Brighton researcher working to improve global research inclusivity and experience

Dr Natalie Edelman is pioneering use of trauma informed and resilience informed principles to improve inclusivity and the wellbeing of research participants.

Dr Edelman – who is affiliated to the university’s Centre of Resilience for Social Justice – has dubbed this approach Trauma and Resilience Informed Research Principles and Practice (TRIRPP). It aims to improve inclusivity in health, social and educational research – employing a variety of strategies to alter the experience of research participation to ensure that the evidence base for new interventions includes the voices of those most in need.

Dr Edelman, who is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Sport and Health Sciences, said: “Inequalities mean that some individuals and communities have fewer emotional, financial, time and other resources to access health and social care services. Access may be impeded by barriers such as traumatic histories and mental health problems, alongside constraints such as lack of transport, language, literacy, ‘zero hours’ contracts, unpaid caring responsibilities, coercive relationships, or ‘digital poverty’ – inability to access the internet. For those who do participate in research, that participation may come at greater personal cost, both financially and emotionally.”

Dr Natalie Edelman is currently collaborating with Dr Gauthier Marchais at the Institute of Development Studies – together they are trialling the use of TRIRPP in an educational research study in the Democratic Republic of Congo, supported by the Save The Children Fund.

Alongside current work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr Edelman has also been approached by peers in Vancouver and Edinburgh and sees the approach being implemented more widely. She said: “TRIRPP is not currently being used in the UK but I am planning to do so in my future sexual health research projects. It is certainly suitable for use in the UK, and indeed anywhere and I will be running a workshop on using TRIRPP at the STI & HIV 2021 World Congress in July this year.”