Autism Community Research Network @ Southampton

The Autism Community Research Network @ Southampton [ACoRNS] is a research-practice partnership that aims to improve the lives of autistic children and young people within education through addressing the marginalisation and underrepresentation of their views and experiences. The network began in November 2016 with initial funding from the University of Southampton’s Public Engagement with Research Unit and is co-directed by Professor Sarah Parsons, from the University’s Education School, and Dr Hanna Kovshoff from the School of Psychology in partnership with our Steering Group. More information about the members of the ACoRNS Steering Group can be found here. Working together with special and mainstream educational settings from early years through to Higher Education we: focus on the transitions and trajectories of autistic children and young people decide what questions can be addressed by research and that matter to practitioners put children’s voices and experiences at the centre of our work through using collaborative, creative and participatory methods make a difference to practice Of course, we would not be able to do this work without our generous funders: University of Southampton (Impact Acceleration Fund), Froebel Trust, UKRI (ESRC), and the ESRC Festival of Social Science.