Introducing C4: A new research centre on community connectedness

As Big Local areas look ahead to what happens after the programme ends in 2026, at Local Trust we’re exploring how our research and learning from over a decade of studying Big Local can be used in the future. Our head of research and learning, Jayne Humm, explores the role a new research centre will play.

This winter marks the launch of an exciting new partnership for Local Trust, as we join a consortium of universities, voluntary and community sector organisations to run a new research centre on community connectedness.  

The new Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness (C4) is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), who use government funding for large research projects. The centre will be focused on supporting and strengthening connectedness and participation in place-based communities across the UK.

Over five years, the centre will receive £9.7million from ESRC. Local Trust will invest a further £1million and staff time to manage and support the work.

We’ll be using the knowledge we’ve gained supporting the delivery of the Big Local programme to identify the factors and conditions that affect levels of community connectedness and cohesion within and across areas. C4 will also look at how some communities have achieved high levels of social capital and connectedness, and whether we can learn from them and apply this learning to other areas.

C4’s consortium partners 

We will work with our partners at C4 to develop new approaches to measuring connectedness and participation, that will improve how local and national decision makers understand the impact of different policies and practices.

C4 will be led by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) who have worked with Local Trust for many years on our research and learning, including on the evaluation of Big Local, Our Bigger Story.

CRESR and Local Trust will also be working with a coalition of partners including Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface (CTSI), Darnall Wellbeing, the Brixton Project, the Young Foundation, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Stirling and London Metropolitan University.

Communities as the focus 

As with all of Local Trust’s work, communities will be the main focus of the research. C4 will co-produce a programme of work that tests different approaches to: 

• strengthening social connectedness 

• community and civic participation 

• pride in place 

• interpersonal and institutional trust. 

C4 will be more than a world-class research centre. We will work with, and be responsive to, the needs of decision makers across the UK. By supporting the evidence needs of local and national decision makers and enabling the scaling of effective practices, C4 will improve the effectiveness of policy making, investment decisions, practice and services.

The work of the centre will lead to better outcomes for communities through new models of community action, to drive local responses to challenges including poverty, low levels of health and wellbeing, the climate emergency and weak social cohesion.

It will also drive stronger democratic processes through new community relationships between policy makers and communities.

C4 will announce its programme of work in the spring of 2025. We’re excited to have this opportunity to embed the learning from Big Local into future policy and practice, and to expand our work with communities and policy makers across the UK.

Photo: Partnership members, workers and volunteers inside the Uttoxeter Cares building, supported and funded by Heath Big Local. Credit: Local Trust/Richard Richards