Table 2.

Key messages, barriers and benefits of involvement reported by survey respondents

Open-ended question	Main theme of response	Number of responses
What were the key messages you took away from the workshop about consumer and community participation?	Value: Perspectives and priorities of consumers and community members provide value	25
	Commitment: Consumers and community members should be involved from the start and at all stages of the research, even if it is challenging	12
	Variation: Participation may occur at various stages of the research cycle; forms and levels of participation can vary	12
	Social justice: Involving consumers and community members is the right thing to do	10
	Quality: Specific benefits to researchers; improvements in the quality of research	10
	Relevance: Participation is relevant to consumers, community members and researchers	8
	Barriers: Acknowledgement that barriers exist	7
	Resources: Resources are available to implement participation	6
	Not useful	1
Have you experienced any barriers to involving consumer and community participation in your research?	No barriers experienced	24
	Resistance: Lack of support for participation from colleagues/organisation	15
	Recruitment and retention: Identifying and recruiting consumers; maintaining communication and participation	12
	Time: constraints on researchers’ time	10
	Resources Financial and other resource constraints	9
	Personal: self-imposed barriers	2
	Not applicable	7
	Yes, but not specified	5
What are the main benefits of implementing consumer and community participation in your research area?	Value: Consumer and community perspectives improve research topics and processes	33
	Relevance: collaboration is relevant to consumers and community members	23
	Translation: impact of results on policy and practice	17
	Perspective: Understanding consumers better and listening to community ‘voice’	12
	Measurable benefits: Improved health outcomes	6
	No benefit/yet to see benefit	6