On Friday, 15th July, 2011, the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies hosted a seminar given by Professor Mark Priestley, University of Leeds, entitled: 

Whose agenda for disability research? Participation, partnership and progress

Mark Priestley is Professor of Disability Policy at the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, and Scientific Director of the European Commission's Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED), in which he leads a programme of research involving 29 European countries. He is an advisor to the UK Office for National Statistics on the ‘Life Opportunities’ disability survey and has published numerous works in the field of disability studies, many of them resulting from funded research projects that engage disabled people and their organisations as active participants in the research process. In 2008-9 he was a key partner in the EU-funded project ‘European Research Agendas for Disability Equality’ (EuRADE), conducted in collaboration with the European Disability Forum.