Welcome to our Group for Research in Relationships and NeuroDiversity (GRRAND)

We are a diverse bunch of researchers, scholar and art activists, advocates, service users, NHS professionals and health consultants interested in human development and neurodiversity.Our team has expertise in coproducing and codelivering research and training in developmental psychology, mental health and neurodiversity. 

We have been awarded for training workforce in autism, adhd and learning disabilities across education, inpatient, community and health and justice settings. Our research is at the top 5% of all research outputs as scored by Altmetric. During the pandemic, we co-authored reports that have been cited by the Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit (PIRU), which informed the government's new autism strategy 2021–2026.

GRRAND is based in the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London's Faculty of Brain Sciences. We also work with Anna Freud's Education and Training Division to organise train and engage days as well as coproduced and codelivered bespoke Autism, ADHD and Mental Health Short Courses to improve access and engagement with mental health services by erasing the damaging stereotypes that exist about neurodivergent and/or disabled people of all ages, and celebrating their diverse strengths and unique perspectives.

 

Our mission

Traditionally, projects are made about neurodivergent people not with them, but GRRAND breaks the mould by redefining disabled people's narratives from the perspective of their lived experience. Relationships are one of the most important aspects of our lives, yet we can often forget just how crucial our connections with other people are for our physical and mental health and wellbeing. Neurodivergent people face unique challenges and opportunities to socially connect to family, friends, or their community and form relationships. Those who enjoy these connections are happier, physically healthier and live longer, with fewer mental health problems than people who are less well connected. 

Together we aim to better understand social factors in the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of people with a diagnosis of autism and/or ADHD, syndromes and other neurodevelopmental conditions  across the lifespan, and to deliver coproduced research and knowledge exchange with neurodivergent people in their preferred ways. To achieve this, we are collaborating with other internal and external researchers, advocates,  school staff, service users, activists, service consultants  and charity leaders.

To answer our research questions, we combine behavioural, phenomenological and community based participatory techniques together with a developmental approach in research. Importantly, we work with advisory and coproduction neurodivergent led community groups to ensure that our research meets the priorities and needs of the community we serve.

GRRAND is also interested in capturing and recording the many benefits of creative knowledge exchanges between autistic and non autistic researchers and artists. Through our work in the community, we often address the questions of authenticity and representation pertinent to creative interdisciplinary collaboration with neurodivergent participants in research and public engagement. Our activities set out to be mutually beneficial, offering communities the opportunity to develop their own creative practice, find new forms of self-expression, and engage with our research themes on their own terms.