Personal and Public Involvement (PPI)
Within Northern Ireland, organisations have a statutory duty to involve service users, carers and the public in the commissioning, planning and delivery of all Health and Social Care (HSC). This process is known as Personal and Public Involvement (PPI). It means including individuals in decisions about their specific care or treatment and consulting members of the public and the wider community on the design, delivery and location of services. For more information see the Department of Health's PPI Guidance.
What does PPI mean for Health and Social Care research?
In research, PPI means involving people in all aspects of the research process as partners rather than as research participants. Research is done ‘with’ or ‘by’ the public, not 'to', 'for' or 'about' them. This is also referred to as 'Patient and Public Involvement' or 'Public Involvement'.
It is an active partnership between patients, carers and members of the public with researchers that influences the decisions made about research, for example, the research topic or question, how the research is carried out, and how the results are shared and applied in practice. It is also referred to as 'Patient and Public Involvement or ‘Public Involvement'.
PPI helps researchers ask the right questions, prioritise topics that are important to patients and carers, and ultimately achieve outcomes which are meaningful to people. We also know that PPI can encourage more people to take part in research studies or clinical trials, help ensure research findings are heard and reported in an easily understandable way, and improve care in the future.
To find out more about PPI in Health and Social Care research, please click here to view our animation.
How does HSC R&D Division promote PPI in research?
HSC R&D Division provides funding to support Health and Social Care research. This is used to build research infrastructure (networks, facilities etc), train health and social care researchers, and support research studies and clinical trials. We want to ensure that PPI is integrated into the projects that we fund.
To find out more, please read:
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We also actively promote the UK Standards for Public involvement which have been designed to improve the quality and consistency of public involvement in research.
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We have a group of PPI contributors who support us in our own work and who researchers can request support from. The name of this group is PIER which stands for ‘Public Involvement Enhancing Research’. You can find out more here.
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To help support and encourage innovative practice in the delivery of PPI, we have a PPI in Research Small Grant Scheme. This scheme is open to researchers, health professionals or patient and public representatives working in the field of Health and Social Care Research in Northern Ireland.
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We provide PPI training called 'Building Research Partnerships' which is suitable for both researchers and members of the public who are interested in getting involved in research.
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We have developed a PPI Resource Library for Researchers and a PPI Resource Library for patients, carers and members of the public.
Page last updated 09.09.25