Public Involvement and Engagement
There are many benefits to engaging and involving patients and the wider public in health research. For example, it can help the right research to get done and to be done better. Engaging and involving the public can help research results to make a real difference to policy, services and treatments, as well as people’s actions and behaviour. But for all that to happen, opportunities to get involved need to be equally accessible to everyone. The content on this page aims to help you get started.
This short video presentation gives an overview of when and how to engage and involve the public in research.
The Listening Series project specifically aimed to support researchers to engage and involve people who are currently under-represented in health research. Some 20 people representing a wide range of social and ethnic communities in the UK took part in discussions to share their ideas and experiences. The discussions, with their main learnings, are captured in this film.
The themes that are identified in the Listening Series film as central for increasing the involvement of under-represented groups in health research are summarised in this booklet, Listening Series: Guidance for Researchers. It includes practical suggestions about how to make public and patient involvement in health research accessible and equitable for all groups in society.