Tips for Researchers

Public and patient involvement works best when it is planned from the start and treated as a genuine part of the research process.

• Identify suitable PPI groups early, using local clinical research offices, research support services and NIHR involvement resources.
• Discuss your research idea with at least one patient or PPI group, such as SECF, and ask how the proposal may affect patients.
• Make PPI visible in your proposal and investigate whether local research support services can help fund early involvement.
• Budget properly for public involvement, including meeting payments and travel expenses. See the NIHR payment guidance.
• Use PPI input to improve lay summaries, consent forms, surveys, patient information sheets and other public-facing material.
• Ask public contributors to comment on methods, possible impacts on patients and concerns that researchers may otherwise miss.
• Include a lay, patient or public representative on steering and/or management groups where appropriate.
• Where possible, involve at least one service user throughout the project, supported by a wider PPI group.
• Plan for public-facing dissemination of findings. PPI colleagues can help make results clear and accessible, including through appropriate multimedia or social channels.

Contact SECF