“I feel like I’ve contributed in a small part to making the world a better place”
– Susan, NIHR ARC West public contributor
Patient and public involvement is essential to our research.
There are lots of ways to get involved with our work, from advising on specific studies, to feeding back on our plain English summaries, to popping along to one of our researcher coffee mornings.
Here’s what some of our public contributors have to say about working with us:
“I will use these valuable skills for the rest of my life”
– Nino, young person from our Young People’s Advisory Group“I’ve seen how much the public voice is valued”
– Adele, public contributor on our PPI Strategy Group“I’m honoured to be part of this research programme”
– Roy, Health Research Ambassador
To find out more, please get in touch with Mike Bell on mike.bell@bristol.ac.uk or Carmel McGrath on carmel.mcgrath@uwe.ac.uk. All our involvement opportunities are paid at the NIHR’s rate of £25 an hour.
We run regular researcher coffee mornings, where members of the public can hear about local research projects and give researchers feedback on their work. Coffee mornings are informal and designed to give researchers and public contributors a chance to interact. Public contributors are encouraged to ask questions, learn about and get involved in projects in their area.
Coffee mornings will usually take place on Thursdays between 10-11am.
Get in touch with Carmel McGrath or see our events page for upcoming sessions.
Public involvement is about members of the public working in active partnerships with researchers and research organisations. It’s also known as patient and public involvement, or PPI.
We use the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) definition of public involvement: “Public involvement in research is research carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.”
Our public involvement team is part of a regional network called People in Health West of England (PHWE). Its aim is to promote a strong public voice within health and social care research and help to improve the services provided by the NHS and social care.
Join People in Health West of England’s mailing list to be sent all the latest opportunities from across the region.
Nationally, you can search opportunities and sign up to receive notifications and newsletters on the NIHR’s People in Research website.
Take a look at our resources and tools for researchers and professionals working in patient and public involvement, engagement and participation.
Co-production is about sharing power in health and care research. We’ve mapped existing tools and guidance to help people produce research together. The resources also include reflective questions and key tips.
Researchers create public involvement ads all the time, but have you ever thought about what people actually want in an ad? Our recommendations are based on a workshop with members of the public, and include templates and a recorded seminar.
The patient and public involvement (PPI) impact log from People in Health West of England aims to improve PPI practices through regular reflection, learning and feedback. The log is a set of questions for researchers and public contributors about the PPI activities that took place.