We are keen to include patients and other members of the public in the development, design and conduct of our research activity. We call this ‘patient and public involvement (PPI)’.
Why we involve the public
Members of the public can:
- Bring knowledge and experience of a particular condition or service relevant to the research topic
- Bring views based on their experience of being a participant in research
- Bring a lay perspective about studies and their associated documents
- Help to improve the design and focus of the research
- Advise on ethical issues
- Talk to patients, the public and healthcare professionals about health and care research
We believe that this input leads to better research, clearer outcomes, and faster uptake of new evidence.
Research Champions
The role of the research champion is to promote health research from the patient perspective. This can involve any patient, service user, carer or other lay person who is enthusiastic about health research and willing to communicate that to other patients, healthcare professionals and the wider public. Visit our research champions page for more information.
People in research
People in research has a database of opportunities for members of the public to get involved in research. You can scroll through all the opportunities or sort your results by topic, type of involvement or location.
Healthtalk
Healthtalk has produced some insightful video clips where people talk about their reasons for getting involved, what activities and tasks are required, and the value of patient and public involvement in research.
Join Dementia research
Join Dementia research is a service created the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, Alzheimer’s Research UK and Alzheimer’s Society. Dementia is one of the biggest challenges we face today, and that is why an online platform was created to allows volunteers (with and without dementia) to register their interest in participating in dementia research and be matched to suitable studies.
Participate in research experience survey
Participate in research experience survey is run by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) each year, and asks thousands of participants to give feedback on their experience of taking part in research, as a way of demonstrating to research participants that their contribution is valued, and to help improve the way research studies are designed and delivered.