Working together for better health
More than a year ago, the NIHR Innovation Observatory joined a nationwide promise to involve the public in health and social care research: the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement. This pledge unites many organisations across the UK to improve how people take part in research that affects their lives. As the country’s centre for spotting future trends in health and life sciences, we are always seeking out new solutions to make our health and services better. Involving people from across our diverse communities is key to our work. Their ideas and experiences help us build a complete picture that guides what we do to inform future health and care policies and practice. Our approach is based on fair and inclusive values that match the UK Standards for Public Involvement.
How we work
We work in a number of ways to ensure we provide inclusive and meaningful opportunities for experts by experience to engage with, and contribute to, our research. This includes through our Public Advisory Group (PAG) and through our relationships with community organisations.
Our Public Advisory Group
We set up our Public Advisory Group (PAG) in early 2023, it includes a diverse mix of people from all over the UK. In our regular meetings, we listen to their views on our research, projects and our overall work. Their views play a big part in our decision-making. Members of the public also help shape our research in many other ways. They join our project teams as co-researchers and take part in workshops, focus groups and surveys that inform and shape what we do. For example, we have involved two members of our PAG to help co-develop the RIPPLES framework (Rapid Involvement of Patients and the Public in Evidence Synthesis), which will help people to be involved in research that very quickly gathers important information for informing health and social care decisions. We’re excited to launch the RIPPLES framework online on 26th March – visit our event page to find out more and register.
Engaging with Community Organisations
Our team is also very active in reaching out to community organisations both local, regional and national. At a local level we have worked on a number of occasions with the Trussel Trust West End Food Bank in Newcastle’s Benwell community. Here, we’ve been creating inclusive activities for children and families – groups whose views and experiences have often been left out of research. In these projects, we have children a chance to be co-leads, holding sessions to co-design activities together. We also used creative play to talk about topics like sleep, self care and play. To learn more about this work, you can read our report “findings, foodbanks and fun: our experience of child-led research engagement.”
We’ve also teamed up with Leaders Unlocked, a national organisation that helps young people have a stronger voice in matters that affect them. Through joint workshops with Leaders Unlocked, young people with neurodiverse experiences helped shape how we did our horizon scan about digital technologies to improve the wellbeing of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders. Their input meant that what we found out reflected what they most wanted from these technologies and shaped our recommendations for research in the future.
What’s next
We’re always looking to build new relationships and asking ourselves and our PAG – how we can do things better? By working together with other organisations in the Shared Commitment and continuing to meaningfully involve the public and our communities in what we do, we can keep learning and growing, striving to deliver better health for everyone.
Professor Dawn Craig, Director of NIHR Innovation Observatory said:
“At the NIHR Innovation Observatory, we believe that truly impactful research must be shaped by the those it seeks to benefit. Our commitment to public involvement is not just a pledge—it is embedded in how we work. Through initiatives like our Public Advisory Group and community partnerships, we ensure diverse perspectives inform the future of health and social care. We proudly stand with our partners in the Shared Commitment, driving a more inclusive and responsive research landscape.”
Find out more about our Shared Commitment and how you get involved here.
