Public involvement and engagement before the pandemic
For over a decade , the Faculty has committed to involving the public throughout its research and has established sustainable processes and procedures for ensuring best practice in public involvement . Public involvement and engagement enables high quality research to be relevant and appropriate for study populations , and this works best when it is embedded throughout the research process . As such , public contributors in the Faculty have long been involved in prioritising new research topics , refining research questions , shaping study design , being co-applicants on research grant applications , co-developing participant information , interpretating findings , and supporting the dissemination and implementation of research outputs ( knowledge and new treatments ).
The Faculty also hosts a number of influential regional and national roles , including :
• The Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement lead for the Research Design Service West Midlands and the National Office , which are parts of the National Institute for Health Research ( NIHR ).
• The Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement Task and Finish Group for the UK Clinical Research Collaboration registered Clinical Trials Unit network .
• The NIHR School for Primary Care Research .
• Membership of the
Q Community of professional and public leaders working together for improvement in health and care .
The Faculty has developed a network of public involvement and engagement groups linked to individual schools . These are concerned with both research and education , but some have subgroups focusing on implementation . For example , the School of Medicine Research User Group , hosted by the Impact Acceleration Unit , has over 160 members and contributed to 62 research projects in 2019 , with 329 individual cases of involvement by public members .
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