Vision & Mission
Vision
We envision a research ecosystem that is equitable and inclusive, where diverse communities play a meaningful and reciprocal role in shaping health research so that it is responsive to local socio-political contexts and needs.
Mission
Centres for Exchange works to advance this vision by supporting approaches to knowledge creation and exchange that centre community expertise, shift power in research processes, and strengthen reciprocal relationships between communities and researchers.
Through this work, CfE seeks to contribute to the following shifts in the research ecosystem:
- More equitable and inclusive knowledge communities that foster the open exchange of diverse forms of knowledge
- Greater visibility and recognition of community expertise within research systems
- Increased support from funders and institutions for community-engaged research and knowledge exchange.
Rationale & Goals
The Centres for Exchange programme emerged from a recognition that while community engagement is widely valued in health research, there is less shared understanding of how equitable and reciprocal knowledge exchange is practiced in different contexts, and what conditions enable it to flourish.
Phase 1 focused on learning and design. Through landscaping and design activities, it examined how knowledge is produced, exchanged, and valued in health research, and how communities and researchers collaborate. Learning from existing models helped surface values-based approaches that enable research to be more reciprocal, equitable, and responsive to local contexts.
Phase 2 focuses on learning through practice. It supports community-rooted organisations to explore and strengthen approaches to equitable knowledge exchange within ongoing health research. Through project implementation, reflection, and cross-project learning, this phase generates insights into how power-shifting approaches are enacted, sustained, and constrained in diverse contexts.
Overall goals:
To centre the perspectives, priorities, and capabilities of the people and communities most affected by health challenges in the production of knowledge about health.
To foster collaborative, inclusive, and intersectional knowledge communities built through long-term relationships of care, particularly in the Global South.
To support, learn from, and connect transformative models of practice in health research.
Learning Domains
The following domains outline the Centres for Exchange programme’s strategic learning priorities. They build on shared inquiry areas that emerged from Phase 1 learning and design, early dialogues with knowledge communities across project geographies, and the evolving learning agendas of Phase 2 partners. Rather than fixed categories, the domains function as dynamic and flexible containers for linked questions and insights as learning develops over time. Each domain represents a distinct but interconnected dimension of CfE’s broader ambition to support more equitable, inclusive, and context-responsive health research.
Domain A
Knowledge Creation
Explores how research can be made more equitable, and how shifting who shapes research questions, methods, and interpretation changes the nature and value of what is produced.
Domain B
Institutional and Ecosystem-Level Transformation
Examines how participatory and community-led research can catalyse institutional and ecosystem level change, and how existing structures and processes enable or constrain more equitable research approaches.
Domain C
Knowledge Exchange
Focuses on what enables open, inclusive, and equitable knowledge exchange, and learning and insight move across projects, communities, institutions, and contexts to create change across different scales.
Rather than operating as prescriptive or siloed tracks, each domain holds a set of core and sub-questions to guide critical reflection. Together, they support project-level and programme-wide learning on how collaborative, participatory, and engaged research is practiced, enabled, and mobilised for change.
People and Organisations
Centres for Exchange is supported by a group of enabling partners who hold responsibility for programme design, learning, facilitation, and evidence-building across phases. The people featured here include team members involved in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the initiative, representing organisations that have stewarded the programme’s learning, exchange, and coherence over time. Team members from funded projects are introduced within their respective project pages, where learning from practice is shared in context.
Phase 1 Team
Phase 1 was commissioned by Wellcome's Community Engagement team and led by Pivot Collective in collaboration with partners from Eh!woza, Fiocruz, Praxis Institute for Participatory Studies, Restless Development, and Vocal.
Phase 2 Team
In Phase 2, Pivot Collective serves as the Learning & Evidencing partner in collaboration with HEAL and Southern Hemisphere. Development Dynamics serves as the Network Facilitator.
Together, these enabling partners support learning through practice and cross-project exchange, generating insight into how equitable knowledge exchange is enacted, sustained, and constrained in diverse real-world contexts.
