Patient and Public involvement (PPI) is where research and work are carried out 'with' or 'by' members of the public rather than on their behalf by researchers. It means that patients or other people with relevant experience contribute to how research is designed, conducted, and disseminated.
Who can join our PPI network?
At King’s Clinical Research Facility, anyone can express an interest in joining our PPI network.
By joining our network, you will be added to our mailing list, and you will receive emails about opportunities for involvement.
This may include:
- asking you for your opinion on a document or leaflet.
- letting you know about an upcoming event you may wish to attend
- asking you to contribute your ideas to a specific research project or piece of work.
Involvement opportunities
For some involvement opportunities we email about, we may require specific experience (for example, the experience of being a Type 1 diabetic or being a carer for an individual with a specific health condition).
Sometimes we may be limited in the number of people we can offer the opportunity to. This will always be clear in the email, and we’d encourage you to respond and apply if interested. We know it can be disappointing if you’re not offered a particular opportunity, however, we hope this will not stop you from applying for other opportunities as they arise, which you may be eligible for.
Facilitating your involvement
For most involvement opportunities, we offer payment for your time - please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). We aim to accommodate individual needs and preference and this may include providing documents in different formats. If you’d like to talk to us about what reasonable adjustments we can make to facilitate your involvement, please get in touch with us via the PPI Lead, Cat Harvey: catherine.harvey15@nhs.net.
Joanne, PPI member, said:
"I found PPI during the COVID lockdown and I emailed a member of staff about the potential for a clinical trial in the future, having done many of these voluntarily in the past.
"I received an email back with great guidance and support about both clinical trials and a new area for me, PPI. I signed up to a PPI network and I quickly became involved. I didn’t know if I was worthy at the time even though I'd been involved in clinical trials and knew how it all worked from that end, this was being involved from another side.
"I remember being nervous the first few times I joined a meeting online, however it's basically listening and giving your own opinion whilst respecting everyone else’s.
"Since then it has completely taken off, I've been reviewing documents for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), I’ve been on selection panels with the NIHR and I’ve been involved in a large European project. Some projects span over several years and you can get involved in all sorts of ways."
To find out about our longer-term ambitions for PPI, please read the King's Clinical Research Facility PPIE strategy.
