Budgeting for PPIE in NIHR Grant Applications

Why PPIE budgets get challenged by reviewers

A surprising number of PPIE sections fall down not on the description of the activity, but on the figure attached to it. A single line such as "£500 for patient involvement" with no breakdown tells a reviewer that involvement was an afterthought, bolted onto the budget at the last minute rather than planned as part of the research.

The opposite mistake is just as common. Applicants worried about looking expensive sometimes underbudget deliberately, assuming a smaller number looks more efficient. In practice, an unrealistically low figure raises the same question from a different direction: how can meaningful involvement, properly paid and properly supported, cost so little? Either way, the budget line becomes a signal about how seriously involvement was thought through, not just a number.

What a PPIE budget actually needs to cover

A realistic PPIE budget for an NIHR application usually has five components. Missing any one of them is the most common reason a figure looks too low.

Contributor payment. NIHR's published rates start from around £27.50 to £30 per hour for public contributors, and this should be the baseline for every session, review, or meeting a contributor takes part in, not a token thank-you payment.

Facilitation and researcher time. The session itself is only part of it. Planning, preparing materials, running the session, and writing up what was said and what changed as a result all take researcher time, and that time has a cost.

Accessible materials. Easy read versions, translated documents, large print, and captioning or BSL interpretation are not optional extras for inclusive involvement. They need their own line, sized to the contributors you are recruiting.

Travel, venue, and access support. In-person sessions need a venue, and contributors may need travel costs covered, plus support such as carers or personal assistants attending with them.

Coordination and administration. Recruiting contributors, scheduling sessions, processing payments, and keeping the involvement log up to date all take time, usually more than applicants expect.

What's realistic for different study sizes and stages

Figures vary by scope, but three rough bands cover most applications.

A single discovery session with six to eight contributors, used to shape research questions early in an application, typically falls in the region of £1,500 to £2,500 once contributor payment, facilitation, and write-up are included.

A multi-stage application, combining a discovery session with a protocol review and a review of participant-facing materials, is closer to £3,500 to £6,000. This is the range most NIHR applications with genuinely documented involvement fall into.

An ongoing PPI panel running for the life of a funded study needs its own annual budget line, typically £4,000 to £8,000 or more per year depending on how often the panel meets and how many contributors are involved.

Where the budget sits, and how to present it

PPIE costs should appear as their own clearly labelled line in the application budget, not folded into "miscellaneous", "dissemination", or "patient and public involvement (TBC)". Reviewers should be able to see, at a glance, that involvement has been costed with the same care as any other part of the project.

The figure also needs to match the narrative. If the PPI plan describes three sessions with eight contributors each, the budget should show contributor payment for three sessions and eight people, not a single round number that bears no obvious relationship to the activity described. A budget that lines up with the plan is one of the simplest ways to make both look credible.

Common mistakes that weaken a PPIE budget

Forgetting the time around the session. Preparation, facilitation, and write-up routinely take as long as the session itself, but get left out of the costing entirely.

No budget for accessible formats. An application that talks about reaching a diverse range of contributors but has no line for translation, easy read, or interpretation is making a promise the budget cannot keep.

Costing the application stage only. Involvement does not stop once funding is awarded. A PPI plan that continues through the funded study needs its own ongoing budget, not just a one-off figure for the application itself.

Paying below recommended rates, or not at all. An application that asks reviewers to value public involvement, while paying contributors less than the work is worth, undermines its own argument.

How we help you get the figure right

Costing PPIE into a grant application is part of our PPIE for grant applications service. We work from NIHR's published payment guidance and our own delivery costs across many applications, so the figure we suggest reflects what the involvement described will actually cost to deliver, not a placeholder number.

We can also help with the wider NIHR standards around involvement, covered in our guide to what NIHR expects from patient involvement, and with the broader question of what PPIE actually means in our guide to PPIE.