People walking in the street

Public

The public are central to the work undertaken by the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre.

Linking closely with members of the public enables us to improve the value, strength, and relevance of our research.

 

Public Partnership Group

Our Public Partnership Group includes members of the public who are involved in all the Centre’s work from start to finish, supporting us to:

  • Decide our research topics
  • Interpret our findings and how they will be best used
  • Write about our work for the public
  • Identify future research ideas
  • Build collaborations with partners
  • Apply for funding for specific projects
  • Share our findings

 

Our Public Partnership Group is built around the UK Standards for Public Involvement:

 

Inclusive Opportunities | our opportunities are accessible and reach out to people and groups according to research needs.

Working Together | Working in ways that value all contributions, and that build and sustain mutually respectful and productive relationships.

Support and Learning | Offering support and promoting learning opportunities that build confidence and skills for public involvement in research.

Governance | Involving the public in research management, leadership and decision making.

Communications | Using plain language for well-timed and relevant communications, as part of involvement plans and activities.

Impact | Seeking improvement by identifying and sharing the difference that public involvement makes to our work.

 

Opportunities to get involved

Some of our research will need specific input from members of the public or patients who have lived experience. We will advertise all opportunities through the Health and Care Research Wales Public Involvement Community.

 

Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre

The public involvement strategy employed by the Evidence Centre was initially developed for the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre (WCEC).  The pandemic presented challenges to the usual patient and public involvement methods. New ways of working had to be identified to ensure the public were involved in every stage of the rapid research processes, whilst fulfilling the UK Standards for Public Involvement. This bespoke and inclusive way of working has been transferred across to the Evidence Centre.

Natalie Joseph-Williams, Associate Director, has written a paper reflecting on the processes and lessons learned: Involving the public in research prioritisation and as research partners in the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre (2021-23): processes, research priorities, outputs, and lessons