Join ARU’s Panel of Public Collaborators
ARU's Let's Shape Research Together programme enables members of the public to collaborate with academics at the early stages of research design.
ARU's Let's Shape Research Together programme enables members of the public to collaborate with academics at the early stages of research design.
The programme was launched in 2023 to facilitate Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in research, which is conducted ‘with’ or ‘by’ service users, rather than ‘to’, ‘about’, or ‘for’ them.
While 'taking part' in research often means participating in trial or study at a relatively late stage, as someone 'engaged' in research, you'll collaborate with academics at the design phase of the research project, helping to determine what research is looked to, how it could be carried out, and how the results are shared and applied in your community.
Find out more about PPIE on the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) website.
The ARU Panel of Public Collaborators includes members of the public volunteering their time and lived experiences to make a difference in ARU's research. Areas of research include, but are not limited to: health, humanities and social science; science and engineering; and business.
You'll initially be invited to get involved in the planning and design stage of the research grant application, helping to ensure that academics consider the views of the community and create meaningful research that makes a positive impact on society.
If you express an interest to the PPIE Manager at this stage, you may have the opportunity to get involved with the research itself if the grant application is successful.
For some projects, your role will be to review research documents (Route 1), while others offer the opportunity to both review research documents and take part in a focus group (Route 2). Your feedback and ideas will be used to strengthen researchers’ grant applications.
As a Public Collaborator, you’ll have the opportunity to:
Further details on these Routes are highlighted in the induction pack.
ARU Public Collaborator Membership will be automatically renewed with each academic year. You may withdraw at any time.
As a Public Collaborator, you can decide how many research grant applications throughout the year you would like to be involved in.
We encourage Public Collaborators to engage as many times as they wish based on their time availability.
We will expect you to meet the deadlines and provide feedback if you express an interest to be involved. However, we want to highlight that there are no penalties if you do not wish to participate..
To express your interest in joining us as a Public Collaborator, complete our online sign up form.
We'll then get in touch with a more detailed application for you to complete.
From there, you’ll receive an induction pack and be invited to an induction session, online or in-person. Once you’ve attended your induction session, you’ll be ready to go!
If you have any questions, email us at [email protected]
Are you a charity, start-up, not-for-profit, public sector organisation, or business interested in contributing to, and collaborating with ARU on ground-breaking research?
To find out more about research at ARU and have the opportunity to collaborate with ARU academics on research funding applications, complete our expression of interest form for organisations and we’ll get in touch as soon as possible to discuss your involvement.
Since 2022, ARU has been running the Participatory Research Funding internal scheme to support Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in research. In the 2022-2023 academic year, ten projects were funded for an overall sum of £56,750.19; in the 2023-2024, nine projects for £60,831.25.
Find out more about some of the research we’ve co-produced with service users so far: