Patient & Public Involvement Officer (NIHR GRU)

Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Public Awareness and Participation are important dimensions of PPI, more broadly termed PPIE to particularly reflect the critical role of “Engagement”. The post holder will lead on all aspects of PPIE including these key dimensions for the NIHR Global Surgery Unit. The Unit was founded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) award of £7 million to the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh and Warwick to establish a joint research unit focussed on developing global surgical research.It is co-directed by Prof. Dion Morton, a leading colorectal surgeon from the University of Birmingham's Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, and Professor Peter Brocklehurst, Director of the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit.

The Unit is establishing sustainable international research hubs across a range of low and middle income countries (LMICs) across southern, central and western Africa, central America, and south Asia. The Unit is developing and running a variety of clinical studies including multi-country randomised controlled trials as well as smaller pump-priming projects that will be conducted in one or two countries. This role will support the Unit in overseeing and training the Hubs in building and maintaining excellent relationships with stakeholders who will be involved in these studies, including diverse groups of patients and carers, patient and carer organisations, third sector organisations, and other stakeholders in the local health and social care economy. Ability and willingness to travel Internationally and to International meetings is required.

Job summary

The aim of this role is to act as a focal point for the development of PPIE and research collaborations across the Global Surgery Unit with a base in the Research Delivery Team in the College of Medical & Dental Sciences' (MDS) Research & Knowledge Transfer (R&KT) Office. More specifically, the NIHR GSU PPI Officer will facilitate and coordinate the following activities: 

• To facilitate communication, events, collaborations and other activities to promote patient and public engagement, with special emphasis on improving the public understanding of clinical research. This will also include creating and maintaining international PPIE networks and promoting and facilitating the recommendations from the recent NIHR strategic review of PPI in research (Going the Extra Mile), with special emphasis on reaching under represented community groups. 
• To support the communication and promote awareness of projects being undertaken by research initiatives across the Global Surgery Unit's research portfolio and to improve patient and public participation to their research studies. 
• The post holder will regularly report PPIE achievements, milestones and impacts, working closely for example, with the NIHR GSU Directors and Programme Manager as well as other members of the central administration team. The post holder will also interact with other staff involved in patient and public- involvement, engagement and participation activities across both the University and NHS core partners under Birmingham Health Partners (http://www.birminghamhealthpartners.co.uk/) and contribute to activities in the wider community and academic environments where this delivers demonstrable benefit to the local research initiatives/infrastructure. 
• To ensure patients and the public have meaningful and rewarding involvement in the work of the local NIHR GSU research infrastructure. 

Main duties 

• To be the main point of contact and to support NIHR Global Surgery Unit researchers (in UK and internationally) as well as external “patient partners” to ensure meaningful and rewarding public involvement in the work of the Unit. 
• To support the formation, coordination and organisation of a Committee of “patient partners” in each of the Units hubs as part of their management/governance structures. 
• To assist in the development of training activities related to PPIE - both for researchers and for members of the public working with us - and contribute to the delivery of these activities. 
• To carry out tasks related to administration, writing minutes, planning and conducting mailings, developing systems for monitoring return of information, keeping records of progress, writing letters to organisations, report-writing, data entry, producing communication bulletins/newsletters, carrying out desktop research tasks. 
• To facilitate communication, events, collaborations and other activities to promote patient and public engagement with our collaborating partners in low and middle income countries, with special emphasis on improving the public understanding of research. 
• To engage with and contribute to local, regional and international PPIE networks, and promote and facilitate the recommendations from the recent NIHR strategic review of PPI in research. 
• To help and support the network hubs to build and maintain relationships with diverse groups of patients and carers, patient and carer organisations, third sector organisations, faith organisations, and other stakeholders in global surgery research in order to realise the NIHR Global Surgery Unit ambition to have meaningful PPIE that informs research and ultimately healthcare provision. 
• To carry out appropriate evaluation activity to identify and track the impact of any changes as a result of PPI. 
• To co-ordinate NIHR Global Surgery Unit PPIE-related activities and collaborate with other PPI organisations such as INVOLVE and ‘People in Research'. 
• To contribute to the development of good practice, enhancing patient and public involvement in research studies and engagement activities. 
• To support the communication and promote awareness of projects being undertaken by local research initiatives to improve patient and public participation to studies through the development of webpages and other NIHR Global Surgery Unit communication channels. 
• To disseminate information to researchers and ensure benefits of PPIE are published to as wide an audience as possible. 
• To develop and maintain a strong and up-to-date knowledge of developments in PPIE and to disseminate information to members of the various research initiatives as deemed appropriate. 
• Work with Project Leads and R&KT Office colleagues to develop coherent and achievable strategies relating to internal development and external funding; assist with the identification of appropriate funding opportunities and inform the preparation of both major and routine funding applications. 
• Provide assistance to other ongoing activity within the Research & Knowledge Transfer Office as required. 
• Duties and responsibilities within the post and the obligations placed upon the post holder may vary and develop over time. Any resulting changes will be subject to consultation with the post holder and line manager within the College of Medical & Dental Sciences' Research & Knowledge Transfer Office - in collaboration with the NIHR Global Surgery Unit Directors and the NIHR Global Surgery Unit Programme Manager, through the agreed annual review process. 

Further information

Informal Enquiries to Claire Potter c.potter@bham.ac.uk and Sohini Chakrabortee S.Chakrabortee@bham.ac.uk