BRC Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Pre Grant Fund

Overview

Sourcing funds to deliver patient and public involvement in research in the pre grant stage can be challenging; however, this is the most important time to involve the views of public contributors.  

Early input can help to decide upon, or prioritise, research questions, enhance grant applications including further public involvement plans, and shape the design of research projects to improve research outcomes for all. Ensuring diverse public involvement is also important so that research is relevant to everyone. 

To support researchers at this early stage, the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is offering up to £500 to support public involvement and engagement activity at the pre grant stage during the development of health and care funding applications.   

We want to encourage researchers to actively involve patients and the public, so the funding scheme is intended to be flexible and supportive with minimal bureaucracy. We also seek to encourage good quality public involvement through the application of the UK Standards for Public Involvement.  

Funds available  

The focus of this scheme is to support the involvement of patients and/or public to inform the design of health and care research studies. It is not designed to support recruitment of participants onto research studies. 

The scheme offers a total of £10K on a pilot basis up until July 2026. Funds of up to £500 are available per application and should be used to fund public involvement and engagement during the development of a health and care research funding application, including:    

1. Reimbursing out-of-pocket expenses for members of the public (e.g. travel, subsistence, carer costs). This will be paid in line with local policy.   

2. Offering payment for the time spent by members of the public (based on NIHR payment guidance).   

3. Refreshments at meetings or events.    

4. Venue hire external to the researcher’s organisation, if this is fully justified (e.g. where an accessible room is not available, or another venue is more appropriate)   

5. Materials which the researcher would not normally have access to within their organisation (e.g. play materials for a session with children).   

Funds cannot normally be used to:   

6. Pay for the time or out of pocket expenses for research team,    

7. Pay for time of paid members of staff asked to be involved in developing research as contributors.    

8. Undertake research.   

9. To hire a venue within the researcher’s own organisation.    

10. To pay for materials which the researcher can reasonably gain access to with their organisation (e.g. printing costs).  

*In exceptional circumstances researchers may be able to claim travel expenses (for example, when a researcher is travelling to see a member of the public and travel funds are not available from elsewhere). This must be fully justified and will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the Core BRC PPIE team.  

Please note that each BRC theme already has a PPIE budget allocated, and this should be utilised before applying to this fund.  Please speak to your BRC PPIE Theme lead to check if funds are available to support your work before submitting this application.    

Criteria  

• The funding available is for PPIE activities prior to or during the grant application stage only.  Any future PPIE should be fully costed into the grant (help is available to do this at brcppie@contacts.bham.ac.uk).   

• Research must be related to the BRC theme of inflammation   

• Research must support a BRC strategic objective   

• Funding will be prioritised for researchers whose positions are funded by the BRC  

Timeline   

Open call.  A decision will be made, and is usually communicated to the applicant, within 2 weeks from application submission.  

How to apply  

Applications are welcome from BRC-affiliated academics/researchers. Please complete the application form below and return to brcppie@contacts.bham.ac.uk putting ‘PPI Funding Request’ in subject heading.