drawn together a list of recommended resources to support evaluation.
Discover our recommended evaluation training resources
Current events
Cornwall Research Engagement Network (CorREN) Research Café
Newquay Orchard, 19 March 2026, 11am
On behalf of the:
- Cornwall Research Engagement Network (CorREN)
- PenARC
- University of Exeter
- University of Plymouth
- and HDRC Cornwall
we’d love you to join our next Pop Up Research Café. A relaxed, community-centred space for genuine two-way conversations about health research.
This informal event will bring researchers, the VCSE and the public together. Here you can share ideas, showcase projects, and spark collaborations. Your participation will help us co-design future events that are engaging, inclusive and useful for everyone.
There will be food provided by the marvellous Heart and Soul cafe. A one pot dish, with tea and coffee station and lite bite piece of cake.
Come along and explore:
- How you and your organisation could get more involved in research
- The benefits to being involved
- The opportunities available
- Meet the people involved in research
We look forward to welcoming you at Newquay Orchard and co‑creating an engaging, accessible space for research and community to meet. Find out more and book a place using the link below.
Book a place at the research cafe at Newquay Orchard
Discussion Series
Wondering how you could apply research in your work?
Then join our Discussion Series. A chance to hear about how research can be used in different settings, and to chat with others to share knowledge, gain ideas and expand your network.
Read our event poster to learn more
Journal Club
Despite the name, Journal Clubs are not about getting together to write diary entries. (Sorry Bridget Jones!)
They're actually a space to read and discuss research articles chosen by the people who attend. We discuss strengths and weaknesses of the study and consider what the results mean for day-to-day practice. We currently run monthly Journal Club meetings focusing on wider determinants of health. Email us at hdrc@cornwall.gov.uk if you’d like to attend.
Recent events
Surfacing the Meaning of Research
We aim to provide a strong foundation from which to build and grow the HDRC collaboratively.
“Surfacing the Meaning of Research” was an event aimed at everyone who is interested in being part of, or benefiting from, engaging with the HDRC.
The session aimed to:
- surface our diverse understandings of research, and
- its importance for creating a shared appreciation of what research means.
Whilst we can all get on board with fixing health determinants including:
- food
- housing
- debt
- employment, etc
we often have different views of how this should be done.
That’s where research comes in:
- how do we plan
- conduct, and
- use research
in a way that helps us to understand health determinants, their impacts and how to improve them?
This session was for everyone interested in the HDRC, not just those who regularly generate or use research.
The understanding surfaced during the session will also lead into our HDRC work examining skills and priorities for the HDRC.
Introducing realist evaluation and synthesis
Introduction to realist evaluation and synthesis, with Dr Becky Hardwick, Senior Research Fellow, NIHR South West Peninsula Applied Research Collaborative, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth
- Have you ever noticed that even evidence-based public health initiatives only work sometimes, in some places, but not in others and not for everyone?
- Have you ever come up with your own ideas as to why it does or doesn’t work here, with these people, in these settings?
- Are you interested in learning about an approach to evaluation which goes beyond straightforward measures of effectiveness, to explaining how that effectiveness might be caused?
From did it work, to why did it work, how, for whom and in what circumstances?
This introductory workshop was held on Monday 2nd June 2025.
Aim of the workshop
The aim of the workshops was to develop capacity for evaluation practice and research use.
Over 1 hour, participants learnt about ‘realist evaluation’ and how to use it in practice.