Public & Patient Involvement

What are our principles for Public Involvement?

The NIHR Innovation Observatory aims to make sure there is a public voice on the research and projects we undertake, and to promote this public voice across the healthcare community.

Working together alongside our Public Advisory Group (PAG), we have developed principles to ensure that everyone involved in our research is treated fairly, respected and acknowledged for their contributions, and that their time and efforts are always recognised in line with UK standards.

The Innovation Observatory values your individual ideas and opinions because you’re not a researcher.

There are also many ways that people can get involved in research. Some people like to have a more “hands off” approach (such as sharing their views in a short online survey) through to those who prefer a more in-depth level of involvement (such as attending meetings with a research team to shape a particular project).

Our Public Advisory Group

Our Public Advisory Group (PAG), an active group of diverse individuals from across the UK, are at the heart of our public involvement activities.

We created our vision for public involvement alongside the PAG by listening to their perspectives and understanding what they wanted to see from us to make public involvement and engagement central to the research we do. 

Our Public Advisory Group draw on their broad life experiences, backgrounds, and cultures, to inform our work.

Now, we continue to work together to keep improving what public involvement at the Innovation Observatory looks like, from talking about our work at quarterly meetings, to sharing opportunities to be part of research with a range of people and shaping the projects we do.

RIPPLES: A framework for rapid involvement of patients and the public in evidence synthesis

We created RIPPLES as a simple, practical framework and toolkit to help researchers carrying out rapid evidence synthesis to embed patient and public involvement in their work. Our resources contain guidance and useful tips on how to implement the framework, as well as a handy worksheet to help plan involvement within rapid evidence synthesis projects.

The guidance pack also contains links to useful resources that can be used alongside RIPPLES to help support researchers in undertaking patient and public involvement.

Shared Commitment to Public Involvement

As part of the Health Research Authority/ National Institute for Health and Care Research Shared Commitment, we are strengthening how we involve and engage with service users, carers, communities and the wider public alongside many other organisations based in the UK.