Public engagement in research broadly refers to the many ways in which research can be shared with the public. Public engagement is a key way to inform others about your research; helping to increase public understanding and awareness of health and science, as well as increasing the transparency and accountability of research through constructive and positive conversations with wider society. image from great exhibition road festival

The definition of public engagement varies across sectors and organisations. At the Patient Experience Research Centre, we use NIHR's definition of public engagement which refers to activity 'where information and knowledge about research is provided and disseminated', however please note if you are applying for Wellcome funding, their definition of public engagement involves aspects of both involvement and engagement which includes informing, consulting, and collaborating with members of the public.

At Imperial, the Societal Engagement Team supports researchers to plan and undertake public engagement (defined similarly to that used by Wellcome), through their engagement toolkit, training sessions and seed funding for public engagement activity. They also help to organise the Great Exhibition Road Festival (pictured above) – a free annual celebration of science and the arts in South Kensington and online, which Imperial researchers and staff are invited to get involved in.

Public engagement case studies and examples

Engaging young creatives during the COVID-19 pandemic

Imperial researchers, together with a local theatre company, have supported young people to creatively engage in COVID-19 research. The virtual project, called EPIDEMIC, invited young people to creatively convey five COVID-19 research reports produced by Imperial’s COVID-19 Response Team through a series of recorded performances.

Find out more

Diversifying Research Podcast

The 'Diversifing Research' podcast series was, developed by Fola Afolabi from the Imperial Patient Expereinece Research Centre, to critically consider how to improve the inclusion of underrepresented voices in reserarch. Across the 10 episodes Fola is joined by guests to discuss this important issue from the perspective of members of the public, community leaders, patient and public involvement practitioners and researchers.

Find out more

public engagement examples

Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre Science Cafe

The Science Cafe is a safe space to bring together patients and scientists so that they could better understand each other and learn to work together to enhance cancer research at Imperial College, London. The team have written a blog about their reflections on setting up and running a Science Cafe as well as practical guidance on how to set up a Science Cafe yourself.

Find out more

Let's talk about... 'Long COVID'

In early 2021, the Patient Experience Research Centre held the Let’s Talk About Long COVID Research public event to kick off the REACT Long COVID research study being led by Imperial College London.The virtual session opened with an informal presentation about the aims and plans for the study, followed by a Q&A session where questions from members of the public with personal experience of or interest in Long COVID were posed to the team by our public panel.

Find out more

Community engagement case studies and examples

Mosaic Community Trust

Mosaic Community Trust (Mosaic) is a registered charity based in West London in Church Street, City of Westminster. Mosaic aims to empower diverse, socially and economically marginalised and disadvantaged communities, thereby enabling them to participate actively in strategic decision-making at the community level and to access mainstream services and economic opportunities. 

With Mosaic, we collaboratively developed a series of health and wellbeing awareness sessions on priority areas of health for the community, such as breast cancer and Long COVID, through which we have educated the local community and also informed local researchers and NHS services on the challenges, concerns and experiences of the community to improve research and clinical care.

Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the reports linked below:

ParkLife Café and Enderley Road Patients Association

This community engagement session was developed after being contacted by one of our Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC) Community Partners. As part of their responsibilities with the Enderley Road Patients Association (ERPA) they are involved in organising ‘specialist talks’ for the local patient base. More recently, ERPA have begun to organise gatherings at ParkLife Café in Harrow which provides a relaxed and informal setting to have these sessions.

Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the event summaries linked below:

 

Community outreach events - 2

The Healing Church of God in Christ (THCOGIC) Community

The Healing Church of God in Christ (THCOGIC) Community established a weekly Friday night Zoom ‘Round Table’ which provides an opportunity for those across their community to come together to learn or talk about a specific topic, for instance health, religion, life skills.

With THCOGIC, we collaboratively developed a series of health and wellbeing awareness sessions on priority areas of health for the community. Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the event summaries linked below:

EKTA

EKTA Community is a mental health support group located in Harrow, catering to individuals aged 55 and above. Run entirely by a dedicated committee of volunteers, the group hosts bi-weekly social events featuring activities like yoga and painting. EKTA convenes monthly gatherings, complete with lunch, where members can enjoy informative sessions covering a wide range of topics, from health-related matters to finance and energy management.

With EKTA, we collaboratively developed a series of health and wellbeing awareness sessions on priority areas of health for the community. Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the event summaries linked below:

community outreach events 4

Abdul Mageed Education Trust

The Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre was introduced to the Abdul Mageed Education Trust through one of our Community Partners. The Abdul Mageed Education Trust is a charity whose mission is three-fold: education, connection and empowerment and they fulfil their mission by offering a number of services tailoring to the needs of underrepresented communities. Through conversations with them, PERC identified the community's health interests and collaborated with speakers to deliver tailored health literacy sessions.

Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the reports linked below:

Harrow Digital Inclusion and Diabetes Community Club

The Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre was introduced to the Harrow Digital Inclusion and Diabetes Community Club through one of our Community Partners. The Harrow Digital Inclusion and Diabetes Community Club is a social club and peer support group, which meets on Friday mornings at the Harrow International Christian Centre to: share information on topics related to type 2 diabetes; provide support with IT skills; run fitness classes; and socialise. Most members are aged 60+ and include individuals who either do not have diabetes, have prediabetes, or are living with type 2 diabetes.

We collaboratively developed a series of health awareness sessions related to diabetes on priority areas identified by the community. Find out more about the outcomes of these sessions in the reports linked below:

community outreach events 3

Somali community in Hounslow

Since mid-2021 and as part of its ongoing efforts to engage under-served communities in healthcare research PERC has been working to establish a relationship with a Somali community in Hounslow. Through discussions with a Hounslow community leader, PERC was able to identify several areas of health that were priorities for a Somali community in Hounslow. These included health literacy sessions on topics such as nutrition, diabetes, autism, ADHD, mental health, and cancer.

Find out more about the outcomes of two of these sessions in the reports linked below:

Chalkhill Community Centre

Brent residents responding to a Healthwatch Brent survey indicated they did not have enough information about health screening/testing for prostate cancer or bowel cancer. On 7 November 2022, PERC and Healthwatch Brent held a co-produced event with the aim of providing the residents of Brent with a better understanding of the health screening/testing processes for prostate and bowel cancer, and where to seek further support.

Find out more in the Bowel Cancer Screening and Prostate Cancer Testing Community Session event report.

You can find further public engagement case studies on our blog and on the Societal Engagement Team's webpage.

COVID-19 activityPublic Involvement Resource HubSchool of Public Health

Contact us

PERC Director and Co-Founder
Prof. Helen Ward
h.ward@imperial.ac.uk

For enquiries about PERC's research activity, please email:
patientexperience@imperial.ac.uk

For enquiries about public involvement in research, please email:
publicinvolvement@imperial.ac.uk

Click here for more ways to get in touch >

  • Join
  • Free

Join the VOICE community

Sign up to learn about Imperial's latest research and play a part in shaping how it's designed and delivered.

Read our blog

All posts
  • Training

Public Involvement training

Learn more about public involvement in research

Get involved with PERC

Contact Details
Find out how to get involved with our projects or how we can collaborate with you.