Deniz at the ENRICH Scotland Conference 2026

ENRICH - Enabling Research in Care Homes - aims to strengthen support for research with care home residents. Deniz and other ACRC Academy Students took part in their annual conference.

Please describe the event you attended

Centred on the theme “Co-Creating Research: From Informing to Action”, I had an opportunity to attend this event where I had a productive and engaging day. The event brought together different stakeholders involved in care home research and practice. The day included ACRC presence with a welcome speech from Prof Susan Shenkin, and a presentation by a fellow Academy student Anna Bryan (cohort 1). The event also featured a panel discussion, and upon hearing about different research projects investigating a wide array of topics related to care homes, the afternoon followed with workshops. It was a key event to see how care homes are actively taking part in research and becoming significant research partners.

Professor Susan Shenkin, the ACRC Academy Deputy Director, presents at the conference.
ACRC Academy Deputy Director Susan Shenkin welcomes the conference attendees.

What drew you to attend this event?

My research focuses on music listening devices in care homes from a participatory design lens, therefore I was particularly drawn to this event because of its strong focus on collaborative and co-created research within care home settings. I was also interested because of ENRICH’s strong reputation for supporting high-quality research in care homes and for actively facilitating partnerships between researchers and care providers. This made it an ideal opportunity for me to engage more directly with this community.

How was your experience attending the event? What were the highlights and key moments? 

The event featured a panel discussion, which I got to hear from care home managers and staff. This was very important for my understanding of care home contexts in Scotland. The event provided an opportunity to learn from ongoing research projects, understand how researchers are working alongside care home staff and residents, and explore approaches to conducting meaningful research in this context to inform my own PhD project. A particularly memorable moment for me came during a workshop where we were asked to consider and select the most promising technology development projects. We were introduced to a range of different technologies and invited to vote for those we felt held the greatest potential for care home settings. What stood out most was seeing which options care home staff chose, as this offered a very different perspective compared to my own initial assumptions. The discussions that followed were particularly insightful, as they allowed me to understand the reasoning behind their choices and to appreciate the practical realities that influence their decision-making in care homes.

A presentation slide from the conference titled Research Ready Care Homes
ACRC Academy students Deniz Hepdogan, Noah Hurton, Michaela Gilarova, and Anna Bryan with Professor Susan Shenkin and Postgraduatre Research Student Yoni Lefevre
Clockwise from top left: ECA Postgrad Researcher Yoni Lefevre, Deniz Hepdogan (Academy Cohort 4), Anna Bryan (Academy Cohort 1), Professor Susan Shenkin, Noah Hurton (Academy Cohort 1) and Michaela Gilarova (Academy Cohort 3)

How was this event relevant to your research, interdisciplinarity and the ACRC Academy?

A key aspect of my work involves understanding the perspectives of care home staff, and the event provided valuable insight into how they engage with research and decision-making in practice. Getting to hear directly from care home managers and staff helped me better realise their priorities and challenges which are central to developing meaningful research and technology in this setting.

In relation to interdisciplinarity and ACRC Academy, the event exemplified the principles of co-produced and collaborative research that underpin our programme. It provided a useful reminder that interdisciplinary collaboration is not only methodological but also relational.

 

Any lessons learnt / best practices that you’d like to share

A key learning for me was to avoid pushing research agendas too strongly, and instead keep it in what really matters to people in care homes. It is also important to develop research activities that are familiar and enjoyable with accessible and inclusive materials. And to always remember bringing a cake :)

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