Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) for clinical impact

Access resources to learn how to involve patients and health practitioners in your research to achieve clinical impact that is relevant.

What do we mean by PPI?

PPI in research means that research is done ‘with’ or ‘by’ the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them. This can include working with health practitioners as well as patients. Involving people with lived experience helps make your research as relevant as possible. Even if your research outputs contribute to new clinical recommendations being made, there is often a gap in time until practitioners take them up. PPI can help with interpreting and distributing your results and recommendations, so they come into practice more efficiently and effectively. 

PPI resources

University of Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility (CRF)

CRF support multidisciplinary clinical research locally, nationally and internationally. They run a number of etraining courses both taught and self-directed to help you:

  • Understand what PPI is and how to incorporate it into your research
  • Set up PPI activities in person and online
  • Who to involve and how to find and recruit participants
  • Incorporate PPI when developing clinical trials
  • Understand how and when to include PPI in grant applications
  • How to budget for public involvement.

PPI training and resources at CRF

Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC)

PERC is a multidisciplinary group of clinicians, public health specialists and social scientists based at Imperial College London. They promote participatory approaches to improve the quality of healthcare and impact of translational research in an online resource hub that covers a broad range of topics including:

  • An overall view of PPI
  • The differences between public involvement, public engagement, co-production and public participation
  • Considering PPI at different stages in your research
  • How to address inclusivity and underrepresentation in research.

Patient Experience Research Centre Public Involvement Resource Hub

People in Research

People in research is a dedicated site provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, where researchers can advertise opportunities for public involvement.

Advertise on People in Research

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