Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A mental-health service-redesign study where patients and clinicians jointly frame the research question, co-design the data-collection instrument, and co-author the final report.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A study that surveys patients for their preferences and then has researchers design and run the study alone is consultation, not co-production, since authority over the research process was not shared.
Editorial commentary
Co-production is a research approach built on power-sharing, mutual learning, and joint authorship of the research question, design, conduct, analysis and dissemination — extending collaborative authority across the entire research lifecycle, not just one phase of it. It is distinct from consultation (which gathers input without shared authority) and from engagement generally (which informs stakeholders rather than sharing decision-making with them).
Origins
The term draws on Edgar Cahn’s co-production tradition in public-service and community-development contexts (formalised in his 2000 “No More Throw-Away People”), later adapted specifically for health and social-care research by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement. Five principles recur across NIHR’s guidance and the wider co-production literature: sharing of power, including all relevant perspectives and skills, respecting and valuing the knowledge of everyone involved, reciprocity, and building and maintaining relationships over time.
Co-production versus co-design
Co-design is often used loosely as a synonym, but the two are distinguished by scope: co-design focuses specifically on the design phase of a study, service or intervention, while co-production extends collaborative authority from question-framing through to analysis and dissemination. A project can be co-designed without being co-produced (stakeholders shape the design, then researchers run and analyse the study alone); genuine co-production requires shared authority across the full lifecycle.
Where this connects
The “co-created” mode of citizen science is functionally close to co-production. See also public engagement with research and community-controlled research for related but distinct participatory models, and CASRAI’s societal impact entry for how co-production functions as an impact-generation mechanism, not only a methodological choice.
References
- NIHR, “Guidance on co-producing a research project”, 2021. Cahn ES, “No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative”, 2000.
Also known as
Co-produced research · Coproduction
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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