Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE)

PPIE is about building partnerships that give 'the public' a say in the research we do. We support researchers with how to engage, inform and include public audiences in research. Our goal is to move towards a culture of active patient and public involvement (PPI), where research is carried out with or by members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.

Our Strategy

Five-year Strategy for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (2017 to 2022)

Below is an outline of our joint Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility five-year strategy for the involvement and engagement of patients and the public (PPIE) in research.

Our mission is to involve patients and/or representatives from relevant public charitable bodies in every aspect of the work of our Centre.

This strategy builds on the success and learnings we have gained over the last decade. Discussions with the public and with patients (public contributors) as well as with researchers and clinicians across our Moorfields, UCL and NIHR partnerships and beyond have informed our strategy. This strategy also aligns with national strategies and developments in PPIE including those from INVOLVE (the national coordinating centre for public engagement) and the NIHR. This strategy will develop and be refined further as we build deeper relationships with public contributors, researchers and clinicians; and as we establish new external networks, partnerships and collaborations. This will help to ensure that our strategy is informed through shared experiences, informed discussions and best practices to enable us to respond to changes in need.

Over this five year term of our BRC, PPIE forms part of one of our new crosscutting themes Patient and Public Involvement/Engagement and Clinical Studies Development. As one of our BRC themes, PPIE will be a set agenda item for all of our research management and strategy meetings. In addition to our PPIE strategy and annual reporting of PPIE to the NIHR, our PPIE programme now benefits from the same level of strategic leadership, evaluation and impact assessment as our other research-based themes. This will improve its effectiveness and reach across both Moorfields Eye Hospital and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Our PPIE Aims

  1. Optimise the alignment of our research to the needs of patients and those at risk of eye disease
  2. Increase active involvement of patients and/or representatives from relevant charitable bodies in the design, management and reporting of all new clinical trials and other studies involving patients
  3. Break down barriers to broaden participation in biomedical research
  4. Open access to research at the earliest moment of interaction with our hospital

Our PPIE Objectives

  1. Drive internal culture change among those with a role in research by raising awareness of and evidencing the value of patient and public involvement in research as a core component of research design and methodology
  2. Educate and break down perceived barriers with external audiences around what research is and how patients and the public can be involved
  3. More tightly embed PPI within BRC-CRF governance and make it easier for researchers to include active PPI in the majority of studies through the collation of best practices and experiences from patients/carers, public and peers
  4. For those who are eligible, we will make information on how to participate in research more accessible

More Information

Our full PPIE strategy can be downloaded from Related Documents at the top of this page.

For more information on our PPIE strategy please contact Helen Baker, PPIE lead; h.baker@ucl.ac.uk

Last updated: 8th December 2021