Commitment to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) means involving and engaging people with research. Patients and the public have perspectives based on their experiences, lives, and expertise in their own conditions which may differ from researchers’. PPIE means that people can use their lived experience to influence and co-develop research, working with researchers to produce findings that are relevant to people’s lives, health, and wider concerns. In this video, you can hear from Leon Farmer, a stroke survivor involved in research as a patient advisor.
Here, at the University of Exeter, we are committed to ensuring PPIE is appropriately embedded into all research projects. As a clinical academic trainee, you will be supported to involve people in ways that result in meaningful patient contributions to research design, conduct, and dissemination.
The University of Exeter is a leader in innovative PPIE approaches. As a clinical academic, you will be able to access resources, advice and support on PPIE from across the University and wider NIHR Infrastructure here at Exeter, including the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Clinical Research Facility (CRF) and Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC). You will also be able to participate in training, such as the ‘PPIE in Health and Care Research’ Summer School, for example.
Engaging people with research is an essential part of a research programme that works with and for the community it is embedded in. By sharing our research projects and activities with public audiences, we not only inform them of research being undertaken, but also start conversations about research and the possibility of involvement. This should also include engagement and communication of the outcomes of research, and the outcomes of involvement within research, in understandable language and accessible places (i.e. beyond scientific publications).
Throughout your time as a clinical academic trainee, it is an expectation that you engage with the public to communicate your research and share your findings. There are a variety of public engagement events that you can partake in, such as Pint of Science, Soapbox Science and Sidmouth Science Festival. The Public Engagement with Research (PER) Community is accessible to anyone at the University who has an interest in PER. A wealth of resources are available here, with an upcoming seminar series and training. Furthermore, funding is available to support public engagement initiatives – further details can be found in this document: Engaged Research Funding Announcement. Dreolin Fleischer is the Engaged Research Manager and can be contacted at D.N.Fleischer@exeter.ac.uk with any queries, and to sign up to the monthly newsletter.
