New Community of Practice aims to improve depth and diversity of public and patient involvement.

ACRC’s Jenny Robertson is part of a successful bid to establish a new Community of Practice (CoP) for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

PPI is a crucial part of research, allowing members of the public to work alongside researchers to design, plan and engage in research. Therefore research will be done “with” instead of “for” the public, meaning that it will better reflect what matters most to those affected by the research. .

The idea behind the proposal was to exchange knowledge and experience around barriers to recruiting members of the public to public involvement activities, and to ensure greater involvement of people with multiple long term conditions and from diverse backgrounds.

Jenny Robertson, ACRC Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Coordinator said

“Developing a well-balanced and diverse group of PPI members is crucial in ensuring research will reflect a greater cross-section of the UK population.

“By sharing our experiences and strategies across various institutions, we will improve the diversity of our PPI networks.”

“With increasing numbers of people in later life affected by multiple long term conditions, the importance of including them in the design of the ACRC’s research is clear.”

The CoP will consist of other PPI practitioners and early-career researchers working on research for people living with multiple long term conditions, allowing for a variety of different experiences and networks to both receive and disclose knowledge.

Led by a researcher at the University of Birmingham, the CoP should begin to take shape this summer.

For further information about the Community of Practice, please contact Jenny Robertson: jenny.l.robertson@ed.ac.uk.