Peer research describes a research process where community members are supported to undertake research interviews with their peers. This approach is particularly useful for working with marginalised communities because:

• It shifts the control and ownership of the research process away from research professionals and towards the research audience, resulting in more collaborative research design and interpretation.
• It makes use of dialogue and collaboration which lends itself to a qualitative approach.
• It ensures that participation is real and not tokenistic.
• It reduces hierarchies (between researcher and researched), thus potentially uncovering insights that might not have been discovered by a professional researcher.
• It allows research to become a tool of empowerment.

The benefits can be very powerful:

• Making recruitment of research participants easier (since they feel reassured that the interviewer will understand their issues.)
• Ensuring a supportive and relaxed interview situation - enhancing high quality data.
• Peers have extensive knowledge about the subject being researched and can positively contribute to research design and analysis.
• Peers have extensive experience of the subject being researched, their natural empathy enables research to be conducted in a sensitive and informed manner.
• Peer researchers are enabled to develop new skills and knowledge which may improve confidence and enhance life chances.