Getting involved as a public contributor

We work with patients, potential patients, carers, people who use health services, interested members of the public and people from organisations that represent people who use services, such as charities. We call people who help us in this way PPI contributors.

You can sign up here to receive emails about opportunities to get involved, or contact ppi@phc.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Read our welcome guide to find out more.

How do we involve PPI contributors in our research?

When we talk about involvement we are not talking about participation in clinical trials. We mean helping to guide and shape research, working with researchers in different ways. This could be to prioritise topics for research, offer advice as members of a project steering group, or comment on and develop research materials - but there are lots of other ways to get involved too.

PPI contributors provide a different way of looking at things that can ground the discussion in practical experience. Some of the ways that PPI contributors make a difference to health research are by:

• helping to decide if the research proposal is relevant to the needs of the patients
• helping to increase accessibility to studies
• helping ensure that patient information leaflets are clear and understandable
• including the patient's perspective in research funding applications

Videos for PPI contributors

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has created this induction for public contributors which explains what PPI is and ways to get involved.

The links below are videos which aim to give an introduction to some topics that you may come across, or simply find interesting, if you get involved in research.

Finding and reading a research paper

Statistics

Health economics

Qualitative research

A philosopher's approach to equality