Consumer partnership is a collaborative approach where researchers, healthcare providers, and consumer organisations work together in a meaningful and active way to design and conduct research or healthcare improvement projects.
These partnerships often involve broad collaboration between research teams and consumer organisations or groups, with one or more consumer partners helping to guide the direction and focus of the work. In some cases, partnerships are formed at a personal level, where individual consumers work directly with researchers or health professionals in an equal and respectful relationship, independent of any formal organisation.
Whether organisational or individual, consumer partnerships ensure that research and healthcare initiatives are grounded in lived experience, leading to more relevant, inclusive, and impactful outcomes.
To address the rising incidence of gestational diabetes, a research team partnered with a diabetes consumer organisation to co-design a research project and grant proposal. This collaboration ensured that the project was grounded in lived experience and community priorities from the outset. The consumer organisation was a named partner in the grant application, with a dedicated budget to support genuine engagement if the grant was successful. Once funded, several consumer representatives from the organisation took on active roles across the project, including:
- The project steering committee
- The diversity and inclusion working group
- Data and outcome evaluation meetings
- The communications and marketing committee
This partnership model ensured that consumer voices were embedded throughout the project, leading to a more inclusive, relevant, and impactful approach to gestational diabetes research.