Patient and Public Involvement (often shortened to PPI) in research is used to refer to the active involvement of patients or the public in the research process – for instance in helping to plan, design or carry out research. It does not refer to more general awareness raising activities or to the involvement of people as participants in trials.

For the purposes of eligibility for this bursary fund, we limit our use of the term public involvement to the definition of public involvement used by the national advisory body INVOLVE (see appendix below for more information).

Patients and the public can:

• help identify research questions and priorities
• look at research processes and advise researchers on how practical and acceptable they are
• advise researchers on outcome measures and how meaningful and reliable they are to patients
• improve the language and accessibility of patient information and invitation letters
• help carry out trial recruitment or interviewing
• become advocates and disseminators of research findings.

There are different levels of patient/public involvement. For instance, patients/members of the public may be:

• joint grant holders/co-applicants on a project
• members of a project steering group or patient panel
• participants in a one-off workshop.

There isn’t any one good or bad way of involving patients and the public in research. The level of involvement and the stages of the research process at which patient and the public are involved may be determined by the nature of the research project.

Researchers are invited to apply for up to £2,000 to actively involve patients and the public in an innovative way in their research:

• This involvement may be in one particular project or selection of projects, or in setting research priorities at departmental or divisional level.
• Applications are encouraged that fit in with one or more of the priorities of the fund (see above).

We will award one bursary of £2,000 for an innovative Public Involvement project which will have a wider impact on the practice of public involvement.

All expenditure must be in compliance with the budget set out in the application form, and the guidance provided when the attached application was made, for costs such as venue hire, refreshments, vouchers for participants, stationery etc. Should you wish need at a later date to change the items that the funds will be spent on, spend on items other than those above please contact the PPI manager for approval.

As a condition of this award, the BRC Executive shall require an annual financial report to be submitted, and acknowledgement of the BRC in all publications arising from the work. In January each year (or six months after the receipt of your bursary whichever comes first) you shall be required to complete an Annual Statement of Expenditure (ASTOX). If this is not provided when requested you may be invoiced for the bursary funds.

At the end of the award period a final Statement of Expenditure will be requested and you will need to provide a report on the project in the template that will be sent to you. Any funds that remain unspent will be invoiced for.

Applications will need to demonstrate:

• innovative or ground-breaking methods for involving patients and the public, and/or the involvement of seldom heard groups
• how public involvement will impact on a research study or research area
• how the impact of public involvement will be recorded and evaluated
• steps taken to ensure the representativeness and appropriateness of the people involved
• how individual patients or members of the public will be identified and enlisted
• how individual patients or members of the public will be supported
• outline breakdown of likely costs
• timetable – with completion of all activities by 12 months after the bursary has been awarded

Applicants will need to fill in the relevant application form and send it by email to ppihelpdesk@ucl.ac.uk. If you have any queries, contact the Public Involvement team on ppihelpdesk@ucl.ac.uk.

• The principal applicant for funding must be a member of UCL staff. These bursaries are not available for undergraduate or masters students.
• The proposed project should be for biomedical research at UCL or UCLH.
• This bursary is available to projects and initiatives that fall within INVOLVE’s definition of Public Involvement in research. Accordingly, these bursaries are not available for the kind of activities INVOLVE calls ‘engagement’ or ‘participation’ (see appendix below).
• Bursaries cannot be used to pay UCL or NHS staff for their time.

Your application will be read by the Patient and Public Involvement Manager at the Biomedical Research Centre who will attach a one-paragraph review of the application.

The application and review will then be considered by a panel made up of senior staff from UCL/UCLH and a patient representative.

The panel will consider:

• whether the project fits with the strategic aims and priorities of this fund (see above)
• the potential immediate and long term impact of the project on the research and how it will be evaluated
• whether the project can realistically be delivered within cost and time constraints
• the likely quality of involvement in terms of it being a positive and meaningful experience for both public and researchers
• the use of innovative and imaginative approaches to public involvement

Successful applicants will be expected to provide a detailed written report on their project when it is completed.

This funding may be used for facilitating PPI of the above project only. Successful applicants will also be asked to share their ideas and work with others.