Transforming care by understanding and using patient and public experience.

Public involvement in research is an active partnership between the public and researchers in the research process, not simply people being the subjects of research.

The public (PPI Contributors) include patients, potential patients, carers and people who use health services as well as people from organisations that represent people who use services. Other terms for PPI Contributors include PPI representatives, patient advocate, lay researcher, public partner etc.

The Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences is committed to continually improving PPI, and has developed a clear strategy for how this will be taken forward.

Download our PPI Strategy (.pdf)

For researchers - PPI Checklist

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

PPI Contributors can make a difference to health research by:

• identifying new topics for research and ensuring that topics are relevant to patients, carers and members of the public
• making sure that researchers ask the right questions and in a way that the public understand
• keeping the research on track so that it stays relevant
• making sure the people being researched are approached in the right way
• improving the quality of the research by adding another point of view to the design and way that the research is carried out.

Information for researchers

We want to give you all the assistance you need to involve PPI contributors in your research such that it is a productive experience for them and for your project.

We have produced a ‘PPI Guide for Researchers’. This document can be used by any research staff involving patients, carers, members of the public and members of voluntary organisations in their research work.

There are templates for you to download and adapt.  It is a living document which with your help will continue to be updated and improved, so we welcome any suggestions or feedback you may have. 

> View the UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research

• Action plan against the NIHR's PPI Standards
• You may want to consider different ways to involve the public, rather than just speaking with them at a trial steering committee or advisory group.  If so, there are a series of resources available to you as Inventive Involvement.  They also include ideas for how you may work with people differently in more traditional meetings, using different communication techniques and styles.  
•  PPI checklist - helping researchers apply PPI at every stage of their research.
• Please give the Welcome Pack to new lay contributors on your project.
• You can see how colleagues have done some PPI in our case studies
• To help you work out your PPI costs - cost calculator
• You can find the department's PPI payment policy here
• Guidance on working with public co-applicants on your grant here
• To help you plan your research - Research Design Service 
•  To help you recruit from the Voluntary sector these directories may assist
• South Central regional service supports Oxford University researchers in all aspects of formulating a research proposal, including methodology, statistics, health economics and support for Patient and Public Involvement in research - Oxford University Research Support
• To help you decide on your research questions - James Lind Alliance.  National non-profit making initiative which brings patients, carers and clinicians together to identify and prioritise the top 10 uncertainties, or 'unanswered questions', about the effects of treatments that they agree are most important. 
• You can also download the Research Design Service Researchers PPI Handbook
• This PPI Researchers checklist helps you consider how you can embed PPI throughout the research cycle.  It has a range of help with links to useful resources at each stage.