Exploring public involvement in research funding applications

About this project

This project aimed to develop a series of examples illustrating how researchers are involving members of the public in their National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding applications and to explore the views of the researchers on the impact public involvement had on the development of their research funding application.

The examples demonstrate the different approaches used to involve members of the public and the uniqueness of each project. You can view the examples by clicking on the individual links below or by downloading the pdf document from our publications page.

List of examples:

Example 1:    Bridging the gap between memory decline and medication in Parkinson’s disease (PD) [clinical research, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme]

Example 2:    Resources for Living (R4L) pilot: Exploring the potential of progressive cuisine for quality of life improvement for head and neck cancer survivors [action research, NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme]

Example 3:     Optimising adult mental health service configurations across health and social care [service evaluation, NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR)]

Example 4:     Decision making about implantation of cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and deactivation during end of life care  [clinical research, NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme] 

Example 5:     Blind placebo controlled Phase 2B clinical trial of repeated application of gene therapy in patients with Cystic Fibrosis [clinical trial, NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme]

Example 6:     Design and optimisation of a saliva-based point-of-care biosensor for non-invasive monitoring of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations: COPD-SPOC sensor [experimental and observational study, NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme]

Example 7:     The RESPONDS Study. Bridging the knowledge and practice gap between domestic violence and child safeguarding: developing policy and training for general practice [action research, Policy Research Programme]

Example 8:     Supporting Excellence in End of life care in Dementia – SEED programme [wide ranging programme of research, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR)]

Example 9:     A multi-centre programme of clinical and public health research to guide health service priorities for preventing suicide in England [clinical and public health research, NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR)]

Example 10:     Health care innovations from policy to practice: A case study of rapid HIV testing in General Practice [qualitative research, NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre (TCC) Doctoral Research Fellowship]

INVOLVE is interested in gathering evidence about the impact of public involvement on research and these examples contribute to this work. A further six examples on the impact public involvement has on research quality have also recently been published.

We would like to thank the researchers who shared their experiences, Kristina Staley from TwoCan Associates who carried out the interviews and the project advisory group for their support and guidance.

To help you consider why you want to involve people, who you want to involve and how to involve people in your research study view the INVOLVE Briefing notes for researchers

Members of the advisory group were:

Jonathan Boote (INVOLVE advisory group member), Vicky Cawdeary (NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre), Lynne Corner (INVOLVE advisory group member), Helen Hayes (INVOLVE Coordinating Centre), Una Rennard (INVOLVE advisory group member), Carol Rhodes, (INVOLVE advisory group member), Maryrose Tarpey (INVOLVE Coordinating Centre), Peter Thompson (NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre) and Katalin Torok (NIHR Central Commissioning Facility).