The purpose of this project is to initiate a pilot venture where students have an offsite location to participate in the Community Research Hub (CRH), and engage with their own work, in a collaborative environment of their peers. The space will be located at the Egham Museum and open to students and the wider public on Fridays, between 9am – 6pm for the duration of 20 weeks.

The aim of this pilot is to engage students with a subsidiary of Royal Holloway’s award-winning Volunteering program—the CRH—thereby allowing them to implement the skills they have obtained in University to address real world problems facing charities and other external organizations. The Community Research Hub offers students positions of bona fide autonomy in the management of research for external organizations; from deciding which tools to use for the collection of data, to analysis and presentation of data. This autonomy presents an exciting opportunity to learn, but a daunting experience for those who are not confident in their abilities to undertake independent research. For this reason, this project will encourage the undertaking of research in separate but interlaced research groups, led by postgraduate students.