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Two projects funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria have been the first to achieve a brand new quality assurance standard – the ‘Investing in You: Dialogue and Change Award’.

The award, developed by young people’s charity Investing in Children, recognises high quality, sustainable and meaningful Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) in research.

To receive the award, a project must show that it is actively engaging the public and local communities in conversations about the design and delivery of services, or in the case of research, that the research process itself has been the subject of discussion and improvement.

The first two projects to achieve the ‘Investing in You: Dialogue and Change Award’ in the North East and North Cumbria are:

Improving the accessibility of medicine review services for people from ethnic minority communities: a qualitative investigation and co-designed project – led by Newcastle University

Patient champions were involved in the design of this research, and they were able to have an impact the project by helping to break down cultural and language barriers. For many of the participants, the language barrier wasn’t just that English is not their first language but that they are not used to speaking English in the context of research and the language that entails.

The patient champions suggested breaking down terms so they were easier to understand.  They also suggested starting by talking about healthcare in general and then moving on to talk about medicine specifically.  The patient champions were also able to help the patients feel more comfortable by using their own personal experiences.

Youth research perspectives on wellbeing – led by the University of Cumbria

This project received the award after working with two groups of young people to support them in carrying out their own research projects under the theme of wellbeing.  The groups worked very differently, led by the young people involved. The young people involved described feeling like ‘every idea, every change, the methodology, it was always our choice.’ And that ‘they were responsible’ rather than the adults. This led the young people to the realisation that the research couldn’t have happened without them – because it was about them.

Read more about this project

Both projects were funded by the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria Open Funding Competition for 2020.

Dr Felicity Shenton, Public Involvement and Community Engagement Manager for the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, said:

“The principles of public involvement and community engagement are well established and the benefits to research are also well documented. As an Applied Research Collaboration, we want to ensure that our PICE activities are impactful and transformational – and that they help to shape the way that research is designed, conducted and implemented.”

The Investing in You: Dialogue and Change Award has been created for the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, by Investing in Children, and draws on their experience in developing and shaping meaningful dialogue with children and young people, as service users.

Emma Rogan, Development Manager at Investing in Children, added:

“We are so pleased to see the first two projects awarded the Investing in You: Dialogue and Change award as part of our pilot with the ARC North East and North Cumbria. It has been fascinating to see the different ways research teams and service users, patients and members of the public are collaborating and sharing expertise to carry out research that has a real and direct connection with people’s lives and experiences.”

Find out more about the Investing in You: Dialogue and Change Award