Areas of interest:
Mental health research governance, VCSE sector leadership, service user involvement, participatory methods, power and legitimacy in knowledge production. Empowering and enabling service user involvement in mental health research.
What I’m working on right now:
I’m exploring how voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations influence mental health research – and where they’re excluded. My PhD investigates power dynamics in research partnerships, focusing on governance, funding, and dissemination practices. I’m particularly interested in how legitimacy is granted (or withheld) in academic structures, and how this affects the ability of VCSE organisations to act as research leaders in their own right. The project is shaped by my professional background in VCSE communications, my lived experience as a mental health service user, and over a decade working at the intersection of community, research and engagement.
Where you can find me next:
In my Development Coordinator role at Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE), I’m co-designing a shared approach to measuring the impact of VCSE services in health and care pathways. Working with VCSE organisations, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and wider stakeholders, I’ll help shape an impact measurement framework that strengthens evidence of the sector’s value in commissioning. Alongside this, I’m supporting several innovative research projects as a research assistant and lived experience consultant, covering areas such as eating distress and foodbank use, drug and alcohol use and parenting, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and parenthood.
Potential for collaboration:
I’d love to connect with others working on research co-production, legitimacy and grey literature, VCSE-academic dynamics, or lived experience in research governance. I’m particularly interested in building dialogue across sectors and disciplines.
Contact: victoria.nunn@northumbria.ac.uk