Supporting The Public

What is Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in Research?

PPI in research means that the people who are likely be affected by the results of the research are directly involved in, and shape, the decisions made in planning and conducting the research and in interpreting and communicating the research results. With PPI, research is carried out “with” and “by” the public, rather than “to” “for” or “about” them. We use the term PPI Contributor to describe people who get involved in this work. If you want to find out more about what PPI is, read more here.

Join Our Network

PPI Ignite @ University of Galway invites you to join our Network of patients, carers and members of the public who are interested in working with researchers to shape health and social care research and innovation. Calls for PPI Contributors in research are hosted on the PPI Ignite Network website and offer great chances to get involved in research that matters to you. 

Click here to see PPI opportunities from around the country. You can also join the PPI Ignite Network newsletter mailing list, keeping you up-to-date on events, activities, and information about involvement opportunities as they arise.  

We welcome queries from patients and patient organisations and from members of the public and community organisations with an interest in working with researchers, at University of Galway in particular, to influence and shape research. Email us at ppi@universityofgalway.ie, if you have a specific question.

How We Support The Public 

We support the public by:

• Organising talks, workshops and other events to explain what PPI is about - for example, the EMPOWER event.
• Meeting with community groups and patient organisations to talk about PPI and to find out what other support, information or pointers you would find helpful.
• Working with the HRB Primary Care CTNI, another research group led from University of Galway, to organise the National PPI Conference each Spring at University of Galway. PPI contributors help us to plan the conference, others present each year at the conference to share their experiences of involvement and many members of the public come to the conference each year. 
  
• Running the Community Engaged Scholars Programme, which aims to build three different partnerships between research teams and patient/community organisations, read about this programme here. 
• Where possible, we connect members of the public and patients who want to get involved with researchers working on their area of interest.  Join our Network to find out about PPI Opportunities.