The Co-Create Lab is a collaborative research space located in downtown Hamilton, Ontario that brings together researchers, students, local organizations, and community members to develop innovative approaches to community-engaged research.

The Co-Create Lab includes flexible meeting and collaboration space equipped with digital, visual, and arts-based technologies that support creative and community-engaged research. These resources can be used at every stage of the research process, from relationship-building to data collection to analysis and knowledge sharing.

Researchers and community partners can use the space for workshops, interviews, focus groups, digital storytelling as well as other creative data collection methods, podcasting, training sessions, community events, and knowledge mobilization activities.

The Co-Create Lab also offers virtual and mobile resources. Portable equipment can be borrowed for use, making it easier for research to happen where people already gather.

1. Develop and support more equitable and rec

2. iprocal partnerships between academic community-based researchers by removing barriers to participation such as location, mobility, costs, and access to space and digital/technological resources.

3. Provide access to a creative methodologies lab that will enable academic, student, and community-based researchers to collaboratively investigate and generate solutions to locate issues and concerns.

4. Provide local structure that nurtures academic, co-researcher, and student involvement by working with communities to mobilize research findings into action.

• Researchers (faculty and students)

• Community organizations

• People with lived and living experience of marginalization

• Grassroots groups

• Municipal or public sector partners

• Health and social service organizations

• Dr. Saara Greene

• Dr. Tara LaRose

• Dr. Nicole Dalmer

• Dr. Mary Vaccaro

If you would like to collaborate with us, please contact us at cocreate@mcmaster.ca.

The Co-Create Lab includes purpose-designed spaces that support every stage of the research process.

Community Co-Create Room

A flexible, creative space equipped with digital technological equipment for collaborative workshops, interviews, qualitative data analysis, digital storytelling, photovoice, podcasting, filmmaking, training, and knowledge mobilization activities.

Co-Living Room

A collaborative meeting and work space designed for project planning, team meetings, co-analysis sessions, and hybrid participation through integrated virtual meeting technology.

Co-Communicate Room

A private meeting room ideal for interviews, focus groups, small meetings, and other confidential research activities.

Co-Create Mobile Unit

Recognizing that meaningful community-engaged research often takes place outside of a single location, the Co-Create Lab also includes a virtual and mobile component.

Portable equipment can be borrowed for use within community organizations or for community- and land-based research activities. The Lab supports virtual, hybrid, and blended approaches to collaboration, allowing partners to participate in ways that best meet their needs.

To learn more about the Co-Create Lab and to make bookings, please email the Co-Create Lab Coordinator at cocreate@mcmaster.ca.

1 James North

Hamilton, Ontario

L8L 1H2

What is community-engaged research?

Community-engaged research (CER) is an approach to research that emphasizes collaboration and meaningful community participation throughout the research process. It brings together researchers, community members, and other partners to co-create knowledge and ensure that research addresses community priorities and contributes to positive social change in health, social policy, and social care. At its core, CER recognizes that ethical and effective research requires building trusting relationships, being present in communities, and working alongside community members as partners to support equitable participation in all stages of the research process.

What are creative methodologies? 

Creative methodologies refer to data collection and analysis approaches that allow people to share their experiences in non-verbal ways, and are often used alongside more traditional qualitative research methods like interviews and focus groups. 

Examples of creative methodologies include: 

• Digital storytelling 

• Photovoice 

• Cellphilm

• Podcasting and audio storytelling 

• Community mapping 

• Arts-based workshops 

• Photography and video projects 

• Visual knowledge mobilization 

Creative methods are being used in a variety of disciplines; using creative methods in research can make research more accessible by fostering collaboration, supporting creative expression, and creating multiple opportunities for people to participate, communicate, and contribute their knowledge in meaningful ways. Creative methods can help reveal meaningful dimensions of social life that may be difficult to represent, or go unnoticed using more routine research methods. 

Creative methods can also support knowledge mobilization by producing engaging outputs that can be shared with communities, policymakers, service providers, and the broader public to inform action and social change. 

What is participatory research?

Participatory research is an approach that actively involves the people most affected by an issue in every stage of the research process. Rather than being “participants,” community members are partners in creating research. They help to identify priorities, shape research questions, collect and interpret data, and share findings in ways that are meaningful to their communities. 

Why downtown Hamilton? 

The Co-Create Lab is intentionally located in Hamilton’s downtown core, close to many community organizations that serve Hamilton residents and which McMaster researchers regularly partner with. Locating the Lab within the community helps reduce barriers that can make research partnerships more difficult, including transportation, parking costs, unfamiliar campus spaces, and limited access to meeting space and technology. 

Community organizations are often asked to contribute their own time, space, equipment, and relationships to support research. University campuses can also be intimidating and difficult to navigate for people who do not go there often. The Co-Create Lab helps address these challenges by providing a welcoming, fully-equipped space where partnerships can develop on more reciprocal terms. By meeting communities where they are, the Lab strengthens relationships and creates more meaningful opportunities for collaboration.