Health is relevant to everyone, which is why we want to involve patients and the public in all the research we do.

Our ambition is to enable and promote best practice in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) across the NIHR Newcastle BRC, and for PPIE to be a driving force in our research. We work with public contributors at all stages of the research cycle, assuring the relevance of research that meets patient need and maximising research quality, value and impact. Our PPIE Strategy can be found here:

pdfNIHR Newcastle BRC PPIE Strategy 2022-2027

In this film, created by our partners, VOICE, David talks about how important this has been for him as a member of the public and a carer.

 

PPIE Highlight

Our Themes work hard to involve patients and the public in their research. Here are some examples:

International Lewy Body Conference January 2025

The COBALT (combining memantine and cholinesterase inhibitors in Lewy body dementia treatment) clinical trial has two PPIE groups. They have contributed significantly to the design and conduct of the trial with close to forty activities undertaken to date. Both groups proposed a poster topic for the International Lewy Body Conference which was held in Amsterdam from 29-31st January 2025. The two posters were then co-designed by a sub-group from each PPIE group and the PPIE facilitator.

Read more

COBALT PPIE ILBDC 2025

 

How We Work

Leadership of our BRC PPIE and delivery of our PPIE Strategy is the responsibility of our BRC PPIE Manager, PPIE Academic Lead and PPIE Academic Emerging Leader. Delivery of our strategic objectives is guided by our Public Partnership Advisory Group (PPAG) which provides essential governance and oversight of our programme of activity to put patients and the public at the heart of what we do. Each of our Research Themes has an experienced PPIE lead who is responsible for the planning, coordination and delivery of the Theme’s programme of PPIE activities. 

As a BRC, our PPIE Objectives are to:

  1. Meaningfully engage the public in debate and dialogue about our research.

  2. Provide a range of opportunities for patients and public to influence and inform the strategy and governance of the BRC and help set and deliver research priorities.

  3. Work with a diverse range of public contributors, to ensure our research is informed by patient and public priorities including under-served communities and complex patient groups often not represented in experimental medicine research.

  4. Collaborate with key partners locally, regionally and nationally to share and promote best practice in all our PPIE activity.

  5. Build sustainable local community relationships which prioritise equality, diversity and inclusion; fostering partnership working in order to maximise the relevance and impact of our research.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The BRC has a range of local, regional and national partnerships as well as collaborations that provide strategic support and inform its PPIE activities.