No matter how complicated the research, or how brilliant the researcher, patients and the public always offer unique, invaluable insights. Their advice when designing, implementing and evaluating research invariably makes studies more effective, more credible and often more cost efficient as well.
The Nottingham Maternity Research Network facilitates public involvement in maternal health and wellbeing research at the University of Nottingham. Public involvement in research is the process of consultation and collaboration between researchers and members of the public with lived experience of the topic of the research. INVOLVE define the ‘public’ to include people who use health services, who will potentially use services, and those from organisations that represent people who use services.
Public Involvement in research is also sometimes called service-user involvement or public and patient involvement (PPI).
Members of the public can be involved at all stages of the research process including:
- Prioritising topics
- Designing research studies
- Designing participant information
- Collecting data
- Analysing data
- Sharing findings
Members of the public and service-users can bring different perspectives to the research process and vital expertise by experience. The contribution of members of the public improves research quality, research relevance and the potential for research to achieve change.
You can find out more about how Network members have been involved in research on our research pages.
Find out how to get involved