Universities · NIHR & UKRI · Public involvement
PPIE for university research teams
Patient and public involvement for research groups, centres, and departments, not just a single application. If you need PPIE for one NIHR or UKRI bid with a deadline, our PPIE for grant applications service covers that. This service is for involvement that continues across a research programme: standing panels, student experience research, public engagement, and researcher training.
Why university research teams work with us
Most PPIE support is built around a single grant deadline: recruit some contributors, run a session, write it up, move on to the next application. That works for the application, but it means involvement restarts from scratch every time, and contributors who gave good input on one study often never hear from the team again.
We work with research groups, centres, and departments to build involvement that continues across a programme of work, with the same contributors able to stay engaged from one study to the next where that makes sense, and capacity within your team to run sessions yourselves where it doesn't need an external facilitator.
We also support the related work that universities increasingly need: student experience research and co-design, public engagement events, and plain English writing for lay summaries and dissemination.
PPIE and involvement services for universities
From a single application to an ongoing programme of involvement and engagement.
Grant application PPIE
PPIE for a single NIHR or UKRI application with a deadline: design, facilitation, documentation, and a written summary of public involvement evidence, covered in full by our grant applications service.
Ongoing involvement panels for research programmes
Recruiting and supporting a standing panel of public contributors who work with your research group across multiple studies over time, with continuity that one-off recruitment can't provide.
Student experience research and co-design
Research with students about their experience of teaching, services, and support, and co-design work that involves students in shaping institutional decisions that affect them.
Public engagement events
Designing and running public engagement events that connect your research to the communities it affects, from open days and exhibitions to community panels and discussion events.
Lay summary and plain English writing
Writing or reviewing lay summaries, participant information sheets, and dissemination materials in plain English that contributors and the wider public can genuinely understand.
Researcher training on meaningful involvement
Practical training for researchers and PhD students on running meaningful involvement themselves, covering recruitment, payment, facilitation, and recording impact, with us available for oversight or more complex sessions.
Embedding PPIE across your research programme
Involvement that supports your whole programme of work, not just the next application.
Continuity across studies
A standing panel of contributors who work with your research group across multiple projects, rather than recruiting from scratch for every application.
Working within university structures
We fit alongside existing ethics processes, faculty PPI groups, and research governance, rather than creating something separate that duplicates what your institution already has.
Building researcher capability
Training and support for researchers and PhD students who want to run involvement themselves, with us available for oversight, induction, or more complex sessions when needed.
From application to dissemination
The same contributors involved from early proposal development through to writing up and disseminating findings, so involvement isn't restarted at each funding stage.
Who we work with
Across university research structures, scoped to the size and shape of your programme.
Common questions
How is this different from your grant applications PPIE service?
Our grant applications service is built around a single application with a deadline: design, facilitation, and documented evidence to support one bid. This service is for ongoing involvement across a research programme, research group, or department, not tied to a single submission. Many teams use both: grant application support for a specific bid, and this service for the involvement that continues once funding is awarded.
Do you offer ongoing support, or only one-off projects?
Both. Some research groups want a standing involvement panel that supports multiple studies over time; others need support for a single piece of work, such as a public engagement event or a lay summary review. We scope to what fits your research programme.
Can you help with student experience research alongside PPI?
Yes. Many of the skills, recruitment, and facilitation methods overlap, and some institutions want to bring student voice and patient or public voice together, particularly in health-related faculties. We can run these as separate strands or as a combined programme depending on what your institution needs.
How do you find diverse contributors for university research?
We recruit through community networks, patient groups, and our own community of paid research participants, reaching people beyond the small pool of contributors who already sit on multiple university PPI groups. This is particularly useful where a study needs perspectives that aren't already represented in existing networks.
Can you support multiple research groups or a whole department?
Yes. We work with individual research groups, doctoral training partnerships, and whole departments or faculties, often providing a shared pool of contributors and a consistent approach to involvement that individual researchers can draw on for their own studies.
What does this cost, and how does the process work?
Projects start from £4,500 for a defined piece of work, such as setting up an involvement panel or a programme of public engagement events. Ongoing support is usually arranged as a retainer or rolling annual arrangement, scoped around your research programme and reviewed periodically.
Related reading
PPIE for grant applications
Patient and public involvement for a single NIHR or UKRI application with a deadline, including documented evidence for reviewers.
Grant application PPIENIHR patient involvement
What NIHR expects from PPI at application stage and throughout funded studies, and what good looks like in practice.
NIHR requirementsWhat is PPIE?
A plain-English explanation of PPIE, PPI vs PPIE, and how involvement works across research and healthcare contexts.
What is PPIE?Participatory research
An overview of participatory approaches and how they relate to involvement and co-design within research programmes.
Participatory researchLived experience research
In-depth qualitative research with people who have direct experience of the issues your research addresses.
Lived experience researchWhere we work
We are based in West Yorkshire and deliver across the UK. Most of this work runs remotely; when a project calls for being in the room, we travel. See user research in Leeds and Yorkshire, or the full list of locations we cover.
We fully recognise the effort your team invested in recruitment, moderation, and analysis, and we genuinely appreciate the quality of the discussions and reporting.
- Usability problems in an insulin device surfaced before manufacturing locked anything in, with human factors evidence supporting the regulatory submission.
- An NHS patient portal team got a prioritised, evidenced list of adoption barriers, and the highest-leverage fix wasn't the one they expected.
- Patient involvement changed a trial's primary endpoint before the protocol was finalised, cited by the ethics committee as a model for evidencing PPIE.
Trusted PPI and PPIE delivery partner to the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care.
Building involvement into your research programme?
Tell us about your research group, the studies you're working on, and the kind of involvement you want to sustain. We will suggest an approach that fits.
Start a conversationWe usually respond within one working day. Costing a bid? Read what PPIE actually costs, or get the free PPIE section template.
Prefer to talk it through first?
Book a free 20-minute call. No obligation, no sales pitch. We'll tell you honestly whether research is worth it for your decision, and what it would cost.