Through our ‘Young People in Digital Mental Health (YPii DMH) special interest research group, we were delighted to host a “Dragons’ Den” style event, where young people and researchers met to discuss a range of different research projects - from furry robots to mental health apps.

On Zoom, one early evening in May, four fantastic young ‘Dragons’ joined us from across the world, along with four researchers (including PhD students and professors). With funding from Emerging Minds, we were able to compensate the Dragons for their advice and time, whilst providing this incredible opportunity free to researchers. Although it couldn’t offer financial investment for the proposed projects, we were able to reflect the real value of young peoples’ experience and expertise, and provide an opportunity for them to contribute to research.

Each of the pitches had the chance of a pretend £100,000 investment from each of the Dragons, with the top project earning an impressive 360,000 pretend pounds! We’re even more delighted that the Dragons felt that we helped young people to have their voice heard, and helped researchers hear from young people. It is that kind of thing that makes all the hard work organising an event in our spare time worthwhile! The Dragons also highly rated the communication before the event and the event itself.

The Dragons and researchers thought it would be useful to have more time for discussion and we agree! The chance to hear from the Dragons and discuss projects with them was key to the event’s value. Next time, we will consider whether we ask researchers to do shorter pitches, or if reducing the number of pitches might provide more time for discussion.

All of those who responded said they would be interested in taking part in a similar event again which is great to hear. We are so grateful to the Dragons and researchers who shared their thoughts with us - there were some great suggestions about changes we could make and some lovely feedback about the event.

This was our first Dragons’ Den, but it won’t be our last! It was exciting to bring researchers and young people together to discuss research as a core aim of our network. We are going to bring our learning from this to the rest of the YPii DMH collaborative multiorganisational co-ordinating team, put our heads together and work out what we can do next time. Do let us know if you have thoughts or suggestions too. 

So, watch this space – there be dragons!