Under the motto "Growing participation in health and social research?", the 10th Berlin Workshop on Participatory Research on March 6, 2026 brought together around 120 participants and brought this topic to life throughout the day. Researchers and practitioners from a wide range of fields - from participatory approaches in technology research and social work to therapeutic sciences and health services research - contributed their perspectives to a diverse and inspiring program.
As a project of the Participatory Health Research Network (PartNet) , the Berlin Workshop took place for the second time at ASH Berlin. The two introductory keynote speeches already illustrated the wide range of topics: Judith Rieger and administrative professor Dr. Bianka Wachtlin set important accents with their impulses on practical action in social work and on speech and language therapy research. It became clear what potential lies in interdisciplinary exchange and how much we can all learn from each other.
Mutual exchange was also the focus of the subsequent themed workshops, project workshops and poster sessions. A special feature of the Berlin workshop is that both people from the field and experts with experience contribute their perspectives and everyone learns from each other. The feedback from participants also shows how enriching this exchange was. One young participant put it in a nutshell:
"[I found] lots of new ideas about what we can do differently here, such as running a workshop completely on our own, without adults."
Other participants also expressed great appreciation:
"[I liked] getting insights into many different participatory approaches. Despite the different disciplines, methods and research subjects, similar challenges emerged time and again. Everyone can benefit from the exchange and collaboration here."
At the same time, it became clear that the dense program reached the time limits of a one-day format: the desire for more breaks and more space for exchange and in-depth discussions was expressed many times. This makes it clear that with the growing importance of participatory approaches in health and social research, the format of the Berlin workshop also needs to be further developed.
We would like to thank all participants who contributed to the success of the 10th Berlin Workshop on Participatory Research! The documentation of the event will be available on the PartNet website from the end of April.
The 11th Berlin Workshop on Participatory Research is planned for March 2027. The Call for Participation will be published in fall 2026.
