Participation and Responsible Innovation in Co-Design for Exchange (PRICE)

The PRICE project addresses the longstanding problem of involving marginalised, usually unsalaried, groups in Inclusive Research by exploring the potential for securing a future study to co-design, develop and study an online ‘TimeBank’. The key idea is that an innovative web-based tool might be developed to accessibly and economically broker the exchange of research skills and time in and out of the academy and help address inequalities in salary status and power.

The TimeBank is a community initiated concept from our external partner Barod (www.barod.org) aimed at matching people needing and offering skills and at addressing problems associated with payment. It requires a brokering system at the levels of person to person, organization to person and organization to organization which needs to be co-designed to be accessible.

Specifically, the PRICE project aims to (i) analyse existing online brokering systems and other projects focused on accessible/inclusive Web design exploring appropriate ingredients for an accessible and functional tool for people with learning disabilities; (ii) use a conceptual mapping tool to track the bi-directional transactions and pathways including the social media networking routes in the development of a TimeBank; (iii) use the affordances of the Web to transform the usual rules of engagement for the social production of IR and overcome practical challenges for bi-directional and collaborative working with partners outside the academy; (iv) establish the foundation for a collaborative research team to further develop the project.