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NEXT Writing the Abstract and the Lay Summary

1. Including PPI in your funding application

Increasingly, funding applications will ask a research team about what PPI contributions are being made to the research cycle. Many reviewer panel members are actively seeking out the ways in which a research team is linked to the patients and public for whom the research will be relevant.

Review panels may also include PPI contributors/public reviewers as part of the adjudication panel, who are specifically invited to provide a perspective on items such as:

  • The understandability of the lay summary
  • The relevance of the research question
  • The appropriateness of any proposed PPI activities
  • The appropriateness of aspects of the design of the research, e.g. the recruitment strategy
  • The likelihood of the proposed impact of the research

With some funders and certain schemes, public reviewers’ advice is increasingly directly affecting scoring or ranking of proposals so it is important that an applicant can shape, for a non-academic audience, a project that is compelling and worthy of funding and an application that is understandable.

Where should PPI activity appear?

The applicant should ask where, within the research cycle, a PPI contribution is suitable and where it is not. Whenever it is suitable, it should be mentioned within that part of the application. Also, if the research team members have previous PPI experience, that should also be mentioned in the personnel. Perhaps there will be a PPI coordinator within the research team, or a PPI contributor may be a co-applicant.

A public reviewer will pay particular attention to the descriptions in the following sections:

  1. the Abstract and the Lay Summary,
  2. the PPI section,
  3. the Impact section,
  4. the Budget.

Each of these sections is explored in further detail in the rest of this section.

Please remember that good quality PPI takes time to develop. Do not underestimate the commitment that is required to build and maintain a relationship with PPI contributors. Factor in the time for phone calls, emails, visits to their community as well as meetings on campus.