The study, produced by the Newcastle Oral History Collective (NUOHC) and published in History & Policy, argues that despite widespread use of terms such as “participation” and “collaboration”, real decision-making power in research largely remains with funders and universities.

Drawing on evidence from across the UK research landscape, the authors highlight a persistent gap between the language used in funding frameworks and how projects are actually designed and delivered.

They suggest that while community engagement is now routinely expected, it often takes place within structures created by institutions, limiting the influence communities can have over research agendas.

The paper points out that many research projects are defined, costed and submitted before community partners are formally involved. As a result, participants may contribute to research that operates on timelines and produces outputs they did not shape or control.

The authors call for changes to funding structures, including ensuring community partners are paid and involved in decision-making from the outset; involving people with lived experience in funding decisions; and giving communities greater control of recordings and archives as a default rather than an aspiration.

Without such changes, the growing emphasis on participation risks reinforcing existing inequalities, rather than addressing them, they say.

Professor Graham Smith, Professor of Oral History at Newcastle University, said: "The participation problem in UK research has never been primarily about finding the right technique. It is a historical problem of who holds the agenda. The communities most affected by the issues that much research aims to address are frequently least involved in deciding what those questions are. Our projects show that more balanced partnerships could strengthen both research quality and its impact beyond academia."

The article draws on five NUOHC projects spanning 2018 to 2026, including Foodbank Histories, which worked with West End Foodbank Newcastle on the experiences of food poverty in the North East; the Mutual Aid projects, which recorded community solidarity across England during the Covid 19 pandemic; the Living Deltas Hub, an international UKRI project with communities in Bangladesh, Vietnam and East Africa; Positively Spoken, a youth-led project with young people living with HIV; and the Byker Community Archive, a project currently under development on the Byker Estate in Newcastle.

Read the full policy paper: Who Holds the Agenda? Participation, Partnership, Power, and the Funding of Collaborative Oral History Research

The Newcastle University Oral History Collective was established in 2017 and includes members from across the university as well as community researchers, practitioner-archivists, activist-historians, and partner organisations. Its work is supported by the AHRC, UKRI, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and a range of community and charitable funders.

Further information about the Collective and the SHARE model for co-produced research is at research.ncl.ac.uk/oralhistory.