Communities of Practice Hub

As a result of the THINK Agenda Setting Workshops that took place soon after the launch of THINK, the following Communities of Practice have been launched as initial focus areas that the network would like to collaborate on.

These communities are opportunities for THINK members to get stuck into collaborative working and bring both their challenges and perhaps some solutions to someone else’s challenges.

These groups are about sharing resources, providing sounding boards for your own ideas, writing research bids together and ultimately for THINK to provide a neutral convening space for what the group feels that they need to improve positive outcomes for all, within the work they do.

networking image of birds eye view of people standing on a white floor in spread out groups connected by lines
Image: iStock/Orbon Alija, networking image

The THINK delivery team will support those interested in each Community of Practice thematic area to convene meetings, to run training workshops, help organise networking events and to apply for additional funding.

Joining the (Research, data collection, tools for decision-making) Community of Practice has enabled us to explore the potential to collaborate on various aspects of our active travel GIS research with professionals with long-standing interests in a wide range of transport applications.

Professor Gary Higgs, Co-Director Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data, University of South Wales

There will also be an opportunity for each Community of Practice to apply for up to £2000 grant to support a research project that may emerge from the community.

The THINK delivery team will support the Communities of Practice to help them address the strategic elements raised in the Agenda Setting Workshops.

THINK Principles for collaboration 

We invite you to follow these principles while engaging with THINK.

  1. Respect: for the varied ways of being and ways of knowing of participants, their varied backgrounds, levels of power, needs and values. 
  2. Co-operation and active listening: sharing the ‘air-time’ in group work and being patient and open minded with those who work in different disciplines and use different terminology  
  3. Transparency: co-creating a safe, open space for honest conversation. 
  4. Nuance: assumption that problems do not have universal solutions. 
  5. Reflexive: taking time to reflect on the impact of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours on others/ the work. 
  6. No failure, only feedback: co-creating a space to experiment with new ideas. 
  7. Interconnectedness: assumption that this work is taking place within nested complex socio-ecological systems, therefore, addressing a challenge in one place can often cause new challenges to emerge elsewhere, and this should not be simply ignored as an inconvenience. 
  8. Being mindful of ‘who isn’t in the room’: taking account of the voices of stakeholders who are not present, especially those who are often under-represented.  
  9. Asset-based: recognising and building on what assets communities, organisation and individuals already have. 
  10. Creating positive health: through widespread recognition of the relationship between transport and health. 

The THINK Communities of Practice

1. Creating equitable and inclusive mobility and places

Senior Couple Cycling
Cyclist using a recumbent bicycle cycling along a track in the countryside to demonstrate access to cycling for everyone
Image: iStock/Jeremy Poland
Person walking in town
Centre for Ageing Better

Organisation members of this hub include:

  1. Cardiff University
  2. Arup
  3. Go Upstream
  4. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
  5. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
  6. Public Health Wales
  7. Public Health Wales
  8. Drop a Pin Limited
  9. Sustrans
  10. The University of Queensland, Australia
  11. Brecknock Access Group

2. Research, data collection, tools for decision-making

A lady at the ICTH conference presents a poster about transport and health

Organisation members of this hub include:

  • Arup
  • Sustrans
  • Rural Health and Care Wales
  • Cardiff University
  • GIS Research Centre, WISERD, University of South Wales
  • Glasgow Caledonian University

3. Capturing the social benefits of investment in transport

Male teacher walking with school children following
Women and child getting onto bus
Two young girls cycling happily towards the camera with a traffic cone in the background showing that the street has restricted car access.
Image: Play Wales, girls cycling happily on their street

Organisation members of this hub include:

  • Sustrans
  • Arup
  • UCL (University College London)
  • trip to
  • Pembrokeshire Association of Community Transport Organisations

4. Improving Collaboration and Communication amongst stakeholders

Students look at posters of research demonstrating sharing of knowledge in the THINK Academy
Image: Aberystwyth University, Poster session
Image: Aberystwyth University, conference discussion table

Organisation members of this hub include:

  • Swansea University / HDRUK
  • Bournemouth University
  • Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
  • Arup
  • Sustrans
  • Llani Car Club CIC t/a TripTo

Join a Community of Practice

Personal information provided in this form will be stored securely and only used for the purposes you have consented to. Once you’ve signed up, we will email all those interested in a particular theme, and we arrange an initial facilitated meeting to explore what the group wants to work on.

Communities of Practice
You can join multiple Communities of Practice. You can change your preferences and opt out of updates from your chosen Community of Practice at any time by contacting think@aber.ac.uk
You can change your preferences at any time by notifying think@aber.ac.uk. We will not share your name and email address with anyone outside of the Community of Practice, but we cannot guarantee others will not pass that information on within the Community of Practice.
You can change your preferences at any time by notifying think@aber.ac.uk.