Patient and public involvement (PPI) is research carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them.
PPI participants include patients, carers and healthy volunteers. They represent the patient voice and give feedback on decisions such as:
- how a trial should be designed and run
- whether the trial is asking too much of participants
- whether patient information leaflets and consent forms are understandable
The Southampton Clinical Trials Unit brings together clinical staff and the public contributors to improve how the public is involved in research.
How to get involved
If you're a patient, family member or carer and are interested in getting involved in PPI, would like to find out more about being a public contributor, or would like to be added to the distribution list for upcoming PPI opportunities, please get in touch.
Send us an email to join our mailing list
This group is run by the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, the CRUK Southampton Senior Research Nurse and the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC). It brings together members of the public who have personal experiences of cancer, either as a patient or a family member/carer. The group is attended by researchers, trial teams and clinicians who are looking for early input into a clinical trial or require feedback from public contributors on trial materials and processes.
Email us to find out more and register your interest in joining the group
You can hear from some of our current public contributors about why they enjoy being part of research in our Patient Participation Week blog.
Read the Patient participation Week blog
Get the full detail about PPI and how to get involved in our handbook.
Download the handbook (PDF, 543KB)
Download the handbook (accessible, ODT, 34KB)
Payment policy
Public contributors are reimbursed for their time and out-of-pocket expenses, in line with the NIHR guidelines. Find out more in our PPI payment policy.
Download our full payment policy (PDF, 409KB)
Download our full payment policy (Accessible, ODT, 22KB)
Widening participation project
Certain groups and communities are under-represented in clinical research. In the design and conduct of our trials, we need to ensure PPI reflects the whole population, to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to take part in research.
Our widening participation projects aimed to understand and help begin to overcome the barriers that prevent or discourage people from under-represented groups from taking part in PPI. We used community engagement workshops to facilitate discussions around trust in medical research and the barriers to participation. Together with community members, we co-produced resources to help researchers work better with under-represented communities and help widen participation in their PPI work.
Patient and Public Involvement Strategy, 2026 to 2030
Download a copy of our full PPI strategy: