PPIE · PPI · Involvement · Co-production
Patient and Public Involvement that Strengthens Everything
Credible PPIE and PPI research for NHS trusts, healthtech companies, pharmaceutical organisations, and care providers. From grant applications to service redesign, we deliver patient and public involvement that reviewers, commissioners, and communities trust.
Why patient and public involvement matters
PPIE is not a box ticking exercise. Done properly, it prevents service designs nobody adopts, research that misses what patients actually need, and expensive mistakes that could have been spotted early.
Whether you're designing NHS services, developing medical devices, running clinical trials, or bidding for healthcare funding - meaningful patient involvement makes your work stronger, more credible, and more likely to succeed.
Who we work with in healthcare
From NHS organisations to pharmaceutical companies, we provide PPIE expertise across the healthcare ecosystem.
NHS Trusts & ICBs
Service redesign, patient pathway improvement, quality improvement projects, and strategic planning with authentic patient voice.
Primary Care Networks & GP Practices
Population health needs assessment, service development, patient participation groups, and community engagement for PCNs.
Academic Health Research
PPI for research applications (NIHR, MRC, Wellcome), study design, patient advisory groups, and dissemination planning.
Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences
Patient insight for drug development, clinical trial design, patient-reported outcomes, and treatment pathway understanding.
Healthtech & Digital Health
User testing with patients and clinicians, co design for health apps, medical devices, and digital therapeutics.
Care Homes & Social Care
Resident and family involvement in service improvement, care pathway design, and quality assurance.
PPIE services we deliver
From single consultations to ongoing involvement partnerships, we tailor PPIE to your timeline, budget, and governance requirements.
Patient Advisory Groups
Recruit, facilitate, and manage patient panels for ongoing research projects, service development, or governance oversight.
Co design Workshops
Facilitated sessions where patients, families, and clinicians collaborate on service design, pathway mapping, or solution development.
Lived Experience Research
In-depth interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic work with patients who have direct experience of conditions, treatments, or services.
Clinical Trial PPI
Patient involvement in trial design, participant materials, outcome measures, recruitment strategies, and dissemination.
Grant Application Support
PPIE evidence and documentation for NIHR, MRC, Wellcome, and other funders. Patient co-applicants, letters of support, involvement plans.
Patient Experience Surveys
Survey design, distribution through clinical networks, analysis, and reporting for service improvement or commissioning evidence.
How we approach PPIE
Ethical, inclusive, and genuinely impactful patient and public involvement. Not consultation theatre.
Meaningful influence, not tokenism
Patients and public contributors shape design, not just comment on finished plans. We involve people early, build in time to act on their input, and demonstrate how their contribution changed outcomes.
Fair payment and recognition
We pay patients and public contributors properly for their time and expertise. Rates aligned with NIHR guidance. Expenses covered. Options that don't affect benefits.
Reach beyond usual suspects
We recruit through community organisations, peer networks, and clinical services - not just open calls that attract professional patients. We reach marginalised communities and people rarely heard.
Accessible by design
We bring the research to participants - not the other way around. Sessions run in community centres, GP waiting areas, libraries, faith settings, and people's own homes. For many of the communities that matter most in PPIE, expecting people to travel to a research venue is the first barrier to genuine involvement. We remove it.
Psychological safety
We create environments where people can share difficult experiences safely. Trauma-informed facilitation. Support available. No pressure to disclose more than someone is comfortable with.
Documentation for governance
Clear records of who was involved, how they influenced decisions, and what changed as a result. Evidence that satisfies ethics committees, peer reviewers, and commissioners.
PPIE in practice
The kind of patient and public involvement work that makes a real difference - across healthcare, research, and digital health
NHS Trust service redesign
A hospital trust redesigning diabetes pathways. Patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are recruited and involved in co-design workshops that map current journeys and barriers, test proposed changes, and produce documented patient input for governance approval.
What good looks like: A service that launches with higher adoption because the people who will use it helped shape it. Fewer complaints. Evidence that satisfies governance and stands up to scrutiny.
NIHR research grant application
Academic researchers applying for funding to study postnatal mental health interventions. Women with lived experience of postnatal depression are involved in refining research questions and outcome measures, with their contribution documented as PPI evidence for the application.
What good looks like: Reviewers who can see genuine involvement rather than a token paragraph. Research questions shaped by the people the study is meant to benefit. A stronger application.
Pharmaceutical patient journey mapping
A pharma company developing treatments for a rare condition conducts in-depth interviews with patients and caregivers to understand diagnosis delays, treatment burden, and unmet needs. Insights shape clinical trial endpoints and inform patient support programme design.
What good looks like: Endpoints that reflect what patients actually care about. Regulatory submissions strengthened by credible patient evidence. A support programme people actually use.
Digital health app development
A healthtech team building a medication adherence app for older adults recruits target users for usability testing on prototypes, identifies critical accessibility barriers, and runs co-design sessions before development is finalised.
What good looks like: An app with features shaped by the people who will actually use it. Accessibility issues fixed in prototypes rather than post-launch. Adoption that reflects thoughtful design.
PPIE packages and pricing
Transparent pricing for patient and public involvement. From single consultations to ongoing advisory groups.
Single Consultation
Essentials
Rapid patient input for grant applications, ethics submissions, or early-stage service design. Quick turnaround when you need PPIE evidence fast.
- 4-6 patient/public contributors
- Ethical recruitment & screening
- One consultation session or focus group
- Synthesis of patient input
- Summary report for ethics/governance
- 2-3 week turnaround
Co design Programme
Impact
Multi-phase patient involvement for service redesign, research studies, or product development. Enough engagement to demonstrate meaningful influence.
- 8-12 patient/public contributors
- 2-3 engagement phases
- Interviews, workshops, or usability testing
- Detailed thematic analysis
- Full PPIE report with recommendations
- Evidence trail for governance
- 4-6 week delivery
Ongoing Partnership
Advisory Group
Sustained patient advisory group for research programmes, organisational strategy, or major service transformation. Ongoing oversight and input over 6-12 months.
- Patient Advisory Group recruitment & setup
- Quarterly meetings or email consultations
- Document review and feedback cycles
- Training for staff on involvement
- Impact documentation for funders
- Flexible 6-12 month engagement
All PPIE packages include: Fair payment for patient/public contributors (aligned with NIHR guidance), recruitment costs, facilitation, analysis, ethics documentation, and clear reporting of how patient input influenced outcomes.
In-person sessions: Many PPIE sessions run in community venues, GP surgeries, or participants' own homes rather than asking people to travel to us. Add £1,400–£1,800 per day for venue, travel and facilitator time. We will quote precisely based on your location and needs.
Budget planning: We help you cost PPIE properly for grant applications and service budgets. NIHR and most funders expect dedicated PPIE budgets - we ensure yours is realistic and defensible.
Common questions about PPIE
What is PPIE?
PPIE stands for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement. It means involving patients, carers, and members of the public as active partners in research, service design, and healthcare decision-making, not just as subjects of research or recipients of services. Good PPIE gives people genuine influence over how research is designed, conducted, and used.
Who needs to do patient and public involvement?
NHS trusts, ICBs, primary care networks, universities conducting health research, pharmaceutical companies, healthtech organisations, and anyone applying for research funding from bodies like NIHR or UKRI. Most health research funders and NHS governance frameworks require demonstrable PPIE.
How is PPIE different from market research?
Market research typically asks people for opinions to inform commercial decisions. PPIE involves the public and patients as partners in shaping research or service development, operating within an ethical framework that includes fair payment, informed consent, and transparency about how input influences outcomes. The relationship is collaborative rather than transactional.
How much does PPIE cost?
Focused PPIE projects start from £4,500. In-depth programmes, including ongoing advisory groups or multi-phase involvement across a research programme, start from £8,500. All costs include fair participant payments aligned with NIHR guidance, recruitment, facilitation, analysis, ethics documentation, and a written report.
Can PPIE be done remotely?
Yes. We run remote PPIE via video call and online platforms, which makes it more accessible for participants who cannot travel due to health conditions, caring responsibilities, or geography. We also run in-person and community-based involvement where face-to-face engagement is more appropriate for the audience or topic.
Related reading
New to PPIE?
A plain-English guide to what PPIE and PPI mean, the difference between them, and how patient and public involvement works in practice.
PPIE explainedPPIE for NHS trusts
Patient involvement for service redesign, quality improvement, CQC preparation, and trust governance.
NHS trust PPIEPPIE for PCNs
Community engagement and patient involvement for primary care networks and GP practices.
PCN PPIEPPIE for grant applications
Documented public involvement evidence for NIHR, UKRI, Innovate UK and Wellcome bids, with studies starting within two weeks.
PPIE for funding bidsNIHR patient involvement
What NIHR expects from patient and public involvement, and how to evidence it across the life of a funded study.
NIHR involvementPPIE for universities
Involvement for university research teams, from grant applications through to standing public contributor panels.
University PPIEPatient research for pharma
Patient advisory groups, journey mapping, and trial support for pharmaceutical and clinical research.
Pharma patient researchWe 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.
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